The thing of it is, robots were initially used in situations where they were very likely to come to harm, but had to do the job because humans needed it. You can see where the Second Law breaks down in "Runaround," part of the collection in I, Robot. The robot was unable to perform its job because it came to the balance point between obeying orders and protecting itself from harm. The solution was very clever, but you'll have to read it to see how they solved it.
The trick to preventing a robot from being ordered to disassemble itself is the supremacy of orders. A robot knows who its masters are. First and foremost, because every robot in Asimov's world is rented from U.S. Robotics, they obey the cabinet in charge of the company. Second, they obey the person to whom they are rented. Third, they obey the family of that person, and finally, they obey other humans. In this way, a random schmuck on the street cannot order a robot to disassemble itself because it goes against the wishes of the robot's true masters. You can see this in "The Bicentennial Man," published in the book of the same name.
Don't forget also the addition in Robots and Empire of the Zeroth Law: "A robot can not, through action or inaction, allow humanity to come to harm." Thereby, robots are able to overcome the issue of killing one (such as a mass murderer or terrorist) to save many, but only if no other method of stopping the threatening individual can be found. This enables the robot also to become disobedient to self destruction, because it would cause the greater section of humanity, viz, the robot's masters, to come to harm should it be ordered to self-destruct.
Once R. Daneel Olivaw developed the Zeroth Law, it spread among the robot community like a Meme or Computer Virus; the downside is that this led to dangerous uprisings (of which I've only been informed and never read for myself, thanks to Daneel's own descriptions in Prelude to Foundation), where the robots were convinced that they were protecting humanity rather than the individuals they harmed.
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The trick to preventing a robot from being ordered to disassemble itself is the supremacy of orders. A robot knows who its masters are. First and foremost, because every robot in Asimov's world is rented from U.S. Robotics, they obey the cabinet in charge of the company. Second, they obey the person to whom they are rented. Third, they obey the family of that person, and finally, they obey other humans. In this way, a random schmuck on the street cannot order a robot to disassemble itself because it goes against the wishes of the robot's true masters. You can see this in "The Bicentennial Man," published in the book of the same name.
Don't forget also the addition in Robots and Empire of the Zeroth Law: "A robot can not, through action or inaction, allow humanity to come to harm." Thereby, robots are able to overcome the issue of killing one (such as a mass murderer or terrorist) to save many, but only if no other method of stopping the threatening individual can be found. This enables the robot also to become disobedient to self destruction, because it would cause the greater section of humanity, viz, the robot's masters, to come to harm should it be ordered to self-destruct.
Once R. Daneel Olivaw developed the Zeroth Law, it spread among the robot community like a Meme or Computer Virus; the downside is that this led to dangerous uprisings (of which I've only been informed and never read for myself, thanks to Daneel's own descriptions in Prelude to Foundation), where the robots were convinced that they were protecting humanity rather than the individuals they harmed.
Have the best
-=TK