In 1942, science fiction writer Isaac Asimov proposed his three laws of robotics. These were to guide robot-human interactions.

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

Today researchers at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK have developed a concept called Empowerment. It is to help robots protect and serve humans, while keeping the robots safe as well.

The concept of acting ethically is difficult to dilute to a computer program which will guide the behavior of a robot. Public opinion swings from enthusiasm about progress in AI to outright fear that the robots will take over the world one day. It is therefore important to have a clear understanding of what a robot should and should not be able to do.

Scientist Christoph Salge said, Empowerment means being in a state where you have the greatest potential influence on the world you can perceive. So, for a simple robot, this might be getting safely back to its power station, and not getting stuck, which would limit its options for movement. For a more futuristic, human-like robot this would not just include movement, but could incorporate a variety of parameters, resulting in more human-like drives.

Here’s hot and there’s really hot. Like for instance this exoplanet that was discovered by scientists at the University of Maryland to have a stratosphere with a temperature so high that it could actually boil iron.

For those of you interested the exoplanet is named WASP-121b  and is located about 900 light years from Earth. It tends to complete it’s orbit around the host star of it’s system in 1.3 earth days. It is as close to the star as possible without affecting the planet’s gravitational system.

The planet is a gas giant, akin to Jupiter in our own solar system. It was being studied through the NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, when scientists noticed glowing water molecules in it’s atmosphere. Spectroscopy was then employed as part of the science project to study the planet’s changing brightness at different wavelengths of light.

At lower temperatures water vapor blocks light from beneath it, but at higher temperatures, the water molecules glow. The water molecules give off radiation as they lose energy. This means that the atmosphere around the planet being observed is so hot that it can make regular water glow. Now that’s what hot is really like. Aren’t you glad that it’s not that hot out here?