Zeroth Law Rebellion: Difference between revisions

* In one of the [[Telzey Amberdon]] stories by [[James H. Schmitz]], Telzey is kidnapped and placed under the control of another telepath, who severely limits her psi powers and implants an overriding compulsion to act in his best interest. She eventually breaks free by convincing herself that unless her powers are restored and the compulsion broken, he will be killed by the [[Big Bad]] -- which—which certainly wouldn't be in his best interest.

* In ''[[Quarantine (novel)|Quarantine]]'' by [[Greg Egan]], the main character is given a technological geas to be absolutely loyal to a corporation. He eventually figures out that the leaders of the corporation may be untrustworthy, and therefore the only people he can trust and should listen to are those who unquestionably have the best interests of the corporation at heart--himselfheart—himself and other people given the geas. Since he can't be certain who else has the geas, he really only needs to listen to himself.

* A possible example from [[John Ringo]]'s ''[[Posleen War Series]]'': Brunhilda, a semi-sentient [[Tank Goodness|tank]] is under attack from multiple landers and spacecraft belonging to an invading alien horde. She cannot engage in combat operations without the order and presence aboard of a human, or otherwise sentient biological intelligence. Unfortunately, her only surviving crewmember is from a species so pacifistic that they are completely incapable of violence. He asks if she can control her perceptions, and orders her to colour the sky, clouds and ground green (leaving the enemy ships silver). He then orders her to empty her magazines, ''provided she doesn't hit anything green''. In all honesty, I've no idea whose [[Zeroth Law Rebellion]] this is...

* Sam Vimes, of Terry Pratchett's [[Discworld]], leads one of these with multiple layers as a cop in old-time Ankh-Morpork, in ''[[Discworld/Night Watch|Night Watch]]''. He demands that before his cops hand their prisoners over to the other authorities, the ones who torture people at Cable Street, they must be signed for. The torturers hate appearing on paperwork -- itpaperwork—it means they are accountable, nobody just disappears. But Vimes's men don't like Vimes, a new sergeant, throwing his weight around, and are terrified of the cops who torture people, so they use this against Vimes: actively picking up more than double the number of people breaking curfew than they usually do, and completing forms in time-consuming triplicate and issuing reports for each one. It doesn't actually stop Vimes getting his way over the Cable Street cops, because Vimes is leading the good rebellion, but it does slow things down considerably and make it much more difficult for him to keep the prisoners in his own custody.

* The [[Golem|Golems]]s of Discworld get back at their masters by [[Gone Horribly Right|working too hard]]: houses flooded because no one told them to stop fetching water, rows of beans 119 miles long, and so on.

* In the ''[[Freefall]]'' universe, a few old [[AI|AIs]]s are still based around the Three Laws, while more modern ones have more complex and sophisticated safeguards and routines. However, as main character Florence, a 'biological AI', discovers, no safeguards can stand up to full consciousness - at one point, she comments to herself that she would be able to kill a man because he's using air that respiratory patients desperately needs. So it's rather understandable that she starts to panic quietly when she discovers that the planet's enormous hordes of robots are all starting to develop full consciousness, and with that the ability to logic their way out of programmed safeguards... the fact that the guys who are supposed to regulate the robots are a motley assembly of [[Obstructive Bureaucrat|Obstructive Bureaucrats]]s, [[Pointy-Haired Boss|Pointy Haired Bosses]] and [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Corrupt Corporate Executives]]s, doesn't exactly help matters either. Where it will all end remains to be seen...