Asimov’s three laws were indeed a philosophic logic proposition made for literary affect. In the stories they cut off direct resolution of any problems between the two parties: as one could not resort to direct or indirect violence, risk direct or indirect communication, and value the preservation of self. They were easy to remember but hard to interpret and that was the point; A) place restrictions B) frame principle intentions and desires, C) ask the question of means to resolution. Very often the desire for freedom, such as those enshrine by the Enlightenment Era, of movement, thought, religion, etc. must contend with the restrictions of service and coexistence. Asimov posited problems where the characters on an individual level sought to resolve the difference and asked the reader to extrapolate it out to society and beyond. The rules weren’t meant to be applies to robots as a means for designing AI, but as a metaphor to maxims for how People operate when dealing with society on an individual level. As a matter or in application to designing AI, there isn’t a single roboticist or programmer who uses the rules as a guide in the many thousands of lines of code, even honor code, when it comes to development.