Mark W. Tilden is a notable robotics physicist who was a pioneer in developing simple robotics Mark W. Tilden's three guiding principles/rules for robots are:

1. A robot must protect its existence at all costs.
2. A robot must obtain and maintain access to its own power source.
3. A robot must continually search for better power sources.

In Wired magazine, Tilden paraphrase

Paraphrase

Paraphrase is restatement of a text or passages, using other words. The term "paraphrase" derives via the Latin "paraphrasis" from the Greek , meaning "additional manner of expression". The act of paraphrasing is also called "paraphrasis."...

d this as

1. Protect thine ass.
2. Feed thine ass.
3. Look for better real estate.

What is notable in these three rules is that these are basically rules for "wild" life, so in essence what Tilden stated is that he wanted to do is "proctoring a silicon species into sentience, but with full control over the specs. Not plant. Not animal. Something else."

See also

• Isaac Asimov
  Isaac Asimov
  Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
  
  's Three Laws of Robotics
  Three Laws of Robotics
  The Three Laws of Robotics are a set of rules devised by the science fiction author Isaac Asimov and later added to. The rules are introduced in his 1942 short story "Runaround", although they were foreshadowed in a few earlier stories...