"We have: One, a robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm." "Right!" "Two," continued Powell, "a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law." "Right!" "And three, a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does Dot conflict with the First or Second Laws."
In the story, the robots are essentially slaves to the humans. They are built in made purely to make human's lives easier. I'm beginning to think this could possibly be a cautionary tale about the way we treat "technology" and "robots" and the possible consequences of expecting them to behave like a human but not treating them like one.