Powell’s voice sounded thoroughly wretched. “It’s the same old runaround. We can push at Rule 2 and pull at Rule 3 and we can’t get anywhere-we can only change the position of balance. We’ve got to get outside both rules.” And then he pushed his robot closer to Donovan’s so that they were sitting face to face, dim shadows in the darkness, and he whispered, “Mike!”
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~cfs/472_html/Intro/NYT_Intro/History/Runaround.html
Ah yes, those pesky Laws of Robotics, I remember that story from my youth.