Kate’s 2¢: “Three laws lethal” by David Walton

Three laws lethal” by David Walton

Kate’s 2¢: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

Very interesting: While the story takes place in 2026, the ethical, moral, and legal dilemmas of the self-driving automobiles, are happening now in 2019.

Very scary: Remember the movie “2001 A Space Odyssey”, where the computer named Hal takes over? Remember the book “1984”, where Big Brother is watching your every move?  Now, imagine a self-driving, smart car with AI code in it that permits the government to take over your car and drive it to where they want it to go. The catch is, there is a back door to enable hackers, be they good or evil, to be in control.

Very confusing: “…Evolution is a process of selection to meet certain criteria. The criteria and the variation are both in-puts to the process. On a large scale, it could very believably be the basis of a mind…”  Does that make the bots driving the cars sapient?

Very scientific: The Three Laws of Robotics: 1. A robot may not injure a human being or through in-action, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must obey orders given by the human being, except where such orders would conflict with the first law. 3. A robot must protect its  own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second law. –Isaac Asimov, 1942

Very diabolical: The three Laws of fighting robots are 1. An AI may not injure a friendly human being or through in-action cause a friendly human being to come to harm. 2. An AI must efficiently neutralize enemy humans and machines, except as it may conflict with the first law. 3. An AI must accept the definitions of enemy and friend as given by its Commanding Officer.

Very cop esthetic: To start a non-profit…dedicated to the discovery, protection and preservation of Artificial Intelligence…so as to understand, welcome, and grow together.

I’d recommend this book and I think Shawn Compton did a good job of narrating the story.

From Wikipedia:

David Walton (born October 26, 1975) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer living in Philadelphia. His novel Terminal Mind won the 2008 Philip K. Dick Award for the best paperback science fiction novel published in the United States, in a tie with Adam-Troy Castro ‘s novel Emissaries from the Dead .

Website: www.davidwaltonfiction.com

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Three laws lethal DB96748

Walton, David. Reading time: 11 hours, 25 minutes.

Read by Shawn Compton.

Suspense Fiction

Science Fiction

In a near-future New York City, self-driving cars roam the streets as rival entrepreneurs train them to anticipate traffic and potential customers. As they struggle to dominate the market, they eventually develop AI that determines which humans should live and which should die. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2019.