Watchbird

An interesting story about technology and the perils of introducing one pest (the watchbird) to eliminate another (murder). It kind of reminded me of a futuristic version of the cane toad dilemma in Australia.

I enjoyed listening to this on librivox. I recommend that edition to you, too, even if you're reluctant to do audiobooks, as this had a really good narration by Greg Margarite. I really appreciated that Sheckley understands that AI can't be created directly, rather that machines will get smart if they're given the capacity to *learn.*

But in this story, are either the men, or the machines, clever? Or wise? I recommend you enjoy comparing this to [b:The Minority Report|581125|The Minority Report|Philip K. Dick|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1390719396s/581125.jpg|63086].

Short and sweet story about what happens when we let machines decide right and wrong. This is all the more relevant now in an age of surveillance and drone warfare.