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> we want there to be a threshold, because we don't want people (or AI) to ignore obvious emergencies There's an SF short I can't find right now which begins w
by tialaramex 7mo ago
> we want there to be a threshold, because we don't want people (or AI) to ignore obvious emergencies
There's an SF short I can't find right now which begins with somebody failing to return their copy of "Kidnapped" by Robert Louis Stevenson, this gets handed over to some authority which could presumably fine you for overdue books and somehow a machine ends up concluding they've kidnapped someone named "Robert Louis Stevenson" who, it discovers, is in fact dead, therefore it's no longer kidnap it's a murder, and that's a capital offence.
The library member is executed before humans get around to solving the problem, and ironically that's probably the most unrealistic part of the story because the US is famously awful at speedy anything when it comes to justice, ten years rotting in solitary confinement for a non-existent crime is very believable today whereas "Executed in a month" sounds like a fantasy of efficiency.
- jcalx 7mo agoComputers Don't Argue [0] by Gordon R. Dickson! A horrifying read in how a simple misunderstanding can spiral out of control. [0] https://nob.cs.ucdavis.edu/classes/ecs153-2019-04/readings/computers.pdf https://nob.cs.ucdavis.edu/classes/ecs153-2019-04/readings/c...
- tialaramex 7mo agoThat's the one, looks like I had some details muddled (it's a book club not a library, and so the fee is for the book which was in fact returned but perhaps lost in the post) but the outline and relevance here exactly correct. Thanks!