Three Laws Lethal
by David Walton
June 11, 2019
Pyr
ISBN: 978-1633885608

Three Laws Lethal is set twenty minutes (or so) into our future–David Walton has done an absolutely outstanding job of extrapolating the intersection of self-driving cars, Uber/Lyft, entrepreneurial spirit, apps, and cloud computing to create a fascinating world that is familiar enough, real enough, that you could step right in.

As always (I’ll admit it–I’m a big David Walton fan!), David plays to his strengths to make this book fabulous. That means three things: science that is spot on, makes sense, and is easy to understand; complex, believable characters who act like, well, you and I would; and a plot full of twists, turns, and curlicues. As a former computer programmer, I also appreciate computer-ese that walks that fine line between too detailed and utter nonsense. Three Laws Lethal is spot on.

Decades ago, when I went to Motorcycle Safety School, my instructor told the class that the day might come when we’d be riding down the highway, and a cute little fluffy bunny would dash out into our path. So now was the time, she told us, to decide which one we’d rather hit–the bunny or the guard rail? That lecture stuck with me–that in the heat of the moment, people will instinctively shy away from hitting the cute bunny, running themselves into a guard rail and serious injury. Like driving defensively, pre-thinking about that poor bunny can save your life.

The ethics of bunny vs. guard rail is the baseline for figuring out what a self-driving car has to decide–hitting the bunny, while icky, endangers the occupants of the car least. At the heart of this book, David Walton explores many avenues of logic, making you think, keeping it fascinating, and diving just deep enough into how the various simulations and apps are programmed to convince you the characters know what they’re doing without getting boring. The side dish of philosophy from various points of view gives you a lot to think about–making clear this is not a simple issue, with plenty of humor to keep the future from looking too grim.

If Asimov had lived for another fifty years, his worldview might have evolved enough to write something like Three Laws Lethal, but he couldn’t have done it better than David Walton did.

Recommended for those who like character-driven science fiction, hard science fiction, fans of Asimov’s Robot series, and anyone who has ever used a car sharing app.