The Robot's Decision

By: David Gwyther

Narrated by: David Gwyther

Far into the future, many of humankind’s everyday problems have been solved. We no longer suffer from overpopulation or a lack of natural resources. Our colonization of the solar system and our utilization of robotic workers has solved all that.

And yet, embedded in the human psyche is a disorderly constant fact: emotion. The everyday rational decisions we make are so often askew with emotion and, as this tale unfolds, we come up against a heart-breaking decision, one which we had thought to hand over to a robot like Chen. But does that make handling emotion any easier?

This tale unfolds with pace and grip. The listener is caught in an awe-inspiring journey to Earth II – a trip that carries with it huge responsibilities and one encompassing hidden doubt. If the robot cannot absorb and resolve the emotional conflict, then the whole expansion of humankind into the universe is threatened. In exploring resolution to that doubt, the author plunges us into our emotional selves and highlights our everlasting uncertainties.

©2020 David Gwyther (P)2020 David Gwyther

Makes You Think

I really enjoyed this short story!

While brief, it did put forth an ethical dilemma that I don’t think many of us would want nor was the solution one that we would desire either. If you enjoy good conversation, this book will give that to you and your cohorts in spades!

I would love to learn more about the workd

I thoroughly enjoyed the story. My only pet peeve is from the science. Brain waves are not thoughts. They are byproducts of brain activity.

I would love to see this story fleshed out into a full novel.

The Robot's Decision

The Robot's Decision is a fascinating short story about what the future might hold and the responsibilities placed on robots as they make decisions for the betterment of humanity.
Narrator, and author, David Gwyther does a wonderful job.

Exploring Moral Dilemmas with AI

The Robot's Decision by David Gwyther expounds an idea that humankind is in the midst of coming to terms with, and will need to come to terms with as the race towards stronger AI and self-driving vehicles becomes the norm.

Set in the future where humankind is expanding rapidly throughout the universe by using technology to temporarily rewrite time and space. This is not without its consequences, which humans have found they are ill-equipped to deal with, so hand the responsibility to a robot.

The tale unfolds as part history lesson, part musings on the ethical conundrum of who to save and who to sacrifice.

Narrated by the author which can be hit or miss in my experience. In this case, I think Gwyther delivered a solid performance. The sound and delivery were solid, with no detectable issues to pull me out of the story. A touch monotone, but not enough to really put me off.

All up, a great short story that plumbs the depths of a pressing ethical dilemma.

I was given this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. I have not let this gift affect nor influence my opinions of this audiobook and have left an honest review.

a very interesting short story

though the author needs a bit of work on his narration skills I found the story fairly interesting.

Good but short

I received a free review copy of this audio book, at my request, and am voluntarily leaving this unbiased review.

This book is less narrative story and more of a thought experiment. The entire book is almost entirely exposition, with only a few lines of dialog.

The thought experiment revolves around the value of human life, from the POV of an AI. It references current technology in terms of driverless cars and brings it to a natural evolution of the implications.

It is an interesting concept and while it's touched on in other works, it is rarely the central theme of the story and usually relegated to a side story or part of a characters back story.

The characters, as such, are basically non existent. The story is about the "idea" presented and the one character that the story finally lands on is only there to provide focus to the experiment.

I feel there could have been a narrative here. Chapter 1 is strictly exposition, 2 is the issue at hand and chapter 3 is the wrap up. I don't think the concept is enough to base a full novel on, I do believe it could be explored in a 4 hour novella.

The "main" character thinks briefly about the situations that factor into his ultimate decision. They are basically a few lines of internal dialog about the people and situations he's experienced. However, if instead of the info dump at beginning, we followed the main character through his life and experienced his life as he did and learned the world along the way, then his choice would be more impactful. It would also be a way to develop a 40ish minute short into a 4 hour novella.

The voice narration is provided by the author himself. He does a fairly good job and the audio quality is very good. There are really no characters in the story, so I can't speak to his abilities with character voices. However, his voice is well suited to this story.

All in all, this is an interesting concept. It is underdeveloped and has little story, but it is thought provoking and enjoyable. With some work it could be a more developed work that would be more impactful. The voice narration is good but as there is little variation to the story to tax a narrator.

Definitely a good read/listen, but it's very short and has limited narrative so be ware when picking it up.



+++spoilers+++

I was disappointed that when challenged, the ships Captain didn't respond that the child was never to be sacrificed. She didn't have to pick another candidate, but it should be obvious to any human that children are off limits.