The book club members will be reading Culpability by Bruce Hotstinger this month. The novel is thought-provoking adult fiction, and I have to say that reading this book several months ago has given me so many questions to ponder like no other book I have recently read.
“The story centers on the Cassidy-Shaw family of Bethesda, Maryland. While traveling in a semi-autonomous SensTrek minivan to a sports tournament, 17-year-old Charlie is behind the wheel when the vehicle veers into oncoming traffic, killing two people in the other car … As hidden secrets, device distractions, and marital tensions come to light, the narrative explores how blame is distributed when a crash involves both human error and artificial intelligence.”
As AI becomes more and more a part of our lives, the question of culpability will come up more often—although I keep thinking the more things change the more they stay the same. I asked “Grok” the following question: “The dog ate my homework. Who is responsible?” It took almost three minutes to get a response and it referred me to Wikipedia! Dealing with material so new that AI isn’t even ready with answers yet, this book will provide lots of material to discuss. I am looking forward to our next meeting.
As mentioned before, the book club consists of approximately 35 members divided into three discussion groups who are all reading the same book. One group meets the fourth Monday afternoon of the month and the other two groups meet the fourth Thursday afternoon of the month. If you would like more information please feel free to contact one of the coordinators—for the Thursday groups, Steve and Ann Morris at samwrsi@cox.net or Lisa Buchner at lisabuchner47@gmail.com. For the Monday group, myself at fozimec@cox.net. We always welcome new members.
—Frances Ozimec
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