#freetofall

Secret societies, prestigious academies, plot twists around every corner. I could not

put

this 

book

down.

Thank you, Washington Post for yesterdays perfect FREE TO FALL companion piece: What if your car decides one death is better than two — and that one is you?

The year is 2035. The world’s population is 9 billion. The polar ice caps have totally melted and Saudi Arabia has run out of oil. Will Smith isbattling murderous robots. Matt Damon is stranded on Mars. Dippin’ Dots is finally the ice cream of the present. 

You’re humming along in your self-driving car, chatting on your iPhone 37 while the machine navigates on its own. Then a swarm of people appears in the street, right in the path of the oncoming vehicle.There’s a calculation to be made — avoid the crowd and crash the owner, or stay on track and take many lives? — and no one is at the wheel to make it. Except, of course, the car itself.

Now that this hypothetical future looks less and less like a “Jetsons” episode and more like an inevitability (well, except for the bit about Dippin’ Dots), makers of self-driving cars — and the millions of people they hope will buy them — have some ethical questions to ask themselves: Should cars be programmed for utilitarianism when lives are at stake? Who is responsible for the consequences? And above all, are we comfortable with an algorithm making those decisions for us? In a new study, researchers from MIT, the University of Oregon and the Toulouse School of Economics went ahead and got some answers.

These are heady questions folks, so buckle up.

fighting in an ocean with faces you don't know

crying your heart out but nobody stops to ask how you were

held out my hand you took it and pulled

for the first time I breathe in You

run run run I am running away from this place I don't fit

run run run to a place of green pastures drink from the stream 

(and I'll be free)

I will be free

we can do what we like we've got time to spare

swim in the ocean or ride on a bicycle

go to the fields

So, odds are, your church youth group has never read and discussed a "mainstream" novel.  Now you can!  Download the Bible study discussion questions for Free to Fall and start talking.  {Please note that Free to Fall has mild language and some mature themes, so it may not be appropriate for all middle school groups.}