The author of these dystopian 'letters' would have us imagine that the unbridled development of Artificial Intelligence, and man's consequent moral and intellectual decline, together with disastrous climatic change and imminent global nuclear war, have all conspired to plunge humanity into chaos and irreversible destruction.

Addressed to Androidians on the planet Androidia, these letters raise the intriguing question of whether it would be both possible and desirable for androids to be 'programmed' with an impeccable 'moral sense', thereby correcting the 'defects in the human machine', for all humans, we are told, are 'defective' and some very much more than others. Were such defects eliminated, an Androdian Community might be envisaged that is unsusceptible to human moral weakness, such that both man's inhumanity to man and the insanity of war would be inconceivable and unrepeatable. Androids might become a morally perfect species capable of policing the human race or what remains of it, and perhaps of replacing the 'human machine' entirely, which would become more animal than human and be phased out of civilised existence altogether.

Or, is such speculation merely an excursion into the realms of the absurd? The author of this book is interested in raising questions concerning the limits of Artificial Intelligence as distinct from the current and commonly held hypothesis that the functions of AI are limitless. Does it really make sense to suppose that an android could become a morally sentient being? Like most good questions, this one may be capable of many very different answers, or perhaps it is unanswerable, in which case it may not be a question at all. The book may be of interest to readers who believe that reading may be a spur to philosophical reflection.