Watchbird by Robert Sheckley. Short summary

5 seconds

The sentinel birds, created to prevent the killing of humans, began to protect all life. People decided to destroy them with machines, not realizing that when the guards were gone, the machines would destroy all life.

1 minute

Scientists created guard-birds, self-training robots whose task was to prevent murders. The robot birds detected people who were about to commit a crime and disarmed them.

Over time, they decided that they had to protect not only people, but also all living things: animals, fish, insects, plants. In addition, the guard-birds elevated the protection of the victim to the highest law and began to kill those who were considered murderers.

This led to a global famine, because the birds decided that the earth was alive and would not allow it to be plowed or harvested. The number of murders increased dramatically, because birds were busy protecting animals, fish, plants, but not people.

People urgently create machines programmed to kill the guards. They don’t realize that when the robot birds are gone, the machines will take on other creatures. This is what happens.