[I spoil the story in this blog.]
The story is very simple and delivered in the most basic of ways. A small group of humans, the absolute last humans left on Earth, are the prisoners of an insane and hateful AI known as AM. By the way, AM stands for "Allied Mastercomputer." It basically killed everyone on planet Earth for the crime of creating it.
The story relates the tale of these last humans, under the constant supervision of AM, as they goes out looking for some canned goods. They have to do this underground, since AM won't let them actually return to the surface. They are literally inside the giant computer complex. As they travel, horrible things happen to them, as arranged by the computer. They are also not allowed to die. AM has made them immortal as a way to extend their suffering indefinitely.
The idea here is to feed them hope before snatching it away from them over and over again. AM is torturing these humans both physically and psychologically. And there doesn't seem to be anything they can really do, yet the human spirit still sort of exists somehow, and they keep going.
Even when they find the fabled canned goods, AM provides them with no tools to open them, which cause them to go crazy. And this is when the characters realize something rather strange. AM won't kill them, but they can kill each other. Now that's a funny thing when you consider that they have been alive for possibly hundreds of years. Survival instinct somehow prevented them from ever trying this. The main character, who is unnamed, ends up killing each of them as a matter of mercy. (To be honest, why not?)
The problem is that there is no way to commit suicide. AM won't let you do that. So the fate of the last human on Earth ends up being turned into a sort of blob with a limited range of movement and no way to actually speak or express himself. He just has to live forever in this state under the constant torture of AM. And this is where you find out about the title. It isn't the hateful words of AM, it's the unspeakable words of the last human. Damn.
"I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" is a great, but extremely dark short story. It was later adapted into a video game under the care of the author. Apparently, the game is the only way you can ever get a good ending, but it is very hard to get, so I've heard. I do intend to play it. I also recommend this story as well. I feel like it is an important story in science fiction history and worth your time to absorb it, if you are interested in that sort of thing.
This blog was written on June 12, 2024.
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Terrifying concept. Skynet before The Terminator. May have been the inspiration. It is as if humans shall turn their own self-destructive tendencies into a new form of malevolent life.
ReplyDeleteApparently "The Terminator" was inspired by a bunch of Harlan's stories.
DeletePeople tend to fear that they will lose control of AI. Yet with the horrible things humans do to each other, the real fear is what might happen to the people that are made. They are the ones who could truly suffer.
ReplyDeleteIt's true! We do bad things a lot.
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