My Instructor Saw A.I. Coming
In early 2002, I took an English literature course. The instructor chose to focus on horror as a genre. For the final exam, we had to write an essay about two of the stories we had read. The theme was the dangers of overdependence on technology. I think she foresaw the rollout of ChatGPT and the A.I. boom it would unleash coming from a mile away.
Below is the essay I wrote:
Warning: Technology May Be Hazardous to Your Health
Authors Ray Bradbury and Harlan Ellison use their respective stories entitled “The Veldt” and “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” to address excessive reliance on advanced technology. They each show how an automated world can lead to conflict pitting man against man as well as man against machine, a theme re-examined in later motion pictures such as The Terminator and The Matrix. Both short stories essentially begin with individuals or entire communities who have become addicted to some form of technology. The subsequent withdrawal symptoms when the high tech and the convenience it affords are removed have devastating consequences. In “The Veldt” and “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream,” Bradbury and Ellison effectively illustrate how overdependence on technology can produce complacency, a lack of purpose, and resentment for one’s fellow human beings.
The complacency demonstrated by Ray Bradbury in “The Veldt” could be described as simple laziness. Not only does the Happylife Home clothe and feed the family and “rock them to sleep,” but it also brushes their teeth and even ties their shoes (Bradbury). The most mundane task has been turned over to a machine. Though the equipment in the house is not described as a form of computerized artificial intelligence (AI), it nevertheless does everything for the inhabitants. Bradbury conveniently neglects to describe the features of the bathroom, so readers are left to wonder just how far technology has advanced in relieving people of undesirable burdens. In Ellison’s story, “I Have No Mouth…,” the complacency has more menacing overtones. Laziness has progressed so far that humans cannot fight wars without the help of a computer. The author describes the situation as a chain of events. The Cold War taking place eventually became World War Three, which “just kept going. It became a big war, a very complex war, so they needed the computers to handle it” (Ellison). Instead of being programmed to perform everyday tasks, the supercomputers built by the opposing Americans, Russians, and Chinese were taught to think on humanity’s behalf. The narrator, Ted, confirms that purpose when discussing AM: “We had created him to think” (Ellison). That level of complacency results in the destruction of the planet, except for five human beings.
“The Veldt” shows how allowing technology to take over routine chores can deprive people of a sense of purpose. The parents in the story, George and Lydia Hadley, admit to themselves that the house has assumed their roles as parents. Lydia states, “I feel like I don’t belong here. The house is wife and mother now, and nursemaid” (Bradbury). This fear is confirmed when they invite their friend, David McClean, a psychologist, to pay them a visit. He points out to the parents, “You’ve let this room and this house replace you and your wife in your children’s affections. This room is their mother and father…” (Bradbury). In contrast, it is not the humans in “I Have No Mouth…” who lack a sense of purpose, but the supercomputer, AM. It was created for one purpose, to fight wars. After gaining sentience, AM desires more than that. Describing AM further, Ted adds, “[T]here was nothing it could do with that creativity… AM could not wander, AM could not wonder, AM could not belong. He could merely be” (Ellison). As a result, the former “Allied Mastercomputer” takes out its frustrations on what is left of humanity because it no longer had a purpose.
In “The Veldt,” George and Lydia’s refusal to allow their children, Peter and Wendy, to take a rocket trip to New York gives birth to feelings of resentment (Bradbury). Telling their children no causes a change in their offspring’s attitude, as described by Lydia: “I’ve noticed they’ve been decidedly cool toward us since” (Bradbury). It can be assumed that Peter and Wendy then began spending a considerable number of hours in the nursery contemplating their parent’s deaths in the lions’ jaws. McClean explains to George and Lydia that the nursery “has become a channel toward destructive thoughts” (Bradbury). After all, the technology is designed to pick up a person’s thoughts: “You sent out your thoughts. Whatever you thought would appear” (Bradbury). Serious physical harm is foreshadowed when George discovers his own wallet, chewed and bloodied and McClean picks up a blood-stained scarf belonging to Lydia off the nursery floor. Issues of resentment in “I Have No Mouth…” exist between AM and his subjects as well as between the human survivors themselves. Ted explains that, because the computer had reached a point at which it was unhappy with its purpose or lacked one altogether, “[W]ith the innate loathing that all machines had always held for the weak, soft creatures who had built them, he had sought revenge” (Ellison). Early in the story, AM plays a practical joke on the group that sends Ted scurrying in fear and causes the others to laugh at him. Brushing aside the excuse for their laughter, Ted says, “I knew it wasn't a reflex. They hated me,” adding, “they hated me because I was the youngest, and the one AM had affected least of all.” Afterwards, Ted confirms the extent to which the machine harbors resentment for its creators: “The machine hated us as no sentient creature had ever hated before” (Ellison).
Ray Bradbury and Harlan Ellison wrote their stories in 1950 and 1967, respectively. That period was characterized by the birth of the atomic age and heightened tensions in the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. The advanced technology of the nuclear and computer ages was by no means commonplace and an easy target of misgivings and fears about its use and misuse. Now that devices incorporating even far more advanced technology are found in virtually every pocket and purse, their convenience has overshadowed most purportedly harmful impacts of their proliferation, such as “electrosmog.” Nevertheless, the modern-day side effects of excessive reliance on technology are undeniable. Examples include children who are constantly staring at their cell phones and an inability to navigate a strange city or even our own hometowns without a computer-generated voice telling us where to turn. The authors point out how overdependence on technology may result in complacency, a lost sense of purpose, and resentment for other people. The final link in that chain was the death of innocent individuals. Another neologism used in the context of addiction to technology, “distracted driving,” can have the same result.
Works Cited
Ellison, Harlan. “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.”
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