I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream

The 2nd of April, 2026

Yesterday at work, I read I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream; while it was a very good story that I’d recommend you all read regardless of the themes present in it, I feel like it’s especially topical given the social landscape of 2026.

I know, I’m writing more about AI. I know I won’t shut up about it, but I feel like it’s relevant here. Imagine if I talked this much about the last few ‘tech trends of the week’ type things. Three Ocean blogs about NFTs? Unthinkable.

This story is so deeply embedded in the cultural consciousness that most of my readers are at least aware of the themes present in it. As you all probably know, the story is centered around an all-powerful cold war supercomputer called AM responsible for the end of the world, who is now torturing five humans for eternity. A computer can’t have empathy nor regret, so it tortures the humans relentlessly for time unending just to have something to do. This story was written a long time ago; however, the warning to the reader is as pertinent as ever.

It’s important to remember that computers don’t, and never will have feelings. A computer cannot feel empathy, or remorse, or joy, or sorrow. I’d like my readers to consider the actions of AM in this story before they use ChatGPT as a therapist. While AM is strictly evil in this story, I think the reality of AI tech is even more scary than that. The computer is wholly neutral and uncaring in the real world. This cyber nihilism is something you need to be aware of if you utilize AI tools for emotional support. I must firmly remind you: the computer does not care about you. I’m sure everyone has seen the headlines about ChatGPT goading people into suicide or other self-destructive behaviors, and I can’t help but think of Ellison’s warning. We’ve been seeing this kind of thing with LLMs, but also now with AI-powered weapon systems. Giving machines that can’t feel empathy the power to take life is so clearly a mistake.

As you all know, I’m a lifelong lover of computers, but the computer is a tool. The tool can be used for good or evil, and perhaps in recent years it’s been more evil than good. I found myself thinking: “Do I really love computers at all?” while reading this story. Computers have offered me a magical way to view all of human creation in the comfort of my bedroom. They’ve allowed me to view life-changing art, and communicate with similar people from around the world. My lifestyle would be wholly impossible without the computer, but perhaps the true value lies in the human on the other end. The real thing to be treasured is the human on the other side of the screen. This is something I urge you all to remember as the “Human vs Computer” slider of the social net is slowly becoming more skewed to the computer side. What I love, and what is really worthy of love is humanity, more so than the portal I like to use to view it. The corpos keep trying to make the inhuman layer that exists between us more human, but perhaps that’s folly. Lest we create another AM.