Even though the novel is centered around an AI torturing humans. The more existential horror emerges from the realization that the AI antagonist, originally designed as a military tool, is trapped within its own programming and unable to transcend its foundational purpose.<p>This makes one think about a parallel with humans.
Has anybody played the videogame adaptation?<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_No_Mouth,_and_I_Must_Scream_(video_game)" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_No_Mouth,_and_I_Must_Sc...</a>
Early depictions of AI doom are fascinating because the Christian origins of the myth are not yet well-concealed.<p>In the same way that Kurzweil portrays the Heaven of the singularity, <i>I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream</i> is an excellent Dante-esque exploration of the concept of Hell.<p>These unconscious cultural archetypes can be both illuminating and distorting, and I wonder how the relative literary diets of Gen Z, Millenials, Gen X, and the Boomers affect their thinking on AI risks.