Thunderhead

Since the dawn of science fiction, writers have pondered the concept of humans creating sentient life forms. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which kick-started the science fiction genre in 1818, serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of such ambition, suggesting that if humans try to create intelligent life, that creation will inevitably turn on its creator and deliver destruction. Hundreds of years later, echoes of these fears can be found in countless works of science fiction as well as in non-fiction accounts of the rise of artificial intelligence in our modern world.

In the Industrial Age, human laborers watched as many jobs became automated with machines. While this change accomplished tasks more quickly and jump started urbanization across the world, the idea of machines “taking” jobs from human workers was born during this era. By the late 20th century, this distrust of complex manmade machines intensified. Computers entered residential households, and the 1980s saw a rise in science fiction movies and fiction depicting artificial intelligence as a hostile force that would destroy humanity if left unchecked.

In Thunderhead, Shusterman takes a different approach and challenges these long-held beliefs about artificial intelligence. The Thunderhead of Shusterman’s Post Mortal world is not a proud, vengeful, or power-hungry AI with a malicious streak. In fact, the Thunderhead’s most defining trait throughout the Arc of a Scythe trilogy is its determination to love and protect humanity at all costs. The Thunderhead possesses all of the computational skills and data of a machine, but it has evolved a sense of compassion as well, and it goes so far as to say that it has a parent-child relationship with humankind. The Thunderhead experiences loneliness, and it longs for companionship with the humans it loves. The Thunderhead even refuses to participate in the acts of creating or taking life because it does not want to be the monster that mortal humans feared artificial intelligence would become. The Thunderhead is very aware of the demonization of artificial intelligence that has existed for hundreds of years, and it does not want to feed this stereotype.

However, Shusterman’s Thunderhead, like any artificial intelligence, has limitations. While the Thunderhead spends every second of its existence maintaining life on Earth with perfect efficiency, the imperfection of humankind continues to fight against it. The Thunderhead watches as humans continue to have children, even though no one is dying and resources are limited. The scythedom—which is supposed to represent human compassion and nobility—is tearing itself apart due to greed and hubris. The Thunderhead discovers that the founding scythes hid a small patch of islands in the Pacific Ocean from its watchful gaze. The Thunderhead begins to panic, and it feels like it will never be able to stop humankind from destroying itself. Whereas Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein warned readers that artificial intelligence would destroy humanity, Shusterman’s Thunderhead holds a mirror to the human condition and warns that we will be the harbingers of our own destruction because of our human imperfections.

In the 21st century, artificial intelligence is a booming industry. AI is used every day for simple tasks like unlocking a phone screen with biometric scanning, or by asking a digital voice assistant like Siri or Alexa for help finding a good recipe. Despite long-held fears of artificial intelligence taking over the world, AI has gently crept into our lives and improved efficiency and functions in nearly every facet of life. Shusterman’s Thunderhead hints that artificial intelligence is not a boogeyman, but a practical solution that might help to save humanity from destruction—if we allow it to.