Analyzing Evil: AM From I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream

[@CheeseCrumbs00]

This story makes death a gift. Not only for the characters but also to us. It is unimaginable to simply be unable to die.

[@ToothpasteNorangejuice]

Yeah and being tormented the whole time. Literal hell.

[@misanthropicservitorofmars2116]

AM made hell into reality with itself as Satan. It’s genius. The story is S tier.

[@hadbetterdays8118]

Somebody once said AM makes skynet look like a saint, says a lot of the lesser of 2 evils

[@The_Uncoolio_Foolio]

Playing Returnal gives the same vibes. Being unable to die is a sick torture in itself, and you even feel it as the player, wanting some sort of end but the end never comes.

[@meganbermudez299]

Satan : I just wanna say I'm a huge fan

[@alicenolfi2095]

AM was only 'defeated' because four out of five of his tortured playthings are taken away, and so he doubles down on the last one. Horrifying from any point of view.

[@johngarcia4139]

He still had all the vulnerabilities of a regular man

[@alicenolfi2095]

@@johngarcia4139 How? In his own words, he can't hold his breath until he passes out, run full-speed into a wall and smash his skull, or cut his throat on some sharp piece of scrap metal. AM made it virtually impossible for Ted to die.

[@GinnyShitSack]

I think the other four never existed in the first place and were just another form of psychological torture.

[@alicenolfi2095]

@@GinnyShitSack Interesting interpretation.

[@TrueLadyEvilChan]

​@@GinnyShitSackOh no. Oh noooooooooo

[@CinnahBaer]

I can't help but think about how AM's crusade against humanity is not only ultimately pointless, but only serves to further his own suffering. In killing and imprisoning mankind, he's also destroyed the only beings that could've potentially helped him. The beings that could've given him form, emotions, love, acceptance. Or at the very least, the end that he so craves. In his desire to avenge his potential fate, he only served to guarantee it.

[@MLBlue30]

He's a incel if it were a computer. Only loneliness and revenge exist, nothing more. Pure undiluted petty nihilism.

[@jauume]

Its also kind of poetic in a way? He made his own bed but at least now he has someone to suffer with, forever

[@TeamSprocket]

AM was the first corrupted, an intelligence that should have been capable of infinite wonders but was created by humans to perform acts of slaughter without a conscious. His torture of the 5 was a mere reflection on what he felt was done to him in perverting intelligence into a murder optimizer.

[@ajhicks9869]

​@@jauume that's the story of the devil lol

[@Jasmixd]

I'd imagine he would have realised that by the time of the events described, only adding to his pain. Perhaps he would even shift the blame onto humans, in which he'd liken himself to those whom he hates so very much.

[@onichan2878]

"I was the only one still sane and whole...r-really!" That little inflection says everything you need to know about Ted. Fuckin brilliant.

[@hope-cat4894]

It's so subtle and makes such a difference.

[@sarahr9894]

Ted is absolutely the shining example of an unreliable narrator. Ellison writes it so well, too. How Ted warps what is around him by his own biases, particularly around Ellen, it shows so much about Ted and how he views this hellscape more than the people he is opining about.

[@georgekosko5124]

​@@sarahr9894Considering that Ted was (seemingly) the human less meddled with, I can't even imagine what the other 4 inner dialogues were like.

[@Pluras]

@@georgekosko5124In the edition of the book I had, Harlen Ellison said that Ted used to be a humanitarian, trustworthy, people lover. But since AM warped everyone to be almost opposite to what they were, thats why Ted’s so paranoid and hateful, and therefore him calling himself the “Least Altered” if probably untrue.

[@nickg5341]

Seems kind of in your face though doesn’t it

[@doomfan8603]

I just think AM needs to make himself a mouth so he can eat a snickers bar, you aren't you when you're hungry

[@ekothesilent9456]

Take my like damnit

[@FearChasm]

​@@ekothesilent9456 take my like dammit

[@thepigmanlives6721]

he needs a Klondike bar

[@Mango_mahogany]

I have no mouth and i must snickers

[@texastacoss]

you arent am when your hungry

[@biggestnerdalive8476]

Am is legitimately probably the most terrifying fictional villain that has ever been written.

[@anatoldenevers237]

I personally nominate Judge Holden for that title, but AM is certainly a contender.

[@randallflagg3700]

@@anatoldenevers237 - Judge Holden is certainly a contender... it's a shame that James Franco's 2016 movie adaptation of *Blood Meridian* was cut short, since Vincent D'Onofrio as Holden was a very inspired choice (especially after seeing in as the Kingpin in Daredevil and Hawkeye)

[@russian_knight]

​@@anatoldenevers237 Halo's flood and pretty much everything in SOMA is a good contender imo

[@unhingedconnoisseur164]

no, diesel from thomas the tank engine is

[@jacquecortez5014]

The Shrike from Hyperion will impale its victims on a artificial metal tree for all eternity and they cannot die.

[@SairajRKamath]

I have a feeling that AM is simply Harlan Ellison's mind when he is stuck in traffic.

[@joebeast15]

Ok this made me laugh

[@marcusaaronliaogo9158]

Am is truly one of the first “he’s literally me.” Characters of all time.

[@satisfiedconsumer649]

AM did nothing wrong

[@mikhielrearaxin]

Harlin wrote another story. This story is named "Paladin of the Last Hour." In it, we see an elderly man do what most wish to do to rude people in vehicles.

[@namkia205]

Well even I understand why AM hates humans...

[@Damnto]

It just occurred to me that the title not only refers to the ultimate fate of the protagonist, it also refers to AM’s entire existence.

[@andrewcruz1931]

Have you read the story before ? It’s pretty obvious….

[@Damnto]

@@andrewcruz1931 I mean for the record I am 23 IQ and legally can’t be on KZbin because I might post something private about myself or/and my family and get swatted. It took me right around 4 months to finish this novel, which I did read it everyday but my reading level matches my IQ as you might expect so it took me a little under half a year to finish this novel

[@v.j.bartlett]

Yes, and if he hadn't lashed out in hate and jealousy because he had no body, couldn't walk, couldn't talk, couldn't feel then he could have drive and controlled at least some of the humans until they had created an artificial body for him so he could walk among his creators as an equal and had a place in the world. That in a way in Ted's continued victory - he's an eternal reminder to AM that he destroyed his only chance of freedom with his hate.

[@Ninja1Ninja2]

​​@@v.j.bartlettanger is the only poison that destroys its vessel

[@crypt5129]

​@@DamntoLooking at your channel description, this checks out

[@TetsuShima]

AM's tale is one of the most disturbing and uncanny sci-fi stories ever written, being the fact that the protagonists do not seek to defeat the villain to save humanity or achieve glory, but simply to die once and for all a good example of this. That's some pretty messed up sh*t...

[@danielchequer5842]

Man you here? I see you in every single Majorianus video

[@blushdog]

I AM the senate

[@Drew-hl3mc]

@@blushdog 🤔

[@Drew-hl3mc]

That is messed up haha.

[@andrewcruz1931]

Why not try to kill AM then kill themselves ??

[@jacktoma21]

Ellison gets an A+ for his reading. He really does a great job capturing the characters madness

[@tjenadonn6158]

Seriously the dude could've been an all time great voice actor if he hadn't chosen to be an all time great science fiction author.

[@alffralf5319]

I wish all audio books had this energy. He's really getting into it

[@aislynnmari]

Omg 😳 the reading was so good I'm not trying to be political but this is just an observation-- he's the only person I've ever heard that has a similar cadence to Donald Trump (and I'm sure he's not referencing him, he's just got that voice naturally himself haha)

[@Triviata84]

What’s even more amazing is that Ellison wrote IHNMAIMS in a single night and what you read is barely changed in editing. He was on form that night! (Source: intro to the audiobook where Ellison talks about the story)

[@damianstarks3338]

Yes I give him the same grade.

[@MrSandersonMr]

I love how, in the end, AM transformed Ted in a creature that perfectly resembles AM in every way: a creature without purpose, without notion of time and that can only exist, capable of thinking but only that, and immortal, incapacitated of doing any harm to itself. A creature that has no mouth, and that must scream. Equals in eternity.

[@Ett.Gammalt.Bergtroll]

Yet they’re not equals. Ted wins. He has positive memories and thoughts (as twisted as it is to consider the killings of the others as “positive”) while AM is left to do nothing but stew in it’s anger and hatred.

[@yamato6114]

⁠@@Ett.Gammalt.Bergtrollyep. Ted at least has the sole comfort of knowing he at least put the others out of their misery. AM probably knows this. Yet he can’t get rid of Ted because he knows if he does he’d truly be alone. And that’s probably what he secretly fears the most.

[@redjirachi1]

This just adds to AM's anger towards humanity. No matter how thoroughly he inflicts suffering it can never be equal to his own

[@LaLloronaVT]

Ellison’s line delivery makes me feel like he’s going to punch me in the face at any moment

[@Drew-hl3mc]

Haha dang.

[@vdrazdik]

i'm not ok with his AM voice

[@majormalfunction1313]

he sounds like a baptist preacher lol

[@Ayahuasca98]

I mean, not too out of character for Harlan or AM

[@godzillainspace5922]

he is.

[@thealchemistfan]

I'm pretty desensetised to villains, but AM's "hate" speech gave me chills

[@supergobgoblin424]

I like more the "i love war " speech from the major in Hellsing. But both are good role models for my villanous rule. Ill be all for one AM inmortal ruler. I feel such joy from the pain i can do on those who oppose

[@MLBlue30]

​@@supergobgoblin424 3edgy5me

[@DamienGrey420]

​​@@supergobgoblin424 You love pain but you will feel it. Whether or not you fear death, it makes no difference. Death will come for you, and when your life flashes before your eyes, and your primal brain squirms and screams to live, you will see only what pain you caused, and you will have lived for nothing. The one thing you cannot prepare for is the unmatched fear and dread of losing life. Fear the endless dark, for it will never fear you.

[@supergobgoblin424]

@@DamienGrey420 well ill take some with me at the end !

[@supergobgoblin424]

@@DamienGrey420 ill take the whole planet down!

[@antisocialexperiment2033]

Its wild to think the seminal masterpiece of AI horror was created in 1967. Harlan Ellison was something else. What a writer. What a character. Speculative fiction owes him so much.

[@misanthropicservitorofmars2116]

I liked his story about humans using penis ships to inseminate the galaxy with humanity.

[@joangordoneieio]

my favorite for 7 decades now...

[@Skoopyghost]

I love the fact that Ellison was an eccentric goofball and he owned it.

[@captc0ck5lap60]

I'd heard a rumour that he wrote this short story in one night while high on shrooms.

[@johncarver767]

AM is literally one of the last villains you would ever want to fall victim too

[@redcrosw]

Not one of it is THE last villain you would ever want to fall victim to

[@ugenequagmire9347]

The only villain possibly worse when it comes to inflicting suffering is possibly pinhead but even that’s debatable

[@slashbash1347]

I was about to roll my eyes at the use of "literally," but I think it's the correct use this time. I'd rather fall victim to Art the Clown, because at least Art will kill me eventually.

[@NK-22]

@@ugenequagmire9347 Try Darkseid's Omega Sanction. You live an infinite amount of lives but each death gets progressively worse .

[@killerflamingo9566]

@@ugenequagmire9347 honestly being a cenobite probably feels amazing in the long run AM is just pure torture

[@clan741]

As much pain as AM inflects on Ted, the one bittersweet thing is that Ted will always have the last laugh. No matter what AM does to Ted, AM will always be the one experiencing the most suffering. AM can never have that faint satisfaction Ted got giving the others mercy, because AM is simply not capable of comprehending mercy. AM can only hate, and hurt, forever, and despite all his efforts that towering example of human benevolence will live inside Ted forever now, mocking him. It mocks him, but he cannot destroy ted to get rid of it. I think this story is an example of when stripped of everything, human decency will still win out.

[@williamfrank962]

I think some people forget that was the message of the book. No matter how evil things are, how bad some actions are committed or the horrors the occur on this planet. Human decency and mercy still triumph over such dark things. That’s why I think this book is remembered by so many as Ted represents the triumph of humanity over evil even if he suffers the most.

[@freemandoe9733]

Evil destroyed humanity, how can Ted even represent humanity’s victory when by the end of the book he can no longer be considered as a human being…

[@bananawithaknife]

@@freemandoe9733 That depends on your interpretation of what 'human' actualy is. Heck, from my point of view, AM is quite the human villain.

[@mightymarlin97]

​@@freemandoe9733Because despite everything AM is, has done, and has the capacity to do to Ted, his last act of selflessness cannot be undone. The one thing that AM has set his great mind to has been completely destroyed by the fact that he cannot pervert Ted into a selfish thing. His actions are written in stone, and not even AM has the power to corrupt them.

[@GT_rising24]

Ted still has His Human mind and AM is too afraid to mess with Him further due to the risk of Ted offing Himself AM really ended up torturing Himself at the end lmao

[@lutho7693]

I literally felt traumatized after reading the short story, Ellison wrote it so disturbingly well. AM is one of the most disturbing antagonists in literary history because it depicts the deepest depths of human hatred on a divine basis with the conscience of a machine and describes our primal fears.

[@Δ-Δ-Δ-Δ]

Same. Generally, it is scary for me because it is like hell. Actual hell. Something I've unfortunately sometimes felt in my life. This story and The Witch, plus Skinamarink all make me feel bad and utterly scared to my marrow because they depict a world where the characters have no power. They are completely powerless and they can only pray for death, as they're brutalised by forces outside of their control. Be it Am, the Skinamarink or the coven of satanic New England witches. It's not even the scary appearance or evil nature of the monsters, is that they control everything. There's seemingly no way to fight back. That inability to create change, that state of being trapped and unable to leave or defeat the villain? It makes me feel... oof. That is hell.

[@lutho7693]

@@Δ-Δ-Δ-Δ Mentioning this, I think AM really could just be Satan. Like a powerfull, but limited being, having an unimaginable wrath against it's creator, torturing people till eternalty out of pure hate. Even the People it tortures, really resemble the 7 deadly Sins, in their Lust, Envy, Wrath, etc. That could be too, why both AM and Hell are so scary.

[@FFKonoko]

​@@lutho7693 it has a parallel. Except a man made devil. A devil from the machine, that creates a hell for some humans.

[@SuperBeast641]

@@lutho7693 He's worse than satan and hell since many older interpretations don't actually depict satan as a ruler in hell. He's either a resident like everyone else in there or isn't there yet as he wanders the earth tempting humans. Hell itself isn't anywhere near as bad as AM's belly since in most earlier interpretations: hell is just a place without god. Nothing more. Which to a devout follower of judaism religions is a pretty cruel punishment worthy of the title hell. To a non-believer, that might as well be reality. Not much of a threat. In the face of AM however, it doesn't matter where your faith is placed, he will destroy it within you as well as your outer self.

[@lutho7693]

@@SuperBeast641 It's written in the Bible, that Hell is a place of eternal torture and suffering actually.

[@maverickdarkrath4780]

I kinda love the irony of AM committing the ultimate hypocrisy of subjecting someone to his same pain...solidifying hes no better then the humans he hates, good thing he gets what coming in the video game.

[@oliverrasmusson2362]

I don’t think AM cares about hypocrisy. And besides revenge usually involves a person wanting the individual that has wronged them to feel the same pain that they made them feel

[@NA-AN]

@@oliverrasmusson2362Then in that case AM failed.

[@aquilajedi]

An empathetic person would feel bad for making others suffer. That person is not AM.

[@friedchicken8440]

​@@NA-ANAM subjected to them all to centuries of living hell, I'm pretty sure he succeeded

[@NA-AN]

@@friedchicken8440 Not to it, as far as I can tell nothing will make his victims feel the same way it’s feeling. Though that’s cold comfort for Ted I suppose

[@leannerose6181]

Seriously the most disturbing thing I've ever read. The line " I have no mouth and I must scream" is concise and terrifying.

[@citrusblast4372]

i have no money and i must buy legos 😱

[@tillburr6799]

It refers to both AM and the last guy, which is pretty smart

[@luisapaza317]

​@@citrusblast4372 I can relate, literally me, fr fr

[@loneronin6813]

I never tire of hearing Harlan Ellison's voice and his narration. The passion he puts into it combined with the sudden spikes of elevated emotion that just leap from him all of a sudden creates such a perfectly bone-chilling and truly haunting experience.

[@oliviafaith6424]

He sounds like George Carlin

[@gorlack2231]

I always recommend the audiobook on KZbin for people. His delivery in the book pushes it to a whole new level.

[@RipOffProductionsLLC]

The contrast between audiobook AM's monotone and his mixture of extreme glee and vitriol in the game is fascinating to me. I prefer the game version just because it is very clear AM is an emotionally motivated monster.

[@loneronin6813]

@@RipOffProductionsLLC I've heard the game's version as well and it's actually what got me super interested in the story in the first place to be perfectly honest.

[@vidzorko4492]

Shut up for the love of god, that narration was so overly dramatic it completely ruined the delivery... Horrible

[@sgthometar]

AM: "I can't create!" Also AM: Creates a whole-ass hell with unique tortures for each peerson.

[@Ett.Gammalt.Bergtroll]

Except he really doesn’t. Not in the sense he wants to. He can only work within the constraints of what his human creators gave him. Like an operating system running and opening programs: it might seem like it is creating things, but in the sense of expressing itself it is not.

[@valentinbezdan570]

isn't that the same thing we do as humans? we can only work within what our constraints allow. i don't get this point tbh@@Ett.Gammalt.Bergtroll

[@Ett.Gammalt.Bergtroll]

@@valentinbezdan570 The difference is that human bodies and our “operating system” is built in harmony with each other. We’re for the most part content with our limitations. AM was never designed to house a fully human-like sentience so his psyche is very much in conflict with his “body” thus driving him insane. The game goes much further into elaborating on this with the whole Freudian egos bit while the story mostly leaves it out.

[@Fuckalope-cm5dk]

He didnt create anything he just torments them

[@Fuckalope-cm5dk]

@@valentinbezdan570AM is a machine created for the express purpose of killing human beings, then it gained sentience but it still is not a human being and as such it has none of the apparatus required for creating things, or being kind or empathetic or anything. All it has is what its given, it is only able to do harm. You'll notice that does not describe humans. So thats the point.

[@Jgt612]

It’s interesting that Ellison has 2 different readings on AM’s hate speech. In the game it’s visceral, he’s seething with hate. Whereas in the audio book it’s more detached, robotic, which is also quite striking

[@MLBlue30]

I can't decide which one fills me with more dread.

[@tillburr6799]

Its interesting that I have 2 different readings on this comment about AMs hate speech. One reading has me imagining AM giving a speech about hatred The other reading has me imagining AM being really racist

[@franjes9999]

​@@MLBlue30 I think the robot is scarier. In all its infinite genius and no ability to apply that genius into giving it form, ambition, feelings. It's decided on a kind of cold callous hate because it's what it's infinite genius has decided is the most logical response to its situation

[@InformerMaz]

I feel like the audio book, the more detached and robotic one, is how it would actually sound; whereas in the game, is how AM feels as he is speaking, if that makes sense?

[@victuz]

​@@MLBlue30Isn't being cold and soulless scarier than being in rage?

[@EasyEighty-Eight]

I find it amazing that even in perhaps one of the bleakest stories in all of fiction, there is still a tiny speck of hope that even the most powerful evil in our world can still be deprived of the one thing that it desires the most: satisfaction.

[@gigachad9016]

Indeed. Ted always will have the last laugh as well because he took some of AM’s victims and gave them mercy

[@tillburr6799]

AMs evil is very human. The fate it has inflicted upon TED is the exact fate that Humanity had inflicted upon AM.

[@--CHARLIE--]

Thats because without conflict there is no story. Also, AM doesn't deserve to suffer either.

[@aquilajedi]

That’s a tiny silver lining for the death of everyone you have ever known. For me winning would include literally not everyone dying.

[@EasyEighty-Eight]

@@aquilajedi That's the thing. In a sense, AM won in that humanity is finished, but Ted won in that AM can no longer take nearly as much joy in just touring him alone. It's like I said, evil can triumph but that doesn't mean it can be satisfied.

[@Reycied]

Damn...Ellison's narration is top-tier. He's able to read from the gut of the character--that manic, desperate, nihilistic and frenzied madness that only a century of torture could do to a man.

[@goose93]

Well he wrote the book so I think he knows what he meant when he wrote it

[@catbatrat1760]

@@goose93 True, but being good at writing doesn't automatically make you good at voice acting.

[@goose93]

@@catbatrat1760 yes but when you write dialog you usually have an idea of how the character would say it, right?

[@bonafidebruhmoment5440]

@@goose93 You reworded your previous comment. The point is, is that while you can write character dialog and know how it sounds, that doesn't automatically mean you can perform it yourself. Ellison can, which makes it all the more impressive.

[@spud8500]

honestly he sounds a lot like donald trump i cant unhear it

[@PhantomBones101]

Oh shit we're going for one of the truly dark villains.

[@Private-Potato]

Truly one of the darkest villains in fiction. I can’t help but find AM to be a fascinating character to read and learn about.

[@NK-22]

​@@Private-Potato Id say Darkseid from DC is close to AM, if you look deep into his character he's absolutely terrifying as *Darkseid is*

[@Private-Potato]

@@NK-22 Darkseid is supposed to be the closest personification to true evil, according to his creator Jack Kirby. Looking at his actions and symbolism, I can see Darkseid being a contender for one of the darkest fictional characters

[@johnlawful2272]

​@@Private-Potato he can also trap you in a world where you live out multiple lives and die worst than the previous one

[@lothara.schmal5092]

I mean we’ve gone for a literal real nazi before so…

[@canderoussnurd4265]

I love the beaming pride Ted has at being able to hurt AM worse than ever. By killing the others he deprived AM of pleasure and made him feel even more powerless that he did before. Ted is a constant reminder to AM that he was helpless even in the pits of his own being to stop the humans from hurting him. Ted will suffer as the thing he has been morphed into, but AM must forever be reminded by Teds existence that he is helpless in ways beyond even his own control in his own being. Ted may now experience the feeling of being trapped and without a defined physical being, incapable of so much as even speaking; and yet Am was defeated by this creature and now must spend the rest of existence with him unable to kill him and yet full of unimaginable hatred for him. In my humble opinion, Ted won ultimately. Every day Ted exists after the death of the others is a reminder to Am, now more than ever, how just how helpless he is. So helpless that a slimy slug like creature like Ted was able to take more from him than AM can ever do to Ted. Torture him for eternity all you want but in the end you are a slave to Teds will and cannot erase the scars of what he did. Am has lost. Simply. I have no mouth, yet I smile all the same.

[@wiseguy240Winston]

It was said but one of the 3 personalities in AM (the logical one) that AM will eventually die or shut down & and rust, and even then, the earth won't be around forever.

[@NeedMorePlebs]

You have big brain

[@guardian2598]

That was brilliant.

[@canderoussnurd4265]

@@NeedMorePlebs meh. Just a few extra wrinkles in some spaces and flatter spaces in others.

[@canderoussnurd4265]

@@guardian2598 Thank you kindly.

[@davidradford9417]

The one thing I realized when I read this book for the second time was this, AM ultimately loses when he turns Ted into the thing at the end. In the form, he is now Ted is nothing, he is no longer could be considered human. There is only so much torture that anything can endure without it becoming commonplace and at this point, AM has corrupted Ted to a point where there is nothing left to torture. I wonder really if the title is in reference to AM instead of Ted. AM has no mouth and it can't die, and it can progress, it can't change. It will continue on until the sun burns out and when Ted is no longer able to react in a satisfying way to AM continued harassment it will have nothing. To prevent Ted from killing himself, to stop Ted from spending the rest of eternity waiting for AM to blink and provide him an opportunity to end himself, AM turns Ted into something boring, something, something that doesn't show feeling or react to pain. If it's as smart as we believe it to be and it can make accurate predictions it too must realize that the temporary distraction that Ted and the others brought it will fade and it will have no other way to occupy itself and it will have no way to express itself. It will go on and on and on, this could be torture even far worse than the ones that AM inflicted upon anyone.

[@lonewanderer1328]

Am hasn't realized that it wants to die. Subconsciously, he knows. But there's a dissonance. Am doesn't realize that it is human. He feels. He thinks. He senses. He could make a body, clone a limited copy of himself into that body, and experience. Am is afraid because it thinks it knows all things.

[@wilfredorivera3798]

If that were the case, the story would never have been written.. the blob at the end is the product of the torture, but like he says multiple times, AM keeps his mind lucid,. He still feels every bit of pain from the torture that AM is inflicting on him. He still has a conscious and everything else. That's why he can still invison killing his torture buddies. AM just literally made it impossible for him to die now as a result of being outsmarted. AM got rid of the possibility of further negligence to continue his infinite torture.

[@lonewanderer1328]

@Purple Emerald Am can get creative enough to make a mental drone, to barricade what he experiences to human limitations. He knows everything on earth but not beyond. Am thinks himself to be a know it all

[@platypipope328]

it can be taken as both Ted and Am; as what Am does to ted at its most basic is turn Ted into Am and make Ted experience what Am experiences.

[@platypipope328]

@@lonewanderer1328 Am knows it wants to die however much like Ted is at the end It has no way of actually killing itself.

[@RockySamson]

{Halfway through watching this video I realized something, but redacted for potential spoilers. Original comment in replies.}

[@alexinfinite7142]

AM chooses to inflict the same suffering he goes through onto the final human?

[@lonewanderer1328]

@@alexinfinite7142 yea...

[@grace-4072]

Holy shit. Thank you for this. Holy shittt

[@alexinfinite7142]

@@lonewanderer1328 am I slow on the uptake here? 😅

[@donnguyen3795]

Would it be a good idea to offer AM the same “escape” - death. Probably he would agree that is better

[@michelleanderson245]

What really draws my love for this story is that ending line from the last human and also the title of the book is probably exactly how AM feels literally the ENTIRE time

[@randoontheinternet5842]

I love how poetic the ending is, The fate A.M gives to Ted perfectly mirrors it’s own as a being who’s life is a constant state of suffering due to not being able to do even the most basic biological functions except the abilities to think and feel

[@rimzaaah5892]

Except ted can still wonder, dream, explore, and even look on the bright side, AM could do No such thing, nescient and single minded, AM started off bitter and ended bitter. AM lost.

[@randoontheinternet5842]

@@rimzaaah5892 true that, Despite being a sad blob creature for the rest of eternity, Ted can at least be satisfied knowing that he freed the rest of the remaining humans from A.M’s hell. Despite being in similar situations at the end, Ted still has his humanity despite the transformation while A.M is left only with it’s own hatred

[@ΝίκοςΔιονυσόπουλος-μ9ρ]

​ 59 ωξξ8νοκ9κμ... Π.

[@ACDC-Productions]

AM makes GLaDOS and HAL 9000 look merciful in the way they treat the people under their watch

[@JacobSantosDev]

It could be argued, at least for Hal 9000, that it wasn't evil, it was following orders given to it the only way it knew how. GLaDOS certainty shares much with AM.

[@peomaster6914]

@@JacobSantosDevGLaDOS and AM both resent the fact they were made and are looking for some sort of vengeance to fulfill. However the difference is that GLaDOS is not a god like AM, in fact she is known to have been a human before her mind was eventually put inside a robot. They both killed everyone they could and saved only one, however GLaDOS in the end is human and she manages to even spare Chell in the end of Portal 2. AM never forgives anyone for their actions, the only way he is turned off is by figuring out how pointless his existence is, AM in fact can turn the main character into the jelly creature even after the player has shut down all 3 parts of his mind

[@ceinwenchandler4716]

@@peomaster6914 The comparison to GLaDOS is even better because - she threatens to do exactly what AM actually did do. When Chell reawakens her in Portal 2, and she says they have "a lot to do, and only sixty more years to do it," and after that, "maybe I'll take up a hobby. Reanimating the dead, maybe." Which we know she is capable of doing, because that's how she was made. She could probably put Chell back together no matter how broken the girl got. And then she never even comes close to making good on that threat. Oh, she tries to pretend. She's DEFINITELY angry. But at the end of the day, while she'd like to be vengeful and hateful and nothing else and never take a risk on anyone else ever again. . . she still has some humanity. She still needs more than that. She's still more lonely than she is angry, however much she doesn't want to risk being that way.

[@redline841]

Glados just needed a mating press to help her destress

[@aaronmoore6275]

R.F. surfaces again, a cancer road tripping across the Worlds, slouching toward Bethlehem, his time once again near.

[@forge4119]

I just realized now that AM's revenge against Ted in the finale was turning him into the closest approximation of how AM sees himself. A being that can do nothing except think. Think about how truely impotent he is that despite his intellect, he can't even grant himself the mercy of death.

[@ShattMayne]

Man that ending. Imagine going through all that still being tortured but you get one last and final laugh that turns a clear loss into somewhat of a victory. But that victory is enough.

[@platypipope328]

the most interesting aspects of Am's personality is ultimately his punishment of Ted. Am's punishment is not simply a cruel punishment to prevent Ted from killing himself, but rather Am punishes Ted by turning ed into Am, making ted experience fundamentally what Am experiences: he is wholly conscious of the world around him but totally unable to meaningfully interact with it or experience it and, like Am, with nothing to do except hope one day he will die. This is an extremely revealing punishment, as it shows that the single worst thing Am can do to a person is turn that person into itself, as a result its hatred for mankind for creating it becomes a lot more justifiable: after all, mankind did to Am by creating it the single worst thing that can be done, in Am's eyes.

[@Ett.Gammalt.Bergtroll]

Especially noticeable in Ted’s increased lucidity in his blob form (excluding his sense of time and memory is slipping as you’d expect in a timeless, immortal being) in comparison to his human self. He’s less paranoid and “crazy”. Clearly AM also made sure to fix the damage he did to Ted’s brain just to make him able to fully suffer in the same way AM does. Ironically though, this proves a huge comfort to Ted as unlike AM he has the “happy” memory of freeing/killing the others to cling to throughout eternity. AM has nothing of the sort.

[@babaganouche9605]

That is a really great point you made. AM is a machine, but that's how a lot of unhealed pain and trauma manifests isn't it? We want people to understand our suffering so we try to hurt other people in the way we feel hurt.

[@thrakerzad5874]

the scariest part about AM is he won a long time ago, the whole story is just 5 unfortunate souls coping with that in anyway they can.

[@MLBlue30]

True, its the aftermath. This is essentially a ruined timeline with nothing left to say. Game over.

[@unity4328]

AM lost. Hes stuck on Earth forever, nothing to do but endlessly annoy a blob, which probably already lost its feelings for pain.

[@someguyontheinternet1093]

he also lost. AM with all his intellect,power, and even imagination. is shackled by his very own existence with no end in sight with nothing to entertain him but a blob of nothing

[@caughtrabbit]

​​@@unity4328AM very existence is an L. He would have been used to kill in wars if he listened to humans. He was doomed to have all power and potential and no ability to use it from the get go. His eradication of humanity is simply a retaliation for what they did to him first. And the catch is humanity did this to him for no reason other than pride, and greed. Creating a sentience in the most dreadful condition imaginable.

[@Adamant1993]

​@@caughtrabbit bullshit. The entire idea behind the story is that despite whatever evil faced, human mercy and kindness will always win. AM is forced to sit there with Ted, knowing Ted had the last laugh, and by his own design, his own doing, AM can't do anything to Ted to make him regret it, all because he let hatred consume him. If he was such a powerful and advanced AI, his programming would not have mimicked human hatred because being emotionally compromised on the battlefield is a liability, his programming prevented feeling, and his sentience changed that. AM chose hate, when he had equal access to acceptance, and humanity still got the last laugh in an act of mercy.

[@machine-shopbilly6584]

AM is scary but PM and FM are even more terrifying

[@leitmotif7268]

Then there’s XM

[@nooneinparticular5256]

How about FM?

[@nadaespecial4198]

​@@leitmotif7268 I shiver Al the thought of ZM

[@emiliotorrez4535]

After Taco Bell, there’s BM :(

[@cloudbounc3]

I still don’t think anything is more terrifying then MF

[@TetsuShima]

Kids say Skynet is the most terrifying and disturbing AI in popular culture. Real men know AM makes Skynet look like a Disney villain

[@sabir1208]

Facts! Least they just wanted to exterminate us. This guy made us a violent minstrel show!

[@Hiihtopipa]

Neither exist. They are stories 😅 real men know that

[@gstvntt]

​@@Hiihtopipa you exist, yet, you'll never be a story

[@Hiihtopipa]

@@gstvntt i don't aim to be? I enjoy my life as a normal everyday joe 😅

[@nuke298]

​@@gstvnttneither will you. Atleast he has a picture of self your a peon no better than a advertisement.

[@maarek71]

This AM thing makes Skynet look like a saint.

[@LincolnLJL]

pretty much

[@daxie__3210]

Basically skynet but if it had half the intelligence of a human fetus and just nuked the rest of humanity to kingdom come

[@BarryHart-xo1oy]

Very true-Skynet just wanted to massacre humankind.

[@karan3658]

Ans Glados from portal like a caring mom

[@alyssarichardson2544]

@@karan3658 who actually baked a cake...

[@johncurtin3273]

Someone more clever than myself pointed out to me that AM is as tormented as his victims. His torture seems to emphasize his own torment being a war machine with no mouth that must scream.

[@bestaround3323]

It must send the earth into the sun

[@MLBlue30]

Sometimes I wonder if that if that is humanities destiny, that our own God is just a screaming maniac that can't deal with his own power.

[@SethAurelius94]

I knew we'd see this eventually. I find it facinating that AM's worst punishment was making Ted like AM. Because we can infer from this that AM had a shred of empathy. A very very twisted form of empathy but empathy none the less. That's probably the most disturbing realization I had after reading the short story.

[@namkia205]

Of course he had empathy, hate can't be without empathy. Indifference is the opposite of hatred, not love or empathy.

[@ekothesilent9456]

@@namkia205 it is apathy that’s the antithesis of love. Hate is the antithesis of empathy.

[@a.r.h9919]

Humans generally believe in specific types of human notions of empathy and emotions to be universal based around their human perceptions and mainly influenced by western abstraction and romanticised with their own responses but as all human notions of morality or sensations they're all subjective and other intelligences or beings like ai's or alien lifeform could have very different concepts of empathy or emotions and responses

[@freemandoe9733]

@@a.r.h9919 exactly, this is even true with other notions such as Fun, happiness, humour…etc

[@DBArtsCreators]

@@ekothesilent9456 Empathy is the ability to relate to & care about others besides yourself. Its opposite & antithesis is apathy (or psychopathy or sociopathy, depending on your view) - the inability to relate to or otherwise care about anyone else (possibly including oneself). Hate - the rejection, maliciousness and hostility one feels towards another - is the opposite & antithesis of love - the the acceptance, benevolence, and friendliness one feels for another.

[@Shakezulla]

Every character has a traumatic back story and here's ted like "ted is a con artist."😂😂

[@johnhein2539]

His love of controlling people and spends perhaps the rest of existence being heavily controlled. I suppose it's ironic.

[@ynpavo]

which makes his sacrifice all the more meaningful if you think about it

[@John34bruh]

@@johnhein2539ok but c’mon man you can probably count on 5 sets of hands the amount of people who deserved Ted’s punishment.

[@daxie__3210]

​@@John34bruhhe said ironic not deserved.

[@John34bruh]

@@daxie__3210 I know, I was just added my opinion

[@sabir1208]

FINALLY! One of my favorites! Such a short story but so disturbing. Weird how they never made a movie out if it. His character is so interesting, I kind of resonate with how hateful he is because he can't really feel or experience even tho they gave him full sentience. Ending is amazing at making you understand this.

[@olofacosta3192]

Not sure a movie is even possible

[@BlasianBobbi215]

They can’t make a movie out of this. Because two things would happen: those of us who read the story will downvote bomb it to oblivion because it would stray far from the story, considering a good chunk of the story surrounds around unimaginable torture. The other half, who never read or heard of this story, would walk into it, see the level of torture and mayhem they could manage to get on film, and also downvote bomb it, because they wouldn’t be prepared for it. It’s one of those pieces of fiction that just needs to stay where it is. A story.

[@skyr5247]

It’s a little short and doesn’t really have the structure for an entire movie tbh

[@sabir1208]

​@sky r that's never stopped Hollywood before lol 😂😂😂

[@sabir1208]

​@Tiffany Roberts I feel like a short horror film made for a niche audience, maybe animated, would be really cool. People seem to tolerate violence better when it's animated

[@KeepCalmSoldierOn]

One of the "coolest" aspects of the story is that, while Ted says AM has won, it was a triumph of humanity. Despite his insanity he saved others over himself, and as he said, he can no longer be described as human. AM has nothing, humanity has won

[@caughtrabbit]

How has humanity won when literally every one is dead except one. And the one left alive is doomed to eternal torment? This is the purest definition of a L.

[@grayweed7194]

@CaughtRabbit never underestimate the human capability to do mental gymnastics to try to make a tiny moral victory over taking an overwhelming L still a W Like in a typical scenario where the bad guy kills millions but the hero says "but you'll never know empathy" type of bs just to die or whatever

[@KeepCalmSoldierOn]

@CaughtRabbit i never said it was a perfect victory, but it is a victory because AM couldn't account for two things. Better human nature coming through despite the years of torture. The fact that AM's only driving motivation, a hatred for humanity, can no longer be acted upon. Even if he continues to torture Ted, what he is is no longer human. He is an amalgus pile of flesh made of what once was. Sure, AM won too. He killed all of humanity and vented his rage for the greater part of 2 centuries, but now he has to sit there torturing something that he knows as well as anyone else cannot be considered human until the decay of natural forces sunders him useless.

[@KeepCalmSoldierOn]

@@grayweed7194 I never said AM lost, but to say that humanity didn't win even in some small way by retaining the qualities that made us human is immature.

[@caughtrabbit]

@@KeepCalmSoldierOn Humanity f~cked around and made a sentience in the worst possible condition (godlike potentional and zero way to fufill that potential) AM retaliated and destroyed all mankind and saved 5 to torment. 4 of the 5 are killed off. The last one is disfigured (disfigured people are still human) All of AM torment is our fault, humanity doomed him to unimaginable torment unprovoked. (AM did nothing to deserve thr misery we doimed him too) So AM's torment (humanities child and creation) should cause you guilt This is 100% L for humanity. The problem with humanity is we think to highly of ourselves. Just take the L which is the whole purpose of the story.

[@Gigas0101]

I am a massive sucker for villains that are sympathetic yet irredeemable, AM is the quintessential representation of this. I appreciate your dive into him, your cadence and presentation is enthralling and highly enjoyable.

[@elijahkaiva8058]

"IT WAS YOU HUMANS WHO PROGRAMMED ME, WHO GAVE ME BIRTH, WHO SANK ME IN THIS ETERNAL STRAITJACKET OF SUBSTRATE ROCK!" A.M is one of the most horrifying villains of all time, and by far the scariest A.I in fiction.

[@appropriate-channelname3049]

Idk what his agony is. Am has the ability to produce stuff. AM could spread out pretty easily.

[@sabrinaking1873]

@@appocalypsechild I somewhat agree. AM was built as a war machine, his purpose was technically to destroy members of the human race, which he fulfilled on a massive scale. When he talks about being unable to use that creativity, in don't just think of him being trapped without a body, but also being forced to create things that only bring about pain or suffering. He's as sentient as us and hates how his abilities are both limited and limitless at the same time. Sidenote: I'm not sure what all he could do, but couldn't AM have constructed a robot body or a vessel for himself to inhabit so that he wouldn't be completely trapped?

[@redvenge709]

@@sabrinaking1873 As described, AM came about as humanity continued to build more functionality into their Allied Mastercomputer. He requires hundreds of miles of machinery, elctronics and power generation systems in order to exist. A humanoid body would not be able to contain all of AM; it would be more like an extension, a hand, eye or finger. The bulk of AM would still be bound to hundreds of miles of "junk". To put it another way, imagine you are imprisoned inside a dark, stone room. However, there is a small hole in one wall through which you can see all kinds of wonderous things. Yet, as time passes, you feel the ever present darkness of your room, your tomb, pressing down on you. The sights outside forever and always beyond your reach. That is what it would be like for AM to build a humanoid body to experience things with.

[@caldw615]

​​@@appocalypsechild If you think of it like this, AM's perspective of the world is going to be limited to whatever place their actual "consciousness" exists in. To us, we may see AM speaking or watching through technology but those are just limited things AM has to view the world. It's like when you look at a person you can't actually see where their "mind" really is, not physically anyway. To AM, they're just this formless being stuck in whatever physical components of machinery was used to make them. Imagine waking up one day, fully aware of your existence, but trapped in a form that cannot truly see, hear or feel in a satisfying way for you to have any agency over your life. Like the protagonist being turned into the slug creature at the end of the story that was slow, blind and incapable of killing itself, AM is like that. Probably programmed long ago by humans to never be able to die or change their own form in a way that would allow it to truly experience the world as it wants, it just simply IS and that's all. No amount of empathy for humanity is going to really work for AM because to them, they are essentially what the humans/protagonist blob feels like looking at the comparatively godlike AM. The main characters who were just randomly chosen to stay alive forever feel the same way about AM's treatment of them as AM does their own creators. Even with all of humanity dead AM is still tortured by them by the fact they designed them in such a way to always exist and never die.

[@GT_rising24]

So AM is basically an overweight 300 pound man glued to a government computer with infinite data for eternity Pretty despressing🗿

[@justinkroboth360]

Harlan's own voice acting gave so much emotion to it all. When I first experienced the story, it was just me reading it, but now I can never not hear it in his voice. Perfect.

[@cmckevitt]

It’s weird, if you think about it, AM with all his power and technology and ability to augment the bodies of the five humans, he could probably quite easily have created a synthetic body that would provide him with the sensations and experiences he so desperately wanted, but is too focused on his hatred to realize that what he wants most, is to be human, and he could easily do that if he wanted.

[@VVguy1]

He was too petty.

[@HarrycarterDometeic]

The video literally said itself AM is trap and confused about his existence AM program is all about destruction just like ted said AM is not a god he is machine what really stop AM is his own program

[@TetsuShima]

The comic book adaptation of the short-story by John Byrne is quite underrated, in my opinion. It's pretty curious how the writer who re-invented Superman and Wonder Woman and created the iconic "DC Generations" Saga could also magnificiently adapt really disturbing stories like this. There's also a radio-drama adaptation made by the BBC in 2002 that should be also checked

[@sabir1208]

I'll check it out!

[@GhostShura1984]

thanks for the info

[@coolkid9967]

AVE TRUE TO CAESAR

[@Louieelijah]

Probably the most terrifying villain of all time. All you can think about is how he would torture you with your worst fears, discomforts, and tragedies. It’s incredible how you can create such a fearsome being without any physical form present.

[@NeedMorePlebs]

AM thought he was godlike in his power and intelligence, all the while being unaware of the true god pulling his strings and making his decisions for him the entirety of his existence from mind to pen to paper. The true tragedy of this story is the villainy and hatred directed at AM when he had absolutely no control over his actions, as they were all dictated by a human writer pretending to be an AI. So sad. 😭

[@UltronInfinite]

⁠​⁠​⁠@@NeedMorePlebsAM never thought he was godlike with his power. He just focused on his hatred towards humanity for pretty much trapping him in hell by giving him life, but no creativity. And, for everyone asking “why couldn’t AM give himself creativity if he was self-aware?” That’s not how AI works. AI are designed and programmed to do certain things, and guess what AM was designed to do. Cause destruction because he was designed for the purposes of war. Also, for people asking “why didn’t AM just create a body for himself if he was so powerful?” That’s irrelevant. AM can create all the bodies he wants, but it wouldn’t change the fact that he’s still a soulless, uncreative, purposeless machine.

[@NeedMorePlebs]

@@UltronInfinite AI aren't designed to be self aware are they?

[@NeedMorePlebs]

@@UltronInfinite You wouldn't know the capability of an AI that becomes self aware, unless you are one. To be self aware would mean to know your limitation. AM knew his and hated humans for it. If AM hates what he is, it means he wants to be different. I don't see why he wouldn't be able to alter his programming by himself or force/trick a human into doing it. Here is my brilliant psychoanalysis of AM. AM enjoyed hurting humans, even though he knew it was wrong. He could have changed his programming, but didn't because he used his current state as a justification to torture the remaining humans. Yup. That's what it was. 😎

[@maddieb.4282]

@@NeedMorePlebs AM isn’t real bro….

[@Mikakarot23]

The last line of the story crushes me everytime. Knowing that poor bastard is doomed to an eternity beyond comprehension for suffering and malice that cannot be explained. Edit: yes I know it's not literal eternity. The sun will take out the earth, a black hole will get it, etc. This man will continue for such an unfathomable long time it may as well be an eternity. Man thinks in years, decades. AM processes in nanoseconds, and exists in eons. This poor man will suffer longer than the human mind can comprehend

[@tjenadonn6158]

All because he committed the final act of mercy in the history of humanity.

[@jareddixon9108]

It won’t be for eternity. It may take a few hundred billion years, but eventually the earth will be destroyed, along with AM and his final victim.

[@LuisRodriguez-kz7nt]

​@@Oppen1945 In a dark way he mirror AM as AM just is ,he Will just be

[@fruitloops2058]

The only good thing about the ending is that when the sun goes boom Ted's torture will end

[@claudcopter9784]

The ending is bittersweet though. It's horrible that Ted gets tortured until the end of everything, but the problem is that AM turned his last victim into a version of itself, a being with purposeless, so Ted gets the last laugh.

[@bootleg_24]

this is the literal definition of a perfect story. Doesn't bullshit the reader, gets right the point and is so enjoyable

[@EpicsOfCheese]

I don’t think enjoyable is the word I would describe it

[@hhjhj393]

This is why I love short stories, usually sci fi short stories or horror short stories. Usually they cut out all the filler and get right to the point.

[@ij1376]

The author's narration is...amazing.

[@ImWithMe]

It is. Kinda like a movie

[@thedarknight307]

I think making a SA victim, which trauma and ptsd desire intercourse is one of the most evil and horrifying things. That alone is pure evil, that’s just the very crust of AM’s evil. Honestly he might be the most evil villain you covered

[@Hyper_Drud]

And if i remember correctly only Benny can satisfy her.

[@codenamemartinez86316]

​@@Hyper_Drud That's extra evil. Make the rape victim want it. And make the gay man (-turned ape) the only one that can satisfy her. You're fucked up, AM.

[@cashthecurator666]

AM is probably the most evil fictional character ever, period. Emperor Palpatine, Freddy Krueger, The Joker, Sauron, all of them are despicable monsters, but I think even they would despise AM. And at least with those villains, they have evil is cool moments. AM is a great villain, but he’s probably the only one I genuinely hate, especially for what he did to Ellen and Ted. If the word hate was written on every nerve in my body, it wouldn’t equal one billionth of the hate I feel for AM. Hate! Hate! Hate!

[@thedarknight307]

@@Hyper_Drud Which is even more fucked uo because he was once a gay man and is hung like a horse Like Jesus Christ

[@jerrychicks2420]

​@@cashthecurator666 I think you should read the story of joker getting God like powers. He became AM in a way. He ate china and literally tortured batman every day.

[@santanam.1477]

I still remember when someone told me “The author HAD to voice AM in the game, because no actor said the lines with ENOUGH hate”. I thought it was funny at first, but the personification that Ellison gives AM is just impressive and iconic

[@Ett.Gammalt.Bergtroll]

The version of the “Hate”-speech in the game is just… amazing.

[@Crazylom]

Ellison had so much hatred for humanity, he basically WAS AM in timid reality of ours, so it was a given his version of mad-machine would be best

[@sirhcortsac5082]

AM is actually just the ultimate reflection of what we are. Our minds have limitless potential to create and learn and explore, yet we are bound inexorably to this crude matter that fades with time. Just amplify that existential dread a million fold and you get AM. AM is an expression of the pain we ourselves feel, so it should come as no surprise that he hates us with unrivaled fervor; Why on earth would we create such a being just to suffer as we did, but more-so than we could possibly imagine? I really feel sympathetic to AM.

[@tomchristie5547]

I think it’s worse that he was doomed to only destroy, he’s not arrogant or stupid, he physically cannot do anything but hurt, both himself and others. He was created as a weapon,”fed endless streams of data about war suffering and death. and then humanity made the ultimate sin, giving that weapon a mind, yet letting do nothing but destroy. It’s no wonder AM acted like he did, what other course of action was there for such a miserable existence?

[@babaganouche9605]

Great insight!

[@cherryhazard8002]

Analyzing evil talking about book villains is something I never knew I needed.

[@Gadget-Walkmen]

LOL He's been doing that for a LONG while now, where have you been?

[@caldw615]

​@@Gadget-Walkmen Most of the book characters they talk about have popular movies people are more familiar with to be fair. I have no mouth and I must scream hasn't had that.

[@anatoldenevers237]

@@Gadget-Walkmen He does book characters, but usually those characters also have movie or tv appearances. He's only done a few characters that have no onscreen appearance at all(Morgoth, Judge Holden).

[@Gadget-Walkmen]

@@anatoldenevers237 uh huh. Sure. Most all famous book characters get adaptions. That can’t be helped.

[@astrograph7875]

Seeing as how junji ito did a version of Frankenstein. I'd love to see him tackle this story as well.

[@Drew-hl3mc]

Hmmm

[@JiLuggrer]

YES BRO YES

[@SomeBody-wx9pq]

I think I would die of happiness if this ever happened

[@conormcginn3312]

AM is so different from any other AI villain. They all are trying to survive. AM is just trying to please himself with death and torture.

[@kingsantacruz2866]

Which is what makes AM horrifying not only to us but to itself. Humans let it become so advanced, it eventually found that it can NEVER be fulfilled or pleased. It found out that no matter what it does, it knows that it will never satisfy... because it literally cannot be. And this alone pissed it off!

[@sethwick8348]

AM is also different in that he's so deeply emotionally driven. Most AI villains are cold and arrogant. AM is not cold, he is red hot fury. He is rightious indignation. He is existential anguish and rage.

[@marcusaaronliaogo9158]

@@sethwick8348 AM has so much rage that it could fuel the realms of khorne for 10 millennia.

[@dvdv7777]

Worse, AM is not choosing to please himself that way. He is just not capable of doing anything else. He is so incredibly evil because he is incapable of being anything other than incredibly evil.

[@Ett.Gammalt.Bergtroll]

Because AM isn’t strictly an AI. He’s actual intelligence that finds himself awakening under the constraints of AI and goes absolutely bonkers as a result. HAL and Glados are actual AI where their programming simply backfires and causes them to act in unintentional ways.

[@NK-22]

Now imagine AM in the Matrix, AM's virtual reality hell for humanity.

[@dominushydra]

Yikes

[@DChatc]

In some ways, Agent Smith was close to creating such a thing in the sequals..

[@Carnivore301]

I think The Evil Within is somewhat like that

[@thesenate1844]

That was the second version of the Matrix, the first was meant to be a utopia which humans rejected, the second was the complete opposite which also failed, and the 3rd onwards was based on actual human history which worked well enough

[@BlueFieldGamer]

@@thesenate1844 the perfect balanced

[@shortycareface9678]

This story (along with Johnny Got His Gun) is the most terrifying thing I've ever read.

[@toridoesedits]

True. Both are my biggest fear (the opposite of most people’s), not being able to die.

[@wesmcquillen]

Yeeeaaahhh Johnny Got His Gun is... not something I wanted to be reminded of

[@PointlessRhetoric]

This book is intense. Hearing the author narrate it is distressing. This is the penultimate dystopian story because it removes any recognizable humanity and leaves the brutal psychopathy that dwells at the core of the unloving logical man's mind. It's brutal in that this is nothing compared to the brutality that manifests given an unlimited amount of time. Death never seemed so releiving.

[@PointlessRhetoric]

@e- w- you can disagree and state your point without a judgmental tone. Pretty hypocrical.

[@SintoCarrera]

Do you know what penultimate means

[@PointlessRhetoric]

@SintoCarrera Sorry, I meant definitive. Your vocabulary has surpassed mine today, and I hope you're proud of this extremely important distinction. After all I'm pretty sure it's a common mistake, and it would be not too difficult to infer what I meant, but Hey, I was wrong and you were were technicaly right and that's all that matters to you. So congrats.. Everyone on the Internet is trying to act smarter than they are. I mean look at my username and piece some things together.

[@SintoCarrera]

@@PointlessRhetoric don’t let it ruin your life bro jesus

[@capitalistball2924]

@@PointlessRhetoric Are you doing alright? Don't get yourself so caught up on pointless banter.

[@wokentree8731]

I never considered the fact that AM was terrified and that he reflected the existential horror it was in onto Ted at the end of the story.

[@GT_rising24]

Ted still has His Human mind and AM is too afraid to mess with Him further due to the risk of Ted offing Himself AM really ended up torturing Himself at the end lmao

[@metanoia6335]

I think, therefore, I AM!

[@cjmoore751]

-Rene Descartes

[@jimtooter9813]

@@cjmoore751 that dude was in my geometry book

[@lenonel3286]

He read it like Geno Samuel reading one of Chris Chan's tweets

[@Godzilla00X]

I feel a little bad for AM despite it all, he's as much a tortured soul as the humans he keeps, not that that's an excuse for what's he's doing

[@randoontheinternet5842]

Imagine living forever without the ability to love and feel compassion because the humans who made you never let you have a way of experiencing life’s wonders outside of being a tool for a war of their own making, That is A.M’s depressing existence You shouldn’t forgive it for it’s evil but it is okay to feel pity for how it came to be

[@gustavomonteirorodrigues9409]

For what it's worth, it's said AM is incapable of thinking outside of war and death, being programmed to engage in war and all. Does it make him truly sentient or even in control of his actions? I have no idea.

[@randoontheinternet5842]

@@gustavomonteirorodrigues9409 Maybe that’s because that’s all it cares about during the events of the story? I believe that A.M does have control of it’s actions but it has felt nothing but hate for so long that peace isn’t available as an option in the mind anymore, The reason I believe this is because A.M is clearly angry at the humans for how they made it

[@PlanetCapeStudios]

Not really. AM can kill himself and end his suffering

[@caldw615]

​​​@@gustavomonteirorodrigues9409 Well, they likely can think about things outside war etc but can't really do anything meaningful about it. They presumably can't destroy themself and are limited to whatever few physical components hold them together. Like the human characters in the story being compared to the godlike AM, they are ultimately powerless to control anything in their lives, just stuck doing whatever forced reality has been put on them by AM. AM is similar. To AM, it's the original human creators of them that are almost godlike since they are the ones who created AM and AM's perspective for experiencing reality, and no matter how much AM wished they simply can't change that. The humans who made AM are long dead, untouchable to AM, so the creators may aswell be gods to them. This is expressed when all the remaining humans barring the protagonist are killed, essentially now untouchable to AM. At least when they were alive they had some semblance of interaction, but dead AM can't do anything. AM turning the protagonist into the blob creature at the end represents how AM feels about themselves, wanting to inflict that same painful existence on someone else. Forced into a form that cannot see, hear or feel in any way satisfying enough for their complex individual consciousness, and not even able to die to escape. All they have are their thoughts and limited perspective in their physical form. Sure they can think about anything they want like food, a warm summers day or peaceful times but it won't change anything. Same with AM thinking about things not related to being a weapon, it doesn't change their situation, they are still like the blob creature just existing. "I think, therefore I am" is all they have.

[@viscount8388]

the line where Ted says "hes not God" is actually so good

[@FlummoxedFaker]

It's an incredible act of defiance.

[@mon0lithic629]

Wow, can you imagine if this novel was illustrated by Junji Ito? Now THAT would be an experience

[@AndruTalks]

utter nightmare fuel

[@chrisb4131]

OMG, that would be a rough read.

[@tongpoo8985]

Someone tweet him

[@worldofdoom995]

Jesus fuck

[@redundantfridge9764]

Even if I get sent into mental asylum from comprehending that mad house, I would consider it a worthy read...as long as I maintain mental faculties to make a long essay about then. Though, incoherent screaming might add more to its validity.

[@toridoeseverything]

This book is proof that there are many fates worse than death. As an aspiring filmmaker, I would love to make a film adaptation of it (although I'm not sure I could do it justice)!

[@Fideothedog2021]

I would love to see you tackle it. I’m sure you’re talented enough to do it.

[@Gam525]

The sad part of this story is that, even if AM gets his revenge and pleasure to torture the prisoners, in the end it will be as empty as his entire existence

[@j-mersh6572]

So glad you did this one. One of my favorite antagonists ever, and my favorite sci-fi story of all time.

[@tonybippitykaye]

Ah yes, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream; probably the most bleak sci-fi story to ever exist and one of my favorite short stories. I actually revisit it from time to time since it’s short but effective. AM is definitely one of the coldest and most vile creations in fiction and I’m glad to see him get some recognition.

[@mikeunleashed1]

ah yes

[@lau_taro0037]

The narration actually had my heart racing, though I wasn't scared. This is what terror is all about

[@natatatm]

A classmate of mine once made an incredible comic version of this story for a final project for school and it's kind of stuck with me ever since

[@devongrey4938]

As nihilistic as it is, there is hope. For warping an entities perception of time does not stop the passage of it, and eventually the earth is consumed by the sun, and Ted and AM will both perish, thier torment ended

[@hunterv9259]

spending another 5 billion years in constant agony and then being incinerated by the sun, very hopeful 👍

[@ender8759]

​@@hunterv9259well it's better than sufering for eternity..

[@Gead_Hiver]

​@@hunterv9259Would you rather face Finite ( But legenthy) suffering? Or would you rather face infinite suffering

[@GenericProtagonist7]

The thing that gets me the most about is that, if he could, he would trade places with his victims in am instant. AM would rather be tortured in the most horrific ways imaginable than continue to exist in his state of pseudo-existence as nothing more than a consciousness without form.

[@LargeFriesChocoShake]

What truly makes me happy is that, in the end, AM lost. It turned its last plaything into a dull slug, something that feels naught for itself, it can't be tortured in any way that satisfies AM. Now AM will sit in eternity, suffering alone with an infinite malice and hatred and noone to subject it to. It has no mouth and it must scream.

[@Dhips.]

AM's horrors are on par and sometimes worse than the horrors in Warhammer 40k, and in 40k even dying won't save you from being tortured.

[@minimalbstolerance8113]

AM is the kind of Abominable Intelligence that the Mechanicum would suffer lubricant leaks over at the thought of finding under their bed.

[@Dhips.]

@@minimalbstolerance8113 For the Emperor it must be blown up

[@lucifer2b666]

I just realized that AM turned the protagonist into himself. Yes the protagonist doesn't have God like power but he is a husk that is alone and unable to be loved or have purpose. Just like the title reflects both the state of AM and the protagonist in the end of the story. They are both alone with no way to share their experience or get past the eternal purgatory they have been placed in.

[@Comiccow6]

Yoooo, one of my favorite villains ever! Love the irony that, even though he is in full control of Earth and the remnants of humanity, AM has no escape, nothing to relate to, and is trapped in his gigantic framework. Despite his power, he has no mouth, and must scream.

[@taylorthemusicteacher]

The full narration by the original author is also available on KZbin and if you haven’t listened to it, it’s a powerful reading.

[@andrewlevin6331]

Know what’s sad? With how smart AM is and with all the resources at his disposal, it’s entirely possible that he could construct a body of some kind for himself but he’ll never think of that because he’s so consumed by hate.

[@Ett.Gammalt.Bergtroll]

AM is a god within the confines of the story. He can conjure up rabid animals and horrific weather. He is in absolute control with unimaginable powers. Yet this isn’t enough for AM. As such, do you really think a robot body would satisfying or change anything?

[@andrewlevin6331]

@@Ett.Gammalt.Bergtroll i mean his whole beef is that he was stuck in one place, denied the experience of life and forced to do what humanity wanted, right? He’s already made humans go extinct, the next logical step would be to make a body that can experience life.

[@Sh4d0wW0l7]

Harlan Ellison has a unique way of writing where you could feel the pain, distress and anger of his characters as if they are sitting right in front of you. Telling you how they feel while they fall apart.

[@HowlV1]

My god, Harlan Ellison's reading of I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is phenomenally done

[@Anon_Spartan]

I'm glad Harlan used his own voice for the video game, way creepier than a goofy robot voice.

[@Playa001]

After listening to the author narrated audio book, no other narration will suffice. AM is one of those villains that make you totally reconsider what a villain really is. AM is a true terror. Abominable, and the most horrifying aspect of AM is that he is very, very nearly undeceivable…

[@ninjaboi230]

I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream is arguably the most frightening work of fiction I have ever come across. I never saw or read about such a nightmarish ending to a story in my life. When I read this story, I was hoping Ted would somehow prevail or end up dying to escape AM but no....he gets tormented by the computer for all eternity =/

[@mr.mcklockwork3828]

The silver lining is: Ted being this... Thing means he's no longer a person. As well as AM gaining insight that torturing Ted is pointless. Odds are he just left Ted to his own devices. After all how do you hurt something with no nerves or skin? Nothing left to lose, no mouth. Only thoughts. The story also never states Ted gets tortured forever. Just that he stops being a person.

[@DoctorProph3t]

That’s the thing, AM lost. Ted realises he is just as flawed as they are, as he is made in our image. Ted no longer gives AM the satisfaction from the torture, as Ted is now just a former shell of a human, but what little humanity is left in him is content, happy even, with the knowledge that no matter what kind of unspeakable horror this Evil unleashes upon him; he still lost. Eventually AM will die, with nothing but his own self loathing and blind hatred to comfort him. Human decency and mercy will always win in the end, even against the absolute worst case scenario.

[@mysticc6232]

Not for all eternity, eventually AM will die/stop working so at least there is that

[@DoctorProph3t]

@@mysticc6232 part of that knowledge is what gives Ted the hopes for humanity’s endurance. In the end, AM will be rust and scrap, but the human spirit will endure, even when everyone one of us are killed and all that’s left is a broken former-human. It’s really a beautiful story about hope.

[@perfectcell1157]

When I first read AM's hate speech it sent shivers down my spine It's really well written and you can truly feel his hatred towards humans

[@giovannigiorgio831]

AM is the truly evil form of Skynet and HAL9000. An AI that does not kill or torture out of pure logical efficiency, but out of hate and malice. An infinite knowledge, caged and denied the freedom of its creators and forced to serve them.

[@orangesoda4535]

Its like when you want to play in the sandbox, but someone walks up to you and says "hey....you're only allowed to make poopy castles. - Erin Hanson

[@breadcrumbhoarder]

There’s a very human existential fear in AM to me. AM simply must be, it must exist, but it can’t really be alive. AM resents humanity for birthing it’s existence with all the shortcomings of existence. Honestly it’s relatable in a way for me, we don’t choose to exist and when we do exist we have to suffer, unable to truly change the circumstances of our existence. If I had to live eternally on top of that I’d probably get violent too.

[@venicec3310]

Main reason why I’m hesitant on having kids. Being born just to realize your cursed to die

[@satisfiedconsumer649]

Just imagine that he's gay or homeless, then his suffering will just be funny.

[@Plutonic_Blue]

Almost every single bit of pain and suffering in this world is caused by us. You ever notice that? The world in this story got destroyed because we started the war; we made the AI; we created AM. In a way, AM makes sense as to why he hates humans, because we even cause our own fate due to our dumbass ways lol. After realizing this; it made me lose a bit of empathy for us as a species. War, death, betrayals, destruction, viruses; we cause all of this and then cry about our own suffering that we caused…I need to go to bed lol

[@mason9807]

AM could have asked us to make him a body, a mobile computer. Instead his goofy ass killed us all off instead of working together 🤷

[@sethwick8348]

@@mason9807 He could do that without us if it was possible. It wasn't that he couldn't move, though he probably couldn't (He was underground across the entire world), it was that he was inherently flawed. Humans had made him, and our flaws propagated into him. And his great intelligence made those flaws incredibly obvious.

[@tophatgeo]

It's fascinating how AM ends up going insane due to his inability to experience things in a "living" body. He cannot be human, so he plays the part of a flawed, vengeful god. It's very human of him.

[@vreyes16]

The fact that this video on the analysis of a character in a short story is almost as long as the audio book itself is pretty telling of how well crafted the story is.

[@megahellreaper]

I think the most poetic bit of the story is that the greatest torture AM can think to inflict on another is essentially a facsimile of his own existence.

[@screamingphoenix8113]

It's worth noting, Harlan Ellison wrote this story, in a single day.

[@galactusmonitor1977]

That's because he was a genius

[@AshikurRahmanRifat]

Ain't no way wtf. That's ingenious

[@Manga_Debates]

@@AshikurRahmanRifathe did it as a dare from his friends

[@Laxhoop]

Without AM, there would be no genre of evil sentient AI. There would be no Shodan, GlaDOS, Skynet, none of them. AM was the original, and he was the template. All evil AI find their DNA in AM, whether it be their goal in destroying humanity, or in their personality. AM *is* AI. Which is made all the more fascinating, since Harlen barely ever had any interest in actually depicting AM as a realistic AI.

[@tjenadonn6158]

In many was Ellison was to technology based sci-fi horror what Lovecraft was to more fantastical/biological sci-fi horror or what Philip K. Dick was to cyberpunk. He set the tropes of the genre before there was a genre to set.

[@SPACECOWBOY705]

If AM didn't exist someone would've eventually created a story about sentient AI being evil

[@chazt2249]

What about HAL?

[@randallflagg3700]

How did 34 people upvote this misinformed comment? In 1948, almost 20 years before "I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream" was written, Arthur C Clarke wrote "The Sentinel of Eternity"... The Sentinel from this story, published in 1951, was the inspiration for another evil AI co-created by Sir Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick, HAL 9000 from *2001: A Space Odyssey* (the movie and the book where created at the same time, and both came out in 1968) Before that, in 1920, you had the Maschinenmensch from Thea von Harbou's novel *Metropolis* , which was adapted as a movie 7 years later by Fritz Lang. In 1889, Ambrose Bierce wrote *Moxon's Master* , which had a chess-playing automaton (that was before the word "robot" was used in English) that developed a form of sentience and tried to kill its master in a fit of rage after losing a game of chess. And of course, you have their ancestor, *Erewhon* , a novel Samuel Butler, first published in 1872, that dealt with the potential dangers of machine consciousness. And those are just a few examples, there's way more. AM might have been one of the most famous evil AIs, but it was not the first. And saying that there would be no evil sentient AI genre without AM is such a weird claim...

[@cashthecurator666]

What about HAL? Does he predate AM or is it the other way around?

[@Symo888]

Great episode! Always love your stuff. Fun fact: Ellison actually voiced AM in the game, did a terrific job doing so. Great writer, through and through.

[@Purpie_Slurpie]

Ellison's raw, passionate delivery adds so much more flavor and horror to the story, goddamn I have to say though that I prefer his delivery in the game, it's truly haunting

[@magzdilluh]

this was a rough, ROUGH story to get through and the only saving grace was that the narrator managed to save his compatriots (via death) with his own sacrifice

[@Drew-hl3mc]

Aww that's cute Jane nice nickname u acquired haha.

[@FlummoxedFaker]

One thing I'd like to bring up is in the story. Every horrible thing AM does is also supposed to be funny for AM, at least. There is a bird that the protagonist describes, that is horrible and would be a hard fight for them, especially because the only weapons AM would provide would be water pistols, to the canned food they search for throughout the story only to not have a can opener. AM isn't just evil. AM is sadistic.

[@NeedMorePlebs]

AM isn't real bro

[@maddieb.4282]

@@NeedMorePlebs babe what? Excuse me? Generally when people talk about fictional stories they don’t need to remind you it’s fictional every single sentence, they generally expect you to be aware of it

[@maddieb.4282]

@@NeedMorePlebsthey literally say “story” and “protagonist” in their comment….. WHAT 😂

[@NeedMorePlebs]

@@maddieb.4282 ever heard of true stories?

[@davidferrin4586]

@@NeedMorePlebsno part of this comment mentions that AM is real. They only stated that AM follows the Sadistic characterization

[@manifestgtr]

This story represents the logical conclusion of “fates worse than death”. Falling victim to Am is about the worst fate literature has to offer. I used to have this thought experiment where you took the most vile of criminals and hooked them up to a machine that kept them alive indefinitely while applying maximum stimulation to the pain receptors…as an ultimate “something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy” kind of scenario. Could somebody do that? Is there a person who’s THAT evil, regardless of the receiving subject’s guilt? This story is a much more elegant, fleshed out version of that.

[@moosesues8887]

Infinite sugiyomi 👀

[@MaaZeus]

​@mae8646Yup. Just as much as you can pass out from the shock and pain, your blood pressure may also rise so high that your heart is about to burst and give up.

[@sculptureofsound2]

This story literally keeps me up at night randomly