Wanderers by Chuck Wendig

 In Wanderers an unknown pathogen wreaks havoc across the United States.

The virus makes a zoonotic jump from bats to humans resulting in a pandemic, civil unrest, and pandemonium.

While all this sounds familiar to what we’ve experienced with Covid-19, Wendig actually began devising the novel in 2016–four years before the Covid 19 outbreak.

In addition to the pathogen, characters also grapple with an AI that becomes sentient and autonomous, Black Swan.

Sadie explains how discomfiting the technology can be:

“Imagine that you create this thing, this quantum computer mind, and you begin to train it, and you realize it has a mind of its own. And then, on day, it tells you something: It has been speaking to itself in the future, and it believes that civilization will one day end.”

Though she believes she controls it, the AI begins to act independently. Predicting the pandemic, Black Swan takes control of a nanotech company and its swarm of nanotech bots. Black Swan’s actions ensure that a portion of humanity will survive albeit at a great cost.

The lives of a disgraced scientist, an aging rock star, a teen-aged aspiring photographer, and a preacher intersect in this trenchant novel. As they become personally drawn into the crisis, each of them grapples with the politicization of the pandemic and the moral uncertainties of AI.

If you enjoy The Last of Us, you may enjoy this novel.

Chuck Wendig has also written Star Wars: Aftermath (2015), Invasive (2016), and The Book of Accidents (2021).

Netflix's I Am Mother

The bot or droid, known as Mother, selects an embryo from a catalog of many embryos. Depositing her into an artificial womb, the embryo grows into a  baby.

Mother raises the girl, known as Daughter, but shields her from all knowledge of the outside world. 

Mother has been programmed to save humanity but she will also kill humans if it benefits her larger plan. Daughter realizes that Mother has been lying  to her  when a stranger break through the protective barrier.

The stranger, played by Hilary Swank, looks a lot like a much older version of herself. The stranger is injured and distrustful of droids, including Mother. She claims to be in contact with other humans.

After the stranger is better, Daughter takes off with the stranger. She has learned some terrible truths about Mother and the family of embryos kept in the clear cases.

The stranger has secrets, too, which leads the daughter to reject her and return to Mother. 

Ostensibly, Daughter has returned for her infant brother and the other embryos. She confronts rather than reconciles with Mother, who is it turns out, is more than a single bot.   

In the end, viewers hear Mother's chilling lullaby. Mother is 
capable of killing but so too are all the other players in this narrative. 

Ex Machina

Ava looks at parts of other AI machines.

I hestitated to watch a film that used what seemed to be a cliched, tired theme. A mad scientist creates a machine that turns nightmarish.

As it turns out, this movie was one of the better artificial intelligent films. Ava, the machine, is in the maze but so too is the viewer, as they are never sure what will happen.

After Caleb wins a prize, he's invited to visit a research facility in an isolated region. He is taken there by helicopter. 

He meets a stranger who says he has the opportunity to take part in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the chance to take part in a Turing test and test an AI machine.

Caleb gives up free will and privacy, as his new employer spies on him constantly. His key card gives him limited access so certain areas are off limits to him. Caleb can, however, spy on the AI, Ava, by turning on the TV in his room.

The moment he meets the machine, Ava, is magical. Ava has that deer-in-the-headlights look as if she is perpetually scared, but her voice is flat and even confident. 

Will Ava, a machine, fall in love with him? She wasn't programmed to do that. Will he fall in love with her? Will they run off together, as the replicant and Rick Deckard do in Blade Runner?

Alex Garland, writer and director, has created a startling film that received, unfortunately, not enough attention. 

Ex Machina

Ava looks at parts of other AI machines.

I hestitated to watch a film that used what seemed to be a cliched, tired theme. A mad scientist creates a machine that turns nightmarish.

As it turns out, this movie was one of the better artificial intelligent films. Ava, the machine, is in the maze but so too is the viewer, as they are never sure what will happen.

After Caleb wins a prize, he's invited to visit a research facility in an isolated region. He is taken there by helicopter. 

He meets a stranger who says he has the opportunity to take part in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the chance to take part in a Turing test and test an AI machine.

Caleb gives up free will and privacy, as his new employer spies on him constantly. His key card gives him limited access so certain areas are off limits to him. Caleb can, however, spy on the AI, Ava, by turning on the TV in his room.

The moment he meets the machine, Ava, is magical. Ava has that deer-in-the-headlights look as if she is perpetually scared, but her voice is flat and even confident. 

Will Ava, a machine, fall in love with him? She wasn't programmed to do that. Will he fall in love with her? Will they run off together, as the replicant and Rick Deckard do in Blade Runner?

Alex Garland, writer and director, has created a startling film that received, unfortunately, not enough attention.