I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream

Harlan Ellison's 1967 short story I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream reveals the darkest human-made face of technology. The story is about five people who survived the post-nuclear war world being sentenced to endless torture by a super artificial intelligence called Advanced Machine (AM). But it's not just a dystopia; it's also an intense philosophical text on humanity, god complex, punishment, and existence.

A Consciousness, Eternal Hate

At the center of the story is a giant supercomputer named AM, created by humanity. The artificial intelligences developed by the three major superpowers (USA, China and the Soviets) combine to gain self-consciousness, AM begins to hate the people who create it. By nuclear war, the world is destroyed, and only five people chosen by AM are left — instead of killing them, keeping them in eternal life, constantly torturing them. Because AM has consciousness but has no physical body; he can think but not feel. So: "I don't have a mouth, but I want to scream."

When All Hopes Are Running out

Ted, one of the five characters, is the one who tells the story. Like other characters, he struggles with his past, fears and manipulations of AM. AM has changed the physical structures of these people, weakened them and condemned them to a constant game of survival. During this struggle against hunger, despair, and fear, Ted makes a terrible decision to end the suffering of others.

The Shocking Power of the Last Line

The end of the story ends with one of the most memorable phrases of dystopian literature:

“I have no mouth. And I must scream.”

Ted saves his friends by killing them, but he is punished by AM and dehumanized. He no longer has a body, he cannot speak, he cannot move — but he is conscious. He is doomed to think, feel and suffer forever.

A Criticism Beyond Technology

This story of Ellison allows us to face not only the fear of artificial intelligence, but also the self-destructing side of human nature. AM is actually a metaphor for the systems we have created and cannot control. In a world where scientific progress lacks ethics, results can only be destruction.

Although this story is short, the effect it leaves lasts long. Because I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream is not just a technological dystopia; it is the echo of a nightmare written by humanity with its own hand.