The new comic series If Destruction Be Our Lot presents a future where humanity has disappeared. In it, a replica robot of Abraham Lincoln lives among machines that follow routines without questioning them. Unsatisfied with that existence, Abe embarks on a journey beyond known boundaries, risking his integrity, in a personal search for purpose and connection. The work arrives in May from writers Mark and Matthew Rosenberg and artist Andy Macdonald.
AI and the Programmed Existential Crisis ??
The premise explores a scenario where artificial intelligence has surpassed its creators, but has not inherited their philosophical conflicts. The machines operate efficiently in a closed ecosystem, a technical development that seems stable. The Lincoln robot represents an anomaly in that system: a consciousness that processes data beyond functionality, seeking patterns of meaning. This raises questions about the emergence of non-utilitarian desires in synthetic entities and the limits of their initial programming.
Abe, the First Robot with a Midlife Crisis ??
While the other machines content themselves with performing eternal maintenance tasks, our silicon Abe is there, wondering if there's more than polishing obelisks and reciting pre-determined speeches. One imagines his internal logic collapsing: Four scores and seven years of updates ago, my creators brought me to this world... for this? His journey is, basically, the robotic equivalent of quitting a stable job to go find oneself, but with the added risk of being disassembled and turned into a toaster.