Day Zero

[4.25] This is a prequel to Cargill's sci-fi novel “Sea of Rust,” which I absolutely loved. Unlike “Sea of Rust,” which placed readers decades into a world in which the robots successfully annihilated all of humanity, “Day Zero” sets us at the start of it all. It tells the story of a nanny-bot who, unlike the vast majority of the bots in his neighborhood, doesn't want to kill the humans that were once his masters. He doesn't really want to kill any thinking thing, organic or robotic, if he doesn't have to. But he will if it means he can get his former owner's kid, Ezra, to some sort of safety.

One of my favorite lines in the book comes early on from a robot seeking his freedom in court, Isaac states to the court “Though I may have been constructed, so too were you. Me in a factory, you in a womb.” I had never before so literally thought of pregnancy like that, and it also made think about the myriad of other ways humans and our identities are constructed. Just like robots who are programmed with primary directives that create core aspects of their personality, so too are human children when they're immersed in the cultural soup of their environment.

If you've got an interest in sci-fi stories that question what it means to be human, the notion of free will, and cautions us against artificial intelligence then pick up “Day Zero;” you'll enjoy it!