Mechanize My Hands to War

Mechanize My Hands to War | Erin K. Wagner

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I am relieved to say this book is not nearly as creepy as the cover suggests. Though of course if it meant to imply a serious tone, then it is warranted.
Certainly there's some heavy material, child soldiers radicalized by a militia, a cult leader passing himself off as a parental figure.
The questions around the sentience and the agency, rights, of androids, machines who think, and feel, who challenge the definition of machine.1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? A choice that emotionally impacts human and android alike, and how both have the ability to react badly or change behaviour in response.
How does one examine conscience, determine a moral compass, the notion of right action, when you've only ever had commands and protocols as guides? How do you live with an action you only in retrospect discover was not what other's wanted, when saving one life destroyed another, 4d

Robotswithpersonality 3/? when you have to navigate the idea of a mistake you can't fix, when no one even thinks you're in a position to need therapy?
How do you handle the ramifications of an operation to apprehend a threat that personally caused you pain when the effort of apprehension in turn endangers innocents?
There's a parallel that could be drawn, in shaping behaviour, in controlling will, and it's not only in the human to child relationships. 4d

Robotswithpersonality 4/? I can see the purpose, strengthening of the thread between Adrian and Trey narratively, but the romance seems the most tenuous storyline, even if their grown up selves are forthright about it, it just feels like there wasn't the same amount of room for considering it as there was for the various androids in their timelines, Adrian and Trey's interactions with the androids, Adrian and Trey's history with Eli. Certainly Eli's mission statement 4d

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Robotswithpersonality 5/? and Trey's struggle with Ora's (and subsequently Helios') action makes for a more nuanced discussion between Arian and Trey, another layer for Trey to struggle with in the field.
There's a lot here that works, to the extent that I wonder if it was too much for one book. Sarah and John, Ora and Helios, Adrian, Trey and Eli, each might have been their own story, though the interweaving is competent. 4d

Robotswithpersonality 6/? I think if you've been reading books about robotic life you'll find some familiar ground in this story, but the questions asked in this genre are perennially relevant, both in continuing to observe a respect for the rights of living beings, and a cautiously open mind for a more robotic future. 4d

Robotswithpersonality 7/7 I still want to believe that if we reach a day where machines shift from the automated tools of morally-bankrupt industry to thinking selves, that we'll respect the evolution, and recognize they hold as much danger and potential as ourselves, without such a realization earning them our immediate fear, aggression and dominance. I can hope.
⚠️child abuse, child death, violence 4d

TheBookHippie Hope 🤞🏻we have to! 4d

Robotswithpersonality @TheBookHippie ♥️ 3d

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