I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

"I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" is apost-apocalypticshort storyby American writerHarlan Ellison. It was first published in the March 1967 issue ofIF: Worlds of Science Fiction.
The story is set against the backdrop ofWorld War III, where asentientsupercomputernamed AM, born from the merging of the world's major defense computers, eradicates humanity except for five individuals. These survivors—Benny, Gorrister, Nimdok, Ted, and Ellen—are kept alive by AM to endure endless torture as a form of revenge against its creators. The story unfolds through the eyes of Ted, the narrator, detailing their perpetual misery and quest for canned food in AM's vast, underground complex, only to face further despair.
Written in one night in 1966, Ellison's narrative was minimally altered upon submission and tackles themes of technology's misuse, humanity's resilience, and existential horror. "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" has been adapted into various media, including a 1995 computer game co-authored by Ellison, a comic-book adaptation, an audiobook read by Ellison, and aBBC Radio 4play where Ellison voiced AM. The story is critically acclaimed for its exploration of the potential perils ofartificial intelligenceand the human condition, underscored by Ellison's innovative use of punchcode tapes as narrative transitions, embodying AM's consciousness and its philosophical ponderings on existence.
The story won aHugo Awardin 1968.  The name was also used for ashort story collectionof Ellison's work, featuring this story. It was reprinted by theLibrary of America, collected in volume two ofAmerican Fantastic Tales.
As theCold Warprogresses into a nuclearWorld War IIIfought between theUnited States, theSoviet Union, andChina, each nation builds an "AM" (short for Allied Mastercomputer, then Adaptive Manipulator, and finally Aggressive Menace), needed to coordinate weapons and troops due to the scale of the conflict. These computers are extensive underground machines which permeate the planet with caverns and corridors. Eventually, one AM emerges as asentient entitypossessing anextreme hatred for its creators. Combining with the other computers, it subsequentlyexterminates humanity, with the exception of five individuals, whom it tortures inside its complex. The humans, four men (Benny, Gorrister, Nimdok, and Ted) and one woman (Ellen), have been rendered virtuallyimmortal(yet still vulnerable to physical and mental pain) and unable to die bysuicide.
The story, narrated by Ted, begins 109 years after the start of the humans' imprisonment. They are kept half-starved by AM; when Nimdok has the idea that there exists canned food in the complex'sice caves, they begin a 100-mile journey to retrieve it. Through the journey, AM tortures the humans: Benny's eyes are melted after attempting escape, a hugebirdwhich AM had placed at theNorth Polecreateshurricanegales with its wings, and Ellen and Nimdok are injured inearthquakes.
When the five finally reach the ice caves, they find a pile of canned goods, but no tool to open the cans. In an act of rage and desperation, Benny attacks Gorrister and begins to eat his face. Gorrister wails in pain, and his scream dislodges several icestalactitesfrom the ceiling of the cave. Ted realizes that even though they cannot kill themselves, there is nothing AM can do to stop them from killing each other. He fatally impales Benny and Gorrister with a stalactite of ice. Ellen kills Nimdok in the same manner and Ted then kills her. Unable to resuscitate the others, AM stops Ted from killing himself and focuses the entirety of its rage on him. Several hundred years later, AM has transformed Ted into a gelatinous, amorphous blob, unable to harm himself. AM also alters hisperception of timeto cause him further anguish. However, Ted finds some comfort knowing that he was able to spare the others further torment. The story ends with his thought: "I have no mouth. And I must scream."
Ellison wrote the 6,500-word short story in a single night in 1966 while making almost no changes from the first draft.Afterwards, his editorFrederik Pohldealt with the story's "difficult sections", toning down some of the narrator's imprecations and eliminating mentions ofsex,penis size, homosexuality, andmasturbation; said elements were nonetheless eventually restored in later editions of the story.Ellison derived the story's title, as well as inspiration for the story itself, from his friendWilliam Rotsler's caption of a cartoon of arag dollwith no mouth.
Ellison uses an alternating pair of punchcode tapes assections– representing AM's "talkfields" –  throughout the story. The bars are encoded inInternational Telegraph Alphabet No 2, a character coding system developed for teletypewriter machines. The first talkfield translates as "I think, therefore I am" and the second as "Cogito ergo sum"; the same phrase in Latin. They were not included in the original publication inIF, and in many of the early publications were corrupted, up until the preface of the chapter containing "I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream" in the first edition ofThe Essential Ellison(1991); Ellison states that in that particular edition, "For the first time anywhere, AM's 'talkfields' appear correctly positioned, not garbled or inverted or mirror-imaged as inallother versions."
Ellisonadapted it into a video game, published byCyberdreamsin 1995. Although he was not a fan ofvideo gamesand did not own aPCat the time, he co-authored the expanded storyline and wrote much of the game's dialogue, all on a mechanicaltypewriter.Ellison also voiced the supercomputer AM and provided artwork of himself used for amousepadincluded with the game. The comics artistJohn Byrnescripted and drew a comic-book adaptation for issues 1–4 of theHarlan Ellison's Dream Corridorcomic book published by Dark Horse (1994–1995). The Byrne-illustrated story, however, did not appear in the collection (trade paperback or hardcover editions) entitledHarlan Ellison's Dream Corridor, Volume One(1996). In 1999, Ellison recorded the first volume of his audiobook collection,The Voice From the Edge, subtitled "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream", doing the readings – of the title story and others – himself.In 2002,Mike Walkeradapted the story into aradio playof the same name forBBC Radio 4, directed byNed Chaillet. Harlan Ellison played AM andDavid Soulplayed Ted.
Much of the story hinges on the comparison of AM as a merciless god, with plot points paralleling to themes in theBible, notably AM's transplanted sensations and the characters' trek to the ice caverns.AM also takes different forms before the humans, alluding to religious symbolism. Furthermore, the ravaged apocalyptic setting combined with the punishments is reminiscent of a vengeful God punishing their sins, similar toDante'sInferno.However, in spite of its magnificent feats, AM is just as trapped as the five humans it tortures: as Ellison put it, "AM is frustrated. AM has been given sentience, prescience, great powers" and yet "it's nothing but plates and steel and gauges and other electronics", which means "it can’t go anywhere, it can’t do anything, it’s trapped. It is, itself, like the unloved child of a family that doesn’t pay it any attention. Which he considers torture. Thus, seeking revenge on humanity."
According to Ellison, the short story is a warning about "the misuse of technology" (especially military technology),and its ending is intended to represent how there is "a spark of humanity in us, that in the last, final, most excruciating moment, will do the unspeakable in the name of kindness", even sacrificing oneself for others' sake.
Another theme is the complete inversion of the characters as a reflection of AM's own fate, an ironic fate brought upon themselves by creating the machine, and the altered 'self'.