Leo hunched over a laptop.
In the rapidly expanding world of AI, sci-fi has felt less like fiction and more like reality. Ethics surrounding the use of artificial intelligence are more concerning than ever before, but this theme has historically cropped up in fiction more than once.
Blade Runner, Battlestar Galactica, and even the recent horror-comedy Companion have explored the pressing ramifications of AI. Stories revolving around synthetic humans leave a door open for conversations about what it means to be human, and AMC’s series, Humans, did it with some of the best storytelling. Lasting for three seasons, Humans shows the realities of what would happen if society accepted synthetic humans into their households. Gemma Chan stars as Mia, a synth programmed to achieve human consciousness. Considered freaks, she and her robot siblings are captured and struggle to find each other again. An incredibly intelligent meditation on the cost of technology and where human consciousness comes from, Humans flew under the radar for far too long. ‘Humans’ Was Ahead of Its Time Before Westworld, there was Humans. The British series that aired on AMC did not hold back when it came to the complicated politics of artificial life. Humans takes place in a world where synths are so common that they take labor-intensive jobs from humans, and careers in science seem to be obsolete. This idea is just the start of the relevant themes the series explores.Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Ten questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive. 💊The Matrix 🔥Mad Max 🌧️Blade Runner 🏜️Dune 🚀Star Wars TEST YOUR SURVIVAL → QUESTION 1 / 10INSTINCT 01 You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one. APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 2 / 10RESOURCE 02 In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires. AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 3 / 10THREAT 03 What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of. AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 4 / 10SKILL 04 Which of these comes most naturally to you? Your strongest skill is your best survival asset — use it accordingly. AHacking, pattern recognition, finding the exploit in any system — digital or human. BMechanical skill — I can strip an engine, rig a weapon, or fix anything with whatever's around. CReading people — knowing when someone's lying, hiding something, or about to run. DDiscipline and endurance — mental and physical. I outlast things rather than overpower them. EPiloting, navigation, knowing how to get from A to B when every route is dangerous. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 5 / 10AUTHORITY 05 How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything. ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 6 / 10ENVIRONMENT 06 Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are. AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 7 / 10ALLIANCE 07 Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are. AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 8 / 10TRUTH 08 A comfortable lie or a devastating truth — which can you actually live with? Some worlds offer one. Some offer the other. Very few offer both. AThe truth, no matter the cost. I'd rather live in a brutal reality than a beautiful cage. BNeither — truth and lies are luxuries. What matters is surviving the next hour. CI've learned to live with ambiguity. Some truths don't have clean answers. DThe truth — but deployed strategically. Knowing something others don't is power. EThe truth. Even when it means confronting something in yourself you'd rather leave buried. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 9 / 10MORALITY 09 Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of. AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 10 / 10PURPOSE 10 What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another. AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot. REVEAL MY WORLD → Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In… Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. Read all five — your result is the one that resonates most deeply. 💊 The Matrix You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things, the places where the official version doesn't quite line up. In the Matrix, that instinct is the difference between life and permanent digital sedation. You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you. The machines built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door. 🔥 Mad Max The wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That's you. You don't need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon. You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it. You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider. 🌧️ Blade Runner You'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely. You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer. In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional. You're not a hero. But you're not lost, either. In Blade Runner's world, that distinction is everything. 🏜️ Dune Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards. Patience, discipline, pattern recognition, political awareness, and an understanding that the long game matters more than any single victory. Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic, earn its respect, and perhaps, in time, reshape it entirely. 🚀 Star Wars The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way. You're someone who finds meaning in being part of something larger than yourself. You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken. Whatever you are, you fight. And in Star Wars, that willingness is what makes the difference. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ Similar to Companion and Ex Machina, many households employ synths, though not solely for sexual practices. Mia enters her new household because Joe wants to take the workload off his wife, Laura , with whom he fears he is growing apart. This dynamic naturally puts even more of a strain on the marriage when Laura feels as though Mia is replacing her. This is just one of the many stories that consider what life would be like, especially for the synthetics. Mia has human consciousness, but society has trapped her so that her specific use is monitored and controlled. Her robot sister Niska also has human consciousness, but has to hide what she is in a brothel for synthetics. Consistently abused, Niska forms resentment against humans, which is hard to argue with. Her story hammers home the question of bodily autonomy, which is tragically still a battle being fought in society. One of the most heart-wrenching stories is about Dr. George Millican , the creator of the modern synthetic, who has formed a fatherly attachment to one of his creations. His synth, Odi , has broken down, but he cannot part with him. Humans demands that audiences empathize with these characters in a way that the humans of the series cannot. Subscribe to our newsletter for AI-in-fiction deep dives Delve deeper into AI and synthetic-human ethics, and subscribe to the newsletter for thoughtful analysis, context, and curated explorations of how fiction frames questions of consciousness and autonomy. Get Updates By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime. True to the title of the show, the synths are the most human of all, adding to the sentiments made famous by Blade Runner. Humans poses many interesting philosophical questions, such as what constitutes a soul. The series was an amazing breakout for Gemma Chan before Crazy Rich Asians and a genuinely engaging thriller as the synths strive to live on their own terms. Westworld would echo these themes later with a higher budget, but Humans was far more intimate and full of soul. Humans Like Follow Followed Not Yet Rated Sci-Fi Drama Release Date 2015 - 2018-00-00 Network Channel 4 Directors Lewis Arnold, Daniel Nettheim, Francesca Gregorini, Jill Robertson, Mark Brozel, Al Mackay, China Moo-Young, Sam Donovan, Ben A. Williams, Carl Tibbetts, Richard Senior Writers Joe Barton, Emily Ballou, Daisy Coulam, Charlie Covell, Iain Weatherby, Debbie O'Malley, Jonathan Harbottle Cast See All Powered by Expand Collapse
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