The Mother Code

The year is 2049. When a deadly non-viral agent intended for biowarfare spreads out of control, scientists must scramble to ensure the survival of the human race. They turn to their last resort, a plan to place genetically engineered children inside the cocoons of large-scale robots—to be incubated, birthed, and raised by machines. But there is yet one hope of preserving the human order: an intelligence programmed into these machines that renders each unique in its own right—the Mother Code.

Kai is born in America’s desert Southwest, his only companion his robotic Mother, Rho-Z. Equipped with the knowledge and motivations of a human mother, Rho-Z raises Kai and teaches him how to survive. But as children like Kai come of age, their Mothers transform too—in ways that were never predicted. And when government survivors decide that the Mothers must be destroyed, Kai is faced with a choice. Will he break the bond he shares with Rho-Z? Or will he fight to save the only parent he has ever known?

Set in a future that could be our own, The Mother Code explores what truly makes us human—and the tenuous nature of the boundaries between us and the machines we create.

L’umanità in via di estinzione per colpa di una epidemia affida a delle madri robotiche l’incarico di allevare la nuova generazione di esseri umani.

Sarebbe potuto essere un bellissimo libro denso di tematiche: l’ingegneria genetica, l’intelligenza artificiale e come ci si interfaccia ad essa, il ruolo dei genitori e la crescita dei figli…

Invece purtroppo l’ho trovato carente come punto di vista sulle IA e sulla robotica, con personaggi che non mi hanno coinvolto, per non dire della pesantezza con la quale mi sono trascinato per i capitoli dedicati alla pandemia – per i motivi che tutti potete immaginare.

Spielberg ci vuole fare un film, spero che riesca ad aggiustare il tiro.