An Unnatural Life

This was one of three free novellas provided by Tor.com this month. It was bundled with A Psalm for the Wild Build and Unlocked which highlighted the similarities between the three stories. All of them concern a future where humanity is grappling with mechanical life. In Chambers' story, the robots achieved sentience and abandoned humans to their own devices, only for a human and robot to reconnect centuries later. In Scalzi's story, robots are provided as disability aids. They're fully controlled by humans who can't otherwise participate in society. This story is a bit more classic, with robots serving as a labor force and humanity beginning to grapple with how to extend rights to them.

All three books ask what it means to be a person, but this one asks that question the most directly. A robot has been convicted of murder and a new lawyer decides to file an appeal, believing he didn't get a fair trial the first time around. Questions arise about the equality between man and machine - can humans be considered peers of a robot, fulfilling the need for a fair trial? If it's determined that that trial wasn't fair, what are the larger scale consequences of considering a robot fundamentally different.

This story also probes free will. Though the robot definitely killed the man in question, the question of whether he was the murderer or merely the murder weapon hangs over the whole story. And it's complicated by his own refusal to cooperate in order to protect someone else, which certainly seems like proof of his free will.

In the background of all this is humanity's first contact with a truly alien life form, something living in the oceans of Europa. And so the question extends in that direction as well. How do you reconcile alien life forms with humanity? This book shows just a part of the long and messy process, and it's focus helps illuminate what a complicated question it is.

It was really interesting to read all of these novels together. Thinking about the ways they tackle the same question added a lot to each story.

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