This two-sided story, with on the one hand biotechnical details of an apocalyptic pandemic, and on the other the psychological aspects of bonding between robotic mothers and human children, evokes horror and compassion. It makes you wonder about and doubtful of what our future will look like, but displays also faith in human interaction.
She’d learned that human life on earth was facing annihilation. She’d learned that it would be her job to imagine what would happen afterward. And she’d learned that if her projections about the inexorable spread of infected archaebacterial were true, this would be her final mission.
The proper way to train military robots to care for newborns in a postapocalyptic world hadn’t been part of the course curriculum at Princeton. The whole idea was preposterous, a herculean undertaking, a project of ever-expanding scope and difficulty. But given everything that was happening – the rapid spread of the infection, the failure so far to develop a working antidote that might save more than a few souls – it had somehow begun to make sense.
