- 2,726
- 1,634
The profile of AM from I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream has a few details that I deem as incorrect.
First of all, the reaction speed being below average is probably not true. As already established on the profile, this is a supercomputer we're talking about. Regular computers can comprehend loads of data in what feels like an instant compared to regular humans. This isn't even a case-by-case sort of thing; if a device can't even process information as fast as an average human could identify it, then there's no reason to classify the device as a supercomputer. Doing so would be flawed logic. AM wasn't able to stop Ted from killing the other humans because Ted was fast and AM might have not expected Ted to think this was a good course of action. "Surrounded by madness, surrounded by hunger, surrounded by everything but death, I knew death was our only way out. AM had kept us alive, but there was a way to defeat him. Not total defeat, but at least peace. I would settle for that. I had to do it quickly." "All in an instant: […]" "I knew we had only a heartbeat before AM would stop us."The ranking for AM that I have in mind is "at least Superhuman", because I'm not familiar with how fast supercomputers can process information, but I know it's faster than humans. Edit: After some discussion, I've been convinced that "Average Human" speed makes more sense. AM specifically was watching Ted killing the other people like a regular person would, without there being evidence that AM is faster, which is probably acceptable for an apex supercomputer at the time this story was written. AM was even worried that Ted could get away with another suicide attempt, which is why Ted was turned into living jelly.
Next, the lifting strength is inaccurate. AM contained the humans and manipulated them to its whim. "The hurricane hit us with the force of a glacier thundering into the sea. It was a palpable presence. Winds that tore at us, flinging us back the way we had come, down the twisting, computerlined corridors of the darkway. Ellen screamed as she was lifted and hurled faceforward into a screaming shoal of machines, their individual voices strident as bats in flight. She could not even fall. The howling wind kept her aloft, buffeted her, bounced her, tossed her back and back and down and away from us, out of sight suddenly as she was swirled around a bend in the darkway. Her face had been bloody, her eyes closed." It seems like AM did those things non-physically and was capable of creating the Hurricane Bird, but technically, AM physically became part of all of Earth anyway. "We would be forever with him, with the cavernfilling bulk of the creature machine, with the allmind soulless world he had become. He was Earth, and we were the fruit of that Earth; and though he had eaten us, he would never digest us." Based on the evidence, AM should be regarded as capable of lifting at least multiple humans. I suppose the "Superhuman" rank would be a good replacement as a minimum.
Lastly, the profile makes the mistake of putting the physical strength of the character only in the Striking Strength section, even though that also counts as physical attack potency in addition to what's already listed in the Attack Potency section.
First of all, the reaction speed being below average is probably not true. As already established on the profile, this is a supercomputer we're talking about. Regular computers can comprehend loads of data in what feels like an instant compared to regular humans. This isn't even a case-by-case sort of thing; if a device can't even process information as fast as an average human could identify it, then there's no reason to classify the device as a supercomputer. Doing so would be flawed logic. AM wasn't able to stop Ted from killing the other humans because Ted was fast and AM might have not expected Ted to think this was a good course of action. "Surrounded by madness, surrounded by hunger, surrounded by everything but death, I knew death was our only way out. AM had kept us alive, but there was a way to defeat him. Not total defeat, but at least peace. I would settle for that. I had to do it quickly." "All in an instant: […]" "I knew we had only a heartbeat before AM would stop us."
Next, the lifting strength is inaccurate. AM contained the humans and manipulated them to its whim. "The hurricane hit us with the force of a glacier thundering into the sea. It was a palpable presence. Winds that tore at us, flinging us back the way we had come, down the twisting, computerlined corridors of the darkway. Ellen screamed as she was lifted and hurled faceforward into a screaming shoal of machines, their individual voices strident as bats in flight. She could not even fall. The howling wind kept her aloft, buffeted her, bounced her, tossed her back and back and down and away from us, out of sight suddenly as she was swirled around a bend in the darkway. Her face had been bloody, her eyes closed." It seems like AM did those things non-physically and was capable of creating the Hurricane Bird, but technically, AM physically became part of all of Earth anyway. "We would be forever with him, with the cavernfilling bulk of the creature machine, with the allmind soulless world he had become. He was Earth, and we were the fruit of that Earth; and though he had eaten us, he would never digest us." Based on the evidence, AM should be regarded as capable of lifting at least multiple humans. I suppose the "Superhuman" rank would be a good replacement as a minimum.
Lastly, the profile makes the mistake of putting the physical strength of the character only in the Striking Strength section, even though that also counts as physical attack potency in addition to what's already listed in the Attack Potency section.
Last edited: