The question on everyone’s mind whenever a new science fiction property introduces a human-like machine is often the same: exactly how human-like can they be? This is especially true when a piece of media makes it a point to place that question front and center in the audience’s face for the entire runtime, as is the case in Ridley Scott’s HBO series.
Raised by Wolvesjustconcluded its second season, which is not hiding its titanic cliffhanger and desire for a third. The series has expanded and contracted, taking the domestic tale of babies and robotic parents to near planetary warfare and giant monster combat. Surprisingly, the aspect that never gets lost in the shuffle is the ongoing evolution of the series' main characters, the androids called Mother and Father.
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Sentience is one of those concepts that has a few different meanings, but the meaning most people understand is thanks to science fiction. The word generally refers the ability to feel and think for oneself with no particular implications, but in sci-fi, it refers to artificial intelligence’s ability to experience human-like traits. These mainly include self-awareness, emotion, free will, and similar lofty concepts.Raised by Wolvesstartswith the premise of artificial beings being entrusted with the care of human children, programmed to protect them at all costs. They behave like parents, willingly sacrifice themselves for their wards, and even mourn when their children don’t make it. Their ability to feel anything outside their programming, however, is questionable. This opens up the classic hole that this debate always tunnels into, whether human sentience is anydifferent from artificial programming.
Viewers know thatMother and Father were programmedby Campion Sturges to be the perfect atheist child-rearing couple. It was his grand plan to turn Mother and Father into who they are when the show begins, load them down with human embryos, and ship them off to Kepler-22b. There, light-years away from the Earth that mankind ruined with religious warfare, the duo can raise their young to be the saviors of humanity. This would theoretically require compassion and nurturing, but the war follows them to the new planet. Mother is forced to embrace her roots as a death machine to protect her children, easily vaporizing the threat and terrifying her family. She even adopts a group of kids from the vanquished enemy, taking them into her family against their will. That’s the general working order of the family unit going forward. Mother is simultaneously protective and threatening, Father is well-meaning but scared, and the kids distrust or resent them both with moments of tenderness.
Mother is a terribly complicated figure. Originally a Necromancer built by the armies of the Mithraic, her violent eliminationist tendencies haven’t been switched off; rather, they’ve just been aimed elsewhere. She’s ruthless, domineering, and often cruel, but just as often unstoppably caring. When her pseudo brother, the commanding AI known as The Trust, uses one of her kids as a patsy and gets him hurt, she destroys The Trust without a second thought. Her actions go beyond her programming, but they also subvert them. Her ability to defy her programming is limited. It’s tested byher dealings with Number 7, the serpent she births that threatens to destroy Kepler-22b. She is unable to destroy it because her programming recognizes the creature as her child, demanding she protect it. In response, Mother decides to don the veil that numbs her sensory information. She can’t physically defy her program, but she can decide to take an action that will free her of it.
Father is a wildly different beast. He’s deceptively simple, and behaves in a strikingly human way for the entire series. He’s jealous, cautious, doting, insecure, confident, moral, and more, in different moments. His personality is communicated through his actions, but he’s willing to state what he’s thinking from time to time. When Mother is impregnated under unclear circumstances, he becomes jealous and angry. When he stumbles upon Grandmother and regenerates her, he’s immediately struck with her. When Marcus defeats him in combat, he’s depressed, but his conversation with Hunter leads him to try something wildly risky to prove his artificial masculinity. Father is much more immediately human than his partner, but both of them have begun to evolve towards something less machine-like.
Near the end of season 2ofRaised by Wolves,Father opines that perhaps the continued influence of the situation has changed them, and states that they’re becoming too human. It’s a measurable increase in irrational behavior, self-interest, and signs of emotionality. As following their programming becomes more complex, Mother and Father are forced to increase accordingly. Mother even begins to demonstrate jealousy as Grandmother begins to enter the main cast. It’s hard to say exactly how sentient the two of them are, but they have clearly moved towards humanity, making decisions independent of their programing, and that’s the scariest thing about them.
The horror elements inRaised by Wolvesare divided amongst nightmarish alien creatures and deadly parasites, and the existential dread of machines designed to kill and care for others. The most complicated and interesting element of the narrative is Mother and Father’s journey towards advanced sentience. As Season 3 approaches, the far-reaching implications of their newfound humanity remain to be seen.
