ANNIE BOT

A robot’s sentience chafes against her programming’s restraints.

Using shells grown from abandoned human embryos and proprietary central intelligence units (CIUs), the Stella-Handy company manufactures male and female bots (Handys and Stellas) that can be programmed to provide their owners with housekeeping services, child care, and intimacy. As a Stella set to “Cuddle Bunny,” Annie should exist solely to satisfy her wealthy owner, Doug; that clarity of purpose is complicated, however, by the fact that, a year and a half ago, Doug placed Annie in autodidactic mode. Though Annie’s self-guided quest for knowledge and growth does make her seem more human, it occasionally conflicts with her prime directive—a situation evidenced when Doug’s best friend, Roland, pays a surprise visit. After Doug falls asleep, Roland convinces Annie to have sex with him and not tell Doug: “A secret will make you real,” he says. Doug has a history of doling out vindictive punishments when Annie upsets him, so when he discovers her infidelity, she flees, terrified he’ll erase her CIU or turn her off. But even if she finds someone willing and able to deactivate her tracking feature, the question remains: Can Annie survive in this world without Doug? Greer’s tale unfolds courtesy of a close third-person-present narrative that beautifully captures the way Annie experiences life, at once as a computer and as an emotionally intelligent being. The nuanced plot titillates while sensitively exploring issues of consent, self-empowerment, and domestic abuse.

Provocative and powerful.