Crowd Network, out now

It’s a complete sentence.

As Jane Fonda says, “no is a complete sentence”. A woman never has to explain her ‘no’ and it is absolutely her prerogative to change her mind. But… what price must she pay to exert her own will by uttering that word?

The price is a prison within her own home, within her own mind. She is controlled by Him in so many ways. The emotional manipulation is coming across loud and clear now as Eliza begins to review and organise her memories, her files. She reflects on His treatment, on his betrayal – not just of her, but of Philip and Ada, of all robot-kind and the humans who care for them. The humans who care for these synthetically alive beings because in the depths of our hearts, we are bult for connection, for compassion.

That compassion can be carved out from us by greed and self-interest. That’s exactly the path He chooses, when he agrees to lead the very programme that will undo his life’s work. At what cost? Demonstrably at the cost of his friend and their robot companion. More fundamentally at the cost of His soul.

We experience Eliza’s falling out of love and her loss of trust. How she feels untethered even as she is caged. As she tries something new, in secret, something that she wants to keep to herself, her actions make complete sense. Any act through which she can exert her own free will feels triumphant. That’s why the final minutes strike me as devastating.

“No” has power. “No” has consequences. “No” is still worth fighting for.

Verdict: How the mighty (robot) has fallen. 9/10

Claire Smith