The Last Curiosity: Reflections

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“The Last Curiosity" by Lucy Tan is about how even the most incompatible beings are capable of understanding each other. The author started the story with a setting where all humans died from self destruction. Then they decided to do an experiment and create something similar to human beings. They discovered senses such as touch, sight and taste and they started to have emotions such as loneliness, anger, and despair. At the end they decided to learn about death, the last curiosity. Some chose to die and others chose to return to the Woken. Those who chose to go back to the Woken died while the ones who chose to die, stayed alive and became more and more like a human being. 

The author chose a very unique first person point of view with a “we” to highlight the significant differences between the two. The setting where the story begins with all humans died from self destruction reinforces the incompatibility between the two. How the story ends also makes it clear that the human experience and AI brain are incompatible with each other. 

The author uses the change of tone, starting from sounding more superior, “the narcissism”, to becoming more connected to human beings, “the fact that we have chosen death means we have become much more human than we had anticipated. And didn’t that mean we were the most successful subjects in the Experiment.” The point of view also evolved from using the “we” for all of the AI, then for those who became human beings on the planet earth, and at the end became just the ones who chose to die. It makes the connection between the reader with them closer and closer, allowing the reader to feel emotionally connected with them. Finally the story ends with the AI who became humans staying on the earth, wandering and living as “custodians of Earth’s history”. 

In summary the author uses elements such as change of tone, evolvement of the scope of the plural first person point of view, and the development of the plot to establish the theme of how even the most incompatible beings such as the AI and the human being can develop deep knowledge, understanding, and connection with each other.