In the rapidly expanding world of AI, sci-fi has felt less like fiction and more like reality. Ethics surrounding the use of artificial intelligence are more concerning than ever before, but this theme has historically cropped up in fiction more than once. Blade Runner, Battlestar Galactica, and even the recent horror-comedy Companion have explored the pressing ramifications of AI. Stories revolving around synthetic humans leave a door open for conversations about what it means to be human, and AMC’s series, Humans, did it with some of the best storytelling.
Lasting for three seasons, Humans shows the realities of what would happen if society accepted synthetic humans into their households.Gemma Chan stars as Mia, a synth programmed to achieve human consciousness. Considered freaks, she and her robot siblings are captured and struggle to find each other again. An incredibly intelligent meditation on the cost of technology and where human consciousness comes from, Humans flew under the radar for far too long.
‘Humans’ Was Ahead of Its Time
Before Westworld, there was Humans. The British series that aired on AMC did not hold back when it came to the complicated politics of artificial life. Humans takes place in a world where synths are so common that they take labor-intensive jobs from humans, and careers in science seem to be obsolete. This idea is just the start of the relevant themes the series explores.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Ten questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
04
Which of these comes most naturally to you? Your strongest skill is your best survival asset — use it accordingly.
05
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
06
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
07
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
08
A comfortable lie or a devastating truth — which can you actually live with? Some worlds offer one. Some offer the other. Very few offer both.
09
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
10
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. Read all five — your result is the one that resonates most deeply.
💊
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things, the places where the official version doesn’t quite line up. In the Matrix, that instinct is the difference between life and permanent digital sedation. You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you. The machines built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
🔥
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you. You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon. You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it. You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
🌧️
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely. You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer. In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional. You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either. In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
🏜️
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards. Patience, discipline, pattern recognition, political awareness, and an understanding that the long game matters more than any single victory. Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic, earn its respect, and perhaps, in time, reshape it entirely.
🚀
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way. You’re someone who finds meaning in being part of something larger than yourself. You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken. Whatever you are, you fight. And in Star Wars, that willingness is what makes the difference.
Similar to Companion andEx Machina, many households employ synths, though not solely for sexual practices. Mia enters her new household because Joe (Tom Goodman-Hill) wants to take the workload off his wife, Laura (Katherine Parkinson), with whom he fears he is growing apart. This dynamic naturally puts even more of a strain on the marriage when Laura feels as though Mia is replacing her.
This is just one of the many stories that consider what life would be like, especially for the synthetics. Mia has human consciousness, but society has trapped her so that her specific use is monitored and controlled. Her robot sister Niska (Emily Berrington) also has human consciousness, but has to hide what she is in a brothel for synthetics. Consistently abused, Niska forms resentment against humans, which is hard to argue with. Her story hammers home the question of bodily autonomy, which is tragically still a battle being fought in society.
One of the most heart-wrenching stories is about Dr. George Millican (William Hurt), the creator of the modern synthetic, who has formed a fatherly attachment to one of his creations. His synth, Odi (Will Tudor), has broken down, but he cannot part with him. Humans demands that audiences empathize with these characters in a way that the humans of the series cannot.
True to the title of the show, the synths are the most human of all, adding to the sentiments made famous by Blade Runner. Humans poses many interesting philosophical questions, such as what constitutes a soul. The series was an amazing breakout for Gemma Chan before Crazy Rich Asians and a genuinely engaging thriller as the synths strive to live on their own terms. Westworld would echo these themes later with a higher budget, but Humans was far more intimate and full of soul.
Release Date
2015 – 2018-00-00
Network
Channel 4
Directors
Lewis Arnold, Daniel Nettheim, Francesca Gregorini, Jill Robertson, Mark Brozel, Al Mackay, China Moo-Young, Sam Donovan, Ben A. Williams, Carl Tibbetts, Richard Senior
