Nnedi Okorafor: Humanity, Technology, and Nature as one

 In “Mother of Invention”, a short story by Nnedi Okorafor, a woman, Anwuli, is protected by her smart home during a deadly pollen storm while giving birth. Anwuli is allergic to the pollen that swarms because of the climate disaster, but resists moving away from her city of New Delta. When she gives birth alone in her smart home, a drone immediately starts taking care of her baby, and Anwuli feels herself beginning to die. However, the smart home, Obi 3, transforms itself into a vessel that takes them away, protecting Anwuli as she protected her baby. 

“Mother of Invention” reminds us that although humanity sees itself as distinctly separate from both nature and technology, we are intertwined with both. Obi 3 was an extension of Anwali herself. The descriptions of nature in New Delta and of the act of childbirth contrast and also intermingle with the perceived sterility and artificiality of technology and the smart home. Humans are inseparable from both the technology and AI we have created, and the natural world that created us.