The Expanse, a TV adaptation of James SA Corey’s series of novels of the same name, has been met with critical acclaim since it debuted in 2016 on Syfy. When the show made the jump to Amazon Prime Video in 2019, its legions of dedicated fans followed — and for good reason. The Expanse is timeless storytelling as well as solid science fiction.
It leans into hard sci-fi, a term its creator’s shy away from, though the series does depict very plausible tech and stays true to the laws of physics. And, like any good sci-fi story, The Expanse also features a compelling cast of characters. However, missing among the ranks of both the plausible tech and the compelling cast are AI and humanoid robots. So, for all its sci-fi steadfastness, why doesn’t The Expanse feature AI or robotics like most prominent sci-fi media does?
What Is The Expanse About?
Set hundreds of years in the future, The Expanse follows several groups of characters as they navigate a Solar System that’s been colonized by humans. The System’s three largest powers include the United Nations of Earth and Luna; the Congressional Republic of Mars; and the Outer Planets Alliance (OPA) — namely, settlers on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn as well as those along the asteroid belt. Not to mention, Mars is an ever-growing independent military power.
Where there’s a growing militant presence, there’s bound to be strife. At the show’s start, Earth and Mars are entangled in a cold war of sorts, and it’s up to UN member Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) to prevent an all-out war between the two powers. Elsewhere, Joe Miller (Thomas Jane), a detective from the OPA asteroid belt, tracks down a missing woman, Julie Mao.
The detective’s story collides with that of the crew of the Rocinante (or “Roci” for short) — formerly, a Martian gunship the crew escaped on. Led by James Holden (Steven Strait), the Rocinante’s initial crew includes Naomi Nagata (Dominique Tipper), Alex Kamal (Cas Anvar), and Amos Burton (Wes Chatham).
Without delving too much into spoiler territory, suffice to say that the disparate protagonists all start to pull at, and slowly unravel, some incredibly mysterious threads, putting themselves at the center of a Solar System-wide conspiracy. And if navigating a cold war and dark secrets weren’t enough, there’s also a dash of existential crisis brought on by the discovery of alien tech.
Why Aren’t There Robots or AI in The Expanse?
While many fans love that The Expanse stays true to its hard sci-fi roots, the lack of robotics definitely stands out. Given the show’s setting — the menacing vacuum of space — it’s only logical to think that robots would serve a functional purpose. Yes, there are drones and other advanced machinery, but there aren’t any humanoid robots taking on some of the more grueling, dangerous tasks that crop up. Even the Roci boasts some traits of artificial intelligence — but there’s no truly sentient AI to speak of in the show.
For some viewers, this lack of advanced robotics and AI takes them out of the world of the show. It’s hard, they argue, to suspend disbelief in that way. But regardless of one’s feelings on the exclusion of AI and robotics in The Expanse, it’s clearly a deliberate choice on the part of the authors (James SA Corey is the pen name of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck), and something show creators Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby held true to for a reason.
At face value, a Hugo and Saturn Award-winning show that lacks humanoid robots and AI is kind of surprising. But the choice to exclude these key aspects of sci-fi boils down to the story the author(s) wanted to tell in The Expanse. In a Reddit AMA from 2017, James SA Corey expanded upon why there’s a lack of AI and robots in both the books and TV series. Corey posted in response to a Redditor’s question:
“What we have is uncommented automation […] The Roci is constantly described as smart, and Naomi is always giving it complex tasks to work on […] If you mean AI as in self-aware or sentient machines? Yeah, we avoid that because we're both sort of bored by it. Humans are far more interesting.”
Long story short, The Expanse doesn’t focus on AI or robotics because that’s not the story that the books’, show’s, and even video game’s creators are interested in telling. But the assertion that the world of The Expanse doesn’t contain AI or robotics is also false. Instead of parsing such technological innovations out into humanoid robots, humans have integrated AI into their everyday technology. To them, AI and robotics aren’t remarkable — it’s just the stuff of everyday life.
All seasons of The Expanse are available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
