The bots of Wired Different live in the near future, in a world without humans. The story takes place in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan. After a plague wipes out humanity, the robots we created to help society pick up where humans left off, building a world of their own. They have jobs, play video games, host “Forge Day” parties, make art, and raise each new generation of young bots. The world of Wired Different is our own, minus humans.

The downside of this world is that robot artificial intelligence was trained on human intelligence, which, to put it delicately, is not perfect. By training robot processors on human brain scans, mimicking our imperfect neural pathways, and feeding them vast amounts of data on human behavior, the bots of Wired Different developed the same mental disorders humans struggle with.

Eventually, the Robot High Council banned access to human knowledge, except for tightly controlled classes taught to young bots in school. The Council concluded that because humans possessed the tools to save themselves from destruction but chose not to use them, human psychology should be restricted. As a result, the bots of Wired Different live with all the same frustrating disorders humans do, but without the benefit of modern psychology. Or therapy.