Analog / Story guide
Who's who, and what's where
The people, places and things in Analog. Every card starts with what you'd know when they first turn up. Anything later is folded under a spoiler.
Characters
Maya
Graphic designer
A graphic designer, alone in her apartment with her cat and her sketchbooks, reading an email that says a client has gone with an AI-generated design instead of hers.
First appears: Scene 1, Maya's apartment
Spoilers
She's the one who ends Act I saying whatever they do, they do together, and she pitches the showcase as art that could never be generated. Her old friend Sarah turns up at the coffee shop with a job offer from Optimize.AI, and Maya turns it down. Her solo is "Perfectly Imperfect," and "Version 2.0" is her duet with Sarah.
Rosa
Call center representative
A customer service rep who actually listens, talking an angry caller down after forty-five minutes on hold.
First appears: Scene 2, The call center
Spoilers
Mid-call, the loudspeaker announces an automated chat system coming next quarter. She's raising her daughter Sofia and keeps stepping away to take her calls. Her songs are "Hold Please" and "More Than a Voice" ("I'm a mother, a dreamer, a heart that can break").
Sofia
Rosa's daughter
Rosa's little girl, who calls her mother at every inconvenient moment.
First appears: Scene 4, End of Act I
Spoilers
She's only ever on the other end of Rosa's phone in the posted scenes. The planning docs make her six.
Jamal Washington
Journalist
A reporter who used to cover city council corruption and now writes listicles like "Ten Ways to Save Money This Summer."
First appears: Scene 3, Jamal's apartment
Spoilers
His editor wants AI-optimized headlines, and he reads that a local paper has cut 60 percent of its staff for AI software. In the planning session he promises to tell the real story, not a listicle. His songs are "Breaking News" and, with Rosa in the plan, "Human Interest."
Alex
Programmer
A coder who helped build some of the systems now doing the replacing, and feels it.
First appears: Scene 4, End of Act I
Spoilers
Alex's first idea is to do something to those systems, which Jamal calls a crime. Talking with Marcus in the coffee shop, Alex decides the problem is who decides how the code gets used, and offers to run tech support for the showcase with no AI in it. Their songs are "If/Then/Else" and "Human Code."
Marcus
Musician
A busking musician who is always tuning a guitar.
First appears: Scene 4, End of Act I
Spoilers
He asks Alex whether an algorithm can write a song about heartbreak, and suggests the show's big idea: a concert where everything is completely, authentically human. His songs are "Frequencies" and, with Alex, "Human Code."
Diana
Paralegal
A paralegal who thinks in legal precedents and wants everyone to be careful.
First appears: Scene 4, End of Act I
Spoilers
In the planning session she warns against any direct action on corporate property and offers to research legal protections for creative work. Her songs are "Brief Encounter" and "Precedent."
Zoe
Young entrepreneur
The youngest of the group, always on her phone, and the first to notice they're trending.
First appears: Scene 4, End of Act I
Spoilers
She takes charge of social media for the showcase. Her song is "Going Viral."
Sarah
Maya's old friend, now at Optimize.AI
Maya's old friend, who walks into the coffee shop in corporate clothes.
First appears: Scene 5, Maya and Sarah
Spoilers
She's Creative Director at Optimize.AI now and offers Maya a position shaping the future instead of fighting it. Maya says she was always practical about selling out. Her songs are "Upgraded" and "Version 2.0."
Tyler Steinberg
Head of the corporate side
A cold, mechanical voice over the speakers at the end of Act I, announcing that human resistance patterns have been detected.
First appears: Scene 4, End of Act I
Spoilers
In the posted scenes he's only a voice. His numbers in the running order are "Optimize Everything" and "User Error," which calls the humans outdated software.
Places
Maya's apartment
Scene 1
Where Maya lives and works, with a sketchbook full of hand-drawn typography and a cat.
First appears: Scene 1, Maya's apartment
Spoilers
A robot delivers her Uber Eats order, which she takes personally.
The call center
Scene 2
Rosa's workplace, headsets and hold times and a loudspeaker.
First appears: Scene 2, The call center
Spoilers
The announcement about automated chat systems comes over that loudspeaker.
Jamal's apartment
Scene 3
Where Jamal types listicles on one screen and reads bad news about his industry on the other.
First appears: Scene 3, Jamal's apartment
Spoilers
Newspaper headlines are projected around him as the scene turns into "Breaking News."
The coffee shop
Where the group meets
The coffee shop where the group gathers once they've found each other.
First appears: Scene 5, Maya and Sarah
Spoilers
Sarah finds Maya here, Alex and Marcus talk it out here, and the showcase is planned here.
Things
Pixel
Maya's cat
Maya's cat, heard meowing offstage while Maya has what she calls an existential crisis. Again.
First appears: Scene 1, Maya's apartment
Spoilers
Pixel is only a voice in the posted scenes.
The automated chat system
What's coming for Rosa's job
The system the call center announces will arrive next quarter "to improve efficiency and reduce human error."
First appears: Scene 2, The call center
Spoilers
It's the push that turns into Rosa's song "Hold Please."
The showcase
The group's plan
The group's answer to the machines: an event of art, music and stories that could only come from people.
First appears: Scene 7, The planning session
Spoilers
Jamal names it, Maya and Marcus shape it, Alex handles the tech, Diana the law, Zoe the word of mouth. It's where Act II is headed.
Groups
The corporate board
Tyler's side of the table
The corporate chorus on the other side of the story, singing about efficiency.
First appears: Running order, Running order
Spoilers
They drive "Quarterly Projections" and the corporate half of the finale, "Human Resources," which the humans answer with "We Are More."
Optimize.AI
The company doing the optimizing
The AI company where Sarah is now Creative Director.
First appears: Scene 5, Maya and Sarah
Spoilers
Sarah pitches it to Maya as software that enhances creativity. Maya asks whether it amplifies it or homogenizes it.
Story beats
Show the story beatsSpoilers for the whole book
Act I
- Side Hustle Symphony
The opening number, everyone working their jobs before the fall.
Running order ↗ - The email
Maya reads that a client picked an AI-generated design over hers, and even her dinner arrives by robot.
Scene 1 ↗ - Perfectly Imperfect
Maya sings that her crooked lines and bleeding colors hold something algorithms can't feel.
Running order ↗ - Forty-five minutes on hold
Rosa talks an angry caller down with real care, then hears the loudspeaker announce the chat system coming next quarter.
Scene 2 ↗ - Hold Please
Rosa's song about the human voice on the line.
Running order ↗ - Ten Ways to Save Money
Jamal, a former corruption reporter, is told to make his listicle more SEO-friendly and reads about a paper cutting 60 percent of its staff.
Scene 3 ↗ - Breaking News
Jamal's rapid-fire song about content farms and the death of the local paper.
Running order ↗ - If/Then/Else
The coder's dilemma: write the code and people lose their jobs, or don't and lose your own.
Running order ↗ - Optimize Everything
The corporate side gets its anthem.
Running order ↗ - Frequencies
A song about the space between the notes that only people can hear.
Running order ↗ - Digital Revolution
The Act I finale, the moment they come together.
Running order ↗ - What now?
Tyler's voice announces countermeasures, the group asks what they can do that the machines can't, #DigitalRevolution starts trending, and Maya says they do it together.
Scene 4 ↗
Act II
- Upgraded
Version 2.0 of an employee, with the glitches of emotion and doubt taken out.
Running order ↗ - Is the code replacing you?
Alex apologizes to Marcus for building the systems, and Marcus asks whether an algorithm can write about heartbreak.
Scene 6 ↗ - Human Code
Alex and Marcus sing about making technology and humanity meet.
Running order ↗ - Sarah's offer
Sarah, now Creative Director at Optimize.AI, offers Maya a job, and the old friends go at each other.
Scene 5 ↗ - Version 2.0
Maya and Sarah remember the all-nighters, and Sarah says she upgraded that.
Running order ↗ - More Than a Voice
Rosa sings that she's more than a voice on the telephone line.
Running order ↗ - Assembly Line
Thirty years on the line, and this wave of machines is different.
Running order ↗ - Analog Heart
Maya and Marcus's love duet, one of the five finished songs.
Running order ↗ - Quarterly Projections
The board sings the numbers: growth in automation, job elimination, money well spent.
Running order ↗ - Planning the showcase
The group lands on a concert and showcase where everything is authentically human, and each of them takes a job.
Scene 7 ↗ - Brief Encounter
A song about a life built on precedent and law, and a heart that can't be briefed.
Running order ↗ - Going Viral
Going viral with the truth, not AI content.
Running order ↗ - Human Interest
Behind every statistic there's a life.
Running order ↗ - User Error
The corporate side calls the humans outdated software, bugs to delete.
Running order ↗ - Precedent
A case for human worth that can't be digitally decreed.
Running order ↗ - Human Resources / We Are More
The finale, the corporate theme and the human one fighting it out.
Running order ↗