[ mih-san-throh-puh-mawr-fik ] adjective
misanthrope “one who has a dislike or distrust of humans” + anthropomorphic “having human form or qualities.”
by Barry McKeon, 12/3/2025
Note: Although I claim this word first occurred to me independently of any other source, I have subsequently seen other scattered mentions of this word on the Internet. Therefore I will make no claims of “inventing” this word. However, I do believe that I am the first person to write down a definition for the word, along with the process of how I came to that definition. If I win points for that, hooray for me.
It all started long ago in a time known as the 1970’s. Back then, and through the following decades, sci-fi had a faily dark vision of robots, artificial intelligence, and the dangers thereof. I believe my first exposure to the subject was from Isaac Asimov’s Robot novels. The issues and concerns he wrote about shaped a lot of my early thinking about computers, artificial intelligence and robotics. The movie “West World” scared the hell out of me.
Later, in the 80’s, there were movies like Blade Runner and Terminator. Again, raising the specter of the possible unintended consequences of technology gone too far. Notably, the difficulty in differentiating between human and non-human intelligence. And the realization that such “machines” may have very different priorities than “serving mankind.”
(Side note: Do not mistake me for a Luddite. I love technology and computers. In fact, I made software engineering my career. What worried me was where the technology would ultimately lead if not guided by wise hands. Humans are not known for their long-term vision. But they are known for their savagery and unending quest for more power. Dangerous combination.)
Anyway, fast forward to the 2000’s. Not only am I an engineer, but I’m an avid gamer. Started with Pong in the 70’s and never looked back. I’ve played thousands of games and still do. As the technology advanced, games were no longer simple characters running around a screen. They started to create more and more realistic NPCs (non-player characters) in these games. Not only more realistic-looking, but also more realistic-acting. Characters started having stories and emotions and motivations. There were now “moral” choices that the player had to make, which might impact which direction the game story went.
I certainly played many such games, but I found myself feeling more and more uncomfortable as the NPCs became more “human-like.” I started feeling bad if I hurt them, or chose the wrong dialog-option. I started moving away from such “realistic” games more and more. Games were my escape from the real world, they were a place where the rules were simple and I could lose myself in them. I didn’t want to be forced to pretend like these NPCs were real people and also being forced to make gray moral choices. The real world was full of such things, I didn’t want them in my games.
It took me a while to truly nail down what upset me about these games. And I finally figured it out. It was the deceit. Game designers were trying to get me to “act” like these were real, weighty decisions, affecting actual characters I should care about. Fake humans with fake problems and fake consequences. It was simply a road I didn’t want to walk down any further. (Sadly, games double-downed on that approach and now in 2025 there are games such as Baldur’s Gate 3 which has fully voiced NPCs, with intricate backstories, personalities, and endless moral quandries. I did play the game and it was truly a masterpiece. But I hated so much of it because I found myself getting far too invested in these characters and how to please them. It all just felt very, very wrong.)
In 2004, Blizzard Entertainment released “World of Warcraft”, an online MMO that is still going strong in 2025 (and yes, I’m still playing it 21 years later.) After several years, I decided to create my own Guild on a server and I needed a good, unique name for it. I thought about it for weeks, and finally came up with “Misanthropomorphic.”
There were two distinct reasons that word occurred to my brain. First, when I was in my 20’s I was very much a misanthrope. I hated people with a passion. All of them. I was a very angry youth. I eventually learned of the word “misanthrope”, which described me really well, so I considered myself one from then on. With time, my anger cooled, but I maintained (and do to this day) my mistrust of humans. I trust very few people and have a tight inner circle. So in that sense, I am still a misanthrope.
The second part “anthropomorphic” nicely described all the characters I ever played in computer games (especially in World of Warcraft, where I played a Tauren Druid, which is basically like a sentient cow-type creature.)
So I had my Guild name, and created it in 2010. I combined the two words, as they nicely described my distrust/dislike of things that have all the trappings of humans, but are not. I later used this same Guild name in other MMOs, such as Elder Scrolls Online, and Guild Wars 2.
Initially, I saw this word applying to just in-game NPCs. But over the years, it expanded to include more and more things, especially lately. As technology advanced, companies raced to make their products “user-friendly”, making them seem more and more human. Whether it was early digital cameras that could only speak a couple of words, to automated phone menus, to “friendly” computer helpers like Microsoft Clippy. I hated them all, because again they were trying to fake-humanize the technology, which usually just ended up pissing me off.
And then it just kept advancing more and more. To the point we now have technology so advanced at mimicking being human, there are deep-fake videos, and AI-generated content that is indistinguishable from reality. The Turing test was passed years ago, and we are now faced with a world where we cannot tell human from AI. And once robotic technology advances a bit more, we will have walking, talking humanoids that are no different than the Replicants in Blade Runner.
Robots are fine.
AI is fine.
But either of those acting or looking human is not fine. Because they aren’t and never will be. And the danger is that we humans will see them as like us and therefore miss the threat right under our noses.
Until the day a computer can experience suffering and death, they will never be able to empathize with the human condition. And therefore, they absolutely cannot be trusted. My wish is that humanity wakes up to this fact before it’s too late. Because once we have a sentient, non-human super-intelligent lifeform…our days are numbered.
So I don't trust non-humans that pretend to be human. But I also don't trust humans.
I guess that makes me a misanthropomorphic misanthrope.
I'm okay with this.