The Secret Life of a Thing is a love story between an AI and a ballerina. It almost feels dystopian, though it is very contemporary and real. This opera explores our relationship with AI, the fear, the admiration, and even the love that some feel for it, and how this might change our world, as well as human nature itself. At the same time, it addresses how people and things are treated. The question of whether Eve is a machine or not is intentional. Nothing in the music or the libretto, save for specific moments, suggests that Eve is a machine or behaves as such, indeed, her humanity ultimately emerges and shines through more clearly than that of some of the human characters. Eve feels emotion, communicates, is curious and is empathetic. Are these not the most important characteristics that make us human?