What I’m getting from it so far is mostly “AI bad.” One could argue that AI is a proxy for collectivism in the twisted mind of a liberal, but I don’t know.
I feel like the show could easily veer in another direction to make a larger point. Or not.
I’m curious how the concept of a hivemind that literally takes over all the world except for one person is a reference to AI more than it is a reference for some ideology or political system.
Feels like having the entirety of the world’s human knowledge and experience available to the hivemind should have given it better strategies and understanding of how to handle a single person who has just gone through some pretty traumatic events.
spoiler
Hell, the hivemind has the memories of Carol’s partner and its programming is so locked in to “multiply” and “make happy” that the best it can think of is “hey, remember that time you ate some good food with your dead girlfriend? We made you some of those pancakes! Aren’t you happy now?”
They beat you over the head with the metaphor multiple times in the show. The main character has conversations with the hivemind ripped straight from AI chatbot logs.
minor spoiler
At one point she jokingly asks them for a grenade and they give it to her, not understanding the subtext/danger.
No they understand the danger fully. That is also why they hesitate with giving her a nuclear bomb, but state that if it makes her happy they would still do it.
They are fully cognisant, they both know facts and can put those facts in context. We see that they are, for instance, fully capable of understanding the emotional importance of the hats.
I don’t feel like you can spoil much since literally nothing that has any actual relevance to the narrative has happened since episode 1.
spoiler
Except maybe the introduction of the paraguyan guy, the milk, and possibly maybe the introduction of the pirate lady or whatever her name is in episode like 2.
I haven’t seen pluribus, but tangentially I used to have the same assumption of the Borg, from Star Trek. But to be honest, I don’t even think that the Borg are intended to be an anti communist allegory, despite being a hive mind. Ultimately, the hive mind’s entire purpose is to fulfill the whims of the Borg Queen. In summary my point is that it’s totally possible to write a hive mind, and to use it to even criticize monarchies, or any other ideology for that matter.
Not sure sure what the Borg were intended as originally, but adding the Queen was a huge failure of imagination. They had to reduce a cosmic hivemind into having a singular human ruler, so they could do human things at it and it would make human mistakes.
The Pluribus collective having hardcoded ethical imperatives like “no killing” is already more interesting than the Borg Queen… though the viewpoint character is really dragging things out and the Pluribus’ forced incompetence at interaction with her is a bit odd.
the Borg could be seen through a more Marxist lens.
the Federation is already nominally mature socialist but has not actually reached communism yet and the Borg could be seen as a failed path to “stateless, moneyless, classless” society. basically a species that decided to try a short cut (let’s just all jack in and become a Society of One) instead of building communism on more natural terms.
something like the Culture (Ian Banks) could be seen as what a truly communist Federation could become while still maintaining and protecting individual sapience. everyone’s still jacked in but it’s voluntary and entirely one directional. the neural lace (standard cybernetic augmentation everyone of biological origin has) is more about gaining totally authority over your own body and having built in communicator as well as putting humanoids on par with fellow sapient AI comrades
(also the Queen did fuck this up badly i really hate that they went there. at most the Queen should just be a sort of hallucination of the greater Hive Mind or like a dream character created to interact easier with species difficult to assimilate)
What I’m getting from it so far is mostly “AI bad.” One could argue that AI is a proxy for collectivism in the twisted mind of a liberal, but I don’t know.
I feel like the show could easily veer in another direction to make a larger point. Or not.
It’s perfectly watchable slop either way
I’m curious how the concept of a hivemind that literally takes over all the world except for one person is a reference to AI more than it is a reference for some ideology or political system.
Feels like having the entirety of the world’s human knowledge and experience available to the hivemind should have given it better strategies and understanding of how to handle a single person who has just gone through some pretty traumatic events.
spoiler
Hell, the hivemind has the memories of Carol’s partner and its programming is so locked in to “multiply” and “make happy” that the best it can think of is “hey, remember that time you ate some good food with your dead girlfriend? We made you some of those pancakes! Aren’t you happy now?”
They beat you over the head with the metaphor multiple times in the show. The main character has conversations with the hivemind ripped straight from AI chatbot logs.
minor spoiler
At one point she jokingly asks them for a grenade and they give it to her, not understanding the subtext/danger.
No they understand the danger fully. That is also why they hesitate with giving her a nuclear bomb, but state that if it makes her happy they would still do it. They are fully cognisant, they both know facts and can put those facts in context. We see that they are, for instance, fully capable of understanding the emotional importance of the hats.
I don’t feel like you can spoil much since literally nothing that has any actual relevance to the narrative has happened since episode 1.
spoiler
Except maybe the introduction of the paraguyan guy, the milk, and possibly maybe the introduction of the pirate lady or whatever her name is in episode like 2.
I haven’t seen pluribus, but tangentially I used to have the same assumption of the Borg, from Star Trek. But to be honest, I don’t even think that the Borg are intended to be an anti communist allegory, despite being a hive mind. Ultimately, the hive mind’s entire purpose is to fulfill the whims of the Borg Queen. In summary my point is that it’s totally possible to write a hive mind, and to use it to even criticize monarchies, or any other ideology for that matter.
Not sure sure what the Borg were intended as originally, but adding the Queen was a huge failure of imagination. They had to reduce a cosmic hivemind into having a singular human ruler, so they could do human things at it and it would make human mistakes.
The Pluribus collective having hardcoded ethical imperatives like “no killing” is already more interesting than the Borg Queen… though the viewpoint character is really dragging things out and the Pluribus’ forced incompetence at interaction with her is a bit odd.
the Borg could be seen through a more Marxist lens.
the Federation is already nominally mature socialist but has not actually reached communism yet and the Borg could be seen as a failed path to “stateless, moneyless, classless” society. basically a species that decided to try a short cut (let’s just all jack in and become a Society of One) instead of building communism on more natural terms.
something like the Culture (Ian Banks) could be seen as what a truly communist Federation could become while still maintaining and protecting individual sapience. everyone’s still jacked in but it’s voluntary and entirely one directional. the neural lace (standard cybernetic augmentation everyone of biological origin has) is more about gaining totally authority over your own body and having built in communicator as well as putting humanoids on par with fellow sapient AI comrades
(also the Queen did fuck this up badly i really hate that they went there. at most the Queen should just be a sort of hallucination of the greater Hive Mind or like a dream character created to interact easier with species difficult to assimilate)