PYMHM: I Hereby Welcome Our Robot Overlords (2018)

I wrote this post you might have missed back in early 2018. A time before all the chatbots and AI image creators. I've posted a few times about how these AI tools are starting to scare the shit out of me, and there have been posts showing my concern about AI and bots taking jobs, but the part I totally missed was that the robots would be the ones living it up. The bots, not us, would be making the art, writing the poetry, and making the music. While the humans still drudged along doing the manual labor, breaking their fragile meat bodies. That's not what was supposed to happen.

I Hereby Welcome Our Robot Overlords Jan 2018

There's been a lot of talk recently about robots and machines taking away jobs from humans.  And as Artificial Intelligence gets better and better, it's threatening even more occupations people depend on.   I feel like it's headed in one or two directions. And where else do you look if you want to get a sense of what's coming?  Science fiction of course.  

Much of science fiction is set in the future and a good portion of future-set sci-fi is essentially a future where  humans are advanced and exploring space. A new chapter void of currency. It's a time where computers and robots do all of the menial labor.  With the concept that "the machines do the work so you have more time to enjoy life" seems like utopia. But this only makes sense if the people who used to do the work are taken care of. This is a very socialist idea that directly conflicts with capitalist business models of today.  Yet, this seems to end up being the answer for many very intelligent sci-fi writers for the past century.

 The latter imagined fate for humanity is usually the dystopian future where ego and/or greed has ruined everything.  

There is a third consequence that pops up in future-based sci-fi that could end up happening even if we go the route of letting droids flip burgers that needs to be discussed here. When the burger flipping robots realize they're better off making other robots to flip the burgers. This is of course The Matrix scenario for our fate. Where we just become flesh batteries for the new race of self-aware A.I. machines.  The other future where everyone is happy and taken care of sounds nice to me.... as long as the robots don’t wise-up which is why we need to be very careful about A.I.  

Ultimately getting to this point will definitely be a struggle but I feel like if we don't start thinking this way, we're going to end up in the Thunder Dome sooner than we'd like.  I'd rather be in the Holodeck having adventures. The real option to avoid all of this is to stop being greedy ego-maniac assholes. This will really solve a lot of our problems and ensure a better future.   

My Severance Theories.

No one cares, but these are some of my theories for the AppleTV+ series, Severance. 

If you don’t know what this show is you should go watch it.  If you liked Lost or other shows like that you’ll totally dig Severance.  I’ve been obsessed since I watched the first episode.    With that being said if you’ve never seen it, none of this will make sense and spoil the show for you.  Don’t read anymore. 

The They They Are
I think that parts of the Outties personality,  to be cheeky, The They, They are, the traits that are inherent to a person is something that can’t be wiped away with Severance.  I think this is why only certain people can be in the Severance program or at least be part of what I think is the heart of whatever Lumon’s goals are with Severance is, the MDR department.  People who are in mourning, in a state of grief or just weak minded enough that Lumon can be sure they are easily manipulated by basic rules.   This ties into my next theory about what they’re doing on the computers with the Marcodata. 

It’s Their Own Data
A theory I’ve had for a while is that the Macrodata that’s being refined in MDR is their own data.  The refining made them more docile and drone like. They would come in and work and not ask questions. But when Petey left and Helly came they got distracted and did less refining which made them more resistant to the rules. Made them have more individual thoughts which led to the unraveling of MDR management.  They were awakened enough to realize that there was no one watching them all the time, that the code detectors were probably bullshit and that they could more than likely pull off their plan.  I’m not sure why or how the numbers are "scary" but maybe something in the chip reacts to certain numbers or sequence of numbers which are part of a code inside the chip that emits something to alter their brains.   

Helly in MDR
Another early theory I had was that Helly was in MDR by accident because Petey left unexpectedly.  She was supposed to take the opening in O&D when Burt retired but the Petey thing created an opening that needed to be filled.  It made sense to me that putting someone as high profile as Helly in O&D would make more sense because it was a larger department with more people doing less important work.  She could just blend in, get some photos taken of her for the gala and that would be that.  When I read that the show’s creator, Dan Erickson was asked about this he said something to the effect that Helly was always supposed to be in MDR. I think the quote was “Helly was waiting for an MDR position to open up”.  With this bombshell, I started to wonder that her being able to do well in the MDR department was a huge milestone for the project.  It would prove that Severance could work on someone like the Granddaughter of Keir himself.  Which is why she was very explicitly assigned to MDR.  A common theory is that Irving was going to be forced into retirement to allow this opening in MDR.  I still like my original theory though. 

Always Supposed To Be in MDR

I had mostly dismissed my theory about Helly’s placement in MDR being unplanned by Lumon because of the comment from the show creator.   But then I was thinking about it and wondering what he meant by “she was waiting for an MDR position to open up”. I have another theory that Helena is part of an outside faction fighting against Lumon.  More on that later but this idea supports it.  She WAS waiting for a position in MDR not because Lumon was intending on assigning her there but by a plan from the outside faction who knew about the Helly PR project and knew if Helly was in such a visible and high level department like MDR it could cause problems. It could mean that an outside faction had a plan.  They convinced Petey to reintegrate and created an opening in MDR forcing Lumon to put Helly there. I say forced because I think it is very imperative there be 4 people in MDR at all times.   I feel this is a viable theory, despite the comments by Erickson.  She was waiting for a position in MDR to open up so she could undo whatever nefarious deeds Lumon is up to.  Sadly they probably knew reintegration wasn’t ready (or possible long term)  and that Petey would die but not until after he’d served his purpose of getting Helly into MDR and intentionally or not planting seeds of doubt into outtie Mark’s head.  They used Petey to kick this whole plan into motion.  

Helena the Spy
As I’ve stated, Helena was never meant for such a sensitive position but Petey forced their hand and for better or worse, their experiment, their PR stunt,  the heir to the Lumon name found herself there.  I hinted at this earlier that Helena has been working against her family and her Father’s company.  She is a whole generation removed from the cult-like worship of her grandfather and see’s them for what they are.  She has been groomed for a life of running this controversial company and has probably been given access to enough of the strange ritualistic dogma surrounding Lumon and Severance and want’s nothing to do with it.  She has either founded, or was recruited by a faction of anti-Severance people.   Going back to the idea earlier that personalities remain after the Severance process.  Helly was raised very wealthy.  She has always had anything she needs at the snap of her fingers.  She has always seen herself as someone that rules didn’t apply.  So therefore Helly, the innie is naturally going to be stubborn when being forced into menial tasks and lack of freedom.  When given strict rules.  The faction she’s working with knows this and counts on it when they insert her into MDR.  This is the plan that she herself set into motion when she volunteered to be part of the Severance program.  

Milchick the Mole
This might be controversial, but could Milchick have been in on all of this?  Notably doing the OTC on Dylan when there were a ton of reasons this made no sense. You also wonder who was in the security room pulling the switches.  This is what set Dylan into full resistance mode.  Also, he left Ricken’s book in plain sight for MDR to find.   It’s Milchick that takes Irving to Wellness instead of the Break Room.  This is where Irving meets his #1 distraction, Burt G. Mark is already being manipulated, and Helly, as expected, is being difficult right away, so then you introduce Burt, the book and Dylan’s kids.  It’s a recipe for disaster which Milchick was helping cause all along.  In the final moments of the series he stops Dylan, but he took his time as if he was able to know exactly how much time he needed to allow the OTC to go.