My ranty thoughts (not the actual point):
I am on episode 2 and omg the other still-humans/non-collective (idk what to call them) are ANNOYING ME. Especially the mom and the playboy. Like the playboy is like "oh all the zoos are empty! Yay!" meanwhile he has basically conscripted super models to be his personal little lap dogs. He has no concept of consent.
And the mom is so aggro. I know she's in denial. But it's like lady that isn't your son - to be kind, he is every person on earth. To be less kind, he is an empty vessel with a robot in his head.
Also, Carol didn't kill 11 million people. I understand why she feels guilt for it, because she is human, and I probably would too since on the surface, her action caused a catastrophe. But 11 million people don't die within the span of a minute from being yelled at. The only reason that happened was as a side-effect of this so-called perfect utopia. So the fact that the mom cannot fathom that her grandfather died as a result of being wired into this framework rather than a lady losing her temper (understandably so) on the other side of the world is mind-boggling to me. Which brings me to my actual point.
Part of me is like, how could humans be so ok with having their individuality ripped out? It's essentially dying and we're hardwired to want to survive.
However, it does remind me of everyone's response to AI. Because the way the 'collective' talks reminds me of AI. The whole uncanny valley of it, where they sound a bit human but in a way which no human would ever act. Carol kind of pulled it out of Ravi (the little boy/son) by asking him like a google search to talk about the benefits of different kinds of speculums.
And, in real life, while some people are scared of what AI means for humanity, there are many who are so willing to embrace it over humanity. I'm not even talking about using AI for science purposes to streamline boring tasks, but to use it to replace the human arts. Watching AI movies, listening to AI songs, viewing AI art. Because AI makes things 'easier.'
In the world of Pluribus, I don't see how it's possible for their to be any new art, or original thought (unless of course the virus does have a creative mind of its own capable of new ideas). Because they have the mind of every artist on earth, but the individual artist, capable of creating individual work, is dead.
I don't know if the showrunners intended this as a metaphor for AI, but it's just something that was brought to my mind watching it.
The showrunners (BRILLIANTLY) have designed this episode to make us frustrated with the human humans over the collective. Because what better way to say "hah! see! You get the collective's point too!" They make the humans, the cassanova rapist, the aggro mom, the clueless elders, into the 'bad guys' because obviously they still have choice, and humans can choose to be bad, while the collective cannot. The AI isn't the villain, the humans are. And the scary thing is it's true.
My entire rant and frustration with the humans is a way to prove the collective's point (to an extent). However, I, like Carol, still prefer to keep individualism and all the shit that comes with it. Because for every individual I can't stand, there are two more I like.
