Jack Bauer, Rupert Sheldrake and The Singularity. That's entertainment!
There are so many ideas per episode on this show that everyone who watches it will see a slightly different elephant. There's an especially interesting take here.
...a world where nobody dies is awfully similar to a world where we're all terminal patients who are just hanging on. The most sardonic note in the episode comes from a couple of different characters, who advance the idea that this is the Singularity, the transformation of humanity that Vernor Vinge, Ray Kurzweil and other geek icons have predicted.In fairness to myself, I wasn't the only supposedly smart commentator who averted their (his or her) gaze from the tedious spectre of the Evil Drug Conglomerate.
And that's the most awful thought of them all. The Singularity was supposed to turn us into something akin to gods. But this Singularity, far from deifying us, is turning us all into a legion of the damned, the endlessly suffering, trapped in a kind of half life.
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6 comments:
I thought you had been a Sheldrake fan once....
The Singularity is, as it's usually discussed, the point at which machine intelligence outpaces human intelligence and machines take over their own development....
Don't see what it has to do with immortal humans, yet.
A Sheldrake fan? In a sense, I guess. That was so long ago. It should make a cool mythology for the show, if it's developed.
The thread I didn't pick up on was the "hospice care" notion jumped on by io9. I predict a much larger role in future episodes for the Lauren Ambrose character, a PR agent for a drug company.
I agree about the singularity. It was mentioned in passing. No idea yet how it applies.
Ambrose was a lot cuter as a teen...
Red heads are always cute. Only differences of degree.
For example, if you've been following the Murdoch story...
Best comment to date: "What a waste of a great head of hair."
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