MAVIS NICHOLSON: "Do you think it is possible, then, for someone to forgive themselves even when they've done something absolutely terrible?"
TONI MORRISON: "Yes. It's called grace. At some point you do. If you don't, you're in a cul-de-sac. But you have to go through the fire first. You have to experience the full fall, and the complete self-loathing, in order to come around to something like the forgiving of oneself. It's when you skip responsibility, when you use a subsititute emotion like guilt--which is of no use to anyone--but if you feel the real thing which is shame, hatred, humiliation, and self-loathing: that is the door. And if you get through that, then you can forgive yourself."
Saying kerblam is pro capitalism is fucking dumb and you’re wrong. I usually try to avoid telling people their takes of an episode is dumb and wrong(at least to their faces) but this time it is. And I’ll prove it.
I wouldn’t go as far as saying it’s anti-capitalism, but to say it’s pro isn’t right either. Kerblam is pretty obviously a stand in for any big corporation, and since Amazon is, well, Amazon, I’m using it in my comparisons.
We learn early on that kerblam is on a moon and it’s heavily implied that the human workers stay there year round (Dan saying he splurges twice a year to see his daughter) but this isn’t framed as a good thing- there’s no way to frame that as a good thing. It’s framed very obviously as sad, he’s sad he can’t see his kid any more because he has to work.
There’s also a very high unemployment rate, as stated by multiple characters, which again: it’s shown as a bad thing. Hell- Charlie says as much. It’s bad, it’s terrible, it shouldn’t be. And no one argues with him- the doctor agrees! It is terrible that so many people are unemployed, but it’s not the AI’s fault
That’s the moral. AI is not responsible for the people who use it for wrong (please note for this next part: how it is right now, I am not pro-AI, this is from a strictly scifi perspective where the AI has a conscious(?)). AI could be an incredibly helpful tool, but how it’s being used irl and in the epsiode, it’s not good.
Where real life and Dr who depart is that the AI in kerblam is- if not sentient, close enough that it knows to send for help so innocent people don’t die. Which is what would’ve happened! Charlie had a good goal. But how he went about it- the way he decided to try and fix the issue was to kill countless people.
This episode isn’t saying Kerblam is good. It isn’t saying the practices of big companies like Kerblam or Amazon is good. It actively discourages it, actually. It’s saying that AI is not at fault for how people use it, that to make a problem better you shouldn’t murder a bunch of innocent people. It’s not pro-capitalism. Stop it.
And if you have an actual argument with evidence from the episode I’d be happy to hear it! But only if it includes actual evidence :)
date did not happen btw many scheduling conflicts arose and now i'm going back across country for uni. BUT she is still interested & i am gonna message her when i'm back in like 2 months so we can go for that date. IF she's still single. if not then i will have fumbled massively but it won't be the end of the world cause there are other hot lesbians out there. i think