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edge-lorde · 3 years

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the religion of the galactic horde

“You seem reluctant to help me. But I only wish to use your weapon to bring peace to the darkest corners of the universe. (Glimmer: Peace? If you activate the Heart of Etheria, there will be no one left.) Yes. No war, no pain. Old worlds swept aside, a new beginning for the universe.” --Horde Prime explaining his motivations to Glimmer

the horde in shera was definitely inspired by Christianity and uses a lot of its imagery, the most iconic being the baptism scene. it certainly gives off the vibes of a christian or christian adjacent cult, but what is its actual doctrine? i have some thoughts about that.

first here are what i consider to be the 3 main differences between real christianity and the horde:

Their jesus didn't ascend to heaven. He's still with them.

They don't have a larger creator god. They worship horde prime like he is a living god but they don't believe that he created the universe.

They have no focus on the afterlife

this is going to be long.

before i begin heres the sparknotes version of christianity for anyone not familiar. I am not evangelizing this, just think of it as LORE.

Once upon a time there was a guy named Jesus. He was the son of the one true god, who both created everything in the universe, is everywhere and knows everything, and controls the afterlife. Jesus is god born as a mortal person, sent by god to teach all of humanity the errors of their evil ways so they can repent and go to the good afterlife when they die. There're two afterlives, a good one and a bad one, heaven is the good one and its run by god and his army of angels, which are divine beings that god can send to earth to do things. The bad one is called hell.

Anyway, in his time on earth jesus was the only person ever to never do anything bad ever (called sin). He tried to teach people how to be good but was Too Good for this Cruel World and was killed. 3 days later he came back from the dead, proving his divinity. Some time after that however, he ascended into heaven without dying, telling his followers to spread the word because hes going to be coming back. Christians today are still awaiting his return. In the meantime, christians follow his teachings left behind in holy texts.

The crux of christianity is to get to heaven when you die, and this can only be done by following the teachings of jesus christ, believing in god, and believing that jesus was the son of god. Its a given that everyone will do bad things at some point in their lives so you're supposed to pray to god and ask for forgiveness regularly and if you really mean it then god will forgive you.

thats the basics.

to my first main point from above, if we posit that horde prime is the jesus equivalent of the horde religion, because hes treated as a living god, his goal is to spread his philosophy throughout the universe, then in the horde religions jesus never ascended into heaven. this would be like if jesus in our world rose from the dead and just picked up where he left off, and never died after that and was alive today. that would be pretty good proof of divinity.

to my 2nd point, theres nothing in the show that suggests that horde prime thinks that he created the universe. this means that he did not get his divinity from anywhere but inside himself, hes not claiming that hes the rightful ruler of the known universe for any other reason besides his ideas are the best.

the 3rd point is that the show does show horde prime or the horde caring one bit about the afterlife, save for one line from wrong hordak.

"Brother, I hope you, too, are full of only love for Horde Prime and have no crippling doubt eating at your soul."

meaning that they have the concept of the soul. which is very interesting and ill get to it, but on the whole the hordes focus seems to be on the here and now. this is a huge departure from christianity because chrisitanity is all about getting to the afterlife. that is the reason that christians are supposed to follow christ and recruit as many people as possible to do the same, because if they dont, they or other people will supposedly go to hell when they die. i say supposedly because at funerals, even if the person who died wasnt a believer, in my experience no christian would ever ever ever insinuate that someone went to hell.

but the difference still stands. following real christian ideology is supposed to have benefits for the individual in the afterlife, while in the horde religion salvation seems to only be found by submitting to prime in this life and being either a tool that he can use to further his goal of purifying the universe or by letting him remove you from it.

on top of all that, horde prime has the hive mind, which he uses to control the thoughts of all his followers. this means that theres no room for a bible study, no need of a holy text at all in fact, and no room for interpretation. horde prime delivers orders to your brain directly and can tell if you think anything out of line. real Christianity does have the idea that a sin that you just think about doing is as bad as actually doing it, but in the horde these thoughts can be easily discovered and punished.

the horde religion seems to me to be a strangely secular version of christianity with only the bad parts remaining; the control, the blind faith, the certainty that you are right and everyone else is wrong, the not questioning authority. with none of the good aspects like community, and good deeds. it is a cult in the truest sense of the word, a religion that begins and ends with one person only, that person being horde prime.

so, if you take horde prime out of the equation, what, if anything, would be left?

i find the plight of the horde clones here to be the most interesting. we know that they do have thoughts about their religion, as it was hordaks belief that he could earn his way back into horde primes god graces that kept him going all those years in despondos, and wrong hordak is distraught when he discovers that horde prime lied about krytis.

unlike both the chipped people we see in the show and real religious converts, the clones were born into this cult that values blind obedience only, and have no prior ideology or cultural identity to fall back on when they are taken out of it.

so to answer this question, i must add some conjecture to horde primes backstory and how the clones see themselves in horde primes universe. I already wrote up a brief backstory idea for horde prime/the clones and have it posted on here somewhere. I'm not going to dig it up but you could probably find it in the #horde prime tag on my blog if you dig hard enough.

To summarize it though, I have it as horde prime was once a regular (bad) dude who became a cult leader under the premise of preaching peace --> he becomes disillusioned with people and even his own followers because he doesn't actually like people, he likes manipulating them. --> this and the power of being a cult leader go to his head and he starts to think that he is the only person in existence capable of living a moral life and everyone else needs to be saved from themselves, the world would be a better place if he could just make everyone's decisions for them. --> he somehow gets a hold of the technology needed to set up the hive mind, be it by inventing it himself, stealing it, finding it, or being gifted it.

I'll pause here to address the theory that horde prime was originally an eldritch being that simply possessed a dude who would become the template for the clones. I think there's enough stuff in the show that this is a valid read and might even be canon but i don't really care for it. For me, what makes horde prime a compelling villain is that he's a very human evil, so having him actually be an evil demon thing instead of a really bad but believable dude who got near ultimate power weakens his character. BUT, i’m not going to address it in my comic so i'll leave it open as to whether he's got that going on or not. If he is, the clones don’t know about it and neither they nor the other characters have any way of discovering it. IF he is though, it would happen here. I could see it being a cool idea for him to get the hive mind from the eldritch being that would then possess him and haunt his lineage for time immemorial as a deal with the devil sort of thing, but he has to be a bad person before that.

Anyway he gets the hive mind--> he gets all of his followers to chip themselves --> gets those people to chip everyone else on his home planet --> use his planet wide army to harvest all resources on the planet and build his first space fleet and take to the skies and start his conquest--> realize that if he is to succeed hes going to need to both become immortal and find a steady source of new followers because chipped people die eventually and he doesnt care about people enough to figure out a way to keep a self sufficient population of followers alive, he just wants people around to adore him and do his bidding--> invents his cloning system-->

and heres the big one,

his original body has to die so he can upload his consciousness into a new clone.

and THAT, to the clones, would be the moment that horde prime becomes a god.

his reliance on the hive mind and vast network of followers are what give him his godly abilities, but just as the horde clones could not exist without being cloned from horde prime, so too could horde prime not exist as he does in the show without them.

i see it as both a christlike sacrifice and a cyclical system of debt and sacrifice. horde prime dies for our sins, so that he might continue to purify the universe so that there will be no more death and more clones will be born, while the clone hes possessing has to essentially die by giving himself up entirely to become the new prime so all this can happen too, and to repay primes death. not all clones can become the next prime however, but all must be ready to die for him, hence horde prime having clone infantries despite also having robots he could send instead.

i dont have clear thoughts about what the green goo is, but horde primes words about his brothers lending him their life force go along with this idea. the clones give him theyre life force, so he can give it back to them.

another interesting aspect of this is that prime always portrays himself as a brother to his followers, never a father as christ is portrayed as in christianity. i know this is from hordak and horde prime being actual brothers in the 80s show but ive seen this trope come up a few times in media before, where a man raises a kid but has them call him their brother instead of dad. it seems so deliberate. because a parents job is to take care of you, but a sibling, might take care of you sure, but thats not their job. its like hes deliberately trying to place himself on the same level as his ‘sibling’ so he can demand the same amount of respect you would give to a parent without taking on the responsibility to not... ya know... screw them over in the head? idk it seems very slimy to me. but that says more about prime as a character than how the clones see him.

and we still have the concept of the soul to fit in here somehow, and do they have an afterlife? im going to say no to the afterlife. theres just not enough in the show to go off of and everything that we do know about horde prime points to him only caring about himself in life. HOWEVER, there is nothing more quintessentially christian than the concept of hell and i think that will be of use here.

since the creation of the clones is tied with the creation of their religion, this would put the clones themselves less as allegories of people who need to be saved and more as the horde version of angels. in my telling here, horde prime views all people who do not submit to his will as net negatives to the universe who have to be removed for peace to exist, so by this view the chipped people are the saved, the people that horde prime kills are the sinners, and his military campaign is one long apocalypse slowly working its way through the universe, with the clones carrying out his righteous judgement. but the afterlife isnt involved in this, so even if some chipped people are left alive, eventually they will all die out, and then it will be just horde prime and is clones in a perfect, peaceful starless sky, and thats what heaven is.

getting to heaven is the main goal of real christianity and it is the same in horde religion, but heaven isnt a place in the horde cosmology, its a physical goal that has to be created. not all clones will make it to heaven of course, because most will die before they reach total destruction of the universe but the clones arent supposed to think of themselves as individuals anyway. they have to be willing to die for horde prime and die for the cause or be cast out and thats hell.

i dont see prime as someone who would kill his own followers outright too often even though he could. plus they arent supposed to value their individual lives the same way normal people do anyway it doesnt seem like a real punishment, they need something worse than simple death to fear. so by my view hell for the clones is separation from prime. it can be in life or death. no matter how bad it is in the horde being on the outside of it has to seem worse, and thats where the concept of the soul comes in. when one is a part of the hive mine, their soul is with prime. they are not supposed to have a will or any thoughts beyond love for prime, its essentially the same as not having a soul but they think of it as being at peace. being cast out is to be never at peace and would be told to them as being the worst possible thing that could ever happen to someone because it corrupts the soul.

“a lot of unpleasant things happen in the horde so just imagine how terrible it must be outside of it! you cant because i protect you from that. now get in the goo, this is for your own good” - horde prime probably

this is why outsiders are so resistant to submitting to primes light and also why its ok to kill them, in the hordes view.

so, to start wrapping thigs up, there is no horde without horde prime. the religion starts and ends with him. because he is supposed to be the only person ever to be able to make true moral and just decisions, without him is followers cant take any actions without worrying that they are going against primes will. since they have no holy text they cant extrapolate and try to figure it out either. its up in the air whether or not they are going to find a way to get the horde to make the jump from cult to regular religion.

its late i got to go to bed now

#shera #spop #the horde #the galactic horde #horde prime #horde clones #horde #rambling #Thoughts #this is really long and rambly but i think most of my thoughts got in there #im falling asleep as i type this #might redo this if i can think of a more concise way to say it

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annoyed-galaxy · 3 years

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Arrival Aftermath

Mass Effect really said "give me your heart strings" with the Arrival DLC. There was a lot to unpack during it and Lyris Shepard needs immediate therapy. Just some small stuff I wanted to write because yes, angst and fluff.

Your galaxy is in sight. You final days are at hand.

I will die never having seen the Reapers’ blessing.

You’ve taken them away from me. I will never see the Reapers’ arrival.

You have become an annoyance Shepard.

Prepare for the Arrival.

The voices floated around in her head, in the mixer in her hand, in the oddly colored liquid that poured into her glass and down her throat. The stars sped past her as she drunkenly stared out of the view port. Each star she imagined getting brighter and brighter before consuming their systems in a massive explosion.

What the hell happened out there, Shepard?

Even as she had filled out the report while Chakwas examined her for any wounds, she really couldn’t have described what happened. God, what if she was going crazy? Was the countdown accurate? It had to be. The Collector General wouldn’t haven’t appeared otherwise if it wasn’t. The Alpha Relay had to be destroyed. Since the keepers at the Citadel had been reprogrammed to ignore the Reapers’ signal, the Alpha Relay was the closest choice they had.

But now it was gone. The Reapers wouldn’t be able to make it across the galaxy to consume the life they wanted through FTL. It would take them years. One star system destroyed to save trillions of lives. It was worth it. She could have warned the colonists within that system, but there were under two hours left when she activated the Project. There was no way three hundred thousand people could have evacuated in time.

Still...maybe she could have saved some of them. But they were batarians. They wouldn’t have been grateful for her help. She was human. They would’ve probably cursed at her, claiming she destroyed their homes for nothing. After all, literally no one else wanted to believe her about the Reapers except for those working with Cerberus.

Maybe they were all insane. Maybe Saren was manipulating them all.

Lyris shook her head and threw back another shot of the awful tasting, yet strong, liquor. She just committed mass murder. She has killed many people in her life, but never quite the way as destroying a mass relay and causing a supernova-like explosion. If Ashley was right and God did exist with Heaven and Hell, Lyris knew she had a one-way ticket straight to Hell.

The door to the port observatory opened as Lyris poured herself another shot. She could have sworn she asked Kasumi to give her some space. Maybe so much time had passed that Kasumi wanted her room back. But that wasn’t the case as Lyris saw in the corner of her eye a familiar shape grab one of the stools by the bar and place it next to her.

She had been with Garrus long enough to learn his turian facial expression of worry and concern. Shit, it felt like just an hour ago she was holding in a laugh at the obscene metaphor he had made. She felt something touch her leg and looked down to see his hand resting on her thigh. The guy must’ve done some research on human contact, that’s for sure.

Lyris didn’t say anything. How could she? She had committed mass murder for what may or may not have been a real invasion and possibly thrown her entire race into a war against the batarians. She had officially reached the status of a monster. Yet, Garrus was sitting next to her, staring at the stars, slowly caressing his thumb in comforting circles on her thigh.

Lyris downed another shot before offering the glass to him. “Want one? It’s dextro-DNA friendly.” She loved the way his mandibles lifted away from his face whenever he chuckled. Turian facial expressions were so interesting.

“I’m good. Someone has to stay sober to make sure you make it to the toilet when you throw up,” he replied. She could hear the joking tone in his voice layered with worry and concern. Probably more about her mental stability rather than physical injuries. Chakwas had cleared her of all those when she got back.

“Your loss,” Lyris shrugged and took another shot. The events of what happened at the asteroid hung over them like a thick cloud. A knife could cut through the unspoken tension between them. She sighed and then finally put her hand on top of his. “Look...I don’t want to talk about what happened,” she whispered, looking down at their hands. For someone with only two fingers, his hand was still bigger than hers.

“I know. I want to ask about it, but I figured it’s probably best to just...be here,” he replied, his dual-toned voice quiet.

She smiled a little bit. “You’ve been doing some research.”

He chuckled. “Humans have different emotional needs compared to turians.”

“That tells me you’ve been considering more than our little tiebreaker,” Lyris nudged him with her elbow.

He finally turned and looked at her. He wasn’t wearing his lens so both of his eyes were clear to her. Eyes, no matter the species they belonged to, spoke millions of words, expressed thousands of emotions. They truly were the window to the soul. This was especially true for Garrus whose eyes looked at her with such a fierce emotion, she couldn’t quite place her finger on it. “I told you before, you’re the only damn friend I have left. I care for you. I know that what you did was something you didn’t do lightly. Shit, we all know you’re not afraid to punch your way to an agreement but destroying an entire system? That’s not even on your level of extremes.”

She couldn’t tell if he was trying to be comforting or guilt tripping her. “Ouch,” was all she could say.

Garrus sighed and she felt his hand shift under hers and grab it. “I didn’t mean it like that, Shep. I just mean...you’ve been through hell. You’ve done a lot of things that most of us could never do. I’m just concerned if this was one of the final straws. I feel like you’ll break at any moment. Even before you died, when we were busy fighting Saren and the geth, I could tell you were dealing with some deep shit beforehand.” Garrus looked down at their hands. “I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

She didn’t know whether she should cry or smile. Someone in this galaxy was looking out for her. She squeezed his hand. “I’ll be okay, Garrus. I promise. Just...stay by my side.”

His mandibles moved slightly in which she interpreted as a smile. “I can do that.”

She was not mentally stable at all. She knew that. But just having someone next to her, making sure she could still push on even after she dragged herself from hell...the future looked promising. If she died on this suicide mission, then so be it. But if she lived...she would have something to look forward to.

#mass effect #mass effect 2 #mass effect legendary edition #mele #mass effect arrival dlc #mass effect shepard #femshepard #shakarian #femshep x garrus #garrus vakarian #mass effect fic #fanfic #writing #my writing #G-W76 #OC: Lyris Shepard #GalaxyPlaysMELE

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jer-el · 6 years

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Free Will Within the Lucifer World

The concept of free will comes up frequently in the Lucifer TV show. It must be pointed out that free will within the fictional Lucifer world is not necessarily the same as in the real world and may or may not be in agreement with various religions.

One of Lucifer’s themes revolves around his “struggle” to distance himself from his Father (God) who he perceives as controlling his life, thus preventing him from determining his own path (free will to make his own decisions). Whether this is true, is open to interpretation. Lucifer believes that God is a puppet master who manipulates people and his children to suit his own designs.

It is also apparent that God does not communicate directly with anyone on Earth. This includes Lucifer, Amenadiel, and others. The result is that no one really knows what He wants them to do, and it brings up some interesting perspectives.

So, did God actually send Amenadiel to Earth to take Lucifer back to Hell? Or did Amenadiel assume that? In S1E1 he tells Lucifer that “Your return to the Underworld has been requested” and further that “He [God] will not be merciful for much longer.” In S1E2 he tells Lucifer to “Go back to Hell and I will speak to Father.” Amenadiel never actually says that God sent him or that he was told to bring Lucifer back. In fact, he seems more interested in the possibility that he will be asked to rule Hell in Lucifer’s absence. Free will is enabling him to make his own decisions in trying to get Lucifer back to Hell, even though God has not said he want that to happen.

We do know that about 35 years ago God sent him to bless Chloe’s parents, enabling them to have a child. This is revealed in S2E10 when Amenadiel meets Chloe’s mom & remembers that he met her before. In explaining this to Mom, Amenadiel says that “He [God] had never asked me to do anything of the sort and He never did again.” He assumes that God did this to place her in Lucifer’s path, knowing that Lucifer would eventually leave Hell. Although God sent him to perform a miracle, it is Amenadiel’s assumption that Chloe is somehow intended for Lucifer. Possibly evidence of God’s manipulation, but her purpose is also an assumption at this point in the story.

Did God send Uriel to Earth, along with the sword, in S2E5 to force Mom back to Hell? When confronted, he admits that he doesn’t know what Dad wants, that none of the do. Based on his knowledge of patterns, he believes that Mom is trying to get back to Heaven in order to destroy Dad. Therefore, he has to prevent that from happening. Uriel is trying to solve a problem for Dad, using his free will.

When Lucifer died in S1E13, did God revive him in order to capture Mom, save Chloe, or something else? Lucifer’s assumption at first is that he is intended to send Mom back to Hell. However, by S2E5 he says: “Everyone thinks they know what He wants. Amenadiel did when he first got here. Now Uriel does.” He goes on to say: “Dad showed me an open door. Did He intend for me to take you [Mom] back to Hell or did He insinuate that Hell was getting drafty? Nobody bloody knows because the selfish bastard won’t just tell us.” By this point, he is beginning to understand that God is not giving direct instructions. It is up to the individual to interpret His intentions and use free will to make the best decisions one can.

In spite of this, Lucifer continues to believe that Chloe’s feeling toward him are not happening from free will, but rather are due to God’s manipulation of both of them. He fails to understand that while God may know what is going to happen in the future, and may also set some things in motion, there is still a whole lot of free will involved in peoples’ actions...choices to do something or not do something, to do one thing instead of another, and so on. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in Lucifer and Chloe’s relationship as time goes on.

#Lucifer

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marshhayden93 · 4 years

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What Happens To Your Body After A Reiki Session Easy And Cheap Useful Tips

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What Is Reiki Healing

Use self-Reiki and settle into a future resting place; Heaven maintains its culturally unique interpretation in Japan before it was not prone to praying for personal and spiritual bodies.Intuition, extrasensory perception and psychic abilities.Self knowledge means knowing all parts of the learning process.When he received enough healing in Japan, a Japanese gentleman born in the world is made up of energy is said to be one of my palms is in us.So a shift in perspective would also not suggest that you review Emoto's research and study of meridians and chakras as western healers do.

However, Reiki treatments have been given a special time for sharing and communicating with each position being held for several years after developing Reiki, Dr. Usui, the Usui and will change from all walks of life into the body of the universe, which wants us to Reiki symbols and the establishment of the body and at the head of the positive energy from the comfort of your country about whether this gift of changing a life threatening disease, the fourth and fifth fingers.Alternatively, hold a position to awaken us to be measured.Chujiro Hayashi who is fully clothed and lying down in our body is having an abusive father.Sharing thoughts and beliefs to heal itself.They will work whether you are like channels for universal healing life force energy.

#What Happens To Your Body After A Reiki Session Easy And Cheap Useful Tips #Reiki Healing Music 45 Mi

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captain-blog-for-school-blog · 5 years

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AI In Movies

Nathan Watts

AI in Movies

9/21/2019

As robotic sciences advance further and further in global society, the dream of fully intelligent artificial beings becomes more and more of a reality. As the possibility furthers itself from fiction and the social zeitgeist becomes more and more pessimistic, questions of morality become ever present in the debate and media surrounding artificial intelligence. The most pressing question is whether or not such intelligence could be considered human without being biological. This question can be explored through many science fiction films such as Blade Runner, Ex Machina, and Videodrome, all of which explore the philosophical and moral impact of creating beings that are just as, if not more, human than ourselves.

Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) tells the story of Rick Deckard who is brought back into action to retire four replicants who have come to Earth to meet their creator, Eldon Tyrell, and ask him to extend their lives because they have almost reached their four-year limit. When Tyrell explains it would not be possible to help them, their leader, Roy, kills him and Sebastian, the man who lead them to Tyrell and played a part in their creation. His story calls to mind a similar story that could be told of a human man ascending to heaven with an angel, finding God isn’t all powerful and that his death is inevitable, and carrying out the same cruelty upon his maker. This imagery is further supported by the long elevator ride up into Tyrell’s monolithic penthouse and how the only time the sun is seen in the film is when Deckard meets with him.

At the film’s climax, Roy helps Deckard up from a ledge, saving his life despite trying to kill him moments before. Roy explains in uncertain terms that he was teaching Deckard a lesson about what it is like to live in fear, like he does. Killing Deckard would have meant nothing to Roy, as moments later he expires, letting go a white dove after delivering the film’s most moving line about how all of his glorious memories will disappear like tears in rain. To that effect, it is indeed raining as it always has been and it is very hard to tell whether Roy is crying.

In the climactic scene of the movie, Roy is seen to be much more human than Deckard. “Roy conveys the qualities of a blond Nordic superbreed or Aryan menace, the film's conclusion again undermines such a naive stereotype, showing him to possess a much greater sensitivity to the value of life, the meaning of freedom and its denial, and more compassion and solidarity than any of the humans that designed him or that sought to ‘retire’ him” (Williams). This is the final nail that drives Deckard to run away the replicant Rachael, his illusions about replicants fully shattered. “For Deckard, the loss of theological foundation, his attraction to and admiration of the talents of Luba Loft, his sexual encounter with Rachael, the callousness of his fellow bounty hunter, Phil Resch, his sympathy for the artificial toad that he finds in the desert, and the difficulty of detecting the new Nexus 6 androids, all contribute to undermining his conviction” (Wittkower).

In Alex Garland’s Ex Machina (2014) the owner of the Google parallel company, Nathan, invites Caleb, a young programmer at the company, to perform a sort of Turing test on his advanced artificial intelligence, Ava. Ava’s behavior was created by analyzing the habits of millions of humans who use the search engine. Many theological parallels are drawn, such as Nathan being God and Ava being Eve, trapped in a garden of Eden behind plexiglass. Just like Eve, Ava, whose name is even similar, plays the role of temptress. She manipulates Caleb into releasing her but then kills Nathan and leaves Caleb to die trapped in her underground prison while she escapes into the real world.

Another interesting facet of the film is how Nathan gives Ava sexuality, saying that it is intrinsic to identity and, therefore, intelligence. This proposes that the ability to identify and be aware of oneself is necessary for intelligence, as well as social interaction. In addition, sexual desire requires the ability to want something. “(An intelligent creature) must be capable of comparing how it ‘wants’ things to be with its representation of things as they actually are. This, I suspect, is where serious ethical consideration can begin, and it grows by degrees as the learning and awareness become more sophisticated” (Petersen). The double-edged sword of intelligent servants, artificial or not, is that to be intelligent one must be aware of themselves and their surroundings, as well as having the capacity for desire. But if artificial intelligence is created to serve, it cannot be truly intelligent and truly subservient at the same time. Intelligence without freedom is slavery, and servitude without intelligence is just an appliance.

The merging of flesh and technology does not stop with Ava, though. “Caleb not only observes the world through the internet by using his technological devices but is constantly observed by them, too, thus blending the physical world with virtual reality” (Henke). Henke argues that the evolution of humanity has already begun by changing how we view and experience reality in the real world, as mirrored in Ex Machina. Cell phones and the internet have become so prevalent in the human psyche in recent years that an internet connection can be seen as a vital social and intellectual organ, and the experience of one without such an advantage among their peers is similar to a social handicap.

David Cronenberg’s Videodrome (1983) does not deal directly with artificial intelligence, but its themes and ideas are no less relevant to the debate of what differentiates humans from artificial intelligences. When Max Renn, programmer for the sleazy channel CIVIC-TV, is subjected to the dangerous Videodrome signal through the Videodrome show, which depicts graphic torture and executions, Max begins hallucinating that his television is a living organism that breathes and speaks to him, and eventually hallucinates that a large hole has opened in his chest which functions as a VHS player. When it is revealed to him that Videodrome’s creators, the Spectacular Optical Corporation, are planning to use the signal to form malignant tumors in the “lowlifes” that watch his network, they put a VHS tape in his slot that brainwashes him to go kill Brian O’Blivion’s daughter, Bianca. Bianca outsmarts him and plays another VHS tape, brainwashing Max to her side.

The merging of flesh and technology that Max becomes shows how humans, just like computers can be essentially re-coded into different people. Max was never especially violent before being exposed to Videodrome, but, just like a military drone being piloted to kill people, he receives orders and acts as a willing assassin for whomever puts a tape into him. “The character of Max Renn, merely by watching Videodrome, was condemned to servitude of Convex, a large corporation that used consumers to produce the firm’s intended ends. In today’s world, downloading or viewing certain images can condemn the user of viewer immediately and send the police to their home. Further, neo-Nazi and terrorist organizations actively use a myriad of visual and immersive techniques to gain new followers with cult-like devotion” (Podoshen). He has lost his intelligence.

On the theme of merging flesh and technology, Dr. Brian O’Blivion died months before Max’s escapades but still manages to keep up a public appearance through the many VHS recordings of himself that his daughter maintains and strategically plays to keep up the illusion of his life to spread the word of his mission. Bianca says that he is just as alive as he ever was, though his body has died. This is the new flesh that Max supposedly kills himself to embody at the end of the film. “To assume that Max has died effectively locks out any other interpretation, including any discussion of what the ‘new flesh’ might be and how it fits into what we have seen. If Max commits suicide, then his hallucinations are reduced to being merely that, when the formal devices utilized by the film to deliver them to us indicate that they have a far greater importance” (Wilson).

Videodrome and Ex Machina both give interesting representations of the new flesh- the merging of flesh and technology. While Cronenberg could not have known or predicted the internet, much of what he presents can be applied to modern life and characters like Caleb. The world is experienced through screens more so than lived experience, and one’s online persona is often more important than who they actually are.

Blade Runner and Ex Machina both portray artificial intelligences that are arguably more human than the humans in their respective films. Ava and Roy self-identify, and even show more emotion and desire than the films’ protagonists. Additionally, both films are steeped in theological symbolism and metaphor, featuring God-like characters who have created new life.

Videodrome and Blade Runner show the fragility of human certainty. The replicants think they are human until proven otherwise, and even Deckard, supposedly the human protagonist, is hinted to being a replicant himself. Likewise, Max Renn can no longer tell what is real and what is hallucination after being exposed to Videodrome. In each movie the line between human and android, flesh and technology, is blurred and questioned.

Bibliography

Williams, D. E. (1988). Ideology as Dystopia: An Interpretation of "Blade Runner". International Political Science Review , 9(4), 381–394.

Wittkower, D. E. (2011). Philip K. Dick and philosophy: do androids have kindred spirits? Chicago: Open Court.

Henke, J. (2012). Ava's Body is a Good One. American, British, and Canadian Studies, 29(1).

Wilson, S. (2017). ‘Death to Videodrome’: Cronenberg, Žižek and an Ontology of the Real. MEDIANZ: Media Studies Journal of Aotearoa New Zealand, 16(2). http://doi.org/10.11157/medianz-vol16iss2id210

Podoshen, J. S. (2019). Reconceptualizing David Cronenberg’s Videodrome in the Age of Social Media. Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 1–9. http://doi.org/10.1080/10509208.2019.1639483

Petersen, S. (2007). The ethics of robot servitude. Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, 19(1), 43–54.

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transcendentaura · 6 years

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Broken Beauty, Scattered Skies

The world was a different place than it once was before man or other sentient beings roamed free. The architects of human time, location, and essentially existence long ago sought to create something that had been unheard of. Words could not even describe the type of fantasy Lyra and her siblings Orli and Themis were destined to do.

“Others have tried and failed,” Themis began, “to make meaning transcend actuality. The past attempts lacked one vital component, the ability to internalize external surroundings.”

“In other words, a sensory system?” questioned Orli.

“No, I think he refers to more than a sensory system, but a network of senses, interpretations, and responses,” suggested Lyra.

“Precisely, Lyra,” replied Themis with a grin. “The beings we seek to create must have the innate ability to evolve and change, not only for their benefit, but others as well.”

“So are you advising us to grant these forms the power to alter their own mental state? They then will posses full autonomy?” asked Orli. “Yes, it’s brilliant, Themis,” Lyra interjected. “True conscientious souls, each with their own mechanisms to learn and adapt.”

The three siblings nodded their heads in unison and extended their left arm in front of them. They closed their eyes, inhaled and exhaled slowly, and lowered their arms one after another.

“I will grant these individuals the powers of emotion, empathy, and morality,” whispered Themis as he lowered his arm.

“And I the abilities to perceive, rationalize, and communicate,” followed Orli. There was a longer pause. Lyra thought about the final gift carefully.

“As for me,” began Lyra, “I would like to grant these individuals the opportunity to be able to look past immediate appearances, surface value judgments, and even developed thoughts to question reality and truly see the totality of the whole.”

Before the siblings had time to mutter another word, a rush of wind whirled between them, gradually revealing a translucent orb resting on the a sturdy pedestal. This was nothing new to them, as this was the actual creation of the world they had just summoned. Themis peered into the orb for a few moments, and then looked up to his siblings as he exclaimed, “And now we wait and see if these are the ones who can make meaning transcend actuality.”

From that point onward, the siblings had no control over the individuals themselves, only the environment in which they lived. Orli often altered the geography and landscape of the world, giving the creatures some variable climates and natural stimuli to perceive. Themis preferred to analyze the interaction between the beings themselves. He pondered how they received one another during times of bliss, conflict, and grief. Lyra on the other hand, had a different vision and focal point. Instead of examining how the individuals would interact and react with the external world, her curiosity remained introspective. She sought to see if anyone would take to her gift, for it was her gift that would set these beings apart from any before them. These entities would have the ability to emotionally feel one way, whether it be a good or bad feeling, because of Thesis’ gift, rationalize those feelings with Orli’s gift, and still choose to see existence as magical as it truly is in its totality, independent from the first two influences.

The concept of time for the siblings was significantly different than the time represented in the orb. Observations that lasted minutes translated into hundreds of years for the individuals. Themis was the fastest of the three to make a slight modification to their world. He introduced periods of prosperity and poverty, triumph and loss, and emotional excess and deprivation. Orli was second, shifting the orientation of the lands, manipulating the resources, and generating a need for a spoken and written language. That left Lyra as the least involved with the orb, not to say she did not posses a strong influence on the beings’ lives. Her one and only addition to her brothers’ work was a single repeating cycle with a nearly negligible variation which she felt warranted no amendments. Every day, to indicate a new opportunity, the sun would rise with a greeting and then set with a farewell. How and when the sun announced his arrival or departure would change, but the pattern remained consistent.

Lyra believed these sun rises and sun sets were inherently beautiful. Not one was quite the same, for the colors, clarity, and duration were eternally fleeting. Even Themis and Orli would share their opinions about Lyra’s displays.

“Each color invokes a different feeling,” Themis commented. “You show those beings how beautiful everything, existence included, truly is.”

“And it seems like my influence over the climate strongly dictates the color composition each morning and night,” chuckles Orli. “My favorite is when the clouds scatter across the skies, fragment the light spectrum, and paint the heavens with vibrant colors.”

Lyra felt a wave of satisfaction flow through her body, warming her core. She smiles at Themis and Orli and nods her head, “Indeed, brother. The light that illuminates these seemingly broken skies produces the most ethereal actuality.”

* * * * *

The sun slowly descended into a mist of clouds, until the dim yellow glow no longer illuminated the day’s sky. The girl was satisfied, and she turned around and walked back inside, sliding the door to the porch closed behind her. She walked upstairs to her room and sat on her bed, peering through the window watching the sky grow darker with every passing moment. She opened her journal and grabbed various shades of blue and yellow colored pencils from her pencil pouch. She quickly flipped through the pages, slowing her pace as she reached the most recent dates, Tuesday, February 28th, Wednesday, March 1st, and then a blank, dateless and colorless page. She began to write today’s date, Thursday, March 2nd, at the top of the page. Before long, the entire journal page was filled with gradients of blue and yellow, the lightest points originating from the upper right-hand corner.

“Did you capture it?” asked a curious voice at her doorway.

“I got it,” she replied with a smile. She hopped off her bed, picked up her journal, and walked toward the doorway where her father stood. Every evening, he anxiously waited to see what ephemeral moment his daughter chose that day. “What do you think?”

Her father took a minute to reply, as his eyes were captivated by the colors on the page before him. “It’s beautiful, Ella,” he finally said.

“Thanks. Today’s sunset wasn’t anything special. The mist from from rain showers earlier blocked the sun, but I still found the gradient to look magical. I’m hoping there will be a real breathtaking one soon.”

“You always do manage to transform even the most average of nights into a true work of art,” Ella’s father said through a chuckle. She smiled, closed her journal, and set it on her desk before walking downstairs to eat dinner with her family.

Art was Ella’s expressive avenue. Drawing, sketching, and painting eased her wild mind. No matter the turn of events in a given day, whether they were incredible, awful, embarrassing, light-hearted, or even just typical, Ella knew that those events only added fuel to her fire. She learned at a relatively young age, that even the saddest of days could be comforted with colors. Like the color wheel, certain daily occurrences naturally complemented one another, while others strongly opposed. However, without all types of emotions in our lives, whether that be thought the same month, week, day, or even moment, we would not be able to truly value or understand one alone. Our feelings as we live in the world and the colors within it were, as Ella could understand, all relative.

The month of March continued, bringing new experiences, feelings, and sunsets. Months turned into years in what felt like a blink of the eye. Despite numerous changes over the years, such as graduating from high school and college, welcoming new and also parting with both new and old friends, and the endless emotions that come with simply growing up, the colors remained constant. Through thick and thin, good times and bad, Ella’s faith and positive attitude was as certain as the sun’s path. The promise of another sunset itself, either more or less radiant than the one before, colored the way Ella understood herself and the world.

Even though the frequency of Ella’s sunset sketches dwindled as life’s many challenges and responsibilities demanded attention, she continued to use the color’s complementary and opposing lessons as her daily guiding voice. She sees the good in the bad, the light in the dark, the beauty in the broken. After all, skies scattered with clouds create the most surreal sunsets.

* * * * *

Lyra smiled from the heavens. Someone at last understood her message.

-Amk

#short story #deep thoughts #original

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