Had I known more about this series, I would have watched it much sooner as it is right up my alley - I’m loving it. As it is, I’ve come in completely cold - I didn’t even know it was sci fi: I thought it was going to be a series about hackers. Three episodes in, the big picture is fuzzy but resolving for me. Here’s my speculation, spoilerized just in case I’m right (and I think I may be):
This is a show about simulation theory. We start with Sergei successfully simulating and then predicting the nematode’s future movement (oops - he broke Rule 1 of 2, but landed an invitation to the inner sanctum). In Devs, of course, they’re doing the same thing on a much bigger scale. They are not using some quantum tv timescreen to view the actual past; they’re simulating what the past was, albeit not with perfect resolution just yet. It’s far from Sergei’s five point synchronization on the nematode, but not yet at the one qubit per particle they need for perfect clarity. If/when they resolve things better, they could theoretically view a simulation of themselves viewing themselves viewing themselves ad infinitum. It’s turtles all the way down.
But here’s the kicker, and it’s something of which they are aware, and a secret that they will kill to protect: it’s turtles all the way up, too. They are not at the end of the line - their “reality” is a simulation, too. Coming to that realization is what made Sergei so violently ill when he comprehended the code - it was a mind-blowing realization. He didn’t kill himself over it, of course. Forest had him killed for exactly the reasons he explained in his No Bullshit pre-murder conversation with Sergei in the forest. He was okay with doing so because Forest recognizes that nobody’s “real” anyway - they’re all living in a simulation.
The conversation Forest and Katie have, sitting outside by the golden pillars, makes total sense if you go back and listen with the understanding that they are talking about simulation theory. “I know, it’s really hard,” Katie says, referring to killing Sergei. “It is, but it shouldn’t be,” Forest replies. Then they talk about unraveling a lifetime of moral experience, unlearning a lifetime of what is real, acknowledging ultimately that humans are hard-wired magical thinkers.
The conversation Forest has with his security chief in this episode runs along similar lines. They talk about how he no longer cares about money, doesn’t care about the environment, smoking doesn’t matter, etc. They don’t matter because, he recognizes, none of it is real.
What makes it all deliciously meta is that, at the end of the day, this show itself is a simulation that we, its viewers, are watching on a screen. Which leaves the question: is anyone watching us watch it?
Review by Daniel TernerBlockedParentSpoilers2021-04-02T03:41:20Z— updated 2021-04-03T14:48:27Z
Had I known more about this series, I would have watched it much sooner as it is right up my alley - I’m loving it. As it is, I’ve come in completely cold - I didn’t even know it was sci fi: I thought it was going to be a series about hackers. Three episodes in, the big picture is fuzzy but resolving for me. Here’s my speculation, spoilerized just in case I’m right (and I think I may be):
This is a show about simulation theory. We start with Sergei successfully simulating and then predicting the nematode’s future movement (oops - he broke Rule 1 of 2, but landed an invitation to the inner sanctum). In Devs, of course, they’re doing the same thing on a much bigger scale. They are not using some quantum tv timescreen to view the actual past; they’re simulating what the past was, albeit not with perfect resolution just yet. It’s far from Sergei’s five point synchronization on the nematode, but not yet at the one qubit per particle they need for perfect clarity. If/when they resolve things better, they could theoretically view a simulation of themselves viewing themselves viewing themselves ad infinitum. It’s turtles all the way down.
But here’s the kicker, and it’s something of which they are aware, and a secret that they will kill to protect: it’s turtles all the way up, too. They are not at the end of the line - their “reality” is a simulation, too. Coming to that realization is what made Sergei so violently ill when he comprehended the code - it was a mind-blowing realization. He didn’t kill himself over it, of course. Forest had him killed for exactly the reasons he explained in his No Bullshit pre-murder conversation with Sergei in the forest. He was okay with doing so because Forest recognizes that nobody’s “real” anyway - they’re all living in a simulation.
The conversation Forest and Katie have, sitting outside by the golden pillars, makes total sense if you go back and listen with the understanding that they are talking about simulation theory. “I know, it’s really hard,” Katie says, referring to killing Sergei. “It is, but it shouldn’t be,” Forest replies. Then they talk about unraveling a lifetime of moral experience, unlearning a lifetime of what is real, acknowledging ultimately that humans are hard-wired magical thinkers.
The conversation Forest has with his security chief in this episode runs along similar lines. They talk about how he no longer cares about money, doesn’t care about the environment, smoking doesn’t matter, etc. They don’t matter because, he recognizes, none of it is real.
What makes it all deliciously meta is that, at the end of the day, this show itself is a simulation that we, its viewers, are watching on a screen. Which leaves the question: is anyone watching us watch it?