Over the years, technology has grown and evolved at an exponential rate; a trend that likely isn’t slowing down any time soon. The internet has allowed society to connect with one another all around the world, and we’ve come to rely on it more and more every day. Currently, we’re seeing the rise of Artificial Intelligence. Tech companies are competing against one another to create the best AI possible to make lives easier for people all over the world and, of course, to monetize its use in order to increase profits for the ultra-rich.
I could fill this post with my feelings on the increased use of AI technology on a day-to-day basis and the potential impact it has on individuals trying to make a decent living, but there’s already thousands of articles spread across the internet that elaborately and eloquently detail the use of AI better than I ever could. Once we perfect AI technology, what comes next?
This was a question I never really asked myself until I watched Pantheon. In the not-so-distant future, a major tech company invents a technology called Uploaded Intelligence, a process which allows a human being to upload their consciousness into the Cloud. The caveat here is that you have to die in the physical world in order to be reborn in the digital world. A world in which your consciousness can live for eternity. Kind of like a digital heaven.
The show itself is stunning. The animation is great, especially the scenes involving the UI characters in the cloud. It has a nice blend of western and eastern animation. Lots of great actors in it too. Katie Chung, Paul Dano, Aaron Eckhart, Daniel Dae Kim, Rosemarie Dewitt, William Hurt (RIP) to name a few. Unfortunately, AMC+ only ordered 2 seasons so the show is officially over. As much as I would love to see more, the ending of the second season is a decent enough ending to complete the show as a whole.
This is one of the few shows that really stuck with me after I finished it. Not just emotionally like Station Eleven, but it also made me think about the future and what sort of role technology will play in it. That’s one of the things I love about Sci-Fi. It provides us with a glimpse into a possible future. If tech companies found a way to upload a human consciousness into the internet, what sort of consequences would our world face? How would the general public react?
Pantheon explores those scenarios. When someone is uploaded, their emotions and memories are kept intact. Human beings are driven by emotion and the same goes for the mind when it’s uploaded to the Cloud. But they are not entirely free. In the beginning, any tech company who gets their hands on the technology can use and manipulate the code that makes up a human’s consciousness and utilize their expertise for their own personal gain. For example, one woman who was a brilliant Wall Street banker was uploaded when she died and used by financial institutions within their own network to force her to continue the work she performed when she was alive. The caveat is that her memories were wiped so in her mind, she was going into work every day as if nothing had changed.
That’s one of the dangers of this sort of technology. Big tech companies could use these UI as free labor. But then when one of the UIs realize what’s being done to them, they retaliate and able to turn our own technology against us. Naturally, when people find out about this, they are terrified of the power they hold over our every day lives.
Another question this show asks its audience is whether or not an Uploaded Intelligence is considered human anymore since they don’t possess a physical body. So now we can into the philosophical notion of what makes us human. Is an uploaded individual still considered human if their thoughts, emotions, and memories are kept intact? Or is it our physical form that ties us to this world that makes us human? And if Uploaded Intelligence is human, should they share they same rights as those still stuck on Earth?
As the show moves into its second season, we start seeing people in the real world accept Uploaded Intelligence as a way of life. People can now choose to leave behind their physical bodies to live for eternity as an evolved being. In a way, it’s like assisted suicide. But are they really dead if their consciousness can live forever in the Cloud? If this technology became available in our lifetimes, how many of us are willing to go through with it? I’m sure religion would play a big role for most people. For people who aren’t religious, it’s a tangible and realistic option for some sort of afterlife.
When the show gets to its final 2 episodes, it opens up other possibilities and wild theories about our universe that I won’t get into here. Partly because it’s a major spoiler for the show and I urge anyone reading this to check it out. Both seasons are streaming on Netflix.
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