I've only seen the first episode and liked it but am not sure I think it's worth to subscribe to HBO max just for this. Like what I see so far and will probably end up seeing the rest when it comes out in other formats. Spoiler Near the end of the episode she says she didn't know she could do those things so she is still discovering what her abilities actually are. In a lot of science fiction there is discussion about whether a human society can survive if it is sustained by robots. This is central theme in Asimov's work and even in Wall-E. Ridley Scott himself raised this question a bit in Blade Runner that was one reason why replicants weren't allowed on Earth.
Watched through ep 5, love this show. Just to reiterate what I was saying above, this is a very nuanced show with lots of different commentaries. It's not just a hard sci-fi show about colonizing an alien world.
I've been saying it for a long time now, there's no way a monkey would hold a lion cub over the edger of a mountain like that. But this show thinks anything can mother anything. It's all about raising children. But there can be no commentary on that because what can they ultimately say other than there is no right way. We've got robots raisin children We have humans raising robots. We have an alien raising a human. We almost had a human raising an alien until she ate it. Next it will be robots raising aliens ( see prometheus ) I don't know where they can go with this topic that will have a clear direction, and be interesting.
Have you watched all of the episodes through 5? Because one of the subtle plot-lines is that the an is not a fit or fitting mother.
Ridley is clearly obsessed with cross - species parenting in the world he has built, that is for sure, but his message at best seems muddled to me. I can't say I know much about what he wants to say, but this is my take on it; - Blade Runner - Human/Robot breed - Hopeful outcome - Alien Covenant - Robots try to raise Aliens - Disaster - Alien - Human give birth to Alien - Cluster Puck - Alien Covenant - Human gives birth to Octopus - Cluster Puck - Alien 3 - human gives birth to Alien - Ends in suicide. - Raised by Wolves - Robots raise humans - mixed message, but mostly cluster puck - Raised by Wolves - Human raise robots - TBD - Raised by Wolves - Aliens raise Humans - Hopeful Outcome.
I refuse to watch something awesome on HBO until they get with 2020 (or 2015) and figure out how to do 4k. I hate myself.
Its good and I like it, but some of the episodes drag. I don't need non stop action...far from it, but a couple of the episodes could have been pared down.
this is a good show my only gripe is the robot parents don't behave like robots, more like superheroes it would be more interesting to see how their algorithm attempts to carry out their prime directive without emotion
In ep5 Spoiler Human raised a robot to mother humans. I think it's interesting necromancers are likely a creation by the Mithraic. You'd think it'd be the atheist faction who are all mech heavy robot warriors. How did humanity come down to a few hundred lives? They've been more forthcoming with the background story, but it's one of those things that don't really need to be definitively answered unless there are more mysteries behind it. That hallucination/divine message reminds me a lot of the BSG remake. BSG's interplay of spirituality with robot sentience was pretty good until the very last seasons... Overall I think Ridley's tapped into something about what or how we'll end up in our final form. American naturalists would like to think that human bones we dig out would be the similar in shape whether it'd be a sample buried last month or one buried 10,000 years ago. What happens when we break that pattern in our drive to get that edge and overcome our base monkey limits? Maybe that incessant drive isn't godhood, rather some token or measure of permanence? Something that still lasts after a hundred thousand years or even ten. Even the earth shrugs off our naughty behavior like a bad haircut give or take some thousands of years. P.S. I like how the androids bleed white goo like the androids from Alien movies.
Ep 5: Spoiler I had the same reaction about the Mithraic, but as we see, a good chunk of the church hierarchy is corrupt and the show points this out (juxtaposed to the Catholic church back in the day). They espouse ideals that they don't follow. Episode 5 shows how oxygen supply is degrading on Earth as we see Mother being created. Campian's lab is full of plants and he doesn't need a respirator in the first scene. In the last scene, everything is dead and he has to wear a respirator full time. Humans have destroyed their own environment with their war. I like your take and I think the point of the show is 'what is sentience and how does it relate to spirituality?'. We have humans who see spirituality in two opposing ways, androids who may be sentient and humanoid aliens. My wife hates that androids always seem to have white goop. What's the scientific point? That's one of the metaphysical themes of the show. Watch through five episodes and you get a little more information.
I'm enjoying the show. It personally gave me a different idea about androids tied to faith. Just a thought experiment of a rational minded android that knows it was created in a factory that is conscious and just does science experiments with nearly unlimited resources at it's disposal. It witnesses something that it can't explain and makes various rational deductions to try and fit what it witnessed as plausible to the laws of physics, but is unable. It tries to conclude that it's own hardware is a limitation to a rational explanation and designs experiments with the hardware and testing capabilities beyond itself to peer further into hopefully unknown science in hopes of finding a rational explanation. Ultimately though, it's conclusion, after exhaustive research, is that it witnessed a miracle. The way I picture the narration of a story like this in my head, is that you as a reader would never actually witness the miracle that the android does, sort of like the briefcase in Pulp Fiction. You just get to read the impression the miracle left on the android through it's POV.
