Pluribus

Sylas said:

It's subtle but I think there's some cracks starting to appear in zosias connection to the hive. The not knowing about the train horns and then the mini freeze before she received the notice that Manousas was en route it wasnt as fast as normal "updates". Maybe what Carol did to her has affected her in a way that will later be revealed to be the method of unjoining.

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Yeah it's hard to tell whether that's Zosia starting to break away from the hive, or the hive starting to get better at acting less creepy by manipulating humans.

Sylas said:

So this episode confirmed another whole host of things I've been saying, that they did abandon the city entirely and it took them a while to all move back in, that the signal originated from Kepler 22b (as mentioned somewhat common trope since its the only planet we know about at that range), that they are building a giant antenna to beam out the virus to the next world as some sort of von neuman/berserker signal world ender thing.

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Yeah the Von Neumann Cuck Ray theory was bolstered in this week's episode. Which makes their passivist posture even dumber. If they built an antenna that could hit within ~50 light years, the goal shouldn't be to blast out cuck rays to the ~10,000 planets within 50 light years of earth and then starve to death. Instead it should be to blast out cuck rays to those 10,000 planets in perpetuity. Like, until the Sun's expands to kill earth or gets meteored or something. The odds of any of those 10k planets having advanced life that could use the signal right *now* is exceedingly low. The odds there will be life sometime in the next billion years? Probably also low but ~1 bajillion times more likely.

If the Von Neumann Cuck Ray is how the Plurbs operate I bet there will be a ruleshift in the second season, possibly hinted at in the finale. It's a big enough of a plot hole that Vince wouldn't want to fill it in the first season before he can use feedback in the second season, but who knows.

I still like the theory that the show will be about saving the Plurbs in different ways.

Tuco said:

Yeah the Von Neumann Cuck Ray theory was bolstered in this week's episode. Which makes their passivist posture even dumber. If they built an antenna that could hit within ~50 light years, the goal shouldn't be to blast out cuck rays to the ~10,000 planets within 50 light years of earth and then starve to death. Instead it should be to blast out cuck rays to those 10,000 planets in perpetuity. Like, until the Sun's expands to kill earth or gets meteored or something. The odds of any of those 10k planets having advanced life that could use the signal right *now* is exceedingly low. The odds there will be life sometime in the next billion years? Probably also low but ~1 bajillion times more likely.

If the Von Neumann Cuck Ray is how the Plurbs operate I bet there will be a ruleshift in the second season, possibly hinted at in the finale. It's a big enough of a plot hole that Vince wouldn't want to fill it in the first season before he can use feedback in the second season, but who knows.

I still like the theory that the show will be about saving the Plurbs in different ways.

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Yeah I think they are gonna have to retcon some stuff or play fast and loose with physics some more. "We dont eat living things" seems to indicate that isn't a death sentence on other worlds, like other species who maybe originated the virus or were the first to receive and retransmit it survive via photosynthesis or some other biological process that doesn't involve eating. Otherwise the chain would have been broken long ago.

Otherwise, how would they live long enough to identify a target world and beam the signal to them to propagate the signal? Given the current constraints let's say their hivemind efficient logistics and lack of bureaucracy has enabled them to have already completed the antenna construction in these 60 days, and let's pretend they have the full 10 years stated before the hive completely dies off from starvation. They've got to pinpoint a target world and hope that for the short 10 year duration that they receive the signal (however many years from now they receive it depending on ly distance from us) that they just so happen to have the prerequisite intelligent life who's evolved and has the technology to receive, interpret, and decode the signal. If this is how the signal has always been transmitted then it likely ends with earth.

That would be if the hivemind is a legitimately benign thing that just happened to get beamed to the only planet in the galaxy that is a carnivorous death world, everyone else being plant people.

But if it isn't benign, if its supposed to be a death cuck ray and most of the galaxy isnt plant people, then their limitations limit the ability for the victims to continue the propagation and it really never would have made it past 1 or 2 worlds naturally, which indicates its actually a targeted cuckray designed to destroy us specifically pre-invasion, and the hives interpretation of what the ray signifies and their need to repropagate it is a programmed lie of the virus itself. Their belief on the origins of the signal and what it wants them to do (retransmit it to the next world) is only the interpretation of the astronomers and scientists who received the signal and decoded it originally, they dont actually know anything. And the antenna they are building which they believe is to be used to spread the hivemind to the next world is actually going to broadcast a message back to Kepler 22b to signal that the world is ready for invasion (or will be by the time they arrive at sublight speeds)

Sylas said:

Their belief on the origins of the signal and what it wants them to do (retransmit it to the next world) is only the interpretation of the astronomers and scientists who received the signal and decoded it originally, they dont actually know anything. And the antenna they are building which they believe is to be used to spread the hivemind to the next world is actually going to broadcast a message back to Kepler 22b to signal that the world is ready for invasion (or will be by the time they arrive at sublight speeds)

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Yeah it's interesting that Zosia said they want to spread the gift of cuck to other planets instead of that they want to say thank you to Kepler 22b.

I think Manusous is going to die. He was driving the only yellow Ambulance. Same color as HDP.

I also think their rules are going to change the closer we get to the antenna being live. There will be a lot less trying to please the survivors.

Hrm maybe if we see tons of reactors being built near the antenna array and Tesla bots and other automated machinery going up we'll learn that its just been robots sending the signal from every previous world in the chain as their intelligent life died off from starvation long before they ever discovered a viable target world with life. Its all just yet another allegory for the dangers of AI.

Chanur said:

I think Manusous is going to die. He was driving the only yellow Ambulance. Same color as HDP.

I also think their rules are going to change the closer we get to the antenna being live. There will be a lot less trying to please the survivors.

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No way Manusous dies in the finale.

Juvarisx said:

The cliffhanger ending to the season I am kind of expecting is Manousos killing Zosia after being tricked to think shes immune by Carol forcing Zosia to speak with proper pronouns.

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Very possible, Carol isn't allowed to be happy, lol.

Tuco said:

No way Manusous dies in the finale.

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Might be next season I don't know. Right now he's throwing off death flags.

Juvarisx said:

I can see a self sacrifice near the end to save humanity but atm he is a required character. Carol is incapable of doing this alone and while she is adapting and trying different approaches, someone like him is the missing piece for the main thrust of the saving humanity plot line.

I guess it really depends on how you think this show will eventually end. If it’s indeed saving humanity, he’s sticking around, if they just give up at some point then yea they will yeet him

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You definitely could be right. How ever the hive is going to try and pit him against her.

Gravel said:

I was bored to death this episode. Carol just isn't interesting. It's so odd because we started rewatching Breaking Bad and a lot of the cinematic elements are identical, but it's just so much better to watch.

I also feel like that restaurant scene was really jarring with all the cars driving around outside. I suppose you could argue the hive did it to give her a sense of normalcy (along with the other patrons), but why would they waste the resources?

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I’ve been meaning to rewatch Breaking Bad. Think I’ll start that after I finish off Silo.

Tight tight TIGHT.