Reading this seemed a lot like some cyberpunk type version of a Korean Chosun era drama (The Rebel—which was also something of a retalling of the old Hong Gil Dong story) I just watched. Basically all about the flawed thinking that somehow force, violence and fear is a good tool for maintaining social order. I suppose some themes playout in many settings.
I agree with datawitch’s sentiment, the story is very horrifying. I honestly don’t understand the mindset at all.
flawed thinking that somehow force, violence and fear is a good tool for maintaining social order.
I honestly don’t understand the mindset at all.
I think you do, but just aren’t recognizing it as the manifestation of a near-universal mindset it is: how do you think states maintain (insofar as they do) social order? What happens to those who defy its laws?
Perhaps but I think more likely that I’m not expressing the view correctly. I agree that some forms of punishment are both needed and appropriate for misbehvior/rule violations. But that was not the point. The story seems to be that of “beat them a little and if that doesn’t work beat them more”. The reference to the K-drama then pointed to carrying that view to the extreme of if more beatings don’t “tame” the masses start killing some and that will both do the trick and is complete justified.
That type of mindset seems to be of the form “doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results”.
The mindset is mostly a rationalization. The underlying motivation is that punishing others feels good, because it signals that you have higher status than them.
I agree. I thought the twist was that the AIs he oversees are copies of the narrator, and the narrator himself may be an AI—just at the top of the simulation pyramid. He is his own em hell.
Low confidence here, but the causality seems to me the other way round.
abuses the AIs → rationalizes “they deserve it, because they are low status” → notices that his status, although higher than the AIs’ is still lower than his colleagues’ → feels that he also deserves abuse
Reading this seemed a lot like some cyberpunk type version of a Korean Chosun era drama (The Rebel—which was also something of a retalling of the old Hong Gil Dong story) I just watched. Basically all about the flawed thinking that somehow force, violence and fear is a good tool for maintaining social order. I suppose some themes playout in many settings.
I agree with datawitch’s sentiment, the story is very horrifying. I honestly don’t understand the mindset at all.
I think you do, but just aren’t recognizing it as the manifestation of a near-universal mindset it is: how do you think states maintain (insofar as they do) social order? What happens to those who defy its laws?
Perhaps but I think more likely that I’m not expressing the view correctly. I agree that some forms of punishment are both needed and appropriate for misbehvior/rule violations. But that was not the point. The story seems to be that of “beat them a little and if that doesn’t work beat them more”. The reference to the K-drama then pointed to carrying that view to the extreme of if more beatings don’t “tame” the masses start killing some and that will both do the trick and is complete justified.
That type of mindset seems to be of the form “doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results”.
The mindset is mostly a rationalization. The underlying motivation is that punishing others feels good, because it signals that you have higher status than them.
I think the main character’s desire to punish the AIs stemmed from his self-hatred instead. How would you explain this part otherwise?
I agree. I thought the twist was that the AIs he oversees are copies of the narrator, and the narrator himself may be an AI—just at the top of the simulation pyramid. He is his own em hell.
Low confidence here, but the causality seems to me the other way round.
abuses the AIs → rationalizes “they deserve it, because they are low status” → notices that his status, although higher than the AIs’ is still lower than his colleagues’ → feels that he also deserves abuse
ah I see. yes, that is possible, though that makes the main character much less relatable