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
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