If you didn’t see this episode — please do. First, I will use the episode’s material so it’s kind of easier for you to follow my thought train. Second — you have to have your own opinion on it before we proceed. For all I know, I might be blabbering nonsence here. Use your critical thinking. 🙂
Okay, presuming you invested 17 minutes into the story — the main idea is rather obvious. Yes, we tend to feel our lives much more intensely when we feel death’s cold breath behind our left shoulder. Yes, it kind of makes us question the whole idea of immortality. Especially when it comes for a price — although only the Pop Squad enforcers have to pay it. Pop Squad — and little humans who are executed like pigs in a slaugtherhouse.
What society do we see in this story? How did it end up like this, and what «like this» truly means?
On a surface, we see quite a lot of «higher society» type of people, partying and living easy lives. And some people who have to do the dirty work for them — the Pop Squads — who, however, are not restricted from entering this high society and party along with them. We know that every human being is able to go through the rejuvenation procedure any time it’s needed, effectively making everyone immortal. Life is a paradise, so to say.
However, it’s not really a paradise. First, there are unnamed Pop Squad grunts — and they don’t look like robots, rather like highly trained and brainwashed goons whose lives are mere functions. Second, there are numerous — endless — forbidden houses where nobody lives. Still, every house has a landlord, and people living there are just squatters, forced to hide from everyone.
Second point brings us to an inevitable conclusion that people of Earth limited their population to something like «a golden billion» and thus have to maintain this number by executing any unplanned child, unless someone old dies — either by accident or through murder. This paradise is something lke Limit to growth proposed, coupled with a ‘3 billions need to die‘ concept of recent years. And we see that, yes, many people live in paradise — at the same time, great cities of their ancestors are rotting and degrading. The buildings are still owned by somebody, even though nobody lives there. The planet resources are obviously not used to the maximum, and nobody really cares about it. There certainly are no conflicts or wars, as everybody are careless to the maximum, and don’t really care about anything but partying and endlessly honing very specific skills like soprano, which has nothing to do with material production, science or anything else that humanity could benefit from.
How did Earth came to this?
Obviously, from time to time some people get tired of their life — like the Pop Squad officer did. They have dead eyes, and they don’t really know why they live, as they have no purpose in life. So they go, and free their place for someone new. At the same time, other persons are completely fine with no purpose in life, and are just submerged into the life of pleasure. They don’t go, they don’t free their places to enyone else — and it makes the whole system unnaturaly select a very specific type of personality. Personality with little to no drive of purpose. Party animals.
As time goes by, more and more party animals occupy places in humanity numbers. They don’t want to create anything, they don’t want to achieve anything in the real world. They refuse to influence the world, they are living in life of pleasure like in chrysalis, and find it the most natural thing to do. As time goes by, humanity has less and less initiative, less and less will to change the world. Up to a point where humans cease to be humans anymore, turning into immortal butterflies. Looking pretty for an eternity. That’s much better than putting your eternal life to danger, right?
In other words, it means the end of humanity. Any serious cataclysm would purge humans from the face of the earth, and nobody will be ready for it. When you don’t have any life-threattening challenges for eternity, you don’t know how to act when you are facing one. Earth population is doomed — eventually. And the longer it exists, the more children will have to die. The whole system is built on top of trampling the innocent lives. It is ruly tragic.
On a brighter side of things, most probably Earth is not the only place humanity lives in. Some centuries ago, when the negative selection has only started to work, there were millions of immortal people with this itch for action, urge for adventure, pursuit of new knowledge. Most probably they have created extra-terrestrial settlements. Mars, Titan, Europa, Callisto. They are mining the asteroid belt, they are building huge shipyards in open space, capcble of building huge motherships to roam the universe. With an immortal crew, it wouldn’t be a problem to spend 50 years in order to reach another solar system. There is no chance the scientific knowledge will be lost after a series of population changes, like Heinlein once described.
What is the difference between the Earth’s population and the Outer Worlds population? Why the former has stopped its evolution and the latter is able to evolve and thrive?
The Outer Worlds habitants have purpose. They know what to do with their skills, efforts and their eternal lives. In order to fulfill their purpose, they face mortal dangers and overcome — as a society. They don’t have an empty choice on their hands like earthlings have — either to live a hollow life or to die and let someone else live. Outworlders have an option to live a full, meaningful life and eventually die trying, for the good of humanity.
After all, the main difference between a human being and an animal is ability to change the world around us, to shape it according to our will.
So, in the end I am fine with this short movie. Earthlings are doomed — yet humanity is not. Life goes on. 🙂