promethia_tenk (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
promethia_tenk) wrote2018-11-18 05:02 pm
promethia_tenk) wrote2018-11-18 05:02 pm
Entry tags:
Kerblam!
I think this might be my favorite plot of the whole season so far?
In that it gave a nuanced sci-fi look into a very real looming social crisis. I was expecting a scathing take-down of Amazon's warehouse practices, which I would have been totally fine with and would have been in keeping with the themes of the season, but instead it went deeper to the issue of what happens when the robots take all of our jobs. Because Amazon and the like are just a prequel, a warm-up to what's going to happen.
If you've been on the internet in the last five years and somehow have never seen 'Humans Need Not Apply,' now would be an excellent time to do that:
Actually, I think the most chilling idea of the whole episode is that the human response to robots taking over the jobs that they are better suited to doing (read: most if not all of them) would be some kind of human affirmative action program for employment. Because fighting for the rights of humans to continue serving as inferiorly-performing and badly treated cogs in the system is exactly the kind of unimaginative, reactionary response that we would come up with as a society. I suppose we're meant to take it as read that the power and class structure of this world was so crippling that a society in which nobody actually needs to work was still bent to serve the few and neglect the many. Ok, admittedly that an extremely real possibility. But I'd have liked a line or two about how fifty years ago everybody thought universal basic income would be the solution and then it all went even more wrong. Or something the like. Tell me there are other people out there coming up with better solutions here, even if they can't get them enacted. I do know that Human Resource Lady's line at the end that they are going to make the company 50% human-powered came over more than a little tone deaf. Was she watching the rest of the episode? Am I meant to be left with this crushing sense that nothing has been solved? (Actually, the answer to that is probably yes, isn't it?)
I did like the Doctor's assertion that systems aren't good or evil, only our responses to them. Because, look, humans not having to do menial jobs (or any jobs) should be a good thing, if we approach it correctly. But we're currently doing absolutely nothing to try to make that the case.
It's rare for Doctor Who to really engage me on this level, but I liked it. I'll admit this issue is a bit of a personal fascination of mine.
Otherwise, then, the character stuff continues to be lacking, but weaponized bubble wrap is probably the most ingenious Doctor Who menace of all time.
In that it gave a nuanced sci-fi look into a very real looming social crisis. I was expecting a scathing take-down of Amazon's warehouse practices, which I would have been totally fine with and would have been in keeping with the themes of the season, but instead it went deeper to the issue of what happens when the robots take all of our jobs. Because Amazon and the like are just a prequel, a warm-up to what's going to happen.
If you've been on the internet in the last five years and somehow have never seen 'Humans Need Not Apply,' now would be an excellent time to do that:
Actually, I think the most chilling idea of the whole episode is that the human response to robots taking over the jobs that they are better suited to doing (read: most if not all of them) would be some kind of human affirmative action program for employment. Because fighting for the rights of humans to continue serving as inferiorly-performing and badly treated cogs in the system is exactly the kind of unimaginative, reactionary response that we would come up with as a society. I suppose we're meant to take it as read that the power and class structure of this world was so crippling that a society in which nobody actually needs to work was still bent to serve the few and neglect the many. Ok, admittedly that an extremely real possibility. But I'd have liked a line or two about how fifty years ago everybody thought universal basic income would be the solution and then it all went even more wrong. Or something the like. Tell me there are other people out there coming up with better solutions here, even if they can't get them enacted. I do know that Human Resource Lady's line at the end that they are going to make the company 50% human-powered came over more than a little tone deaf. Was she watching the rest of the episode? Am I meant to be left with this crushing sense that nothing has been solved? (Actually, the answer to that is probably yes, isn't it?)
I did like the Doctor's assertion that systems aren't good or evil, only our responses to them. Because, look, humans not having to do menial jobs (or any jobs) should be a good thing, if we approach it correctly. But we're currently doing absolutely nothing to try to make that the case.
It's rare for Doctor Who to really engage me on this level, but I liked it. I'll admit this issue is a bit of a personal fascination of mine.
Otherwise, then, the character stuff continues to be lacking, but weaponized bubble wrap is probably the most ingenious Doctor Who menace of all time.
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Also Thirteen being like ''let us help you or you'll die!'' and then letting industrial terrorist boy explode himself without even a shrug.
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I was hoping for/expecting ‘Treat Workers Like People’. Instead I got ‘Everyone Deserves a McJob’.
Because the Luddite’s POV was confirmed by the narrative. He may have been wanting to commit mass murder, but his point was accepted as valid and the Kerblam! bosses were implementing changes in direct response to what he said.
So hurrah for a future where more people can get tagged at work, have a boss breathe down their neck and see their family twice a year!
As dystopias go, it’s not far off the Bad Wolf world of year 200,000 when the human race is just watching TV and being harvested for Dalek spare parts. In contrast I suppose a McJob looks attractive.
As a warning I guess it works well. As a narrative it’s as depressing to me as ‘Rosa’ was to El Sandifer.
☹
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1. Infruriating, I need a protest button
2. Amazon Satire meets Middle Dicksonian twist and not in a good way
3. Amusing work satire until you end up with ridiculous right-wing ending
And then..."this is my favorite plot of the whole season so far?"
I'm guessing it is a wee bit controversial for a Doctor Who episode?
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