"Pantheon", a recreation of Cyberpunk in a new form

Do you like to watch science fiction films? I like them very much. After all, human exploration of unknown things and fields is vividly displayed in science fiction films. Recently, there are many science fiction films with good reputations, or to be exact, there are many works with the theme of "Cyberpunk", such as "Cyberpunk: Edgerunners" and "The Peripheral", and the Sci-Fi animated series "Pantheon" which I want to talk about today.

While most of these works focus on the Internet, big companies, Artificial Intelligence, and Uploaded Intelligence, "Pantheon" is a very special one. The classic visual effects used to appear in "Cyberpunk" "in the past, such as neon lights at midnight, mechanical prostheses, etc., are absent in this series.

"Pantheon" is the modern "Cyberpunk", its form of expression, is under the cool white fluorescent lamp, the transparent glass reflects the light, and everything appears simple, clean, and tidy.

This article involves spoilers, please read with caution!

01.

The essence of punk is "an individual against the system"

The typical characteristic of punk is deliberate roughness. Its original meaning is "an individual against the system". The word "cyber" comes from Cybernetics, which evolved from the ancient Greek language and means "control" and "mastery". Therefore, its original meaning is "control of the system".

So, when cyber and punk are combined, it highlights a sense of contradiction, the Chiba-shi city created by William Gibson in “Neuromancer” and the Los Angeles city created by Ridley Scott in “Blade Runner”. They have become a fixed imagination of Cyberpunk.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

However, the predictions of technology by the original Cyberpunk have long failed, but the spirit has been passed down and re-displayed in a more modern way, which is "Pantheon".

02.

A more realistic and modern Cyberpunk

I want to talk about some of the imagery in the series first. Logorhythms, a technology company, has built a giant data center in Norway. Its shape is a huge black cube, standing among the polar mountains. It has a sense of the Big Dumb Object, which makes people feel awe and fear.

The data center of Logorhythms

The image of Stephen Holstrom, the founder of this technology company, is a homage to Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple. From the surname, and dress, to his early death from cancer, it can almost be regarded as a replica. The data center is symmetrical geometry, also a typical aesthetic style of Jobs.

If we split the name of the company into "Logos" and "Rhythm", we will find that it is a metaphysical ideology. The reason for such a name is that they hope the company can do God's work and discover the fundamental laws of the world, which is undoubtedly a kind of overstepping. Spiritually, it is a huge difference from the Cyberpunk of the old days.

Large companies replace the state as the new governing entity, controlling information through technology. For example, besides Logorhythms, the first company to put “Uploaded Intelligence” into the practical field is Alliance, the biggest telecom network company in India. “Pantheon” is no longer presented in the way Cyberpunk originally imagined. It is closer to reality and more modern.

Intelligence uploads and then inflates into a force that can destroy the world. The engineers are arrogant enough to think that they can control them. Therefore, big companies can control the world without being responsible for it. This state of being capable but not responsible is the most dangerous.

There is a subplot in “Pantheon”, which I think is somewhat more interesting than the main storyline. Stephen, the founder of Logorhythms, knows that he is going to die, and thinks he is the only one who can go down this road, so he decides to clone himself into Caspian and solve the problem of "immortality" completely.

That is a mini version of "an individual against the system". Caspian's every move is closely monitored by the company. His lovers and family members are all actors. The goal is to replicate all the growth trajectories of Stephen. There is no more typical modern version of "Cyberpunk" than this.

Nothing seems to limit him, but everything around him is a variable under the control of the system, and there is no essential difference between these big companies controlling such an individual and the whole world.

From the beginning to the end, everything Logorhythms does is a decision made by a few people within the company and has nothing to do with the public, which is frightening. In the real world, what would it be like if there is such a secret laboratory with super artificial intelligence?

03.

The "Singularity Theory" of Technology Solving Everything

There is no doubt that the basic idea of "uploading human intelligence to become gods" comes from the singularity theory. As we have more and more knowledge, we produce knowledge faster and faster. That is an exponential growth curve. Then there will be a time point when the speed of knowledge production becomes infinite. That is the technological singularity.

Many people believe that the specific time point is when the most powerful artificial intelligence is born, and then through expansion and evolution, it eventually becomes a god.

When singularity comes, the good possibility is that all problems can be solved easily, and the bad possibility is that the world will be destroyed, and these problems will no longer be problems, so how does “Pantheon” deal with this theme?

In fact, "Uploaded Intelligence" is a means for AI to understand what is "kindness". Virtual consciousness still needs human subjectivity, such as the ability to love and emotional connections. If these are lost, the new gods no longer need to care about human beings.

By the end, you may realize that the story is not over, but is just beginning. Chanda, who has been uploaded with intelligence, believes that he's a new species, hoping to unite with others of his kind to fight against humans who have already seen them as threats or slaves.

Conflicts between different races have happened many times in history, and the result often was that the race with powerful new technology won and the race without power was directly exterminated. The solution of “Pantheon” is that as long as there is love and attachment, problems can be solved.

Is this a good solution? It's hard to say. After all, making AI deeply understand "kindness" is only wishful thinking. Of course, "Pantheon" is only an animation, not responsible for providing solutions.

04.

Epilogue

Today, I don't want to comment on this animation, but I want to talk about the zeitgeist it reflects: Cyberpunk is dead. Long live Cyberpunk.

For the singularity, the hopeful imagination of technology, and the unsolved problems we face, we can only return to the bottommost relationship between people, such as simple love between father and daughter.

Are human beings so unique? Is human love so important? Perhaps if the gods want to keep their humanity from being swallowed up by divinity, they must have a bond to connect the ordinary people. Human beings may not be unique. After all, we are human beings and only human beings.

Well, do you like this animation? See you in the comments!