Quick review, I loved the show, aside from a few parts that were too “on the nose.” I want to see a show where Alex Garland and Mike Judge collaborate to make something funny and profound. The big ideas in this were interesting, but the commentary on tech companies and their CEO’s was too shallow. Ok, spoilers now, since I want to discuss the last few minutes of the last episode:
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So, Lily and Forest live in the simulation(s) now and apparently the US Government is required to keep the system running? What I’m wondering, is if every possible point in time in every possible reality is being simulated inside Devs, why would it matter if you turned it off? The “users” are only able to view a single point in time on the screen, but they system itself has all data from all time forward and back. Also, based on the change to the “many worlds” model, it must contain every possible permutation of all data for all time. Given the suspension of disbelief required to think that’s possible, why do they need to keep the system running?
I thought the idea of determinism and knowledge of the future was handled best in the Watchmen TV series on HBO with the blue man. They did a really good job of illustrating how it could feel being able to see all times at once.