The Benign Zombies of Pluribus; The Hastings Center for Bioethics, December 22, 2025

Jonathan D. Moreno, The Hastings Center for Bioethics; The Benign Zombies of Pluribus

"Whatever disagreements neuroethicists have, they all presuppose the annoying multiplicity of brains that somehow generate minds. Not so in Vince Galligan’s new streaming series Pluribus.

A coded message from deep space is the trigger for turning (nearly) all human beings into segments of a “hive mind,” a global super colony that the sociobiologist E.O. Wilson would have recognized from his work on ants. And wouldn’t you know it, those nerdy scientists hanging on every radio impulse from the universe in search of intelligent life provide the gateway to a radical loss of individuality. Thus the SETI geeks enter a long tradition of fictional scientists who unleash forces that quickly run out of control.

The results are mixed: No war, no violence, no racism or sexism.  Also, no personal uniqueness. Is it worth it?...

Like all such speculations Pluribus raises countless questions. How did this actually happen and why, if one member of the hive gets drunk, the whole hive doesn’t?"

From 'E.T.' to 'Blade Runner,' how the summer of 1982 changed cinema forever; NPR, Fresh Air, July 31, 2024

Tonya Mosley , NPR, Fresh Air; From 'E.T.' to 'Blade Runner,' how the summer of 1982 changed cinema forever

"MOSLEY: Well, a couple of years later, then, there's "Tron"...

NASHAWATY: Yeah.

MOSLEY: ...Which is about a computer hacker who is abducted into the digital world. What did Disney learn from "The Black Hole" that then maybe helped them with the success of "Tron?"

NASHAWATY: Yeah. I mean, I think it learned that it has to gamble in order to stay alive, and, yes, "Black Hole" had been sort of an unsuccessful gamble, or at least a push, but they knew that this is the way they had to go in order to stay relevant and to stay in business."

‘It’s not climate change, it’s everything change’: sci-fi authors take on the global crisis; The Observer via The Guardian, July 9, 2023

David Barnett, The Observer via The Guardian; ‘It’s not climate change, it’s everything change’: sci-fi authors take on the global crisis

"Science fiction has always sounded a warning about human behaviour and its possible consequences, she adds. “It deals with a futuristic imagining based on the scientific, moral and social principles of the ‘now’ – and the author taking them a step further, into the ‘then’.

“Whether it’s the imaginings of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and a dystopian future cowed by mass surveillance and regimentation of its people or Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, with its patriarchal and white supremacist control over women’s bodies – science fiction has shown readers what can happen should the worst actions of society follow an upward trajectory and become a dystopian style-future.”"

Pop Culture, AI And Ethics; Forbes, February 24, 2019

Phaedra Boinodiris , Forbes; Pop Culture, AI And Ethics

"In this article, I would like to take the opportunity to do a deep dive into three of the show’s episodes and offer a Design Thinking framework for how to adopt a thoughtful approach on AI implementations. Warning- there are spoilers!...

We need to continuously ask ourselves these 4 questions: How can humanity benefit from this AI/tech? What products and services can you imagine in this space? How might AI be manipulated, or unintended consequences lead to harmful outcomes? What are the suggestions for a responsible future?"

X Minus One - The Martian Death March; OldTimeRadioDownloads.com, originally broadcast 9/8/1955

[Podcast 23 min. 19 sec.] X Minus One - The Martian Death March:

"NBC net. "The Martian Death March". The story of man's inhumanity to Martians. An allegory of the westward expansion and the mistreatment of the native Americans."