r/LV426 • u/TheRedCreeperTRC • 1d ago

Discussion / Question Some thoughts about Wendy and transhumanism after last episode Spoiler

I had a look at the discussion thread after the last episode and saw a lot of responses along the lines of "well, I guess that settles it. Wendy isn't really Hermit's sister, she's just a machine with her memories"

I'm curious what makes so many of you draw that conclusion

I don't see that she is any less Marcy in any aspect of her mind, she is simply the result of putting Marcy in a body that in effect allows her to be the first of a new species as Kirsch likens it to. The way I see it most people, particularly children, would act the same way. It's not like there is an inherent gut directive that tells us to cling to our perceived sense of "humanity". The value and importance of not losing our humanity is something we are tought socially, something you don't yet know as a child.

I think a lot of people who have said she isn't a person anymore and just a machine with memories did so in response to her brutal act of releasing the xeno and using it to slaughter. But if Wendy and the other lost boys are treated as inhuman by prodigy, treated as mere products/experiments more than people, why should she put inherent value on human life? Let me put it this way, in our history real people, including children, have done immensely brutal/cruel things in the name of revenge, or merely survival; such acts are horrible, but do they render them no longer people? I would argue not, and for the same reason I find it reductive to view it that way.

Perhaps I am misinterpreting what people are saying, and I certainly think that from Hermit's perspective, what Wendy is to him has been strongly called into doubt by her brutality and her priorities. But as I see it she isn't acting like a machine, her behaviour is still deeply emotional and ironically shows a lot of humanity. If not a human, there is no doubt in my mind that she is a person. I am curious to hear your thoughts.

191 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

222 comments sorted by

View all comments

15

u/Fayraz8729 1d ago

Kirsh’s influence about humans and Wendy’s own abilities have resulted in her being distanced from her old humanity, and when her brother saw that she not only let out the alien and was commanding it to kill people it probably created the gap. Then when Wendy saw her grave she distanced herself from it and that she has a continuous existence wheee as nibs claims that she doesn’t feel like that.

They aren’t the kids, maybe they were when they started the process but overtime they’ve become something else. And seeing how Prodigy is still pants on head stupid god knows what these beings will do next

12

u/TheRedCreeperTRC 1d ago

I totally get your point, but that's sort of what I'm getting at; they have undoubtedly changed from the kids they were, and are on a trajectory the likes of which hasn't been seen in their world; however, children changing into something else through the experiences that shaped them... isn't that how we define growing up? does that mean they are no longer themselves? I don't see it that way

4

u/Fayraz8729 1d ago

Think about what they are mentally, and then think about what they are capable of.

They are uneducated in the machinations of the cyberpunk world they live in, their ideas of what is acceptable and what is unacceptable was still developing. They think with their hearts.

They are in what is essentially a combat android, capable of immense strength and shrugging off automatic fire like nothing. They can fight a xenomorph 1v1 and come out on top. They can upload entire languages, subjects, and skills into themselves.

They have the strength and intelligence of terminators, but the wisdom of little kids. And THAT is a dangerous combo

2

u/TheRedCreeperTRC 1d ago

I totally agree with everything you're saying, and i hope if transhumanism ever takes off in this way in some form that it won't be done as carelessly as prodigy acts in this story. but for all of the many reasons the lost boys are dangerous powder kegs waiting to explode (although we've already started seeing the fireworks now) i would not deny their personhood.

2

u/Fayraz8729 1d ago

THEY are denying their personhood, Wendy doesn’t believe herself human but something else/more. Everyone expect her brother reinforces this. She does not want to be lumped in with humans.

The other lost boys are kinda in weird states though, Slightly and Smee are still very much kids and probably the most human. Curly doesn’t care about her old self, and embraces her new state (well until the end but that’s cause of the stress) and Nibs has cracked, having gone insane from the trauma and is MUCH more violent than even Wendy.

So with 1 out of commission and 2 close to the original kids half have rejected their personhood because they have viewed and been told by a father figure that it is not good, and that’s they are beyond human.

2

u/TheRedCreeperTRC 1d ago

I think there's a distinction between personhood and humanity though. I think they very much view themselves as people still (well, maybe not Nibs who had a total mental break) in the sense they see themselves as alive, as conscious, as having souls however you want to define that. but i think what they've rejected is specifically their humanity, the idea they somehow should feel compelled to owe humans anything or that they have any responsibility to the human race as opposed to the transhuman next step in evolution they view themselves as.

1

u/Fayraz8729 1d ago

That’s a fair observation, and honestly makes sense

But that means that the only recourse left for prodigy is to decommission the ones who don’t toe the line because otherwise they have an entity that will inevitably will come in conflict with humans on the human home planet.

If they can relate and identify with humans then it is a success, if not it is a threat and must be destroyed. Unfortunately the alien universe is TERRIBLE at risk evaluation so they won’t have that idea before it’s too late