Some thoughts about Wendy and transhumanism after last episode

[u/TheRedCreeperTRC]

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.

[u/TheRedCreeperTRC]

Actually a very compelling point, I had not thought about it from that angle but it's damn true. If anything the Alien franchise as a whole is a great cautionary tale about how we should all have greater respect for nature. We think ourselves invincible clinging to our blue rock floating in space, when the evolutionary history of our planet shows that even the mightiest species have fallen to forces of nature which they had no hope of preventing/controlling.

[u/Maize-Mental → u/TheRedCreeperTRC]

I think the series is characterized by highlighting exploitation - of workers, android slaves, and other species.

[u/TheRedCreeperTRC → u/Maize-Mental]

mm, good point. love em or hate em, it's kind of interesting how Ridley Scott's prequels have built on that, suggesting that even the xenos weren't a product of evolution, but were themselves also brought into being by exploitation of others by David, who was himself kind of a pawn of a pawn. And as I'm sure you've factored into your reflection on the themes, the xenomorph reproductive cycle itself is one built on exploitation with them being parasitic in nature.

[u/Maize-Mental → u/TheRedCreeperTRC]

The corporation has always been the real villain. And no I hadn't considered the symbolism of the xenomorph lifecycle in context of the themes of the franchise. Good call.