Humans - anyone waiting for the second series?

[MumofthreeandBean]

We stumbled across series one, really enjoyed it, new series coming soon... don't know the date yet??

Odi

What letter, I missed that!

I am bloody worried I am starting to move about like a synth! Anyone else feeling a bit robotic on a Sunday night!!!!!

I thought the letter was more a goodbye as in "I'm off to do what you told me I can, i.e. anything I want." Which for him was helping people.

Scene with the priest was v good I thought. Agree, poor Odi.

Despite what I last posted, I now think the reason Mattie was hesitant about the code is that she's seen how Odi is, lost and without purpose.

How did Mia know Mattie had finished the code? She sent the family a patch for Mia which brought her consciousness back, was that it?

italian - you could always have a go at vigorously grating parmesan.

Or I've got a box of drawing pins somewhere, could jab you. If you'd like.

Fidere thank for the offer to 'job me' but my messy bedroom tells me I am not a synth!

I think Toby told Mia that Mattie had broken the code.

Mia has gone a bit cold, as a result of lovely mean boyfriend trying to sell her, no doubt!

I think Odi also told Mia that Mattie had "awakened" him. I like Humans but it does sometimes feel a bit "kids telly" mainly because of Mattie super genius coder - I find the" amazing teen hacker "cliche really over used in things. I liked Karen bonding with the Seraph - things don't look like they'll go well with Pete.

Do you think now she has 'Sam@ Karen won't need Pete?

I think she will need him more, she was all set to go and now she has a ready made family. I think it would be interesting if she kind of taught him to be human (is he mean to be concious?) and almost forgot she and he were synths.

I was not so interested in Karen and Pete but now I think they are more interesting.

Mattie is a bit of an oddity! She started out hating synths, shooting one's bum with an air rifle, then fell for Leo and made friends with them all.

The whole family seems a bit weird, like no one has really realized what carnage may follow!

Mattie didn't like unconscious synths, she "likes" (or at least recognises as people) the conscious ones.

Making all the synths in the world conscious at once is just a terrible plan though.

I wonder if she thinks that they are all potentially conscious and so it's "the right thing to do" (perhaps even thinking that they are trapped like Mia was trapped when she was Anita).

I don't think all the synths could have been created with a potential for consciousness though Trills, surely it would have cost far too much to be viable?
Re Mattie, the only thing I feel certain about is that she should watch her back near Hester - and there's a really good reason why Mattie should "undo" the general consciousness.

Trills "Mattie didn't like unconscious synths, she "likes" (or at least recognises as people) the conscious ones."

Good point, not sure she 'likes' Hester much! Yes, Mattie may feel it is right to do!

EmNetta I think the consciousness is programmed in but they can be programmed by afar, which is different to the original 5, who were conscious from the start (I think).

So in a sense they are not waking up or being woken they are being changed! IMHO.

If a bog-standard synth is not currently conscious, is there a moral imperative to make it be so?

Or is it just an object right now, so we should only make it be conscious if we think doing so will make the world a better place for the currently-conscious inhabitants?

Yes, I see what you mean, Italian, just commenting that it would never happen like that, as the reason for creating the originals was never financial, unlike the later ones, which were created solely to perform simple tasks for less cost than humans, e.g. like Hester.

What was Hester doing, working in a factory?

Do you think factory synths (or the mine synth we saw) might have smaller processing ability than the multi-purpose synths that people buy for household chores/shopping/childcare/etc? (basically a less-powerful computer for their brain)

And so when given consciousness they would either not have sufficient processing capacity for it to work, or might be "stupider" than those with better computers for brains?

It appears to not be the case, but it would make sense to have better computers in the multi-purpose synths who need to learn and adapt than in those that just do one simple job.

If the synth brains are anything like my computers, processing capacity seems to get cheaper by the year/by the million etc, but I can;t see why the huge cost of making them appear to be human was considered necessary for synths who were not designed to be primarily companions to humans.

We know how Leo got his body, but I do wonder how the female scientist planned to "embody" her creation, or how the seraph children got theirs - now that seems a bit creepy.

That's an interesting point about Hester. Maybe she is unable to feel empathy.

Trills IMHO
"If a bog-standard synth is not currently conscious, is there a moral imperative to make it be so?" No.

"...is it just an object right now, so we should only make it be conscious if we think doing so will make the world a better place for the currently-conscious inhabitants?" Yes and Yes, and I would see it as fatal to the human race to do so. It's the usual futuristic doom thing, just a bit more thoughtful.

But when 'arguing' with automated messages on the phone I do sometimes wonder - who is in charge here!

Em "as the reason for creating the originals was never financial, unlike the later ones, which were created solely to perform simple tasks for less cost than humans, e.g. like Hester." Do we know the original reason they were made had no financial connection?

Personally, I think Esther cannot feel empathy, she is a sociopath or whatever, but others, like Odi are very interested in others. I think they are all individual just like people.

EM WWe know how Leo got his body" His body is human, it's his mind that is synth, created by his memories.

"I do wonder how the female scientist planned to "embody" her creation, or how the seraph children got theirs - now that seems a bit creepy." it is very creepy because if the nasty guy who is Athena's boss got to do his evil idea he could implant V in 100 'children' how could Athena cope with that. I think as an idea human brain in synth body works better than synth brain in a human body.

wow

At the end I thought it was ever so clever that although the synth deaths were awful we were obviously led to be very shocked about the death of 2 humans. Were we more horrified over 2 human deaths than 20odd synth deaths....

Hester was in part brutalised by what happened to her before she was made conscious and would have had no role models to model empathy and compassion unlike those in a caring role (like the one who joined Max). So I don't think its a matter of processing, its a matter of history shaping us (and them) Look at Niska and how Mia changed after she was betrayed

But Pete

I'm finding it difficult to follow after last night's episode. Who "killed" the synths, when the silo appeared to be deserted apart from the American scientist? Why was Mia just hanging about outside when found, and why was she going after Hester? Have literally lost the plot, sad when there's just one episode to go. Can anyone help please?

There was some sort of force field around the perimeter which was set off when the place went on lockdown. We kept seeing rectangular plinths with circles in the middle vibrating and emitting some sort of signal. When Mia went to the security desk and accessed the computer system, she managed to switch it off.

Why was Mia just hanging about outside when found, and why was she going after Hester?

I can't follow, which bit was this? Hester made it clear she was going to kill people, and Mia told Leo to lead all the synths to safety and she'd stop Hester. Except she didn't manage it of course.

Poor Pete. It was obvious that him and Karen weren't going to live happily ever after.

Pete telling her she wasn't good at lying, when she told him the ambulance would come.... Sniff.

Why was Mia just hanging about outside when found, and why was she going after Hester?

It was part of Mia's plan. Mia came up with the idea so that she and Hester would be able to liberate the other synths from the inside, by letting themselves be captured pretending to be ordinary synths confused by being "awake" and malfunctioning.
Once they were both captured (the team located them in different places, that was so that it wouldn't raise suspicion that they were related or knew each other), they were put in the storage together as the two synths captured that day. Mia had been programmed to auto turn on, and then she switched on Hester.
Later on, Mia went after Hester because she knew Hester wanted to kill other humans.

At the end I thought it was ever so clever that although the synth deaths were awful we were obviously led to be very shocked about the death of 2 humans. Were we more horrified over 2 human deaths than 20odd synth deaths....
I think it is because we got to know them as a character, especially Pete, so there was more empathy and the death more shocking and sad.
The other synths, sad as their death was, we didn't really know them.

For example, I like Odi's character a lot, and was sad when he wrote that letter to Mattie and reset himself to erase his consciousness because he couldn't find purpose in life. It was basically committing suicide, rejecting the gift of conscious life that Mattie had given him. And it was interesting to see the parallels with the other human girl that pretended to be a synth, and was about to commit suicide because she couldn't cope with the emotions of being a human and wanted to be a synth. And Karen, that was a synth, but wanted to be a human, so she could also be mortal, grow old and eventually die like her loved ones.

I really like this series, so much food for thought...

It's brilliant isn't it. I wish I was still teaching philosophy and ethics so I could use it for material!