Devs: Not just about a creepy statue of a girl
2020 is not only the year of the coronavirus, but it is also the year TV is obsessed with talking about machine gods. We have two shows, Devs and Westworld III, talking about machines that have the capability to predict the future of humanity and, in the case of Devs, the universe itself. Since Devs was a shorter miniseries and is already finished, I will be talking about it first.
What I watched:
The story begins by following a young couple, Sergei and Lily, working at a tech firm in the San Francisco Bay area called Amaya. The company has already solved the puzzle of quantum computing, and is developing several different projects, with Sergei in the AI division and Lily in encryption. Sergei impresses the founder, Forest, and is promoted to the elite division known only as “Devs.” Sergei, a Russian spy, discovers the purpose of the division is to predict past and future with near accuracy and he attempts to take this information back but is killed by Forest and his security Kenton. This causes Lily to become suspicious and investigate Devs on her own with the help of her ex-boyfriend Jamie. Devs continues on and only reaches completion when the developers, Katie, Lyndon, and Stewart, apply the multiverse theory into the quantum computer’s prediction algorithm. Lily figures out Devs was the reason Sergei was killed and confronts Forest and Katie, who tell her they have seen the future, but the predictions fall apart shortly after Lily goes to Devs. Once she is there, she ends up making a choice that was not predicted by the machine, but this leads to the same outcome of her and Forest dying anyways. Katie inputs both of their data into the system and generates a simulation for them to continue living, Lily with her on-again-off-again boyfriend Jamie and Forest with his dead-again-alive-again wife and daughter.
What I saw:
The synopsis is a little longer than I like, but it is with good reason. There simply is a lot to unpack. This shows presents ideas on what does it mean to have free will, to be God, and to be alive.
Let’s start off with free will. At the end of the very first episode, Forest intercepts Sergei as he is leaving Devs with stolen data. He goes into speech that there is no free will, humans follow invisible rails that were laid out behind and in front of them called cause and effect. His machine is able to make accurate predictions because it has the computing power to unravel each cause and effect all the way to the subatomic level. But when Forest his machine can only give an accurate prediction when the multiverse is introduced, he becomes furious. That’s because then he would have to accept there is such a thing as free will, and he mistakenly used his to distract his wife on the telephone which caused her and their daughter to be killed in a car accident.
The fact that the machine was unable to predict the future after Lily and Forest die also highlights that there is free will. But this idea in the show also proves Forest was correct in a way. The machine could only predict until that point because we as humans are unaware of the causes and effects, and mindlessly follow our <s>loops </s>(whoops, wrong show) rails. After Lily watches the prediction when she is at Devs, she at that point is fully aware of what could happen, which leaves her to decide what will happen. In essence, the machine was faced with a feedback loop because the machine interfered with itself, and would have to wait and see what the effected, Lily, would choose. In that one moment, a real choice could be made.
Now on to what it means to be a god. This show is rife with religious imagery and references. The most famous image of the show is of course the shot of Forest with the circular light above him like a halo. The Devs team tests their algorithm by tuning into Christ’s crucifixion. Forest also reveals that Devs was actually “God” spelled in Latin, with the “v” actually being a “u.” Not only that, but Forest and the Devs team get referred to as prophets or messiahs who are bringing in the new age. The unfortunate part of the story is that Forest never fully accepts the concept of free will, and continues to believe in Devs as all knowing. He blindly trust in this god and never truly fought to do anything different than what he saw happen in the simulations. He even reminds Katie that Lyndon, the employee he fired, was going to kill himself as if it was a necessary sacrifice to appease his god.
Lyndon’s character deified the science behind what they were developing as well. Despite being given a ten million dollar severance pay when he got fired, he was still desperate to return to his life’s work that he was willing to put his life on the line for it. Katie tells Lyndon that in order to prove his belief in the multiverse, which was what got him fired, then he will have to balance on ledge where he could fall to his death. If he survives, he will be hired back. If he falls, then he can be reassured that there is another universe in which he lives and has his job again; he does not have to suffer existing in one where he does not have his job. The poem being read in the scene describes someone who is suffering through the realization that life is meaningless, and describing that each day death comes closer whether we do something or not. It’s very fitting for this scene for someone who would rather choose to live for God or not at all.
But what does it mean to be alive, anyways? When Lily invades Devs, (which she was only able to because Forest gave her clearance to be there; self-fulfilling prophecy anyone?), she sees Forest watching Amaya and criticizes him for hanging on to a fake version of his daughter. She is only made up of a series of complex calculations and displayed on a screen. Forest counters that is all anyone is, given that the machine can predict everything we are going to do. We are basically in God’s simulation, or if you watch Supernatural, we are carrying out God’s written story. If the Amaya on the screen doesn’t know she is a simulation, and believe we aren’t in a simulation but perhaps could be, then what is the difference?
The show takes this literally and after Forest and Lily die, Katie uploads their data into the simulation. She gives it the parameters to keep their memories, along with Forest having his family still be alive. They are given a second chance at life, and since they are aware of the simulation then they have the ability to make choices. We see alternate variations of their simulation playing out in the background as Forest explains what is happening. This may be suggesting that the multiverse as we know it is merely a quantum computer running through all the calculations, and we are simply unaware of that calculation.
In conclusion:
There was so much to like about this show. The premise is interesting, the acting was good, the music was well chosen and composed. The one major flaw I would say is in the characters. The first thing that irked me was Sergei’s Russian handler, Anton. As a trained spy, he is completely oblivious to the fact that Kenton was following him until it was too late. Any spy worth their job knows rule #1: assume you are being followed; especially coming from a meeting with someone. Then there’s an interaction with Lily and Kenton. He blatantly walks into the psychiatrist office to ask for information right after Lily’s evaluation. He says is simply needs to “get an invoice” but then shuts the door behind him and has a fairly lengthy conversation. Lily, who is already suspicious of him, ignores this alarming behavior, and Kenton, a trained operative, is stupid enough to make what he is doing obvious in the first place. I can forgive a small moment or two where the characters break off from their normal behaviors just for the sake of plot, but I feel like there were enough of them to pull me from the experience.
But overall, really good show, really interesting ideas, and a good length. Definitely a show worth watching again to see if there are details that I might have been missed. We’ll see how it compares with Westworld’s ideas of God and living on rails.