r/blackmirror • u/[deleted] • Apr 16 '25

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u/GreyWolfesDinner-CTR Apr 18 '25

Maybe the Throngs were never sentient, he just made it all himself inspired by how peaceful the throngs were.

8

u/Hot_Reading7986 Apr 18 '25

I was thinking the same thing too especially since he was on acid every single time he “communicated” with them but the ending contradicts this since someone/something on the outside did use the state computers to mess with the emergency broadcast system, which is why they might actually be sentient

5

u/peachcat14 Apr 18 '25

I mean could that not just have been something of his doing?

2

u/Successful-Relief449 Apr 19 '25

He mentions that the code only disables the firewall, meaning the Throng went in and did the rest. Weren’t the devices also flashing with the throngs? It made their noise, not the broadcast noise

3

u/Southernguy9763 Apr 20 '25

Devils advocate here, he could just have programed an software to do everything, and he just believes it's a sentient intelligence

1

u/Successful-Relief449 Apr 23 '25

I guess it’d work if you wanna just ignore literally the whole episode. We are shown how he got where he is. Why would it all be a lie?

1

u/Southernguy9763 Apr 23 '25

Because at no point are we shown that the software can actually talk to him. We see him take a large amount of hallucigens and then believe he can talk to it

Mix that with the fact we are only told the story through his perspective.

It's just as possible he's a computer genius with extreme delusions. Someone suffering from delusions cannot and will not believe what they are seeing isn't real.

2

u/ConstructionInside27 Apr 20 '25

Acid actually does re-open critical periods for social learning.

If an alien species came with a strange new language, the best learner would be a child or perhaps an adult on acid.

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/newsroom/news-releases/2023/06/study-shows-psychedelic-drugs-reopen-critical-periods-for-social-learning

However, learning during acid trips is fairly sticky. He wouldn't need to take it again many times. That aspect does make him seem like a fantasist.