Pygmalion's Dilemma (old snippet)

Fifty years after the dissolution of THESIS Incorporated, the company remains a centerpiece of public discourse. Much of the scientific community speaks of THESIS with almost religious reverence, venerating its founders as the architects of a new age. But for the elders among us who remember the sudden brutality of the so-called Construct War, THESIS will always be the company that almost destroyed civilization.

While the events of the war have been chronicled in detail by every major network, information on those responsible is comparatively sparse.

The most widely known piece about THESIS itself is the documentary Pygmalion’s Dilemma.

As the documentary explores THESIS’ inception and business model, it goes out of its way to compare it to the atlantic slave trade and other periods of widespread human trafficking. This narrative found a strong audience among Minervans, and with good reason. Irwin deftly offers them the moral high ground in the war, while giving them a sense of kinship with humans.

But Irwin’s analysis is not without critics. Even Irwin admitted that, for a documentary, it doesn’t document much. It’s mostly second hand interviews with low-tier THESIS employees who had never met the founders, heartfelt talks with massacre victims, and discussions with philosophers and sociologists with no real connection to the situation.

Moreover, many in the scientific community have lampooned Irwin’s cynicism toward the morality of THESIS founders, with one former THESIS employee calling it ‘myopic and slanderous in a way you’d expect from a documentary.’

After all, THESIS founders were not slavers adbucting fellow humans from their homeland. They were not conquerers; they were inventors, creative geniuses who were repeatedly astonished at their own scientific success, even despite their commercial failure. Many argue it may have been difficult for THESIS founders to recognize first moment of sentience, and to bestow human rights on the computers they built.

Both Irwin and her critics can offer little real insight into the motives of THESIS’ inner circle, which may never be fully known. As of this writing, one is missing, two are dead, and the other two diligently avoid the press.