Serac Is Jeremy Bentham With Agency

Published April 13, 2020 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hi Harry, Ron and Hermione,

isn’t Serac espousing utilitarianism? In particular it could be described as muscular utilitarianism.

Episode 5 rooted Serac’s justification for manipulation in his belief/delusion that he knows what is best for humanity wrapped in a narrative of a beneficial philosophy.

While the Benthamite philosophy can be seen to be ultimately beneficial for humanity, what you need to do in order to achieve that is somewhat evil and egotistical. You have to place yourself as a god over your fellow citizens. This is delusional thinking.

Serac is definitely a villain even if evil deeds can lead to good outcomes just as the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Another thought about Rehoboam is that in the real world, the more complexity you add to a model, the less skillful it is likely to be. For example, we are building more expensive and complicated General Circulation Models costing hundreds of millions of dollars yet their skill level is reducing.

So this idea of authoring the human race requires simplifying the story if the script is to remain predictable into the future as this episode shows. What Serac fears about divergence is unpredictability that cannot be modelled by Rehoboam rather than an end to the human story itself. Serac cannot tell the difference between the model and the real world which is quite relevant to today.

The motivation of Serac is absolutely human in wanting to prevent any future pain as he experienced in seeing Paris and his family destroyed. It is just narcissistic to want to control the entire world to achieve this. I appreciate the temptation but I know that I would be a terrible king. Possibly like the Ottomans – mostly civilised and cultural but with bouts of paranoia and slaughtering of the population.

Like Ashley, I am really enjoying this flawed motivated character of Serac. He is a complex and compelling figure who I can empathize with even if he is a dangerous man.

Really looking forward to the next three episodes.

Take care Shat family
John Lish

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