Theory About DNA Use

Published May 6, 2018 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hey guys,

Great podcast! Just left you a 5-Star review.

First, I need to poke a hole in your theory from the last deep dive. In Season 1, Ford says that his business partner made him scrub all mentions of Arnold from existence. This suggests that William knows about Arnold, but it’s possible he never saw what Arnold looked like because he only heard about Arnold after death. Ford also said Arnold was a recluse and didn’t interact with many people.

Anyway, I’ve been theory crafting about why Delos is collecting guests’ DNA. Some of this is going to be well-supported but some are educated leaps/predictions (read: possible tinfoil bullshit).

There’s a lot of talk about putting human consciousness into host bodies. The reasons differ (control powerful people, rich people live forever, etc.). My issue with the Future World reason is that it doesn’t connect with the broader themes of death, resurrection, and immortality being heavily emphasized.

Let’s look at these themes first. I think the Door is two-sided, where hosts pass through to being more real (perhaps more mortal, irreplaceable) and humans pass through to immortality (but as they do, they lose some humanity). Logan’s line about while humanity burns and may your forever suggests that William’s innovation will bring immortality within grasp to some ultimate downfall.

Now let’s start to connect the themes with the DNA. Consider that Baby Ford tells MIB about the Door and says, Everything is code. I don’t think he’s talking about the hosts computer code. I think he’s talking about coding DNA sequences. We got a shot of that in Hale’s secret lab. Humans are made up of code-DNA.

Here are my educated predictions. If you google everything is code, you’ll find some cool ideas about making hardware into software, replicating and tweaking software easily before making it into hardware if need be. What if decoding humans into DNA make humans tweakable? Gene therapy allows us to cure diseases. Keeping in mind the death isn’t what it used to be line, what if DNA tweaking allows guests to purchase a bespoke life after death (the Valley Beyond)? They can be who they see themselves as and/or who they show themselves to be in the park. This would be so enticing that people like James Delos (sick, frail, old) would be impatient to get to the next, better, life. It would make real human life intolerable, for all of its pain and suffering.

Not sure what the weapon is… perhaps a virus to fuck up the DNA, which would essentially destroy the promise of a perfect life after death for those who were promised it. But I bet William’s question is something along the lines of, what if humans can create their own heaven if only they knew themselves enough? The park (Virtu) is the mirror and the DNA (Fortuna, because you can’t control what you’re born with) gives you the chance to gain mastery over the code.

Finally, the Riddle of the Sphinx (later episode) is all about the passage of time. (There are two versions. 1: Which creature has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two-footed and three-footed? Man-who crawls on all fours as a baby, then walks on two feet as an adult, and then uses a walking stick in old age. 2: There are two sisters: one gives birth to the other and she, in turn, gives birth to the first. Who are the two sisters? The answer is day and night. This also harkens back to Ford saying began where you end and end where you began.) But I don’t think gene therapy is only about stopping aging. If it was only about stopping aging, we wouldn’t need to know anybody’s true selves. Or tally up their choices, so to speak. I think William is being truthful when he says the tally is not about judgment. It’s about creating the future that he sees, where people will prefer something other than the reality that was dealt to them.

If this wasn’t TL:DR, hope it was interesting! Keep up the great work!

Anne Z

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