Futurama's Simulation Episode May Confirm A Controversial Fan Theory
Spoilers for "Futurama" season 11 episode 10 follow.
Okay, so this one is a bit of a reach.
At the beginning of the third-season "Futurama" episode "I Dated a Robot," Fry (Billy West) bursts into the room to declare that he had just seen the most beautiful thing imaginable. It was a glowing sphere of light emblazoned with every known color, including several Fry had never seen before. Amy (Lauren Tom) dismisses Fry's astonishment, explaining that the ball of light was merely a mascot costume worn by a college kid outside the local shoe pavilion.
Fry is incensed that his elevated experience could be pooh-poohed so easily. "For one brief moment," he said, "I felt the heartbeat of creation, and it was one with my own." Amy just shoots back with "Big deal," while the alcoholic robot Bender (John DiMaggio) adds "We all feel like that all the time. You don't hear us gassin' on about it." It seems that, in the 31st century, Earth has achieved a kind of ineffable enlightenment, only it's become so common as to be boring.
This exchange was clearly a fun joke, but some mega-fans (like Reddit user RedSalesperson) have used it to point out a utopian aspect of "Futurama" that is rarely acknowledged, and, by extension, find a borderline tinfoil-hat theory as to the nature of the "Futurama" universe. If Fry can still experience wonder, but the others merely accept it as part of their everyday lives, surely that means the denizens of the future are no longer wanting for anything.
Indeed, the wonders of technology imply that "Futurama" nearly exists in a post-scarcity world ... with perfect VR simulations. That the show's most recent episode posited that the Professor (West) was able to create such a simulation leads to questions about reality.
Is Futurama a utopia?
Of course, there are a few steps getting from "everyone is generally enlightened" to "everyone is living in a simulation," so let's see if we can piece together RedSalesperson's logic.
In brief, the theory goes, that the reality of "Futurama" is absurd. Money and resources are regularly wasted on goofy crap like Mom (Tress MacNeille) putting antennae on her company's robots because they merely look "science fictiony." The antennae ultimately would serve a function, but it seems no one knew what that function was going to be when the antennae were built. This kind of waste led the Redditor to posit that, in the 31st century, resources have become cheap enough to waste billions on a cute gag or stupid pun. If resources are cheap, then the world of "Futurama" is a world of luxury.
RedSalesperson also points out that the citizens of the future have free access to some of the most marvelous technologies imaginable. They can travel to distant planets in an instant, communicate with aliens from across the known universe, and ride dinosaurs on a whim. Dead celebrities can be cloned into robot bodies and conscious robots live among them. Importantly to RedSalesperson, VR technology has become so elaborate as to create perfect simulations of reality. If one so chose, they could live in a perfect simulation 24 hours a day.
But — and here's the kicker — no one does.
The people of the 31st century could live in a technologically perfect simulated world if they wanted to, but choose to stay in dead-end jobs in the real world. Why? Because they are enlightened. They work to prove themselves, not because they have bills to pay.
Are we living in a simulation?
The theory doesn't account for the instances of poverty seen on the show, of course. There are orphans who can't find homes, mutants who live in the sewers, and many scenes of drunks lying in the gutter. There are also clearly rich people, as when Mom uses a $300 bill to blow her nose, so there are clearly still strata of class. Also, depression hasn't been cured, as there are government-built suicide booths on every corner (although they have slowly vanished over the course of the series).
But such social ills may be at an end. Dr. Zoidberg (West) may live in a dumpster and eat garbage, but it was later stated that Zoidberg lives in poverty as a choice; he needs friends more than he needs money. So maybe want is almost eliminated. As it so happens, $20 in the year 3023 buys just as much as $20 in 2023. Deflation, in this universe, has kept living inexpensive.
So in the newest episode, "All the Way Down," when the Professor invents a "Sims"-like VR world of computerized replicas (of himself and the other "Futurama" characters), it's merely a further expression of the perfect simulated world that the Planet Express crew refuses to live in. There are a lot of conversations as to whether or not they're living in a simulation right now, and they all acknowledge, pretty unilaterally, that it doesn't really matter if all life is a simulation, as that is a mere distraction from actual life. It's basic existentialism.
Of course, the only dissatisfaction in the characters' minds arises when they realize they value truth above comfort.
But we're all still dolts
Of course, if "Futurama" is a dolt's paradise of amazing tech, one can certainly begin to ask if the whole show isn't also a simulation. Fry would certainly jump at the chance to live in an idealized video game. As mentioned above, he's the only one to experience wonder at the technology of the future and would easily be lured by the siren song of technology. When Fry yelled "Shut up and take my money," he was buying consumer electronics.
All of these Cartesian musings are fun to blither about after an edible or two, of course, but what they ultimately do is countermand the cynical comedic conceit of "Futurama," namely: we're all still dumb. Despite how smart some of the characters appear to be on "Futurama," they're really all dolts at the end of the day. We may have access to alternate dimensions, in the future, as well as VR tech, cloned dinosaurs, robot celebrities, and fing-longers, but we're too dumb to use those things to their full potential. However enlightened the future may be, we'll still make dumb jokes, get drunk, and act solely out of base, selfish impulses. In the future, we're still beaten down by the grind, enslaved by capitalism, and completely unimpressed by the technological marvels that surround us. As a whole, humans will invent some rather impressive machines. We'll also still be bickersome, gullible meatbags.
Nothing like today.
The entirety of "Futurama" season 11 is now streaming on Hulu.