Independence Day and the Sketchy Ping Pong Ball of Intelligence

As of yesterday, I’ve seen both of the Independence Day films twice.

I hadn’t seen the first one until earlier this year. How that oversight came about? I have no idea.

As always, I have opinions. But for this particular post, I’m going to focus on one particular thought and its surrounding items.

The virtual life form that looks like Marvin’s head from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy film.

I get the worst vibes from that spherical entity. And maybe I’m alone in that, but something about showing up to collect refugees and taken them back to a planet feels super sketchy. Pretty sure that’s the lead-up to the subjugation of the human race.

DO NOT TRUST THOSE CLAIMING TO BE PURELY ALTRUISTIC.

And maybe I’m prescribing too human of attributes to it, but its motivations and the story it feeds Okun and the others does not feel legitimate. If the virtual being thinks us so primitive, why would it come to collect survivors to help in its quest to destroy the harvesters? Why would it need us? Ignore, for a moment that in this AU, the world has managed to defeat the harvesters twice—it wouldn’t have known that when it set out—what use does it have for so-called primitive life forms? Does it’s “rescue” come with the demand for manual labor?

Sure SF humanity has a way of thinking outside of the box and pulling miracles out of our asses from time to time, but the sphere of intelligence doesn’t know that.

I don’t trust it and neither should you. DO AS I SAY!

This is probably one of the less problematic issues with the film, which I like on a purely alien-candy enjoyment level, but it’s one that keeps surfacing among the other thoughts that actually make me mad.