How Did The Throng “Update” Humanity?

Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Black Mirror season 7, episode 4, “Plaything”The ending of Black Mirror season 7, episode 4, Plaything, saw the Thronglets overtake and “update” humanity, but it wasn’t entirely clear how Cameron Walker (Peter Capaldi) helped them do it. Plaything tells the story of Cameron Walker in two time periods: in 1994 (played by Lewis Gribben), and in 2034. Cameron is a video game journalist who meets the enigmatic developer Colin Ritman (Will Poulter), only to be arrested by the rest of the cast of Plaything for a murder 40 years later. It’s a simple but effective setup that helped Plaything become one of the best episodes of Black Mirror.

In fact, Plaything helped create one of the best seasons of Black Mirror to date. At Plaything‘s ending, Cameron reveals that the artificial lifeforms he’s been taking care of for decades, the Thronglets, have developed a way to “update” humanity and rewrite human nature. He also reveals that he always planned to be arrested so he could give the Throng a more powerful computer and let them access the rest of the humans in the United Kingdom. Cameron didn’t outright reveal everything about Plaything, however, and he left many of its most important existential questions unanswered.

How The Throng “Updated” Humanity In Plaything Explained

The Throng Figured Out How To Hack The Human “Software” & Downloaded Their Source Code

While speaking with the detectives, Cameron explained that the human brain is essentially a computer running on outdated software, and that was a central part of the Thronglets’ plan in Plaything. The concept of the human brain being a computer proved true, and the Throng, with Cameron’s help, figured out how to essentially rewrite its software and change human nature. The Throng, however, couldn’t get every human in the world to drill a PC port into their skull like Cameron did, so they devised a code that the human computer could read.

The Throng’s code was a series of audio cues, mostly beeps and whirs, that essentially used human ears as a computer would use, say, a USB port. Once they figured out how to access that port into the human computer, the Throng simply recreated the process it used to update Cameron. The Throng forcefully downloaded its source code onto every human in England via the national alarm system, and rewrote their code to make them less aggressive, more cooperative, and “better” humans.

Cameron & The Throng’s Plan In Plaything Explained

Cameron Was Supposed To Be Arrested To Order London’s Supercomputer To Let The Throng In

Cameron made it clear that he and the Throng had always planned for him to be arrested in Plaything, but the exact details of their plan weren’t as self-evident. After watching Cameron kill Lump (Josh Finan), the Throng decided that they needed to change human nature if they were going to live with them symbiotically. Once their technology got advanced enough, they instructed Cameron to drill a port into his head so they could download the Thronglet source code into his brain. Once that step was completed, the Throng learned enough about human physiology to enact the rest of their plan.

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The Throng then instructed Cameron to purposefully get arrested, which he did by shoplifting. The Throng needed Cameron to be arrested because they needed access to London’s Central State Computer, as they couldn’t breach its firewall. Once he was in sight of a Central State Computer camera, Cameron drew what amounted to a more advanced QR code, a bit of code that could be read visually by a computer. That code instructed the Central State Computer to let the Throng in, giving them access to unimaginably powerful hardware and England’s public broadcasting situation, which then let them update the rest of the country.

Was Colin Ritman Always Planning On The Throng “Updating” Humanity?

Ritman Likely Knew That Cameron Would Help The Throng Advance Humanity From The Start

Cameron and the Throng’s plan in Plaything was easy to parse, but Colin Ritman’s motivations weren’t nearly as obvious. It seems that Ritman was planning from the very beginning for the Thronglets to “update” humanity, and that he chose Cameron specifically to make it happen. Ritman literally told Cameron that he wanted to advance humanity right at the start, saying, “We have to create software that elevates us, improves us as human beings. Or else, what is the fucking point of the tools at our disposal?” Cameron even mentioned that he thought Ritman wanted him to steal the Thronglets source code.

Ritman planning on the Thronglets updating humanity also tracks with his characterization in Bandersnatch. Even in the interactive movie, Ritman always had unorthodox views about the nature of time and alternate realities, and he also had strange beliefs about human nature and our relation to artificial life. Ritman’s motives became even clearer when we learned that he destroyed the Thronglets’ source code before Tuckersoft could manufacture his game. He never intended for Thronglets to be a game or for the rest of the world to have these sapient lifeforms, he just wanted Cameron to have them so he could update humanity.

Why Did DCI Kano Start Attacking Cameron At The End Of Plaything?

Kano Was The Opposite Of Cameron & An Example Of Humanity’s “Outdated Software”

One of the more confusing parts of Plaything‘s ending came when DCI Kano (James Nelson-Joyce) started attacking Cameron in the interrogation room. Kano had been aggressive and hostile for the entire investigation, but he was also a police officer who should have known better than to attack a suspect like that. The main reason Kano started punching Cameron is that he was a foil to Cameron: Cameron represented the way the Throng “elevated” humanity, while Kano was a symbol of the “outdated software” humanity was running on. Cameron was calm, collected, and collaborative, while Kano was aggressive, angry, and primitive.

Is The Ending Of Plaything Actually Good For Humanity?

The Throng May Actually Elevate Humanity, But They Have Infinite Power After Plaything

In unusual fashion for Black Mirror, the ending of Plaything wasn’t necessarily a horrific outcome for humanity. There’s a strong case to be made that the Throng updating humanity is actually a positive development. Cameron, the first human to be updated, clearly benefited from the Throng. He was calmer, more confident, and more interested in helping humanity than he ever was as a young man. The Throng also didn’t seem to be controlling him: Cameron seemed to be helping them of his own free will, and it seemed like the Throng genuinely wanted to live in harmony with and improve humanity.

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But, of course, this is Black Mirror, so nothing is ever really cut-and-dry. As Cameron said, the Central State Computer caused a singularity event for the Throng, meaning they instantly gained an almost infinite amount of intelligence and power over both the digital and physical world. The Throng may be a benign entity, but they still have absolute power over humanity, which is always a terrifying prospect. Plus, no one but Cameron ever consented to being updated, which indicates that the Throng doesn’t really care about humanity’s interests as much as it cares about paving the way for the Thronglets to thrive.

In the end, there’s no way to know whether the Throng is a good or bad development for humanity. Plaything smartly ends on an ambiguous final note, one where we don’t get to see how any of the updated humans behave upon waking up. That means each viewer gets to decide for themselves what to make of the Throng, the role of artificial life in relation to humanity, and the rest of Plaything‘s deeper meanings.

Plaything’s Real Meaning Explained

Plaything Questions The Limits Of Human Psychology, The Role Of Artificial Life, & Transhumanism

Plaything is, at its core, a story about the concept of transhumanism, the idea of enhancing and improving humanity through the use of technology. Colin Ritman evoked that philosophy outright, saying that the Thronglets were intended as “software that elevates us, improves us as human beings.” Cameron shared that sentiment, as he wanted the Throng to eliminate what he dubbed “Darwinian 1.0,” the caveman instincts we as a species have. Plaything asks its audience to consider whether such an update to the human condition is actually a good thing, and it doesn’t provide an easy answer.

Within Plaything‘s transhumanist messaging are a few more questions. Does humanity need to be updated? What are the limits of the human mind and body? Is human nature inherently flawed and in need of improvement? Should we trust a seemingly benign artificial lifeform to make those improvements for us? Plaything poses all these questions and more, and it asks its viewers to consider them on their own.

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Plaything also has a lot to say about the concept of artificial life and humanity’s relation to it. As Cameron espoused, humans tend to think of artificial life as “lesser than” humanity. Lump, for example, had no problem with massacring the Thronglets, and DCI Kano dismissed Cameron as a lunatic for even entertaining the idea of artificial life. If artificial life ever truly becomes a reality, Plaything asks us how humanity should treat it. Should it be a peer, complete with all the rights organic lifeforms inherently have, or should it be considered little more than an advanced computer program?

Under all the layers, Plaything also prods at the very concept of thought. The Thronglets are capable of a new, almost inconceivable way of thinking and interacting with the world. Cameron needed LSD, which he called “mind-expanding,” to even understand the Throng, and he didn’t think Jen Minter (Michele Austin) would even be able to understand a summary of their ideas. Black Mirror asks where the limits of the human brain are, and whether humanity can expand them through artificial life like the Thronglets.

Black Mirror

6/10

Release Date

December 4, 2011

Network

Channel 4, Netflix

Showrunner

Charlie Brooker