- dibbs089
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- Elder Mythic Member
I can't see the Flood's goals as admirable.
The Deus Ex (soon to be trilogy) references what you're getting at cobra. One of the possible endings entails a humanity whose minds are all linked to a central hub (essentially the internet) with an A.I. in charge of the whole thing. Essentially, there is no privacy, but everyone has access to the knowledge of everyone else, to the thoughts, ideas, opinions, and inner workings of everyone else. Decisions that would have been made by the legislative, executive, and judicial are no longer necessary; it's an instantaneous democracy where everyone's true motives can be weighed and judged and decisions can be implemented immediately. While humanity is linked together almost as a singular entity, it also provides for individualism in that you are still you; your ideas, beliefs, and opinions are your own. Who you are isn't lost to the collective whole; but at the same time all of humanity is strengthened and the needs of all are looked after.
The Flood, while exhibiting similar qualities (at least at first) is not like this at all. These are, of course, my own opinions on the topic, but from what I've read the Flood seems to exist solely as an extension of a single mind; the Gravemind. Every time an entity is consumed, it is literally consumed and gone forever. For instance, although Captain Keyes' conscious lives on forever within the Flood, he himself (mind, body, soul, whatever) is gone. All that's left are his memories and those memories are exclusively available to the Gravemind. When individuals are absorbed, they don't become part of a collective, rather, all their information is just sent to a single entity who can use it how he sees fit.
The Gravemind turned MB by claiming that he was the answer to the biological inevitability that is death; the so-called third stage of evolution. That was a lie. His answer to death is no different than humanity's current answer; which is, simply, memories. The Gravemind is a repository of information, yes, but all that information is, is memories. Our dead live on because we remember them (I believe that the collective conscious of humanity is a very real thing). George Washington has been dead for over 200 years and yet he still lives on in daily discussions. This is the only "immortality" the Gravemind promises and yet his system is worse than our current one. Right now, everyone has accessed to deceased individuals, either because they knew them in life or because someone was able to share their memories of the person while they lived. The Gravemind would take that away (that "collective remembrance" vis a vis "immortality") and substitute it with only him being able to remember the dead,
So, no, the Gravemind's goals are not noble. A major argument against communism is that it sacrifices the individual for the collective whole. The Flood takes it a step further by sacrificing all life so as to benefit a single entity. That's hardly nobility no matter what moral lens you choose to look through.