Omniscient: Drones are for Suckers

 Episode 2 of Omniscient continues with Nina trying to solve her fathers death, and expands upon her relationship with her brother and Judite. The overall aspect of episode 2 is how drones are created, how they work with magnetics, and how long a person can theoretically go without a drone and how they get re-droned. Of course Nina learning all this, uses this new knowledge to her advantage in sneaking around the offices, stealing technology, and learning more about her fathers past and possible reason behind being murdered. A large portion of the episode takes place outside the city, where drones are not available and life looks much like it does now. 

    So far this is the biggest way to relate the episode to ourselves today. Setting plays a huge part in this as in the city where you are monitored 24/7 life is clean, polite, and almost modern day Victorian standard where there is a way you go about business. The outside is dirty, graffitied and crime ridden no place for inners, as Ninas brother Daniel will find out. The relationship between inners and outers is obvious from the start, much like a racist use of technology inners are seen as out of place, wealthy people who have no place outside the city, they are taken advantage of and often scammed. This has a huge haves and have nots underlying tone that I feel will be explored more, but the tension from going to a surveillance state to frankly a slum clearly embeds some class struggle. 

      All of these tensions and mistrust of drones, or mistrust of people who sign off to be droned are all human however, and though Nina often outsmarts and makes fun of the drones she still lives her life under surveillance. The technology itself, or more specifically the drone is not racist, not biased, not wealthy, it is impartial and neutral made to serve a purpose objectively and without emotion, and in that it excels well. The implementation, class struggle, and obedience of population that comes with drones are all human made, whether it be omniscient itself, or more sinisterly and a hunch of mine that the city is responsible for a lot of the paranoia. Overall episode 2 truly shows the limits and faults of the system Nina is trying to outsmart, but more important then that is the overall theme of a big brother, even without humans watching the footage its terrifying for most people, as one slip up can be ruin. But with the fear comes the safety, and that is the heart of the episode I feel. Are you willing to give up some of your rights as a person, and be listened to, monitored like an animal 24/7 or experience the dangers of the outside? I know where I would stand, because I think drones are for suckers.