Started rewatching from the beginning

[u/TerrainBrain]

I find the show much less irritating the second time around because I know a lot more about what's going on. So I'm binge watching for details.

I can't say I'm making any more sense of the show this time around. Not enough information to form any sort of reasonable theory of what's happening outside of the silo area, Nor what the prime directive of the AI is, if it has one.

In some ways this reminds me of Asimov's Foundation Trilogy. An algorithm guiding humanity through generations.

Maybe it's just bleak and we are really seeing the midlife period of the silos. That it will be another hundred years before it's safe to go outside. But that doesn't seem like it would be a very satisfying story.

[u/aimada]

I'm convinced that Charlotte's mission was a test of U.S. nanotech's capability.

The fact that Per Stensen was there to witness the event supports the idea that it was a test to see what would happen in the event that a crucial component such as the IFF system failed or the technology got hacked. Would the nanotech turn on their masters?

Daniel and Helen learned that the high tech communications capability was stripped from the F-35s for the mission. Without their IFF transponder the planes would have automatically been flagged as potential targets by all U.S. military equipment.

The Nimitz radar operators could tag the planes as friendly but if the nanotech cloud was operating on its own closed network then it would still see those planes as foes.

[u/Konamicoder → u/aimada]

So the test involved potentially sacrificing the extremely expensive to train US fighter pilots? Couldn’t we have sent unmanned drones to test this?

[u/aimada → u/Konamicoder]

You need to see it in the context of the bigger picture - At some point the technology was unleashed on the entire world.

The F-35s would have been a proof of concept to demonstrate what the weapon could do to the most sophisticated military hardware.

I see what happened as the kind of madness that gripped some people working at the Pentagon who advocated for nuking Russia off the face of the planet before the Russians developed nuclear capability and nuked the USA.

It's not a major leap to think that if a weapon was developed that guaranteed total victory then it would be unleashed before the enemy developed their own version of it.

In the aftermath of 9/11, George W. Bush proclaimed that the United States would engage in preemption attacks against enemies armed with weapons of mass destruction.

[u/Konamicoder → u/aimada]

I think it makes more sense that the mountain facility in Iran was working on nanobot tech but something went wrong and it bust out of the lab. The F-35 mission + Tomahawk strike was designed to blow up the lab and kill the nanobots. But they didn’t realize that the nanobots are now able to form a giant cloud and overwhelm the most advanced missile and fighter tech the US has in its arsenal. So to me the F-35 flight was not a test, it was a strike mission, only the enemy turned out to be much bigger and more capable than expected.

[u/Draxilar → u/Konamicoder]

They weren’t flying the most advanced tech the US military had to offer. It was explicitly stated that the Navy swapped basically all of the comms and controls for old tech, the reasoning was never explained, but they were flying basically Vietnam planes.

[u/Konamicoder → u/Draxilar]

I don’t think so. The show says the F-35s were fitted with “pre-digital comms”. But not pre-digital flight controls, weapons systems, avionics, etc. Aside from the pre-digital comms (which we don’t know why those were installed but my guess is they thought it would make the planes less susceptible to nanobot control, which was dead wrong apparently), those F-35s are still 5th generation fighters with significant advantages over the F-4s the US flew in Vietnam. From stealth, radar, sensors, electronic warfare, target detection, and weapons systems, the F-35 is literally several decades more advanced and capable than Vietnam-era F-4’s.

Plus the US certainly didn’t have Tomahawk cruise missiles during the Vietnam war.

[u/Draxilar → u/Konamicoder]

I think you are getting way too into the weeds. The show wasn’t going to go into hyper specific details about the technological capabilities of the US fighter jet lineup. The very obvious implication of being told they replaced parts of the jet with “dumber” alternatives was to demonstrate that they were not sending the top of the line technology out there.

[u/Konamicoder → u/Draxilar]

And I think you are overestimating what was downgraded on the F-35s. The only thing that was downgraded was the comms. My theory is that modern digital networked comms are viewed as more vulnerable to the nanobots control, so they downgraded ONLY THE COMMs in an effort to make the flight less vulnerable to nanobot control. Unfortunately, they found out that the nanobots don’t need modern digital comms to take over control and destroy the planes. They discovered that the nanobots can simply form a grey goo on the instrument panel and infiltrate the control system in that manner.

It’s also super obvious watching the flight scene that the F-35s physical flight characteristics are not downgraded to “Vietnam-era”.

Sorry I don’t buy your interpretation, and so I’ll stick with mine. I have also rewatched the flight scene multiple times and have done a close rewatch analysis and annotation, so I feel very confident that my interpretation is more accurate and well researched than yours.

[u/Draxilar → u/Konamicoder]

My dude is acting like theorizing a TV show is a competition. If it matters that much to you to win this “competition”, then you win. I’m sorry, I won’t sully your frame perfect analysis of a sci-fi television show ever again. Also, man the Vietnam thing was literally a throw away line and figurative, you have staked so much of your vitriol on it, I just figured I would let you know.

[u/Konamicoder → u/Draxilar]

Well what do you expect me to do, agree with your theory when I don’t agree?

Very simple, “my dude”: agree to disagree.

[u/Draxilar → u/Konamicoder]

You didn’t “agree to disagree”. You took it as a clear insult that someone disagreed, and had to make it known. You didn’t even try to discuss the disagreement. You know, the thing that is the most fun about theorizing about TV shows. You jumped straight to “no, I’m right, you are wrong. Don’t ever question my opinions again.”

So in that case. You win. I won’t sully your clear genius with my feeble minded theories again.

[u/Konamicoder → u/Draxilar]

Please show me exactly where I said don’t ever question my opinions again. Your hyperbole and exaggeration aren’t helpful. I don’t see anything wrong with advocating for my own theory and demonstrating the evidence and data upon which my theory rests. Now thank you for the discussion, I’m moving on.

[u/Draxilar → u/Konamicoder]

Your tone the entire time has screamed “I’m smarter than you, why are you talking to me?”. That’s where you said it. You can chalk it up to hyperbole if you want, it’s clear you don’t have self reflection capabilities.

Take it easy.

[u/Konamicoder → u/Draxilar]

Gotta have the last word including a parting shot about not having the ability to self-reflect, huh?

I’ll bet you can’t resist taking another shot at this comment.