Headscratchers / Upload

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What is the point of funerals for the uploaded?

• What is the point of a funeral for someone uploaded? Since the person's consciousness is still 'alive', and easily accessible, what exactly is anyone mourning?
  • It's implied they're legally dead.
    • That doesn’t address why anyone would mourn them. We mourn our dead because their consciousness, and thus their entire existence, has come to a complete end. They are no longer in touch this side of death. But with uploads, their consciousness is still “alive” and easily accessible with what is essentially a Skype call. Why would I eulogize my father and celebrate his life, for instance, if I could simply Facetime him on my iPhone any time I wanted to?
  • It seems more of a formality than anything. Nathan’s funeral comes off as more of a fancy social event than funeral.
  • There's also the fact that, even though the Uploads can still be contacted, they will never actually be physically "there" again. There's a world of difference between being able to communicate virtually and actually physically being present and able to interact with people in the way you used to. In other words, there would still be a sense of loss - yes, maybe not as prevalent as it is for us in a world without this technology, but it would still be there, especially for those who were maybe friends or family with the Upload in life but who, for whatever reason, won't have constant contact with them once they've been uploaded. It's still a necessary thing to say goodbye.
  • First of all, as we see from Nora’s father, partly due to religious beliefs, not everyone accepts that the uploads are the real people they were when they were flesh-and-blood humans. Second, social institutions evolve. Look at marriage, for example: A lot of couples who have lived together for years still desire to eventually tie the knot, and not necessarily just for the legal benefits. The meaning of marriage has changed for many people compared with its original purpose, but it still means something. I expect that if something like upload is ever invented, many people will still hold “funerals” with the now-virtual individuals attending, just as the show depicts.
  • The uploaded individual is a copy of the original. Meaning, for a very brief time, both the original and the uploaded exist as separate, if nearly identical entities - until the original dies. If that distinction means something to you, then it is perfectly reasonable both to mourn the original - and then to seek contact with the copy after..

Aftermath of the assassin in the elevator

• How did the elevator turn so disgusting and bloody? What likely happened was he got killed by a single fast fall.
  • The elevator was flung up and down a least a few hundred feet, multiple times, within the span of a few seconds, with extremely abrupt changes in direction. It's surprising the result wasn't much, much worse.

Why put psychiatrists in the form of talking pets?

• If Lakeview is designed to make people most comfortable and mimic real life, to whose benefit is it to have a psychiatrist that's a talking dog?
  • It is literally pet therapy, and some people might be uncomfortable discussing their feelings in front of another human, so why not a cute dog?
    • Because the illusion of the cute dog is broken when the dog is revealed to not be a dog. It's kind of contrary to everything else in Lakeview
    • On the other hand (paw?), it's basically an advanced form of puppet therapy, a method which uses a non-human avatar to interact with the patient. While it may not be a good fot for everyone, it's likely to be pretty successful.
    • And Rule of Funny.
  • Acceptable Breaks from Reality. Bellhops in real life don't split into multiple people. Breakfast buffets don't spontaneously cease to exist at 10:00 AM on the dot. Janets don't appear out of thin air when you call for an angel. Or maybe they do do those things in 2033...In which case, maybe talking dog therapists exist too...in any case, it's just a weird Lakeview thing that people accept, even if it might (or might not) deviate from reality.
  • Its a way to cut costs. They outsource the therapy, and by using animal avatars the therapists consume fewer system resources and the therapist doesn't need an expensive VR rig.

Grayscale avatars

• Why is Mildred's avatar grayscale? She tells Nathan her appearance is based off a photograph from 1961. But in Nathan's case, his appearance is based on his own memories. When Nathan is first uploaded, Nora scans through his memories, taking screenshots every time he sees his reflection in a mirror and mapping his features onto a blank avatar. Did something prevent the Horizon employee who created Mildred's avatar from using her memories? Did she specifically ask that her avatar be based on the photo from 1961 (a photo so old, no-one can remember if it's a picture of Mildred or her sister)? Is there something preventing her from colorizing her avatar? Does she enjoy being totally grayscale?
  • They may only have access to recent memories to build the avatar (since those are the ones that would match your current appearance) so it's possible Mildred didn't want to be an elderly woman and instead wanted her younger self. In which case, they would only have that photograph to work from.
    • It still doesn't make sense that she looks like that. I mean, if Nathan's hair can be fixed, there's no reason why she can't be colorized.
    • She probably could be. Of course, given the pay-to-play setup of this digital afterlife, that would definitely be extra, and might not end well. Colorizing black and white images is always a little hit-or-miss.
    • It's possible she was one of the first users and that was the limit of the technology at that time, and due to compatibility issues/personal choice she's still like that.
    • There's a pretty big difference between fixing Nathan's small cowlick (which was simply erased) and colorizing a person with no frame of reference. Was Mildred extremely pale, overly tanned, or somewhere in between? Maybe they attempted to correct it and never figured out the right shade, maybe she never cared about it because she got to be her younger self regardless. She hasn't yet had near enough focus to be dealt with.
  • There's an even simpler explanation: because she wanted it that way. Its shown repeatedly that high-paying customers get whatever they want. So when she was about to die she handed Lakeview a black and white photograph and said "make me look like this". She could change it if she wants, but she doesn't.

How do uploaded people pay for anything?

• When Nathan tries to make changes to Lakeview he is asked for his password, and told he cannot make changes because all of avatar's stuff in being handled by his GF's account. Okay, fine but some items in Lakeview however require money, as in there is an actual charge for it. If the normal situation is to use the actual person's account then how do they charge for any in-program purchases, since dead people don't have money.
  • Either the user would need to have set up an account to handle in-program purchases before being uploaded or their family would need to maintain it. It seems most uploads in Lakeview are wealthy (whether themselves like David Choak or their family like Ingrid) so either option would be doable. I believe it's also mentioned that the 2-gigs go offline until more data is put into their account. Presumably they would be frozen indefinitely until that occurs.
  • In essence, his girlfriend has set aside a fund to pay for incidentals and luxuries. It's still her money, so any changes would need to originate from her, rather than the digital copy of her boyfriend. Think of it like giving your child an allowance.
  • It's mentioned several times that most of the Uploads are people who always planned to be uploaded when they died (and there's a high "rejection rate" by people like Nathan who were uploaded as a spur-of-the-moment decision just before death), and that uploading itself is typically something reserved for the very rich or those who are employed by the company responsible and qualify for employee benefits. Presumably, while still alive, they set up a steady ongoing payment (possibly under the care of a trusted family member or friend or, since this is a heavily-automated future, they just trust those in charge of their accounts to do it automatically) to the company.
  • Its implied if not stated that Uploads can HAVE money, they just aren't allowed to MAKE money. So if you died with $100,000 in your account, that's all you've got to spend on mini bar Doritos for the rest of eternity.

Why did they listen to Uptown Funk at their prom?

• Nathan was born in 2006. His prom would have been 2024 at which point "Uptown Funk" would have been 10 years old. Wouldn't that have been a little out of date? The show aired in 2020 and was likely shout around 2018, couldn't they have put in a 2018 song?
  • This troper had several high school dances built around songs like the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody" despite graduating in 1997.
    • Well, “Unchained Melody” enjoyed a revival in the 1990s due to Ghost (1990), but I take your point.

Deleting an Upload

• In the third episode, Ingrid threatens to "Delete" Nathan, because she's the one paying for him, which would presumably terminate his consciousness. How can she legally have the power to commit murder like that? Of course, part of the point of the show is that the system is flawed, but it's also been shown thought (including legalese) has gone into the systems, and uploaded people aren't generally treated as chattel slaves in the show. Nate's situation is pretty obviously comparable to someone who is on life support, but conscious, so the question of whether or not they have the right to life should have been resolved pretty early on in the system's creation.
  • It's an empty threat. Ingrid knows it, and Nathan knows it, but it is nonetheless the sort of emotionally manipulative thing she'd say.

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