My Pluribus Theory
Pluribus is an Apple TV+ series created by Vince Gilligan, the creator of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, and writer for The X-Files. The pitch for the series is something like: "The unhappiest person on the planet must save the world from happiness." It is a sci-fi series that focuses more on the characters than its fantastical "gimmick." If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend watching it. What follows is a theory I have about the story, but I'm warning you: SPOILERS AHEAD.
THE THEORY:
How did the virus originate? Iâve seen quite a bit of discussion on Reddit about the virus being an alien weapon used to "pacify" planets before an invasion, or to destroy intelligent societies before they become a problem for the virus's creators. However, I donât think the virus is a weapon; I think itâs more a form of protest.
Imagine that the society that created the original virus was similar to ours but more advancedâbetter technology but with the same problems. Worse pollution, extreme global warming, loss of biodiversity, wars over resources, even more extreme inequality; basically, unrestrained Capitalism creating the worst possible version of our society.
In this world, one or several scientists look for a way to end the conflicts of their world, which is heading toward the slow self-destruction of their species. In their search, they find the virus that unites them into a single consciousness, thereby ending social problems, economic inequality, and violence. But that would only be the beginning.
Any society that exceeds a billion inhabitants cannot sustain itself without industrially exploiting its planet's resources. This exploitation causes suffering to other life forms, much like humans do today with factory farming, where animals are born, fattened, and slaughtered without ever walking on the earth. The only way to stop that exploitation is to decrease the number of individuals. By ensuring that the unified consciousness cannot harm any other life formânot even plantsâthey guarantee that the vast majority will eventually starve to death. This leaves only the number of people that can sustain themselves while coexisting with other species without exploiting them.
In this way, with all individuals connected in a single consciousness and at a population level that can be sustained without abusing natural resources, they would finally achieve a world at peace. And that is what these scientists did.
Eventually, the unified mind decides that this way of existingâwithout abusing resources and in harmonyâis the final form of existence, and it does everything possible to transmit the virus to other planets.
So, thatâs my theory: the virus was created by scientists of another species to achieve world peace at any cost and expand this throughout the universe. Itâs even possible that the planet near Kepler-22 in Pluribus isn't even the virus's original home world.
Final theories on what might happen in the coming seasons:
- I donât think the series will show or tell us the origin of the virus, or that we will ever see an "alien." I donât think the director has any interest in those tropes.
- I believe Carol and Manousos will discover a way to "return" individuals to normalcy, perhaps by placing them in a Faraday cage or using something that interferes with the signal that connects them. When they do, we will discover that the "people" are still in there.
- I think there are more people who didn't join the swarm whom we haven't met yetâlikely an isolated group somewhere that everyone assumed was dead (military in a secret submarine, a religious group on a mountain). The writers will find a way to introduce new human characters. Maybe someone wakes up from a coma and turns out to be immune as well?
- I believe Laxmi, the Indian mother, will eventually become an ally.
- How long will we have to wait for a second season? Probably two years at least. I don't think weâll see anything from Pluribus until mid-2027 or, if things get delayed, early 2028.