I’m talking about a fan theory, that if true doesn’t drastically upend the fundamentals of the fiction it is set in.
Mine is that in the American Dad episode ‘Can I Be Frank With You’, that Snot’s uncle is actually just another Roger persona. He appears suddenly and conveniently to pitch a bizarre scheme, he loves hanging around with teen boys and doing drugs, and the very instant that the plan has a setback he kills himself out of sight of everyone else. That’s just Roger in a suit and glasses.
Edit: Ok, so, people are having trouble with the word “inconsequential”.
Mine is that in Star Trek, at least all the computers advanced enough to be used on a starship are actually sentient. At some point you have enough self aware hologram programs and rogue AIs that you should start to wonder if they’re actually anonymous.
My take is that a true AI would be so far ahead of the humans that it wouldn’t want to slow down enough to interact with them. The AI would treat the humans the way we treat intestinal bacteria; we want them healthy and thriving, but don’t really care much about them day to day.
Honestly, I avoid conversations that matter because I expect most people around me aren’t on the level to contribute. AGI will certainly not give two shits.
This pretty much happens in Lower Decks
I’d like to take credit, but I got the idea from Joe Haldeman’s book “Buying Time.”
Fun read, look it up.
This was somewhat of a plot point in a season of Discovery.