U/D

I just came across these articles. The second one is uncannily relevant to this thread in that it ties together the social engineering mechanisms of both U/D and the Purge.

http://www.davidbrin.com/tschp1.html

http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0665.html?printable=1

In fact, Mr. Freitas' whole article reads practically like a dissertation on Aeon Flux.

(I should mention also, that Mr. Freitas seems to be quite bonkers.)

"(The Purge is, and always will be, my favorite. I thought adding the overlay at the end dumbed it down a little, but that's another topic. I love all the other edits, I promise!)"

Aha, so I'm not the only one who felt a bit bothered by making the ending of the Purge so intentional with the silhouette. I also never realized that it was doing the same movement that Aeon had done earlier before. This changed my whole hard scrabbled previous theory of the ending.

I thought it was just displaying bizarre mechanical behavior as a comment on the validity of applying artificial conscience to the human condition (Drew seemed to say something similar in the commentary, “rote behavior”).
Now the ending seems to imply that Aeon was indeed implanted, and her act of defiance was not actually her own but the custodians.
Or, it could mean the custodians are programmed to imitate observed behavior, and were now imitating what they saw Aeon do as an example of an unaltered human. Which ironically would be once again similar to my previous theory for the original ending; even if not preprogrammed, is imitating observed behavior the same as actually having a conscious?

The third theory is actually similar to the first definition of “rote” on dictionary.com:

rote1
n.
1. A memorizing process using routine or repetition, often without full attention or comprehension: learn by rote.
2. Mechanical routine.

I’m not terribly offended at the change, but it did seem a bit ham-handed for such a wonderfully ambiguous episode and series. And I do still have the original, so the new version is just more new Aeon for me to enjoy.

Back to the subject,
I thought UD had some very intriguing visual concepts. Such as the Clavious’s stomach cavern and his being mad and powered through an extension cord. The shiver vest. The surreal moment in the beginning where Aeon enters one door and instantly comes out another on the other side of the screen was a pleasant reminder of her silent days. And of course the nude interviewer is one of the more beautiful inhabitants of the series.
But those were really the saving graces for me, as I wasn’t particularly drawn in by, or understand the rest of the episode. Of course understanding Aeon was never necessary for me to be entertained by it. But U/D just didn’t grab me. I would put it about in the middle of the final series as far as its quality. Last time, Reraizure, Chronophasia, and End sinister would be below it.

"...is imitating observed behavior the same as actually having a conscious? "

^^^ That should spell conscience.
(I can do as bad as grammer check without it sometimes)
:)