Fields of disillusionment
"Nit naye naqsh banatay ho, mita daitay ho,
Jaanay kis jurm-e-tamanna ki saza detay ho.
Kabhi kankar ko bana detay ho heeray ki kani,
Kabhi heeron ko bhi mitti mein mila detay ho."
"You constantly craft new designs, only to erase them;
Who knows for what crime of desire we are being punished?
Sometimes You turn a mere pebble into a diamond;
Sometimes You reduce even diamonds to dust."
— Naz Khialvi, Tum Ek Gorakh Dhanda Ho (You Are a Riddle)
How do you adjust to a reality designed to torture you or rip you off? Torture and torment are the key plot devices of the brilliant Netflix existential comedy series The Good Place. In this story, a group of recently deceased individuals are informed that after death, they have arrived in heaven, or the good place. They are led to believe that they are there as a result of a bureaucratic mistake. It later turns out that the whole situation is a ruse to torture them because they are actually in the bad place, or hell. Do not complain about spoilers. The first season containing this plot twist dropped in 2016. If you have not watched it yet, odds are you were never going to watch it.
Extortion and ripping people off are the central themes of another interesting comedy series called Upload. In 2033, technology has advanced to the point where people can upload their consciousness to a virtual world after their death. Run by corporate giants, these virtual worlds charge you huge sums. One such world is Lakeview. If you cannot afford the high maintenance costs, you are relegated to........





















Toi Staff
Sabine Sterk
Gideon Levy
Penny S. Tee
Waka Ikeda
Mark Travers Ph.d
John Nosta
Daniel Orenstein