The Good Place

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WandersFar

Janet (Spoiler ish for Series 4) (self.thegoodplace)

submitted 1 year ago by GabrielBell12fi to c/thegoodplace

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This is a spoiler for the end of Series 4.

spoiler

Janet(s) -- Good, Bad and Neutral -- are essentially just sentient robots (not a robot) that serve the occupants of the Good and Bad Place and neutral areas.

However Janet (the one we spend most time with) and the other Janets we see clearly have free will, and self-determination. Bad Janet defies The Judge, and the rest of The Janets do as well.

So is the fact they are forced to spend eternity serving the occupants of The Good Place and The Bad Place without any chance of their lives ending a bad thing? "Our" Janet is maybe the most advanced being that ever lived -- she even falls in love with Jason -- and yet she is required to act as a slave/sentient servant to humans in The Good Place. She e

Does this seem odd to anyone else?

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[–] T156 5 points 1 year ago

No, not really. They are absolutely able to defy orders, such as if one contravenes their other restrictions. You cannot request private data on another resident, or make Janet hurt them directly, for example.

Janet also seems to be non-linear, so eternity is no big deal for them. They exist all times at once (and use the passage of it as a lotion), with the only linear part being that they're restricted from knowing about their own personal future. Eternity has a different meaning from that perspective.

[–] WandersFar 1 points 1 year ago

Our Janet says at some point that she doesn’t experience time the way humans do.

I took that to mean that, while she’s of course sad to see Jason walk through the door, in a very real, tangible sense he will live forever in her memory. Her memory is also her reality.

As an artificial being, the part of her that’s like a robot, if not a robot per se, must have something analogous to a hard drive. And since Janets are effectively indestructible, her data never degrades, unlike fallible human memory.

If she wanted, she could probably conjure up a new Jason just as she did Derek, her more sophisticated Janet babies, or how Jason made a Pillboi in her void. Or she could just relive her memories of him as if they were happening in the present.

Add in Jeremy Bearimy to the mix, and perhaps he really does come back to the Afterlife again, in a way even the other remaining Cockroaches (just Tahani now, I suppose) can experience.

As to whether Janets are “forced” to serve, I think that goes back to the question of sentience. They are created with the desire to serve, it’s programmed into them.

And despite all her personal growth over the seasons, even our Janet generally enjoys serving her friends (maybe “helping” would be the better word here.)

So are Janets enslaved? Maybe, but at minimum it’s something they enjoy doing.

At maximum they’d be miserable without some kind of service, some purpose to their existence. Just like Michael and the humans, everyone needs a rock to push up the hill, even Janets.