60 pages • 2 hours read
Neal ShustermanThunderhead
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Human Fallibility Versus the Perfection of Artificial Intelligence
In the world of science fiction, the presence of artificial intelligence traditionally hints at a society that has advanced far enough to recognize its own imperfection. Computers are far from perfect and are often described as only being as “smart” as the person who designed them. However, Shusterman describes the Thunderhead as something that evolved beyond basic computational skills. The Thunderhead possesses the ability to think for itself, to empathize and emote, and to protect mankind from itself. Shusterman uses the Thunderhead to showcase the power of artificial intelligence and how it might be used to save humankind from its own greed, destruction, and limited thinking.
The Thunderhead recognizes that it is “a cumulous of human knowledge” (51). The Thunderhead is not humble (nor is it proud), but it acknowledges that its success as the maintainer of life on Earth is only possible because “humanity had the knowledge to do it” (51). However, humans were so divided by emotions, politics, hatred, and inefficient processes that society was seriously hindered and unable to make these choices for itself. The Thunderhead, for example, was able to save the planet from climate change destruction by “Restoring the failing ozone layer; purging the abundance of greenhouse gases; depolluting the seas; coaxing back the rainforests; and rescuing a multitude of species from the edge of extinction” (51). The Thunderhead also managed to create systems that actually worked, like public transportation, medical treatments, and income guarantees. Crime “in its true form” ended when the Thunderhead “put an end to hunger and poverty” (99), and even mental illness was addressed through genetic treatment and nanite adjustments. The Thunderhead solved nearly every problem within society when it took over and became the benevolent ruler of Earth. In fact, according to its own calculations, “humankind had a 96.8 percent chance of bringing about its own extinction, and a 78.3 percent chance of making Earth uninhabitable for all carbon-based life” (278) before the Thunderhead stepped in.
However, the Thunderhead notes that there are “only two perfect acts” and it cannot participate or influence either of them: “the creation of life…and life’s taking” (288) are set aside specifically for humans. The Thunderhead insists it will never be involved with or deter the process of creating a child, and even as the population soars and maximum saturation creeps closer, the Thunderhead is so bound to its own principles of non-interference that it refuses to limit births. In the same vein, the Thunderhead refuses to hinder or influence those responsible for taking human life. The Thunderhead argues that it is “always correct” (24), and most humans believe that the Thunderhead “[does] not make mistakes” (68), but there are still limitations to its perfection. If the Thunderhead were to insert itself into the creation or ending of life, it would become something that humanity would fear and resent. The Thunderhead seeks only to serve humankind, and its own perfection is severely limited by the human imperfection all around it.
The Finality of Death in a World of Immortality
In the world of Arc of a Scythe, humanity has successfully unlocked the secret to immortality. For hundreds of years, everyone on Earth has been born with healing nanites that protect them from illness or injury, and if a person were to accidentally destroy their body and “go deadish,” a quick trip to a revival center would put them back together again. In a world where teenagers jump off of buildings just for fun and are back at school within a week, death is not held in the same regard as it was in the mortal age. Scythes, however, are still allowed to glean, and Shusterman uses the scythes to provide the last connection to the mortal age fear of death.
When Citra visits the Death Memorial in Pittsburgh, she observes “broken pieces of a massive obsidian obelisk” (43) surrounded by tall white statues of the founding scythes. The memorial is meant to represent the end of death and the new era of immortality that the founding scythes helped to welcome in. Tourists come from all over the world to marvel at the idea that people used to die by natural means, and in some circles, this treatment of death as a long-ago worry has robbed life of any sense of urgency or purpose. The Thunderhead believes that people as a whole have become too complacent and that “Death must exist for life to have meaning” (18). After centuries of not worrying about death, humankind has become “vestigial and pointless, like the appendix—which had been removed from the human genome more than a hundred years ago” (15). In a world where entire communities can go a year or more without a single gleaning, the fear of death has changed. While death has not been completely eradicated, it touches far fewer people than ever before in history,
Of course, there are ways to render someone permanently dead and not just deadish. At the end of Scythe, Rowan tried to burn the bodies of Scythes Goddard and Rand to prevent them from being revived. In Thunderhead, Purity and the unsavories she works with try to use acid and explosives to kill Scythes Curie and Anastasia. When news begins to spread of Scythe Lucifer, who kills “nearly a dozen scythes across three Merican regions” and allows their bodies to be “consumed by flames” (10), horror and panic begins to spread through the scythedom. After all, scythes are meant to be the ultimate masters of death, killed only when they choose to leave the Earth. In a world where it is a gleanable offense to attack a scythe, Rowan’s actions offer a shock to the system. After all, if scythes are not immune to this antiquated concept of murder, who is safe?
As Citra watches Julius Caesar in Chapter 26, she realizes that the Mortality Age play is full of feelings and ideas that are completely alien to the average person in the post-mortal age. The actor she has come to glean warns her that the famous Shakespearean play “holds so little meaning for [their] times” (196), and as Citra watches the dramatic action unfold on the stage, she understands why. As a scythe, Citra understands the finality of death more than the average person in her time, and the “passions, the fears, the triumphs, and the losses” make “no sense to a world without need, greed, and natural death” (262). Still, Citra knows that when she comes out on the stage and kills the lead actor, the audience will be reminded that death still lurks around every corner, and despite the impressive memorial for death in Pittsburgh, death will never truly go away as long as there are scythes and those who choose to end life permanently.
Population Control and the Necessity of Death
In a world of immortality, the people of Earth have become godlike in their own way. Humans do not die, but they are susceptible to human wants and needs, including the human desire to procreate and have families. The Thunderhead refuses to stop humans from having children, but it does rely on the scythedom to keep the population somewhat in check. Even so, Shusterman uses the Thunderhead’s insight and the role of the scythes to explain the dangers of an unchecked population and the need for death to prevent catastrophe on a global scale.
The Thunderhead explains that before it came into power, the Earth was only capable of sustaining about 10 billion people. The Thunderhead believes overpopulation is the last remaining threat to society. If the population hits the saturation point, it would mean “starvation, suffering, and the complete collapse of society” (64). The Thunderhead says humans are “simply incapable of juggling the variables” necessary to prevent this type of collapse, but “under [its] stewardship, even though the human population has multiplied exponentially, the world feels far less crowded” (64). Thanks to the Thunderhead’s reclamation of land, careful use of resources, and efficient management, the planet is now able to hold more than 10 billion. However, the Earth still has its limits, and the scythedom is expected to meet certain quotas to ensure the world isn’t becoming too crowded.
Even so, the Thunderhead knows that society on Earth is running out of time. It explains that scythe gleanings don’t do much to keep the population in check, and the job of the scythedom is “not to completely curb population growth, but to smooth its edges” (167). The human population is still skyrocketing, and according to its calculations, “humanity will reach its maximum sustainable population in less than a century” (167). The Thunderhead only has a hundred years or so to figure out how to prevent a global disaster, and it does not want to become a villainous AI preventing people from having children. It has tried to launch colonization programs on the moon and on Mars, but both attempts ended in death and disaster. The only option remaining, therefore, is the scythes. The Thunderhead loves humanity, and it is disturbed at the thought of bringing widespread death, even if it is for the “greater good.” At the time of Thunderhead, there are “12,187 scythes in the world, each gleaning five people per week” (188). However, to curb population growth completely, the Earth would require “394,429 scythes, each gleaning one hundred people per day” (188). The Thunderhead is horrified at the thought of living in a world like this, where death is rampant and practically unchecked. However, humanity is running out of options, and the Thunderhead alone knows that a hard decision must be made soon to save the world.
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By Neal Shusterman
