I find artistic works are able to capture something important about humanity's collective unconscious, oftentimes, in a non-verbal way. In the middle of my experience of having found myself in what I believe was a STEM PhD human data farm, the artistic work that is the Disney+ show Andor Narkina 5 prison complex episodes 8 through 10, flashed through my mind. If you haven’t read my post describing my STEM PhD human data farm experience yet, you can check it out here!

During my human data farm experience, within a split second, I had visions and flashbacks of the Disney + Andor episodes where teams of male humans, under physical pressure, are creating and learning how to work together to avoid a gruesome fate. But why in such an advanced technological society, did they need these humans to do these tasks that should have been something a robot or robotic machine of some form could do instead? That was the question of the moment when the series aired back in May of 2022. While I was in the human data farm for STEM PhD’s, an answer flooded me.

Thoughts towards robot-robot interaction

When unpacking my experience, I wondered if the humans in the Narkina 5 prison complex episodes were creating the process for robots to be able to reason with each other. I then reasoned myself that by understanding the process that humans carry out in order to work together effectively and efficiently in a team setting, that process could then be taught to futuristic teams of robots. These futuristic robotic teams would be able to mimic how human teams of human bodies have figured out how to “reason” with each other, under pressure. Within my reflection and imagination I reasoned that something like this could then be the natural next step in the trajectory of Generative AI reasoning for robotic interactions.

As my thought experiment progressed, I gleaned that Generative AI reasoning could then lead to next generation robotic interactions with humans and for robotic interactions with other lifeforms, other robots, and robotic machinery. Recently, I watched media coverage and images of people, male human bodies to be more specific, being deported to El Salvador’s mega-prison complex. Dressed in white outfits, outfits with likeness to the inmates in the Narkina 5 prison complex episodes, I feared for what’s possible on Earth today.

It is well known that there is a lack of transparency in how our Administrations operate and govern and that there is a forced cultural acceptance around it that maintains hierarchical social structures. This dynamic necessitates the public’s participation and thought leadership to serve as stewards and guardians through discussion and debate around what is possible within our governments in today’s technology driven world. The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a recent example of an Administration engaging in gross human rights violations. These violations were possible in part through the ability of the government to maintain a lack of transparency within hierarchical decision making structures. I can’t help but wonder if Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and Nayib Bukele would like to replace the various migrant workforces with next generation robots that are able to reason and leverage captured tacit knowledge cultivated by human lives.

My first job was in food service at age 14. I worked at the Pancake House and I then worked at the Cardiff Seaside Market. At these jobs I met people from all over the world. Some of these people had super human level abilities from my perspective. I saw people able to chop, cut, package and clean with magical elegance and agility like nothing I had ever seen or thought possible up until then. These abilities were cultivated. How we capture human data to be leveraged by Generative AI reasoning agents, matters. I wonder, what would it take to structure Generative AI technology advancement such that it supports the panacea that we hope AI technology advancement could bring? What new psychological organizational structures and associated policies can support a transition towards more vibrancy within these structures and systems and our world at large?

An overwhelming moment?

After reflecting about my experience in the STEM PhD human data farm, I realized that my body found that situation a bit disgusting. What I mean by disgust here, is really simply one of the prime human emotions. Disgust can be elicited in moments where our bodies are responding to threats or attacks to our physicality, or another’s physicality, in real tangible ways. And perhaps more relevant to my aforementioned experience, disgust can show up in our bodies in also more nuanced ways by threatening our identities, our cultures, or that of our loved ones and peoples - with tangible repercussions to our bodies down the line.

Through self awareness practices, I am actively developing my tolerance to be present with the emotion of disgust, conscious when opportunities inevitably arise, strengthening my physical capacity to not shut down into a fight flight freeze fawn or flop state¹ , I believe that by becoming more able to work with emotions, for example disgust, as opposed to defend against them, I build the emotional intelligence of my human body and I become a more conscious person.

I build this strength similar to how other people cultivate their bodies in the gym, or to create great artworks, or to become a skilled athlete, dancer, musician, or surgeon. Come to think of it, if a surgeon’s body passed out from the prime emotion of disgust, it may create some problems. On the flip side, when we build our capacity to feel and sit with all of our prime emotions, we get to know ourselves. If we can expand out of fight flight and freeze, we have more activity in our nerves, we have more blood flow to important parts of our bodies, and perhaps we experience greater health.

It is fair to say that many other human bodies, not just my own, are often shutting down and numb in the face of overwhelm. It occurred to me that all these shutdown, numb, potentially explosive people within our civilizations today, myself included, are depicted via the phenomena that humans sometimes portray as zombies. Through human caricature and other art forms and communication mediums, zombies are perhaps just exaggerations of people locked in a fight flight and freeze state. Zombies with rashes, hair loss, a glazed look in their eyes are simply people exhibiting real and tangible health issues - human bodies that are locked in a collapsed state of consciousness² .

On our objectification of the human body

Through this understanding, it became clear to me that what I was feeling during my human data farm experience was a bit overwhelming to me. My experience of watching the Narkina 5 prison complex resonated with the emotions I was numb to in the human data farm. While I was in the farm, with a flash like quiet lightning, I watched myself connect a dot, in that moment, when I wasn’t able to quite access the emotional information and feelings then and there - I was in a fight flight and freeze state of consciousness. After I came out of fight flight and freeze and went on with my life, I got curious about what had happened, why I had the visions I had, and how I felt about what was happening in the STEM PhD human data farm.

Of course it could also simply be that in the world of the show Andor, the economic markets of the day demand prices for the materials that become human flesh, muscle and bone (the material that they send through the feeding tubes to the inmates in the Andor prison complex episodes), to be cheaper than the metals and materials needed to develop robotic objects of that time and reality. Perhaps using human bodies for these tasks just makes economic sense for these technologically advanced people in the series Andor... This makes me think more about how we view, potentially in a collectively unconscious way, human bodies within all levels of our economic structures and organizations, in our current global economy, within our civilizations, on our Earth, today!

In my interpretations of Andor’s Narkina 5, perhaps one thing remains the same, pushing back against the objectification of human bodies is an affront to the economic models that depend on it. What happens to our bodies in our economic and organizational psychological structures, and what do these structures reinforce in our bodies, our perceptions, and our human experiences?

Perhaps if we are all regularly in fight flight and freeze, we are in a way shutdown objects. We are somewhat lifeless, we are disconnected from each other’s nervous systems, we are not able to feel each other’s pain and suffering as part of our own pain and suffering. What would it mean for all people to belong to civilizations where economic and organizational structures create vibrancy and health? How can we reshape our cultures and policies to reflect this desire as fundamental? All else said, I am excited to watch season 2 of Andor, premiering on Disney+ April 22, 2025!

1  Fight Flight and Freeze is concept developed and popularized by Dr. Dan Siegel used to explain a physical nueroligical interpersonal phenomena. Recently, Fawn and Flop have been added, where Flop is similar to Freeze and means physically passing out.

2  Stay tuned for a future article where I share more about my take on what zombies are in real life and in our societies and communities, today.

Come for the news, stay for the laughs

Morning Brew isn’t just any newsletter—it’s your free shortcut to business news that actually matters. Fast, fun, and—dare we say—enjoyable.

No fluff, no jargon, and it takes less time to read than it does to brew your coffee (unless you’ve got a Keurig—then you might get to enjoy your Morning Brew with your actual brew).

Join over 4 million professionals who read it daily. Delivered bright and early, it’s news on your time—whether you read it when you wake up, over lunch, or before bed.

Try Morning Brew for free