Dustin has told us that while the single videos aren't lore related, the songs are. Here are my theories about how the last four singles relate to the lore, as we understand it today.
SPOILER ALERT if you haven't read A Brief History of the Future yet. This post assumes you've read it and know how it ends.
In a thread on Akkomane, I proposed that Dystopia takes place immediately after the events in the book, particularly when the Quantum Communicator was taken down, severing the connection between the New West and the New East, and therefore disconnecting the New West from the Architecture.
In that thread, I also said that Dystopia was the voice of the people revolting against the New West, which is continuing to attempt to control the populace with more classical methods.
I'm not sure that's true anymore. Here's my new theory:
Dystopia is the voice of the people rioting against Thomas Bell, Aston Wise, and their rebellion.
Why the hell do I think they're the "bad guys" now?! Because of the last line of the chorus:
Too bad, we almost had it
What is "it" they almost had? That stumped me before, but at work today it hit me: it's the work-free, all-pleasure utopia that was rolling out at the time the network was shut down. It's Project X.
From this revelation comes the rest of my new theory about Dystopia. The citizens of the New West are quite upset about the world they've suddenly been forced to live in -- the real world, not augmented, not virtual. Entirely real, entirely organic, and entirely dystopian. They're upset towards the people who have forced them to live in it.
For completeness, let's take a look at some other lyrics from the track:
- "We're the victims of our own device" — I think this one might be the New Westerners starting to realize that the BMIs in their heads have been gaslighting them, helping them believe that their world wasn't what it really was.
- "We don't need your education/We just need more stimulation" — The people are pretty directly saying that they want to go back to the virtual world where they have "synthetic stimulation" to keep them satisfied. They don't want to know what the real world is like. The virtual world is so much better, and it was such a great escape.
- The entire second verse seems to be directly about the "system" they "jammed": the BMI network that was severed. They're abandoning hope ("we've done all we can") of going back to the virtual world, where they could ignore reality, realizing that the real world has become a "braindead wasteland."
- "Fuel for our obliteration" — Are they realizing and accepting that, under Project X, which they want, humanity could go extinct (as we wouldn't be reproducing)? Someone on Genius also remarks that rejecting education could also lead to disaster. How can you know not to repeat history, if you don't know your history?
- "'Cause the words broke our bones..." — This one's stumping me now. Whose words? What words? Bell and Wise didn't make any proclamations that ended the network, they did it by hand. So it wasn't words, from them.
Looking at Dystopia from this perspective gives me more ideas about what TokSik is about. Obviously, looking at the title and of course the lyrics itself, it's bashing TikTok, even potentially referencing the prospect of it being banned in the US and across the world:
And there's a meltdown coming
My current working theory is that TokSik is the/a rebels' response to Dystopia. In response to outcry about being stripped of their perfect ignorant utopia, the rebels, probably Bell himself here, are calling out how toxic the BMI was to them, and the total control of information that it enabled.
This one isn't as firm. It's much clearer if you look at it exclusively as a critique of TikTok and social media.
My current theory for Brave New World is that it is a rebel warning from before they actually take over. This is backed up by its various BMI references implying it takes place during the end of the book while the network is still active, or hell, even before the BMI was implemented. Also:
And when it all blows up, the sun will still be shining
And when it all falls down, you think you'll still pretend?
Those lines do seem to be prophesizing that the fantasy worlds will someday be no more. Which is exactly what happens at the end of the book.
Since I had just finished the book days prior to this song releasing, I had been thinking of this along this line for quite some time now (that the song takes place at the end of the book).
I haven't the slightest clue what's up with Degenerate.
"So hit em with the whole tidal wave" is the most obvious bash against GenAI "slop" in the whole song. The rest of it is more or less about information warfare, much like TokSik.
If I had to guess, the final album will have an intro track that leads into Brave New World. Dystopia is probably early on in the album too. Somewhere in the middle will be Degenerate and TokSik.
We're four singles in and we don't even know what the album is called. Maybe it's Dystopian Wars, though, for some reason they added that as a tag under Dystopia.
I feel like it's high time for them to put out a new technology to warn us about, but maybe we've ran out.
But that's just a theory! A Lore Theory!
