"Devs" and the Search for Absolution

Whom Will You Serve: Determinism or True Deity?

by Bryce Morgan

Don't be fooled. Alex Garland's heady and beautifully shot thriller, Devs, is about far more than wealthy tech moguls dreaming they are modern-day messiahs (though that is one of the show's relevant themes). The FX mini-series (which first aired in 2020, but is currently streaming on Hulu) is ultimately an exploration of humanity's search for absolution in a truly broken world. 

While the story follows bereaved Lily in her search for answers concerning the death of her partner, Sergei, the true, main character of Devs is the aforementioned tech mogul, a man named Forest (played by Nick Offerman). Years earlier, Forest's wife and daughter were tragically killed in an auto accident that occurred just down the street from their home. But it's worse than that. Forest, standing in the street in front of their house, was on the phone with his wife when the accident took place. Concluding that his phone call turned his wife into a distracted driver, Forest has blamed himself for the accident ever since.

What's painstakingly apparent is that the death of his daughter overshadows everything Forest does. In fact, little Amaya (for whom his company was named) literally looms large over his life in the form of a several-stories tall statue that rises from the woods of his Bay area tech campus. So how does a man of extraordinary means and extraordinary intellect deal with this incredible weight of guilt? Through the fusion of physics and technology. In questioning why this tragedy befell him, Forest turns to the concept of determinism. In classic physics, determinism is the idea that everything that happens in the universe is a result of reactions governed by fixed laws. Thus, as one online entry expresses it...

If it were actually possible to have complete knowledge of physical matter and all of the laws governing that matter at any one time, then it would be theoretically possible to compute the time and place of every event that will ever occur.

And this is exactly what Forest does using the most powerful computer on the planet, a revolutionary quantum computer designed by his own "Devs" (or development) division. As this advanced computer helps them ostensibly learn everything there is to know about our world and human life, this Devs team is able to trace that complex chain of causation both backward and forward. Amazingly, this in turn allows them to create a vivid simulation of anyone, anywhere, doing anything, at any point in history (even into the near future). 

What's the connection between this technological achievement and Forest's psychological agony? If Forest can prove that the car accident (that killed his wife and daughter) was a determined event that couldn't not happen, he believes he will find absolution for his role in that life-altering tragedy. That is, Forest desperately wants to tell himself that there is nothing he could have done differently. Like tram lines tethered to a mountain peak, history is fixed and moving along a determined course. Though we foolishly believe we have free will, we (according to Forest, and many physicists today) are merely observers in this unfolding and determined dance of countless, but fixed, reactions.

For TV consumption, these fascinating ideas are woven into an engaging murder mystery. But what's even more interesting is the way Garland (known for such films as 28 Days Later, Ex Machina, and Annihilation) uses spiritual and religious ideas to frame and question one man's quest for absolution. Where do we see this? Well, it's no accident that the computer's first, simulated rendering from history is of Jesus dying on the cross. Later we hear the simulated voice of Jesus, his ancient, Aramaic words echoing through a modern-day speaker. Additionally, the secretive Devs building looks strikingly like modern renderings of the Tent of Meeting from the Old Testament, the mobile temple the Hebrews used to worship God (with the inside of the Devs building having its own gilded, sequestered, inner sanctum, with a quantum computer in place of the Ark of the Covenant). And as we learn from the final episode, the division's name itself, "Devs", is actually the Latin word for "God", deus (with that "v" actually being a Roman "u").

Of course, more elements could be mentioned, including Stuart's recitation of Yeats' poem, "The Second Coming", or Lily's denunciation of messiahs and false prophets. But consider the significance of Garland's religious framing. Might he be asking, "Can science and technology really provide us with some kind of absolution; that is, a modern solution to our feelings of guilt and shame?" Or are such technology-empowered quests actually built on a kind of counterfeit omniscience, which then leads to a kind of counterfeit omnipotence. Today, we may have more knowledge and more power available to us through a simple keystroke or swipe, but are we really any better off mentally, emotionally, and spiritually?

In the end, it's clear that Forest is a faithful devotee of determinism. He submits to this god because he believes he must, clearly confessing, "Thy will be done." But it's also clear his god has failed him. After his physical death, his afterlife is nothing more than the simulation he built; a simulation that can be shutdown with the flip of a switch... especially if the funding runs out. Though he is happy in this fake, 'redo' version of his life, nothing has changed in what we call reality. Not only is his daughter dead, but because of his choices, so are many others.

While what we might call the sci-fi elements of Devs are fascinating in light of modern innovations, the story is really quite old: men and women being offered knowledge that will make them like God (Genesis 3:1-24). In addition to Garland's cautionary tale, the Christian Scriptures provide us with an even more powerful story; powerful because real absolution is available to us, freely. And this absolution comes from One for whom Forest's quantum computer was only a poor shadow; One possessing true omniscience and true omnipotence. Unlike Devs, this is the true Deus. And the Jesus he gave was no simulation. He was real. In fact, he is real. Though his life was extinguished on that cross, he rose again. And because he did what no one else has ever done, he still offers guilty people like us an eternal afterlife, one that can never be shutdown or run out of funds. While determinism may explain certain things about the material universe, only a all-powerful deity, and his perfect plan, can truly make sense of all things. If only Forest knew.

Bryce Morgan is a husband and father, and the founder of Pop Eternal. He's also the creator of the Captain Sun adventures, as well as the author of "Confessions of a Secret Santa".