Pragmata appears like a dad sport on the floor, or perhaps a “cool uncle who’s nice to his adopted niece” sport. Hugh’s a superb man. He takes care of Diana, somewhat child-robot who seemingly grows near him. She desires to find out about his life and expertise the issues that matter to him. It’s candy! It’s additionally faux. Diana’s a robotic, and there’s no parent-child relationship right here. There is, nevertheless, somewhat warning about putting an excessive amount of worth in issues that are not actual.
This piece incorporates spoilers for Pragmata‘s ending.
Hugh’s first concern when he meets Diana is conserving her secure — as a result of she’s fairly actually firm property. He worries what would possibly occur to him if she will get harm, so it is in his greatest pursuits to take excellent care of the little not-kid. He ultimately turns into extra hooked up to Diana, even attempting to assist encourage her sense of self in the Terra Dome by asking her to consider what she desires out of life. It’s an idea wholly alien to her, of course. She’s not a child, and the thought of “what I want” means nothing to an entity that exists to do what others need. She “wants” to save lots of Eight in the Terra Dome, however Eight is tied to the station and, by extension, the AI controlling it. So, saving Eight isn’t what Diana desires. It’s what one thing else desires her to do.
However, Hugh’s obvious concern for Diana is unsurprising. She’s designed to encourage a way of protectiveness and attachment: her tiny measurement; her solely garments being a ragged blue coat; her naked ft (she could not be any extra waif-coded even when she held up a bowl of gruel and asked for more); her shocked pleasure at discovering toys; her life spent in solitude earlier than Hugh confirmed up. The factor is, none of this issues to her. Not the loneliness, the faux cats, the toys. Maybe not even Hugh.
When you first encounter REM information — that is a digital recreation of one thing actual from Earth, like a TV set or a playground slide — it is a half-deleted globe. You discover it in the holographic stays of a room the place the floorboards are phasing out of existence, and there is a distinct sense of unreality about all of it. Pragmata desires you to understand that that is only a copy of one thing. It’s missing a soul. That impression solely will get stronger while you get to not-New York, a superficially accurate recreation of the metropolis plastered with commercials and the sense of busyness. Hugh remarks that it is a respectable imitation, but it surely’s missing one thing human and feels all off.
Shortly after that, the pair arrives at an house complicated the place a desk set for dinner reminds Hugh of a treasured reminiscence from his youth. His adopted household would all the time eat dinner with him and hearken to something he needed to say about his day, irrespective of how infantile or “unimportant” it appeared. It meant the world to him. Diana cannot perceive it, although, and never in the manner that children do not all the time grasp issues on a deeper degree. She merely cannot conceive of non secular and emotional nourishment, and as an alternative thinks of the change in phrases of vitality effectivity. It’s an honest imitation, but it surely’s missing one thing human.
Fast-forward to the subsequent space, the Terra Dome, when Hugh and Diana encounter a digital recreation of a beautiful seaside sundown. Diana is initially unmoved by the sight. Hugh tries to scoop the water, and Diana copies him, however solely as a result of he does it first. She has no real interest in the water. It’s simply extra 0s and 1s to her. Hugh begins speaking about his reminiscences of the seaside subsequent, the wind throughout the sand, and different intangibles that solely a human might perceive. Diana will get excited and says she desires to see all this stuff too. But similar to with loneliness and household meals, she has no idea of sea breezes or watching the solar sink beneath the waves. She’s simply copying Hugh.
Kids have a tendency to repeat the folks they’re round, but it surely’s executed for his or her profit as they struggle on completely different identities and work out how the world works. Hugh’s feeding his life into this robotic and solely getting a mirrored image of himself again. Maybe he thinks Diana is like an adopted child or a niece, and the intentional blurriness of the sport’s relationships imply you’ll be able to have a completely legitimate learn of it as an adoption game or a dad game. But Pragmata‘s ending suggests one other studying, somewhat warning towards investing a lot of one’s life into unreal issues.
In the sport’s regular ending, Hugh dies. The thought is that Diana will go to Earth, see the seaside — do all the issues Hugh wished her to do. Maybe she’s going to. But similar to the half-fazed ground boards and the soulless imitation of New York City, one thing’s not fairly proper right here. Diana will not be visiting Earth as a human appreciating issues as solely people can, or carrying on Hugh’s legacy. What Hugh left behind is little greater than a storage gadget full of reminiscences that it may’t even perceive.
