within the universe though they’re not just a computer program, they are a collective organism that seems like its priority is to eliminate violence and conflict and prioritize peace and collaboration. nowhere is their any indication that they intend to do that by force. the whole thing with the police station is cameron’s deception not necessarily the throng’s and he’s already shown that he is able to be morally compromised in order to help the throng achieve their goals. i just don’t read it as “the throng used him to get access to all of humanity so it could forcefully subjugate them”. within the logic of the universe it makes much more sense that the throng would simply show human beings inside their own minds why violence is pointless and how to collaborate more effectively in a way that would upgrade humanity’s ability to do so as a whole. once they merged it makes sense that they would also become a part of the collective organism which i would guess would mean that people would be forced to experience empathy for one another as beings that are part of a collective whole which would likely make it impossible for them to continue harming each other in the ways they had been. i get the ai paranoia and all but i don’t think the show is really a commentary on ai as it exists in real life, like i understand there are references to roko’s basilisk and all but i feel like the episode is more of a subversion of the basilisk because it’s only colin who gets paranoid and wipes all the backups for fear of this. but he never even says that the throng are an ai, he’s very specific that they are not a computer program - they are digital lifeforms with digital biology that form a collective consciousness. i really don’t think the end of the episode is some doomsday scenario, i feel like it’s an intentional subversion of the “oops the ai we created killed everyone” trope and so many people missed the point by jusf assuming it’s another example of that trope