I don't have as many comments to make about this section, except that it gives an interesting look at how even small actions can make a big difference. It's almost frightening the kind of impact that someone can have, viewed through that lens. It isn't hit on explicitly here, but it is comforting to know in Scripture that where sin abounds, grace much more abounds. We still don't know what Connie's immediate future is, but given the episode's focus on the importance of everything we do in daily life, it seems less likely that it will involve a dramatic change (like moving to Connellsville).
If we assume that this is a program, and that this program is influenced by one's beliefs on the afterlife, this continues the trend of Renee finding out, through application, that her beliefs don't work out in practice. If Renee's values, imagination, desire, and expectations are for knowledge and mathematics as ultimate perfection, then she can't expect anything better than that, even if she intellectually recognizes that other possibilities could exist. Thus the emptiness of her ideals become a self-inflicted punishment in this context. That said, I was slightly surprised that even her attempt to enter a hellish afterlife failed; I suspected earlier on that she was being railroaded towards that outcome. At any rate, this would seem to confirm that either the I.S. or Renee's mind or both work much differently than in Eugene's run years ago.
However, It is still not clear to me that what we heard is the program. If nothing else, it's malfunctioning. It does not clearly respond to Renee's voice commands, when modern versions of the Imagination Station (at least from "The Eternal Birthday" on) are supposed to immediately respond to termination signals. As importantly, "Leonid" shifts away from his Russian voice at a key point in the interaction, the same as with Olivia, who unquestionably was not in the Imagination Station. It will be interesting to hear whether this is ever touched on in the third part.
The Monty Hall problem mathematics described here hold true, but only given one significant detail that Renee overlooked. The behaviour of the host has to be known, he has to know what is behind each door, he has to always open a door, and he has to let the player switch if they choose to. If any of these things are not true, then her decision-making strategy crumbles. Given a malicious adversary* (the one variable she does have reason to expect to accurately know, given the framing of the problem), the highest her odds from switching can be is indeed 66%, but they could be potentially much worse, all the way down to 0%. And if her adversary (who she describes as 'evil') is lying about something, that also potentially impacts the situation. Perhaps every door leads to the same place and there was never any chance at all!
This, then, aptly demonstrates a critical error with Renee's concept of mathematics being pivotal in decision-making, much less having saving power. While math and logic are useful up to a point, you can't properly account for things that you don't know. To have a chance of applying mathematics to calculate all decisions, you have to know every variable that is or could be involved. But you can't know every variable - that involves omniscience, which is humanly impossible. So Renee's dream for some sort of earthly 'salvation via mathematics' is no more than that, a hopeless fantasy.
If she's going to Chicago, I expect she will run into Mr. Whittaker there, since he is away for meetings.
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* One interesting detail that I initially overlooked is that it is revealing that Renee's scenario is so extreme, and potentially negative, in the first place. The classical Monty Hall problem involves a game show host, car, and goats. It reveals something about her worldview and psyche, and perhaps shows that she is serious when she keeps insisting that math can 'save' people, for her to frame the choice as being 'heaven vs. hell'.
If we wanted to try to read something further into this, it implies that Renee, at least subconsciously, has a very skewed view of God (which seems plausible). Who created Heaven and Hell? God seems to be set up implicitly as the enemy in Renee's scenario, so that she would be hoping to outmaneuver Him somehow using her knowledge. Atheists who have worked out all the sarcastic and supposedly clever things they vainly hope to 'stump God' with in the event of their meeting come to mind here. One of the multiple problems with this line of thinking is that God doesn't 'have it out for people' and is not arbitrarily punishing people; rather, they make decisions and choose priorities that happen to have a certain destination, and for many people, that destination is not Heaven.
However, It is still not clear to me that what we heard is the program. If nothing else, it's malfunctioning. It does not clearly respond to Renee's voice commands, when modern versions of the Imagination Station (at least from "The Eternal Birthday" on) are supposed to immediately respond to termination signals. As importantly, "Leonid" shifts away from his Russian voice at a key point in the interaction, the same as with Olivia, who unquestionably was not in the Imagination Station. It will be interesting to hear whether this is ever touched on in the third part.
The Monty Hall problem mathematics described here hold true, but only given one significant detail that Renee overlooked. The behaviour of the host has to be known, he has to know what is behind each door, he has to always open a door, and he has to let the player switch if they choose to. If any of these things are not true, then her decision-making strategy crumbles. Given a malicious adversary* (the one variable she does have reason to expect to accurately know, given the framing of the problem), the highest her odds from switching can be is indeed 66%, but they could be potentially much worse, all the way down to 0%. And if her adversary (who she describes as 'evil') is lying about something, that also potentially impacts the situation. Perhaps every door leads to the same place and there was never any chance at all!
This, then, aptly demonstrates a critical error with Renee's concept of mathematics being pivotal in decision-making, much less having saving power. While math and logic are useful up to a point, you can't properly account for things that you don't know. To have a chance of applying mathematics to calculate all decisions, you have to know every variable that is or could be involved. But you can't know every variable - that involves omniscience, which is humanly impossible. So Renee's dream for some sort of earthly 'salvation via mathematics' is no more than that, a hopeless fantasy.
If she's going to Chicago, I expect she will run into Mr. Whittaker there, since he is away for meetings.
-----
* One interesting detail that I initially overlooked is that it is revealing that Renee's scenario is so extreme, and potentially negative, in the first place. The classical Monty Hall problem involves a game show host, car, and goats. It reveals something about her worldview and psyche, and perhaps shows that she is serious when she keeps insisting that math can 'save' people, for her to frame the choice as being 'heaven vs. hell'.
If we wanted to try to read something further into this, it implies that Renee, at least subconsciously, has a very skewed view of God (which seems plausible). Who created Heaven and Hell? God seems to be set up implicitly as the enemy in Renee's scenario, so that she would be hoping to outmaneuver Him somehow using her knowledge. Atheists who have worked out all the sarcastic and supposedly clever things they vainly hope to 'stump God' with in the event of their meeting come to mind here. One of the multiple problems with this line of thinking is that God doesn't 'have it out for people' and is not arbitrarily punishing people; rather, they make decisions and choose priorities that happen to have a certain destination, and for many people, that destination is not Heaven.