Love, Death, and Robots - Pop Squad

The episode I chose to analyze from Love, Death, and Robots was the episode “Pop Squad” from Volume 2.

    Pop Squad is set in a dystopian future where immortality is a real possibility, overpopulation has led to harsh restriction of resources, including offspring. It follows the story of a detective whose job is to kill unregistered kids. It was directed by Franck Balson and Jennifer Yuh Nelson, and written by Paolo Bacigalupi, Philip Gelatt, and Tim Miller. The story is based on the short story by the same name in Paolo Bacigalupi’s anthology book, Pump Six and Other Stories, published in 2008. The stories in his book all seem to contain warnings for humanity. For example, The People of Sand and Slag tells the story of an environmentally ravished earth, where humans have genetically modified themselves to continue to exist on this lifeless planet. Another, The Fluted Girl, where governments are more like fiefdoms and are ruled by a culture of entertainment. In this world, these government lords take celebrities to improve their reputations, entertaining the people of the world and distracting them at the same time. Bacigalupi’s work speaks of warnings for the future, glimpses into what our futures could be like if we do not change course. Environmental disaster, corrupt governments, and resources mismanagement are all things that his work touches upon. While watching the episode “Pop Squad,” issues like class division and overpopulation were at the forefront. The main thing that stood out to me was the real-life events that could have inspired Bacigalupi’s work.

    In 1980, the People’s Republic of China implemented the strictest population control method any country has ever used. The one-child policy. The enforcement of this rule was the strictest in cities, where crowding and overpopulation were key issues. Those who violated this policy received sanctions and, at times, women would be forced to get abortions or even be sterilized. While the intention was simply population control, there have been other issues that have arisen from this policy. There is a heavy sex skew in China now. With male first born children being more valuable than female first born children, many female children were abandoned. There are also an unknown number of “undocumented” children (similar to unregistered children in Pop Squad) who were hidden from Chinese authorities growing up. This number is estimated to be between hundreds of thousands to several million. These children face hardships trying to gain education or get jobs, as they lack any sort of official documentation of their births.

The one child policy was turned into a two-child policy in 2016, and then a three-child policy 2021. The Chinese government now deals with looming economic crisis as they continue to have low birth rates and an aging working population.

In the real world, immortality is impossible. We still need to worry about aging, growing old, and dying. I wish we knew the history of the Pop Squad world, because clearly the world did break at one point. We see the crumbling skyscrapers outside the wooden hut on the edge of the grand city, I wonder if this is our current world in the future. Though overpopulation is undeniably an issue, some of methods to try and curve populations, like in Pop Squad, are inhumane and ineffective. Eventually, the world of Pop Squad will face consequences for their decisions. When they run out of Rejoo, what will they do then?

The short story, Pop Squad, by Paolo Bacigalupi: https://lit115002135671862.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/pop-squad-story.pdf

China's One Child Policy: https://www.britannica.com/topic/one-child-policy/Consequences-of-Chinas-one-child-policy