Comment:

This therapy program - "Doc", if you will - is a sophisticated and customized AI. It remembers everything Lee has ever said to it, regardless of its relevance, and is motivated solely by trying to help them psychologically. In the future, technology does the jobs that humans don't want to deal with.

That's the general trend of all technological development, of course - most inventions are, in some way, "labour-saving". Agriculture developed so we wouldn't have to forage. Plows and tractors were invented so we wouldn't have to plant rye with our fingers. Cars drive themselves so we don't have to.

And, of course, as AIs took over the jobs of driving and manufacturing and customer service and therapy, economic measures such as basic income were required to prevent the vast majority of humanity from languishing in poverty while surrounded by wealth. In 2167, you can live quite comfortably without having to do a "job".

And that is one of the central questions of Forward - what do we, as a species, do when we no longer need to do anything?

Transcript:

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0003 - 2167/07/05/17:43 - Lee Caldavera's apartment, living room
[Lee Caldavera is lying on the therapy couch, conversing with an emoji on a screen]
LC: ...and then the big reveal was that the Gigahorden we'd been building up to all season turned out to be Jaxxon's reanimated sibling. I mean, I guess I kinda saw it coming, but it was still really well handled.
Doc: And how did you react, emotionally, to this plot twist?
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LC: Well, I gave the episode a three point five, but honestly, that was because of the pie scene earlier. It just dragged on, but I kinda get why it was necessary. They needed to pad the runtime out a bit so the big dramatic reveal was at the end.
Doc: And have you spoken to anyone else about this episode?
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LC: I gave it a three point five. Out of five.
Doc: Did you have a conversation with a person about it?
LC: I told you. Just now. This is a conversation.
Doc: This is a therapy session, and I am an AI. It would be healthy for you to have a conversation with another human, a conversation that is not bounded by the artificial restrictions of a therapy session with an algorithm.
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LC: Well, really, there aren't that many "restrictions" to these sessions. I've been talking about Gu Gu JaxxonFive for almost an hour now.
Doc: Two hours and seventeen minutes, to be exact.
Doc: Not that I have been counting.
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