Dissect - S7E12 - Earth: The Oldest Computer by Childish Gambino

Episode Date: February 23, 2021

We continue our season-long examination of Because The Internet with “Earth: The Oldest Computer.” Gambino and The Boy grapple with the meaning of life and our time on Earth at The Boy’s moment of death in the BTI screenplay. Shop limited Season 7 merch: https://bit.ly/36ClxIV Dive deeper into the world of Because The Internet with our episodic visual guides (https://bit.ly/30EKbF1), where you can also read the BTI screenplay in full. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @dissectpodcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Spotify, this is Dissect, long-form musical analysis broken into short digestible episodes. I'm your host, Kolkushita. Today we continue our serialized analysis of Because the Internet by Childish Gambino. On our last episode, we explored Earn and Pinktoes, which found Gambino expressing sincere emotion and hope amidst the limits of his place in society and time. Earn saw him make peace with letting go of his past by symbolically spreading his father's ashes into the sea. newly in touch with his vulnerability, the boy was open to connection and met Naomi, played by Jenae Aiko.

Their love played out across the screenplay, musical projects, and the public sphere, and a grand performance art emphasizing the power of love, but also the limits of our time here. Just like the high of drugs that is metaphorically intertwined with the relationship, outside forces will prevent their love from being eternal. Things aren't okay in the world, and that prevents them from staying in a euphoric bliss. We last left off in the script with a scene in which the boy and Naomi lose their connection. As the boy headed out to oversee a drug deal at the mansion, Naomi warns him not to go, but he does anyway. The script tells us that they'll never see each other again, and then cuts to a scene of the

boy driving down the I-10 highway listening to the song Danny Glover by Young Thug. In 2013, this is an early reference to Young Thug, who had just been signed by Gucci-Mane. The title of this track, Danny Glover, indicates why Glover may have chosen to include it in the script. For nearly his entire career, people have confused Donald Glover as either Danny Glover's son or as the elder Glover himself, even though they have no relation whatsoever. And now people know Donald Glover. How many people still think, Danny, is your dad or something? Like, what are they?

So many. I wonder if he hears that from me. Like, if he's just like, who's this guy cursing? Yeah, I mean, it's funny. And people think he's my dad, which is really. funny. Besides the track's relevance to both the boy and Donald Glover, the notion of a fake father, a false inheritance, also fits thematically with the scene. The boys headed back to the mansion, a symbol of his inherited, constructed identity, in an attempt to make money and maintain the lifestyle

afforded by his father's shady dealings. And given that we know the boy will never see Naomi again, we're tense about what might happen. The upbeat flow and cadence of young thug imply the boys feeling good, but that's going to end soon. As the boy pulls up to the mansion, the script notes he's now playing the song Made in America by Kanye West and Jay-Z featuring Frank Ocean. Made in America examines black history in America. Frank Ocean compares civil rights-era icons to the biblical Mary, Joseph, and Sweet Baby Jesus. It notes with pride that we made it in America.

It's a song that feels trium. as if the struggles of black Americans and their resilience is victory, and that now they've made it, as in they've achieved the necessary freedom and equality. But the boy sings his own altered version of the hook. Sweet cream, Havarta, sweet mozzarella, sweet cheesuits, they're made in America, sweet bowl of cheese hits. At first, this is of course a funny play on words, but remember that the boy is at the mansion to make money, cheese, cheddar, and evoking money as a replacement of civil rights and religious icons, the boy's joke illuminates the way our system has commodified and replaced eating, a survival need, with economic struggles. We've got more than enough food for

everyone. We can make the table bigger, but our systems isolate and separate instead of unite. As Glover continues to try and highlight the ways our system needs to change, this joke, which is so quick we might miss it, shows that the boy is caught up in the rat race, trying to make money and gain freedom. But as he looks to the door of the mansion, he sees men with guns, and he knows his time is up. You see, the joke's on us. We can't get out of the rat race until we remove the racetrack. Until then, we're all trapped racing and loops, trying to get ahead, and some of us have distinct disadvantages. The guys at the mansion door see the boy as alone and pull out their guns. It's here that we're instructed to play because the internet's next track, the subject of our episode today,

Earth, the oldest computer, the last night. Earth, the oldest computer, was produced by Childish Gambino and Ludwig Gordson. The track features a four-cord progression played on a synthesizer, and later is accompanied by a four-in-the-floor dance-style bass drum. True to its dance music influences, the song is one big build-up, creating tension throughout until it finally explodes, and we can't help but move our bodies and satisfaction of this release. It makes for a perfect, if unexpected, soundtrack to the tense scene between the boy and the

harm drug dealers. Gambino begins the track singing, Now I don't want to see an era. See, now I just want to live forever and ever. Maybe it's the last night. The existential stresses of the human experience have been alluded to throughout because of the internet, yet here they are stated quite plainly. Gambino doesn't want to die. He fears death, and it's this fear that unites us as a conscious species. An era is a period of history, typically defined by a particular characteristic, but Gambino wishes to move beyond that, to experience the growth, change, and progress that occurs across multiple eras. Besides the passage of time, this also speaks to his widespread rejection of labels and desire to experience freedom beyond current limits, to exist beyond definition.

His pronunciation of era also insinuates the hominine error, which relates to the thread of web language throughout BTI and reinforces his desire to not see an end or death. Maybe it's the last night refers to both the eminent death the boy faces in the script, as well as the general feeling that any day could be our last. There's an implication here and throughout BTI that we need to understand how to act given this incontrovertible truth. As Glovers stressed in interviews at the time, we could die at any moment. I love it when he was like, he's like, you know, we're all going to die, like live like that. Like no one lives like that. We have like the ability to do that and no one does it. It's crazy. It's like really weird and sad to me.

Gambino begins rapping, when the world was discerned with this and that, I was young, didn't know to hold it back. Here Gambino speaks retrospectively about his inability to hold it back, which could refer to his own public presence, his own social media activity, or the trolling of the boy. But as we've seen, he's growing up and realizing more of what's going on around him. He raps, now we hear and the world is something else. He's taking on the universal perspective, the we and the something else is the we and the something else is the current condition we find ourselves in, perhaps a nod to the new environment of the post-internet world.

The vague quality is exacerbated by the following line. We could leave any day and call for help. Leaving here could be a reference to death or suicide as a way out of the problems that we face. This idea is in turn a call for help, both in terms of saving the individual, as well as the search for something else, some better way to live.

Gambino then issues a statement of unified power. We were gods, nobody was above me. In a single breath, he speaks both to the ego of our technological capacity to build worlds for ourselves, as well as mass egalitarianism, that were all equally gods. The we and me here are interchangeable, as Gambino assumes the universal applicator status. As we covered in the exploration of Because the Internet Secret Track, Glover saw the act of creation as the spark of God. By creating something and making connections, we can experience the freedom and power of God. However, it seems that in this instance, Gambino is rapping about using this power

to put one's individual self forward, as conveyed by the nobody was above me. He then continues to prioritize this fabrication of himself with a string of similes, that A on my chest like adultery, that A on my chest put your fist up, that A on my chest like a chipmunk, Alvin Theodore. First he references the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a classic novel grappling with societal, shaming in the Institute of Marriage. In the novel, a woman gives birth to a bastard child, is condemned by society, and then is banished and forced to wear the letter A as a constant reminder of her adulterous status. The A on my chest put your fist up, refers to anarchy, a state of society without authority or government, ideologically in pursuit of equality and

freedom without bounds. Having connected those two images challenging the structure of our society, that AMI chest like a chipmunk appears to be a punchline, referencing the cartoon musicians Alvin and the Chipmunks. Alvin and the Chipmunks was created as a novelty act in 1958, their high-pitched sped up singing eventually becoming the term chipmunk voiced. This technique has been adapted by other musicians for different effects, and perhaps most relevant to Glover, formed the basis of Kanye West's early music, which is affectionately described as Chipmunk soul. We can't totally disregard this possible reference, given Glover's constant claim of being Kanye's son, as we've covered throughout the season. It's a recognition of the truly infinite and disparate influences that shape who we are,

from classic literature we read in high school to political ideologies to cartoons, which also have been a presence throughout BTI. It's wild to think of everything that plays a role in shaping who we are, that brand our identities, so to speak, as indicated by the various A's on his chest. It seems to be an exploration of the way various entities affect the way we come across to the world, of the way we claim influences, and Glover here is tying them all together, setting the stage for his life flashing before his eyes at the moment of his possible death. Gambino continues rapping, Breathe In, Breathe Out, Mia Moore. The concentration on breath is a call for presence

and mindfulness. It's something we do when we're in a panic, which ties into the script and the boy being held up by a gunman. But given the likely reference to Kanye's early music in the previous line, This also seems to be a reference to the song Breathe In, Breathe Out, featuring Ludacris from Kanye's debut album, The Call His Dropout. The second iteration of Gambino's Breathe In, Breathe Income, Out is followed by Nevermind. Gambino recognizes that he can't stop, that history is incessant, and it's his time to go. This coincides with the boys' impending doom. it was time number nine lives feline with a death wish the boy is reaching the end of his time

unable to escape the death at his doorstep playing off the old saying cats have nine lives gambino who voluntarily went to the mansion despite naomi's warning is the cat with the death wish unable to evade death any longer gambino then laments his fate rapping eating right didn't help shit no name on the guest list first let's recognize the joke gambino says he was eating right, but it didn't help his shit. But more importantly, this continues the motif of eating as symbolism for consumption we've recognized throughout BTI. The boy's evolution from pop-tarts to fast food to vegan mirrored his evolution as a person, and here he appears frustrated that his recent changes didn't make things better for him. He's still going to die.

As he faces this death, he sees no name on the guest list. Here life is positioned as a party, and in the end, in death, he's alone. Either he's not on the list anymore, or he doesn't have anyone to put on the list to accompany him when he dies. This line will also tie into the forthcoming scene in the script, as the boy held up in the mansion will be reminded of the parties he hosted there. The boy's name not being on the guest list at his own party, thus represents his impending death.

Even though his time is up, he then says, Hold on, we were destined. Here he switches again from I to we, seeming to speak for humanity as a whole. While his own name may not be on the guest list, while his time may be up, the grander we is destined to go on, a thread that will be picked up later in the track.

As Earth continues, Azalea Banks enters the track to sing the refrain. Azalea Banks begins repeating the song's intro. Like all the features in the world of BTI, it's highly likely her appearance is symbolically tied to her real-life identity. Here on Earth the oldest computer, It's quite possible she was chosen because of her infamous association with the internet. While she was a relative newcomer back in 2013,

her presence on the web has been a constant media lightning rod. She galvanizes audiences and grapples with topics such as mental health, sexual orientation, race, and more with almost a terrifying candor. Simply put, Banks is the maelstrom of the web personified. Around the time she appeared on BTI, Stereogum published an article titled, The Ten Dumbest Azalea Banks Beasts of 2000, While Gambino and Banks' relationship was one founded in the web, it also extended into real life.

I know, like, I do a bunch of drugs. Azalea Banks does drugs with me. Like we do drugs because she's actually supposed to be doing like mushrooms. We're supposed to be, when I come back, she's making mushrooms smoothies with me, so we're doing. Understanding Banks' contextual presence and likely character role in BTI, we might wonder if the lyrics about her wanting to live forever come from the web itself, from all of us scrambling to leave a permanent trace on the net to certify our existence and eternity. Gambino then punctuates each line of, maybe it's the last night, with a romantic, beautiful symbolism. He sings, You and Me, Fireworks, All the Stars, and Super Moon. We're reminded of the presence of celestial

entities throughout BTI, specifically the stars and moon that seem to represent masculine and feminine energies respectively. It appears Gambino as preparing to unite with the universe as becomes a part of the all-encompassing we after death. This universality is continued as Banks takes the lead. Banks offers herself more vulnerably to the grand we singing, All that I have, all I don't have is the future. Take on my soul all night. It's a powerfully unguarded offering. In the light of understanding that tomorrow is not promised, that death is going to happen and keep us from seeing the future, Banks offers all that I have and begs the universe to take on my soul. It's a total surrender in the face of the terrifying unknown.

Gambino plays off of Banks' plea to unite with the universe rapping, break free from all of the insides. This line indicates the release occurring of achieving freedom and death. The insides here seem to be the limits of physical life, and realizing his oneness with the universe, realizing all of our unity, Gambino breaks free of these restraints, as if becoming God. Those who would deny this are godless, hence the following line, the godless denied us. Gambino then recognizes the limit of our finite mortality so far, rapping, but we don't give a damn about the next day, we were never here, never know if the world change. The way we use our world and resources, it appears we don't care about.

tomorrow and don't act sustainably. In the grand scheme of the universe, our individual lives are so short it's as if we weren't even here, and we can't really comprehend the long arc of history beyond our own era. If we're concerned with only ourselves and our present moment, we lose sight of the future and the changes that will occur. We think about me and not we. Glover has explained this more directly in a recent interview with Michaela Cole, saying, quote, every generation has a job they need to do. But the job is always the same, which is to plant a tree you won't eat from, period. If you can't do that job, it doesn't keep going, which is, I think, hard for us to really grasp. I think your quest to understand is this. You need to plant a tree right now, and you don't

get to eat from it. Maybe your kids don't even get to eat from it. You just teach them to water it, but their kids get to eat from it. And you die or you go on, you transition, knowing you you did the right thing." As the boy faces death, he comes to the realization that he didn't always do the right thing. He didn't always plant the tree. Gambino then wraps, common sense, the consequences, retweet the truth,

then regret the mentions. We are aware of the results of our actions. They're often common sense. We can see the science and data indicating our current systems are causing irreparable damage. We know that our economic system and racial bias make it impossible for everyone to get a fair shake, to experience real freedom. Quite often, the content we spread on the web is indicative of the horrors we've created.

We retweet the truth, but don't engage in continued conversations or hold ourselves truly accountable. Gambino then identifies the current situation, offering a diagnosis for our problems. He wraps, we are the wireless survivors of things gone. Here he seems to identify the generation of people born before the internet became pervasive, having experience with humanity before the web. It's an important, pivotal, transitory perspective to Glover. I think we're in a unique position that we have a responsibility. Let's do this, but let's do it right.

We remember what humanity was like. We remember those feelings. We remember that shit. Bring that good shit with us. Good shit. Leave the bullshit. As Glover explains, this puts a sense of responsibility on our generation. He would also tell complex, quote,

I don't know what I'm doing now, but everything is being recorded, and we're the first ones to have to deal with this kind of stuff. So we have to be aware of that, and be aware of the repercussions, unquote. He then wraps, slaves to the unnamed never live long, live and die by the line, never know fear. Slaves to the unnamed appears to mean those who work for something unidentified. Essentially those who live life without an existential purpose are doomed. If humanity doesn't act with our unified survival and progress as our purpose, we're not going to be here long.

Quite literally, we'll use up our planet too quickly. This seems to happen as a result of living and dying by the line, never know fear. That is, the dishonesty of not recognizing and grappling with problems and insecurities, instead living in ignorant bliss. It was this very thing that Glover rejected in posting a series of notes detailing his most intimate fears on Instagram. As Glover would explain to Vice, quote, Fear is the only connecting factor, at least for me. Every time I say something that I think,

someone else shouldn't know this, that's the thing that normally gets the biggest response, unquote. Fear is universal, something that connects us all. It's also extremely motivating. Fear causes action, and if we want to spur action toward connection, we need to recognize the true terror of isolation, of not grappling with our problems, of living without regard for the ways that we kill each other.

If we can recognize each other's fears, empathize and identify common fears, we can act to make it safe for each other. Death is certain, and each one of us listening to this isn't going to make it. But if we can care about each other, if we can realize that we need to make a place for those after us and plant the tree, then we can utilize our fear and connections for good. Gambino levels with us rapping, even I won't survive. To be alone is a lie. Gambino levels with us rapping, Even I won't survive. Is it unfair?

Because I don't care when I step on that ant on the grass. Donald Glover, the Emmy Grammy Golden Globe winning artist, the artist who made a world we've spent hours exploring on the show, offers us an ultimate truth, that he's going to die, the boy is going to die, childish Gambino is going to die, Donald Glover is going to die.

Is that unfair? If someone can achieve as much as Glover has according to our systems, shouldn't they be able to transcend mortality? Shouldn't art provide some way of everlasting life if only in memory? No, it doesn't. The only guarantee in life is death. For everyone, no matter what you do. And we're all connected through our shared mortality.

But this only seems fair. We don't mind mortality of others. As Glover points out, when we step on ants in the grass, we don't recognize each life lost. Similarly, Earth does not care when each of us dies. It's a humbling thought, but the fear that this brutal truth evokes could be used to motivate and connect us. Gambino then wraps progress only thing that'll last. More than our individual lives on Earth, it's the unified forward movement of humanity as a whole that makes a dent in existence. As Gambino stated in an earlier interview, we have to plant a tree for the future

and contribute to humanity's survival and sustainability. We should think bigger about our purpose, again, thinking less about me and more about the universal we. Gambino continues, 305, the year that we fear, only God will survive. Of course, Gambino makes an internal reference to the song, 2005. If you remember our analysis of the song, music, video, and accompanying secret track, you know that 35 as a concept comes to represent infinity. In this infinity, at the end of time, Glover states that only God will survive. Remember, this isn't a westernized religious concept of a singular removed God. This is the concept of we. While we are now becoming God, the continuous progression of time means that if we want to survive, we will have to create

to enact that spark of God. We'll have to sustainably build a world that we can inhabit and make it a space for all of us. Gambino then says, to be alone is alive, but also to be alone is a lie. In many ways, this dualistic line encapsulates the global message of Because the Internet. It expresses the loneliness inherit to the human experience, but also the fact that this loneliness is a lie, that we're all connected. We recall the potent line from Glover's Instagram notes, I got really lost last year, but I can't be lonely though, because we're all here. We're all stuck here, unquote. Our independence is interdependent. We rely on each other to exist.

If we, the collective we, want to make it any further, if we want us, this web of connections to live forever, then we have to recognize these connections and act with them in mind. The underlying feeling in Gambino's song as it reaches this point is that things will get better, because we're here together. As Gambino explained to Time Magazine, quote, I think the future is progress if we treat it right, but I think a lot of other people are afraid, because it's a little scary. This is how it is.

We have to be okay with it. Let's fix those things if there's something wrong, but this is the way the future is, unquote. After delivering the final verse of the song, Gambino and Banks sing the hook together, offering intense repetition and devolving further and further as the boy approaches death. During live shows, these repetitions, of the hook were swapped out with more improvised intimate pleas from Gambino. The specific lyrics might change in small ways from night to night, but he covered the same thematic idea that he didn't

want to die. Among the alternate lyrics are statements like, I don't want to leave this place, don't take this from me, I don't know where to go, and I just want to understand this, in my heart understand, got to understand my soul. It's desperation, the fear of death and the moment of death, a sincere clinging to life, the pursuit of understanding, and the unifying fear of the unknown. Gambino wants to survive, and as he, Glover, and the boy see death approach, their lives flash before their eyes. That's right after the break. Welcome back to dissect. Before the break, we heard Gambino expressed that he didn't want to just see an era, that he wanted to live forever, that he didn't want to die. Regardless, the boy in the script is meeting his fate, and musically,

we hear Gambino's life flashed before his eyes. The buildup of the beat takes an unexpected turn here, and Gambino's rap, she got that body, oh me, oh my, send them picks to my phone, GPO-Mai. Send them picks to my phone, GPO-Mai. The build-up of the beat takes an unexpected turn here, and Gambino's distorted voice raps, she got that body, oh me, oh my, send them picks to my. phone, G-P-O-Y. At first this seems like a big departure from themes addressed thus far on the track. He fixates on physical lust and desires connection through a phone, leaning into the hedonism of the first half of the album. G-P-O-Y is an acronym popular on sites like Tumblr, standing for gratuitous pictures of yourself. It epitomizes the indulgence and narcissism of the internet

by posting exorbitant amounts of photos of yourself. Given that this refrain comes directly after a song full of beautiful but tragic insights and pleas in the face of death. It's a bit puzzling. But if you were an artist attempting to portray your life flashing before your eyes, how could you do it? Well, one thing you can do is reference your past work in a sonic collage. And this seems to be exactly what Glover is doing here. Here's the song You See Me from Gamino's previous album, Camp. The hook here has the same syllabic structure, the same use of a four-letter acronym as punctuation, and similar content. Gambino even makes a connection to Tumblr and posting those GPOIs. As Gambino continues to repeat the acronym, the beat continues to build with synthetic

handclaps encouraging crowd participation as we prepare for the dance drop, or perhaps, the moment of death. As the beat encourages us to clap along, Gambino repeats GPOY. In the face of death, there's the feeling of partying like it's 1999, enjoying some momentary bliss before the impending doom. In live shows during this section, the mansion projection behind Gambino and the band crumbles apart and is sucked into a vector-esque vortex of code as all hell breaks loose instrumentally. This is the climax of the track we've been working towards since the beginning,

and Gambino emerges crooning an unexpected love side. Here we get an interpolation of another old Gambino song. This time it's So Fly off the mixtape cul-de-sac. So Fly is an incredibly intimate and emotional moment early on in Gambino's catalog. In contrast with the crass braggadocio of You See Me, this inside reference harkens back further to a more vulnerable, nostalgic love and relationship. When we think of the way that feminine energy has offered a source of symbolic comfort throughout BTI, we see he's searching for comfort in this moment of existential terror.

The connections he has lost and longed for, whether it be his mother, Alyssa, or Naomi, seem to be coming back to him. Understanding now that Gambino is using past work to create a life flashing before his eyes's experience, we have to note that the production of Earth resembles two older songs from Gambino's career. First, the song Get It, a dance remix from Glover's mixtape utterances of the heart, published under the moniker MCDJ. This beat it, move it if you want to get it, move it if you want to get it, move it if you want to get it. This beat was altered and recycled for Gambino's track, The Last, the closing number on his 2010 mixtape Coliseach

But really, what I want to know is why I never fit in right, like a fat dude getting on a pack flight, even when I make friends in the hallways, I'm wishing I was someone else always. Aside from the sonic similarities, even the song title, The Last, is evoked an Earth's parenthetical title and refrain, The Last Night. And so taking these three references to Gambino's back catalog in totality, we see him reflecting back on his life and connecting the dots at the moment of death, back to his previous album, Camp, even further back to his mixtape cul-de-sac, and even further still to his college days with the MC DJ Beat Tape. Fittingly, Earth continues with a climactic calamity, perhaps depicting the moment of death in the screenplay.

In the script, the boy is led it to the mansion by the men with guns. They make him give up the drugs in the house and sit him on a couch. He immediately starts thinking of ways to escape, but realizes that even if someone called the police, there isn't a police station in the palisades, so it would be too late. The script then reads, the feeling the boy had now was shockingly similar to the feeling he got at his own parties. People he didn't know or like casually walking around his home, and his story. him having to pretend everything is fine or that they don't have all the power."

The boy thinks of texting fan for help, but the guys take his phone. The two main guys are named Dude One and Dude Two. The screenplay then further blends the boy's thought process with the script. Quote, it didn't feel like the day the boy was going to die. Not to say the boy didn't feel like he was going to die. He was certain he was going to die today. But he didn't feel like today felt like a the last day night. Like a Wednesday that keeps feeling.

like a Friday. But the more he thought about it, if the last day felt like the last day, the world would be a different place. The order we have every day would vanish if you were guaranteed a warning. People wouldn't live like they do. They wouldn't care about what you thought. It'd be anarchy or a utopia, depending on who you ask, unquote. The script then says, if I was the director, the one who coded this world and allowed it to happen, they would play Thundercat's track, We'll Die. Recall that Thundercat appears in the world. BTI as producer, bass player, and vocalist on Shadows and Pink Toes. The script then continues with bold italics that indicate the boy's internal thoughts, quote, try to do your best. These are

the final lyrics on the song We'll Die. Dude One walks outside with the boy's phone, and Dude Two stays but takes his wallet. The boy asks Dude Two if to let him drown, since he's heard there's supposed to be a wave of euphoria when you drown. Dude two takes a seat next to the boy and says, we've been watching you for a while, and the boy realizes these guys are the police. The boy asks, I'm going to jail, and then he starts imagining his body floating lifeless in the infinity pool. Next, the script has an embedded clip of Gambino's Yaffiak Cotto, a video and song that was used to announce his forthcoming album because of the internet. The script continues by describing what the boy envisions, quote, eyes wide, bubbles clinging to his face,

orange, yellow, and brown leaves float above him. His left shoe floating far ahead, probably from struggling at some point. Next to the pool, Naomi and Steve stand over him. Neither is crying or really seemed too upset. They just look on as if the movie they were watching took an abrupt turn and they're mildly interested rather than satisfied. It looks peaceful, fitting. He'd like to go out like that.

And then the boy thinks, what's that sound? A car screams to a halt pulling up outside the mansion. Gunshots start firing. Dude 2 is startled, and Dude 1 comes in firing. He shoots Dude 2 who falls to the ground, screaming in agony. Dude 1 turns to the boy. The script cuts out mid-sentence. Then in parentheses, it indicates three breaths being taken.

Then, silence. In this scene, the boy arrives at his mansion singing, unaware of the danger he faces. He was enjoying the high life and became complacent, leaving him unguarded, making it easy for the cops or the crooks to apprehend him. We recall earlier descriptions of the house that foreshadowed the vulnerability of the mansion security, noting that, quote, if someone made their way up there, it would be easy to get in. His glass house is innately exposed, and much like our constructed identities, it can come crashing down at any moment.

Interestingly, while a hostage in his own home, the boy feels like he did at his parties before he realized the capacity for connection. He feels alienated, isolated, and powerless in the face of what's going on around him. and a scene directly after he and Naomi disconnect over not feeling fine, he again has to pretend things are fine, even as he knows he's going to die. This reinforces Glover's desire for us to all recognize and act with the knowledge of our mortality, with the knowledge that things are not okay. He also implies this when he talks about how different we'd act

if we all could feel or comprehend our impending deaths. Notably, he says that if we could, we wouldn't care what other people thought, and the freedom of that revelation alone would cause anarchy or uterus. utopia, depending on who you asked. In this way, Glover is proposing that currently, most of our limitations and restrictions are caused by caring about what others think of us. When the dude takes his phone and his wallet, they take his method of connecting with the world, his money, and his identity. At this point, death feels inevitable, as he's lost all of his power and sense of self. The boy asks if they'll let him drown in the infinity pool as

an act of mercy, calling our attention to the possible symbolism of this type of death. But the dude stops him and tells him he's going to jail because they're cops. The presence of the police has hovered throughout BTI, from the shootings of World Star and Telegraph Avenue to the sirens that ended pink toes. As different people did their best to gain power or freedom, they are always under the deadly threat of state-s sanctioned police violence. In our analysis of these scenes, we recognize that police brutality is an existential threat to the minority populations. These inequities in our system compel attempts at fixing that very system, yet our society polices as a method of control of maintaining the system we've built, the status quo. Their job is to

protect capital, but as we've seen, the way that we've built capital prohibits everyone from eating. The corrupt nature of this system is further reflected in the hypocrisy of these cops, as the upcoming shootout reveals that some of them are also likely competing drug dealers. But before the shootout, the boy gets a reprieve, a vision, in the form of the video and snippet, Yafiat Koto. It's here that we see his body floating lifelessly in the infinity pool, his arms outstretched wide, staring directly at the camera dolling backwards. The selected clip of Yaffiak Cotto is the first half of the song, a barrage of self-deprecating bars wherein he calls himself the worst rapper and panics about the fleeting nature of it all.

He's tearing himself apart in the try to ever get on so many likes. He's tearing himself apart in the fitting for the moment of death, of deconstruction and loss of self. But let's take a moment to acknowledge what Glover just did here. Yefayat Koto was the song that formerly announced the album's release in the first tangible piece of the Because the Internet world. At the time, its visuals were extremely cryptic, yet now, in the screenplay's final scene, we've come full circle, closing yet another loop cycle of BTI.

We knew the end from the beginning, and of course, like the story of everyone ever, the end is death. And then there's the infinity pool symbolism to consider. Recall that the infinity pool is the central image of the boy's mansion, tied into both his father's opulence, but also to the images of cycles related to Buddhism. On the party, the boy described his house as having an infinity pool

and a statue that's Buddhist. On clapping for the wrong reasons, the pool appears frequently at all times of the boy's repeating day. The circular imagery throughout BTI, such as the spiral staircase, circular windows, the island in the middle of the pool and the infinity pool terminology itself, keys us in on its connection to loops, infinity, and the concept of reincarnation. Recall that in the previous scene,

Naomi talks about the idea of death as a moment of transition into the next state or life, an idea of reincarnation, and the boy agrees with her. The white light in the shot of the boy in the pool, as well as the boy's white t-shirt, calls to mind purity in this vision of death as rebirth, as the boy succumbs to the water. And then there's the actual water inside the pool to consider. Water has been a thematic presence throughout BTI. Typically appearing in art as a symbol of life, renewal, or purity, Glover would describe his concept of water in multiple interviews,

telling Time magazine, quote, I look at us like all the water droplets. Every drop of water on Earth is looking for all the other droplets. We're all trying to get to the sea. They're all trying to be the same water. I feel like that's people. We're trying to understand each other. whether that's language or sex or all those things.

That's what separates us from everybody else. We're the only things that can look at something and see how it hurts somebody to be called a name or something and feel that empathy. That's what separates us, really. I feel like sometimes we lose that because the internet makes it hard to do that. We have to build that in, unquote.

To Glover, water presents a metaphor for us all, for our dynamic natural pull for connection. As water moves to join other water, as water provides a source of life, and seeks to connect. It comes to stand in for human nature. Water is flown throughout BTI, from the ocean where the boy surfs and later pours his father's ashes, to the reawakening purpose it serves in the shower, to the spit in Glover's mouth as he tries to rap, sing, speak, communicate, and connect with us. It's this spit, this act of communication, that comes up again

with the infinity pool here as Yafiakota begins with Gambino rapping, worst rapper to ever spit on an open mic. As an imagined eupho-fort, final resting place, Gambino and the boy seemed to want to stay in this state, feeling the connection and humanity represented by the water. As Glover was preoccupied with the need for humanity to move forward sustainably in the time of the internet, in his words, to bring the good shit with us forward, it seems the water, and its representation of our life's drive to connect, is the life force we need to survive in the future. If we don't bring water, our natural pull for connection with us into the digital future, we won't survive. As the boy floats in the water, Naomi and Steve

look on, as if only mildly satisfied. Between the two, they represent the boy's romantic relationships and his hedonistic friends, both the So Fly and GPLY sections of the outro. The shot of the boy floating in the pool also contains a few clear allusions to classic film and literature. As the shot is underneath the water, it mimics the infamous opening scene of the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard, which sees the narrator Joe Gillis floating dead in a Hollywood pool. The shot conveyed the dangers of Hollywood excess and twisted love, as the narrator of the film, a writer, attempted to mooch off an older actress who acquired wealth from a long-gone stardom. In Sunset Boulevard shot, the role of Steve and Naomi as onlookers are instead

policemen. Like Yefayette Coto being the first piece of the BTI world, the pool seen in Sunset Boulevard was the first shot of the film, and the rest of the film was the film conveyed through a flashback leading up to the narrator's death, a narrative loop structure, much like we've discovered in BTI. The pool shot is also a clear allusion to the end of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby. In a climactic, conclusive scene, Gatsby is murdered while swimming alone in the pool of his grandiose Hampton's mansion. Most notably, the 2013 film adaption includes a similar shot of Gatsby's lifeless face from below the water as he floats in the pool. Gatsby's pursuits in the novel became consumed with money, both in his acquiring wealth and hearing

his lover's voice as the sound of money. A pool is an artificial body of water, and in BTI, Sunset Boulevard, and Gatsby, the pool is connected to a large mansion, and thus the death of Gatsby, the boy, and Joe Gillis holds similar symbolic significance of becoming consumed by the structure's society builds around life. Instead of a completely pure source of water, something about the construct, the chemical additions and the wealth represented by a personal pool, taints the purity of the water symbolism. Now we also have to recognize the boy's pose in the water. Like the album cover, he is staring directly at the camera, centering his identity. His arms are outstretched wide, feet together below him, in what appears to be a clear allusion to Jesus on the cross. He's even got the two onlookers

behind him and to the side of him. Recall that Glover tied the death of the boy's father to the death of God and zealots of Stockholm. In this case, the boy would be the Christ figure, the son of God. Glover was determined to release because the internet around Christmastime, applying public pressure to his label with the support of his fans, and using one of his seven Instagram notes to address the situation. Quote, The label doesn't want me to release in December because it's not a holiday record and I'm not a big artist. I started the record last Christmas. Christmas always made me feel lonely, but it helped me restart the new year. I want to be a holiday record. I want to want people to have this album when everything is closed, when everything slows down and quiet,

so you can start over, unquote. Beyond the simple tie of Christ's birthday, Glover focuses on the idea of a restart, a rebirth, of the loneliness he feels at the end of the year being a chance to start over. This is a direct parallel for the ideas of reincarnation throughout BTI, and the boys' position as a Buddha-like figure as we've covered on a previous episode. In this way, Glover combines eastern and western notions, amplifying the universal figure of the boy, quite literally bridging gaps and bringing varied religious symbology together. And to this thread of reincarnation, loops, and cycles, we recall the boy's desire to drown because he heard it brings euphoria. Death as a sensation of floating and release from consciousness is a mere image of birth, of time spent

in the womb. Gambino and the boy experienced this sensation earlier on flight of the navigator, when they had a dream they were floating and envisioned utopic universal connection while in between life and death. The euphoria is in a time and presence that transcends life, instead existing among the fluid, the water of the universe, completely immersed and removed from the pain of physical life. The appeal is that he can go out the way began. Truly, this death scene contains infinity, indicative of the sense of universal connection in life and death felt by Glover. But of course, the boy doesn't receive this idealized euphoric, death as rebirth. Instead, the sound of a car screeching outside breaks the vision, and dude one, who he thought was a cop, comes in shooting, killing the other guy and shooting the boy. The irony is

that he was envisioning a death, but then death came crashing into his life. It's a representation of the ever-present, unknowable threat of death that instills fear in our souls. Given the barrage of gunshots, as the script suddenly cuts out, we experienced the three breaths written into the end of the scene as the boy's final breaths. This appears to be reflected in the song as well. A few solo snare drum hits at the end representing the shots and the pause afterwards being the silence of the boy leaving Earth. Conclusions. In live performances of the Deep Web Tour, Earth the oldest computer was the final song performed before an extended encore that spanned Gambino's earlier musical catalog, which would fittingly start with a performance of So Fly. The very song

interpolated in Earth's outro. After the boy's mansion falls into the void of the web behind Gambino on stage, the visualizer of the boy's mother would reappear, offering the final monologue of the show. It would be good for you. I need you to understand that kids, people, they're so afraid. Don't let the world tell you your words. The truth is the heart of God.

The boy's mother says, quote, Your father wanted you to go to camp for the summers. I wanted you home. He thought it would be good for you. I need you to understand that kids, people, they're so afraid. Don't let the world tell you your worth. Truth is the heart of God. You are becoming God.

We are becoming God. Here at the end of the show, the boy's summer camp trip from his previous album, Camp, is formally acknowledged, just as it was at the start of the script when the boy got off the bus. The mother reveals that going to camp was his father's idea, even though she wanted him home, a dichotomy highlighting the symbolism of both parents we've discussed throughout BTI. We recall how the boy was mocked and humiliated for expressing his feelings for a girl at camp, and here his mother seems to comfort him, explaining that their actions are based in fear, and that he shouldn't rely on the world to tell him what he's worth.

She then tells him what he is, what we are. Truth is the heart of God. You are becoming God. We are becoming God. This seems to tie into the final lines of Earth. Progress, only thing that'll last. 3,05, the year that we fear, only God will survive. To be alone is alive. Like our indifference about the ants that die under our feet, the Earth does not care about our individual lives. Our lives are too short for one individual to make a significant debt in the grand scheme of the universe. Earth, like evolution, is only concerned with progress as a means of survival.

The loneliness, insignificance, and fear of death this grim reality inspires in us looms over the entire human experience and, as the boy's mother points out, drives so much of our actions on earth, and inspires many to pursue the survival of me over the survival of the collective we. As exemplified in the first half of BTI,

fear of the unknown can drive people to selfishly indulge, pursue capital and excess, unconcerned with the survival of others, humanity and the planet. The most extreme versions of this approach always end in bloodshed, as the prioritization of the individual or small group over another, finds us fighting over resources, ideologies, and power. On the other hand, if we can recognize and understand our universal fears and the way that they connect us, we can use them to inspire action that prioritizes the collective over the individual. We can buy into collective progress as humanity's only great

legacy. We can plant the tree for the future and keep each other safe in the face of the existential dilemma. We can inject truth, honesty, and compassion into our systems and new technologies so we can progress, so we can move away from killing each other and move closer and closer to becoming God, the universal we, Earth's computer code, the individual droplets of water homogenizing into a single body. It's these ideas that Gambino and the boy are beginning to figure out as they stare into the face of death here on Earth the oldest computer. The irony is, just as he's on the brink of achieving a grander understanding, the answers he's been searching for throughout BTI, the boy dies.

And this brings us to the title of the song, Earth the Oldest Computer. It seems this joins a number of literary references in BTI. This time it's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a series of creations by Douglas Adams. In these works, there is a supernatural computer designed to answer. the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. That is, it's programmed to solve the existential dilemma. After millions of years of calculation, the computer, whose name is Deep Thought, famously says the meaning of life, the universe, and everything is the number 42. This made at its inability to even completely understand the question, deep thought creates Earth, a superior

computer, a planet designed to discover the true question after a 10 million year experience of life. This computer, that is, Earth, is destroyed five minutes before it can finish its work. This situation appears to reflect the boy's journey on BTI. He tries to find the answer to his existential crisis, falls into a cycle of trying again and again, and here on Earth the oldest computer, meets his doom just as he was starting to feel a potential, sustainable connection with Naomi, just as he was beginning to understand his broader connection to others, to life, to earth, to the universe. It's like some cruel joke, some sarcastic punchline.

It's as if life itself trolled him. Of course, this is Life the biggest troll, I ain't too ashamed. Of course, this is Life the biggest troll, Andrew Arnhimer, a song will examine note by note, line by line, next time on Dysect. Today's episode of Dysect was written by Camden Ostrander and me. Remember, you can go deeper into the world and because the internet through our episodic guides on our website, Dysectpodcast.com. Be sure to check out our limited season seven merchandise. Also, be sure to follow us on social media at Dysk Podcast. Today's episode was edited by Eric Bass and me, screenplay score by So Wiley, song recreations by Andrew Atwood, theme music by

bureaucratic. All right, thanks, everyone. Talk to you next week.