ABSTRACT
In the philosophical spirit of the series, the author reads the artificial intelligence reboots in The Good Place through the lens of Buddhist rebirth, a metaphysical cycle of life and death. The humans in The Good Place also experience reboots, just like Janet. In rebirth, then, a person’s consciousness moves from one corporeal form into the next, with continuity, but no memory of it. For Buddhists, knowledge of one’s self across lifetimes is possible through meditation and mindfulness, rather than a continuous soul that moves from body to body. When Janet is rebooted, her consciousness continues from micromoment to micromoment. The difference between Hindu and Buddhist rebirth is most clearly demonstrated in the third season episode “Janet(s),” in which Janet takes all the humans and Michael into her void. The drive to create artificial intelligence has always simultaneously been the drive to understand the essence of humanity.
