For the miniseries to make sense they should have allowed mankind a relief valve. Encourage them to explore and study the solar system and other frontier areas. Clarke makes a passing reference of exploring the seas and a giant squid. But it's treated as a parlor game by a bunch of bored dilettantes at a party instead of serious science. I guess that's my biggest problem with the book. While claiming to be a scientist Clarke was woefully ignorant of the joy of scientific research that motivates people to devote their lives to obscure scientific specialties when they could make so much more money doing something else.
The miniseries should have included the entire solar system as the area where humans are restricted. A golden age of solar system exploration and colonization would have kept humanity happily busy until the transformation of the children. The destruction of the solar system would have made more sense for an all powerful hive mind. And if you tie the hive mind to the Gaia Hypothesis, the idea that a collective mind, soul, intelligence of all living things on the earth is what is seeking to ascend to a higher level then many of the moral objections go away. The minds of the last children are simply a catalyst but the minds/souls of all living things with their own unique intelligence/awareness are included. It would provide a perfect explanation why the kids act so weird and distracted. You try mind melding with an octopus. Clarke used childhood as a metaphor, declaring adults to be unworthy of the final ascension. But if all who retain a childlike joy and openness to change, including adults are part of the final Overmind the story end would have became more palatable and Clarkes vision would have been preserved. But that would have required a very talented and visionary writing staff, something that seems to be missing in TV land. My opinion.
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