Silo Is Basically Plato's Cave with Extra Steps (and Elon Musk)

If you have watched Silo or read the books you probably read this article's title and had an "aha" moment. If you don't know what the Silo is, it's Apple TV's SciFi hit starring Rebecca Ferguson. The TV series is based on the Silo trilogy of novels (Wool, Shift, and Dust) by Hugh Howey. As I will argue, the show's premise has certain simmilarities with Plato's famous cave allegory.

If you are not fully caught up through Season 3 of the TV series and would like to avoid spoilers, be warned:

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

Silo is Plato's Cave with extra steps

As I was watching the 9th episode of the third season, I suddenly realized that Silo is more than simply a story resembling Plato's cave; it's Plato's cave governed by an Elon Musk-esque figure.

As I thought about it, I posted it on my Threads account and soon after Hugh Howey, the author of the Silo trilogy, confirmed it: "exactly right".

So with Howey backing my thesis, I finally feel confident enough to write a story about the Silo and Plato's cave metaphor.

My aim is not to provide an exhaustive description of Plato's cave or the Silo's plot, but rather to showcase the common points.

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Plato's Cave Allegory

In the seventh book of Plato's Republic, Socrates provides the image of an underground cave filled with prisoners:

"imagine human beings living in an underground cave-like residence...They have been there since their childhood, their ankles and necks chained, unable to move or turn their heads, forced to look ahead."

Behind the prisoners are some other humans who raise various objects in front of a fire. The prisoners can only see the shadows of these objects projected on the cave's wall and this is their reality.

The prisoners think that these shadows are the "real thing". But of course they are not.

"Now imagine what would happen naturally if the prisoners were released from their shackles and cured of their ignorance."

If the prisoners were suddenly freed, they would be confused. They wouldn't easily accept that they were fooled. They wouldn't easily accept that their reality was fake.

"But what if someone forcibly dragged them all the way to the point where they could see the sunlight?" asks Socrates. The answer is simple. They would have to face the truth and they would feel pity for those left behind, those who still believe that the shadows cast on the cave's wall are the real world.

In Plato's thought experiment, a philosopher's role is to uncover the truth; to reach the cave's exit, face the sun (Truth) and return to save the rest of the prisoners, even if the prisoners hate him for it.

So what does this mean for the Silo?

The Silo

The Silo is basically an underground space meant to protect humans. In the first season of the series, we don't know what humans need to be protected from (by the season we have a good idea of the nano-danger lurking outside the silo), but we do know that whoever goes outside, dies within seconds, with their death projected on a big screen for everyone in the silo to witness.

But, things are more complicated than that. In the series, it becomes evident that there is a big, dark secret; that something is off about both the silo and the outside world.

In search of the truth, a mechanic named Juliette Nichols manages to break free from the silo's system and go outside with a properly sealed suit.

As soon as she goes outside, she realizes that a big destruction has indeed taken place. There is no green, no animals, no life. However, a few feet away from her silo, lies the unexpected: another silo. This other silo is virtually the same as hers but with one difference: everyone apart from a handful of people has died.

As time passes, Nichols uncovers more and more truths about what the silo really is and who truly holds power in the underground structure where thousands live in strange conditions under the Draconian rules of "the Pact" which forbids people from building elevators and even from procreating freely.

Silo as the Cave, Juliette Nichols as the Philosopher

Just like Plato's allegory, Nichols has managed to exit the cave (the silo), uncover a truth that unsettles reality (there is more than one silo and it is possible to go outside).

Her moral duty is to return to the cave and warn the other inmates (residents of the silo); to make them uncomfortable with the truth. In the universe of the Silo series, the truth is not just unsettling. It can lead to rebellions against the silo's authorities, and as we eventually come to understand, if a rebellion succeeds, the secret, unknown authorities that guide the silo's life, can terminate all life in the silo.

Unlike Plato's cave, truth in the silo can trigger an endgame, which deeply complicates the philosopher's burden. In Plato's original allegory, the primary risk falls on the enlightened philosopher. Socrates warns that the ignorant prisoners might reject or even kill the one trying to free them. But in Silo, this dynamic is inverted: the risk falls entirely on the prisoners.

If Nichols returns and shatters their false reality, the resulting rebellion would trigger a kill-switch. The unseen authorities who actually run the silo, are perfectly willing to terminate all life in the silo to protect their grand plan (which remains unknown).

Nichols is trapped in a moral paradox: how can the philosopher save the prisoners when the very act of waking them up will lead to their execution?

Another major difference is that in the silo the prisoners actually want to escape. They all want to learn the truth and activelly seek it, but an authoritarian, all seeing, Panopticon-style force seeks to contain and supress them.

Now if you have watched the third season of the TV series you are acquainted with Per Stensen, the trillionaire who built the silos and seems to be the mastermind behind everything. To me, his presence is similar to that of Elon Musk's. Besides, Musk has advocated for a bunch of silo-like structures to accommodate humans on the hostile environment of Mars.

So, that's why, it's fair to say that the Silo is basically Plato's cave with extra steps (and Elon Musk).

Bibliography

• Plato's Republic, Translated by Oleg Bychkov.

Also read

• Greek Myths That Inspired Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
• 3 Ancient Greek Myths about Obsessive Love
• The Uncanny Backrooms of Greek Mythology