The short lived, Green Lantern: The Animated Series, was an interesting show. I enjoyed it. For a children’s show it touched on many different topics – acceptance, meditation and evolving. Watching the computer program, Aya evolve and grow was enjoyable. One of my favorite episodes is “Blue Hope” * It speaks on evolving and changing on so many different levels.

Beyond Programming

“No, I learned from example. You too are capable of evolving beyond your programming.” - Aya*

The peace keeping Guardians of the Universe, the little blue men that founded the Green Lantern Corps, created a superfast ship, the Interceptor. To upgrade the ship and the navigational programs an artificial intelligence (AI) was created. The Guardians gave this AI a spark of life, to help with its programming speed and decision making. To help solve a mystery of dead Green Lanterns in the Frontier, outreaches of forgotten space, Hal Jordon and Killowog stole the ship. The AI became a great help and evolved into a sentient computer program. Eventually, Jordon gave her the name Aya; she evolved into a sentient being capable of emotions.

Thanks to the study of DNA and nature versus nurture concepts we found that we are programmed. Some of us through programming are artists, teachers and nurses. The list is long. We are also programmed with behaviors from childhood and ideas of food, home and relationships. Some of these are positive or negative. All of these learned behaviors can be unlearned. Ask the southerner that moves north and in a few short years looses the quaint southern accent. Then there is the overweight person that changes a simple food in the diet and starts losing weight easily. With thoughts like these it is easy to see just how we are programmed. We can evolve and change. We can change the programming. We are not bound to our programming. We can educate ourselves and evolve beyond our programming. Aya has the right idea, “I learned from example. You too are capable of evolving beyond your programming.”

Aya
First Appearance: The Green Lantern: Animated Series, (March 3 2012- March 16 2013)

Creators: Bruce Timm, Giancarlo Volpe, Jim Krieg, Sam and Rick Morales

* “Blue Hope”, The Green Lantern: Animated Series, Jan. 12, 2013, voiced by Grey DeLisle