So, I haven’t seen Cars 2 yet, and I’m not sure I will any time soon, for it will force me to consider the implications of the presence of the Automotive Pope, riding along in his own sentient Popemobile, on the already quavering foundations of the Cars universe. The mere presence of a white Alfa wearing a Mitre while riding in the back of a plexiglass box on the back of an equally white truck, while almost certainly intended as a cute throwaway gag in a kids movie, invites all kinds of questions in all sorts of aspects of the world-building involved in creating a world, almost entirely like our own, except for the fact that there aren’t people, only sentient vehicles.

It’s not just the folks at io9 above that are thinking about this. The other day, John Scalzi, in his column over at AMC film critic posited a couple of theories as to how a world so much like our own, ruled by beings so clearly designed to accommodate human beings’ needs, but being apparently totally without humans, could come to pass. He offers up a couple of scenarios; all of which are interesting; I tend to prefer the idea that cars and such merely rose to sentience after humanity somehow disappeared; it allows for all the similarities to human culture and technology. It makes at least some sort of sense.

Also, this scenario does allow for the existence of vehicular religion (Roman Cartholocism, I guess, given the presence of the Car Pope), though the idea of vehicular Christianity tends to suggest the concept of a vehicular Jesus (Christler?), and how that all might work, which kind of causes the brain to hurt, and continued thought in that direction will probably draw threats of heresy.

Let’s not think of all the trappings of a motor vehicle priesthood. What are the implications of the idea of a priestly vow of celibacy in the Cars universe? This suggests that lay vehicles would not, by default be celibate….then the whole Rule 34ness of things starts to squick me out.

You see where I’m going? There are some places the mind should simply not go.

Oh well, read the io9 piece linked above, which has a great theory that kind of makes things less weird by framing Cars as an epilogue to the most recent Battlestar Galactica series.