Is there a reason the "Allie" chips can't be force-fed to someone?
People were coerced into taking them (when their family/friend was threatened at gunpoint). But why did nobody try just holding someone down, pinching their nose, and force feeding the chip?
I never really understood this either. I think Jaha or Alie said something about how she couldn't surpass freewill so they ultimately needed consent, but it isn't consent if they and their loved ones are being threatened and tortured. So I guess they addressed the issue by saying she needed consent, but that's not how consent works at all. I could be forgetting details so someone correct me if I'm wrong.
shareIt was explained by Allie. She said something like, human free will was inserted into her code and she couldn't bypass it, so people had to choose to swallow, she couldn't make them do that by force.
shareBecause only a human could do that, Allie's programming prohibited - the chip wouldn't function.
It wasn't until Jaha managed to find a loophole that she could even do that at all. Jaha was her tank because his religious zealotry almost made him a completely willing participant and his ability to coerce was what made Allie so strong in the first place - it's also why he's absolutely the one most affected when Allie shuts down. He's done a lot of horrific stuff.
But the conversation Jaha has with Allie is that while she can't directly force feed them the chip, if by indirect threats they took the pill of their own accord it would still work. They didn't force anyone to take the pill - they just made it a much more appetizing choice. There's also a chance that Jaha was completely free of the programming and merely was an observer, and the reason she was so capable was because he was the one subverting her program because humans have free will - she does not. Jaha creating situations subverted her programming in either event.
Perverse Instantiation, the name of the last two episodes, talks about this a lot. It's the classic Isaac Asimov problem. You make a machine that protects humans, it will warp its own programming to more effectively do so.