| “ | The word "apocalypse" comes from ancient Greek. "Apokalypsis". Uncovering the revelation of great knowledge. The change from one world to the next. The old to the new. I'm misunderstood, always have been. That's why I knew this was a burden only I could carry. It has to be me. | „ |
| ~ Holstrom explaining his views to Ping before leaving him to die. |
Stephen Holstrom is the overarching antagonist of the animated series Pantheon. He is the founder of Logorhythms who invented the uploaded intelligence process, and seeks to enforce his digital way of life on the entire human race. He is the arch-nemesis of his clone Caspian Keyes.
He was voiced by the late William Hurt.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Phineas Holstrom was born on February 11, 1964, and grew up in an unstable household where his father abused his mother. When he was 17 years old, just 30 minutes short of emancipation, he drove to a gas station with his girlfriend Hannah to buy beer and condoms, when she was hit by a speeding pickup truck in a side collision with his SUV. He would legally change his first name to Stephen once he became 18.
Founding of Logorhythms[]
By the time he was 33, Stephen had founded a successful tech company known as Logorhythms. At a tech conference in 2001, Holstrom discussed with his audience the prospect of making an artificial intelligence that is capable of emotion, which he posits is not possible for AI, but would be possible for UI, or uploaded intelligence. It was believed that Stephen passed away from cancer at some point after this, but in truth, his brain was cryogenically preserved. 18 years later, after Caspian cracks integrity and fixes the flaw of uploaded intelligence coding, his brain is uploaded by Julius Pope, bringing him back from the dead in order to finish his life's work.
As a UI without the Flaw[]
In season 2, Holstrom develops a virus meant to be unleashed globally as a countermeasure to the SafeSurf virus that targets UIs. His plan is to make human life so unbearable that people will choose to upload themselves to escape the suffering. Caspian manages to stop him just in time.
Holstrom eventually meets his demise when the Caspian UI merges with his. Due to their similar genetic patterns, the merging creates unstable glitches, preventing both from moving in the Cloud. When SafeSurf appears to wipe them out, Holstrom is attached to Caspian, becoming immobile. The SafeSurf kills Holstrom first, but when Caspian is also on the verge of being destroyed, MIST rescues him and stores him in a hidden server for 20 years, though by now Caspian has been infected with a cancerous section of the SafeSurf.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- This was William Hurt’s final performance following his death in 2022, although he attended to have other posthumously released called The Fence, Men of Granite, and Edward Enderby.
- Holstrom's biography and life seems to allude to the real-life Steve Jobs.
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 Villains
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Julius Pope | Renee Keyes | Stephen Holstrom | Vinod Chanda | Ajit Prasad | Logorhythms | SafeSurf | ||