Because the work of Macrodata Refinement is mysterious (and important), the Refiners must come to their own conclusions about how their job affects the outside world.

Dylan George believes that the world outside has become uninhabitable, so humanity must move to the oceans. In order to rid the waters of dangerous things like eels, the refinement process must be targeting and helping to eradicate those threats to make the seas safe to live in.

Irving Bailiff believes they are taking the swear words out of movies.

Some fans of the show believe they are erasing their own or other severed employees' memories. Perhaps they are taming the tempers of lesser men. All of Kier Eagan's writings seem to indicate that he finds any emotional state other than corporate love to be abhorrent; perhaps they are expunging emotional responses from innies or other severed employees on the testing floor.