Can the future as portrayed in this flash movie become our reality? Not even with a machine of metal and cold logic, but a machine created by a government so oppresive, so unyielding that when we do not actively fight it, it will assimilate us?
Could political correctness lead us down this path? Slowly conditioning us on what is the “right” thing to say or do, what the “correct” behavior is?
(sorry to all you peeps with slow connects, it’s a big file, but please, please watch this movie. It’s well worth the wait.)
"1949, George Orwell portrays a chilling world in which computers are used by large bureaucracies to control and enslave the population, in his book, Nineteen Eighty-Four.
1976, Kurzweil Industries introduces the Kurzweil Reading Machine, the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind.
1997, Deep Blue beats Gary Kasparov, the world chess champion, in a regulation tournament."
-Ray Kurzweil and Our Lady Peace
People act like machines all the time… some more than others. Enjoy your humanity if you have it. The world of machines appears cold and unappealing, despite it’s accuracy and efficiency. Can it happen? It would appear the answer is yes. Should we bring it about? It has’t worked so far.
For those of you without high-speed connections, the film is basically a Flash animation short of a bleak future world where people have become enslaved to some mindless beurocratic government. All people have barcodes on their foreheads (why forehead?) the computer screens have B.E.A.S.T logos engraved on them, presumably as a reference to the Book of Revalations.
The effects of technology and urbanization has been the subject of literature and film for years:
Metropolis
1984
Isaac Asimov’s Robot books
THX1138
Ghost in the Shell (as well as about 90% of other Anime)
Blade Runner
Terminator
and of course, The Matrix
It seems like there are a couple of questions:
Would technology become an enabler for a totalitarian regeme? The pervasiveness of computers and its ability to store vast amounts of personal information raises concerns that they will be used as a tool of thegovernment to opress the people. At least in a Democracy, we have checks and balances in place to mitigate this risk. A greater concern to me is that it will give corporations more power over their employees. Imagine if the “permenant record” your high school teachers threatened you with was now a database that tracked your purchases, credit history, phone calls, insurance data, etc. Now imagine that a potential employer now has the ability to use this information to base hiring and firing decisions. “Im sorry Mr. Smith, we have to let you go because our computer’s have profiled you as being prone to stealing, based on your pattern of DVD purchases.”
Would technology turn us into a bunch of mindless automatons? Imagine a deliveryperson conditioned to drive from point A to point B based on where a computerized dispatch tells them to go. They are essentially a drone following orders. No independent thought. Of course, work has ALWAYS been this way.
At what point do we lose our humanity and become a machine/ or vice versus? Another popular theme. Basically, it asks where is the line between a human, genetically engineered human, bionic person, cyborg, android, or robot? How many implants and prostectics can you install into a person before he/she is no longer “human”? Conversely, how smart and humanoid can you make a machine before it is indistinguishable from a human being?
This is a long way off, but not as far off as you might think.
Yeah, but look at the long-term picture. Chess hasn’t even existed for a thousand years. We humans invented chess. So, it’s not surprising that less than a millennium later, we invented a machine that can beat us at chess.
The fact that Deep Blue can play chess better than Kasparow says more about chess – and about Kasparov’s personal obsession with chess – than it does about Deep Blue.
The point of the movie seems to be if we mindless follow whatever then individuality is lost. (I’m thinking of an image that stuck out in my mind, “A mindless man is society’s greatest asset” - or something to that extent.) But, that certainly seems to contradict the Christian imagery, and the assumption that Christians accept Jesus Christ and God on blind faith.
I always found the vision of “Brave New World” more compelling that that of “1984” – a society that was not beaten down through oppression, but rather lulled into complacency through gentle propaganda and technological progress.
Genetic manipulation, through “splicing” or “therapy,” will almost certainly be available in the near future. Of course those with wealth will have first access, whether this will lead to culture of “alphas” and “betas” is wild speculation (for now). I do fear that people are too accepting of mood-altering pharmaceuticals, particularly for their children. This is a personal bias, however I can see how a government-sanctioned drug like “Soma” (all the benefits of Heroin with no side effects!) could have wide appeal.
I’m not sure where I’m going with this, but I think it comes down a question of cold comfort versus personal freedom. While I’m no Luddite, I feel people are sometimes too quick to embrace “technology” or “progress” without thought of broad consequences.