Tonight I saw the Isaac Asimov inspired movie, I ROBOT.
"Wow, they saw a movie! How amazing!??" some may say, or you may question why I am admitting to seeing a movie, this Hollywood Blockbuster, starring none other than the actor whose acting qualities i'm sure you can judge best for yourself, Wil Smith. But no, this is not to fill your lives with my tales of what I am doing with my life, but to raise a point (could it be any other way?).
And I have not one but two points to make in this regards to this film.
This first question this movie poses, but done without all the product placement and cheesy lines in the series of short stories this movie was sourced from is the role of technology in our lives. Not a terribly fresh subject I admit, but being of the topical nature it is now due to this movies release, it seemed to appropriate to discuss it here.
The thought that technology which has empowered us in so many ways, could turn around and enslave us may seem to most as little more than something out of a SciFi story. These tools which have created and given us so much freedom and so many new possibilities suffers from one fate, and that being humanity.
Whilst concepts proposed in 'I, ROBOT' of the robots developing some level of consciousness/free will is one i'd dispute, a concept numerous movies have addressed is one of through the development of AI, something which requires incredible resources to be as as comprehensive as possible, yet affordable, it can develop an increasingly larger percentage of learned reactions. Remember that even humans lives mostly consist of what we are learnt/taught, our beliefs, our practices, many aspects of the the way we operate on a daily basis, all learnt. So what is it stop a highly advanced bit of artificial intelligence being able to develop similar skills, and once learnt, be able to pass that on to other technology, so no repetition is necessary, and evolution is guaranteed.
The fate it suffers, humanity, is what makes the concepts expressed in the likes of The Matrix and I, ROBOT possible. Where AI in itself, develops, both from a study of humanity, and the fact that because it was designed by a human, it could be vulnerable to the same technological problems todays technology is plagued with. Even though over thousands of years we have advanced as a race, we have never stopped being vulnerable to all that is to be human.
As technology has been integrated more and more into our lives in the quest for making our lives easier, saving money, and giving us more tools to work with / get a job done, we've seen increasing numbers of ways for things to fail, and fail with much more dramatic effect.
In addition to this, is my second point, and to throw a cliche your way, people love power and control, and the very same technology which has empowered us and made our lives easier and in some cases safer in many ways, also falls under the possibility of being at the will of those who have control, those who wish to retain it, and those who seek to take it over. Technology is used today, and has been for ages, used by those who seek these things. Weapons and the 'Space Race', are prime examples of such things.
We are now in an age where we are seeing existing and emerging technologies used by governments and different bodies to control us, in whatever name they feel fit to justify it to people. But the ultimate cause and affect being that this technology is pushing things one step closer to enslaving us. Reducing our freedom of choice.
Being a self admitted geek myself, advances in these areas is a bitter-sweet thing. How can humanity ever build technology which they can entrust their well being in, yet not be prone to the same failures it can today?
On a somewhat unrelated but appropriate note, I would like to present you with an idea, but please firstly adjourn to your tin foiled roofs with your tin foil hats, and open your minds before you consider this thought.
Why has society seen an ever increasing number of movies which have predicted technological failure, or dis-empowerment of the masses, basically what is also known as disaster movies. Is it a result of great insight by the writers/authors of such stories, is it just entertainment, or is there something more to it?
Such movies often being some of the biggest and most expensive productions out of Hollywood, making the tale even more realistic than it may have been in other movies you have seen. So why is there such an increasing trend in the past decade towards such things?
What this tin foil hat brigade would like you to contemplate is what if this had purpose to it. The thought i'd propose is that such movies in itself serve as being the possibility of (discretion is yours to decide on this, so don't assume any conclusions from my own statements) a form of conditioning or form of propaganda. What if this is something, at-least in part, coordinated by the larger financial sources funding such movies, which are in turn influenced by their connections/contributors, and who they seek to serve and work along side?
The screening and production of movies have in the past been made to fall into line due to certain events. These corporations who happily screen all kinds of films at times, all of a sudden developing a conscious, or something, or was there really something more to this?
So what I would ask of you, is to contemplate is to step outside what you are told, and what others want you to believe, and ask yourself, what is their real reason? You decide.
