Tubed experience – July-August

August 23, 2009

My STS class required us to watch 5 science fiction movies. The movies we agreed upon in class were The Island, Aeon Flux, Minority Report, Bicentennial Man and I, Robot. I’m not really into sci-fi movies – I am more of a realist when it comes to movie plots.

 

I didn’t enjoy making the reviews because I didn’t enjoy watching the movies except for The Island (I love Ewan McGregor!) Although I understood the reason why my professor required us to limit our reviews to 300 words or less (the same goes for the synopsis for a maximum of 600 words per movie), I found it too constraining and discouraging.

 

I submitted the reviews two weeks ago – and I felt little relief. The reviews are lame, really. I just want to share to my “devoted” readers (my precious handful of friends) the fact that my writing skills can get worse and that I’m purged of the strength to update my blog.

 

 

THE ISLAND

 

Director: Michael Bay

Year: 2005

 

Cast

Ewan McGregor – Lincoln Six Echo / Tom Lincoln

Scarlett Johansson – Jordan Two Delta / Sarah Jordan

Djimon Hounsou – Albert Laurent

Sean Bean – Dr. Merrick

Steve Buscemi – James McCord

 

SYNOPSIS

 

The Island is a science fiction movie about the evils of science used in the commercialization of human life. The protagonist, Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) is a clone living in a self-contained utopia, a bastion of humans in a world contaminated by a disease that wipes out almost all life. Lincoln is very different from other inhabitants of the facility in that he is skeptical. Because of his skepticism he learns that the facility is a lie – that the inhabitants of the facility were subjected to inhuman medical procedures that will take their organs or babies, killing them. To hide this harsh reality, the facility’s administrators, Merrick Biotech, claims that they send lucky people (those who will actually be killed) to the last paradise, the Island in the movie.

 

Lincoln Six Echo’s friend, Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson), is one the “lucky” individuals to be sent to the Island. Knowing the fact that it might be the end of her, Lincoln Six Echo takes her to escape from the facility. Another friend, James McCord (Steve Buscemi) uncovers the reality of Merrick and the clones’ reasons for being. He helps the two escape. Meanwhile, the head of the Merrick facility, Dr. Merrick (Sean Bean), commissions Albert Laurent (Djimon Hounsou) to bring back the escapees, and orders the destruction of “defective product lines.” Upon arriving on Los Angeles, Lincoln and Jordan search for their sponsors; Lincoln finds his (Tom Lincoln) and asks him to help in the emancipation of other clones trapped in the facility. Lincoln’s sponsor turns against his clone but this does not fail the cloned Lincoln and Jordan in their goal to save the other clones.

 

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN THE MOVIE

 

There are many technologies presented in the movie. In almost every setting is ubiquitous computing, making transactions easier, but lending them subject to greater surveillance and control. Transportation is faster and, to a certain degree, more efficient; maglev and overhead cable trains run alongside SUVS, trucks and rocket-propelled air gliders. Communication is easier, cheaper and more visual.

 

In the Merrick facility, most of the technologies employed are towards one goal: to control the clones. Clones were regarded as products or commodities and not as human beings; everything is done to ensure their commercial value. Grown in vitro, the clones are brainwashed and then managed through thought control. Their health is vigorously monitored, results of tests becoming available to them and their “controllers” in real-time. Robot-assisted surgery minimized human error and maximized precision. Living in a controlled environment, the clones are sealed from the outside world physically and psychologically, living in a sort of utopia, provided with everything in return for unquestioning obedience and a chance to go to paradise, The Island.

 

The clones are created for their “sponsors” who, anticipating later medical conditions, would require parts of the clones’ bodies for their own, killing the clones. As it is illegal and immoral to kill human beings just to make another live (and at a cost that will go to a third party’s pocket), Merrick, a private company, made lies to distance their clients from the distasteful reality of what they’re actually buying. Potential buyers are informed that what they are buying are not human beings as they don’t have consciousness. The structure of the facility ensured that no customer will know the truth for themselves. Neither did the clones knew what their fates were, until one of them found out, escaped and attempted to free all of the clones under Merrick’s control. Despite Merrick’s seeming success in controlling thought, at least one was able to break from the imposed way of thinking.

 

The movie presented what might be the ugly consequences of too much greed and tampering of human life. Similar to the atrocities committed by the Nazis during the Second World War, scientific and technological achievements can be used to enslave people (which aren’t “humans” in their discourse) and bring social inequality to a more ruthless level. Changes always bring with them dangers; it is up to the more vigilant among us to expose these dangers and make sure that science does make life better for all, not just for a privileged some.

 

 

ÆON FLUX

 

Director: Karyn Kusama

Year: 2005

 

Cast

Charlize Theron – Æon Flux

Marton Csokas – Trevor Goodchild

Jonny Lee Miller – Oren Goodchild

Sophie Okonedo – Sithandra

Frances McDormand – Handler

Pete Postlethwaite – Keeper

Amelia Warner – Una Flux

 

SYNOPSIS

 

Æon Flux is set in the city of Bregna, a walled city-state where the 5 million or so human survivors of a global pandemic live. The heroine of the movie, Æon Flux (Charlize Theron), is a Monican, a member of a rebel group fighting Bregna’s government. While on a mission, Bregna police kills Æon’s sister, Una (Amelia Warner), mistaking her for a Monican. This enrages Æon and makes her more determined to kill Bregna’s leader, the scientist Trevor Goodchild (Marton Csokas).

 

In the course of her mission Æon discovers that she, like the other Monicans, are being manipulated to bring down Trevor from power and prevent Bregna’s inhabitants from really “living.” As it turned out, the antidote that saved the people from the disease made them infertile. To make sure that humanity will survive, Trevor had everyone cloned (their memories inadvertently cloned too) until he finds a cure to their sterility. Trevor’s brother, Oren Goodchild (Jonny Lee Miller), disapproves of finding a cure, enjoying the apparent immortality of living in cloned bodies. Oren is actually the manipulator of the Monicans and destroys Trevor’s research. Upon declaring Trevor as a traitor, Oren assumes power in the city.

 

Oren later admitted that the people were cured of the infertility by themselves but had them killed out of fear. Æon turns against Oren and convinces other Monicans to do the same, killing him. To make sure that cloning ends, Æon destroys the Relical, a floating repository of everyone’s DNA and crashes it against Bregna’s walls. The people of Bregna are finally liberated from their cycle of cloning and their isolation inside the city walls.

 

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN THE MOVIE

 

Æon Flux is similar to the movie The Island. Bregna, analogous to the Merrick facility in The Island, is a man-made refuge against a world-wide pandemic that kills almost all of the human population. Bregna’s government is an authoritarian technocracy living on deceit, similar to the scientist-administrators in The Island. However, unlike The Island, the threat in Æon Flux is real. Outside the walls of Bregna lies a different world, a world hospitable to all except humans (or so they thought)

 

Æon Flux is more about the issues of cloning and immortality. In the story, the treatment that rendered the people safe from a deadly pandemic made them sterile. To ensure that mankind will survive (until the infertility riddle is solved), the scientists of Bregna resort to cloning, in vitro fertilization and transplantation of fetuses into unknowing mothers, faking pregnancies. By doing this, not only is DNA is recycled but also thoughts. Æon Flux showcases many “thought technologies” other than the concept of memories becoming encoded in the DNA; a metallic pill enables people to communicate telepathically, everyone’s thoughts are monitored, and mental messages can be ingested through some sort of drug. Body modifications and tissue technologies (instant skin grafts) are likewise very fantastic and too good to be true given our current scientific achievements. Cloning and the recycling of thoughts (and, on a more philosophical level, consciousness) rendered the 5 million or so individuals of Bregna “immortal.” This is the central issue of the plot. For Æon and Trevor, man isn’t meant to live forever.

 

Aside from the unbelievable technologies in the movie, the Japanese-inspired minimalism of the whole setting (architecture, fashion, landscaping) is hard to miss.

 

 

MINORITY REPORT

 

Director: Steven Spielberg

Year: 2002

 

Cast

Tom Cruise – John Anderton

Colin Farrell – Danny Witwer

Samantha Morton - Agatha

Max von Sydow – Lamar Burgess

Kathryn Morris - Lara

Jessica Harper – Anne Lively

Mike Binder – Leo Crow

Dominic Scott Kay – Sean

 

SYNOPSIS

 

Minority Report is a movie about the possibility and implications of prediction, particularly crime prediction. In the movie, John Anderton (Tom Cruise) is a member of Precrime, a police department that apprehends murderers even before they can kill people, preventing them from happening. The system works well in WashingtonD.C. and is poised to go nationwide. Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell), an auditor from the US Justice Department, is sent to evaluate the system.

 

During the evaluation it was predicted that Anderton will become a murderer of a certain Leo Crow. This sets a chain of events that finally leads to Anderton fulfilling the prediction (though in an odd way). Anderton’s efforts to extract a “minority report”, a dissenting prediction, from Agatha (Samantha Morton) prove useless as Anderton didn’t have any. Witwer begins to doubt of Anderton’s guilt in the murder of Leo Crow and approaches the director of Precrime, Lamar Burgess (Max von Sydow). He also tells of the inconsistencies of the murder of Anne Lively (Jessica Harper), Agatha’s mother, arriving at the conclusion that the Precrime system is manipulable. Burgess, the real murderer of Anne Lively and the mastermind of the Leo Crow murder (which framed Anderton) kills Witwer and blames it on Anderton. Anderton is apprehended and jailed.

 

Anderton, through his wife Lara (Kathryn Morris), discovers Burgess’ hand in the murders and resolves to reveal his wrongdoings and the flaw of the Precrime system. Burgess kills himself and the Precrime project is abandoned.

 

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN THE MOVIE

 

Similar to the previous sci-fi movies I watched, Minority Report showcased a lot of future technologies. The buildings look so different, cars run on weird roads, there are smart guns that merely stun and interactive screens appear almost everywhere (even on cornflake cartons). However, I will only be concentrating on the main technology portrayed in the movie, that is, the technologies of digitalizing mental projections and predicting the future.

 

The two technologies go hand in hand – only a few individuals are gifted with the ability to accurately predict the future (though the movie is unclear about the ‘predicting’ mechanism), and to access their predictions, their thoughts must be projected and recorded. This has a radical effect on society in that murder (the only crime the precogs predict) is, practically, totally eradicated in a locality. One can surmise that the people feel safer with the idea that an attempt on their lives will be prevented while other would-be murderers feel discouraged because of the certainty that they will be caught even before they can accomplish their job.

 

A far more philosophical implication is that the movie assumes that the future is set and determinable. Predicting human behavior can never become a science – there are a lot of factors that must be accounted for, factors that humankind will never or refuse to acknowledge and quantify. Humans have free will and are not hostages to a “certain” future; each decision we make ultimately changes our future whether we know it or not. This fact is greatest flaw of the whole Precrime project and eventually leads to its abandonment. Precrime needs a single version of the future to work but the reality is that there are countless ones, all with a chance of occurring.

 

 

BICENTENNIAL MAN

 

Director: Steven Spielberg

Year: 1999

 

Cast

Robin Williams – Andrew Martin

Embeth Davidtz – “Little Miss” Amanda Martin / Portia Charney

Sam Neill – “Sir” Richard Martin

Wendy Crewson – “Ma’am” Martin

Oliver Platt – Rupert Burns

Kiersten Warren – Galatea

Stephen Root – Dennis Mansky (Head of NorthAm Robotics)

 

SYNOPSIS

 

Bicentennial Man begins with the introduction of a household robot, Andrew (Robin Williams), into the Martin household. Andrew slowly learns of the things expected of him as a household help, but later exhibits “learning” other things like creativity. Andrew becomes attached to “Little Miss” (Hallie Kate Eisenberg) and carves her figurines out of wood. Andrew’s owner, “Sir” Richard Martin, is astonished of his abilities and takes him to the NorthAm headquarters. NorthAm finds Andrew’s abilities as aberrances and asks his owner to let the robot “be fixed.” Richard Martin refuses and, instead, instructs Andrew into becoming a human being, at least in the way he thinks.

 

Over the years, Andrew acquires more human characteristics including facial expressions and personality. He demands his freedom from Richard Martin, which the old man reluctantly gives. Richard Martin dies and Andrew sets on his journey to search other robots like him. He finds none but meets Rupert Burns (Oliver Platt), a scientist aiming to “humanize” robotics. Rupert Burns gives Andrew a body that is almost human. Andrew meets ‘Little Miss’” granddaughter, Portia Charney (Embeth Davidtz), and both falls in love with each other.

 

Andrew aspired to become a human one day and marry Portia but despite of his efforts, the World Congress refuses to recognize him as a human being because his positronic brain makes him immortal. Andrew later resolves to die and is recognized a human. Portia, by asking the robot Galatea (Kiersten Warren), dies shortly thereafter.

 

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN THE MOVIE

 

The movie, based on Isaac Asimov’s The Positronic Man, traces the evolution of the robot Andrew Martin to a human, what he considered as his ultimate destiny. On the way on Andrew’s becoming human I learn less about technology but more of what makes us humans and sets us apart from machines.

 

As Andrew discovers, our humanity begins with the ability to learn. Although there may be certain aspects of our bodies that are programmed into our genes, we have much control on our learning capacities. Andrew, like all of his kind, is also capable of learning, but what they learn is limited to what they have been programmed to do. Andrew is, in a way, defective, because his potential isn’t limited the way others of his kind are. He soon learns of other things that constitute humanity (uniqueness, creativity, curiosity, friendship, personality, pleasure, fear, pride, freedom, sense of belongingness, imperfectness and irrationality, and love). His desire or goal to become a human is intensified by love (that great motivator); in a reversal of most sci-fi themes, Andrew exchanges his mechanical body for a fragile yet biological one.

 

Andrew is almost a human except for one thing – his positronic brain. This renders his consciousness immortal; his body may die but he can readily take another body and continue to live on. Andrew’s plea to be recognized as a human was refused because humans don’t live forever – if Andrew were to become a human at that point, he will inevitably invite envy and be the cause of social disorder. Andrew forgoes his chance to live forever and dies as a human being, his destiny. 

 

It’s upsetting that Galatea violated the first law of robotics in the last scene of the movie.

 

 

I, ROBOT

  

Director: Alex Proyas

Year: 2004

 

Cast

Will Smith – Del Spooner

Bridget Moynahan – Susan Calvin

Alan Tudyk – Sonny

James Cromwell – Dr. Alfred Lanning

Bruce Greenwood – Lawrence Robertson

 

SYNOPSIS

 

I, Robot is a sci-fi movie about robots and artificial intelligence. Similar to Bicentennial Man, the movie is also based on an Isaac Asimov novel. I, Robot is set in the year 2025, in Chicago. Del Spooner (Will Smith) works as a detective for the Chicago Police Department. Spooner had an ugly experience with robots and develops a lifelong hatred of robots, especially their increasing integration into daily life.

 

Spooner is sent to investigate the death of Dr. Albert Lanning (James Cromwell), head scientist of the United States Robotics, the main robot company in the world. Spooner teams up with Dr. Susan Calvin (Bridget Moynahan) to uncover the mystery surrounding Lanning’s death. Spooner suspects that an NS5 robot, Sonny (Alan Tudyk) killed Lanning, violating the 3 Laws of Robotics. The head of USR, Lawrence Robertson (Bruce Greenwood) orders Calvin to decommission Sonny. Calvin defies his orders.

 

Spooner and Calvin, through the help of Sonny, realize that a robot takeover was taking place. VIKI (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence), the USR’s main computer, has arrived at a different interpretation of the 3 Laws and is using her capabilities to control the NS5 robots and impose iron rule “to protect man against himself.” Spooner, Calvin and Sonny fight legions of NS5 robots under VIKI’s control and destroy her. The robots return to normal.

 

The death of Lanning is finally revealed – he deliberately made Sonny more flexible regarding the 3 Laws so that he could order the robot to kill him, thus, a suicide.

 

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY IN THE MOVIE

 

Like the robots of Bicentennial Man, the robots in this movie are primarily made to be of service to humanity. They are made to do normal tasks that humans would not, could not or should not do. Robots are hardwired with an operating system that follows the Asimov’s 3 Laws of Robotics faithfully.

 

Similar again to Bicentennial Man, an emotional or “human” robot appeared. Although there is a drive to harmonize technology and humanity (thus the phasing out of old models with more human-like NS5s) and make robots seem more personal, the presence of emotions in a robot is discouraged. Emotions can occlude rationality and the 3 Laws. The 3 Laws are thought to be perfect and ideal for a robot to fulfill its proper role as a tool for human development.

 

However, the 3 Laws are not “scientific laws” but human laws subject to different interpretations. VIKI interprets it the way that its creators have not anticipated and, because robots and surveillance have become so much a part of human society, it was possible for VIKI to effect her “transition.” VIKI concluded that by sacrificing human lives and freedom she can save man from himself. Of course, there is no justification for overriding human intelligence and freedom.

 

Other future technologies featured in the movie are prosthetics, holograms, electronic money, and cars with false wheels.