Creative Control (Benjamin Dickinson, 2016) and Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2015) are both extremely current and thought provoking films that comment on what happens when technology overpowers it's creators. By juxtaposing human nature with imitations of human nature, both Garland and Dickinson question weather power inevitably leads to self destruction, what it means to be conscious, and the purpose of man kind's existence. Despite thematic similarity, there's one major plot point both films share that seems much more than mere coincidence.
When both Nathan from Ex Machina and David from Creative Control come upon ground braking technology that will undoubtedly change the entire course of human existence, why is the first thing both these guys make a sex doll?
Here they have this semi-human halograph or something they know is just a bunch of wires underneath and their first thought is "well I better have sex with that." We see this in both Kioko from Ex Machina and the avatar David makes of Sofie in Creative Control. If you want to talk Fellini, it shows a under developed third stage Anima. Both David and Nathan's desire to supplement an emotionless robot that will do whatever they ask for a human they have to respect and communicate with in a mature way proves both these lovely bearded gentlemen are not responsible enough to handle this technology. They are self centered and have little regard for other people's feelings as anything more than a minor annoyance. They alternate between trying to eliminate the inconveniences of human emotions and wildly misjudging characters reactions to their actions. Instead of a Turing Test, I think we need a test on the creators of any new technology made to mimic humans. Is the inventor of this thing trying to have sex with it? Yes? Ok, shut it down.
The end of your blog had me laughing a lot...and it's so true!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if we could flip your point on its head and ask: if we didn't have inventors who couldn't control themselves (sexually or otherwise), would they create what they create? I mean, aren't so many great artists tortured souls who manage to channel their anguish into art? Is this going on with technology gurus?
There's a great line in "What We Do in the Shadows" when the human who shows up at an monster ball is asked by a vampire, "What do you do for a living?" He replies that he's a software designer who helps businesses with their technology needs. The vampire shouts to the other monsters, "He's a virgin!" as they start to move in for the kill.