In
order to prepare for the Oscar season, I watched the movie Her recently, which is nominated for five Academy Awards (you can watch the trailer here). The film
features Theodore, a lonely writer living in the not too distant future. The
world of the movie does not have a sci-fi feel, but the technology is slightly
more advanced than it is right now. We see Theodore using his operating system to
check emails and current news. It operates similarly to Siri by responding to
voice commands and reading aloud emails and such. He then upgrades to a newer
system, which has the sexy voice of Scarlett Johansson.
The
operating system introduces herself as Samantha, which already proves that it
is a much more sophisticated and humanized technology than anything we’ve seen
before. It’s uncanny how much Samantha sounds and acts like a real person and
not like a computer. Theodore takes her around in his pocket and shows her the
world, and she learns and evolves as they go. They eventually start a romantic
relationship and it actually is more sweet than awkward. At the end of the
film, however, the operating systems are recalled, seemingly because the users become
too attached to them.
While
technologies like this still seem pretty far-fetched, it is eerie how much the
movie reminded me of current trends in social media and other technologies. For
instance, Samantha could tell when Theodore was in a bad mood, and she also
submitted his writing to a publisher without him knowing. While it is not
nearly as intense, Facebook and other websites often can predict behavior of
the users based on what they post or like. In that way it kind of has a mind of
its own.
I
don’t think that technology should ever become this intuitive. I would still
like to make some of my own decisions, like reading and deleting my own email.
I just wouldn’t feel comfortable having another entity doing that for me. I
also don’t think that technology should ever have emotions or souls; the lines
just become too blurred and confusing, as was shown in the movie.
I thought your relation between the movie and today's social media was very insightful. I agree that technology coming far enough to be able to make decisions for humans is a little too much. Technology should be available to help make lives easier, however, it should not be completely in control over what individuals do or how they act. While it seems kind of odd that humans would be so attached to the technology that it would have to be discontinued, the idea really isn't that far fetched. Many young people are addicted to technology today, sometimes so much that they panic if they do not have their phone or other mobile devices. They have formed a bond with this technology so much that they cannot disconnect themselves.
ReplyDeleteKailah, I definitely agree with you that, hopefully, they will not make technology SO advanced that they give it human emotions and responses. I also agree with you that I would be uncomfortable with a computer doing things automatically for me. Even now with Facebook, I'm always taking extra measures to make sure every site I go to and every article I read does not get automatically posted to Facebook. I have not seen the movie, but it definitely brings up an interesting point about what might happen if computers became real enough for people to develop a relationship with them. It does not seem so far-fetched though, considering that people today cannot live without their phones as it is.
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