Hi guys! There are many sci fi films out there that show different projections of the technological future of humanity. The films I will talk about here, all have some sort of logical flaw ... but what? #spoileralert
So, let's meet our candidates:
The Matrix
WestWorld (the 1973 film)
Logan's Run
Idiocracy
Source Code
The Terminator (Parts 1 and 2)
Back To The Future Part 2
For each one of these films, I will relate the main surmise, the moral of the story, how humanity is getting closer to the future predicted and where the flaws of the storyline are.
1. The Matrix
Main surmise: In this cyberpunk classic, after humanity loses a war against sentient AI, humanity is enslaved, but in a neurological way - the machines directly interact electronically with the humans' brains to make their brains experience a simulated reality called 'the Matrix'. The enslaved humans are not aware that it is a false reality, since their "senses" have always received input from the machines. They have never seen, heard or touched anything else. The AIs receive, in return, bioelectric energy and a heat source from the humans. Thing is, how do we know that this "world" of ours, is actually not a similar simulation?
Moral of the story: Things might not be what they seem at first glance. You have to 'free your mind' from the illusion. Also, thinking about the Matrix itself frees your mind from all strife. Imagine that you are stressed for a job interview, or worried whether you will fit with the people in your new environment (e.g. school, work). Well, since you could currently be in a simulation, the cause for any stress might not even be real. You might be stressing over a job that is inconsequential in the "real" world, or be tense about relationships that only exist in your mind. Also, the Matrix film inspires people to change their condition, as the protagonist Neo (played by Keanu Reeves) learns to free his mind from the Matrix and then manifest his own reality (he basically warps the Matrix reality, being a computer hacker himself).
How humanity is getting closer to this: The new technological field of brain-machine interfaces (computers that directly record and interact with neuronal signals) is accelerating, with incredible implications for medical and therapeutic progress. Also, the quality and scale of physics simulation engines (programs that use the known laws of physics to simulate specific scenarios) and artificial intelligence are similarly increasing, and will probably be at Matrix-level by the point in the future when The Matrix is set (around 2199 AD).
Flaws of the storyline: Humans have a higher energy input than their output. The energy is used to power all of the many diverse processes of the cell and organ physiology, only a few of which maintain bioelectrical voltage. Also, why would the AIs bother with humans as an energy source? Surely, even though they had lost access to solar power, other renewables were present! Also, the fact that the AIs engaged in conflict with humanity in the first place sparks doubt in me, since conflict is an inefficient, if not immoral choice.
Also, why would Neo (and his fellow rebels) be able to warp anything in the Matrix? When the AIs noticed an attempt to bypass the core rules of the computer system, surely they would block the attempt?
Note that none of these flaws are related to the construction of a simulation - it is a challenging task, but possible!
2. WestWorld (1973 film)
Main surmise: I haven't actually seen this film, but I know vaguely what happens in it. A theme park made by the Delos corporation consists of 3 historical-era-based resorts: RomanWorld, MedievalWorld and WestWorld (based on the Wild West). The resorts are filled with lifelike anthropomorphic androids, who welcome human visitors and allow them to experience cliché-esque things fitting the eras. The robots are programmed to ensure the safety of the guests. However, after a malfunction spreads (like a virus) throughout the robot population, the robots start retaliating and attacking the humans after the humans abuse them. Most memorable is Yul Brynner's role as the Gunslinger robot in WestWorld, which malfunctions and then starts to "win" at gunfights.
Moral of the story: Do not play with things that you do not understand the power of.
How humanity is getting closer to this: With the apparent rise in the capability of AI, such an automated, tech-led experience should not be that hard to imagine. In fact, in the Japanese Henn na Hotel, all of the 186 staff are robots!
Flaws of the storyline: First of all, malfunctions rarely arise without some human error. The chance of a malfunction spontaneously spreading through the robots is very slim. Also, even if the robots are infected with a virus, most viruses lead to whole system crashes - they would not target/override a specific section of code (e.g. human protection against danger) unless explicitly programmed to. Also, one of the technicians says that "We do not know exactly how they work." This I find fishy - if you made the robots and can repair them, how do you not know how they work? Anyway, it's certainly a movie to make you think.
3. Logan's Run
Main surmise: This film is set in the far future, where the maximum lifespan of humanity is legislated to be strictly 30 years (21 years in the novel). This is to balance humanity's consumption of resources and population. On their 30th birthday, people must report to be 'renewed' (a.k.a. die). Those who do not, and do not wish to die, are termed Runners, and are tracked down by policemen called Sandmen, one of which is the protagonist Logan. Logan himself, as the title suggests, is forced to run and realises that humans can survive beyond age 30.
Moral of the story: Don't blindly accept custom. Always keep an open mind, be curious and question the dogma.
How humanity is getting closer to this: We are in an aging world, with decreasing overall birth rate and death rate. This is leading to a greater dependency ratio (non-working pop. : working pop.). This creates economic strain, and governments are looking for many solutions to this (e.g. delaying retirement age boundaries). At one point, very scarily, humans may consider a strict limit of lifespan to reduce aging.
Flaws of the storyline: This would not be a very productive society. 30 years? Set within the context of the world as it is today, almost 3/5s of that would be spent at school and even more at uni... 8 years maximum spent working. Even less, given the hedonistic lifestyle of the future society depicted. If I designed the dystopia, I would let people live to 60, since that would allow greater productivity. Also, to reduce consumption and overpopulation, just set laws on how much a person can buy and laws on birth rate. That would be a better dystopia!! Anyway, I personally think this film is a classic, with towering performances from Michael York and Jenny Agutter. But now let's move to a future where consumption is left unchecked - to the extreme.
4. Idiocracy
Main surmise: I didn't watch this movie but have read about it. What I like about this film is that it's a sci-fi film that does not follow orthodox sci-fi predictions of humanity. In this film, due to the voluntary childlessness of the most intelligent humans (due to societal expectations) and due to the least intelligent humans ignoring the need for birth control (therefore having more children), successive generations of humans have lower average intelligence than the previous ones. This trend is followed to its logical extreme in 2505 AD (when avg. IQ is roughly 10!). An average Joe from 2005 (100 IQ) is left in suspended animation until this time, when he wakes up to realise that he is the smartest man on Earth. The world of the future is brimming with consumerism, commercialism, corporatocracy and general lowbrow standards of society. After solving a basic agriculture problem (using water instead of a sports drink for the crops), he promptly becomes President of the United States, replacing former wrestler President Camacho.
Moral of the story: Use It Or Lose It! The populace in the story used the advances in technology as a crutch, and then that replaced the need for intelligence. This is wrong. One should complement themselves with technology, not delegate their own intelligent responsibility.
How humanity is getting closer to this: Well, I don't want to be a downer, but there are some very disturbing indicators of a similar downwards trend in intelligence: the global average IQ seems to be plateauing (or even starting to drop)! Also, there have been many internet memes that compare the fictional President Camacho to a certain real 21C US president. #justsaying BTW, the comparisons are in favour of 2505 AD President Camacho. Also, with the rise of smartphones, even though our progress has skyrocketed, neurological abilities such as our working memory, mental arithmetic and attention span are starting to decline in capacity as people become increasingly reliant on technology rather than working synergistically with it.
Flaws of the storyline: The extent to which the average IQ drops is highly over-exaggerated. A person with 10 IQ would not be able to walk, speak or possibly even breathe properly (these processes do need some coordination) without serious technological automodification (e.g. brain implants). However, most of the future idiots in the film can walk and talk properly and brain implants or similar technology is nowhere to be seen. Also, the film explicitly assumes IQ to be a heritable trait. Although it is possible that genetic factors can influence IQ, IQ may also be environmentally determined. Also, there almost always will be a natural selection pressure for intelligence. More intelligent people have a greater chance of surviving. Their intellect would allow them to work in tertiary and quaternary sector jobs, the employees of which have higher life expectancies and higher salaries than the secondary and primary sector, allowing more affordable education for their children. However, the rapid rise in commercialism and consumerism seen in the movie is not unfounded for a possible future of humanity (lightly mirrored in the animated film, WALL-E).
5. Source Code
Main surmise: A train has been bombed, killing everyone on it. However, the brains of the passengers have been recovered by the army, and are used for a project called "Source Code". This project scanned the brains and recorded the residual memories stored in the brains to recreate the conditions in the train upto 8 minutes before the train explodes. To find the bomber, Colter Stevens, an Army Pilot assumed to be dead (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) and the hero of this story, is repeatedly placed in a simulation (not unlike that in the Matrix) of the train. Every time he goes back into the simulation, he is tasked with finding more clues as to the name of the bomber. However, when he is completely successful in stopping the bomber, the Source Code machine (which was responsible for the "simulations") is revealed to have been an actual time machine. Every time Colter Stevens underwent the Source Code programme, he interacted with non-simulated people in different timelines. I know, a lot to take in. But the movie is fabulous.
Moral of the story: Never stop trying for what you believe is right. Completely non-selfish altruism makes an amazing hero. Even though his project superiors were just going to stop the "simulations" and kill Colter after the bomber was identified, Colter went back in to try to save everybody in the "simulation" anyway. This ultimately led to him saving a train full of actual people.
How humanity is getting closer to this: Our simulations are getting better, and neuroscience is also progressing. I can easily imagine a future in which the project in this story could actually happen. Barring the idea that various world timelines can be visited by recording residual memory, the initial concept is conceivable.
Flaws of the storyline: I have a problem with the concept of recreating the train from just the passengers' brains as shown in the film. Ok, assuming you have collected all the residual memories of the brains of the dead passengers (which would be very unlikely anyway, since the bomb detonation would have literally fried the brains), you would only be able to simulate the conditions of the train which the passengers have experienced, at most. However, Colter is able to find secret compartments with concealed weapons and ultimately finds the bomb where no-one would ever see it (apart from the bomber, who was not among the dead passengers). The passengers in the train would not have experienced where the bomb is, or anything related to this. The only person who could have experienced this was the bomber themselves. However, his brain walked out of the train before the train exploded. His memories of the bomb would not have been included in any simulation, since his brain could not have been analysed. Therefore, Colter could not have found any of these artefacts that he did if the "simulation" was just a recreation of the train from the train passengers' brains. Also, if the Source Code machine really had time machine-like capabilities, surely the project supervisors would know of this capability. However, they are shown to not know anything about this and heavily dismiss the possibility this function.
6. The Terminator (parts 1 and 2)
Main surmise: In the future (21C), a self-aware artificial intelligence agent, Skynet, has been warring, along with its army of machines, against the human Resistance forces, led by John Connor. When the human Resistance is on the verge of victory against Skynet, Skynet sends robotic assassins back in time to stop John Connor from living to form the Resistance. In the first Terminator film, this robotic assassin, the T-800, takes the form of Arnold Schwarzenegger ( #daGoat ) and targets Sarah Connor (John's mother) in 1984 to stop John from ever being born. The T-800 is a cyborg with synthetic living human-like flesh covering a metallic endoskeleton. However, in the first film, a human Resistance agent, Kyle Reese, is also sent back to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor. He saves her and destroys the T-800, and whilst we're on the subject, becomes John's father. In the second film, Skynet sends the T-1000 Terminator back to 1995 to kill John Connor when he is a child. The human Resistance takes a T-800, identical to the previous one, but reprograms it to protect John Connor, and sends it back to the same time. The T-1000 Terminator is a shapeshifting assassin, made entirely of a 'mimetic polyalloy' (basically liquid metal). This model, even though it is more advanced than the T-800, is still defeated by the T-800, Sarah and John Connor.
Moral of the story: Even though your enemies may seem strong, and even though the future may seem hopeless at times, the future is still worth fighting for, and there are always people on your side.
How humanity is getting closer to this: People have always been considering the risk of a hostile AI takeover, even when AI was not even as advanced as today. It is definitely possible that a superintelligent AI, even when trying to perform a good task, may serve as a threat to humanity. For example, say we create a superintelligent entity and ask it to 'save the environment'. That's definitely a good aim. However, the constraints on the possible solutions were unspecified. What do I mean by this? Well, if you just ask the AI to 'save the environment', it would logically try to find the root cause of the environment's ruin: human activity. Therefore, it could consider humans a threat and could try to resolve the problem by eliminating humans. That would be a valid solution, since if there were fewer humans, the environmental impact of humanity would be less. However, this would be an "evil solution", since this performs a moral evil. In fact, it would constitute an x-risk (existential risk). To avoid this, we should put constraints on the solutions that are valid (e.g. 'save the environment without harm to humans').
Flaws of the storyline: The description of the Terminators in these films sounds too implausible. For example, why would Skynet bother with integrating living human flesh onto a robot (T-800)? Why not just cover the robot with something that feels and looks like flesh? Also, the structure of the T-1000 also seems impossible. If the whole robot is made of liquid metal, where's the power supply, processor or cameras (for the eyes)? One could argue that the T-1000 is actually made of nanotechnology, presenting a possible explanation. But this leads to another problem. The T-1000 is shown to be a very fast runner. Such running involves millions of coordinated calculations, but nanotechnology may have limited data transmission speeds across the Terminator body. Either way, these films are iconic, and at the time of film release at least the technology depicted was incredible. Wait for Arnold Schwarzenegger's famous line: "Hasta la vista, baby!"
7. Back To The Future Part 2
Main storyline: We've saved the best till last - the BTTF trilogy is my all-TIME favourite. Get it? All time...? Anyway, for those who haven't seen this awesome trilogy, the films revolve around the adventures of a teenager and aspiring musician, Marty McFly, and his friend and eccentric scientist, Doctor Emmett Brown, travelling back and forth in time in a stylish Delorean. In BTTF 2, Doc Brown asks Marty to come with him from 1985 to 2015 to sort out a minor problem with Marty's kids (who are also teenagers at this point). When they arrive in 2015, they find a technologically advanced world (with flying cars, hoverboards, domestic nuclear fusion reactors, etc.). After they save Marty's kids from going to jail, they return to 1985 ... but it's not that simple. Biff Tannen, the antagonist of the trilogy seems to have already used the Delorean to make himself rich in an alternate 1985A. Marty and Doc now have to stop Biff from getting rich by travelling back to 1955... Anyway, such adventures happen throughout the trilogy.
Moral of the story: In the words of Doc Brown, "If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything."
How humanity is getting closer to this: Well, even though the specific technological advancements are different in BTTF's 2015 than our 2015, there are some similarities in humanity's societal response to such technology. For example, the dinner of the McFly family in the future shows that Marty's kids are more engaged in the operation of the fruit serving machine than the surrounding conversation. Something similar happens in our 21C life, with smartphones instead of fruit vending machines. Also, Griff Tannen, the grandson of Biff, is shown to rely a lot on electronic implants for his strength. Reliance on technology increases in the film much like it has in our world. Also, the price for converting a land car to a flying car is quoted as $39,999.95. This is the same order of magnitude as the average cost of a new car today.
Flaws of the storyline: Okay, before just blindly stating inventions that were present in BTTF 2 that were not present in our 2015, let's take a moment to understand - this film was made 26 years before its predictions could have come true. There was almost no way it could have guessed what would exactly happen in 2015. We, in 2024, cannot even make solid predictions of the next 10 years, or even 5 years, what with the unpredictability of climate change at the same time as the rapid acceleration in AI. However, there are some small logical flaws about the future presented. For one, the whole purpose of a flying car, at least in my view, is to avoid traffic on the roads. But in the film, the flying cars were restricted to certain lanes in the "skyway". This would definitely cause traffic congestion, the very thing one wanted to avoid. Also, the domestic fusion devices are shown to take waste as input. However, in the waste, there are tin cans. In the periodic table, elements beyond number 25 (including iron and tin) require more energy to fuse together than is gained from fusing them. The only real fuel that the device could input is water, and possibly hydrocarbons, since hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen (from air) and oxygen are elements that can fuse together to make an energy gain.
So, these are some depictions of the future in some popular sci-fi films. Hope you enjoy these gems! Note, however, that one key depiction of the future is missing from this list: your imagination. And this last one has much more of a chance of happening, if you put your mind to it. Tell me about your fave films in this genre in the comments below, and I'll see you soon in the next post!
Love