Monday, February 13, 2012

Is this where we are heading?

The movie "Gamer" looks at society and how maybe it would be in the future. At first, I wasn't interested in it, but because we were reading the surrogates, I found it more interesting because both, movie and novel surprisingly went hand in hand. In the graphic novel, people control robot type people called surrogates, from pretty much the comfort of their own home. They can control how their surrogates look like, what they do, without actually being there. To me, it's pretty much saying, "Hey chromosomes, I don't like how you combined and my genetic makeup sucks and I'm not happy with myself, so I will make myself my ideal self".  In the movie Gamer we see something similar, people can control an avatar and make them interact, like a real life sim. Also, in the movie we find the main character, Kable a convict  by force (I say by force because the main guy who is control of the society made him kill someone), being controlled by a teenage in a game called slayer. The game would put convicted fellons into battles and if they win 30 battles, they are forgiven.

In the film there is this group called Humanz. Humanz hijack the television show and games and explains to people that soon they will be controlled by the guy who invented society and slayers pretty soon. I believe that their whole purpose was to bring out the truth of what was actually going on, which unfortunately, not many people knew what was happening because they were brain washed. As I was watching the rest of this film, I always went back to the surrogates and the novel Fahrenheit 451. These three have a resemblance in the sense that if we don't change, soon enough we will be controlled by government or someone and we won't be happy with ourselves. Also, in both the surrogates and Fahrenheit 451, they have someone who tries to bring people back to reality.

Although it was just a film, it kinda scares me that soon we may or may not be in the same or similar situation as in the movie gamer or even the novels. So many are using their free time or their entire day devoted to television, internet or video games. What people do with their lives, it's up to them. But it just seems scary that even in reality we do is spend our times on the interent rather than going out. I know this isn't for everyone, but it seems the majority do these, then again, I could be wrong. But as I was analyzing this, I kept thinking to myself: "is this the way that we are heading too?" because if it is, soon identity, freedom, authenticity would be soon gone... which is a scary thought

1 comment:

  1. I really like that how you compare the surrogates to the chromosomes. :) It's a lively illustration. After having read the Surrogates, I'm kinda afraid if the technology in the future can be that advanced, the society will be no longer called human society. If everyone could stay at home and let their surrogates act for them, there would be a huge disaster to human race. If we could choose how we look like, there will be so many people look alike since everyone wants to look beautiful and handsome.
    You are right about the usage of television, internet and video game. I myself was one of those people who spent most of their free time on the internet instead of doing something meaningful. When I look back, I feel like I wasted so much time in my life.

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