Surrogates & New V-Blog

So I've decided to put this Blog down in type, while waiting for my water to come to a Boil. Ramen noodle goodness, it's my main source of sustenance as a student, and especially as a starving artist. That, and self-pity. Sorry, just a little writer joke.

Okay, so today I saw Surrogates. This much I can say, there always comes a time, every so often, where I see a movie, read a book, look at a website, and I always think, gosh I wish I had thought of that. And while this at first may seem like a slight downer its actually quite motivational, and helps me move towards my own projects.

Surrogates is one of those movies. A superb concept with a great script and great actor. Im not a Bruce Willis fanboy or anything, but he is a terrific actor. Now that I think about it, he has been type-cast a little, as either the introspective investigator, or the badass action hero. But either way, he is much more dynamic than that (I think), and even if he isn't he pulls those roles off well.

Whats great about Surrogates however,is the concept. Ive always imagined robots in science fiction as automatons, that is, autonomous units that function independently of human control and conscience. As such, it brings in deeper aspects of what it means to be humans, rights for sentience, and definition of life. Things like robotic laws become of vast importance.

However, in Surrogates, the robots are tools for humans. With one human, depending upon their level of wealth, owning this one tool which defines their lives, more so than a house or car, and possibly only second to their education, but a more viable asset. As such, a robot becomes probably becomes a huge purchase, and you can actively see in the movie, becomes the focus of people's lives. Whole industries are created that deal with cosmetic and maintanence of the Surrogates.

I wont reveal any more of the plot, other than the relationship between humans and surrogates, and the importance placed on them, is one of the major themes.

However, it does remind me, in many ways, of the importance that people place on computers. And how these machines are so similiar to the surrogates. We use them to do business, to represent ourseves (social networking), to automate our lives. Everything. And how dependent we are upon them, and if we could trully ever revert back to more a more primitive state.

I have no doubt we would. There are many people in most industries who make their living without heavy reliance on technology. And there are those who rely on it, but make sure they have other passions or hobbie beyond the confines of technology. Just the existance of this movie, in my opinion shows our ability to be independent of technology. But it is so interesting to see a vision of the world as it might be, given those conditions.

What do you guys think? Could humanity survive a catastrophic loss of technology? What about a gradual campaign to reduce it?

Okay, also, I have a new Video Blog started up! Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVSTj35ptDo