Over the Future

Films, TV series, and commercials about the future are the results of our generation’s imagination. We found out that many of what people have imagined about the future have been achieved, which suggests that recent imaginations portrayed in the popular culture can also be realized. In 1999, Bill Gates wrote a book titled “The Speed of thought” and his predictions about the future became reality now like smartphone or home-monitoring device. <Over the Future> started from the idea that the popular culture functions as a prophet about the future.

Microsoft, from their vision of the future, and their role within the future expect for bendable technology as well as people our environment becoming technology with which we can work with. The video shows that clear walls, blackboards and even tables will all become touchable. The ability of high synchronization of the technologies is also noticeable. Just by placing our technological device, the data will be synchronized to another device, or receive information including designs from a scarf. Virtual reality(VR) is also noticeable. In the future, virtual reality will enable conferences with people in distant areas making it feel as if we are with them.

Jetsons, a television show which started airing in 1962 was about the Jetsons family who live in 2062. Jetsons has successfully foreseen the future, with many of the predictions already achieved up until now, including robotic assistance (Rosy the robot), drones (flying pods), video call, 3D printed food, and smartwatches. These technological developments enabled us to have more time for ourselves since the machines and robots do all the work for us. Starting from taking a shower to making food, robots will do all the housework for us, leaving us with time for leisure activities. Video phone calls, smartwatches have now become common and drones can be seen more frequently for commercial uses within the television industry as well as Amazon’s delivery service. It is hopeful that a day will come when our drones will be functioning as flying pods that can become a means of transportation as shown in Jetsons.

The fundamental difference between a weak A.I. and a strong A.I. is that strong A.I.s are used for multiple purposes and usually has the ability to cope with various situations. It has the ability to gather information and utilize it. Furthermore, it is able to communicate with people in natural language. Strong A.I. is not yet realized, but many experts predict that its emergence is not that far away.  However in popular culture, most of the Artificial Intelligences possess the characteristics of a Strong A.I. 

Deactivation of HAL 9000

In some films, there were artificial intelligences that assist the human protagonists. The most familiar examples would be TARS and CASE, from Christopher Nolan’s film Interstellar. These AIs not only assist people on their researches, but can speak fluently, make jokes and do physical labors. Of course, Jarvis from the Iron Man series serves Tony Stark well as a personal assistant and sometimes give him advice like a friend.

David - A.I. (2001, Steven Spielberg)

Technopoly is a concept suggested by Neil Postman, a media theorist and a cultural critic. He defines ‘technopoly’ as a society which believes "the primary, if not the only, goal of human labor and thought is efficiency, that technical calculation is in all respects superior to human judgment ... and that the affairs of citizens are best guided and conducted by experts of the technology." This concept is reflected in many famous works that deals with dystopia.

The Technological Singularity (Murray Shanahan)

The representation of future city life in the Jetsons and Microsoft’s promotional video has focused on the neutral to optimistic aspects. One of the major social issues is overpopulation. Our global community has been rapidly growing and this is affecting are socio-economic conditions which influences health and welfare as well. Technological development and increase of medical conditions have elongated our life span only speeding up overpopulation. The problem of overpopulation is associated with factors such as economy and medical development. The following movies show how population issues are engaged with these factors and how they mutually influence each other.

Due to population increase and the amount of food unable to catch up with the amount of mouths to feed, Genetically Modified Organism(GMO) is adopted to coercively increase the production of food. However, the GMO only turns out to backlash with the worst side effect of increased birthrate. In order to control the number of people, the government adopts a policy where all households can have only one child. If children other than the registered child, hidden children are ordered to be frozen so they can wake up in a “better” world. WHTM tosses us a question: Is it okay to ignore an individual person’s freedom and right to live in turn for the happiness of the total?

 The solutions shown within the two movies are only a temporary expedient that buys us time that only delays and even worsens the symptoms. We must ask, what the true case is and what we should do to hinder the progress of lack of resources and lowered quality of life. Is it solely due to overpopulation, or is it because of our increased demand, or poor distribution?

MAN (2012, Steve Cutt)  reflects the image of the relationship between mankind and the environment. How does mankind affect the nature and what’s the consequence of his actions? To the man in the video, animals and nature are mere products that are only for the satisfaction of his desires. Nature is transformed into a capitalized city and then filled with garbage. After all the mayhem, the man still remains as the king. That is of course, only until he gets punished by aliens and becomes one of the garbage himself.

The earth was devastated by garbage and people discover an alternative place to live, which is the space. People abandon Earth and only a trash compactor robot, Wall-E is left to clean up the earth. A contrasting image of Wall-E cleaning up the mess and people out in the space being lazy and playing with digital devices shows the irresponsibility of humans toward the environment. Wall-E warns us that if people don’t care about the garbage they produce, out earth will be devastated.

<Over the Future>