Do Androids Dream of the “Present”?
Future stories written in the past are more relevant today…
Phillip K Dick wrote prophetically about the future, and many of his predictions were pragmatically depressing. In 1968, he wrote “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”; a novel which was eventually adapted into a screenplay for 1982’s “Blade Runner”. The film plays with themes of existentialism, the search for purpose and what defines a ‘soul’. One need not escape into a futuristic world filled with wandering Replicants or flashing animated billboards advertising “Coca-Cola” to see how eerily applicable these ideas were back when the film was released, and how their prominence serve as contextual reminders of relevant universal social issues that transcend time. The question whether artificially sentient being possess empathy catalysed controversial debates as to what constituted our humanity, and simultaneously exposed the fragility of that abstract concept. In a world bombarded with fake news masquerading as wisdom and social media intruding as personal intimacy, it’s not so hard to believe that our concept of a ‘soul’ may need to be revised. Perhaps when I sleep tonight, the sandman might finally help me answer whether, “Androids dream of the present?”…
Do we really have control over our lives?
I’m on the bus, drifting aimlessly, trying hard to stay alert and not miss my stop. I look around from time to time, just to see if I can find anyone reading a book, a magazine…anything physical; alas my search is in vain. I turn my head around to find anyone smiling, a similar result entails. My phone just sent me a notification. It tells me that there’s a high chance of rain this morning and that it is currently 12 degree Celsius. It also recommends me alternate routes to evade traffic which is futile given my current predicament using public transport. After I dismiss the notifications, I get more notifications. This time, these are job suggestions; meticulously selected based on my search history.
I can’t help but feel so connected and yet so isolated from society. Sophisticated algorithms and data analytic hoarders seem to have my destiny paved out for me. They know what I like to see and when I’d like to see it. They know what I need to hear and who I’d like to hear it from. Unfortunately we are to blame for this, as we create more and more data each day. In fact, we’re creating so much that a 2013 report by SINTEF (the largest independent research organisation in Scandinavia) estimated that 90% of all information in the world had been created in the prior two years during the time the report was released. This exponential explosion of data amalgamation doubles every 1.5 years through the Internet. In 2015, it is estimated that we liked 4.2 million things on Facebook, uploaded 300 hours of videos on YouTube, and sent 350,000 tweets every minute. This is an age of unprecedented access to data, providing the perfect sacrifices for our new deities of technology to truly ‘understand’ us better than we do ourselves.
It’s alarmingly frightening to learn a person’s life can so easily be reduced into an endless stream of 1s and 0s whilst denigrating whatever concept of “control” I have left within me into a delusional pit of consumerism. Do I really have a choice between Pepsi and Coke? Samsung and Apple? Marvel or DC? The mere illusion of choice is comfortably adequate to maintain the status quo as manipulative fictions do. As I watch the raindrops send ripples across the window, I wonder how different are we to machines of flesh and blood?
Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat and other seemingly “free” social media platforms come with a heavy price to the uninitiated. The price is your identity and ironically, your privacy. Every like, every video, every love-heart, meme, emoji…It’s all carefully analysed by hordes of consultants busy conjuring up the next best fiction waiting to be devoured to satiate our lust for capitalism. Our new religion’s message truly is divine. Everyone’s a god of their isolated, individualistic sphere of influence. Everyone’s connected to the most sophisticated network in the history of our existence, so surely loneliness exists in the realm of myth. IBM’s Watson is a question answering computer system capable of answering questions posed in natural language, developed in IBM’s DeepQA project by a research team led by principal investigator David Ferrucci. Essentially, here lies the genesis of what is the next great leap in artificial intelligence, and possibly in artificial sentience? The traditional test of a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour equivalent to, or indistinguishable from that of a human is the Turing test. In 2015, an AI under the supervision of researchers at MIT, New York University and the University of Toronto passed a visual Turing test by learning to learn in a way that enabled it to be shown an unknown character in a fictional alphabet, then instantly reproduce that letter in a way that was entirely indistinguishable from a human given the same task.
It’s very similar to those eery floating Geisha and Off-world billboards whose alluring aura makes it almost impossible to resist, whilst they constantly watch over us, like angels made out of corrugated iron. One scene that emulates this phenomenon is when…
SPOILER ALERT!
…JOI, a holographic girlfriend played by Ana De Armas, walks up to Ryan Gosling’s Officer K. Her soothingly, seductive voice calling out “You look lonely… I can help you with that”. After all, she is ‘everything you want to see and everything you want to hear’. She represents the idyllic fantasies of every man or woman for that matter. How can you tell the difference between reality and what is artificially manufactured? Even Officer Deckard’s response to Wallace during his interrogation was construed in doubt as he meekly replied, “I know what’s real”.
Looking for love in all the wrong places
In China, a man named Zheng Jiajia married a robot spouse he constructed last year named Yingying. In Japan, many men and women have resorted to modern methods to combat loneliness. Men who are paid to act as confidantes for women are referred to as ‘Ero-Men’. These seemingly androgynous, beautiful men say that they’re doing these women a social benefit and most of their encounters haven’t been sexual. For Japanese men, forget Hentai. Many of them rent a “girlfriend” for the day, and describe “cuddling” to be the epitome of their ‘intimate’ relationship. In many ways, whether it’s a virtual or physical partner; it’s worth reevaluating our preconceived idea of intimacy. Perhaps the boundaries of ‘love’ have conquered even the digital realm?
Another film that plays with the idea of ‘love’ transcending the metaphysical is HER. In this film, Joaquin Phoenix’s character falls in love with the voice of his computer software simulation program , played by Scarlett Johanssen. What once was dismissed as ludicrous, Hollywood melodrama may actually share strange parallels with reality. Simon Sinek will describe millennials as antisocial socialites who have forgotten how to interact and engage in a conversation offline. Our ever increasing dependence on technology as a means of communication can in many ways precipitate social anxiety and frustration when such social conventions translate poorly into the real world. There are no GIFs to alleviate an awkward situation. People actually have to come up with creative jokes to inspire laughter as opposed to merely linking another FAIL VIDEO. Perhaps we are so engrossed with our thoughts, and egocentric worlds that individualism has ironically invited ostracism and more dichotomous misunderstandings between people who would rather lash out their frustrations on Reddit as opposed to confronting them in reality. The convenience of anonymity might isolate us from each other if we’re not careful. If this is the current social trajectory of the 21st century, drastic reforms must be implemented in the manner we conduct ourselves with each other, whether it be on or offline.
The apartments in the Blade Runner are awkwardly claustrophobic, and the dilapidated colours etched on the contours of the pillars all spell out how lonely the protagonists are. It seems that both in our world and in Blade Runner, the incessant crowds only accentuate our isolation, as we desperately crave for intimacy and an ability to relate to one another.
Do Androids Sing like Sinatra?
“It’s quarter to three, there’s no one in the place…except you and me…”
I’ve just walked out what is my 4th screening of Denis Villeneuve’s science fiction masterpiece; Blade Runner 2049. The cinema is empty, and it’s perfect for a quiet night of reflective catharticism.The use of Sinatra’s classic crooner tunes is hauntingly mesmerising, and complements so subtly the film’s tone of reflective existentialism to manifest the perfect concoction of nostalgia and dystopia. It’s nice to learn that vintage SONY juke boxes still exist amidst such a morbid world. I listen to my IPod, scrolling through thousands of songs on my playlists. The ‘Genius’ function pops a notification every now and then, a stark reminder of the waning extent of control I assert over my day to day decisions. How much better will my life be, when most decisions are predetermined for me, and I need simply choose between a flick of a button? Do I really need a dashboard summarising my flaws, my strengths…who I should love? Am I still capable of being “human”?
Whether it’s Harrison Fords portrayal of disillusionment and exile, or Officer K’s desperate quest to discover reality; I believe the film will transcend the tests of time with universally relevant themes. It’s clear that I’m a fan of what began with Ridley Scott’s noir, cult classic Blade Runner. Even though the cinema may be empty or people may be, “Anxious to close”; here’s to the Socratic philosophers, the misunderstood or just anyone out there who’s seeking their own version of reality.
“So make it one for my baby, and one more for the road…”