I have to tell you about a film I just saw: "Her" starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlet Johansson. It's a fascinating story about the near future when a man falls in love with an intelligent "companion" program. It asks the question, "What will human relationships be like in an era when a computerized friend or partner can give you more satisfaction than a real person?" I'm not talking about robots, just a simple AI program on your laptop or mobile phone.
The day is fast coming when a computer program with a sexy voice will handle most of your business affairs, laugh at all your jokes, support you in argument, sleep with you, be your agent when you're looking for a job, find dates for you, and be a help mate in every imaginable way. No human companion could be that consistent or that dedicated. So how will real-life humans relate to each other when these new digital friends dominate? Maybe they won't. Maybe the time of close human friends is coming to an end.
In the film the computer voice is supplied by Scarlet Johansson who delivers a great performance. She sounds young, feminine, eager, shy, idealistic, curious, and deferential to an older lover who mentors her. In real life that's a brief stage that girls go through which is infinitely endearing, but which can't last. On a computer program, on the other hand, it can last forever.
Your real-life wife who's moody and maybe too aware of your flaws can't compete. You will fall in love with your companion program, even if you think you won't, and your real-life relationship will suffer for it.
Until recently the menace of artificial intelligence was defined by malevolent computers in films like : "Colossus: the Forbin Project," "Terminator II," and by the HAL computer in the film, "2001." We're right to be concerned about that, but at least we're forewarned.
What we haven't been warned about is the benign program which has no ill intention, but which has unintended consequences which could be immensely destructive. Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics" will be no protection in the world that ushers in.
If you have the courage to face up to what the near future has in store, then this is a must-see film.
After that premise, I need to sleep, too.
ReplyDeleteMike: You might be reacting to the boring trailer for the film, and for the minimalist ad campaign. The film is really better than that.
ReplyDeleteThe film also has a structural problem in that there's no scenes which graphically depict the hero's dilemma. I had a hard time finding pictures to illustrate this post because every interesting thing in the film is embedded in the dialogue.
Even so, it's a must-see film.
I’ve not seen “Her”. It reminded me of how sorry I felt for John Malkovich in those Seri commercials, all along and talking to a machine. Anyway, I did see “Transcendence”, which has it’s own problems as a movie but touches on some interesting ideas currently in development at D.A.R.P.A. What do you do when someone uploads their intelligence and they take over the Internet? What do you do with a life form that wants to protect itself? What do you do when micro bots infest living organisms and interface microbiology with machine forming a mutant DNA?
ReplyDeleteJoel: Yeah, Transcendence was a flawed film but it was still worth seeing.
ReplyDeleteOne difference between that film and the newer film is that Her is about technology that's right around the corner (sort of), and which will almost certainly come to pass in the lifetime of most of the people who read this blog. Most of what happened in Her, until the end, seemed entirely plausible to me.
I really enjoyed the portrayal of the future 'Her'.
ReplyDeleteThe city's are more polluted than today and even a little smoggy but the streets are kept clean and designed in an urbane modern way to encourage people to live there.
And the people vacation in less-polluted areas, where I imagine only the wealthier class can afford to live.
The technology isn't farfetched either. I bet we'll have those instant scanners available in a few years time.