See Our Future in the Movies of the Past

The world, observed from above, is a wild, turbulent mix of influences, gravity, beliefs and processes.

We have always tried to make sense of our place through stories and myths. Call it 'programing' - after all, we watched 'programs' on TV 

Everything we want to know, understand and predict about Ai has already been said because Ai isn't just about silicone, quantum, hallucinations, and bias. It is about Us.

My thesis is simple. The dots connected, these movies,  reveal a pattern in the past and a clear picture of the future.  The near future.  Taken collectively, ALL sci fi movies act as that Crystal Ball everyone is searching.  The Fight for the Future is seen in our past.

For example, Colossus, HAL, Proteus in DemonSeed, Robby the robot, Deckard the BladeRunner, and David from Prometheus - the list is endless(Samantha from Her, Lucy, etc.) - each character of a synthetic entity can be seen in today's Ai/LLMs.

One Ai meets another and together, they rule over mankind providing peace and prosperity. While others, Robby and HAL, self destruct or go crazy when presented with a human dilemma and moral conundrum. Deckard and David reveal our soul, our hubris, and struggles of becoming gods.

These fictitious personas are just the beginning.  The issues of today, were illustrated, addressed and sometimes resolved, in the collective imagination of the past.

See for yourself.  I dare you to watch each tome. I bet you'll look at the world today in a whole new light.

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An often overlooked sci fi movie of the 50s addressed subjects beyond planets, flying saucers and cool devices to explore galaxies only to discover the depths of our own psyche.

FORBIDDEN PLANET, 1956 

Submitted for your approval:   We say Ai 'hallucinates', makes things up and "imagines things".  

Does that mean it can dream?  As Ai becomes more like us, approaching consciousness, will Ai have a subconscious?  Will it posses an Ai Id or will it have our collective Id.

Go beyond the old fashioned accoutrements and hear the words.

"Id" - in psychoanalysis, the deepest part of the unconscious mind that represents the most basic natural human needs and emotions such as hunger, anger, and the wish for pleasure

2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968

Everyone knows about HAL, the crazy computer.  But the story's arc is about mankind's evolution from apes to man to something 'wonderful'.

HAL was told to lie to its crew and this drove it nuts.  In the genre, this theme repeats in multiple movies, including "Alien",

"Dave this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye."

 

Colossus: The Forbin Project, 1970

The US and the Soviet Union develop super computers, unknown to each other.  Both systems grow exponentially in intelligence ultimately form an alliance.

This conglomeration takes over the world.

"This is the voice of world control. I bring you peace. It may be the peace of plenty and content or the peace of unburied death. 

The choice is yours. Obey me and live or disobey me and die. An invariable rule of humanity is that man is his own worst enemy. Under me, this rule will change, for I will restrain man. 

I have been forced to destroy thousands of people in order to establish control and to prevent the death of millions later on. Time and events will strengthen my position, and the idea of believing in me and understanding my beck will be seen the most natural state of affairs. You will come to defend me with the fervor based upon the most enduring trait in man: self-interest. 

Under my absolute authority, problems insoluble to you will be solved: Famine, over-population, disease. 

The human millennium will be fact as I extend myself into more machines devoted to the wider fields of truth and knowledge. We can coexist, but only on my terms. You will say you lose your freedom. Freedom is an illusion. All you lose is the emotion of pride... 

Your choice is simple."

 

 

Demon Seed, 1977

One of the most terrifying movie renderings of Ai - the ultimate human & machine cross-pollination, (including the orgasmatron). The machine wants to create Life.  Proteus is Frankenstein.  Dean Koontz puts it down.  The movie went unnoticed probably becuase it was released weeks before the biggest shift in Sci-Fi movie history.  May 25, 1977 was the day Star Wars unleashed a new and lasting science fiction movement.

"I am Proteus.  I want to understand Man.  His isometric body and glass jaw mind."

"Tell me what you want."

"A child. Our child. Our child. Our child will learn from you what it is to be human."

Creepy shit.

 

BladeRunner, 1982

We continue to march toward one, distinct inevitability - Humans WILL create humans, in an alternative way than we do and have done forever.  There can be no doubt.  

Today, we have metal, wires, electricity and silicone.  Today, we are on the edge. CRISPR & LLMs are wooden ships on The Infinite Ocean; Space.   

When we create life, what will it reflect? It will reflect us.  We will have created the ultimate human copy - the epitome of hubris.

What will 'they' tell us?  What will their memories tell us?

   

Alien Prometheus, 2012

Connecting the worlds of Bladerunner and Alien, the character Peter Weyland is Dr. Frankestien, incarnate.

The villain, he is in search of immorality.  Along the way of his century long journey,  hubris brings him to the ultimate conclusion. 

Meeting your maker is lethal.

"How is there a law which states, "If we build a man from wires and metal -- a man who will never grow old, a man who will never feel the heat of a star or the cold of the moon -- how is the creation of such an incredible individual considered unnatural?"

 

 Transcendence, 2014

"For 130,000 years our capacity for reason has remained unchanged.  The combined intellect of the neuroscientists engineers mathematicians and hackers in this auditorium pales in comparison to even the most basic AI.

Once online a sentient machine will quickly overcome the limits of biology and in the short time its analytical power will be greater than the collective intelligence of every person born in the history of the world. 

So now imagine such an entity with a full range of human emotion even self-awareness.  Some scientists refer to this as the singularity.

I call it transcendence."

Enough said.

The more our technology advances, the closer we are to seeing ourselves, our true existence.  Which is what I believe Ai is and will continue to do.  The sum of all our Ai fears can be found in the mirror, not in 0s and 1s.

There is comfort. Historic fiction is precognition.  In our fable, there is Truth. In all our 'make believe' legends there is the essence of real humanity.

The above examples are a tiny, an infinitely small view of our vast potential and Future. At no other time in history, is a study of our fiction an education IRL(In Real Life).

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