The best sci-fi ethics movie in the past decade

Eduardo 2022-01-27 08:03:44

When I came out of the cinema, my consciousness was still immersed in the movie. I remember the last time I was so shocked was "Me, Robot" and "The Matrix". The two movies are from 2004 and 1999. So this movie is probably the best science fiction ethics movie in 10 years.
First, it is an ethical film, and secondly, a love story, but it uses science fiction elements to help the discussion. Therefore, most people who look forward to the shock of science fiction are disappointed, which is not surprising.
There are two core themes of the movie:
1. How does one's self-awareness exist? How does it affect human behavior.
2. When the power of science and technology is far greater than human wisdom, can human beings control technology or whether human beings can keep up with the progress of science and technology.



There are spoilers next.




Storytelling With the continuous advancement of artificial intelligence, humans have been able to simulate the brain waves of primates with digital signals and run them on computers in the form of programs.
Then, the protagonist was attacked by a radical anti-artificial intelligence organization and was about to die.
So with the help of family and friends, he programmed his brain waves and uploaded them to the computer. In order to survive death, the will can be preserved (the reason is that the male protagonist is reluctant to leave the heroine and wants to stay with her all the time).
Here is the first conflict between humans and technology. When the computer (the protagonist) announced that he was going to be more powerful and to enter Wall Street and all the university databases. The protagonist’s friends are confused and think that computer knowledge simulates the protagonist’s consciousness, lacking the most basic human emotions, and the protagonist’s consciousness does not actually operate on the computer. This was very clear when the protagonist friend persuaded his wife later. However, please pay attention. At that time, the protagonist, that is, the computer said, "My thinking seems to be liberated". That is to say, when the human thinking mode is running at a speed of several terabytes per second on the fastest computer in the world. The results of the computer may be very different from the human brain. The same discussion appeared in "Me, Robot". Ordinary robots can perfectly follow the human vision and faithfully implement the three laws. But on the supercomputer WIKI, according to the same three axioms, it runs out of completely different results. In "Computers and Human Brains" by von Neumann, the father of modern computers, he proposed for the first time that the human brain is longer than multi-dimensional calculations, which means that it can handle multiple lines of calculation at the same time. Your brain not only controls your thinking, but also maintains body balance, controls movements, and maintains the secretion of body hormones. Almost all body reactions are controlled by the brain. However, electronic computers are longer than single-wire fast calculations. For example, if you run a few more programs on your computer, it will start to change, but when you calculate a formula or run a program, it has a speed that is hard for the human brain to match. Therefore, according to the plot in the movie, after the protagonist possesses a computer brain, that is, runs at the speed of a computer under the human computing mode, how its thoughts or programs and stored information have changed, I am afraid it is not the owner. We can understand the brain.
On the other hand, when government officials and the protagonist’s teacher dismissed the protagonist’s base, they directly concluded that the protagonist was extremely dangerous. So that in order to eliminate this danger, they are willing to give up the entire computer civilization and even the electrical civilization. There is only one reason, the protagonist’s nanotechnology can control the human brain. Once a Chinese rock singer commented on himself, he said, "My world never promotes the ideas of others. Even if I live like a dog, I have to live according to my own wishes."
After I walked out of the cinema, I asked myself, would I accept this opportunity to implant nanotechnology in front of me? My answer is, I won't. No matter how good it is, even if most of the time I can act according to my own wishes. I also don't want others to control my brain.
The most straightforward ethical or philosophical question in the movie is the recurring sentence "Can you prove that you have self-awareness?" In fact, although it is not known whether this question can be proved, self-awareness has obvious characteristics. . That is, 1. Self-protection consciousness 2. Sacrifice consciousness. I am afraid that neither of these two consciousnesses can be run by computers at present, that is, only animals have. This is perhaps the difference between self-awareness most different from other computing programs. When human beings realized that their self-consciousness was threatened, that is, their own existence was threatened, they chose to eliminate the threatening existence. This is the most legitimate reason in the world. For the same reason, people shelled the protagonist’s base, and the female hacker threatened to kill the protagonist’s friends. From the beginning to the end, people acted to protect their self-consciousness, to protect the existence of "self" from disappearing and without losing meaning.
On the other hand, he became the protagonist of the computer. Everything he did was to fulfill his wife's wishes. In the end, following the wishes of his wife, he voluntarily uploaded the virus. This is a manifestation of sacrificing consciousness. So it is certain that the protagonist on the computer is the consciousness of the real protagonist, not a simple computer simulation program.
At the end of the film, in order to prevent computer terminals in the world from being controlled by the protagonist, humans used viruses to cut off the power supply and the network. Farewell to the electrical age. But in the last shot, the nanotechnology developed by the protagonist is preserved. Nanotechnology that has lost computer control can be said to be the technology that humans dream of. Nanotechnology that is not controlled by human thoughts has turned the earth into a paradise. The protagonist finally fulfilled his wife's wish.
This is a perfect ending.


Postscript: Seeing such low ratings on the Internet, many people complained about not understanding the movie in the comments. I feel that this movie shouldn’t be treated like this. It’s the first time for me to write a film review, who has never written a film review.

View more about Transcendence reviews

Extended Reading
  • Lacey 2022-03-23 09:01:36

    Science + human body = modern medicine.

  • Arielle 2022-03-24 09:01:33

    The first third of the conceptual architecture is worth three and a half stars, and then it starts to go downhill. From filming to performances to sets, it is so cheap that it is too much to give one star. The lesson is that if the script is immature, don't take it out to show your eyes, it's better not to shoot.

Transcendence quotes

  • Joseph Tagger: My dear Evelyn... I don't know how to express the sadness I feel for your loss... for our loss. You must know that to Will... you were all that ever mattered. Your love and partnership was the kind the rest of us can only dream of. We lost a great mind, a great soul, but the spirit of this man will continue to inspire us.

  • [from the trailer]

    Will Caster: [Distraught] You've changed... have you fallen out of love with me?

    Evelyn Caster: [Reassuring] No

    Will Caster: [Demanding] Have You?