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Metropolis & The Machine Stops
4 years ago
Just watched a restored version of Fritz Lang's classic here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx-vMdGqL3A
My thoughts:
A society where a technocratic elite rules over suppressed labor; where bots are created, disguised as social influencers, to incite violence against the civilization upon which they all depend, just so the elite can enact vengeance against the workers?
Nah... never gonna happen [sarcasm].
(Oh: and am I alone in seeing in the visage of the villain Rotwang, a slightly cleaner and less bottle-nosed version of a certain personage who wanted to 'deconstruct' the government?)
In contrast to this vision, I think of E.M. Forster's classic parable (pretty much contemporary with the film), The Machine Stops. Here, instead of a technocratic elite, the civilization is in thrall to technology itself: a self-involved humanity has abandoned its agency to a mechanical system, which they no longer understand or control. When the system starts to fail, nobody knows what to do.
Both scenarios may be applicable to our situation today, I fear.
I must admit that I write this in my cups; but as the ancients have said, 'in vino veritas'... 7x=e
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx-vMdGqL3A
My thoughts:
A society where a technocratic elite rules over suppressed labor; where bots are created, disguised as social influencers, to incite violence against the civilization upon which they all depend, just so the elite can enact vengeance against the workers?
Nah... never gonna happen [sarcasm].
(Oh: and am I alone in seeing in the visage of the villain Rotwang, a slightly cleaner and less bottle-nosed version of a certain personage who wanted to 'deconstruct' the government?)
In contrast to this vision, I think of E.M. Forster's classic parable (pretty much contemporary with the film), The Machine Stops. Here, instead of a technocratic elite, the civilization is in thrall to technology itself: a self-involved humanity has abandoned its agency to a mechanical system, which they no longer understand or control. When the system starts to fail, nobody knows what to do.
Both scenarios may be applicable to our situation today, I fear.
I must admit that I write this in my cups; but as the ancients have said, 'in vino veritas'... 7x=e
mikakyubi
~mikakyubi
The old movies (and stories (Brave New World, 1984, etc.)) were meant to be a warning, yet instead they've become a road map.
velantian
~velantian
William Gibson has been really good modern writer of science fiction in this vein. His 'Blue Ant' trilogy (Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, and Zero History) explores how fast technology moves from new and innovative to obsolete and how people will profit from the churn. His latest series (The Peripheral, Agency) introduces the idea of The Jackpot a slow motion apocalypse that leaves only the wealthy and connected alive to mess with the past. All highly recommend reads.
