In Time
In Time is a high concept sci-fi film about a world in which currency is replaced with direct bartering of people’s time. Every citizen is given a year to start out with, which at the age of 25 starts ticking down. The film’s macro plot casts this society as a typical capitalist failure state, wherein the seeming equality provided from the market results in widespread inequality as power accumulates from generation to generation. The plot centers on Will Salas, who is a poor factory worker making only one day every day. After the system results in the early death mother, while the rich live nearly infinite lives, Will vows to get revenge on the system. He teams up with/kidnaps the daughter of a rich banker, and they work together to disrupt the system.
While the movie displays a dystopia, I don’t think the movie is actually negative about scientific advances. The characters view the ability to live as long as one needs as a strictly positive and beautiful thing. What makes this society dystopic is not the bio-tech at play, but instead it’s economics. The arc of the movie is righting the economic wrong, while preserving the technical advancement.
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People in the film don’t physically age past 25, but once they reach that age their 1 year clock starts counting down. The film doesn’t go into why the finite limit on life is required, nor how this time-as-money system came to be implemented. Ultimately, the film doesn’t really explore deeply the social premises brought about through radically extending life, but instead looks at what life would be like if class markers were more literal. The movie casts these technologies negatively, but puts the blame not with the technologies, but with idea of a capitalist
Imagine a world where people are only expected to live up to 45 years old. In today's society, there are countries that experience this. In the novel Anthem, by Ayn Rand; there are many factors like lifestyle, government, medicine, and education that lead to this. There are a couple of ways where the world in the novel is similar and different to today's society.
Aldous Huxley's Brave New World describes what could become of our present society if we let science take over. We live in a society filled with love, hate, happiness and sadness. We have people to care about and people that care about us. Humans always look for more efficient ways to help them in their present day lives. Brave New World shows us what could happen to society if we were to become efficient in reproduction. The human race would be more efficient, but would lose all sense of love and caring. People would lose the experience of having a family. Science can be helpful to humans, but it can also have detrimental effects to our culture. Brave New World shows us that if we are not careful, the advances of science will take over our lives.
People often use the expressions “a New York minute”, “time flies” and “wasting time” to describe the passage of time; however, these idioms indicate time is something that can be controlled, altered, or differentiated. Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad presents time exactly how it is: relative. Egan breaks away from the structurally conventional form of traditional novels and presents time as a “goon”, a foolish entity that controls every character in this story and hinders them from becoming successful individuals. This “goon” leaves no one unscathed; everyone faces the wrath of time and all that comes with it. Egan uses music, as well as the non-linear structure of the book,
Anthem by Ayn Rand focuses on the life of Equality 7-2521. He lives in a society where the idea of individuality does not exist. Everyone works from the age of 15 until the age of 40. When they turn 40 they go to reside in the Home of the Useless. In Chapter One of this book, Equality 7-2521 says that it is unusual for men to reach the age of 45. Although he doesn’t specifically tell us the reason, here are a few possible explanations as to why the life span is so short.
Dystopian America What exactly is dystopia, and how is it relevant today? E.M. Forster’s The Machine Stops uses a dystopian society to show how one lives effortlessly, lacking knowledge of other places, in order to show that the world will never be perfect, even if it may seem so. A society whose citizens are kept ignorant and lazy, unknowing that they are being controlled, unfit to act if they did, all hidden under the guise of a perfect utopian haven, just as the one seen in The Machine Stops, could become a very real possibility. There is a rational concern about this happening in today’s world that is shared by many, and with good reason.
In the novel 1984, by George Orwell, the thematic element of control is clearly portrayed through a variety of perspectives such as newspeak, telescreens, thoughtcrime, or in other words psychological, and physical manipulation.
Aging fosters sickness and disability, increases human suffering, and makes us more likely to die yet many argue against seeking out a cure for this disease. Some feel aging is natural and curing it would not only lead to overpopulation, but to diminished life fulfillment and to an unforese...
...ss the lifespan. Late adolescence and early adulthood are periods when individuals are drunk with future time. Senses of immortality are lost during the middle years, when those of one's parents' generation routinely die (and one realizes that one is next up to bat with the Grim Reaper) and when the first of one's friendship circle dies of "natural causes." In old age, individuals' futurity dissolves as their time runs out.
Age is essential in a persons life because with the coming of age comes maturity bringing understanding and perspective. Society in Brave New World eliminates individual identity because by removing age the society is able to treat everyone the same. If we were to take this part of our
Aging has changed throughout history. The aging population has changed drastically over the course of past generations. Many people are living to a much older age. At this time in history, according to the film, anyone dying before the age of 80 is a premature death. 17% of the total population of the United States is elderly. This film shows how all the dramatic changes have happened in society involving the elderly not only effects the aging population, but they also affect everyone especially family life.
There were many issues and concepts that were arisen with this film. What seemed to be the major theme that predominated throughout the film was that being older does not mean that life ends. There are different issues that are dealt with when aging, but that does not necessarily entitle growing and transforming have ended. Each character in the film were dealing with a variety of changes, some which dealt with the aging process and some that can happen at any time in ones life (Hoffman, 2012).
The meaning of chronological age has changed in correlation to an increase in life expectancy. Due to a plethora of socioeconomic developments, social roles of certain age groups are arbitrary. For instance, educational attainment has been an increasing trend over the
In 1932, Aldous Huxley wrote a thrilling dystopia titled Brave New World. Centered on a man struggling in a world where emotions have been forsaken for peace and stability of the entire community, the novel has a shock factor that is quite electric. Though it was popular in the 1950’s with college students because of its portrayal of sex, the true merit of Huxley’s work can be found in its predictions for the future. The practices in the novel are alarming similar to many aspects of today’s society. The approval of drug use to induce happiness, the constant effort to make life better through technology and the everlasting trust in the government are all characteristics shared by our society and that found in Brave New World.
I have decided to write two dystopian fiction extracts, one aimed at adults (Great Leap Forward), and one aimed at teenagers (exitSim). Both of which have the purpose of entertaining the audience, however the adult extract is also designed to provide a political message and to provoke thought, a common feature of adult dystopian fiction. In terms of style models, for teenagers I have used The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, Divergent, Life as we Knew It, and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. For adults, I have used 1984, Station Eleven, The Giver, Animal Farm, and Wither. Whilst both my stories are dystopian fiction, they are made clearly different by the fact the target audience is different for each.
The movie “In Time” takes place in a world where time has become the currency. People use time ultimately to stay alive, to pay for rent, and pay for foods and goods. Once you hit the age of 25, you stop aging but you’re genetically engineered to live only one more year unless you can buy your way out of it. The people who live the longest are the wealthiest people, they can live forever and are essentially immortal. The rest of the people who live in the ghettos live day by day by working very low paying jobs, stealing or begging for time. When the clock on the persons arm hits zero they die. Time on these clocks has become the universal currency; by touching arms, one person can transfer it to another, or to or from a separate clock that can be shipped or safely stored in a "time bank". The country is divided into "time zones" based on the wealth of its population. We have a saying that many people use today “Time is money” but in this movie Time is literally money. “In time” relates to the topic of macroeconomics greatly. This movie brings up many topics in economics such as distribution of wealth, labor force, scarcity and inflation. It shows us how differently people look at the economy when the currency is no longer physical money and how there is a separation in the rich and poor.