Her (2013) is based on a futuristic premise that sets the stage for an unusual love story between a lonely, nebbish, professional letter-writer, Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) and his artificially intelligent computer operating system, Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). In the movie, Spike Jonze, the writer and director, touches upon the larger questions surrounding the human condition and how our desire to be loved and accepted has led us to seek technological substitutes for our most basic emotional needs. Importantly, the movie also comes with an embedded caveat for the future based on our current socio-cultural obsession with technology--if we were to continue our zeitgeist-y love affair with technology and artificial intelligence we would soon lead to a future characterized by an empty, shallow existence with limited personal freedom. The movie opens in a dateless future Los Angeles office of Theodore, a lonely, romantic letter-writer, who writes for a company called Beautiful Handwritten Letters. Spike Jonze constructs a beguiling cinematic world where intimacy is outsourced to ghostwriters like Theo, who based on intuition and empathy do the loving, caring, and kvelling for you. Theodor, who is emotionally bruised, is mourning his painful divorce from Catherine (Rooney Mara), with whom he had been for decades. Every evening after work he goes back to his apartment in a Los Angeles high rise to play interactive video games. That is, until he see an advertisement for an operating system for his computer (which also controls his smartphone) that promises artificial intelligence. Bemused by the verisimilitude of his new technological purchase, Theo begins to spend an inordinate amount of time interacting with his n... ... middle of paper ... ...istful portrayal of our affaire de cœur with technology and its larger socio-cultural insinuation is hard to miss. This is especially relevant to our current societal trajectory where the hand of technology is omnipresent. In this not so distant future portrayal of the world, the boundaries between man and technology have been erased, and the concept of privacy is defunct. It is a world where humans are more connected and in sync with their gizmos than fellow humans. Emotions are no longer defined as an instinctive, intuitive feeling, but a commodity that has been monetized by reducing it to binary code and installed in artificially intelligent operating systems. If this is the future powered by man’s technological genius, then it should give us all pause and make us think twice before we decide to distract ourselves with gadgets in the face of human interaction.
A graduate from Yale, Tod moved to Los Angeles to work in Hollywood. After moving into a new home, Tod befriends a young aspiring actress, Faye Greener. Faye is a pretentious beauty who lives with her father, a door-to-door silver polish salesman. As he was working in the hills, Faye’s father fell ill at the home of Homer Simpson, a well-o...
The human race has made extraordinarily rapid technological progress within the last few decades alone. Sherry Turkle, a professor at MIT, a clinical psychologist and a published author examines society’s response to today’s numerous changes in her book Alone Together. Although at times Turkle overestimates the damage that technology is doing to our society, she makes many valid points about the dangers posed. In her book, the issues raised about our growing substitution of computers for human relationships proves to be problematic, while some of Turkle’s evidence is less ominous than she believes.
The opening paragraph of the novel evokes the consequences of unharnessed technology and contemporary man’s contented refusal to acknowledge the consequences (Watt).
Originally, technology is an ontological mode of revealing beings in their Being, but modern society has heavily distorted this essence (QCT 319). This distortion comes with the danger of “overwhelming…all other possible ways of revealing” and thereby permanently concealing the true essence of technology (QCT 309). This danger can be removed via the realm of art, where Heidegger promises a mysterious “saving power” that will return modern man to technology’s essence. More accessibly, however we can find this saving power through technology itself and its reduction of humans to a mere standing reserve. In this state, humans experience the primordial moods of anxiety and profound boredom in which they withdraw from all relationships, thus allowing for the establishment of a free relationship to technology.
As time progresses technology increases and improves. However, this progression could pose as a serious problem for generations to come, and New York University department chair of communication arts Neil Postman expresses this concern in his 1992 book, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. In the opening of Postman’s book he expresses that technology is indeed our friend because technology provides our society with fast and easy convenience and accessibility. As with most other things, there are always two sides to everything and Postman notes, that “of course, there is a dark side to this friend” referring to technology (Postman, 1992). Many people do not address the negative sides to technology and just turn a blind eye to them so it is refreshing to have someone point them out and discuss the issues technology possess on our society.
The character this film is primarily centered around is Will Hunting. Will lives in a tattered house in a bad neighborhood in the city of Boston. He grew up in foster care where he sustained continual physical abuse as a child. Will has a few close friends he is always with but never opens up about anything below surface level. Will is incredibly gifted with intelligence however he works as a custodian at the highly prestigious school, MIT. Professor Lambeau teaches advanced mathematics at MIT and is the one who discovers Will’s incredible talent for solving advanced mathematical theory. Professor Lambeau has high hopes for Will and pushes him into getting jobs with prestigious employers so that his gift is not wasted working as a custodian. Chuckie Sullivan is one of the closest of Will’s friends. They’ve known each other for years and Chuckie drives Will to work every day. Chuckie cares for Will and realizes the gift that he has and tries to convince Will he should be doing something of greater importance with his life. Skylar is a college stu...
People all around agree that technology is changing how we think, but is it changing us for the better? Clive Thompson definitely thinks so and this book is his collection of why that is. As an avid fiction reader I wasn’t sure this book would captivate me, but the 352 pages seemingly flew past me. The book is a whirlwind of interesting ideas, captivating people, and fascinating thoughts on how technology is changing how we work and think.
Spike Jonze’s film “Her” explores the romantic relationship between Samantha, an intelligent computer operating system personified through a female voice, and Theodore Twombly, a lonely, introverted, depressed man who works for a business that has professional writers composing letters for people who are unable to write letters themselves. Though Samantha is not a human, the computer operating system develops the feelings of love and heartbreak, the long need for a human body, and is perplexed by her own evolution of gaining those emotions. She has a rich inner life, complete with experiences and sensations.
Working thesis: The advancements in technology have caused the social norms of society to adapt to its rapid change, by becoming captivated to its simple access; which is effecting the way we communicate and act.
In summary, both the article and the novel critique the public’s reliance on technology. This topic is relevant today because Feed because it may be how frightening the future society may look like.
...n against machine in a noticeably strained battle, but they also despise that the humans are more machine like than they ponder, and that the machine possesses human qualities as well. The humans, for their part, are as persistently compelled as machines. The incredible fighting skills and superhuman strength of the character seem to put them in machine type category. It showed how dependent man and machine actually are, or might be. One terror of fake intelligence is that technology will trap us in level of dependency. It emphasized the idea that artificial intelligence enslaves the human race. With the time we people are also becoming slaves of the machines that we have created. In time people will be so dependent on machines that they can no longer survive without them. This is the implicit idea of the film matrix, idea which hardly people would have noticed.
As a result, the society of this scary inhumane, Brave New World is full with technology that is destroying humanity form us. Yes it is a perfect world and there no war, disease, crisis but also there is no emotions, feeling, love and especially any hope which are some of the necessary part of human nature. As a conclusion, technology controls the life of everyday people from the day they were born till the day they die in this Brave New World.
There have been many great books that have been based on the growing relationship of technology and human beings. Today, technology is continuously changing and evolving along with the way people adapt to these technological advances. Technology has completely changed our way of living, it has entwined with our humanity, by being able to replace limbs and organs that we once thought could not be replaced. One of the most crucial things that technology has changed is the way people in society interact with one another. A story written by William Gibson titled “Burning Chrome”, portrays that very idea. In his text, Gibson presents that the reader lives within a world where there is no boundaries or limitations between technology and humans. They become a part of each other and have evolved side by side into a society where a person can turn their conscious mind into data and upload it to non-physical, virtual world. In this research paper I will discuss how our society’s culture and interaction with one another has changed and adapted with the advancements of technology over the years.
The film exhibits and analyzes the story of NFL player Michael Oher’s life through high school as he endures various adversities and difficulties in his life. It tells Oher’s story of being the son of a cocaine addictive mother and absentee father, who is homeless due the circumstances of his family. Despite not having either of his parents in his life he did have Big Tony, who was his friend’s dad. Big Tony would allow Michael to sleep on his sofa some days when he did not have anywhere else to live and he also was the main cause to Michael being admitted to the Wingate Academy Christian School. At this school Michael meets S.J., who is the son on the Tuohy’s. S.J. begins a friendship with Michael at a time when no one else would and on a rainy day after S.J.’s thanksgiving play, the Tuohys see Michael walking. They ask him ...
“Technology is supposed to make our lives easier, allowing us to do things more quickly and efficiently. But too often it seems to make things harder, leaving us with fifty-button remote controls, digital cameras with hundreds of mysterious features.” (James Surowiecki) Whether or not is known, technology has become too heavily relied on. It is replacing important social factors such as, life skills and communication skills. While technology is created to be beneficial, there must be a point in time where we draw the line. Once face-to-face conversations begin to extinguish, this means that there is too much focus on the “screen culture”. In her writing, “Alone Together”, Sherry Turkle talks