I love good science fiction. It is a splendid vehicle for exploring the deepest issues in a very entertaining way, without getting too serious or bogged down in high brow importance. Indeed, good sci-fi is a powerful magnifying mirror, telling us where we are, and where we may be going.
When the Bruce Willis film Surrogates was first released, I promised a review. I missed it in the theater but caught it last night on DVD. It is quite good–not quite in the class of Blade Runner–but definitely worth watching. The plot involves a dehumanized future in which a huge corporation–reminded me of Apple–invented a way for people to live their lives through custom designed robots. Most humans retreat into their rooms, working, loving, playing via their robot alter egos–Second Life on steroids. One of the genius aspects of the film is the way the actors looked like they aren’t quite human–flawless skin, facial expressions that appear a bit frozen–kind of like Joan Rivers. There is a great moment in which a “murdered” blond beauty robot turns out to be the alter ego of a fat, bearded man who looks eerily like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s mug shot–and the detectives don’t even react, that kind of subterfuge is so common.
The broader story involves a potential conflict between the Surrogate world and natural humans, who, disgusted with the dehumanization wrought by living through “perfect” robots, have retreated into officially recognized reservations, no machines allowed. Along the way, there are murders, chases, betrayals, and Bruce Willis in a fine performance as a tired and disillusioned cop who understands how isolated he has become–for example, he and his wife solely interact with each other from separate bedrooms as their robot selves. One of the best scenes is when the real Willis character goes out into the world, and can’t deal with the intensity of not being alone, even if everyone around him is a robot. I won’t spoil the story, but the movie tells us that being human may well be messy, hard, and sometimes heartbreaking, but transhumanist escapism is pathetic, destructive, and ultimately, wholly dehumanizing.
Meanwhile, over at the SyFy Network, Caprica–a prequel series to the truly splendid series Battlestar Galactica–also deals with the Siren threat of transhumanism and the futile human desire for immortality. The story involves the creation of the Cylons, cyborgs with AI, that in fifty-eight years will all but wipe out humanity at the beginning of the Battlestar story.
The trouble begins with the invention of a way for people to live alter, pseudo lives–only unlike Surrogates, the alternate world is in cyberspace. To play in the cyber world, one must be fully scanned–which creates an exact physical and emotional duplicate self to exist unphysically–much like the transhumanist yearning to be uploaded into computers.
The freedom of living a pseudo life leads to utter escapism and hedonism–orgies, in which no bodies actually ever touch–even human sacrifice, in which no one is actually killed. But the decadence of cyberspace has adversely impacted the real world–at least in the opinion of a new religious minority known as Monotheists, some of whom are in revolt against the values of mainstream society (akin to Pagan Rome), and resort to terrorism. When the inventor of the cyberworld’s daughter is killed in a terrorist attack, he captures her alternate reality avatar and places her consciousness in a battle robot–the first Cylon. The world of Caprica also–without preaching–concerns societal controversies we don’t deal with here, sexual ethics, the power of religion, group marriage, ethnic prejudices, political corruption, the privileges of the elite, etc. The series is only a few episodes in, but I am already hooked.
I chose the title What It Means to be Human for my podcast because bioethics and human exceptionalism touch on the deepest and most important aspects of our humanity and culture. That is also what the best science fiction does. If these issues fascinate you like they do me–and you want to be entertained rather than preached at (that’s my job, ha!)–Surrogates and Caprica fill the bill.
February 3rd, 2010 | 2:13 pm
your doing a wonderful job exposing the criminal transhuman movement and their idiot leaders. i’ve been studying transhumanists for about 3 years now and trying to do my best to stop them by donating money to the center for genetics and society.
please keep up the good work Wesley!
Wesley J. Smith Reply:
February 3rd, 2010 at 2:33 pm
Thanks, john holland: For SHSers who may not know, the Center for Genetics and Society is a decidedly liberal think tank opposed to the brave new world agendas.
February 3rd, 2010 | 2:42 pm
Concerns over abandonment of traditional human relationships are evolutionarily unfounded, depending of course on how ‘relationship’ is defined. Growing evidence for the Red Queen hypothesis suggests traditional sexual reproduction, and all the necessary human mating rituals, will be around for quite some time. In fact, only about 1% of animal species are asexual – and most of these are on phylogenetic fringes, suggesting their long-term viability is doubtful as no long-term taxonic line is established (remember about 99% of all species to have walked this only planet are now extinct). Therefore, we can discuss fembots and alternative-virtual realities all we wish, but we must maintain perspective. Indeed, there will be changes on fundamental interaction levels of humans through cultural revolution (internet replaces bars, stealing Haitian children for religious indoctrination replaces domestic marketing, etc); but evolution says genetic mixing is here to stay for a long, long, long time. With that imperative comes the obligate selection by females and effort input by eager males, due to differences in sexual value established by biology and evolution, and the ensuing reversal to female input to ensure male retention.
Don’t worry about it; worry about real concerns for the next 100 years – overpopulation, war, agriculture, water, emerging diseases, economic viability, climate change, etc.
February 3rd, 2010 | 3:23 pm
Battlestar Galactica splendid? Maybe the first two seasons, then it went down the crapper with huge and inexplicable shifts in characterization and implausible plotting. Like a lot of early enthusiasts I skipped most of last silly season long before the luddite fantasy finale that saw humanity destroy all of its advanced technology in a return to Eden.
Caprica is a bit too gloomy for me (my own daughter is fighting cancer, so the plotline involving a dead daughter doesn’t connect on simply a cerebral level).
However, the problem I increasingly have with television and film is that it is so indulgent in the critical perspective that redemptive stories and the celebration of judeo-christian values are getting rare, and as for good old escapism, it can’t be had without a hefty dose of leftist ideology (e.g. Avatar).
I’ll check out Surrogates on your recommendation, as I also found it came and went at the local cineplex rather quickly which I took as an indicator of its worth.
February 3rd, 2010 | 3:33 pm
http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?list=type&type=50
that’s the link to the truth about transhumanism tons of articles proving everything they say is a complete lie!
February 3rd, 2010 | 11:14 pm
As much as I love movies like “Surrogates” and television like “Battlestar Galactica” and “Caprica” for their entertainment and intellectual value, they essentially boil down mistaking “cynicism” for healthy skepticism. I’m convinced that there will, of course, be human beings who will misunderstand the technology and the consequences of using it and who will experience the horrors expressed in these movies and television programs, but I’m also equally convinced there will be human beings who fully understand the technology and the consequences of using it and who will experience the great benefits and joys possible to them.
Cynicism breeds apocalyptic thinking. Skepticism keeps us on the path on which we’ve always been – a progressive one.
February 4th, 2010 | 12:19 am
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by CO2HOG: SHS: Surrogates and Caprica: Splendid Sci Fi Warnings Against Transhumanism http://bit.ly/bIIZcO #tcot…
February 4th, 2010 | 2:17 pm
Interesting, but highly speculative. We can’t even agree on simple stuff, like whether there’s anything wrong with cloning?
February 5th, 2010 | 4:39 pm
I’ve never been drawn to science fiction. Or horror movies. Or disaster movies. I like, you know, normal things. Like chocolate, sunshine, getting to one’s destination safely, life rqther than death, stuff like that. Science and fiction in fact constitute an oxymoron, don’t they. The same society that entertains science fiction made Titanic a hit movie, debated — as if there could even be debate about life v. death — whether Terry Schiavo should be allowed to live, signs “living wills,” gives science, medicine, law, and Obama far too much credit, and has created the culture of death. Giving “bioethics” and even “debating” issues of life and death is like making the mistake of engaging in conversation with a salesman. You weren’t going to buy anything in the first place, and there’s no debating life v. death, or reality v. “possibility.” Go down that road and you end up with plug-pulling and transhumanism.
February 5th, 2010 | 4:46 pm
That should have been, “granting ‘bioethics’ any credibility whatsoever” The photos in the art on this blog section are creepy, to say the least. It’s like Star Wars (another institution I didn’t care for) — futuristic, technological, etc., and yet human and individualistic. Or those movies with cyborgs, bionics, etc. We don’t think it’s enough to be human now? Sheesh. For wisdom, look to the past, not the future.
February 5th, 2010 | 5:41 pm
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February 10th, 2010 | 10:45 am
I had a slightly different take on Surrogates; it’s actually a New Age/Big Brother flick
http://nwointelreport.blogspot.com/2010/02/hollywoods-satanic-agenda-20-surrogates.html
February 12th, 2010 | 5:36 pm
Our own government(pentagon) is right now planning the production of synthetic life. Heaven help us if they turn out to be meaner or tougher than us! The one thing that we have and they won’t is a soul. I feel when we see their true feelings and behavior, we will understand the power of having a soul and being a creature of God’s creation! I have heard that there are a group of actual aliens that have tricked our power elite into believing that ‘they’ created us! Could this be the source of the anti-Christ? Stay tuned!
February 15th, 2010 | 1:43 am
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