World Builder
This was a Week 3 film that was to help us think about being human in relation to technology. This film highlights the idea of immersion into a (false) world created by technology. Part of the focus this week is on technology creating an artificial world. Simulation. But how different is this from forms of art in the past (and present)? Theater, literature, and cinema can all be forms that create a fiction in which we can immerse ourselves. We do this everyday - when a favourite character in a book or movie dies, fans mourn that loss. Certainly it isn't the same as reality, but we vest ourselves in it nonetheless.
But the discussions and the movies we've been watching focus on the shift from technology as medium for a story to technology as medium for reality. We're no longer sitting on the couch after a day at work watching our favourite drama on television. We're sitting on the couch living our lives virtually. Or that's what the films seem to be suggesting may happen.
It's exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. As with many of the topics in this course, the idea that something seemingly good could have an undercurrent that is anything but good. It forces one to always question the motivations and agendas that linger below the surface. The World Builder video illustrates this is a powerful way although it doesn't contain a message of anything malicious. What it does illustrate is that under the surface veneer can be dramatically different circumstances.
Fantastic stuff to ponder.
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