Surrogates
This week-end I found
this movide hiding in a bin by my DVD-dealer, and the synopsys interested
me enough to pick it up. Unfortunately the result was quite dissappointing.
The story is quite standard: it's half an hour past the future and (as
usual) humanity managed to misuse the latest medical/humanitarian invention
in the most ludicrous way possible. In the specific the 'invention' is a
way to directly control a prosthetnic limb with some sort of 'brain'
interface. This way paraplegic peoples could be more self-sufficient.
Up to the point when somebody decide that you can also control a robotic
body even if your body is perfectly fine, but this way you don't have
to bother with your "real" apparence, the "surrogate" can look fantastic
anyway. This means that basically everybody (and when I say 'everybody'
I really mean it) ends up hiding in some hole while their 'perfect'
robotic bodies goes around doing their jobs.
One of the effects of this (says the movie) is that criminality drops
to nothing. Another effect is that the inventor of the original bits
gets incredibly pissed off and begin to think if this is the right way to
do things while a faction of super-extremists begins to predicate (with
very strong religious tones) a return to normality and the destruction
of all the surrogates.
Everything fine until someone uses some kind of 'gun' (a mix between
a blender and a flashlight) to 'fry' one of the surrogates and (as
we discover later) the remote operator of the same. A couple of FBI
agents are sent to investigate and they quickly discover that the
extremist faction is in possess of the "gun", in the course of the
"investigation" the surrogate of one of the two agents is destroyed,
this forces the real agent to get out of his hole and go around
"in the flesh".
But who the heck built the weapon? Is quickly discovered that this gun
is the product of a military-sponsored project carried out by the very
same company that is producing the surrogates. But (according to them)
the whole project has been dropped when they discovered that the gun was
killing the operators and all the prototypes destroyed.
The army tries to recover the gun and in the process the 'spiritual leader'
of the extremists gets killed. And we find out that he was a
'surrogate' too, piloted by the very same surrogates' inventor. Now that he
has the gun he decide to connect somehow this thing to the whole
network and basically fry the whole humanity (not a bad idea if you ask
me). But of course the hero gets in at the last moment and the result is
that only the surrogates are fried while the bad guy is killed
(sorry about that, but I thought you could have expected a plot point
like "the bad guy dies"!). The humanity emerges from their burrows
blinking in the light, everybody is happy etc. etc.
Now, like I said, this movie was a big delusion. The reason I got it
was because of the premises, that reminded me of a good book I read
long time ago:
The Modular Man, by Roger MacBride Allen,
In that book there is more or less the same idea, but it is carried away
in a much more compelling way. Unfortunately, the movie refuses to carry on
in a logical way and goes on with the usual "hollywoodian" way (aka:
'xplosions and gun fights).
For example: the introduction of 'surrogates' suddendly bring criminality
down 99%... but why? One theory could be that since everybody is at home
piloting his own surrogate, thieves and robberies are prevented, but you
only need to read a paper to see that thieves don't have too many trouble
in getting into an house even when it is occupied, banks and other places
are regularly attacked during the day. In the movie is suggested that
while somebody is controlling a surrogate his perception of the world
is severly limited (the world around his real body that is), if this is
true then a thief could do whatever he wants. The society that the movie
shows is the same as ours: cars all over the place. Then car thieves
should also be there. The same goes for other crimes. And let's not
begin with forgeries. Since everybody is going around piloting a robot
that doesn't look very much like himself, how are you sure that he is
really he and not somebody else? Evidently this 'zero crime' idea is
the holy grail for American's society and movie industry alike.
Another thing that looks odd is: cars everywhere. And they have to be
driven by the various 'surrogates'... ok, let's see: you've built a
robot that can go around doing what you want and that can even have
sex (or so it seems), however you can't figure out an 'autopilot' for
cars? Moreover, what the heck are you doing with a car? The robots
doesn't get tired, why don't you send it with a bycicle? Why not keeping
it in the office? In the morning you simply plugin and you're already
there, no need to go around. But no. Cars everywhere. Evidently
americans can't figure out a society without cars.
Then there is the "gun" that can destroy the robot and the pilot at
the same time. And obviously everybody deny involvment and claims that
"all the prototypes have been destroyed"... But why? It looks to me that
such weapon should be at the first place in the agenda of every gun
manufacturer/army/police force/terrorist organization in the world.
A threat has effect only if it can be carried out. Likewise,
the threat of "extreme force" has effect only if you can actually use
"extreme force" against the threatened, but if he is actually a remote
controlled robot and the real pilot is safely several kilometers away
then threat is meaningless.
We could actually argue that such situation will bring to the abuse of
normal weapon all the time, without even the 'threat' phase. Especially when
every robot is capable of superhuman feats, like jumping 8 times his own
height, getting repeteadly shot in the guts, falling several stories and
then carring on like nothing. A gun that could seriusly injure the
pilot, no matter where he is, looks to me like the only solution in
that case.
Then there is the problem of identification. We have enough problems
already in demonstrating our own identity (id cards, pictures, fingerprints,
it won't take too much to get retinal scan and probably dna too).
Cases of 'identity thiefs' begin to grow, fake credit cards and the like
are reported daily. Add to this mechanical puppets and you have the
receipt for a disaster.
And last but not least there is the problem of privacy. In the
movie it's shown what can happen when everybody "see" and "hear" through
a robot, that the stream of informations can be tapped into it and this
will give enormous amount of blackmail capabilities to somebody. But
again the point is just brushed aside.
But the most dissappointing bit for me is that after mounting an
"action" final (with chasing, gun fights and the like) with the
destruction of all the surrogate in the whole world, in a
pathetic montage of wrecked cars and disabled robots all over the
place, the thing is played like "everybody is happy, kumbaja'
kumbaja'".
I suppose that confronted with a catachlism that rever the entire
way of life of the entire planet at once, the results would be much
more violent and probably chaotics as well.
Let's imagine now that, for some reason, all the computers in the
world cease to function. All of them. Now let's think to the
consequencese. What is not a computer or is not dependent
by computers in our world? Not much. Such an event will bring 3/4 of
the planet back about 200 years. Not so much "kumbaja'".
Let's not forget also that in the movie is clearly shown that the military
are using surrogates too for "peacekeeping operations". The moment all
the robots are shut down, somebody is going to grab all the left over
equipment from the hands of disabled robots. Now let's immagine a
situation in which the entire US Army equipment (tanks, ships,
planes...) are in the hands of somebody else... Yeah, right, there will
be security and safeties and the like, but still a sizeable part of
the US military machine has suddendly shifter. Not a good prospect.
In short, good idea but horrid execution. Instead of working with the
premises and presenting some thought the director has choosen to go
with a cheap and predictable 'action' movie.
Davide Bianchi
01/03/2010 15:03
