Beyond the Screen - HNC Media (Clydebank) students

Page 3
Discussion
We are now over 50 years
away from the original series
of ‘Star Trek’ but films
that were released more
recently have done a good
job of keeping up with
foretelling. Former media
student Andrew Lowing
said:
“I think that the way technology
has caught up with
what we once perceived
as the future is remarkable.
I remember watching
‘Minority Report’ (2002)
and thinking how amazing
it would be to have touch
screen computers. Now it
is a very common technology
that one forgets that it
was once a fantasy.”
So what kinds of technology
do current film and tv
shows predict we may have
in the future. In season
2 of the brilliant ‘Black
Mirror’, a woman who is
grieving after the death of
her husband downloads
an app that can create a
facsimile of him based on
his online activity, such as
social media posts. This in
itself is beyond the reach
of current technology, but
this is the opening of the
rabbit hole.
The app then offers her an
upgrade to her ‘package’
which will allow the AI to
phone her directly and will
possess the voice of her
husband. This is a creepy
prospect of what is still
well within the bounds of
our technology. The next
upgrade for the package
raises moral complications
as the company sends the
grieving wife a full sized
and fully functional version
of her husband. It speaks,
thinks and has sex with the
wife before she starts to
realise the consequences of
her choices.
Technology like this could
lead down a dark road for
humanity. At what stage of
this process would we start
to consider this new ‘being’
an actual life form? There
are also seedy implications
of this technological development.
We all know that
there are people out there
who would have no quarrel
with hacking someone and
stealing their internet history.
What if someone was
to hack a celebrity and sell
their ‘personality’ online to
those truly lonely weirdoes
out there in the real world?
Grief-stricken individuals
suffering from rejection or
coping with death would
find it hard to pass up the
opportunity.
We are all human after all,
but maybe in 100 years’
time, we won’t be anymore.
Is this where technology
is leading us? To a world
where it surpasses our
humanity? Or are the
developments predicted
just works of fiction that
will never see the light of
day? One can only hope we
remember to think before
we click.