Chris Behrens
cbehrens@deltav.net
http://www.deltav.net
"Politics is the art of the possible. That is why only
mediocre minds are attracted to it; great minds seek
the impossible."
- Arthur C. Clarke
----------
> From: Yakwax2@aol.com
> To: extropians@extropy.org
> Subject: Extropy: The Movie (in Transhuman-o-vision)
> Date: Friday, August 01, 1997 12:19 PM
>
> Anders Sandberg wrote:
>
> > > I've been trying to do the exact same thing. The problems I find
are:
> trying
> > > to be optimistic and still hold the attention of todays audience
(who
> have
> > > been made to believe genetic engineering will create mosters and
AI's
> will
> > > eat their children) and trying to present highly complex, world
changing
> > > technologies in a way the audience would understand.
> >
> > Exactly. Tonight the Lawnmover Man will air on swedish television. I
> > like the film, it contains several transhuman themes and the graphics
> > from Xaos Inc was brilliant when it was made. Still, to tell the
> > story the movie *needs* something gone wrong (at least they did not
> > use the silly Star Trek idea that superintelligence always leads to
> > amoralit - the nasty men in suits wrecked the whole experiment).
>
> Try to avoid The Lawnmower Man 2, they decided to go down the route of
"VR's
> now so good it looks just like real life" and the whole film consists of
kids
> pretending to fly in front of a blue screen.
>
> > Maybe one way of getting tension into a basically transhuman movie
> > may be to have a conflict between two reasonable points of view,
> > instead of "good guys vs. villains", like (say) transhumanists
> > wishing to expand human potential and bring life to the universe, and
> > environmentalists who want to heal the world and live in harmony with
> > nauture (the movie could end with the transhumans moving off-planet
> > as "Children of the Sun", leaving it for the "Children of the
> > Earth"), but I think most companies would prefer the tried and tested
> > black vs. white theme.
>
> The best way to get a point across is to ignore black and white, and go
for a
> nice fuzzy grey. Several themes have crossed my mind:
>
> 1. A rebellion against all these 'American President saves the world'
> movies. Instead have a time travelling assassin download himself into
> someone's body with the mission of killing the president because of his
> opposition to anarchy. This could lead to a great opportunity of showing
the
> government through the eyes of someone who's seen better.
>
> 2. Have a couple of people thaw out of cryonic suspension and go on to
> explore the wonderful possibilities of the posthuman world. Keep the
> audience in awe of the possibilities and they might not notice the lack
of
> good vs. evil. And then, just when they think it's all over interrupt
the
> credits with scientific news on actually progress towards these
possibilities
> (You could also throw in a natural disaster, get them all working towards
a
> goal).
>
>
> > Another way of showing transhuman themes in an interesting way is to
> > look at their human consequences. What about a movie about a family
> > where a daughter is uploaded after an accident, something like the
> > typical movie where the daughter is handicapped and people struggle
> > to adapt and understand the situation?
>
> Not exactly the kind of groundbreaking film to alter the perception of
the
> world though (which I think is what we're aiming for here).
>
> --Wax