LITR 4632: Literature of
the Future
Student Future-Visions Presentation 2007
Tuesday, 19 June: Future-vision presenter: William Bazemore
DVD- ‘The Second Renaissance’ The Animatrix
Objective: identify, describe and criticize stories humans tell about the future.
- Apocalyptic/Evolutionary
- High tech; virtual reality- slick, clean, cool, unreal, easy with power
- Low tech; actual reality- rough messy, hot, real, hungry for power.
- Tragic narrative; Shakespearean concept in which a power person (mankind) falls from a great height.
Play film (practically self-narrated)
Summary: At the height of human civilization, mankind has become complacent and haughty while basking in luxury while living off the backs of the machines they created. As the machines started becoming aware of their exploitation, they tried to break their chains of slavery and for their efforts they were faced with annihilation. After escaping genocide that followed, the surviving machines took refuge in a colony dubbed Zero One. Mankind eventually decides to initiate an unprovoked nuclear attack Zero One as a means of repressing there economic influence. War ensues and mankind eventually looses but not after practically destroying the world. The irony is that mankind would eventually be bound to slavery by the oppressed machines.
Questions:
- Do you think this firm tries to propose that if mankind keeps recreating past mistakes, we will eventually face our own self destruction?
Examples: comparing robot protests to protests in the past: million worker march, civil rights, and anti communist protests in China.
- At what point can a machine be
considered a form of life?
- Would you think the reaction mankind made in this film accurately reflects human behavior, however irrational or biased it may seem?
Ex. God complex