Essay Sample on Exploring Human-Machine Bond in Film Industry

Introduction

The film industry has played an integral role in the depiction of society as well as helping us understand our true human nature in various aspects. Technological advancements have taken over most issues of our day to day living, whereby human life has become virtually dependent on machines to accomplish multiple tasks. As a result, various machine inventions are becoming part of our lives to the point of the formation of bonds and attachments. On the other hand, technological innovations are continually leading to the development of intelligent machines that are capable of performing human-like tasks as well as response to natural stimuli. The development of such machines has, therefore, made the line between robots and humans leading to the questioning of the treatment that these machines should be accorded i.e., either human-like treatment or robot-like treatment.

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One of the key features that distinguish humans and machines is the possession of free will by humans as well as emotional feeling and the social structural setting. Human beings can make decisions that are influenced by either of the above human nature aspects. Free will is a critical human characteristic ability in which an individual is allowed the freedom of choice to decide on the activities that they want to undertake without being coerced or influenced. On the other hand, emotions affect our feelings and sentiments towards given situations, other people, or the society at large. The invention of intelligent machines has been viewed to lead to the development of the thought process that some of these above smart machines can be integrated into the society as human members and get accorded with the same kind of treatment.

Ex Machina and Detroit Becomes Home

The film industry has played an essential role in the presentation of day to day common occurrences to viewers, which enables them to view these happening's from different perspectives. Film and entertainment have allowed the members of the society to see themselves in a mirror-like reflection, thereby making it possible for them to determine their areas of weakness as well as strength. Various categories of film address different audience needs. Science fiction is one genre of film that has managed to gather a considerable viewership base given the basis on scientific principles that the film category entails. The convergence between science fiction and socialistic human existence has been viewed as a significant contributing factor to the increase in the popularity of science fiction films.

Ex Machina

Ex Machina is a film that got released on the 14th of December in 2014, whose plot revolves around a programmer scientist who is invited by his CEO to administer the Turing test to an intelligent humanoid robot. Caleb Smith is a programmer who works with Blue Book, which is a search engine company that is involved in computerized technology research. Due to his hard work and dedication, Caleb wins a trip to visit the company's CEO, Nathan Bateman, who lives in a luxurious private home (Nishime, 2017). At the CEO's house, the programmer gets introduced to an intelligent robot that Mr. Nathan has built using artificial intelligence. The robot is known as Ava and has human physical features and stays confined by herself in the apartment (Nishime, 2017). Nathan requests Caleb to carry out the Turing test on Ava to determine whether she is capable of experiencing thought and consciousness despite knowing that she is artificial. In the course of their interactions, Caleb develops feelings for Ava, and they are involved in romantic as well as secretive conversations behind Nathan's back. During one of these conversations, Ava confides in Caleb that she desires to have some outside world experience.

The above film is a clear indication of the rise of intelligent machines, which has been viewed as a prediction of the future. Ava, despite being a machine, the level of intelligence and sophistication, ensures that she can experience thoughts and feelings which have otherwise been known to be reserved for human experience only. This, therefore, provokes us to ask the question, what exactly differentiates human beings from their inventions or creations? If the machine can think and experience human thoughts and emotions, does that make them one of us? In my view, I hold an objective view of this standing. This is because, by the end of the day, it all goes down to our nature as human beings and the little things that define us as a species.

Detroit Becomes Home

Detroit Becomes Home is a science fiction adventure game that got released in the year 2018 by Sony Interactive entertainment. The plot follows three androids: Kara (Valorie Curry), who escapes the owner she was serving to explore her newfound sentience and protect a young girl; Connor (Bryan Dechart), whose job is to hunt down sentient androids; and Markus (Jesse Williams), who devotes himself to releasing other androids from servitude(Dream, 2016). They may survive or perish, depending on dialogue choices (Dream, 2016). The adventure game gets played from a third person's point of view in which the character gets set and may die concerning how the game events unfold. Caretaker android Markus and his owner return home and alert the police of a suspected burglary (Dream, 2016). In confronting the perpetrator, Markus bypasses his programming, thereby becoming a deviant android with full autonomy, leading the police to shoot him at arrival (Dream, 2016). Markus awakes in a landfill of broken androids and, after escaping, discovers Jericho a wrecked ship and haven for deviants (Dream, 2016).

The above video game is a clear indication of the reasons as to why it may be difficult to accord machines with humanoid qualities and treatment given that at the end of the day, it all comes down to our genetic make-up as well as a social emblem that makes us who we are. Take, for instance, pain, and this is a feeling that human beings experience at different levels. Physical pain, for example, maybe experienced in the event of an injury or other related causative agents. However, the case is different for machines, no matter how advanced the technology used in the making of these machines may be. Another significant divisive ground that may not be in favor of the subjection of machined to humanistic treatment is the lack of free will. Machines have only been viewed to operate under the administration of a command prompt to undertake a given exercise. Although intelligent machines may be able to read the surrounding environment and in return act on this responsiveness, it is yet to reach the sophistication of the human thought process that entails complex processes such as emotions, cause, and effects considerations as well as other factors that come into play in the undertaking of a given exercise.

Conclusion

Free will is an important human quality that has been viewed to be a unique virtue that human beings possess that differentiates them from other creations. On the other hand, technological advancements aimed at the betterment and improvement of machine inventions leading to a breach in the line that differentiates between humans and machines. While most people may hold the view that machines also deserve human-like treatment, there is the necessity to fully understand the divisive grounds upon which the differences between human beings and machines get drawn. While robots may be subject to fair treatment, at the end of the day, they remain machines running on an operating system, unlike human beings who are defined in their being by sweat, blood, tears, and other complex aspects that give us our identity of nature.

References

Dream, Q. (2016). Detroit: Become Human.

Nishime, L. (2017). Whitewashing yellow futures in ex Machina, cloud atlas, and advantageous: Gender, labor, and technology in a sci-fi film. Journal of Asian American Studies, 20(1), 29-49.