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Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (2016)
Dir. Werner Herzog
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The Internet’s invention was in itself a revolution in history. That is the idea where this documentary starts on it’s path. The film asks questions about the Internet and the life changing inventions being sparked out of it; A.I., Interplanetary space crafts, robots. We see how this revolution made it possible for us to communicate and connect with billions around the globe, exponentially increasing our collective output. Thing is, this rapid growth comes with adverse consequences. Connectivity of the whole world is kind of a dangerous thing because we are getting increasingly dependent on a fragile technological system.
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Our use of the internet and things like smart phones have already become tools that we feel we can’t live without. This interconnection with technology is going to get to a point where it makes all of our physical systems effortless, but this ‘connectedness’ is detrimental to our critical thought. We already rely too much on our tech for basic things our brains can do just fine like storing information or deep critical thinking. Imagine when our entire reality could be shaped by the swipe of our finger or a single thought. It makes me think of the people in Wall-E who become gluttonous simpletons, except this is no longer science-fiction, it’s our approaching reality.
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The fact that we are relying on electronic systems to house the money of our economies, or store all our important information, is quite short sighted when it comes to human survival. Someone in the doc brings up how a solar flair pointed towards earth has the power to destroy the planet’s entire electrical grid, effectively breaking down societies in a flash. Then there’s artificial intelligence and how that has the potential to throw everything through a loop. There’s a whole chapter about it in the movie where people at the forefront of A.I. tech say it’s hard to imagine it’s limits, or lack there of. I find it interesting though that every invention we see in the film (whether it be a self driving car or a robot capable of doing complex tasks) has multiple corporate sticker logos on it. SHELL, BOEING, AMAZON. All these billion dollar multinational corporations are the ones funding and patenting these technologies, with the intention of saving money on labor costs and increasing output. We think of A.I. as either the spark for a new type of consciousness or as a blessing that will allow us great amounts of free time to enjoy the world around us. What’s more realistic though is that since our societal structure is built for monopolizing wealth and not for the collective well being, A.I will probably cause a jobs crisis and further exploitation of people.
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My favorite quote comes from this lady who was working on space travel to Mars when she said “While I would like us to explore Mars more, I think the only thing that we’ve demonstrated is that we are very good at destroying the habitability of Earth rather then improving the habitability of a completely alien world. The idea that Mars will some how save us from the decisions we’ve made here is a false one, and it’s a little like saying you’re going to go live in a life boat when even lifeboats need somewhere to land” (this literally cuts straight to Elon Musk looking depressed, lol). She is so right, even though her lifeboat metaphor is a little confusing. We are desperately looking for other habitable worlds because we’ve fucked up our environment on this one so bad. And even though we are developing technologies that have the potential to help swerve us away from disaster, it’s how you use it that matters. Remember, we used atomic energy not to power the world, but to blow it up instead.
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Rating: 9/10