[ExI] we need a transhumanist themed film to truly inspire the world, but what should it be?

[Robert Picone]

I'm rather skeptical about the prospects here, as-is serious science fiction
movies (that is, movies where science fiction is more than a gimmick) are
rare enough, those few serious sci-fi movies that exist tend to be
exclusively distopian, tending to meet concepts related to transhumanism
with fear.  I'm not sure it's really possible to acclimate most viewers to
transhumanist ideas in a short enough timespan that the plot actually
matters to them.

Viewers are pretty used to themes of anyone who wants to be more than
human/pursue some sort of immortality being monstrous.  Used to it enough
that they just seem to accept the idea without any sort of question at this
point...  I remember seeing "The 6th Day" when it was reasonably recently
released and being a bit horrified (if you're unfamiliar, basically there is
pseudo-uploading in the form of mind backups that can be transfered to
clones, Schwarzenegger's character accidentally gets a clone made in an
attempt by the only cloning company around to save his best friend, and
becomes hunted because the existence of a copy is evidence the technology
exists despite being illegal to develop.  Long story short, he manages to
blow up a building and destroy what is implied to be thousands of backups,
the ability to produce copies, and by all appearances a couple hundred
innocent people who work there...  It is of course presented as a happy
ending).  The thing is nobody else seemed to think anything of it (other
than that it was a bit vapid as a thriller).  It is even one of the highest
grossing Sci-fi movies of all time...
I could very well be wrong on all this though, if such a film is made
though, I'd prefer to see something that uses concepts that people are
familiar with seeing in a positive light, even concepts that seems somewhat
archaic now would be cool.  A modernized version of True Names might work
well enough...

As for movies already in the pipeline, apparently Dreamworks bought the
rights to make a live-action Ghost in the Shell film which could have
potential.

On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 7:28 PM, John Grigg <possiblepaths2050 at gmail.com>wrote:

> A question for all list members...  I feel like it's time for a _2001: A
> Space Odyssey_ type film for the current generation.  If James Cameron or
> Steven Spielberg were to adapt a transhumanist themed SF novel or short
> fiction to film, what narrative or at least plot line (you made up yourself)
> would you choose?
>
> I'm really looking forward to Cameron's upcoming film _Avatar_, that some
> say will be his magnum opus.  But from what I've heard it will be sort of a
> futuristic Rambo in space, rather than truly visionary speculative fiction
> that could inspire people to fight for a better world.
>
> Ray Kurzweil's _The Singularity is Near_ motion picture is coming out in
> late 2009 but I am not sure if it will have the impact we desire.  But only
> time will tell.
>
> John Grigg
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20090225/e89ce6f8/attachment.html>