Do You Trust This Computer? The Singularity is Right Around the Corner

First it was Deep Blue, then it was AlphaGo. The next step is Skynet and the rise of the machines. That is pretty much how all the experts see the future, according to this doom-and-gloom documentary. It is too late to close the barn door, but we can still make the futile gesture according to Chris Paine’s Do You Trust This Computer? (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Yes, the Singularity is pretty darned scary and yes, it is closer than we would like to think. As is usually the case, it is mostly Google’s fault. They have spent gazillions on artificial intelligence to generate those annoying “smart search” suggestions. Of course, we have no idea what other applications they might have in mind. One thing everyone seems to agree on is the inevitability of AI-driven battle drones that can attack at will, sort of like self-driving cars, but with machine guns and light projectile explosives.

So, isn’t that all very unsettling? Basically, that vague sentiment is the general thesis of Paine’s scattershot film. There are a lot of frightening predictions in DYTTC, but it is presented like a buffet of singularity horror stories—a little bit from here and a little bit from there and before you know it, humanity is toast. Tellingly, one talking head informs us with all due seriousness that no government regulations have ever been applied to the research and development of artificial intelligence, but he never suggests what those regulations ought to be, so what’s the point?

The question “now what?” definitely hangs over the film, rather distractingly, but it also lacks a consistent through-line or driving concept. Essentially, this film is a collection of people Paine likes (such as Elon Musk, who also appeared in his far superior Revenge of the Electric Car). Granted, if the concept of the Singularity is new to viewers than Paine’s film will probably strike them like a revelation of Biblical proportions. However, anyone who is well-versed in A.I. futurism, especially those like Ray Kurzweil (also heard from briefly) who take a more optimistic view of things, will find the film rather stitched-together, shallow, and not particularly cinematic looking.

At least Paine and company think the extinction of mankind would be a bad thing. That might sound like faint praise, but the increasing number of end-of-the-world-Singularity films arguing mankind had it coming and was no great loss anyway has been downright disturbing. Can we still save ourselves? Any ideas are welcome at this point. Maybe next time, Paine could ask for some. Despite the timeliness of its message, Do You Trust This Computer? simply is not sufficiently well-put-together to recommend (AlphaGo is a much better film that addresses the future of AI far more engagingly and comparatively more optimistically). For those with a deep interest in the subject matter (cheers for them), it opens this Friday (8/17) in New York, at the Cinema Village.

Genesis: The Singularity Get Biblical

By now, we know any post-apocalyptic shelter named “Eden” will be anything but. The Biblical references will not stop there. It is 2067 and humanity isn’t quite dead enough, so we will go ahead and hasten the Singularity to finish the job in Freddie Hutton-Mills & Bart Ruspoli’s people-hating Genesis (trailer here), which releases today on DVD.

Paul Brooks earnestly tries hold the last dregs of human civilization together as the civilian proles’ official liaison to the Eden government, but he is losing heart. The government elites keep slashing rations, even though they still eat quite well themselves. Like Marie Antoinette, they treat the “Civvies” like dirt, insisting they do nonsensical “punishment duty” for minor infractions. Basically, this entails walking around outside, until their environmental suits start losing their integrity. You’d think they would just stand still, to cause less wear and tear, but they can’t help wandering off. Periodically, some sort of environmental death ray flares up, forcing them to take shelter in rusted-out cars. Considering how many wrecked jalopies are out there, you’d think they could use them to build a bigger base.

Dr. Eve Gabriel (her name is a double-whammy) still has hope—and he is named Abel (seriously). That is the AI android built with technology developed by her late husband. It/he also happens to be the spitting image of the robotics scientist. Dr. Gabriel hopes that Abel will be able to forage for food and potentially scout for other human survivors, because he can walk around the post-apocalyptic surface without a hazmat suit. Yet, as Abel learns more about human nature and starts thinking for himself, the implications become rather awkward for Team Eden.

Why do Hutton-Mills & Ruspoli hate their fellow humankind so much, they want to eradicate us as a species? Frankly, the theme that humanity has become too sick to merit survival has become alarmingly prevalent in science fiction and end-of-the-world films in recent years. Okay, so maybe people hate Trump, but killing us off as a species definitely seems like overkill.

In this case, Genesis is not just rehashing a particularly problematic theme. It is basically cobbled together from bits and pieces cast-off from dozens of more accomplished sf films. A particular head-slapper is the big revelation that comes midway through. We won’t be outright spoilery, but as a hint, it was probably lifted from the original Bladerunner.

Compared to Genesis, Singularity (with John Cusack) is still complete junk. This film has a boatload of issues, but it benefits tremendously from the reassuring presence of John Hannah. He has a lot of accrued good will from Four Weddings and a Funeral and The Mummy franchise. In fact, Hannah is terrific doing the post-apocalyptic thing in the honestly entertaining Gina Carano vehicle, Scorched Earth, but we can only follow him so far here.

Likewise, Olivia Grant is considerably better than this movie deserves as Dr. Gabriel, who has quite a developmental arc. For what it’s worth, Warren Brown is also decently nefarious as Sec. Jordan Ainsley. Unfortunately, Chiké Okonkwo takes the vaguely sketched Abel and makes him almost impossibly boring, for a genocidal machine.

This is bad future speculation, bad character development, and bad world-building. Yet, the conclusion promises (threatens) more to come. As armchair futurologists, our analysis says a Genesis sequel (probably to be titled Revelations) is highly unlikely. Not recommended, Genesis releases today on DVD.

Singularity: John Cusack Hates People

It represents the maybe not so theoretical point at which artificial intelligence surpasses the old fashioned human variety. The implications for humanity are pretty scary, but at least the exponentially upgrading AI would not make a moronic movie like this. Mankind is done for, but we only have ourselves and John Cusack to blame in Robert Kouba’s Singularity (trailer here), which releases today on DVD.

Robotics industrialist Elias Van Dorne is about to solve the world’s problems by switching on Kronos, a supposedly utopian AI program. Unfortunately, Kronos immediately decides the only thing wrong with the world is all the people, so it naturally begins exterminating all us pesky buggers. You would think a genius like Van Dorne would have seen that one coming. Actually, he sort of did. That is why he took the precaution of uploading his consciousness and that of his craggy associate Damien Walsh into the Matrix, or whatever.

Ninety-seven years later, the Van Dorne and Walsh analogs oversee the hunt for the remaining human remnants. When we last saw Andrew Davis, he was returning from a visit to his mother on Armageddon day, wondering why he didn’t have more chances to direct films after he was nominated for The Fugitive. Consequently, he is quite confused to wake up in the post-apocalyptic Czech countryside.

Thanks to the hybrid AI programs’ exposition heavy chit chat, we quickly realize he is a trojan horse they have developed. The idea is he will hook up with the Hunger Games wannabe Calia, who will lead them all to the fabled human refuge, Aurora. For some reason, she thinks a crossbow is the best weapon to use against hunter-robots (maybe she found it in the crossbow range on the grounds of Prague Castle). She is not inclined to trust, but Van Dorne 2.0 was fiendishly clever, endowing Davis with a moral compass and free will, making it a lead pipe cinch he will win Calia over.

Kouba tries to dress the film up with some big concepts in Singularity, but it is still dumber than a bag full of hammers. No wonder mankind is so perilously close to extinction—intuition has completely disappeared. It also represents a new nadir in John Cusack’s current string of straight-to-DVD or “excuse-me” stealth theatrical releases. Reportedly, he shot his evil digital overlord scenes years after the rest of the film was in the can.

Cusack’s screen time might be brief, but he is still awful as Van Dorne, not that he has much to work with. The character might have been somewhat provocative is he were some kind of over-population worrywart, like Warren Buffet, but there is no real reason provided for his apocalyptic betrayal of humanity. As Davis, Julian Schaffner looks like he could fly off with a strong gust of wind. Veteran character actor Carmen Argenziano looks visibly bored as the Walsh digital-construct, but can you blame him? Only Jeannine Wacker’s Calia/Katniss shows any signs of life, but it definitely comes in a losing effort.

The maddening lack of resolution is obviously designed to spur enthusiasm for the intended epic space opera follow-ups, but it is hard to imagine anyone who watches Singularity will be eager to come back for more. That’s what happens when you do not concentrate on the task at hand. Not recommended, Singularity releases today on DVD.

Sundance ’13: Google and the World Brain

If you were to list corporations arrogant enough to initiate the Terminator franchise’s Skynet apocalypse, Google would have to rank at the top.  In fact, they might be the entire extent of the roll.  Ben Lewis documents enough characteristic weirdness and secrecy surrounding the company’s controversial book-scanning initiative to provoke all sorts of paranoia with Google and the World Brain (trailer here) which screened as part of the World Documentary Cinema Competition during the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

It sounded innocent enough during the early stages.  Google approached some of the greatest academic libraries, offering to scan their collections.  For librarians, it offered the opportunity of digital preservation, without taxing their institutional budgets.  However, many were surprised to find Google selling the resulting e-books online, including a considerable number of titles that were out-of-print, but not out of copyright.

To the considerable number of authors affected, this constituted theft of intellectual property.  Yet, many techy tea leaf readers were even more concerned about the big G’s ultimate aim.  Although not confirmed by the company, the book-scanning project is largely considered to be part of a larger undertaking to create a “World Brain” artificial intelligence.

Foster employs the words of World Brain proponent H.G. Wells to introduce the concept, but you do not have to wear a tin foil hat to be uneasy with his “paternalistic” rationalizations.  Likewise, given the big G’s history collaborating with the Chinese government (briefly addressed in the doc), one does not have to be a conspiracy theorist to be uneasy with the company potentially keeping tabs on what books people read in the future.

Of course, it is hard to say just what the big G’s intentions are because they are not particular talkative about that.  Despite his efforts, Foster only gets a bit of corporate flakery from an official spokesman and some less than illuminating comments from the rather confused sounding head of Google Books in Spain (who evidently did not get the memo).  One thing comes through loud and clear in G & WB.  If you want to talk to the big G about a cup of coffee, you will quickly find yourself signing non-disclosure forms.

While not exclusively about the court challenge to the big G’s settlement agreement with the Authors Guild, this is unquestionably Lewis’s strongest material, becoming the dramatic backbone of the film.  Plenty of those objecting to the arrangement talk on-camera about the complex court case and their wider reservations.  We also hear from the usual futurist suspects, essentially picking up where they left off in Welcome to the Machine. 

Further distinguishing it from other tech docs, G & WB sports some surprisingly cool graphics that nicely serve the narrative clarity.  In a minor quibble, the film commits a fallacy of composition when it lumps together several ongoing court cases related to e-books that are really more about commercial practices than control information.

It takes guts to question a company with the resources and self-righteous image of the big G.  In doing so Lewis tells a great David vs. Goliath story and raises some pertinent ethical issues for the information age.  Well thought out and lucidly presented Google and the World Brain is recommended for the Wired set and book publishing dinosaurs as it makes the festival rounds following its world premiere at this year’s Sundance.

Welcome to the Machine: The Singularity is Nigh

It is like the Rapture for geeks.  The Singularity is the not so theoretical point at which artificial intelligence eclipses the old school human variety.  For some, it summons dystopian images of The Matrix.  Others anticipate a golden age of brain implants and downloaded consciousnesses.  It may well be the world filmmaker Avi Zev Weider’s newborn triplets inherit.  Weider explores the evolving relationship between man and technology on their behalf in Welcome to the Machine (trailer here), which opens this Friday in Brooklyn.

Delivered ten weeks premature, Weider’s daughter and two sons spend the first months of their lives connected to machines.  The products of in vitro fertilization, their lives are truly defined by technology.  Most of Welcome’s experts argue that is a good thing.  First and foremost is Ray Kurzweil, the developer of the famous synthesizer and the reading machine for the blind, who now serves as the leading evangelist for the Singularity.  Kurzweil argues the scary sounding turning point might even offer a means to pseudo-immortality.

Others are not so sure.  MIT technological ethicist Sherry Turkle is cautiously cautious about the implications of blurring the distinctions between humanity and technology.  Philosophy lecturer David Skrbina goes further, often citing the work of his notorious correspondent, Ted Kaczynski.  Skrbina suggests the Unabomber is something of a prophet regarding the dehumanizing effects of technology.  While undeniably learned in his field, the extent to which Skrbina adopts Kaczynski’s arguments is problematic.  Aside from the Unabomber’s lethal methods (largely unremarked upon in Welcome), it seems highly dubious that the pre-industrial serfs eking out a subsistence existence lived richer, more examined lives than the majority of those in the contemporary industrialized West, including the working class.

By periodically tracking the development of his triplets, Weider provides a pointed, if perhaps inadvertent rejoinder to the borderline Luddite premises of Skrbina and his pen pal.  Without the advancements of modern medicine, Weider’s three babies could never survive (and would not have been conceived in the first place).  Oddly enough, Welcome could be a big hit with the pro-life community.  According to the filmmaker, he and his wife were not so subtly encouraged to abort one of the triplets.  Although their first year is an exhausting struggle, it was clearly worth the effort for their parents.  Along the way, Weider also provides a behind the scenes look at the U.S. military’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicle program, which certainly ought to interest the same audience.

Anyone who watches Welcome will wish all the best to Weider and his lovely children.  For the same reason, they will shake their heads in disbelief when he also attempts to correspond with Kaczynski.  This is not someone who ought to have your contact info.  Just ask the three people killed by his mail bombs.  Regardless, there is enough discussion of artificial intelligence, military drones, and robotics to keep the Wired magazine crowd consistently engaged.  At least one cut above a Discovery Channel special, Welcome to the Machine is worth considering should you happen to be in Brooklyn over the coming week.  It opens at the ReRun Gastropub this Friday (1/11).