Machines #AtoZChallenge

In this post, we are going to look at two movies that begin with the letter M, which both have images of dystopian future in which machines and the human-machine relationship shapes the dystopian future. Technology is a core component of many dystopias, especially the fear that we grow to dependent upon it, and it eventually will develop a mind and an agenda of its own.

The Matrix really needs no introduction. The Matrix is a computer generated dream world created by an AI to keep humans under control. The AI, once a human creation, fought back when the humans created a nuclear winter to prevent the AI from accessing solar energy. Free humans live in Zion near the Earth’s core or on Morpheus space ship (which has access codes to Zion). Those on the ship are rebels. looking for the One who, an Oracle predicted, can defy the AI program. That One is Neo (Keanu Reeves). The Matrix is a dystopian future controlled by machines, making it hard for humans to combat it, without high cost. In some senses, it requires a savior rather than a rebellion. Although NEO has to accept his role as the one, and in that there is agency, there is something overall dissatisfying about that as a true change strategy. The rebels spend their time looking for him, not figuring out how to overthrow the AI in power.

Metropolis is also another dystopian future in which fear of the machines is a core theme. It is a communist allegory, which pits the workers who manage the machines with the owners. The son of the factory owner falls in love with Maria, a woman from the working class, and chases after her. His father, to subdue the masses, uses a robot version of Maria to seed discontent. The movie is from 1927 and was made prior to the rise of Hitler, but it was prescient in terms of the threat of machines tied into human’s increasing dependence on and romance with machines.

Visit all the bloggers on the A to Z Challenge.