Hopefully a Very Distant Future

              Artificial Intelligence is a film that takes place in the distant future. This portrait of the future is hardly recognizable to us. Things we once believed to be true are completely different and our world is turned upside down. New York City, the once glorified city of the world, is now completely under water due to human irresponsibility. Perhaps this is the filmmaker’s way of indicating how he believes climate change will impact our futures. This is a huge wakeup call to the audience as we realize that much of the world’s land mass has flooded causing a large depletion of our natural resources. This lack of resources ultimately results in an international licensing of pregnancies. We see ourselves in a kind of futuristic China where our reproductive abilities are left up to governance. Fortunately, the film presents us with a solution to this problem of reproduction. Robots. But not just any robots, robots that are practically indistinguishable from human beings. These robots or “mecha” are thought to be the solution to all our problems because they don’t take up any resources such as food or water. Sounds perfect, right?

Wrong.

                

               These advanced machines are highly disliked by many humans. But for what reasons? Do they pose a threat to us? Why would we be so threatened by the very thing that’s supposed to be the solution to our every problem? Perhaps we as humans don’t like the idea of something trying to be us that simply isn’t. Or maybe we are jealous of the fact that these machines are perfect in the ways that we can’t be. After all, we can’t live for 2000 years like David can, but I’m sure many of us would like to. Maybe the problem isn’t the robots at all; maybe it’s simply our envy of what they can be that we never will be.

             

             At the end of the day, David really isn’t any different than a human, other than the fact that he isn’t organic. But does being organic really classify us as being a human? Do we really need to be conceived in our mother’s womb to be considered human? I think that in the future it may be safe to say that being born in a science lab is just as authentic as being born from your mother. David can feel love, pain, happiness, and sadness, just as an organic human can. Perhaps the real irony in this whole movie is the fact that David is going on a quest to become a “real boy” when maybe he’s actually more real than all of us. After all, in the end, David is the only trace of the human race left behind. We could even go as far as saying that the human race’s only purpose in the world was to create the robots and once they achieved that, they died off.  So maybe the only “real” beings in the world are robots and God’s plan for humans was solely to create the robots. The most humorous part is that a great portion of the film was spent watching humans attempt to triumph the mecha out of their dislike, but ultimately the mecha triumphed the humans without even trying. I think the real reason that the organic humans disliked the mecha is because deep down they knew that one day they would all be gone while the mecha continued to prosper. This could potentially tell us a lot about what the future holds and I for one hope they don’t create mecha anytime soon because we won’t be around much longer after that.