During the 20th
century, the world witnessed the new barriers of technology and how we
managed to reach new frontiers in a short span of time. During this
period, writers and scholars like Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Anthony
Giddens and Ulrich Beck giving us their view on a dystopian future and
its consequences.
The
consequences of the technology have also been shown countless times in
popular culture with movies and TV-shows based on these futures coming
out every year. Most of the movies have very clear key-messages on the
danger of technology such as the film-adaption of ‘1984’, ‘Blade Runner’
and ‘The Matrix’ where none of them are meant for kids.
A
movie, that was meant for kids but does have some of the same
key-messages as the previous mentioned movies is the 2008 Pixar/Disney
movie ‘Wall-E’. Some of the messages and symbolism we can see throughout
the movie are ‘consumerism’, ‘technological dependency’, ‘artificial
intelligence’ and ‘pollution’.
In
‘Wall-E’ we follow the robot Wall-E programmed to clean up Earth after
our home planet has been destroyed by pollution caused by the over
excessive use of modern technology in the modern society.
The
movie represent a lot of different interesting themes as mentioned
earlier, a lot of them related to the ethics and dangers of technology.
Some of the questions raised when watching the movie can be, is
technology worth the risk? Are we to play God? Can robots be, and
treated as humans (in the movie, Wall-E, a robot, develops feeling).
In
the movie, our earth is destroyed because of the humans. In the recent
years the awareness on the possible dangers to our nature has increased.
In 1986 Ulrich Beck released his book ‘Risikogesellschaft’, which was translated and published to English in 1992 under the title ‘Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. Short time after the German release in 1986, the Chernobyl disaster happened and showed the relevance of the book.
In
the book Beck raises the question on nuclear energy and other types of
modern technology used in the modern society. He debates whether or not
the risks are worth the potential cost of the technology: “should
the possibility of an ecological catastrophe be accepted, for instance,
in order to satisfy economic interests?” (Beck 1992, p. 29)
So
the notion Beck describes in his book regarding the advancement in
technology in the real world can also be seen in Wall-E. Bech did mostly
focus on nuclear energy, but did also talk about technology in general
and the excessive use of this in the rich countries and how it will
affect, not only them, but also the rest of the world.
The pollution that has led to the destruction of Earth is far from the only thing that is illustrated in the movie.
In
the movie, the world is portrayed as being ruined by mankind, while the
humans has left earth behind and instead have taken life to space in
the spacecraft ‘AXIOM, where they in the comfort of chairs, being served
by robots and watching TV all day long. Mankind has left the earth,
destroyed and now enjoy life far away from the problems.
Regarding
the question of technology, the way the people live on ‘AXIOM’ may be
the most important issue. In the movie, the people who has left earth
behind live in a world where they are in their comfortable chairs,
getting served by the robots, while eating and watching TV all day.
The
portrayal of the humans in the movie is negative. They are shown as
obese, polluting, non-independent and self-less; all supported by the
technology surrounding them.
In
the screencapture from the movie as seen above, two people aboard the
‘AXIOM* are talking to each other using some form of video-chat
application similar to Skype, even they are sitting right next to each
other.
In
the 1991 book “Modernity and Self-identity”, Anthony Giddens describes
how we because of the new technological innovations leading to a more
globalized world, are able to “move” away from the previous closed
spheres and communicate with the world around us. At the same time we
are always opted to take new technology into account and make decisions
whether or not to use these medias and how. (Giddens, 1991, pp. 103-105)
Giddens
described this as having both positive and negative impacts.The
constant stream of new choices can be confusing and lead to people not
being on the same ‘level’ as their peers and miss out in the social
sphere.
In
“Wall-E”, the use of the new technology is illustrated in a bad way.
The users have taken the new technology into use, but because of this,
they are missing out on social interaction. By only interacting with
your peers using online communication, you miss out on important parts
of social cues, and people will build up their view on you via the
information you give out using your online connectivity (Baym, 2010, p.
119)
In
the movie, the technology has negative outcomes and seems to have a
tight grip on the humans that aren’t able to see clearly and has no
intentions of leaving the faux world to get back to their old and ‘real
world’ as the technology has so many advantages.
There
seems to be a paradox in the movie. The humans has lost their free will
to technology and the evil corporation controlling it. Their only hope
is a saviour, which in the movie, is Wall-E - another piece of
technology.
References:
Baym, Nancy 2010, ‘Personal Connections In The Digital Age, Polity Press
Beck, Ulrich, 1994, ‘Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity’, Polity Press
Giddens, Anthony, 1991, Modernity and Self-identity, Stanford University Press
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