
Is technology humanity's servant,
or its master? This section explores how films have addressed
this question. An important thematic motif in supercomputer films
is that computers surpass their human creators to such an extent
that they become god-like in their powers and/or in their own
ambitious imaginations.
- "Creator/Created" looks at several films in which supercomputers
attempt to wrest power from their human creators in an
effort to control human destiny.
- "Apotheosis, or:
Bomb 20 Learns a Little Phenomonology" recounts the brilliant final sequence of Dark
Star (1974), in which a desperate space-ship captain
tries to convince a thinking nuclear bomb not to
detonate.
- "Reinventing
God": Voltaire said that
"If there were no God, it would be necessary to
invent him." According to 2001: A Space Odyssey
and Demon Seed, this seems to be exactly what
the creators of hyper-intelligent computers are trying to
do--reinvent God.
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