2001 A Space Odyssey Reflection

     

    A good and trustworthy friend of mine had recommended this movie to me a long time ago, describing it as "the best movie he's ever seen" and "one of the most influential movies ever." When finally watching it, I couldn't agree more with his statements. The cinematography (especially the opening shot, the images of the desert, Hal 9000 watching and placed in the background as both protagonists plot against the computer, etc.), soundtrack and special effects were definitely avant-garde and spectacular, despite the fact that the movie was published in 1968! Just seeing the movie's opening shot with the iconic soundtrack of "Thus Spake Zarathustra" and how influential it became for all other movies (like the beginning of Barbie) and commercials including an image of the moon and an astronaut is simply astonishing! It's quite fascinating to see the source of inspiration for all the other movies of the same genre that came afterwards, like Planet 51 or even Wall-E (especially when looking at the physical and plot-wise similarities of Hal 9000 and AUTO, the Axiom's villainous AI autopilot which handles the command functions of the ship). Both Hal 9000 and AUTO have their iconic red eye looking at the camera, like if breaking the fourth wall, as if looking at us, just like "Big Brother" does in the dystopian novel 1984 written by the great George Orwell. 

    Having heard about Kubrick through the "lenses" of my friend, he had told me that Kubrick was a man that paid extremely close attention to detail and would reshoot the same scene multiple times in order to have the perfect take, no matter how many times he had to reshoot it. I could see such statements coming to life when looking at how carefully Kubrick placed his shots and how well designed his sets were, thus telling us where to look at and what to look at (truly making us absorb each frame from start to finish). The beginning of the film, as well as the transition from the bone (used as a weapon) to then spatial conquest is simply exquisite. When looking closely at this sequence, and all the topics we've discussed in class, I can't stop thinking about the Tower of Babel (first seen in Metropolis) and how humans always try to be more ambitious than what they should (which then brings them negative consequences). The reason I'm saying this is that, despite the literature and its realistic approach regarding AI, why do humans persist with creating humanoid robots that will change the course of our history either for better or for worse? Is it because of profit of having technology as a big tool that can replace humans? (such as AI replacing artists, for example). It truly raises a lot of questions within me and our future as a species. 

Anyway, when also reading about the movie's trivia through IMDB, I learned that it took about 12 hours to put makeup on Keir Dullea (Dave Bowman in 2001: A Space Odyssey) for when he appears older in one of the most bizarre sequences in cinema. Something that I took notice from the movie was its convergence culture (as seen with brands like Hilton Hotel appearing in the spatial station near the moon), which reminded me of Blade Runner: 2049 (with brands like Coca Cola appearing in it). As for its ending, I've seen that many have speculated that the last sequence inside the monolith could be of extraterrestrial precedence, or simply a religious text, or even an allegory to Nietzche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, which talks about how a man can be a bridge between apes and Übermensch (a philosophical context about a man choosing to live in unrest and solitude), while at the same time talking about the potential of mankind (which we can refer to if we look closely at the beginning of the movie). However, my personal favorite allegory is the conception allegory, which I understood it like a rebirth, like a new era (like if we're envisioning the future through the lens of a newborn, or even God, and rightfully so, especially seeing how our future is coming closely to what we've seen in sci-fi). 

    As for robots having feelings such as being afraid, I don't know if it could be possible, but seeing how an AI like Chat GTP can show levels of empathy, I truly wonder if this could be achievable! Does that mean that we will be creating a race of robots? Avant-garde sci-fi games such as Mass Effects, even in its fictional universe, it gives us real science behind its different species such as the Geth: a race of networked artificial intelligences that have their own culture, language and even weaponry, which could be our future as we speak of, as we see technologies being able to resolve mathematical or geometrical problems and ideas that a human couldn't resolve nor think of. Now it's a question of coexisting, but why despite all the sci-fi movies taken a stance against AI doesn't prevent us from building what could be the extinction of our species or even a war against technology, or even all the ethical questions surrounding AI? That I can't tell, but time will (if I'm even alive to witness it with my own eyes).