"Experiencing the Fear of Technology"

From Robo Culture Wiki

-The end of the human resistance is fast approaching-

The rise of technology will no doubt lead to our downfall as the eminent creatures on earth. One can often turn to popular media to witness this fantasy unfold with such films as the Terminator and Matrix series that construct an artificial intelligence far superior to human intelligence. Cyborg’s and robots are faster, stronger, more effective and above all more efficient. These representations arguably help further the fear of technology that exists within our society, but because we as humans are such morbid beings our society relishes in these experiences of the human extinction.

In his article Welcome to The Desert of The Real Slavoj Zizek discusses the ‘passion for the Real’ that exist within a contemporary human society (2001). Zizek refers to many examples where fantasies have led to a not so much unexpected experience of the Real. Among his examples the most compelling may be the World Trade Centre bombings. Zizek postulates that the World Trade Centre bombings should not have be seen as much of a surprise but rather the events were very imaginable and even predictable. Zizek’s perspective is based on the reality that the World Trade Centre bombings were reminiscent of previous images within social reality and popular culture. The bombings are simply an American fantasy come true. Rather than putting more focus on the World Trade Centre bombings I would like to turn focus back to the fear of technology as is represented within popular culture.

Zizekian thought suggests the Real and the imagination can and do meet, not at any predictable time or place, but that the passion for the imagined experience inevitably leads to Real experiences. Should we not take films like the Matrix and the Terminator more seriously, perhaps these films are warning signs of what is yet to come, or perhaps these films could one day be accredited blame for the downfall of the human species. For Zizek the Real is the world that exists “before it is carved up by language” and in order to experience the Real one must be able to cut through the deceiving layers that make up our virtual reality (p. 25). In the Matrix, Neo successfully achieves an encounter with the Real; he leaves the virtual reality and steps into the Real world that along with the human species has been destroyed by technology. Andy Wachowski, writer and director of the Matrix has alluded to the possibility that the virtual reality that we have come to know as our social reality is greatly influential in the Real world. The fear of technology created within popular media within those deceiving layers that we call social reality are infiltrating and affecting the Real. In the Matrix the fear of technology and the fantasy of human extinction comes to life for Neo when he enters the Real world, the imagination and the Real have met.

The question then gaining urgency from this discussion is will we, the human species, become endangered under the rule of technology? If Hollywood films like Die Hard (1988), Face/Off (1997), and True Lies (1994) that portray demonstrable terrorism in major United States cities are partly responsible for the World Trade Centre bombings than should we not fear film? If popular media and popular culture holds such significance within our society the action science-fiction film may not only be perpetuating the fear of technology, but the eventual extinction of the human species as well.

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[edit] Bibliography

Zizek, S. (2002). Welcome to the desert of the real. In S. Zizek (Ed.), Welcome to the desert of the real: Five essays on September 11 and related dates, (pp. 7-45). New York: Verso.