They made a big point about it in the film. If you die in The Matrix, you die in the ‘real world’ because your brain doesn’t recognise the difference. Maybe that’s why death is such a weird thing to us, because we have no reference point for it, you just aren’t here anymore. And that’s the thing, traces of that person are still there, things they owned, people they loved and who loved them (in best cases), a legacy left behind whether it be by way of family, or money or achievement. Some people fear not having any of those things to leave a mark with, leaving nothing to show you were even there. And I’m sure there have been many that fall into that category. But what if it was the other way round. You don’t die, but everything is taken away from you as if you had, your existence is wiped out, while you are still alive? All because the computer says no. I’ll do a film list again as I think it illustrates my point, and where lots of these ‘new systems’ seem to be headed.

Enemy of the State (1998) – a very good example of what happens when you are in the way of something the government is up to, and the lengths they may go to eliminate you, or removed you from being able to function in everyday life. By freezing bank accounts, tapping phone lines, using satellites to monitor and pursue a person. All because they knew something which could incriminate people doing wrong. Put forward as fiction, but you can very easily see the problem when you watch it.

Hackers (1995) – another good example of what can go wrong with technology being wielded by those who have nefarious agendas. But it is tech people who save the day, by using their own tools against them, but the main point for this film, was one thing mentioned in it. As a threat in fact to try and bribe someone, showing that they could digitally alter someone’s image to match a name and details of a criminal, have them arrested, and then change the picture back, so that they are then ‘lost in the system’. It may seem like a small thing, but an awfully important one. If you can’t prove who are because a computer says otherwise, and is treated as more trustworthy than a human (despite being designed and programmed by a human in most cases), then what chance do we have? We have already had the rise of the machines, and were we too lazy to even notice, let alone resist or ‘fight back’?

Eagle Eye (2008) – a national security computer goes rogue and sort of pretends to be a person in order to get people to do things, communicating through telephone, text and email, ordering things and setting up locations and instructions. All very weird, but a good film. But again, as with the next film, highlights how something programmed by a human, and is set with limited parameters will not be to our betterment, in my opinion.

iRobot (2004) – another where the initial programming by a human is taken very literally by a robot created to save us all from ourselves, who then unleashes a robot attack to control people ‘for their own good’ because we are so destructive. But that film is mentioned here for its coordination of said robot army, all connected by a central hive link, all marching to the same drum. If they get to monitor all your conversations, and always listen, as well as talk silently themselves, how would you know?

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – Hal. Need I say more?

There is something very sinister about a person trying to be your overseer, and be in control of your every move, deciding what to ‘allow’ or ‘deny’ you, so why would it be any less creepy because it is a mechanical representation of a humanistic ideal. Robots are already intertwined with our current society, just the faceless ones behind the scenes, the programmes and the AI they have running things or involved. But now they want them to have faces, and legs and some kind of presence right alongside you. Taking away the personal human approach, which to be fair, has been on the downturn for a while and not entirely by accident. Hoping maybe that people will gladly accept any company, even robotic, if they have been starved of proper human interaction for long enough. And then it becomes the go to for comfort, and people become less familiar. Perhaps. But the powers that be already do, and will continue to hide behind technology and systems, seeming incapable when the computer says no, to understand what you mean when they say the computer is wrong. That won’t even be a thing in their future. It will never be wrong as long as it is rigged in their favour. The camera never lies as they used to say…

(c) K Wicks

Two categories that we are apparently set for, or have been set for us. And recently it couldn’t be clearer that we are viewed as a commodity when useful to them, and a burden when not. So, they seem to view us as either a useful idiot, when we are in our prime, or well-placed to further a cause, and then become useless eaters if then in need of housing, care or assistance. And it seems that term is no longer just reserved for the elderly – I was quite shocked though to hear it first from my elderly grandparents, who saw it as a practical comment. I did not, and it led to many a conversation about how people are viewed in society, and what is considered ‘useful’ from a corporate ideal. And I get it if you are that type of person, why you might think like that, I really do. But as with many things, it just lacks heart, and it shows. A cold-hearted society may be a practical one, and even efficient in terms of productivity to a point, but doesn’t lead to any form of contentment or happiness. But those things don’t seem to be considered or cared about in reality, only in theory and for the purposes of trying to sell you things and ideas to make it seem so, because if it was in fact paramount that people should be healthy, happy and content first, and profit, products and Consumerism came second, we would be in a very different place. But we aren’t. We are here.

I have mentioned in many articles how it would appear to be a systematic breakdown and change of society, It seems an attack covers much of this, but there was also a darker side being revealed throughout this last few years. Touched on in a few articles, It looked sinister, More than sinister, and It’s big business, but even now it continues and gets worse as time goes on. The push to offer people medically assisted death is on the increase, conveniently after they have put something out onto the market which can cause a terrible chain of events that may lead someone to feeling like that. A few cases of people doing it just because they have mental illness is a bit of a shocker, not that it is offered, I’m now used to that level of sinister, but that people chose it. Or do they? Is it just an idea that is put there like so many others, then all roads are narrowed towards it, steering you in that direction which you would have never found your own way to? I wonder. But it seems it’s the commonwealth countries mainly shouting about it, Canada making headlines now with it, but last year it was New Zealand, and there was talk of it two years ago in the UK. They are making so much money out of sickness and death it’s obscene. But as I have pointed out before, by allowing people to die what we would consider prematurely, it frees up lots of resources and assets in the eyes of the government. Why do you think they wanted The digital Doomsday Database? Because then they can run the numbers and probably work out that if they remove lots of pensioners, hey, no pensions to pay, and their property and assets can either be taken, or made to go back into society. It’s shocking how much money is made from elderly people in care homes, and that there is a great incentive to put them there, rain their resources if they had any, and then quietly get rid of them. Some people it seems have been investigating for years and trying to reveal the fact that care homes, doctors, lawyers and officials are all in on it in some cases, facilitating vast sums of profit from making sure someone gets put in a home, and cannot deal with their own affairs thereafter, sometimes being drugged into compliance, article Security goes into that a little more if interested. If you don’t think they would do that to old people, think again. If they are willing to drug children at school for the sake of making them fit the mould, I have no hesitation in thinking they would do the same to old people, who in their eyes are no longer fit, and are being an obstacle to profits and material wealth. Hell, even family members sometimes view their own like that, so again, is it so hard to believe that someone who has never met you and has dollars in their eyes, may view you as such?

And it’s not just pensioners now and children who are being targeted for their vulnerabilities, it’s all age groups, for various reasons. Creating new waves of illnesses, problems and dependency, destabilising the economy and well and truly upsetting the applecart as one might say. Bringing more vulnerabilities out in people, making sure there will be a new generation beholden to their tightly woven net of society, where they can tie you in and make sure you always have to keep coming back to them, with your cap in hand like little orphan Oliver saying ‘Please sir, can I have some more’. They are even talking of taking people out of the breeding process to a point, with babies that can grown in pods, covered in (Pod life). Detached from an early point, in more ways than one. But currently it would appear that whatever role you play in society, you still fall into the two categories in the eyes of ‘them’. And when you have served your purpose, there are rumours that useful idiots don’t always get to become useless eaters, because they know too much. And many of the useful idiots don’t even know they are one, and seem shocked when someone else points it out to them. Whether that is genuine shock or just part of the act, who knows, but finding out you have been used as a pawn or weapon without your knowledge must be quite unsettling if you hadn’t realised up until then.

But whether they think we are one or the other, they still model lots of things around that premise, seeing us a targets, goals and percentages. And the most import thing to them, profit and money. How much do we cost? How much can they save? How much is enough or too much? They appear to be working to margins, and we are one of them. Talking about scaling back, net-zero, more targets and goals to reduce this, and stop that. Quite the opposite from what the captains of industry apparently stood for. But while they talk of it, and show pretty charts with almost childish overlays of future cities, they hold expensive fuel guzzling presentations around the world to ‘discuss it’, and want to be seen as the ones in charge of these decisions. Talking something by stealth, rather than by force. They need volunteers to make these things work, it has to appear a certain way, otherwise it doesn’t work. Think of the film Logans Run, where everything was just fine until people started asking questions, and curiosity tore it all down in the end. But I wondered about how they got to that point, in the domed city in the first place. In the upgraded similar storyline of The Island, we are led to believe they are all grown down there and know no different (in pods I might add, so make of that what you will). So, what if in Logans Run, they all voluntarily went into the city, and shunned the outside world, as they were told too. Aeon Flux is another interesting film for a society living in a enclosed city, also with some power deluded people at the helm. It’s a feature of many films, and not one that should be overlooked, because while we may view movies of an exaggerated version of real life, or sometimes just a purely fictional story, there is often a thread of truth running through them all or give you a thought that sometimes should be followed. And it may well be that it leads nowhere, and means nothing, but sometimes it might mean something, and unless you follow it, how will you know…

(c) K Wicks