A number of Hollywood science-fiction films have shown the possibility that in the future; we will live in a society with remotely controlled androids. In Surrogates, humans have yielded to their virtual-reality-enabled recliners, as their robots substitute for them in the real world. Also in Avatar, the military clones biological hosts to work on an exotic world filled with unobtanium, a valuable mineral. While both movies use their own scientific shorthand, they propose a similar idea: It is only a matter of time before we become a race of puppet masters. The most featured part is that we will be able to feel everything that this robot does, but live without any worries about danger. Obviously, Hollywood's take on brain puppetry isn't exactly true to the current research. But the shortcuts taken by filmmakers highlight the promise, and the challenges, central to the bizarre new discipline of mind over matter.
Surrogates is set in the year 2017, when everyone stays at home and sends beautiful android versions of themselves out into the business of living. It's the ultimate form of telepresence, and experts such as Dr. James Canton believes it could happen in the next decade or so. In fact, a robotic company, Anybots, creates robots that operate through telepresence and demonstrates that humans can already interact through their artificial minions.
So we have remotely controlled robots, but what about the rest of the technology promised in Surrogates and Avatar Haptic technology, technology that interfaces with the user through the sense of touch, is currently being developed and Braingate, the technology of reading your mind in order to control computers and machines, is already with us. Moreover, Hanson robotics and Cyberdyne technologies are undergoing the development of good looking and strong robots as well.
The fundamental question is, though, do we want to be one We have to note that the idea of Surrogates wasn't created as a wholesale endorsement of the telepresence lifestyle. It's actually far from it. Vendetti wrote Surrogates after reading about relationships that failed when someone became obsessed with online gaming and social networking. The writer ridicules the American obsession with idealized looks, surrogates come with mouth-watering physiques, and our willingness to trade safety with freedom. Or rather, our belief that safety is freedom.
Ultimately, both movies end by depicting the brutality of the human race. All surrogates are permanently terminated when Agent Tom Greer (Bruce Wills) uploads a virus. He deliberately lets this happen after acknowledging that the human race has lost so much in this virtual-reality game. Moreover, in Avatar, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his comrades disobey orders from Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) believing that such avatar operators are deceitful and therefore unjust and corrupt. Whatsoever, both movies portray the technophobe versus technophile conflict that futurists have been worried about for a while. It reflects the real doubt some have about whether or not humans are losing their humanity in the technological ether.
