The Movie Ex Machina And Ideas of David Nye And Neil Postman

Introduction

The development of innovative technologies is beneficial since it increasingly determines the competitive advantage of major enterprises. Majority of modern operations employ the inclusion of technology and these include areas such as business institutions among others. The most awesome depiction of modern technological innovation has been through the use of films and documentaries showing important development and its implementation in several applications. These advancements have mainly been aimed at meeting the needs of the members of the society. Thus, society has defined the ethics and procedures that technology should show. The awareness of the need to have more development in technology is widespread which is evident from the international and national programs. The movie Ex Machina shows technological innovations and their application in robotics. The movie is useful in relating to the ideas of David Nye who says that the society can shape how a technology is incorporated and evolved and the notion of Neil Postman about technopoly that with uncontrolled growth of technology, there may be the destruction of vital sources of individual's humanity.

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Ex Machina tells the story of an employee and the boss. Caleb is a computer coder and had won a chance to spend a week at Nathan's house in the mountains, who was the CEO for the company. Nathan has used technology to develop robot using artificial intelligence. Nathan's house itself is on another level as seen in the way Caleb is instructed when he gets there. On arrival, he receives greetings from an automated system which then gives him the key card and directs Caleb to enter the property. However, Nathan is not there to receive him and Caleb wonders around before he finds him working out. Nathan mentions to Caleb that the key card could only open specific doors in the facility. Nathan also tells Caleb that he wants to treat him like a friend but throughout the film, it is clear that their relationship is awkward and tense. Nathan had been doing some experiments and the fact that Caleb was knowledgeable on the concepts f computer coding, he was to spend the rest of the week performing a live "Turing test" on Ava who is a fully humanoid artificial intelligence. The film then shows how Caleb and Nathan fall out when Caleb realizes that Nathan is abusive and should not be trusted. Nathan explains what he does with technology stating the manner in which her mind operates and that he uses his software to map the faces, voices and habits of the AI so that he gets to build a self-evolving brain.

In technology matters, David Nye states that technology is inseparable from being human. People have excelled in the use of old tools that help to solve new problems and there has been the use of new tools to come up with a more elegant solution to old tasks. The main idea that David Nye presents is that the consumers or society can shape how technology is incorporated or evolved. David states that it is the consumers and not the scientists who discover what is the next big thing because the majority of the new technologies are market-driven. It is the consumers that determine the products to use and they have a great influence more so on technology (Nye, 2007). The American social values do emphasize the aspect of individualized technologies in that every house needs to have its heating system even though the choice is inefficient and wasteful. This way, if the market shapes technologies, then the market, in turn, is inflected by the cultural values. Most of the critical technologies have achieved product-market fit because they are fun. David's ideas have a relation with the file Ex Machina in that it is true that the consumers shape how technology evolves in their choice and personalization (Nye, 2007). For Nathan to come up with full humanoid AI, the aim was to serve the choices of consumers and he may have reflected on their needs in the line of creating AI and making them more human. However, technology seemed not to evolve since Nathan portrayed values that were against those that the society requires. Nathan is abusive which is seen in several instances especially when monitoring Ava. Caleb also discovers that Nathan had tried to come up with more AIs but had failed and he threw them in his room. Kyoko is also an AI as Caleb comes to notice this later in the film. Thus, there is a plan that they come up with to do away with Nathan. The scene shows how the consumers and society are shaping the incorporation of AIs into the market. The boss is abusive and gets too drunk until he passes out which is not the ethical and moral thing to do. It is important that such technological advancements be in line with the values of the society because it determines whether the market concurs with the inventions or fully refute. The reason why the society is cautious about some innovations is that once the technology has gained momentum, it then becomes hard to modify or replace and it would not be advisable to come up with products that do not relate so well with humans. Variations in terms of designs tend to continue during the early stages of development until the design meets with the wide approval of the society and the customers regardless of the scientists. In that case, one a particular design becomes widely accepted, it gives a way to more innovations in production. Modifications of Ava that Nathan claimed would be successful in the test was to make sure that Ava would relate with humans the same way that Kyoko did. However, Ava also gained an insight into the true human character during the alterations and noticed that Nathan was not a good person thus coming up with the plan to eliminate him.

Neil Postman also suggests the state of technology in the article on Technopoly where he states that if the growth of technology is uncontrolled, it will lead to the destruction of the vital sources of humanity. Thus, a culture without a moral foundation is created and it also leads to undermining the mental processes and social relations that tend to make human life worth living (Neil, 1992). Neil's notion of modern technology is distrustful and he criticizes the attitude of the society towards the same. Postman states that individuals are entering the classification of technopoly which he defines as a totalitarian version of technocracy in that technology tends to reign supreme over the other aspects of culture. In the concept of Technopoly, Postman presents that the primary goal is the efficiency of labour such that the technical calculations that are superior to judgement by human beings and other things that cannot be measured are to be ignored or devalued (Neil, 1992). Above all else, he values precision and objectivity. Postman is critical about technopolies where his argument is that the focus on measurement and data over the feeling and subjectivity tends to destroy everything that makes people human. He suggests that science should not be the new moral authority in the society because science is designed to be objective and it should not form the basis of what is right or wrong. The discussion of Neil Postman also has an association with the film Ex Machina in that the invention of Nathan is towards artificial modification of items to be in the form of human. Postman refutes this idea because he says that it will be a way of creating a culture that has no moral foundation. This is true because Nathan edges on making most activities computerized and creating his own beings that would help with everything in the facility considering that Kyoko was an AI as well. Caleb is also a genius in the computer systems which Postman is against because he says that the power of technopoly is likely to reduce humanity. He goes ahead to ask the reader to consider the things they lose when they elevate technology above everything else. His main suggestion is that the society should uphold the need to human brain without any forms of modifications because it is not necessary to distort judgement of humans. It is true that technical expertise is required but society should also consider the power of the human brain.

References

Neil, P. (1992). Technopoly: the surrender of culture to technology.

Nye, D. E. (2007). Technology matters: Questions to live with. MIT Press.