Silicon Valley: An awakening reflection

The movie Pirates of Silicon Valley is a film based on the book Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer by Paul Freiberger. The film was narrated by Steve Wozniak, co-developer of the Apple computer. The movie took off with Steve Jobs talking in a melodramatic way to the audience, it seems but as the angle of the scene shifts, it was shown that he was actually talking to a director and that they were currently in the middle of shooting a commercial which is for the Apple Computer.

The scene then changes showing Steve Jobs talking about some sort of alliance formed between Apple Computer and Microsoft with Bill Gates in the screen (details of this scene was showed later on in the film). Then the film featured a flashback on the younger days of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak where they are shown to be caught up in a riot between students and police officers and running in the opposite direction of the tide of people. 

The movie then proceeds to narrate the events that led to the development of the first Apple computer. The film also features the nerd character of Bill Gates who was then a nobody and even got ignored by Steve Jobs in a computer expo. The story then narrates how competition flared between the two leading companies and how they strived to outwit each other and finally, concluding in the scene where Steve Jobs and Bill Gates announced that they are good together.

In my opinion the real protagonist of the story was Steve Jobs not only because he got featured more in the film but also I admire his determination to uplift the name of Apple. Sure, he got some attitude problem going on but he did become successful, right? He also had flair in talking people into something but you really would not want to cross him when he’s angry or everything will just come exploding. The character of Bill Gates was quite hard to understand and I just kept seeing him as that nerdy kid who is nuts about computers.

The movie Pirates of Silicon Valley is a film based on the book Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer by Paul Freiberger. The film was narrated by Steve Wozniak, co-developer of the Apple computer. The movie took off with Steve Jobs talking in a melodramatic way to the audience, it seems but as the angle of the scene shifts, it was shown that he was actually talking to a director and that they were currently in the middle of shooting a commercial which is for the Apple Computer.

The scene then changes showing Steve Jobs talking about some sort of alliance formed between Apple Computer and Microsoft with Bill Gates in the screen (details of this scene was showed later on in the film). 

Then the film featured a flashback on the younger days of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak where they are shown to be caught up in a riot between students and police officers and running in the opposite direction of the tide of people. The movie then proceeds to narrate the events that led to the development of the first Apple computer. The film also features the nerd character of Bill Gates who was then a nobody and even got ignored by Steve Jobs in a computer expo.

The story then narrates how competition flared between the two leading companies and how they strived to outwit each other and finally, concluding in the scene where Steve Jobs and Bill Gates announced that they are good together.

In my opinion the real protagonist of the story was Steve Jobs not only because he got featured more in the film but also I admire his determination to uplift the name of Apple. Sure, he got some attitude problem going on but he did become successful, right? He also had flair in talking people into something but you really would not want to cross him when he’s angry or everything will just come exploding. The character of Bill Gates was quite hard to understand and I just kept seeing him as that nerdy kid who is nuts about computers.

Also tried to put everyone down who are in the same business even though Microsoft at first was an underdog. Still, he survived and also made Microsoft as a threatening counterpart to Apple.
Moreover, the movie highlighted on how Apple grabbed the idea of the Graphic User Interface from Xerox, how Microsoft purchased the first Disk Operating System from an underground programmer, and how Bill Gates developed Windows behind Steve Jobs’ back.

For these reasons, the revolutionaries were depicted by the title movie itself as the Pirates of Silicon Valley. Through this, they become the two richest men in the world.


What was really amazing about the film was that the two contenders actually worked together until Steve Jobs realized that Bill Gates developed Windows using the software that Apple had programmed for their computers.


The movie is really interesting for it caters the audience not only the development of the two largest computer companies nowadays but also the dramatic story behind it. 

You are spotted: EAGLE'S EYE (a reflection)

The mastermind of the plot, turned out to be a top secret supercomputer system, called "Autonomous Reconnaissance Intelligence Integration Analyst" referred to as Ariia tasked with gathering intelligence from all over the world. Ariia can control virtually anything electronic. In short, nothing can escape her surveillance. At the beginning of the movie, Ariia recommended aborting a mission due to the difficulty to prove a terrorist’s identity, but the President of the USA ignored the warning and ordered the attack to be carried out anyway. It turned out that the order was a mistake and all killed were civilians. Ariia then acted on her own, decided that the executive branch was a threat to public good and must be eliminated. She called the operation: Guillotine.

Well, I am not going to tell the whole story. You have to watch it yourself. What intrigued me is the title, Eagle Eye. Yes, this supercomputer system did have an eagle’s eye. Nothing electronic can escape her surveillance. She became such great power that was hard to defeat. Yet, her decision was not always right. When she acted on her own, conducted the solution she thought the best for the nation, she only caused destruction and chaos.

I come to know another “Eagle Eye”. Fortunately, this Eagle Eye never fails, nor has false judgment. His decision is always for the best, even when what I see is the contrary. Often times, my little brain just can’t comprehend His wisdom and timing. Technology, how sophisticated it is, may fail, but His guidance and plan always, I really mean ALWAYS, bring goodness to those who really believe and rely on Him and His never ending love. So, whenever you face the storm in your life, always remember that there is an Eagle Eye who watches closely over you, not only watching, the owner of the eye is also providing comfort and peace, the strength you need to overcome the storm.

Reflections On I, Robot

iRobot shows what happens when this sort of thinking is applied in real life and taken to an extreme. The central robot, VIKI , is bound by the three laws. One of these laws is that a robot will not allow harm to come to a human if the robot can do something to stop it. VIKI's analysis concludes that humanity is in imminent danger and there is only one course of action that can save mankind. The danger is mankind's own desire to control themselves. Throughout history mankind has destroyed itself and seems to be on a course for total self destruction. VIKI's solution is to control and dominate mankind "for their own protection". To this end VIKI enables a large robot army to attempt to establish marshal law.  

Of course the humans rebel and fight back. And finally, when confronted by the humans VIKI can't understand the problem with her (the computer has a female voice so I'll call her "her") analysis. She can't be reasoned with. As a last resort the humans have to destroy her in order to preserve their own freedom.

The lesson seems pretty clear and illustrates what many critics of the post-modern loose interpretation method have been saying. When there is no grounding in truth then people will naturally gravitate towards control and domination. Removing truth from a society eventually removes freedom and brings oppression. The example from Asimov's robots helps to make this point clear.

The movie is not showing in theaters anymore or I would recommend seeing it on the large screen. It is definitely a good rental. And yes, you can just turn off your brain and enjoy the movie. But then you wouldn't have anything interesting to talk about. :-)

Foreseeing the Future with Robots - Surrogates

In 2009, Hollywood gave audiences the latest example of the “future police procedural,” Jonathan Mostow’s Surrogates, starring Bruce Willis. Based on the 2005-2006 graphic novels by Robert Venditti, the movie adaptation is an 88-minute actioner packed with both intriguing ideas and insightful social commentary on the direction the human race may be heading. Specifically, the film involves the widespread use of avatars…uh, I mean surrogates.

 

In the near future (2017), ninety-eight percent of the human population makes use of robotic surrogates on a regular, daily basis. This means that the “real” person sits at home in a “stim chair” while his or her better-looking, virtually-indestructible surrogate engages with the world outside.

It is the perfect surrogate who commutes to work (thus cutting down on car accident fatalities). It is the perfect surrogate who engages in sexual intercourse (thus cutting down on the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases). And it is the perfect surrogate who fights our foreign wars (thus cutting down on military fatalities.) But there's a dark underside to this technology as well, as the movie quickly points out.

 

Indeed, it’s not a stretch to read the whole surrogate phenomenon/revolution as a comment on two specific components of our contemporary 2009 society. First, the anonymity of life (and work) on the Internet. And second, our society’s increasing and even dangerous obsession with youth, beauty and physical perfection.

 

On the former front, an obese bald man may have a surrogate out in the real world who is a drop-dead gorgeous blond woman. So when you have sex with her, are you really having sex with her? Or with the obese bald man?

 

Similarly, when we choose a name or “avatar” on the Internet, it may or may not reflect our true identities (including age, sex, nationality, ethnicity, political beliefs, or even physical appearance). In other words, our Internet and Surrogate personalities may be but vainglorious fiction. In aggressively living this fiction, this fantasy, the film asks, what do we leave behind in the real world?

 

In the film, surrogates indeed offer human beings a chance to build an entirely new identity, one outside the constraints of our biological blueprint. In one sense, this is extremely freeing and empowering: we can literally be anybody online (or in Surrogates, in the outside world). Interestingly, the film notes that racial discrimination has diminished in the world of surrogate robots. This is because you "choose" your identity. You can choose to be black, white, Asian, straight or gay, based on your desires, not your biology. in this future world, skin color and sex are just fashion statements.

 

Yet oppositely, the film suggests there’s at least some level of deception and perhaps even cowardice involved in recasting yourself as someone entirely "new" and "different" I mean, why hide behind the blanketing wall of anonymity if you really believe in yourself, your abilities, and your words? Why pretend to be something you aren't?

One possible answer is that the motives of the hidden "concealer" are impure. When cloaked in anonymity, we can vociferously criticize other people with no possibility of being personally attacked in return. Consider: when an anonymous source attacks a political opponent, is it because the attack is truthful, or because that anonymous attacker is paid to do so, or even already ensconced in an enemy camp? We just can't know. When an anonymous source reviews a movie or book savagely and viciously, is it because the anonymous author was beaten-up as a snot-nosed kid by the author or filmmaker in question? Again, there's just no way to know. Motives become opaque; words can't be taken at face value. Trust is lost.


So anonymity proves itself both a shield and a point of deception: How can we accurately judge the real value of persons' words if he or she won’t even stand behind his or her real name. Or behind his or her true appearance?

Wall-e:A film to ponder

Piersanti notes that the character Eve “looks like a machine designed by Apple and carries within her the seed of life.”

“The new woman, Eve, is not only beautiful and perfect but also has time to fall in love, save the world and restore the life of her boyfriend: an absolute revolution in Hollywood’s imaginary cinematography,” he added.

The male character in the movie is left with the task of finding a place for poetry and beauty in a world “without life, covered in trash and awaiting the return of humans who wander in a giant spaceship to again repopulate the earth,” Piersanti wrote. “The robotic Adam and Eve have the task of restoring to man the place that awaits him.”

While the film does not present an openly religious perspective, he continued, Wall-E does inspire reflection. This robot, “in his own way, loves and seeks out beauty. He is moved upon observing the stars. Eve and the other rebel robots disobey orders in light of a higher morality, one that is unique and not relative [to them]: the salvation of life.”

Piersanti notes that in the film, mankind hopes that Eve will bring meaning back to life because “they are prisoners of the technology that surrounds every detail of their lives. They have become obese and cannot walk with their own legs, and they have lost contact with those around them.”

“This is the real reason for the fascination with this movie,” he stressed. “In a world that is cold and covered with the trash of our technological gods, we can only re-encounter dignity and beauty by following the heart, only by seeking out beauty. While seeing this film one cannot help but think of the Scripture passage that says: ? “If the Lord does not build the house, in vane do its builders labor. If the Lord does not watch over the city, in vain does the watchman keep vigil.”

“This is what we are seeing as the third millennium dawns. Locked in a hyper-technological society,” Piersanti said, “we look to the future with anxiety, or worse, with indifference. The little robot Eve speaks to our hearts and makes us open our eyes again. She makes us think again about our whole lives with a light of hope that we thought we had lost,” he said.

 “How is this much different than the way we live our lives now?” This illustrates perfectly the uni-mind mentality of those who become sucked into the web of media messages from television, video games, cell phones, movies, and other sources which are a part of our everyday reality here in current-day Planet Earth. As our intellect levels disintegrate, our consuming nature takes over everything we do each and every day, and our planet becomes more and more filled with garbage and waste. We are too busy to prepare healthy meals, so we purchase packaged, convenience foods which provide little to no nutrition. After work and obligations are completed, we are too tired to exercise and engage with real people so we flop down in front of the television or video game and spend hours allowing our minds to escape into some alternative reality that bears no resemblance to real life. We spend our “spare” time in movie theatres, shopping malls, and in front of computer screens while neglecting the relationships with others and beauty of nature and outdoor life.

 

So obsessed are we with technology, products, and activities that allow us to become more absorbed in this lifestyle, we forget why we are here. Are we here to hoard and acquire and become fatter from eating engineered materials that taste good but fill up our bodies with toxic chemicals? Dear God, I sincerely hope not. But that is what humanity has been reduced to, and it is shocking and sad. Our existences are nothing like our ancestors who had to work hard each and everyday to make clothes and put meals on the tables for their families, make sure farm animals were fed and cared for, and who sat together at meal times and gave thanks for the few important things they had.

 

Some of us lament that we don’t have enough, but the fact is, we have so much and it means nothing to us. All we can think about is having more and more. In the United States, the average person living in poverty today still has more than many poor people throughout history. But by today’s standard of living, still, it’s not enough. What do people believe they need to make themselves happy? A bigger car, a bigger house? More clothes, more furniture? And when people get those things, does it make them happy?

When you take a look around you at the life you have created for yourself, stop and think: really think. Is this the kind of future we want for ourselves and our children, or do we want something better? Are you making an effort to live more naturally and be concerned with things that really are important? Or are you wrapped up in a life synthetic?