Although this film does not directly discuss the AI part, it has vivid imaginations about self-awareness and virtual reality. It should be very avant-garde in the era (released in 1998). I watched it hastily when I was young, and recently re-watched it, only to understand the philosophical topics implicit in the movie.
1. What story does this movie tell?
It can probably be described as that aliens want to find hope from human beings due to their civilization declining, so they have built a dark city in space that can be transformed at will, using humans to experiment with thinking and memory. , An attempt to explore the principles of the formation of the soul, but ultimately failed. The story is overthrown by one of the objects of realization-the awakened male protagonist.
Two, several settings of the story:
1. Aliens have higher technology than humans and the ability to use ideas to transform matter, but they are more like low-level creatures in organization, with large-scale collective collaboration and obeying the will of the leader. The individual's behavior is for the purpose of achieving superior instructions, and lacks self-awareness, much like the result of a highly evolved bee-like organism.
2. Dark City, created by the idea of aliens. There is only a city in the dark. The number of residents is unknown. It is speculated that it should be hijacked and came to the city, tampered with memories, and lived according to the scenario set by aliens. It is the object of research. .
3. The psychologist, the person who was initially forced to betray humans, has been erased from memory, leaving only the professional skills as an intermediary for aliens to study humans, helping to implement plans and submit results, etc. He is the only one who knows part of the truth, confined to the experimental part. When the movie was on the boat at the end, he said that no one remembers where he came from, so he should have been hijacked too.
4. The protagonist, the awakened, one of the very few humans who perceive the truth, has the same ability as aliens, uses ideas, and transforms matter, and has a strong skepticism.
Third, what is discussed in the movie?
1. Zoo Hypothesis: It is an explanation of Fermi's paradox. The reason why humans have not yet perceived any alien civilization is because advanced civilization has discovered us, isolated us and observed it, or more Furthermore, we were originally the experimental subjects of advanced civilizations. The existing universe is virtual or set. Therefore, human detection is limited, including our senses and memories, which may be tampered with without knowing it.
2. Human self-awareness, and how to determine the root of self-uniqueness, is it just a continuation of memory? Does the soul really exist, and does it exist independently of memory and the body? This is the focus of alien research and what they believe is the key to understanding why humans are unique. In the movie, memory is abstracted as chemical substances that can be injected into the brain. If this is true, then is there any way to verify the authenticity of the memory? We are so dependent on memory, but if memory is unreliable, what can we rely on?
3. Is love a choice of free will or fate? After losing his memory, the male protagonist fell in love with his wife again. If he fell in love with the same person repeatedly in different memories, what was the decisive factor? Can it be explained that in the spiritual world, love is actually an attractive force between souls? Something that seems mysterious in the material world may be a universal law in the spiritual world. If it is a law, do people still have free will?
4. Conclusion and others.
This is a movie that still does not seem outdated. Many scenes are impressive. The atmosphere of the whole film is dark and strange, but it is also very exciting in terms of plot advancement, suspense, murder, love And other elements are integrated into the tone of science fiction, and the questions raised and the philosophy discussed are worth pondering and recommending.
*The director later made another film about artificial intelligence, "i, robot", which is more well-known than this one. At the same time, he is also the director of the Crow series of black cults.
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