Several friends in a row recommended the latest American drama "Upload", downloaded it and watched it, and finished the first season in one breath.
The background of "Upload" is set in 2033. The protagonist Nathan was killed in a car accident. The tyrant girlfriend Ingrid spent money to upload his consciousness to the virtual world-Lakeview, relying on traffic to continue to "live", hoping to join someday in the future He is together forever forever. The story unfolds from this.
The plot of "Upload" is quite simple, the rhythm is also appropriate, and it's a good meal. At the beginning of each episode, a mini comedy will be arranged, and then the word UPLOAD will be jumped out to start the narrative. Behind the relaxed atmosphere of "light comedy + technology", you can still feel the director’s small ambitions. In addition to the main story, there are many interspersed topics that increase the depth of the play, but they will stop there. If you like Dig deep, each one deserves a serious discussion.
Reality reproduction
The virtual world itself is a money transaction. The rich class continue to enjoy the first one percent of the privileges, unlimited traffic, and the reproduction of real luxury. The poor can only use the pitiful in the 2G world carefully. The book on the bookshelf only has a few pages of trial reading, and even the body is not complete. If the 2G traffic is used up this month, if you don’t recharge, you can only "petrochemical" and wait until the restart next month.
Capitalism, class, wealth, and poverty follow people to the "afterlife" and pack them together with snobbery, flattery, and love for the rich. It seems that humans cannot coexist peacefully without dividing people into different categories. Like.
Sometimes I find it interesting and frustrating. Many science fiction stories still copy the social structure of reality in the end, but it is understandable. After all, they have to resonate with the viewer. After all, for thousands of years, human nature is just like that, thousands of years later. , Human nature is like this. Sometimes when I go to an ancient village, I feel a thousand-year-old tree, think about this tree, and see how many jokes in the world.
The limitation of AI is also discussed in the play. For example, the death of the protagonist in an AI self-driving car is a huge irony. Bugs, hackers, the black market in virtual worlds, privacy, data congestion, authenticity, etc.
The evolution of human emotions conceived on the soil of technological progress has not only made it possible for cross-generational and cross-class consciousness to know each other, and allowed people in love to continue their love in another form, but also raised several question marks, staying at Can childhood consciousness still interact with the aging reality? Can real humans fall in love with virtual consciousness? And can you feel the same in life?
This drama probably reminds people of "Western World", "Black Mirror" and "She", an obsession with the future.
Of course, this drama is also a question that makes people think more deeply. I also want to take this opportunity to sort out.
Cogito ergo sum
On the first day when Nathan came to Lakeview, because life was out of control, I felt very frustrated. In the virtual life of the virtual world, everything is clearly priced, and the payment password is in the hands of his girlfriend. In addition, the unreality of the virtual world can be seen everywhere. The bug, the dumb AI waiter, caused pixel loss due to traffic congestion. All of this made Nathan crazy and wanted to jump into the data torrent and commit a second suicide in the virtual world.
At this time, Nora, also the customer service representative called "Angel" in the play, came to try to persuade Nathan not to commit suicide. She said, "I think, therefore I am."
This famous quote by Descartes really interprets the essence of the play: I think, therefore I am.
The virtual world is the continuation of human consciousness, and what is alive and what is dying, the continuation of consciousness may be another kind of alive, because consciousness may be meaning itself, as Fitzgerald said in "My lost city" "Triumph is in oneself".
The reason why people are human and the human world is the human world is not because of the accumulation of flesh, but the inheritance of consciousness. Language and body may only be a carrier. Just as the little daughter who became a Transhuman in the British drama "years and years" thought, the body is very stupid, and it is not infeasible to replace the body with code as the carrier of consciousness.
But the flesh also has the mission of the flesh. Although human beings can gallop the battlefield at the level of consciousness, it is inevitable that the flesh can perceive the whole world. Even in the virtual world, one has to imitate the taste and touch of the body in a poor manner. Three meals a day are required. There is even a "consciousness" that pays to experience a cold and runny nose. "Birth, old age, sickness and death" are deprived of three of them, and they can only be sick. Do something tricky.
Pain and pleasure have always been the common fulfillment of the body and consciousness. The relationship between the two brothers is like "name" and "reality". They have always been entangled and argued. But after living for a long time, I discovered that contradictions really do not live or die. Contradictions can only make concessions to each other, blending together, and fulfilling each other.
The body allowed the consciousness to settle down, and then received the air, and the consciousness allowed the body to sublimate and reach the sky.
Human beings are like wandering between the body and consciousness. When they are close to the body, they are close to the so-called needs of the world. When they are close to the consciousness, they are close to the so-called spiritual world. Everyone is admiring the greatness of the spiritual world. And disgusting carnal bondage, thus, distinguishes the superior and the inferior, which makes humans proud and distinguishes them from animals.
The dipper was placed on the altar for admiration. The family’s wealth was surviving, and the world was spurned by the world. Consciousness prevailed, or appetite took the lead. Because there are many who succumb to the flesh, but seldom see consciousness. Above the physical body, things are rare and precious. Are moral judgments based on this? But isn't the distinction between high and low morals also a product of consciousness?
Time and Space and Life and Death
When you stay at the initial setting age forever, as long as you continue to renew, you can live forever on Lakeview. You can rotate the button to adjust the outdoor spring, summer, autumn and winter in turn, and tap any place with the correction pen. , You can change the current settings.
Does the concept of "time and space" have meaning in the virtual world?
Kant put forward in his "Critique of Pure Reason" that the concept of "time and space" is a priori and exists before all experiences. "Time and space" was brought into the virtual world from the real world, but it was a lame version. The artificial sun and moon light and the changes of the four seasons made the virtual characters feel the flow of time, but such time was only completed in one day. Vibration does not go by with the passage of real time, and passage and eternity are contrary to each other.
The virtual world replaces death with deleting consciousness, and all consciousness can be deleted with a single swipe. If you get unlimited traffic, it is equivalent to getting the right to eternal life.
Abandoning death, is life still meaningful?
From the moment of birth, human beings run toward the fate of death, and no creature can escape from death, so it has all the meaning of life. Therefore, "living to death" is not a brave declaration, but the fate of all mankind. "When you are infinitely close to death, you can deeply understand the meaning of life."
"Born to be free, but omnipresent in the shackles", think from another angle, "everything is in the shackles, and people are born to be free", isn't the biggest shackle the deadline for death.
I am not qualified to say that freedom with restrictions is true freedom, but at least, freedom is more valuable with restrictions. Just like human beings cannot get rid of gravity and cannot live without oxygen, the freedom to live on is based on absolute "restrictions." It is indeed regrettable to admit this.
There is a scene in the play. The rich man who uploads his consciousness after death is not satisfied with the virtual world. He pays a lot of money to buy the first opportunity to "download life" and re-enter his consciousness into the clone in reality. Unfortunately, the technology is not yet mature. , The rich man only felt his physical perception for 4 seconds, and then his physical body and consciousness disappeared. Ingrid, the male lead’s girlfriend, said at the male lead’s funeral: "Let’s respect these 4 seconds." If life is short, then choose the gorgeous 4 seconds or eternal mediocrity. The answer is also different from person to person.
So what is the meaning of life? I am afraid that no outsiders can answer this question. The answer is from each individual.
But is there a universal answer in the world? This question is as abstract as asking the universal "truth, goodness and beauty".
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