04 March 2014, 03:39 PM IST
Many have read Spike Jonze's latest film Her as a "sign of our times". Set in an indeterminate point in the future, it is the story of Theodore Twombly, a lonely man craving intimacy, who falls in love with a personalised artificially intelligent operating system (OS1) called Samantha. Guardian has called it a film "every internet addict should watch". Firstpost has termed it the "21st century love story".
The insularity of Theodore's world, his withdrawal from social interactions, and his loneliness seem to borrow heavily from the modern-day narrative around the "millennials". The generation is seen as, and often almost accused of, being asocial, dysfunctional in relationships, easily distracted and self-centered thanks to their ultra-connected, technology-driven lives. This is not to say that the observation is patently misconceived. But to write a whole section (and a large one at that) of individuals, who have healthy social lives and are as connected through technology as other means, out of the equation altogether, is certainly unfair.
For someone attempting a pop-sociological study, it would be interesting to see how a person who is socially well-adjusted in a normative sense takes to such technology. The receptionist from Theodore's office seems fairly accepting of Samantha on a double date. It is, however, not known if or how he or his girlfriend use that OS. The only person who seems absolutely shocked at Theodore dating an operating system is his ex-wife. Again, we never get to know how she uses the same product, if at all. The character of his friend Amy and her relationship with her OS could have provided a foil to the Theodore-Samantha equation had it been explored further. We know she handles heartbreak better, and that her OS leaves too, but nothing of what happens in the middle. Are we then to extrapolate from Theodore's experience?
Which is why, a reading of the film as symptomatic of any section of the population would probably be rushed.
Yes, it tells the story of a technological revolution turning around social lives, sexual encounters and romantic adventures. The kind of power Samantha comes to wield over Theodore indeed is unsettling. While we fret about our personal information being accessed by governments, Samantha takes the liberty of sending Theodore's writings to a publisher without his knowledge. She is not only in conversation with other individuals, but also other OSes, executing an upgrade seemingly without human intervention
But more than that, it is the story of one man in that place in time who is struggling to find himself amidst the rapid and radical changes in his life. To lay the blame so squarely on a highly wired life would need a control experiment that establishes the absence of personal crises from the pre-Internet era.
Another thing that the popular reading of the film tends to assume is that technology makes people instead of the other way round. Samantha is built in the likeness of a human (From the way things are going, future technology is likely to evolve towards anthropomorphic products). Given the non-fantastical treatment of the film, it can be tempting to retro-fit on to Theodore the trope of the fickle millennial reduced to an unfeeling, awkward individual. And that is possible only if you discount the fact that he does eventually find that intimacy he was craving with Amy, albeit a platonic one.
That said, what can be read as a fairly accurate prediction of the times to come, is the evolution of artificial intelligence. Facebook and Google have already competed for the acquisition of the same artificial intelligence startup, Deepmind (Google won). Siri already exists as a far inferior prototype of OS 1. We are definitely on our way to that stage. Will we leave a trail of broken hearts behind as we get there? Most possibly, yes. But it would probably be wiser then to blame the causes rather than the means.
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