I’ve been reading the blogs posted about FCnOC. It almost seems like this film either solidifies the faith you have in Morris or shakes the foundation of what you enjoy in Morris films. One of the more interesting thoughts brought up was that everyone in FCnOC was too articulate. The men in the film are professionals and have dedicated lifestyles. People that have characteristically been in the Morris films we have seen thus far are unattractive and are almost unintelligible. The thing is, we have learned to listen to what they’re saying and make sense of it. In FCnOC we listen to professionals discuss their obsessions. Have we gotten ourselves into a rut where we only find weird, ignorant people who ramble interesting? Rodney Brooks created these robots to help understand life. To make them more life-like, he has to program them that way. He is playing God more than anyone else. But what’s even creepier than that is he takes pride in the fact that machines will outlive humans. They are our creation and our homage to life.
So what exactly is fast, cheap, and out of control? Life? In the grand scheme of things, yes. One generation of people survive for about 85 years and a new one comes in. That’s a tiny part of the billions of years the Earth has existed. Cheap is a little more difficult to justify in a literal sense. Out of control is obvious because we have very little control of what goes on around us. At least, we feel we are in control but not nearly as much as we think. This mindset relates to the idea of being your own God. Controlling what goes on around you is an important part of life. It’s difficult to be comfortable with the fact that you are being affected by your surroundings and not the other way around.
