Movies, Machines, and Human Beings

Abstract

Many movies—most often science fiction—tell stories about technology. Two famous, blockbuster film series, the Terminator and Matrix, exemplify the on-screen representation of a struggle between machines and human beings. In these movies, machines rule and threaten the continued existence of humanity. They must be conquered to ensure the survival and freedom of the human race. Although these films appear to expose the dangers of an autonomous and hegemonic technology and to champion the human being, they do not. Technology seems to incarnate evil and to endanger humanity, but in a strange reversal it proves to be our salvation. Instead of liberation from technological tyranny, these movies depict as inevitable the total surrender and absorption of humanity to and into technology.