TECHNOPHOBIC THEMES IN PRE-1990 COMPUTER FILMS

摘要

As the above thematic survey has demonstrated, popular filmic depictions of computers in the pre-1990 cinema have frequently been negative, unflattering and insidious. Even when a self-reflexive cybercinema has deliberately limited the negative excesses and tried to redress the imbalances between their Utopian and dystopian representations, the result is complex and multi-layered. The AI-as-Christ-figure strategy has partially countered the trend towards computer demonization. But the negative trajectory has persisted into post-1990 Computer Films, whose themes cluster around Internet data theft, compromised cybernetic sentinels, nefarious hi-tech dictatorships, and other psycho-cybernetic possibilities (Springer, 1999). Therefore, popular films can be disruptive to the successful long-range integration of computers into society by repeatedly emphasizing negative themes. Indeed, for some, the future AI concern is that today's fiction will become tomorrow's reality. Some commentators nervously claim: 'we will build a computer that can think and learn. Then we'll be able to stand back and let it reach for the stars. But whatever we do, we better not threaten to turn it off (Garfinkel, 2000, p. 236).