The ethical thinking of "non-mainstream science fiction" "Super Chapai"

Overseas Network2015-05-12 10:50:15

Super Chapai is a robot-themed film. It tells the story of a scrapped machine, the X-Men 22, who was fed a piece of human consciousness by scientist Dean, and then began to use this consciousness to explore the world like a child, and gradually acquired human emotions. Robots, or artificial intelligence, are very popular themes in science fiction movies, and so far there have been popular science fiction classics such as "Robot Wall-E", "Artificial Intelligence", "Mechanical Enemy" to bring audiences an unparalleled audiovisual feast.

At first, I saw that there was Hugh Jackman in the list of the main actors of "Super Chapai", thinking that this was another superhero science fiction movie similar to "X-Men", until I saw that the director was Blomkamp, and the illusion was shattered. According to my own experience of watching movies, the person's film must be filled with a sad and absurd sense of immediacy like the end of the world.

A few years ago, the director's science fiction film "District 9" turned out to be an Oscar nomination and created his own unique non-mainstream science fiction genre. Blomkamp's off-mainstream is that he seems to have a paranoid, keen to make science fiction films with a special sense of marketing. The same is true of the movie Super Cha Pai: the documentary-style lens language sweeps away the coolness of other similar films, the broken streets in the shots, the small with dirty words, the cold passers-by... All give people a kind of cruelty to the toe of reality.

If it is only the sword in the form of film expression, it will only be praised by people for playing well. Blomkamp's innovation of science fiction films is also manifested in his use of science fiction stories as allegories, reflecting the plight of human beings themselves and the confusion in social development. For example, in "District 9", the story setting of segregating the ninth district by humans to aliens reflects the problem of ethnic conflict in real life in South Africa.

Similarly, the movie "Super Chapai" provokes an ethical level of thinking: when robots gradually evolve to the level of humans, with the same basic emotions and independent thinking, should we humans treat them like machines? Can human ethics also be transplanted into their world? For example, is it abusive to let robots work tirelessly in dangerous environments day and night until the battery that supplies energy runs out? Some people say that of course, it does not count, human beings have worked hard to develop robots in order to liberate themselves and get rid of the sea of labor and hardship - this is also the value of the existence of robots. So, when he is constantly perfected, from a machine that only knows how to work when the power is connected to the power supply, to a more advanced form of intelligent existence, to a "person" in the form of a machine, in this case, is it time to introduce a labor law?

The novelty and valuableness of the film is also reflected in the reflection on the positioning of the mobile Internet society in which human beings are currently located. In real life, from Google Glass to Apple Watch, the rise of these smart devices shows that human beings have gradually entered an era of gradual integration of humans and machines. One day in the future, technology will eventually evolve to the point where people and machines have you, me, me, you, and humans themselves are part of the Internet of Things. So at this time, how to determine the meaning of man himself? The plot of the film subtly answers this point.

Dean, the scientist who created the robot Chapai in the film, dies, but his consciousness is transported by Chapai into the body of another robot, becoming a human being in the form of a machine. He's alive! The film argues that consciousness represents the essence of a person: even if the body dies, if consciousness can be preserved and continued, then it does not matter in whatever form the carrier of consciousness exists.

Ancient Chinese philosophical sages once said that there are three immortals in life: morality, meritorious service, and speech. Although a person is dead, his character in the world, the deeds he has established, and the articles he has written will remain in this world forever. In this sense, the film's theme is similar to that of traditional Chinese culture. (Text/Xie Zhiyong)