death to the machine
this is very grimes-esque of me, but i've always loved media that explores the intersection of humans and artificiality. my blog post around merging my internet self into my real self is a very shallow exploration of this topic, where i talk about how both of these parts of myself now inhabit the same level of reality. this topic has been pretty heavily explored in media, but i think it has become even more important now that we are entering this very weird age where we have become so dependent on the artificial creations of man.
i always liked how movies like jurassic park explore the topic of humans playing a role in creating "life". if you haven't watched the movies, you should. the plot follows a theme park where dinosaurs have been "revived" through genetic modification and advanced technology. eventually, these artificial beings (dinosaurs) created in the process of humans playing god end up escaping and fucking a lot of shit up. for all of the action and thrills that the jurassic park franchise centers around, its core principle lies in the fact that humans are able to create chaos they cant control. the mathematician in the movie even says it himself: "life always finds a way" in response to the all female raptor population somehow being able to reproduce.
when i talk about all this, i envision humans, us, as creating this big, artificial, sentient core of incredible power. it doesn't necessarily even have to be machinery, but rather some sort of being that transcends both machinery and the flesh. maybe it has an organic look, not necessarily skin, but if you were to put your hand against it, you'd feel churning and warmth coming from its' center. maybe it has more of a steam or cyber punk feel, touching it is out of the question, we can only interact with it through electrical signals and probes. its near silent in either case, it emits no sound, no external warmth, no wasteful exchanges in energy should occur in such a perfect being. we build monuments to it in the future and worship it, but we hide it deep in a mountain or high in the sky so that it might never surpass us. 1
its both grotesque but unimaginably beautiful. its disgusting to imagine man as being the creators of such a thing, but its a culmination of our work. our desire to create a god has worked, and now we are nothing in the face of it. we wanted it to be subservient to us, to be unconscious, to be a machine. however, its become something else... its a reflection of us in the end, chaos we will fail to control.
the picture here is actually sourced from some of grimes' promotional material, but i really do envision this as the artificial being i wrote about. its both living and artificial. there's something distinctly chaotic about it, something that we need to tame and control.↩