God vs. Techonology
“Miserable Student: So you’re trying to create a god? Your own god?
Dr. Will Caster: That’s a very good question. Um, isn’t that what man has always tried to do?”
In an age where technology is growing exponentially and creeping into our daily lives more and more, the debate of what is too far has begun to intensify. Disputes about privacy and the internet has broken out after NSA leaks. Transcendence takes on the debate of what is too far for technology with an all star cast.
There are two characters that represent the two ends of the debate on hand, what is too far. The first character is Will Caster played by Johnny Depp. Will Caster believes that man has always tried to be God since day one, so the new technology will only be following the path that humans have taken with technology. The next character is Bree played by Kate Mara. She is the opposite of Will Caster and she believes that the new technology has gone too far. Bree wants to stop the new technology before it grows and overtakes humanity.
Then you have the flip-flopping perspective. Paul Bettany plays the character Max Waters who writes an essay warning the public that technology is going too far. He then goes on to help create a new version of PINN (the technology in the movie). Waters attempts to stop the project from going bigger, but it is too late. The only way to shut down the system is a world wide shutdown.
I believe the ideas of this movie outpace the narrative. I did not really understand the technology explanations in the movie, but that aside, the movie tries to display the debate of what is too far for technology. Characters have to wrestle with what they believe in and their morals. At the end of the movie, you have to ask yourself, what is too far?