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“Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

bbc.com

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Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#151

Post by Lio »

lobster_johnson wrote: post #23
Laforet wrote: post #20

On a lighter note, I had a good chuckle when the article mentioned that the director deliberately avoided depiction of cellphones to avoid creating an unintentional period piece[0]. The last movie I watched in the treatre is Clint Eastwood's "Sully" and I distinctly remember the main character using a chronologically appropoaite Samsung flip phone and that single prop instantly dates the movie to the first decade of…

Conversely, in William Gibson's Neuromancer, there are no cell phones, despite being set decades into the future. Gibson knows a thing or two about seeing their scifi becoming dated, of course. The famous opening line, "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel" no longer resonates with anyone born the last 20 years or so (although for a number of years, many digital TVs would displa…

I wonder what these people who don't know what a TV tuned to a dead channel looks like make of the HBO intro.

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#152

Post by liveoneggs »

lacampbell wrote: post #108
w-ll wrote: post #76

Slightly OT but pertains to "Children of Men" The scenes where main character Theo Faron (Clive Owen) is on the really nice buses, and there is classical music playing in the background, while outside the window there is so much poverty really resonated with me. I've lived in SF going on 6 years now. My apt complex has private buses that run from here to FDi in the morning and evening. The route sometimes changes but…

I am curious, have you experienced poverty? I mean "first world poverty", like the kind you bus drives through? I have, and I want nothing to do with it. I certainly wouldn't choose to walk through it again. Have you stopped to consider you're being a bit of a slum tourist, or maybe you have a saviour complex?

Maybe OP is just a polite person who prefers walking for its many benefits. It's hard to be a tourist of any kind when you are on your daily commute.

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#153

Post by Reason077 »

roryisok wrote: post #143

Whatever you might argue about it's prescience, Children of Men is one of the best films of the last decade. The writing, directing and acting are all stellar. It has some of the best single take shots ever filmed. There's a 20 minute running street battle at the end with tanks and explosions that is shot in a single take. It's also one of those rare occasions where the movie is far better than the original book. Boo…

Absolutely agree. It's a masterpiece on many different levels.

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#154

Post by stephancoral »

c22 wrote: post #133
tetraodonpuffer wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel" no longer resonates with anyone born the last 20 years or so when reading that my mind conjures a gray sky, but then again when I was young TVs displayed static if you turned them to a dead channel, not solid blue...

I own a 60" television with no TV tuner attached to a smattering of devices that play and stream digital content. I suspect when my 1 year old is an adult she won't even have a solid conception of a "channel" let alone be able to imagine the color of a "dead" one.

The grey of a dead OTA channel and the grey of a missing / removed YouTube video aren't too dissimilar

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#155

Post by Reason077 »

naasking wrote: post #33
joelmichael wrote: post #27

It says fertility isn't an issue today, but it's a little out of touch with today's anxieties; most of Europe and Japan have such low fertility that their native populations are in decline.

Every affluent country's fertility rate is below replenishment levels. Their population growth rate is only positive due to immigration. In fact, global population will likely peak around 2050, and then start falling, which will be a whole new crisis. People will look back at overpopulation fears and laugh.

In fact, global population will likely peak around 2050, and then start falling, which will be a whole new crisis. People will look back at overpopulation fears and laugh.

A rapid fall in population would be problematic, but a steady state or slow gradual decline would be beneficial - and perhaps environmentally necessary.

Obviously you need to ensure there are enough young people to support and care for the elderly, so population can't be too top-heavy. But improving technology (robots, AI) should reduce the need for labour without compromising living standards.

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#156

Post by Reason077 »

SmokyBourbon wrote: post #69
iiiggglll wrote: post #59

> The one aspect of the film that doesn’t seem to be coming true is its central premise. The idea is that no human beings have been born in the last 18 years, so when Theo meets Kee, an African woman who is miraculously pregnant, he has to protect her from the various groups who want to exploit her condition. Obviously, we know that this infertility pandemic hasn’t happened: in Children of Men, the youngest person on…

The fact is overpopulation isn't an issue, it's a myth. World population is decellerating at a rapid pace and will begin decreasing within decades. It's painfully obvious to anybody who looks at the numbers. But science fiction has convinced everyone otherwise. Just look at all the countries with programs trying to entice their citizens to start families and make babies. Governments know its going to be a catastrophe…

"The fact is overpopulation isn't an issue, it's a myth."

Global population isn't evenly distributed. Some countries and areas are definitely overpopulated.

What constitutes overpopulation can vary according to climate and economic changes. Just look at Syria, where unprecedented drought caused 75% of the country's farms to fail, led to mass migration from rural areas to cities, and ultimately to civil war and significant depopulation.

"Our governments spend money at a rate that only a larger population in the future can afford to pay for. If families aren't producing above the replacement rate, we're doomed."

No, it's a myth that populations need to be perpetually growing in order to maintain economic growth. Growth can also be achieved through technological development.

Developments in Robotics, AI, etc will improve labour productivity, meaning we can continue to raise living standards without necessarily increasing population in perpetuity.

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#157

Post by pavelrub »

roryisok wrote: post #143

Whatever you might argue about it's prescience, Children of Men is one of the best films of the last decade. The writing, directing and acting are all stellar. It has some of the best single take shots ever filmed. There's a 20 minute running street battle at the end with tanks and explosions that is shot in a single take. It's also one of those rare occasions where the movie is far better than the original book. Boo…

The reasons you consider it to be such a good film probably have more to do with cinematography than writing, acting or directing. The beautiful shots are a direct result of Emmanuel Lubezki being the DP - the same style can be seen in Birdman, Gravity, The Revenant, and some of Terrence Malick’s films.

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#158

Post by serb348 »

davis wrote: post #10
walrus01 wrote: post #8

If you haven't seen this movie you absolutely should. And you need to watch it with your face close to a 60"+ high quality screen and with a good sound system. Do not ruin it by watching it on a laptop or mobile device. The extended shots create a near full immersion experience.

Or just watch it on anything you can. I honestly don't think you can ruin this film in anyway. I used to watch it on my iPod Touch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKiIroiCvZ0

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#159

Post by gozur88 »

vidarh wrote: post #67
xor1 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There's also some fun stuff about people physically carrying information (this also happens in short story "Johnny Mnemonic"). For a world where there's a highly connected, super fast worldwide computer network available, people sure travel around a lot. Sneakernet isn't an irrelevant concept in any sort of context where data transferred through a computer network can be intercepted.

But carrying a concealed micro-sd card with encrypted data would be a lot more convenient. Heck, you could fit many times as much data as in Johnny Mnemonic (40GB, I think?) inside your head too by shoving a micro-sd card up your nose or into your ear.

More convenient but not as secure.

Re: “Children of Men”'s vision of the future is now disturbingly familiar

#160

Post by qawsedrftgzxcv »

james-watson wrote: post #150
jodrellblank wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From Maciej Ceglowski Second, treating the world as a software project gives us a rationale for being selfish. The old adage has it that if you are given ten minutes to cut down a tree, you should spend the first five sharpening your axe. We are used to the idea of bootstrapping ourselves into a position of maximum leverage before tackling a problem. In the real world, this has led to a pathology where the tech secto…

Sounds like a pretty accurate implementation of a Randian Utopia. Pure self interest isn't a difficult vector to map. The results are predictable and repeatable. "Taxation is theft!"

Really made me think...
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