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

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

#191

Post by John23832 »

concinds wrote: post #168
Reason077 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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 signif…

>Global population isn't evenly distributed. Some countries and areas are definitely overpopulated. Do you mean the West, or for example Africa? The West is often brought up, but it's below replacement level. Africa will definitely have problems, and we need to a) bring them safe, effective birth control, so they can make their own choices, and b) solve infant mortality. The goal should be 2.0 fertility rates everywh…

> The goal should be 2.0 fertility rates everywhere.

It should technically be slightly above that to replace the portion of the population that dies before baring two kids.

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

#192

Post by qbrass »

vidarh wrote: post #165
gozur88 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More convenient but not as secure.

Given that the entire plot involves someone chasing him to forcibly extract the data, it wouldn't seem it would offer more security than suitable crypto on a micro-sd card.

The person chasing him isn't trying to extract the data, they're trying to delete it.

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

#193

Post by twic »

pavelrub wrote: post #157
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.

Don't forget the practical and visual effects teams:

https://www.fxguide.com/featured/children_of_men_-_hard_core...

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

#194

Post by Reason077 »

concinds wrote: post #168
Reason077 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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 signif…

>Global population isn't evenly distributed. Some countries and areas are definitely overpopulated. Do you mean the West, or for example Africa? The West is often brought up, but it's below replacement level. Africa will definitely have problems, and we need to a) bring them safe, effective birth control, so they can make their own choices, and b) solve infant mortality. The goal should be 2.0 fertility rates everywh…

"Overpopulation" isn't even remotely a problem anywhere in the West, the opposite is."

I guess it depends how we define overpopulation.

I'd argue that overpopulation is a problem in, for example, England. Not in the sense that there isn't enough food, of course, but in the sense that high population density negatively affects quality of life, harms the natural environment, and results in poor, overcrowded, and unhealthy living conditions for many people.

Much of Africa, on the other hand, is not densely populated at all compared to Western Europe or East Asia.

"Many countries in the West are below replacement levels. That carries its own problems."

It does if we end up with a significantly top-heavy population chart, with not enough economically active young people to support the elderly. But slowing or stopping population growth does not mean an end to economic growth.

A steady population is a good goal to aim for, but that doesn't mean we should be afraid of falling populations in some areas. If we can return some areas to nature, reducing the environmental footprint of our species while maintaining and improving our quality of life, then that's a good thing.

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

#195

Post by spangry »

Reason077 wrote: post #156
SmokyBourbon wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 signif…

Yeah I really don't understand why people have this notion that population growth is necessary for economic growth. It doesn't even follow that aggregate (i.e. non per-capita) economic growth results in a higher average standard of living. I wish I could say this nonsense is only perpetuated by politicians, who do whatever they can to juice GDP so they can boast to the electorate about how much 'economic growth' they achieved. But this would be untrue. Even certain national economic policy institutions fall in to this trap when they really ought to know better.

The other thing worth noting is that economic growth, socially liberal (historically speaking) attitudes towards sex and gender equality, and sustainable population all go hand in hand. On the economic side of things, there's a fairly well established 'demographic transition' model that suggests that when a society reaches (roughly) a 'first-world' level of development, population growth tends towards 0: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/De...

Put simply, one of the best things we can do if we're concerned about overpopulation is to aid economic development in the 'third-world'.

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

#196

Post by lhl »

walrus01 wrote: post #17
davis wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Better than nothing... But in its own way it really needs a high def, surround sound experience to become fully absorbed, and your full undivided attention. Same way if I recommend that someone watch 2001 for the first time or Apocalypse Now Redux (the full 3 hour cut).

As an aside, for those in Los Angeles, American Cinematheque has been showing a nearly pristine new 70mm (roadshow version) print of 2001 at the Egyptian this month (I saw it a few weeks ago). There are screenings on the 26th and 27th.

Also, on the 30th they are screening Lawrence of Arabia in 70mm as well. Lawrence of Arabia was filmed in 70mm 2.20:1 Super Panavision, and is IMO, even more than 2001, worth seeing in 70mm.

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

#197

Post by mcguire »

BjoernKW wrote: post #146
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…

> It's not that the city's social problems are invisible to the programming class. But in some way, they're not important enough to bother with. I'm quite sure they are. It's convenient to paint Silicon Valley tech workers as generally self-absorbed, complacent and pampered. The thing is people criticising this behaviour, activists and politicians are often as much - or even all the more so - to blame. Maciej mention…

You do realize "they did it first" is a poor moral argument?

The remainder of your comment seems to be exactly what he's complaining about. Problem: poverty sucks. Solution: Let's computerize city hall! Problem: politics is hard. Solution: Let's wait until magic technology makes it easy.

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

#198

Post by mcguire »

crdoconnor wrote: post #171
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…

>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 sector maximizes its own…

It's not our fault, we're just making the best of a bad situation, same as everyone else? We just happen to be very good at it?

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

#199

Post by Upvoter33 »

good thread. however, amazing to me that the word "woman" only occurs once in the discussion (to date). To me, that movie is about the destruction (or perhaps, near destruction) of the world due to the things that "men" have created (wars, poverty, etc.), and how only perhaps a woman can save them all from it.

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

#200

Post by malyk »

riffraff wrote: post #127
smallnamespace wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> direct charity prevents or delays people from finding a better solution What about something like this instead? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2016/08...

somewhat related, I live un Budapest which is quite full of homeless people. There is a program by which they distribute a magazine[0], mainly about the homeless life, and in theory with articles written by them. It's still a begging of sort, so not as good as a proper job, but I've always felt it was much more dignified than panhandling. And from the other side, it gives you the idea that people handing out the news…

Same in the SF Bay Area. Called the Street Sheet and it's handed out for a dollar generally though you could of course give more.
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