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Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

nature.com

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Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#51

Post by akira2501 »

Vecr wrote: post #44

One thing I don't understand about the movie, even after reading the screenplay etc. is why does Vincent claim the doctors knew the exact time of his death just seconds after he was born? They clearly don't and can't, given the entire rest of the movie. Are the doctors just reading out the exact middle of the probability distribution (or the time with the absolute highest probability), to way more precision than actu…

Isn't that the entire point of the movie? They /don't/ actually know even though they think they do, the entire society is built on hubris.

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#52

Post by naasking »

fallingknife wrote: post #48
chordalkeyboard wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We discriminate like that based on genetics now. It's just that it comes from random chance at birth rather than human modification, but really what's the difference? What are you alluding to here?

We explicitly discriminate by intelligence, which is mostly genetic. How is that different than Gattaca? One must assume that the genetically enhanced in the movie are actually enhanced after all. And we implicitly discriminate by height, which shows a strong correlation with income. That one doesn't even have utility like discrimination based on intelligence does.

> We explicitly discriminate by intelligence, which is mostly genetic. How is that different than Gattaca?

We discriminate on intelligence when it's important for the job at hand. The bad kind of discrimination is the kind that considers irrelevant factors.

I agree implicit discrimination based on height and attractiveness exists in our culture. This movie is a searing criticism of exactly that kind of discrimination.

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#53

Post by curiousgal »

beebmam wrote: post #25

I found it really hard to relate to any of the characters in the film, to the point where they were barely recognizable as humans. Does it make sense, in a world like the one in Gattaca, for a person that is part of a discriminated class, to go into space, instead of trying to change the society around him to be less discriminatory? It seemed to me like the whole effort was a self-motivated, flaccid revenge fantasy t…

lol how exactly do you expect him to change things if he stayed? Once he's back he'll be able to actually make a difference with the status/resources he got by leaving.

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#54

Post by maxerickson »

Vecr wrote: post #44

One thing I don't understand about the movie, even after reading the screenplay etc. is why does Vincent claim the doctors knew the exact time of his death just seconds after he was born? They clearly don't and can't, given the entire rest of the movie. Are the doctors just reading out the exact middle of the probability distribution (or the time with the absolute highest probability), to way more precision than actu…

You can read it as a criticism of the society that he was born into.

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#55

Post by akira2501 »

apples_oranges wrote: post #18

I believe advances in AI will make the core plot idea of the film obsolete. It is a good movie, but even the most genetically perfect human will probably not have a fraction of the intelligence of AI. He will be, relatively speaking, a mere dummy like the rest of us. Thus the future as shown in this film will not happen. However, good sci-fi is actually always about the present. And the movie has a lot of interesting…

> perfect human will probably not have a fraction of the intelligence of AI.

Yes.. but he will still be operational even when the electricity is interrupted, which will make him look light years ahead of the AI. The "AI" will always have this problem. Until it gets a body and an internal power source it won't match our capabilities, and even then, most likely.. it will start to share some of our vulnerabilities and common ends.

As if AI would somehow be unconstrained from the limits of physical engineering.

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#56

Post by agumonkey »

duxup wrote: post #38
anonporridge wrote: post #8

The great thing about Gattaca is that the cinematography ages incredibly well on top of the amazing plot. A lot of great sci-fi is marred by cheap effects that look incredibly dated only a decade later. Gattaca chose to focus on the story and create a minimalist future environment that still looks beautiful 25 years later.

I was watching an Industrial Light And Magic documentary on Disney+ and it had Spielberg talking about the transition to digital, and he goes out of his way to make the point that effects are great but if you're not presenting it right and telling a story that is worthwhile the film just won't last.

Last time I watch Terminator 2, I stopped frame by frame during the mall shooting scene, and I realized how cheap some effects were, but how editing made it subtly perfect. It just conveys the blow to represent the T1000 liquid metal visually. No need to do more.

I think today's era is obese.. too much power, too available .. no constraint.. the movie gets lost in the technology.

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#58

Post by skeeter2020 »

Vecr wrote: post #44

One thing I don't understand about the movie, even after reading the screenplay etc. is why does Vincent claim the doctors knew the exact time of his death just seconds after he was born? They clearly don't and can't, given the entire rest of the movie. Are the doctors just reading out the exact middle of the probability distribution (or the time with the absolute highest probability), to way more precision than actu…

>> The doctors/his parents should have explained the nature of the probability distribution in much more detail.

It may be a movie based in science and still relevant, but it is still first and primarily a movie for entertainment. Add in the fact that "doctors knew the exact time of his death just seconds after he was born" can be interpreted as how long his body will last, not predicting the future, and I'm not sure your request for explaining the math behind this statement would contribute much to the movie.

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#59

Post by speed_spread »

duxup wrote: post #38
anonporridge wrote: post #8

The great thing about Gattaca is that the cinematography ages incredibly well on top of the amazing plot. A lot of great sci-fi is marred by cheap effects that look incredibly dated only a decade later. Gattaca chose to focus on the story and create a minimalist future environment that still looks beautiful 25 years later.

I was watching an Industrial Light And Magic documentary on Disney+ and it had Spielberg talking about the transition to digital, and he goes out of his way to make the point that effects are great but if you're not presenting it right and telling a story that is worthwhile the film just won't last.

Too bad he didn't follow his own advice when doing A.I.

Re: Gattaca is still pertinent 25 years later

#60

Post by acover »

fallingknife wrote: post #19
rzzzt wrote: post #5

I understand this article appeared in Nature Genetics and so explores the genetics aspect of the movie (which is admittedly heavily emphasized, starting with the G-A-T-C letters highlighted in the title and opening credits), but I always thought it is about the practice of discrimination in general, regardless of what "quality" is chosen to put people in sets of "A" and "B". How literally should the audience take thi…

The part that I could never get over is that the discrimination against the main character actually made sense. He's trying to hide his heart condition to go in an important space mission. edit: HN is rate limiting me so I can't reply, but to davesque's comment below: > no one wants to live in a world where their life and capabilities are pre-determined But we do live in that world. It was determined that I would nev…

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