Reasserting the Human

From masters of technology to piles of meat, the portrayal of humanity widely varies in this week's film selection.

Starting with an advertisement from Toyota, we are presented a world that is all "pixels, pretense, and driver assist."

Humanity has lost its ability to feel and to tell what is "real."  Only Toyota can help our protagonist feel alive for the first time as evidenced by his goosebumps.  Oddly enough, Toyota is the one piece of technology that can help this human escape to the real world, which is demonstrated by transitioning from an urban to a rural landscape.

Next up, is an ad from BT Landline.

In this commercial we are shown that the only true way to really communicate at a distance is through your land line phone.  Somehow, this piece of older technology provides a more meaningful connection than newer forms of telecommunication.  The commercial asserts that it is the voice connection rather than a screen connection that allows real communication to happen.  However, this message seems undercut by the woman's look at the end of the commercial as it it obvious that she is not fully communicating with her partner.

The next film, "World Builder" presents a view where humans are able to use technology to their benefit in order to make connections and heal the sick.

Here the man in the film is presented as a god-like figure as he creates and manipulates the world around him.  As the woman appears, we see the man nervous that his creation is not real enough as he has missed a few areas of the fabricated world.  In this film, technology is given a more beneficial role as it can help to restore the sick and bring people closer together.

And finally there is "They're Made Out of Meat."

This films provides a comical look at two aliens' frustration that Earth's intelligent life is simply "made out of meat."  A nice reminder that our humanity is linked to our flesh.  Despite our use of technology (radio waves, in this instance), we still remain a biological mass.