Focus 580; A Preview of the Computer Fear Film Festival

Good morning this is Focus 580 our morning call in talk show. My name is Jack Brighton sitting in for David and glad to have this opportunity to talk with you and glad to have you listening during this first hour of the show actually during both hours will be talking about computers. But during the first hour we will be talking about a very fun thing coming up on the campus of the University of Illinois the first annual perhaps computer phir Film Festival. This will be taking place at full Ingur auditorium on Saturday September 9th. It is a celebration of all that is corny perhaps or sublime or some combination thereof in the film world involving computers we'll talk about the computer feel fear. Film Festival and will try to say that correctly next time. And we'll talk with two of the originators of the festival Marcia Woodbury who's a lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois here in Champaign Urbana also Christina Tanzer Wright she's associate director for the Illinois program for research in the humanities and also a former film instructor professor and creator of other film series will talk with them

and take your questions if you have a favorite film experiences involving computers or something that you'd like to talk about in that genre. You can call us around Champaign-Urbana 3 3 3 9 4 5 5. Toll free anywhere you hear us 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5. Well to both of you good morning. Morning. Good morning. Thanks for being here. Our pleasure. OK well let me ask you to start by talking about how this came about the obviously there's this insecurity Film Festival which is a big you know annual event on campus and go ahead. Well it all started with the insect beer festival. It was a terrific event if you haven't been you should go. We got the inspiration from the way they are made. And actually who is on your program quite a bit. She is a very enthusiastic person and will get up and introduce corny old movies about insects and tell the audience exactly what is wrong with the movies and then talk a little bit about maybe some of our irrational fears of

the insects. And with my involvement in computer ethics and social impact of computers it was just a natural to make the leap to computer fear. So I put out a call for to find out if anyone else was interested and sure enough lots of people are interested and fascinated. So we're we're going we're on our way. That's great. This is going to be an annual event. Yes it'll be an annual event. We have we have actually quite a lot planned. Much more than the insect fear festival as it turns out and I think it could get bigger the minute I put out the list of movies I started getting e-mail with. Why didn't you add this movie right you know. Let me explain a little. We're going to sure do is we're having some panels on Friday morning at the ally now union one of them. We're showing a film you may not have heard of it's called Minerva's machine and it was made by the Association of Computing Machinery about

women in computer science. And it's an hour it's it's a little hard to take in some ways because it's very realistic about what happens to women in computer science and some of it is kind of rough and some of it's inspiring. And you really learn how to survive in this world. It's a man's world. And then the second panel is on computer fear and Christine has kindly consented to be on that with Cal Alston. And that should be excellent. And then the next activities all begin on Saturday night with the festival itself. One of the things I know we have the titles of the movies here but we're also going to have some demonstrations from the students out front. We're going to have them in between the movies we have student produced computer graphics so that should be fun. Also there's a parody of The Blair Witch Project too.

Oh really. Yes on film until there's a computer science students did it and that will be fun. And that's all it's a Friday the Friday morning. Are the panels in the airline a union Yeah. And they're open to the public and then Saturday night from 6:30 on the movie start at 7:00 and go right through till probably 2:00 in the morning. Oh OK interesting. There is by the way a website for people if you want to get the all the information about the festival. So we mentioned that. I've got over here if you want. Sure it's all the triple double right usual ACM dot UIUC dot edu slash C F 3 and that's for computer fear Film Festival slasher films. You don't have to put anything after see F-3 it'll come up. Yeah good. OK Christine what did me just tell you I should know OK we got this. Oh.

So you're wrong. You've been doing work in films for a long time. Yes I taught film for five years at Illinois State University before I came here in 97. Been involved in film since I was in college I ran a film series at the University of Pittsburgh. I have a film series that's going to be running on campus this semester as well and next but the titles for the semester have already been announced and that ties in not with computers but with the Illinois program for research in the humanities annual theme for the year which is cities. The film series itself is called on the town the city and film begins next Wednesday with L.A. story because you have to start with Steve Martin and continues on every third Wednesday throughout the semester. Roger and Me is September twenty seventh great film. I love Roger and Me I think it's a wonderful and happy to show it. Regardless of the theme not only because of the theme but regardless of the theme happy to always sit down and watch that one.

And then one that actually I was thinking about in terms of the computer film festival even though it doesn't involve computers metropolis the classic by Fritz Lang just an outstanding I happened to see it again recently. It's wonderful and I actually I'm delighted I was torn between Metropolis and Blade Runner as the futuristic city choice for that series so when Marcia contacted me and said we'll be showing Blade Runner The dilemma was resolved and I was able to go on knowing that I hadn't duplicated something that was being done and anybody who wanted to see Blade Runner has probably already seen it and owns it on DVD and watch it every Wednesday night. But I also would then be able to see another version of a futuristic city so I suspect a lot of people have not seen metropolis to it's required by law if you take a film class. But if you've not taken an introduction to film class you may not have. It's not the sort of thing that pops up at the multiplex. It is silent. It is German film.

It is black and white although there wasn't an evil color version came out in the mid eighties with the Diskos score by Adam Ant and Queen Giorgio Moroder. That's not the version will be shown. Obviously we're going with the purest version. You know there are a bunch of versions are out there aren't there. Heavy metal sound you know and also of all metropolis for people who haven't seen it it's a 1926 film by Fritz Lang it's a silent film. It's black and white it is. It's got some of the most stunning visual effects of any film and you know period but especially for 1926. Oh absolutely. It's amazing to look at now it does not look like an old movie. People aren't driving around in old cars because it's set in a futuristic world. It's not something that we could tie to looking like the 20s. So it I think it still remains contemporary and interesting today. Well before I confuse people of these this is a different series we're talking about but let's let's return to the

computer. Film for your film festival. I will eventually say that right. And tell us about the movies that are a part of that. If you would Marcia. Well I read them out sure come along as the expert on the movies. Actually it's a little bit of history but I'll read the titles first and tell you why they were chosen. The three movies are Bicentennial Man which is a. Parental Guidance rating at that's at 7 o'clock on Saturday night the 9th of September that's free to the public. Bring your kids. It's Robyn Williams And very accessible to children. Then a little bit rougher at 9:30 p.m. I mean it's got an R rating when I say rough or R for rough. The Terminator with Arnold Schwarzenegger. And then finally at 11:30 PM is Blade Runner with a classic as Christine said so many people have even known it already know so much about it. The

common theme is artificial life. And we were I think in the insect fear they often pick an insect for the right answer bees or something. And we were looking for a theme. And there are so many interesting movies right now that are based on computers or feature computers but the idea of artificial life is is so intriguing and and I'll say one thing about this list which is kind of amusing to me. The two groups that are basically sponsoring this event. Women in computer science group at the Association of Computing Machinery. But you'll notice these are very male movies. They have male actors and I asked them about that and I think they were more interested in the theme than amply being politically correct. And they all stuck with what they thought covered the top. Interesting.

Well they're interesting choices and of course there's a lot of different directions you could take the festival thematic Lee. There are there have been a number of films where computers are sort of the in many ways the well the evil force. Yes. You know for example 2001 A Space Odyssey although Hal isn't evil it's out of control it's an example of technology we create this technology and. It gets completely out of our our hands you know sort of seems to me that that's one reason people fear computers and there is so much dramatic potential for computers and our storylines and so forth. Absolutely I agree with that. From things that deal with political global crises like like war games where a kid who wants to play a game with a computer I talk starts to precipitate massive global thermonuclear war or a failsafe where things go so arrive that eventually the only solution is to prove that it was just an accident.

Different to prove it was just a computer error will annihilate a whole other continent as well. Just to even the score so massive human loss on a real destructive level or even something like Die Hard to where we're not dealing with just your average terrorist dragon a bomb on a plane in their suitcase we have a bunch of techno savvy terrorists who hack into the computers in the control room and recalibrate ground level's so planes crash when they try to land because they think that ground level is two hundred feet higher than it actually is. So that creates a level of trouble but it's also the sense I think we've just all been through this feeling that perhaps we've given ourselves over to it too much that what seemed to be something that was so useful to us has now become. Part of our lives in a way that we can't extricate ourselves from and that if it does fail not only will computer systems shut down which has a sort of abstract fear potential to it but also we won't be able

to pour a glass of water from the tap we won't be able to turn on our lights we won't be able to withdraw money from the bank. So it's the sort of basic elemental Y2K fear that turned even sane normal modern folks into Jeremiah Johnson stockpiling bottled water in case something horrible went Iraq. So it's fear on a whole lot of levels but even on the personal level that we will no longer be able to turn on our lights in our home because that system is now computerized has taken over our lives in a big way. There's also the theme of surveillance that you know computers are used as tools of the state or corporations or you know perhaps of their own as they become more intelligence agency. There was an interesting movie recently where the state is the you know the Big Brother enemy of the state with Smith. Yeah that's right yeah. That was a great asset. I'm actually

I'm writing a book on computer ethics and at the end of every chapter I have my recommended movies and that is one of them. That is a very very good one and another one on that line of having computers everywhere having no privacy being watched. With anything you do is the net. And I really like the net. Sandra Bullock was the prime mover of that and the star of it and she really believed in the theme. And I didn't realize her background but the more I learned about the movie the more I admired her for doing that and if if people out there haven't seen the movie I would recommend that they do. It's very entertaining. And she she basically has her identity wiped from computers and doesn't exist anymore. And that's that's another fear actually Christine and I made up a little list of fears and I would be interested for people who are listening to it to maybe add to it.

But we thought about you know there's another funny fear that we all have today is fear of not having to Peter's right now with our computers go down for the day or the Internet goes down. Suddenly we're just we can't work anymore. And it's sad. And for people who don't have computers or not hooked up to the Internet all the soccer team is getting its information from the internet why are you that kind of thing being left out. There's all kinds of fears. Yeah. More than we we first we made a list. How about the fear of getting a email from a friend and finding out it has a virus on it. What used to be friendly and they seem so friendly it comes with a message that says I love you and you open it up and your hard drive is wiped. I hate you. Thank you thank you. Great that's wonderful. But yeah there's certainly the possibility though of identity theft or being followed even if you do something as simple as going to the grocery store. That

what you're purchasing is being tracked in a computer and people know how often you buy Cheetos and whether you're drinking a brand name diet soda or something off the bottom of the shelf and a lot of information that you might think is useless once combined with all the other information like your Social Security number and your mother's maiden name and all of that can go on the websites you visit so you know what you rent at the video store and everything else can be combined to create a pretty convincing profile of your life. And actually that is happening. Yes. And a large problem for a lot of people who have cyber stalkers. You know any 15 year old girl in a chat room is prey to the weirdos lurking there. That's a big parental fear. Kids online identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes and it's a serious crime as so how do we prove who we are. And that brings up

another thing which you see in lots of science fiction movies is how losing the ability to move around freely because we get so needing to identify ourselves that we may be a bit chips in ourselves are we mark ourselves to prove who we are at once we do that then we can't undo it. We've now marked ourselves and get having your identity stolen is probably one of the most frightening crimes and one of the most entangling. It takes a long time to get out of sorts. So let me just take a moment to reduce you and the theme for this hour focus 580 we're talking about the first annual computer Film Festival which is taking place on Saturday September 9th and actually Friday the morning before as well with some workshops and other activities. Our guests are Marcia Woodbury She's a lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois. Also Christa Kristine Tanzer Wright she's associate director for the Illinois program for research in the

humanities here at the university as well. And they are the driving force behind the computer for your film festival and along with others a number of the volunteers who put this together. And we're talking about computers in the movies and a number of issues that are involved in that if you'd like to join us you have thoughts or questions. You can calls around Champaign-Urbana at 3 3 3 9 4 5 5. And toll free anywhere else 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5. I wanted to. Sort of pose the the notion that there are real fears as we've been just discussing in our use of computers and the way they're evolving with our society. And then we have these films that imagine various scenarios to whether it's 2001 or. War games or any other any other these things we've been talking about. It seems though that a lot of times what we imagine in our popular culture. It might be a plausible

scenario and something that we probably should fear. But then what happens in reality is somewhat different and maybe we didn't you know didn't show up on our radar for example identity theft I mean we mentioned the net and so forth as as an example perhaps of that. But there are real life issues that we deal with which are different from the issues that are dealt with in these films. And it just seems like there is this this strange sort of disconnect between the ways we entertain ourselves with our fears and the real fears we face in our real lives. Yeah more people have problems with their printer breaking down right than with identity theft on a fairly large scale basis I'm a broken printer right now and all I know is this. You know what seemed to be the boring workhorse of my computer system has now become the most critical thing in my universe and I spend all my time going you know it's in there. I want it out here how do I do that and I can do nothing except imagine what it would be like to be able to print a hard copy of all the things that I've toiled away to create in my computer. But it does seem that certainly when people imagine the year 2000 not all that long ago a couple of

short decades ago we envisioned this Jetsons world with the fly and cars we thought that everybody would have a maid who would take care of your every need and messages would be delivered instantly and food would be prepared instantly and you'd be able to get in your little pod and fly off to where you were going. And it is the year 2000 but there are no flying cars we're still sort of muddling through trying to figure out how to use this technology but we're not the futuristic society on that popular culture level that we imagined we'd be. And on the other side of it we have no computers that you know a Palm Pilot has more computer power than. Well Al Gore said it well about the end of the rock at the top. Just wrong to the moon. I hate to sound like I'm stumping for anybody but. I'm quoting the political conventions need to see more movies apparently. But it's not as glamorous on any level as we imagine it to be.

But I'd like to say that maybe because of my age it still seems a miracle to me. I remember the first time I was on the Internet and I suddenly was looking at the card catalogue in a Scottish library and I hollered out to my husband I'm in Scotland I'm in Scotland. And today we don't think about it we just get on a browser and boom we're in China. And the miracle of it all doesn't seem to hit us but for me it's still absolutely amazing. And now I suppose I haven't done this but you know the handhold Palm Pilot that's not the internet with you wherever you go people take it for granted. But it's still to me. Utterly unbelievable but we can do. There's a really interesting point and I was thinking about this in looking at my IMAX which is sitting on my desk at home. This is this little computer which comes in one little box with a keyboard and a mouse. It's amazing the people who invented personal computers would have just they wouldn't believe that something like this was possible. And sometimes I think that as you say we take this for

granted it's something OK well here it is you know and we don't really quite understand how it's affecting our lives in our culture and our you know possibilities for for communication perhaps even community building notions like democracy these things that we say you know are important to us. These tools that we have are much more powerful than we have yet realize perhaps. Right. I was mindful you know in contrast in the reality we face like Christine's printer not working and that the dream world in movies where all these things are possible. We on our site we have a list of all the things computers do and movies but they really don't do. And some of them are really funny and I I would like to just mention Independence Day because that one is particularly Oh yeah that's great. In Independence Day there's a mass of what do you call them flying fortresses or something sitting over there in the world and we're all trying to beat them and somehow we can.

Interface with their computer system. Now if you can imagine if you have a house that has a PC and a Mac and you're trying to interface between them they're everyday problems and then imagine how in a movie this is just done. So how is it so amusing and I guess there was a joke about it on the Internet that someone uploaded Windows 95. Right and that might be the enemy because they are rational system. Well of course we all know that the entire universe is using the TCI IP you know protocol and. Network system so that naturally any computer will you know interface with it. We have a caller talk with listen to him in our conversation and we'll welcome others were about a midpoint we're talking about the first annual computer for your film festival with Marcia Woodbury and Kristin Catan to write to the people who are behind this thing and we have one caller would welcome others 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 around Champaign-Urbana 800 to

2 2 9 4 5 5. Anywhere else. First call in Champaign line 1 Good morning unfocussed 580 Hi. It strikes me that the most common and profound. Fear that people have of computers is that they are going to bring about sort of an inherent loss of our humanity I think that Matrix is the best example that I can think of in recent years about that. So I guess I call it sort of in response to Jack what what are what are really serious here and how are they being manifested in the real world. But anyway that sort of loss of humanity if you want to talk about the other movies that that address that came to be really interesting. Great. Well there's certainly the matrix is a great example great mat and a fabulous movie and two sequels will now be filming back to back. So they really are made. Yeah they're going to film them together interesting to start filming I think January but they decided that clearly the franchise is up and running and you know they will be interested in seeing three two so they're filming

two and three at the same time. But a film with a similar theme that was so underappreciated that it found a place on the Roger Ebert Overlooked Film Festival Dark City which has similar themes while another great movie but also a really interesting film about memory theft and identity loss. Even you know on the Arnold Schwarzenegger film Total Recall where a character finds that what he believes are his real memories are implanted memories. That have been created for him to keep him away from finding out about some intergalactic Arnold thing that requires him to kill a lot of folks. Blade Runner deals with that issue as well. The replicants in Blade Runner have built in four year lifespan so that they can't create memories there. The mortality is built into them into their system so that they can't really develop any sort of humanity and they'll drop dead before it's time for them to start to flesh that

out. So this is certainly a huge fear what if you discovered that that picture of yourself that you always thought was a picture of you and your mom is neither you nor your mom. That's a horrifying thought because it happens without people being aware of it as it does within the Matrix you know is it. Is it better to not know that you're stuck in the Matrix and just happily exist there or to know and be able to find your way out. I'm Bicentennial Man. The question is What does it mean to be human. And. And it's it is a profound question but what does it mean. To be human not only are they taking our humanity away but what does it mean. Is he the robot more human than the family. Is he a warmer character with more love and compassion than the actual people that he's around. These movies are really worth a second look if you're if you're concerned about these issues I think.

Yeah and there's some really bad movies that bring these. Do you think you know I was thinking of Free Jack with Jaeger. Yeah we're actually you know people's bodies are stolen from the past you know so that people in the future. Well the people who can afford the technology to bring them you know can continue to live forever if you know they just keep stealing bodies as they wear out. And then there was another really interesting bad movie that I actually kind of like called circuitry man to see that I have seen it right. I know it. Well this is this is a post-apocalyptic society where lot of these take place when you know after the fall of civilization of course or you know where the trends of you know rich and poor in the division it's just you know completely taken to extremes. And so you have people who have little sockets in their heads and instead of there being a drug trade there's a trade in hallucinatory chips that you can insert in the socket and so is this whole this is

underground instead of there being an underground drug trade there's an underground trade in these you know circuits anyway. It's sort of a strange days as well. I didn't see that one with Ray find where people are scoring this sort of emotional high instead of drugs it's a sort of implanted chip that gives you a feeling of great euphoria. I think yeah that's absolutely collars definitely on to something because all the films in the series actually have something to do with you know what what happens what's the dilemma of having the intelligence of a human but not any of the the rights or the feelings. And one of the problems of the issue of mortality is that what makes you human if you are in Bicentennial Man clearly he keeps living while the family that he loves dies over the course of 200 years so he finds himself being abandoned by the people that

he loves and while more immortality sounds like a great plan in theory. In practice you don't get to have a normal existence and you do experience enormous loss and change without without being able to process the same feelings that the humans do. We have no call to talk with and I promise we'll get right to them but just just to follow up on what you were talking about it seems isn't there also a tension between the notion of computers as logical devices and that we're building something a structure that's larger than us that is essentially locked into a logical existence and our own feeling of humanity and creativity and warmth and emotion and empathy. So there is this tension between these two modes of existence. There is a sort of underlying current of fear that for example the Borg represent in the Star Trek that we as we integrate these things in our lives and maybe integrate them into our anatomies. If we're talking about robotics and prosthetics and so forth

that we become more like this logical emotionless thing that we've created. I could say a flippant thing and of course I have to say it now that I've thought of it but it's like the problems with the north end of campus in the south and campus here they have a vision on campus and the separation between science and the humanities. That is sad that we have to associate all the logic and the yes no right wrong with the north end of campus and all the feeling with the south end of campus. Very interesting. We have a couple calls to talk with lots to include them in our conversation go next to lie number four color on us. I am sorry I made them wait too long they were on a cell phone and maybe they had to heading up well OK we'll go next to one of her one with her in Freeport. Good morning unfocussed 580. Good morning. I'm going to tune in. Rob you've already discussed this but you watch. What's your view of robots or

i'm or and or computers are actually challenging mankind or creators. I'm taking your room literally taking over the world. I like that question a lot because Bill Joy just wrote an article in April in Wired about that topic about it's almost too late. We've created computers so well and been miniaturized they can self replicate and now they they will be in charge we've actually made ourselves an endangered species was what he's at. So I do think that there's actually a lot of room for this topic. We hope in our panels that we have on Friday morning to talk a little bit about that. And I've just actually been thinking about it much more seriously especially in terms of the themes of our movies which is artificial life and death. And if we have given ourselves over to computers this is just I don't know if I'm holding up a collar

though. Oh no there isn't. I came home and I was asking my children are robots good or bad. And they they said oh they're usually evil. Usually computers are evil and then we started thinking about Star Wars an R2-D2 and see Threepio and so forth and they don't necessarily have to be right but again are R2-D2 and see Threepio are human computers they have not just logic but empathy and fear and emotional reactions to their you know circumstance and timidity. Now that I think of something. Right exactly. Personality. Yeah. But yeah it's a very interesting point. I found myself thinking about some of the not necessarily in the films but in some of the literature of some very cutting edge people who I mean one hopes that maybe their work will be made into movies I'm thinking of William Gibson and Neal Stephenson and Stevenson wrote a book called The

Diamond Age where nanotechnology and robotics plays a huge Well nanotechnology being the basis for essentially the entire technology of the culture which is a miniature is a miniature form of robotics I suppose. And you know you were describing that maybe it's already too late. This is something that perhaps is on the horizon another 10 or 15 years as a technology that potentially could transform a great deal of our society. Well I guess we wouldn't have to worry about feeding people but we'd have to oil them. Well we have another call the talk we listen to them this is a listener in Urbana. Lie number two. Good morning. Yeah. I want to tell you about a radio play I heard on the BBC that maybe you could include next year. It was really it was about it was about that are still crucial

intelligence it's gotten to the point where there were actual If people believe there were beings that existed on the Internet. And it really upset the church because somebody had to decide whether these being had a soul or not and whether or not you know they could direct and it was only an hour and it's really very interesting how they they were trying they were they actually mean that one of the main parts was that the priest that was sent. See if it had a soul beating with himself whether or not he should or should kill this being an end. But he came to the point where we realized that our being with polling who was a female being by the way was telling him that it was really beyond his

capability to kill her because she just disappears off in the Internet you know it is resides somewhere else. This sounds very interesting. Yeah it was great I'd like to hear that. It's a radio play. Yeah radio play with the babies. The after get the the series that part of but I'm sure if you contacted them they could give you a tape or something. But and last year of the Indiana University had a symposium on intelligent machines and they were wondering if it was the end of humanity very much like you were talking about and I think it's you know it kind of ties in with all this as I want to make Add that to the discussion and also one last thing and I'll hang up and and that's that that Metropolis thing is really I really love love that film. And that one line is really great. And then kind of pertains to what you were talking about too and that is that that one line is that the

brain will never understand. And without the mediation of the heart you know I was right. There has to be so much who are your computers and you with that lack of heart. You don't seem to have a face that we can program and I know but anyway. Nice thank you. Thanks for the thoughts appreciate that. Yeah I think that that law it's at the the end of the movie is really wraps up the whole thing and really kind of caps in capsule and capsules. This this fear we have of technology and what it's doing to us. And it's such you know such a key thing in all the things that we've been talking about. Yeah it really it really is encouraging to know that you know at the at the end of it without the heart it all is fairly meaningless. Terry tell them again when that's going to be shown and and where because you know yeah a lot of people metropolis will be on October 18th which is the

Wednesday at 4 o'clock in the afternoon in the auditorium room 62 of the crowded art museum. It's free open to the public and more information about that can be found at w w w dot I P R H U R U C dot edu. So more information about the film and the other films in the series as well. Great. And that's the on the town series. Sitting in film that you're presenting only a program for research in humanities and the other film festival we're talking about just to reiterate. It's on Saturday September 9th and that's the computer fair Film Festival at starting at seven o'clock seven o'clock at folder auditorium. On the campus of the university we have about 10 minutes left with our guests. Marsha Woodbury and Kristin contends are right two of the people behind the computer theorem Film Festival. And do we have open lines if you like to call us 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 around Champaign-Urbana. Anywhere else

800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5. That gives me an opportunity if we don't have a caller right now to shock about back to the insect fear Festival one of the things Mayberry likes to do is point out bloopers and also talk about just how bad these movies are for our movies are pretty good. The only one notable thing we could find is the Golden Raspberry Awards and perhaps Christine knows more about this than I do. But there are every year the they are awarded in Hollywood for the worst acting the worst movie and so forth. I did bring a list of them along but did they have anti Oscars they actually are award of the day before the Academy you know reeling Battlefield Earth is up for this. I think it's going to sweep. I think it's going all the way on my feet. There's not even a runner in sight. Where I stand I thought this summer produced some.

Well there's you know some competition. I haven't gone to the movies all summer so I know the Golden Raspberry did nominate Robin Williams for his acting in and bicentennial of the house so that we do have some claim to fame for horribleness. It's good for those people who think that there should be an actual federal law that prohibits Robin Williams from smiling through tears in a film. And I'm the one leading the write in campaign to have that added to our Constitution. It's good I actually actually play I want to get nominated for some Oscars best art decoration and set decoration for best visual effects. And I think the Terminator had almost zero nominations for anything I was looking for so yeah that but oh and the Bicentennial Man was nominated for best makeup but just nominated for Oscar for. There's another that's another film that I really love that we haven't mentioned it doesn't

really have a lot of computers in it but there is at least as a background element and that's Brazil. OH IT'S NUMBER THAT. The computers essentially are manual typewriters with wires connected to them. Yeah. And technology is just completely a mess this whole entire world that described in this film. And actually there is a bug gets. Remember the mistaken identity because a fly drops into this typewriter as it's the guys typing in this arrest order. Yeah of course. It changes one of the characters the guy's name of course they get the wrong guy gets causing the bottle to toddle and all of a sudden people are crashing through the window trying to destroy his life because they because of this computer glitch or a fly or an actual bug in the system. Yeah it is so we don't longer feel that's an everyday thing. The bureaucracy gets you or your neighbor wrong and you're suddenly your phone service stops and you think what what happened you know computers do get us wrong it's an endless nightmare. And or you get in this building and you try to correct it

and the people who you call on the phone can't correct it because they don't have access to the file yet. You're assuming you're actually getting a person on the phone have you talked to a human being on the phone in the past there are you. I just keep pressing buttons I never get a human is like I will give you $100 of a human being will pick up this phone and know me because I keep getting the computer menu telling me all the ways that I can't possibly be helped by this organization. So you know on that level my fear of computers knows no bounds I don't want to make a single call to anybody on any level. I think when you were talking about whether they were good films or bad films well Terminator is interesting because it spawned you know son of Terminator which has my one of my favorite statistics in in film and Terminator cost 7 million dollars the original one written by James Cameron who went on to become the king of the geeks you know and got a lot of heat for

calling himself the king of the world and rightly so but he's interesting in the film community in that he has no degree in film he has a degree in engineering from Cal Tech. So he thought of the world in technological terms and thinks of films in terms of what can be done with the technology not what can be done with the art of film. But when the sequel was made after Arnold had become a much bigger star and everybody went on to. To think that this was going to make another 200 million dollars the sequel cost way more than seven million dollars in fact Arnold's salary for the second one was 14 million. When it comes right down to it by far the Terminator in the original is a much better film in the second one he also develops emotion he's no longer the top of the line model and now he's the Terminator working on the side of right and you know that moment where he cries. So the big cyborg character actually weeps he does everything but say oh Dorothy you know I have all I know I have a heart because it's breaking and gets a little weepy So the Terminator 2 is the one that should

belong in the cheesy film festival the first Terminator. Terrifying and wonderful in every way. Terminator 2 is the politically correct Terminator he kills people he just breaks your kneecap yeah he gets everybody in the kneecap and we seem to think he's a great humanitarian as a result the entire L.A. police force writhing in agony on the ground where they all what a nice man that Arnold is so we have a couple callers in just about four minutes so let's try to include at least one or this or Chicago next line over for good morning on focus 580. Thank you. Speaking of robots today's Chicago Tribune reports. Application of robotics to point where the robots actually design and build themselves. This is actually reported today from Brandeis University in Chicago Tribune today and also here in town there is a exhibit over a thousand exhibit items exhibited on the how things work applied engineering sort of getting to the point where we can really begin to visualize and maybe film a

lot of the things that we only imagine on film like the things you've been talking about. So we've got a lot to look forward to but I wonder how humanity is going to deal with the robot a station assembly computer industry that displaces humanity for much of the work we do and what we humans have to do. Once that really happens and we don't have to worry about unions and pensions and all the other things and just begin. Who enjoys the harvest of life's luxuries. I thought I just saw that thanks. Yeah that's an interesting concept and that's actually one of the things that runs through a lot of Isaac Asimov's work when he's talking about robots and he did write the story upon which Bicentennial Man is based. But one of the things that he thought was great about robots was that they would perform the repetitive mind numbing work leaving all of us free to enjoy a creative and fulfilling life. It hasn't worked out quite well it hasn't played itself out in the way that he imagined but

that the robot was originally envisioned in a lot of his stories as the savior of our creativity in the very thing that would allow us to live fulfilling lives. We just have a couple minutes left and I'm sorry to say there's a color we won't be able to include in this hour. But this is a way of wrapping up I guess. I'm wondering what you think do we learn something by you know looking at these films and if so is there a particular way we should try to think about. Well actually the question might be are these films teaching us are something that's true or not true in other words you know you might get images in your mind and heart from watching the films that are are not true. For instance the computers work all the time right. Right. And that they do a lot better than they really do that we're not as far along as we are. You know I certainly think that this year's lineup of films in the festival bring up

issues that we've been wrestling with on a lot of levels like what does it mean to be alive what's the nature of humanity. Cloning technology has brought that to the forefront. What is an artificial human at what point do you become artificial what point to become real. Certainly all the trend analysts say that this year's big Christmas toy will be this Pucci. Have you seen this it's a little robot dog but do you get a pet because you want something that barks and wags its tail or would you really want the mammal that actually reacts to you. So I think that they bring up a lot of issues that we have been exploring on a lot of other levels not just with computer technology but with other advanced technological. Forms where we talk about the ethical implications of creating artificial intelligence and what do we then know it what is it and to what extent do we want it to be like us. So I think that these films even if there are you know Razzie winners they certainly touch on some fears and some concerns and some anxieties that we have

because of things that are in the newspaper and not on the screen. Well we'll have to stop there as usual. There are many things we could talk about but we can suggest for folks to if you like to look at the films that are going to be as part of this on September 9th at 7:00 p.m. You said that full drawn toward the first film isn't Bicentennial Man and that's the computer for your film festival and once again the website of UWW Doughty ACM taught you why you see dot edu slash see EF 3 and to the to both of you Marshall would bring Christine PENCE Right. Thanks for being here. Oh thank you.