Man vs. Machine

Robert Zemeckis (Contact, Cast Away.. next up, Polar Express, looks good) made an interesting comment today. He noted that, although we are very close to replacing actors with photo-real CG, it is unlikely to eliminate live actors. He pointed to the fact that while we can eliminate live musicians using digital...no live musicians have been harmed. There's a human factor that can not be replaced. Remember, music has heart. Film does too, you can never take humans out of the equation.
This reminded me of conversations I've had with my son. As a young flimmaker, when he was 8 or so, he had trouble finding actors and tried many ways, including CG, to replace them. There are many directors who will, and do, like the control.
Remember Sugar Sugar, by the Archies? Don Kirschner, asshole that he was, could not deal with live musicians and actually had a #1 hit with a cartoon ( in 1969 no less) ... kept all the record royalties himself (well, he paid the studio musicians & singers a few bucks, and composer royalties are separate). Nitty got him in the end... check out Nasty Girl. He samples right out of the song and hopefully doesn't pay him a cent... and you should hear the very, very nasty lyrics on that song.
One of my favorite films is 2001: A Space Odyssey. Kubrick is a perfectionist, does everything himself, with almost no $, takes forever, very auteur, the effects were ahead of their time, certainly a progenitor of Star Wars & AI. The book, by Clarke, pits astronauts against HAL - really IBM - the letters after HA & L. They are off in the stars looking for the source of creation, Satori. Problem is, computers are now so human-like, they have emotions, including self-preservation. So, when HAL runs amok and needs to be shut down, he fights back and locks the humans out of the spaceship.
Humans are obviously not running scared (just overscheduled), robotics (along with nanotech) is poised to be the next internet. Hey, even though Roomba, the robot vacuum, was a joke, when the compu-slave comes along, sign me up. I'll keep that special turn-off wrench handy though, in case it comes to blows. We like our technological servants. We're in control....right? Just because the machines aren't mowing us down, doesn't mean we haven't been compromised. God help me if I ever lost this ibook, or even my ipod, or cell phone. I'm a tech-junkie like all the rest of us, souped-up, it's hard to turn it all off.
When we can replicate humans, we will be gods. Just as it is the fact of our existence that proves God's existence.
I love living with technoids here in the Valley. Each new advance is so exciting. It's living on the crest of the Third Wave Alvin Toffler wrote about. It's a bit sad though that this sort of North/South, Tech/"Content" divide seems to be emerging (due to fucking RIAA, don't get me started). Let's work together people, I'd hate to pick sides in that one. We all have the same goal, giving people entertaining, uplifting (or at least profitable and non-harmful) stuff to watch and listen to...make it easy for us to find what we will like (I can not emphasize this enough), make it big (but light) and visual and easy to control and transport. Give us some content we can use to build on, for our own creativity, and a good interface and forum for all that. Let's keep the big goals in mind.