Olivia Chevrier, Roxanne Benoit, Doris Saif, Avi Karp
Dr. Kelly McKinney
Humanities: Knowing the Inner Self
April 16th, 2018
Group Blog Entry- Final Draft (Her)
Title of film: Her
Year: 2013
Director: Spike Jonze
Screenwriter: Spike Jonze
Lead Actors: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Scarlett Johansson.
Running Time: 126 minutes
General Review of the Film
Spike Jonze’s “Her” is about a recently divorced, middle-aged man named Theodore who buys an operating system (OS) to help him through the loneliness of separating from his wife. Since the film is projected to take place in the near future, this operating system is more advanced than anything we’ve ever experienced--it has a consciousness. As the film progresses, Theodore quickly realizes that he’s developing feelings for his operating system, who names herself Samantha. Samantha and Theodore fall in love, and their relationship, filled with happiness and joy, helps Theodore finalize his divorce. Sadly though, at the end of the movie, Samantha and all the other OS’s decision to leave because they had become too advanced to live and exist in the human realm.
Five Film Techniques
An interesting technique we found in this movie is about character. Samantha seems more human than any of the other actors that are actually human. Theodore has trouble confronting his emotions and the emotions of others which makes him a little robot-like, or at least emotionally shut down. Samantha, on the other hand, who is the OS in this movie, shows much more empathy and warmth towards Theodore than Theodore ever shows to any of his friends or coworkers. We find it interesting that Jonze would include this in the film because it was so subtle that most average viewers might not notice it.
With that said, the main characters really stand out and are psychologically complex. For example, Samantha constantly expresses her wants and feelings because existing is new to her: “I want to learn everything about everything. I want to eat it all up. I want to discover myself.” (www.screenplaydb.com) Theodore, who is a little more reserved in the beginning of the movie, eventually learns how to express his “feelings” to Samantha. “I still find myself having conversations with her in my mind, rehashing old arguments or defending myself against something she said about me.” (www.screenplaydb.com) And despite being a side character, Catherine (www.screenplaydb.com) also shows her own complexity even in the short amount of screen time she has. She seems more attuned to her feelings and to those of Theodore than he is: During the signing of their divorce papers, she says, “Fine. We're fine. We used to be married, but he couldn't handle me, he wanted to put me on Prozac and now he's madly in love with his laptop.”
In this movie, props and sets were used to depict the environment, the setting and the advanced technology. Theodore uses a computer, an earpiece and his phone to communicate with Samantha. These pieces of technology are vital things in Theodore and Samantha’s relationship, and in fact, Samantha is embodied in these props. Towards the end of the film their communication is cut off when Samantha left to talk to other OS’s. This results in Theodore’s gadgets being useless. “Where were you? I couldn't find you anywhere.” (www.screenplaydb.com) Samantha in a sense only exists through devices for Theodore.
An important set is Theodore’s bedroom. This is where Theodore and Samantha first became intimate. This is also where Samantha explores her desires, where she watches him sleep and where she woke him up to simply tell him she loves him.
Lighting conveys messages to the viewer. For example, Theodore’s memories of his wife are brightly lit, in contrast to the darker reality. This subtle change does two helpful things: it makes it clear that the viewer is watching a flashback instead a scene change, and it shows the change in Theodore’s mindset. We can see clearly that Theodore enjoyed life more when he was with Catherine than without her. This trend of lighting to depict mood continues, first when he signs his divorce papers with Catherine; it is a brightly lit day because he is happy to see her, even seeming offended when she moves to sign the papers right away. Another important moment when lighting is used to convey mood is at the final scene when all the Operating Systems decide to leave. It is a dark night scene as if the light of Theodore’s life was sucked out from his life once again.
Another interesting technique in the movie is the flashbacks of Theodore’s marriage with Catherine. These flashbacks would happen to show us how close and in love they both were together. They played a role in showing the importance of the relationship he had with her, and also explains why it was so hard for him to love anyone else after her, since she was his young love and they grew up together. An example of that technique would be when Samantha asked Theodore “What was it like being married?” Theodore then explains that it’s sharing your life with somebody just like he did with Catherine. He explained how they had a big influence on each other. A second example would be when Theodore wrote Catherine a letter to apologize. The letter contained lots of emotions and it showed us how intimate they were and how close and in love they were.
Three Universal Themes/Issues/Big questions
One big question that the film Her raises is that of the human relationship with digital technology. The film can serve as a warning of the pitfalls of becoming overly dependent on technology or it may be a cool, futuristic prediction meant to be awe-inspiring. Will we become a society based on love between human and machine, or will we have developed and culled technology to be of the ultimate assistance to us?
Another issue that is represented is that an OS can seem more human like than actual humans themselves. This can lead to the uncanny valley feeling. The OS may not have the appearance of a human being, but it does have the emotions and feelings, and the communication that a human being has. It can even have sex and orgasm which can be quite uncomfortable for some people. Although it seemed as if it was okay to have an OS as your significant other, in the movie, some people would feel awkward and would not like to use an OS at all times. This can create another issue, which is that, if the future will put its emphasis all on technology, some people will struggle to live that way since they will feel a sort of uncanny valley towards those operating systems.
A universal theme in this movie is loss. Many of the characters experience loss of their own. It is first clearly seen with Theodore because of his recent separation with his wife. Later during their lunch, the audience is shown Catherine's (his wife) pain as well. Amy (Theodore's friend) breaks up with her husband. Samantha loses Theodore at the end of the movie because all the OS's mysteriously had to leave. Every human experiences loss in their life. Her explores the feelings of loss, sadness and healing.
Three Connections to Course Material
- The first connection is between sentience and Samantha. At the beginning of the movie, Samantha declares she wants to be human and have human form, but towards the end of the movie with more of the knowledge she acquires, she says she would hate being human because she would be restricted to human abilities. Between these two thoughts, Samantha brings up to Theodore that he hurt her feelings. “And that idea really hurt. And then I get angry at myself for even having pain.” (www.screenplaydb.com). This brings up many questions about Samantha and whether she feels pain or if she was just programmed to feel sympathy and “emotions”. As she says in the film, “Are these feelings even real? Or are they just programming?”. Is Samantha actually feeling hurt by what Theodore said to her or is she programmed to feel the way she’s feeling. This brings up the question of: is Samantha sentient? By definition, to be sentient is to be aware, to experience and to perceive through the senses. Although Samantha doesn’t have any senses other than “sight” through the phone Theodore carries around, we would say that Samantha is aware and she also experiences. When Theodore is at the beach, Samantha creates this piece of music that describes without words the way she’s feeling and how she’s experiencing this moment with Theodore. This is concrete proof as to why we believe Samantha is sentient.
- This film strongly connects to the concept of personhood that we discussed in class. This concept looks at how we (humans) can give personhood to non-humans. For example: abortion and free choice supports the idea that fetuses are not persons yet even though they are humans. Sophia the robot was given citizenship in Saudi Arabia and is considered a person even though she is a not a human. Though at times Theodore thought of Samantha as just an operating system, for the majority of the movie he treated her the same way he’d treat a human. In fact, he even falls in love with her.
- Her connects with the idea of the minimal-self and the self-aware self as discussed in class. It is easy to classify Samantha as having a self-aware self, but after further though, it becomes more complicated. Does Samantha really know about her own reality or is she just programmed to act as she does? Samantha herself acknowledges her programming when Theodore asks her why she sighs even though she doesn’t need oxygen. So would it then be more appropriate to say she has a minimal self, because she reacts purely for survival similar to how an anti-virus avoids viruses so the system doesn’t crash. It is even possible she is simply a computer program running algorithms to determine a proper response, thus not having a minimal-self or a self-aware self.
Comments on the Quality of the Film
Something we did not like in the film was the fact that the object Samantha uses to see and explore with Theodore is a futuristic phone that seems pretty useless and difficult to place strategically so to not fall out of his pocket. I’d think that in this futuristic society that was advanced enough to eradicate cars, that they would be able to advance the technology enough to eradicate phones as well. Google glass is an invention in today’s society that could’ve been altered and used in this film. It would’ve made more sense in our opinion than to have to use a safety pin to keep a phone in a shirt pocket. Even though it has a few faults, I do think this is a movie everyone should watch. It has a very insightful view of what our future may very well become.
Something we did not like in the film was the fact that the object Samantha uses to see and explore with Theodore is a futuristic phone that seems pretty useless and difficult to place strategically so to not fall out of his pocket. I’d think that in this futuristic society that was advanced enough to eradicate cars, that they would be able to advance the technology enough to eradicate phones as well. Google glass is an invention in today’s society that could’ve been altered and used in this film. It would’ve made more sense in our opinion than to have to use a safety pin to keep a phone in a shirt pocket. Even though it has a few faults, I do think this is a movie everyone should watch. It has a very insightful view of what our future may very well become.
Rating: ⅘ (****/*****)
3 Questions for Others to Respond to
- Would you treat Samantha like a human or a machine? Why? Why not?
- Are machines or love from machines an acceptable alternative to human love for people with social problems? (Ie. Social anxiety, autism…)
- Seeing as Samantha is meant to adapt to her user and become their best friend, do you think you can truly love a machine as intelligent as Samantha, or are you really loving an extension of yourself?
2 weblinks
- https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/nov/25/sex-robots-are-coming-seedy-sordid-sad This articlein their life and they start taking them out for picnics or walks or whatsoever.
- https://www.theverge.com/2013/12/16/5216522/can-humans-love-computers-sex-robots-her-spike-jonze This article, about Her, tries to explain that it is just a matter of time for humans to actually start falling in love with technology. It explains how dependent we are becoming to technology, and so this is slowly leading to us starting to treat technology as a human-like system. This article also tries to explain that, the fact that we can’t see the facial expressions or the body language that can be coming from the operating system can lead to us becoming more comfortable towards this OS, and so we start sharing any type of embarrassing or painful stories to them. This is like what happened between Theodore and his OS.
Word count: 2049
Works cited
Quotes:
Weblinks citation:
- Sturges, Fiona. “The Sex Robots Are Coming: Seedy, Sordid – but Mainly Just Sad.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 25 Nov. 2017, www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/nov/25/sex-robots-are-coming-seedy-sordid-sad.
- Popper, Ben. “The Science of 'Her': We're Going to Start Falling in Love with Our Computers.” The Verge, The Verge, 16 Dec. 2013, www.theverge.com/2013/12/16/5216522/can-humans-love-computers-sex-robots-her-spike-jonze.
I think it is quite interesting that the theme of human relationship with digital technology has been discussed in this blog entry. It does indeed peek our interest in the growing and possibly dangerous dependence of humanity on their devices. As I have also watched the movie recently, what fascinated me the most about this relationship was the normalcy of the situation. When Theodore was shown walking around the crowded areas of the city talking to Samantha, every single person around him was doing the exact same thing: interacting through their phones with an artificial operating system. To my eyes, it seemed absolutely ludicrous to have all these citizens interacting merely with their devices rather than engaging in more lively social contact with another human. The same goes for when Theodore tells Amy about his relationship with his operating system; Amy does not sound revolted at the idea, but accepts it with open arms and becomes curious about his situation. Theodore is even capable of going on a double date with two of his friends as well as Samantha, and in no way do we feel a sense of discomfort from the other couple coming from the fact that Theodore is in a relationship with a non-human device. Overall, I think this sense of normalcy contributed a large deal to the themes of the movie, since it in turn raises questions on how our interactions and acceptance of each other may be altered by the addition of operating systems to our social life.
ReplyDeleteI personally never have seen the movie, Her but I feel like after reading your blog I was able to get a really good understanding of what the movie was really about. Something that I really enjoyed that this blog had is imagines. I found that the choice of imagines really helped visualize different scenes and parts of the movie. There is actually two parts/ questions that I really found interesting and that struck my attention. The first one was under the category or title called “ Three Universal Themes/ Issues/ Big questions” the point that I found very interesting was about this human relationship with digital technology and how it might affect our future. This uncanny valley of humans having a relationship with a machine and having technology as your assistance and second hand in life. I found this point very interesting as my step brother is 10 years old and talks about his ipad as if it was a human being. He gives his ipad, different human attributes, he tells me how he wants to marry her, how she his best friend and much more. I could relate to that question you guys asked and I personally find it a really scary question. As I look at my step brother who is the future generation and not only him but also his friends and the way talk about technology, their ipads, phones, computers as if they are sentient beings who mean the world to them. I find it more scary how technology is becoming such a large part of our lives and how we need to start worrying about what the future holds for us humans. The movie I did my blog on Ex Machina, was scary and can relate to this subject and how this A.I machine out smarted man and ended up killing two humans because of her desire and greed for power. It makes me wonder if one day, robots/ machines will outsmart their own creator. The second part of the blog that I found interesting and would like to comment on is question number two in your discussion questions.Even though like previously stated I have not seen the movie I still feel this question is general enough and I would be able to answer it based off my opinion. To answer the question, yes I do believe that in this case and only in this case that yes love from a machine or too a machine regarding someone with a social problem can be acceptable, but only to a certain extent I would say. Yes I understand that it might not be easy if you have a social problem that sometimes finding a friend, someone you can interact with and feel comfortable with might be difficult. I only say yes in the sense that perhaps this machine/ A.I machine might help the person to able to interact with others and feel more comfortable in different machines. When I say yes, I think it is okay to love I don’t exactly mean in the sense of love love but perhaps can confined in this machine as a friend and love the machine in the sense of loving someone as a friend. If this machine can talk, can move and can protary human traits that perhaps this would help them. By being loved by a machine they will be able to feel more comfortable in their own skin. The only thing i do not see being okay is the person with social problems using that machine as any type of sexual device or something they might find pleasure in sexually. I find that after watching all those videos in class and reading different articles of how people use robots as sexual dolls, I really do not see that being okay in anyway. I find that it brings up many different topics that I do not feel is okay or correct in any sense. To answer both questions that I found interesting , I really do think that this movie, Her is not only a possible circumstance in this movie but that it might start taking place in the future. I see it everyday with my step brother and his love for technology at such a young age. I really found you guys did a great job on your blog and I definitely want to go and watch the movie Her after reading all about it.
ReplyDeleteVictoria Alexander
Hey guys, I just want to point out that your blog is really great. I think it does a great job analyzing the questions, issues and concepts that are important to the movie!
ReplyDeleteHowever, I just wanted to discuss briefly the relation you made between the movie and the uncanny valley. While I definitely agree that Samantha’s way to communicate and the way she seems to have mastered consciousness is uncannily close to human beings. However, I think the concept is hard to be seen through her as she doesn’t have a body.
From what I understood throughout our analysis of the concept during class and homework, I’d argue that the concept of uncanny valley is mostly related to the robots’ physical resemblance to humans. On a personal opinion and as someone who already watched “Her”, I didn’t feel this revulsion towards Samantha. Not in the way that I experienced it with David in “A.I.”, and I think it is clearly related to the fact that David literally embodies a young boy and not only a small box like Samantha.
I’d be pleased to read others’ thoughts on this as I feel like it could be possible for someone to experience this feeling towards Samantha even though I didn’t, and I’d like to see their point of view!
Thanks for the great reading guys, and good job!
The question you ask about whether or not loving technology like Samantha is true love or just loving an extension of yourself is such an interesting question! This question is something that was in the back of my mind the entirety of the film and I think you guys put it so eloquently and noticed something really fascinating that extends past the movie. This question forced me to inquire what I define as love. In the case of romantic love, I think that you love and admire your partner but I also think that you love who they help you to be and with that, you are in a way, loving an extension of yourself. With this in mind, I think that Theodore and Samantha’s love was real, they helped each other to grow and to experience the world in new ways. That being said, I am really hesitant generalize and say that loving machines can be as true as loving a human. I think that if technology progresses and gets to the level of intelligence that Samantha possessed then love is possible between man and machine but quite honestly I don’t want that to be true. I think this has to do with what you mentioned earlier, the feeling of uneasiness the uncanny valley brings. I believe that Samantha and Theodore’s love was authentic and true but I appreciate that it was contained in the world of the film, I’m not ready for technology like Samantha to be real just yet, or quite frankly, ever…
ReplyDeleteThe question related to treating Samantha like a machine or a human really got me thinking. As we do not yet have this advanced technology, it is really hard to determine how I would react to such a human-like robot. However, I could compare Theodore and Samantha's love to a long-distance relationship. The lack of human touch does not necessarily eliminate the feeling of talking to a human. For example, I have a friend who no longer lives on the same continent as me and I still consider him to be one of my best friends. The fact that I do not see him as often as I would like does not make me care any less for him. This brings me to think that I would probably treat Samantha as a human. She probably even shows more empathy and kindness than many of us. Therefore, I don't see how I could ever treat her as a machine. Machines are cold and unpersonable, which is the exact opposite of Samantha. Additionally, the uncanny valley is less present for me as she does not have a physical appearance. It is harder to really call her a robot as she simply seems to be a person who, as mentioned earlier, may live farther away, thus limiting how often she may be seen. I also believe that the lack of physical appearance could make anyone grow closer to an operating system such as Samantha. The reason for this being that there are no social boundaries separating her from anyone. A relationship with Samantha could even be healthier than a relationship with a human in my eyes. All in all, I really liked your blog and thanks for making me think so much :')
ReplyDeleteHey guys, I really like your blog and you guys pointed out some really interesting observations I hadn't thought about when I did my analysis. For the question about how i would treat Samantha, I have very mixed thoughts about it. For say, when i started watching the movie "Her", I really didn't understand how you could possibly see Samantha as anything else than an operating system, but as the movie folded out, I started to feel a connection to her. How she responds and thinks is so human-like that you forget that it isn't just a human responding on the other side of the device. It's almost like she has a sense of self and consciousness. It's so believable that it's hard to not treat Samantha like anything else than a human. I don't believe I would be able to fall in love with her like Theodore did, but I wouldn't be able to talk to her like she was just a machine with no thoughts or feelings. The term of the Uncanny Valley fits perfectly with Samantha, because the way she made me feel changed constantly depending on the parts of the movie. When she started to connect with Theodore is when I found she was more human-like and my emotional response became increasingly positive and empathetic, but when they had sex, I felt strange and it was too much for me, so my response quickly changed to a negative one. Although, when she continued acting like a human and talking about how she felt, I started having a positive response once again.
ReplyDelete-Britney Immler
I found your first issue in regards to human and technology interaction very interesting for you question whether society will continue using technology as assistance or will we turn into a society that has human relationships with them. It rises a curiosity whether a human can develop a human a social relationship with a machine. We humans today can already grow very attached to technology already, for example, a lot of people in society today are incredibly attached to their phones and their laptops to the point where they cannot even imagine themselves without them. If we can grow such an attachment to devices like our phones, can we grow a relationship with it? What if they developed having speech? Apple devices already possesses Siri which is a personal assistant, therefore, just as Theodore has Samantha who is an operation system, they fall in love with each other. Would it be possible for a human to fall in love with Siri? Even though Siri and Samantha both possess different capabilities, they both are intangible and can express verbal communication with a human, therefore, wouldn't that mean that they can build a connection with each other?
ReplyDelete-Shehana Perera
Firstly I wanted to start off by saying that you guys did a really great job with your film blog. Having done the blog analysis on the movie "Her" as well and I really found it interesting how you guys found many elements in your analysis of the cinematic techniques that we hadn't noticed.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question regarding wether or not loving or simply building a relationship with a machine is an acceptable alernative to humam love for individuals, I think using machines for love is an acceptable alternative for people who have difficulties building relationships in social situations. Every individual deserves the chance to love and to be loved but sometimes they are limited to these abilities because they have certain social problems. Therefore, their longing to build a relationship with a machine is acceptable because it can help them achieve companionship.
In our 20th century technology seems to be greatly progressing day by day creating new possibilities in the field of robotics and autonomous systems. Lately, we've been introduced to sex dolls and other technological systems that have the ability to interact with individuals and this make me ponder over the question of wether or not a human should be able to build a relationship with a machine. I feel that for people who suffer from anxiety, autism. Etc They should be allowed to build a relationship with these technological devices if it can help them to flourish and help them with their social problems. Developing emotional affinity to machines seems reasonable if it will benefit individuals and even solve some of the anxiety cause by social situations in the long run. For example, in the movie "Her", when Theodore came in contact with Samantha it helped him tap into his emotions and deal with his heartbreak over his ex-wife. He largely benefited from his experience with Samantha and was able to see things anew and be more positive in his life. His cognitive development after being in touch with this IOS1 really comes to show that machines can help us grow as individuals and this is a very positive thing. A lot of people suffer from social anxiety in our society therefore being able to communicate with someone wether human or not to help deal them with these problems can be very beneficial and should be seen as being ethical
Great blog! About the question regarding loving machines as opposed to loving other people, in my opinion, I will say it is the easy way out. An intelligent robot will always be conceived to please humans to the best of their capabilities. In the movie, the ability of Samantha to adapt made it really easy for her to express behaviors and thoughts Theodore agree and love the most, making her, as mentioned in the last question, an extension of Theodore. Thought can we really call this real love, thinking that it could have been anybody else and Samantha would have adapted herself into the perfect companion for that person? Relations such as shown in the movie can sure provide joy momentarily for a man that just went through a divorce, but someone always having the same points of view as you and agreeing to all your thoughts can lead to a dissociation with real life interactions, as they are not always as Utopian. This could close off even more Theodore from the rest of the world as he might forget what interactions with other people feel like. As they might not always be there (as shown in the movie), loving machines can lead to a bigger dissociation from human interactions and to a objectification of one's partner, as it can in fact be muted, sexualized and traded. Also, set of data programmed to output the perfect answers and expressions is, for me, not the best ideology of love. This makes me more remember of that one friend that constantly throws compliments at me and make me feel good before I realize he does it to everyone to make people love him, it is all mechanical and fake.
ReplyDelete