My favorite short from Love, Death + Robots was Three Robots: Exit Strategies. This short film was produced by Blow Studio based in Spain, sci-fi writer John Scalzi created both the original and the sequel of “Three Robots”. This short story was to send a message while adding a sense of humor. This story is a great depiction of what the future might hold as far as humans being the ultimate threat to themselves. I enjoyed this film the most because it shows how futuristic the technology could be with robots but also how terrible the future could be if humans do not start changing their ways. The robots have become smarter than humans and even mock them as their creators. The whole film these three robots walk around a post-apocalypse world and digest what they are seeing how at fault humans are.
While trying to figure out how to survive in this world the robots discover human remains of a “survivalist camp” where humans wanted civilization to collapse because they wanted freedom from government sponsored medical attention to then form a utopian society. The robot explains that these survivalist hunted deer and any other large animal into extinction, which eventually led raid each other’s food. I feel like in today’s society people feel like they could also break away from the governments constraint and are naive that things will be utopian, I think this does a great job showing the reality of such an idea. Eventually people grow hostile and turn on each other which leads to their own downfall as a society and the human race.
The next clip the robots talk about how there was another group of survivalists who were millionaires and had sophisticated strategies. This civilization was at sea where they hunted enough fish to ruin the food chain and saturate it with microplastics. This civilization thought technology would save them, so they turned on their own people to depend and place their trust in machines, which ultimately turned on them. I thought it was interesting that the robot who doesn’t even have the means for emotion or compassion suggested that the humans could have survived if they were more socially inclusive. The robots then laughed because they said humans could not even be nice to robots. This shows that although the wealthy people will always have an upper hand with resources that a sense of humanity is the best survival skill of all and without it, their downfall is inevitable.
Along with that even the leaders of the world escaped to a fortress beneath the earth to hide. Once the chaos had passed, they planned to reemerge and form a new world order. The referred to these elite as the “final stronghold of the superpowers” just to find them all feasting on another one of them and named it extreme democracy. This shows once again that all humanity is lost when it comes to these extreme measures and no matter what people are always willing to turn on others when needed.
The other 0.01 percent of the world who are the richest decided to flee to Mars because they needed a new planet to start on, which ended up being the cats. Although they have the means to go there and do this my guess is they won’t survive if they are anything like the rest of the world who are greedy. The wealthiest were so unsympathetic with the others that they set up traps to kill if people tried to join them. I thought the joke about Elon Musk in mars at the end was very funny as well because it ties in with today’s elite and technology millionaires.
The three robots were astonished that these humans did not use any of the money used for the spaceships or seasteds to mend their own planet but instead for their class to remain together.
I chose the first Three Robots, so its interesting to see your prospective on the story! I love your analysis of the government free utopia! I didn't think of it like that, but you're right. Many anti-government individuals don't want to be told what to do even though the government creates restrictions like hunting seasons and limits for the benefit of everyone. Without guidance and rules, they destroyed their own utopia. Additionally, I found that each group's downfall was similar despite their different socioeconomic statuses. They all underestimated something — regulations, technology, self control — and it led to their downfall. I also found it ironic that robots were more levelheaded and sympathetic than humans, but I guess thats why they survived and humanity didn't.
ReplyDeleteI thought the "Three Robots" episodes were super funny and definitely lightened the mood when talking about the extinction of the human race. But I really like how you touched point with every socioeconomic status presented in the film. It wasn't one group of people who led to their demise, but all of them. Each group had their own flaw that took them out, but every group was taken out nonetheless--except for the cats of course. You also talked about something the robots mentioned, how the world didn't come together to save their own planet but rather decided to flee. As sad as it is, if we were to face the same situation, I don't doubt that we would see that very response. Awesome insight!
ReplyDeleteEXCELLENT WORK: Now I want to read other works by John Scalzi. Note that at then NO HUMANS went to Mars, ONLY CATS!!! they managed to escape and left the humans behind!
ReplyDelete