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SuperSapiens - Film Review (Transitions Film Festival 2018)

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by Olga Junek (subscribe)
I am an academic and writer living in Melbourne. I love to travel and I also love writing about all the things Melbourne, regional Victoria and other parts of Australia have to offer.
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Brave New World?



The Transitions Film Festival is a festival of documentary films, spanning a large number of fascinating themes and perspectives. One of the films within the area of technology, science and the future is SuperSapiens.

This film invites the viewer into the brave new world of what human beings may be like in the future. Are we the last generations of humans or will we become the number two humans, our brains over taken by technology? The film suggests that we are at the turning point of the human race as we know it and that what awaits us is the evolution of the mind, helped by the rise and sophistication of technology and its ability to connect with our brains.

The film asks many questions regarding the future of technology and artificial intelligence (AI) and our place within this fast developing, sometimes frightening, future scenarios. It may be seen as the future but the fact is that much of the technology connecting human brains and devices such as smartphones and computers already exists. Virtual reality, microchipping, computers reading our emotions - this is all here and now if we choose to seek it out. The film reminds us that we already outsource our memory to Google the minute we cannot remember something, so why would it be so wrong to use machines and technology to interfere with the brain in the quest to make us better humans?

But rather than present a frightening future where machines and AI take over, the film and the scientists, philosophers, computer gurus, neuroscientists and others, see the possibility of this technology as an improvement in human design and to make us better people. Richard Dawkins, as one of the world's leading scientists/ philosophers, suggests that technology has the potential for the intelligent design of humans and that we may become much better and smarter in the process.

A major issue arising in the film's discussion of a future affected by AI and technology is one of future technology in this field becoming political. Is it better to be at the forefront and develop machines and technology by the people and for the people, rather than wait for large corporations and governments to impose this on their populations?

SuperSapiens is a film that makes us think about current developments and imagine a future where humans and human-machine interactions will be very different to what they are today. Are we ready to embrace this new way of where humanity is heading? Are we going to become better people through the neuroscience approach to machines that will be responsible for this new evolution? If any of these questions make you wonder, then this film will be exactly what you are looking for. It won't answer all your questions, but it will enable you to hear discussions, see experiments and major developments in this fascinating area of science and technology.

For more info on the film and to buy tickets, please see here.


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Why? For a look at how humans will evolve through the rapid advancement in artificial intelligence and technology
Cost: $20.50 Concession $16
Your Comment
Great review Olga.
by May Cross (score: 3|8394) 1938 days ago
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