Given its simplicity, what makes Ex Machina so compelling?
I've watched the film several times now, and I can't find one misstep. Every shot, every editing choice is pure and necessary to the total effect. Can we call the film-making complex if it's done in service of telling a simple story?
Discuss this idea (and more) with your groups. First, individually come up with three debatable statements. Then share these statements with your group and debate them. Then come up with two debatable statements, as a group, to share with the class.
Some ideas to consider:
- windows and doors
- the artificiality of ALL intelligence
- programming (of the digital and biological kind)
- human and post-human
- evolution and extinction
- art and control
The Turing Test:
"So, do you know what the Turing Test is?"
"Yeah. I know what the Turing Test is. It's when a human interacts with a computer. And if the human doesn't know they're interacting with a computer, the test is passed."
"And what does a pass tell us?"
"That the computer has artificial intelligence."
The Promethean Myth:
"Because if that test is passed, you are dead center of the greatest scientific event in the history of man."
"If you've created a conscious machine, it's not the history of man. That's the history of gods."
Simulation Effect:
"Yeah, it feels like testing Ava through conversation is kind of a closed loop."
"It's a closed loop?"
"Yeah. Like testing a chess computer by only playing chess."
"How else do you test a chess computer?"
"Well, it depends. You know, I mean, you can play it to find out if it makes good moves, but, uh... But that won't tell you if it knows that it's playing chess. And it won't tell you if it knows what chess is."
"Uh-huh. So it's simulation versus actual."
Wetware:
"Here, we have her mind. Structured gel. I had to get away from circuitry. I needed something that could arrange and rearrange on a molecular level, but keep its form when required. Holding for memories. Shifting for thoughts."
"This is your hardware?"
"Wetware."
"And the, uh, software?"
"Well, I'm sure you can guess."
"Blue Book."
"Here's the weird thing about search engines. It was like striking oil in a world that hadn't invented internal combustion. Too much raw material. Nobody knew what to do with it. You see, my competitors, they were fixated on sucking it up and monetizing via shopping and social media. They thought that search engines were a map of what people were thinking. But actually they were a map of how people were thinking. Impulse. Response. Fluid. Imperfect. Patterned. Chaotic."
Sexuality:
"I got a question.'
"Okay."
"Why did you give her sexuality? An AI doesn't need a gender. She could have been a gray box."
"Hmm. Actually, I don't think that's true. Can you give an example of consciousness, at any level, human or animal, that exists without a sexual dimension?"
"They have sexuality as an evolutionary reproductive need."
"What imperative does a gray box have to interact with another gray box? Can consciousness exist without interaction? Anyway, sexuality is fun, man. If you're gonna exist, why not enjoy it? What? You want to remove the chance of her falling in love and fucking? And in answer to your real question, you bet she can fuck."
"What?"
"In between her legs, there's an opening, with a concentration of sensors. You engage them in the right way, creates a pleasure response. So if you wanted to screw her, mechanically speaking, you could. And she'd enjoy it."
"That wasn't my real question."
Programming:
"Did you program her to like me, or not?"
"I programmed her to be heterosexual. Just like you were programmed to be heterosexual."
"Nobody programmed me to be straight."
"You decided to be straight? Please."
"Of course you were programmed. By nature or nurture, or both. And to be honest, Caleb, you're starting to annoy me now, because this is your insecurity talking. This is not your intellect."
Action that is not automatic:
"You know this guy, right?"
"Jackson Pollock."
"Jackson Pollock. That's right. The drip painter. Okay. He let his mind go blank, and his hand go where it wanted. Not deliberate, not random. Some place in between. They called it automatic art. Let's make this like Star Trek, okay? Engage intellect."
"Excuse me?"
"I'm Kirk. Your head's the warp drive. Engage intellect. What if Pollock had reversed the challenge? What if instead of making art without thinking, he said, 'You know what? I can't paint anything, unless I know exactly why I'm doing it.' What would have happened?"
"He never would have made a single mark."
"Yes! You see, there's my guy, there's my buddy, who thinks before he opens his mouth. He never would have made a single mark. The challenge is not to act automatically. It's to find an action that is not automatic. From painting, to breathing, to talking, to fucking. To falling in love. And for the record, Ava's not pretending to like you. And her flirting isn't an algorithm to fake you out. You're the first man she's met that isn't me. And I'm like her dad, right? Can you blame her for getting a crush on you? No, you can't."
Destroyer of Worlds:
"One day the AIs are gonna look back on us the same way we look at fossil skeletons in the plains of Africa. An upright ape, living in dust, with crude language and tools. All set for extinction."
"'I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.'"
"There you go again, Mr. Quotable."
"There you go again. It's not my quote. It's what Oppenheimer said after he made the atomic bomb."
"The atomic bomb. Yeah, I know what it is, dude."
Experimental Manipulation:
"I mean, did we ever get past the chess problem, as you phrased it? As in, how do you know if a machine is expressing a real emotion or just simulating one? Does Ava actually
like you? Or not? Although, now that I think about it, there is a third option. Not whether she does or does not have the capacity to like you. But whether she's pretending to like you."
"Pretending to like me?"
"Yeah."
"Well, why would she do that?"
"I don't know. Maybe if she thought of you as a means of escape."
Feeling Stupid, Being Stupid:
"You feel stupid, but you really shouldn't, because proving an AI is... exactly as problematic as you said it would be.'
"What was the real test?"
"You. Ava was a rat in a maze. And I gave her one way out. To escape, she'd have to use self-awareness, imagination, manipulation, sexuality, empathy, and she did. Now, if that isn't true AI, what the fuck is?"
"So my only function was to be someone she could use to escape?"
"Yeah."
"And you didn't select me because I'm good at coding?"
