Oh, Colossus, you nut!

In 1970, "The Forbin Project" emerged as the latest in a slew of technophobic films that, perhaps, considered itself prescient of the inevitable destruction of mankind in a world ruled by technology (i.e. the dominance of the big creepy "supercomputer"). In this clip, Colossus spews his personal philosophy ("man is his own worst enemy", bla bla bla) through a really primitive text-to-speech program. He (and I stress he--we'd probably be pretty hard pressed to locate early cinematic equivalents of the likes of Colossus or HAL that talk through female voices) threatens to annihilate the world with the help of "Guardian," his counterpart, a computer built by the Russians.



I don't think it will surprise anyone to know that this movie does not have a happy ending. Nonetheless, I do find the film fascinating in that it is based on the premise that we imbue our machines with our own will, conscience, and possible bent toward the destructive. Now, in 1970, which was not so long after the introduction of the ENIAC--the first computer that was so big it filled a room (no, seriously, stop laughing!)--people still considered technology to be not only something they could choose whether to interact with--but also something that had a scary potential to undermine human life. So, when this film first came out, though it was probably chilling on some level, its premise was still unrealistic.

However...

Today, as Donna Haraway argues, we are all "cyborgs" in the sense of having a connection (both mental and physical) to myriad technologies, some of which we do not even notice as being a part of us. Furthermore, as Kate Hayles compellingly explains, the aspect of "relationality" between us and our machines makes it more and more likely that they can mimic our thinking and decision making processes; thus, taking into account her theories, we can see Colossus's going rogue not as some sort of terrifying "fluke" or bug in the system, but rather as an actual reflection of his adoption of his human creators' traits.