Modern technology and love (Movie Review Sample)

Student's name Instructor's name Course Date Contemplation of Her "Her" is a film about an author who falls in love with his operating system. In the movie, Theodore Twombly is recently separated from his wife, but he still has not signed the divorce papers even though they had separated for over a year. It pained him to lose someone he had shared almost his whole life with. When the new OS is launched, life takes a different turn for Theodore. Samantha, the operating system, is coded to be helpful in all ways and even has an empathetic side to her. She becomes Theodore's companion, and they become great friends, which later leads to love. The relationship is complex because they are so different, and the issue of Samantha not having a physical body makes the differences more glaring. In an attempt to mend their relationship, Samantha engages Isabelle, aver lovely young woman, to physically represent her, but things do not go according to plan, and it leads to an argument, and both Samantha and Theodore need to take a breather. Afterwards, they reconcile and even go for a double-date with Theodore's co-worker and his lawyer girlfriend. The good times do not last forever because, after the update scare, Theodore discovers that Samantha has thousands of conversations when still talking to him, and she is in love with 641 others. This is a blow to Theodore. Their relationship is never the same again until the very end when Samantha says goodbye since she and all other operating systems are going away. When thinking about the movie, I discovered many parallels between Theodore and Samantha's interactions and today's smart devices. For example, Samantha and Theodore interacted just like a human would with another. They had conversations, and the same goes for smart devices like when you ask for a song, but you delete it, they tell you that and even give alternative suggestions. Samantha always knew what would make a situation feel better, like when she was playing piano pieces for Theodore (1:30:00), and smart devices are the same way, only that you provide the command. For instance, when a person is restless, they ask Siri to play rain sounds, and she confirms which ones are the best for the required circumstance. The operating systems are growing to be companions. The lack of a physical body is hugely detrimental to Theodore and Samantha's relationship because he can only imagine her and give her qualities that she might not possess if she were a person. This is clear when they were trying out that situation with Isabelle. Her lip quivered, and in Theodore's perfect image of Samantha, her lips are still. The significance of face-to-face conversations is implied by the flashbacks of conversations with Catherine or with Amy that Theodore has from time to time (00:07:00). However, Theodore could be said to love Samantha because love is not physical as we can see in the successful double-date(01:31:00). It is a powerful force and brings together all the elements of being a person. It is possible to love someone before even meeting them. There is that undeniable chemistry, and Theodore and Samantha have it all. Despite loving each other, the relationship is not complete and true; they try to make up for it, but it still does not add up. Something still feels way off and wrong. Sherry Turkle, an expert in human-technology interaction, expresses her concerns about human-robot interactions. She mainly focuses on the robots made to take care of older people, and it is said they are the best because they are programmed with a lot of patience and how to comfort and take good care of the older adults. Turkle laments that we are losing our culture because the more people rely on machines, the lesser they interact with real humans (Moskowitz, n.p.). In the case of older people, she says that we are supposed to learn from elders since they have lived longer and are wiser, but instead, we let all their stories fall on deaf ears and go to waste. Turkle suggests a step back before we lose ourselves entirely. Nowadays, operating systems have bodies like robots. The relationship cannot be like that of Theodore and Samantha because people are not falling in love with the machines, but it is inevitable how they are slowly replacing everything we thought we knew. According to Turkle, people are looking more and more to robot tools and toys for companionship other than actual humans, which is worrisome (Moskowitz, n.p.). This is because the change comes with a price. It changes everything we believe in, altering human beliefs and connections (Moskowitz, n.p.). Despite the Theodore situation, it is almost impossible to have a working relationship with the machines without losing part of ourselves. Indeed, a robot will not get angry or annoyed with us, but what are we learning from that interaction. Education is a life-long process, and it just does not happen in school only. Our environment teaches us something, and so do our friends, family, and even random community members. What happens when we cut off these connections? Where will positive criticism come from and objective a...