Yoni in the dunes |
The same Times article, "Interactive Gets a New Meaning," by Alex Hawgood, besides other intrigues, discusses a new movie, "Her," just released by Hollywood. It involves the Otaku-like relationship between the actor and the artificial-intelligence voice of a woman programmed on his smartphone operating system:
In "Her," the near-future romance film written and directed by Spike Jonze, there is an awkwardly remarkable moment in which the lead character, Theodore (played by Joaquin Phoenix), has an intimate encounter with Samantha (Scarlett Johansson) after returning home inebriated from a failed blind date with another woman. Filmed with a close-up lens, it shows Theodore gently edging Samantha into arousal by telling her what he wishes to do to her body. As things become increasingly explicit, the screen turns black, leaving the audience lingering in darkness as the characters reach their aural climax.
The relationship depicted in "Her," between Theodore and Samantha, seems eerily close to a rapport one can already notice between the driver of a vehicle, and the ethereal voice of the Siri woman emitted from his car's speaker system as she carries out his spoken commands to dial phone numbers, look up information, check the weather, etc. Siri is uncomplainingly efficient, and pleasant too, so when you buy your next car maybe you ought to purchase the deluxe model of the voice command system and upgrade to a Samantha edition.
This concept of the interactive personal escort could be fertile ground for some amazing new fiction.
No comments:
Post a Comment