Who's Ready To Be Transcended?

Johnny Depp. That was the sole reason I watched Transcendence. I have always been a bit of a geek whose interested in sci-fi movies; however, after watching Her, I am convinced that no other AI movie can top that one. At least not this year. But then again, this is Johnny Depp. So I went and watched. Is Transcendence a good movie, you say? It has Morgan Freeman, Johnny Depp, and Paul Bettany! How can it not be a good movie? But, for a movie with Morgan Freeman, Johnny Depp, and Paul Bettany; it could have been better.

 The first sign that Will's consciousness has been succesfully uploaded.*

Will Caster. Super brilliant scientist who is obviously under the spell of his super brilliant (and extraordinarily hot) wife. Which is actually a good thing. He has the idea to do something wonderful, but it's his wife's vision to create a better world. In a sense, they are both pushing each other to be a better version of themselves. Evelyn as a better scientist, and Will as a better human. That, in itself, is the sweetest version of love, at least in my opinion. Tragedy struct when some tech-savvy Luddites (I know, it's oxymoron. They're not actually Luddites, they're just as paranoid as I am) decided to poison dear sweet Will with Polonium. I never could understand people who have no issues of taking a life for their cause. But, I think that is for another discussion.

The impending doom of Will Caster somehow jump-started PINN, the AI project Will and Evelyn has been working on. Along with their friend Max, they uploaded Will consciousness into PINN. How on earth there were three starstruckingly beautiful scientists on an IT-research team, I would never comprehend. To make long story short, Will was uploaded before his death, and later connected to the internet. Given access to the fast amount of resources on the world wide web, Will transcended. He became a limitless entity with the capability to ever expanding. What a scary thought.

Singularities
Enough with the synopsis. I think there are a million interesting aspects that can be discussed from this movies. However, I'll limit myself to three of the most interesting things. The first one is about singularities. After Will was transcended, he discovered nanites that can replicate itself in some ways and help regeneration of any material, biologic or artificial. This is of course a major breakthrough for the medical world. However, there's a catch. Anyone who has these nanites in their system is automatically linked to Will as a part of his network.

Working in the NGO field, I realise that networking is essential for success. The problem is, in this particular network, it seems that Will took over the sovereignty of each cured individuals. The only one who would think this is not wrong in so many levels is probably Thomas Hobbes. The dystopia portrayed in Transcendence reminds me a lot of Hobbes' concept of nation-state, where he prescribed people surrender their individual sovereignty to a nation-state for their own good.

Will's justification of 'transcending' people is (probably) to open each people to the limitlessness that he is experiencing, by giving them access to his endless stream of information. Yes, individuality might provide people with biological boundaries. But it also means people have their own private spaces, which could not (and should not) be invaded by outer beings. By 'transcending' people, Will robs people of their free will.

Further, singularities made everyone connected to each other. Which means attack to one organism will affect the whole colony. This is why Evelyn can easily destroy the whole colony, simply by exploiting Will's weakness, herself. In this sense, I still consider individualism as superior to singularities. A colony formed by unique individuals will be more complex than one made of similar minds. There will be more aspects to deal with, thus making these colonies more unpredictable, and can defend themselves better external attack.

Existentialism

Undoubtedly the best looking AI ever.**

What constitute existence? When Morgan Freeman's character was first being introduced to PINN, he asked the if the AI is self-aware. PINN said that it was a difficult question to answer. And indeed it is. Up to a point, PINN is sentient. It is made self-sustaining and is able to think for itself. After Will's memories and personalities were updated to PINN's motherboard, the questions became more difficult to answer, as it impersonates a person's characteristic so seamlessly.

This is actually a classic question in all AI movies. R2D2 (Star Wars), Sonny (I, Robot), Gigolo Joe (AI), Samantha (Her), and transcended Will can all think and demonstrate some sort of emotion. But as they do not constitute of biological parts, can they really be called 'beings' and share the same rights that human beings enjoy? Ignorant as human being is, I don't think we will even bother to answer this question before we were faced with immediate threat of Machine rebellion as pictured in The Matrix. I really think we really should start to wonder upon this question now before it's too late and we were forced to block the sun ray and find refuge underground.

Communication
The third most interesting aspect to explore from this movie is more down to earth: communication between Will and Evelyn Caster. Transcended Will has a knowledge so vast, no un-transcended mind could comprehend. Not even Evelyn, his livelong companion. I think Samantha also had this issue, where the physical world no longer can contain her.

Will Caster reminds me of another Johnny Depp's character,
Mort Rainey from Secret Window. Minus the axe-wielding
alter ego.***

A good, working communication is essential in maintaining any form of relationship, especially one as intimate as shared by Will and Evelyn. In order to have a working communication, related parties need to have a degree of compatibility that enable them to speak on the same frequencies. Transcended Will can no longer speak to Evelyn the way he used to as human, and Evelyn's limited mind can no longer accommodate Will's overwhelming knowledge. That was why she started to doubt him, which lead to both of their demise.

Conclusion
So was Will Caster really transcended? I would have to disagree. The one that was transcended was a copy of Will. The real Will Caster died due to radiation poisoning. And although a seamless copy remains existing within PINN, the real Will was gone, and he did not feel anything that his copy felt. Everyone else around him, especially Evelyn, merely felt the illusion of his presence around them when in fact the real Will has died. They're just trying so hard to cling on something they do not want to let go, and in the process caused more hurt than necessary. However, this is a personal opinion of mine, which is still highly debatable.


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*Screenshot of Will's first effort to communicate was taken from this page.
** Picture of Gigolo Joe was taken from this page.
*** Picture of Mort Rainey (Secret Window) was taken from this page.