Blinky

2 Comments by Alexander Phillips on 22nd Mar 11

Since its inception the Urban Times has had a penchant for all things A.I. Assuming we achieved Technological Singularity this century, and some predictions suggest we will as early as 2045, what sort of A.I. will we, the collective homosapien species, face? The very nature of such technology implies that it has the capacity to become much, much smarter than we are now. But, will it be friendly, helpful and inherently benign, or will it be unfriendly, unforgiving and malign? It’s important to note that such a question is founded on a quintessentially human moral reasoning structure. Thus ironically, a smarter-than-us A.I. may spot flaws in our own systems of logic, and act to suppress us according to it’s own reason. Maybe it will even think it’s doing us a favour.

Cue, the following short film “Blinky”. Written & directed by the talented Ruairi Robinson, with cinematography by Macgregor and music by Olafur Arnalds, Blinky stars Max Records, who some of you may notice as the similarly angst-filled child protagonist from Spike Jonze’s “Where the Wild Things Are”. It also stars smiley-faced Blinky. Does Blinky mark the achievement of real A.I.? Or is he just obediently following the confused commands of his owner? I’ll leave it for you to decide. Beautifully shot, with good performances, excellent special effects, a pitch-perfect tone and robots. What more could you want!

I’m still slightly reeling from the first viewing. Is “Blinky” a worried tale of warning, a wry comedy or is it just plain malicious? All Robinson gives us to work with are the following words: