Truman Show

The issue in The Truman Show that applied most to this class, I think, was the problem with reality verses performance. For the actors/actresses on the show, their work was their life, and this is often the case with work-aholics. However, their work was a life, not just life in that it consumed all of their time and mental energy, but that it was their only life-the family, friends, home, etc. In the movie, no other life is revealed for these people. It is odd because so much of the town in the show is a set, unreal, yet these actors and actresses that have a permanent role in the show have to live it as if it were real. They miss out on reality as much if not more than Truman. I know we have discussed how the show is real-life for Truman, therefore he is the only true aspect of the show-the only thing that is truly interesting for that reason. However, his concept of reality is so off base that he is not exactly real, or he is not exactly contemporary American possibly. It would be more like watching a man in a foreign space, speaking English, and living in a very old/traditional town. But, his world lacked many realities such as sponteneity, exploration, true coincidence and pure free will. In that way Truman sounds like a slave. But, back to my concern with the actors/actresses. They have the knowledge of what the real world is like, looks like, acts like. It is never discussed whether they leave the set or not, but they are not sheltered like Truman. Therefore, they are aware of all the falsity and inaccuracy in this created world and life, making work not just life or a lifestyle, but a fake, unreal life, false to the real world. How or why would these people choose this world? Perhaps they desire the money, the fame, but this created world is obnoxiously fixed and fake to the point that it appears that the actors/actresses have become a kind of brainwash case convinced that the life they lead is good and noble. The life they lead preserves a lie, and imprisons a man, an American (emphasis on the freedom of Americans), in a dome for his whole life, for entertainment!

Conceiving Ada

This film, for me, was the most complicated in the ways it used technology because it made some leaps that I think were not entirely accounted for. Specifically, the use of an agent, the bird Charlotte, to move through time, bringing Ada's time to life, back into action for Emmy to interact with. However, I do not think this jump hurt the film much because the key was the interaction between Emmy and Ada, which gave the film its meaning. In the end Ada is not sure that she wants a half life in the year 2000, 166 years in the future. The legacy of her brilliance and the continuation of her studies becomes less important to Ada as she lies on her death bed, contemplating her life. The importance of the technology, more than being able to contact the past, is the steps that have all lead up to where the world is headed. Ada's creation of tech. language such as the word "system" was a significant contribution to the direction people took when approaching computer language and coding. Similarly, the ground breaking leaps Emmy appears to be making with her knowledge will impact the future of technology. The connection between these two women is a symbol of the connections between the past and the present through technology. Their live interaction demonstrates how the past actually impacts the future and how the future shines a light back on the past revealing more about the past via what resulted from it. The film shows how people like Ada started and knew they were doing something important, without being able to see the fruit of their knowledge. This retrospective look speaks to the present, reminding the brilliant minds of today, or even people with just a good idea that ideas and beginnings like Ada's can change the future of society and the world, perhaps not in this lifetime, but eventually everybody's contribution has some impact on the way people see the the world, and what the future will become.