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January 16, 2019 11:45 AM   Subscribe

Merger is a new short film "about the future of work, from cult director/designer Keiichi Matsuda (HYPER-REALITY). Set against the backdrop of AI-run corporations, a tele-operator finds herself caught between virtual and physical reality, human and machine. As she fights for her economic survival, she finds herself immersed in the cult of productivity, in search of the ultimate interface." [Via]

Verge interview with Matsuda: Watch this four-minute film about the future of work in a world run by algorithms. To what lengths will we go to stay useful?

HYPER-REALITY previously: Are my points safe? "[A] provocative and kaleidoscopic new vision of the future, where physical and virtual realities have merged, and the city is saturated in media."
posted by homunculus (6 comments total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
When I was young I thought Skynet would send a swarm of tiny terminator robots after us, now I think Skynet would just lay us off and make us starve to death while astroturf trolling "I'm not gonna pay someone to sit on their ass all day" on social media.
posted by BrotherCaine at 12:15 PM on January 16, 2019 [5 favorites]


I suspect Person of Interest's Samaritan is going to be closer to reality than Skynet.
posted by homunculus at 12:40 PM on January 16, 2019 [3 favorites]


Note: Depending on what sort of device you’re using, you may have to install the Vimeo app to get the full (or close to full) effect.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:19 PM on January 16, 2019


The worst thing about science fiction on film is that all cool new technologies are almost always presented as ticking time bonds and all paradises are always dystopias in disguise. I get that drama needs conflict but those tropes' lazy luddism leaves so much on the table. And the alternative isn't boring utopianism (cf. the Black Mirror episode "San Junipero").
posted by MattD at 1:46 PM on January 16, 2019 [2 favorites]


Yeah, but the rest of Black Mirror was... well, let's just say that they have mined a vein very effectively. And the real enemy was mining all along!

So it's nice to see different people trying to do some SF
posted by The River Ivel at 1:53 PM on January 16, 2019


From Matsuda in 2014 (pretty sure I first saw it on mefi):

Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:24 AM on January 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


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