Are we just a half-step away from becoming the kind of humanoid computers who ran things in The Matrix? That was my second thought when I heard about the Canadian documentary filmmaker Rob Spence, who plans to have mini movie camera implanted in his prosthetic eye so he can film people anonymously. (My first thought was: Wow, cool! That’s so Bond-meets-bionic.)
Apparently Spence was a huge fan of the 70′s TV show about Steve Austin, a crime-solving stud imbued with super-powered vision and leg speed after undergoing a $6 million procedure to replace some body parts with better, faster, stronger "bionic" versions. And it only occurred to him recently, when he saw how small cel phone cameras are, that he was a perfect candidate to sport his own version of a bionic eye. You see, Spence has had a prosthetic eye ever since he lost the real one as a teenager in a shooting accident. He then convinced a camera company to build him a movie camera that he could move with his muscles. And wait until you hear what he plans to shoot with his undercover equipment: A documentary on surveillance cameras and the Orwellian intrusiveness of being filmed constantly without our consent. Ladies and gentlemen, we have entered The Twilight Zone.
But seriously, I feel like there’s a limit to what people should do to make these types of statements. Has anyone else been feeling lately like all the technological advances of the past few decades have pushed past the tipping point of being useful into a dangerous zone where they’re putting us out of jobs and robbing us of privacy and the elemental joy of sitting down with a cup of coffee and an actual newspaper in the morning? Call me a Luddite, but is anyone with me on this? And if not — or even if so — would you watch the documentary that Spence is making?
If the resulting images are as jumpy/shaky as “Cloverfield”, the Bourne movies, or “Blair Witch”, I’m out.
The images didn’t work very well on Dollhouse.
Kinda ironic how the author derides some technological advances, yet uses the internet to advance post her thoughts? Just like Grandma used to back in the day.
This is just like Dollhouse! But I’m not that interested in his subject matter. Why not do a behind the scenes thing at AIG or one of these crooked banks stealing our money and ruining the economy? Or go undercover at the Pentagon or White House or Congress? I know, the guy doesn’t have that kind of access. I’m just saying…
Hey, just like Echo’s eyeball camera in last week’s episode of Dollhouse! Some people were complaining that was too unrealistic, yet apparently it exists in the real world!
Hopefully nobody gives him a sound slap to the face. I hear that breaks eyeball cameras. Plus, I don’t think he’ll have a higher power looking out for him like Echo did, to instantly and perfectly restore her sight upon the demise of the camera.
How dull, a camera in your fake eye. I want to fly to work. I want to ‘beam in’ so I can visit my relatives in Ireland without the long trip. I want a time machine.
All this “high tech” stuff is getting old. Yeah, I like computers, TiVo and video games, but c’mon. I hate being ‘watched’ all the time. And I especially hate being ‘watched’ by some half-a**ed, homemade cyborg. Let’s get some fun technology in here. I’m tired of more big brother crap.
I obviously need some coffee.
Would I watch this movie? No. But I don’t watch a lot of movies.
That didn’t work so well for Echo on “Dollhouse” last Friday…
That being said I don’t usually watch movies that are built around a gimmick, even one as technologically fascinating as this.