Wall E and Cybercommunication

The animated film Wall - E presents a humorous but poignant view of the future of earth and humanity. In this pseudo dsytopic portrayal the future, the earth has been polluted to such a degree as it has become a desolate wasteland no longer able to support life. Humanity is able to persist as a result of technological advances, existing in perpetuity upon a space vessel which provided all of their needs.

Technology in the film is portrayed as both a blessing and a bane to humanity. On one hand, the irresponsible use of technology was the cause of the pollution on earth, but on the other hand it was due to technology that humanity survived this calamity.
The characters in Wall E are intrinsically tied to technology, be they robots or humans. Three major relationship pairs explore how cybercommunication may develop in the future: human to human, captain to copilot, and Wall E to Eve.

The first relationship, human to human, has the most immediate application to our daily lives. The humans in Wall E are portrayed as fat, lazy, and generally coddled by the technology that surrounds them. They spend the majority of their time sitting in a hover chair, having all needs attended to by various robots. The outlet of nearly all communication is a computer screen, through which they learn, work, gossip, entertain themselves, and otherwise function. The implications for the future imply that we will increasingly rely on technology and computers to experience our lives virtually rather than physically.

The second relation explored is that of the captain and the copilot. The copilot, a machine that is essentially the artificial intelligence (brain) of the ship, controls and maintains the day to day goings on of the ship. The captain himself is generally unnecessary, and not involved in much decision making. At one point he remarks "let me do the announcements, it’s the one thing I get to do on the ship". This relationship explores the growing dependency/reliance on technology in order to run our daily lives. Even more so, it explores the control that this technology can exert over our lives. In the movie, the captain and copilot disagree on whether or not to return to earth. The copilot then takes drastic steps to conceal and subvert the protagonists’ efforts to communicate with the rest of the crew. The main characters fight back against the technology and eventually manage to toggle the ship to "manual control", symbolically and literally ending the dependence on technology. In the readings, Postman discusses a somewhat similar situation in which windmills become a locus for prostitutes in the middle ages, and the local authorities’ attempts to shut it down due to the harm it was causing (Postman p.27). Ultimately, these efforts failed as the economy had become too dependent on the mills to function.

The third relationship explored, between Wall E and Eve, has long term implications for how technology and cybercommunication will develop in the future. This relationship is unique in that it displays how technology ceases to become a medium of communication used by humans, and instead becomes an origin of communication by the technology itself. Messages are generated, sent and received without the participation or knowledge of humans. The implications of this relationship highlight the premise for how technology grows beyond our control. Postman speaks directly to this point when he refers to a “technopoly”, whereby society has become so integrated and reliant on technology to function that the technology itself overrides the traditional societal norms and exerts its own influence.

The portrayals of Wall E bear remarkable similarities to trends that are occurring in society at large. The immediate implications explored in the human to human interaction, whereby endless hours are spent in from of computer screens, experiencing life virtually rather than physically can be seen today. Computer literacy, internet penetration, and internet related activities are increasingly becoming necessary to function, (email, e banking, knowledge, work etc.). The second relationship, between captain and copilot, also bears resemblance to how pilots fly aircraft today. Most of the computation and calculation is left to computers, with the pilots on standby in case something severe occurs. Although we have clearly not reached the level of dependency seen in the film, many critical flight tasks such as landing, takeoff, and navigation are entirely automated via computers. The efficiency, exactitude, and removal of the possibility of human error present several advantages.

In summary, the film presents a multi dimensional approach to how technology and communication intertwine in a possible human future resulting in startling benefits or detriments depending on how the technology is utilized. The underlying message of the film is also clear: technology is here to stay; how we choose to interact and manage it will ultimately determine the future of how we communicate.