Fascinating stuff. There are so many modern movies and stories that follow these themes of technology gone amok, human recklessness causing devastating viral outbreaks, the “army” typically portrayed as a dark force seeking, using or stealing a kind, helpful alien or a person with unusual but potentially earth saving powers, a positive technology or robot/cyborg sent to the future or past seemingly on a quest for good, but programmed for destruction, genetically altered humans or organisms (sometimes purposefully altered but typically from being exposed to careless, unchecked scientific discovery).
I am reminded of Isaac Asimov’s notion of The Three Laws of Robotics…an attempt to solve the problem of the Gollum. “A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.”
Of course, this created quite the conundrum for Arthur C. Clark’s HAL 9000 and countless other personified, technologically based entities…
It goes on and on…archetypes being re-enacted in stories and myth. Amazing. Will we pay attention to these warning signs, or just ingest them as entertainment?
I had the same question as Marta (saw the same contrast/comparison) regarding institution vs an individual take on (transrevolution, self-destruction, or parasitism). I thought of a Johari Window and congruence...being in the "open, blind or hidden" quadrants. Same with climate change denial.
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