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Balance: We Are Codependent Humans have never lead lives purely connected to nature. We have always integrated forms of technology into our daily routines to either aid in tasks or provide alternative recreational activities. Though we choose to take paths to break away from our bonds with technology, humans will never be able to sustain the advancement of the society without interacting with technology. Carolyn Guyer states that “the simple thing to realize is that there is a balance between technology and nature,” (163) but with the constant advancement and expansion of the cyber world, it is easy to lose sight of this balance and fall into a disequilibrium, and lose our connection with nature. Since the introduction of science fiction to the genres of the American film industry, Hollywood has pumped numerous pictures prognosticating the future. In July 2002, Steven Spielberg presented another view of the future, the eerily realistic future of Minority Report. In the year 2054, the District of Columbia still resembles the Washington DC of today, but with a closer look one can find many additions to the city that present a convincing simulacra of the future of our technologically advancing world. Instead of taking an afternoon stroll through the catwalks and overpasses of DC, we are immediately presented with a forecast: the real-time flash images of case 1108, a double homicide. Instead of easing to the main technological focus of Minority Report, Spielberg throws viewers directly into the advanced system of Pre-Crime. An advanced technological system we are to unquestionably believe, foretells murders through the precognitive minds of three humans so unfortunate to have the “gift” of seeing these murders in their minds. Through high-tech design and application, images the Precogs see are formatted into a state of the art floating screen from which John Anderton (Tom Cruise) uncovers the exact whereabouts of the murder in order to reach the destination in time to hinder the future murder. Even without the lifeless, inanimate visual analogy to technology, the system integrating human Precogs displays an ultimate loss of human connection with nature. Lifelessly drifting in a flotation tank, cut off from civilization and only able to focus on one thing, murder, these aberrant humans not only portray the “loss of connection with nature,” but the “conversion of the real world to technology itself.” (Slouka 149) John himself presents an easier way of dealing with the existence of Precogs by stating that “it’s easier if you don’t think of them as human.” Spielberg presents a very common value of our zeitgeist centered on the degradation of human connection with nature.
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