Wall-e

In a distant, but not so unrealistic future, where mankind has abandoned earth because it has become covered with trash from products sold by the powerful multi-national Buy N Large corporation, WALL-E, a garbage collecting robot has been left to clean up the mess. Mesmerized with trinkets of Earth's history and show tunes, WALL-E is alone on Earth except for a sprightly pet cockroach. One day, EVE, a sleek (and dangerous) reconnaissance robot, is sent to Earth to find proof that life is once again sustainable. WALL-E falls in love with EVE. WALL-E rescues EVE from a dust storm and shows her a living plant he found amongst the rubble. Consistent with her "directive" EVE takes the plant and automatically enters a deactivated state except for a blinking green beacon. WALL-E, doesn't understand what has happened to his new friend, but true to his love, he protects her from wind, rain, and lightning, even as she is unresponsive. One day a massive ship comes to reclaim EVE, but WALL-E, out of love or loneliness hitches a ride on the outside of the ship to rescue EVE. The ship arrives back at a large space cruise ship, which is carrying all of the humans who evacuated Earth 700 years earlier. The people of Earth ride around this space resort on hovering chairs which give them a constant feed of TV and video chatting. They drink all of their meals through a straw out of laziness and/or bone loss, and are all so fat that they can barely move. An auto-pilot computer, acting on hastily given instructions sent many centuries before, tries to prevent the people of Earth from returning, by stealing the plant, WALL-E, EVE, the portly captain, and a band of broken robots stage a mutiny.

REFLECTION:

People are very independent to technology. The movie reminds us that we should not over-use this. In the near future, earth can suffer more because of misuse of technology. And because of this independence, people would become lazy that eating is the only thing that they could do.

Pirates of Silicon Valley

"Good artists create... Great artists steal." -Leonardo da Vinci

This is the story of the growth of the personal computer industry. The movie while based on historical fact did alter things a bit for dramatic reasons. The Movie begins with IBM in the early 1980's, the big brother in the computer world that everyone else feared. Everyone dressed alike at IBM, company songs and jingles filled the air, and men in suits were everywhere.

Steve Jobs along with his friend who he calls "Waz" delight in working with computers. They eventually form their own company, Apple Computers and begin making computers in a garage. There is just one problem; Hewlett Packard has the choice of first rights on anything that "Waz" develops. Fortunately for Apple, Hewlett Packard hated the puny Apple machines so the mechanisms of progress continued. A venture capitalist one day drops by the garage and offers $50,000 in venture capital. Apple was up and running.

Meanwhile Bill Gates was off in school doing wild things. He slept in his clothes, never could find his ties, and dreamed of computers and power. Bill Gates formed a company called Microsoft that made software such as operating systems. During one key meeting with IBM, Bill Gates sells IBM on the idea of using Microsoft's new operating system "DOS" as the operating system for all IBM machines. The only catch was that Microsoft would retain rights to the software and could sell it to other companies. IBM reasoned that hardware not software is where the money is at, so they agree. Microsoft had no operating system to sell at all though! They promptly buy one from a reclose for $50,000 and the Microsoft dynasty begins.

At the Apple camp Steve Jobs is invited to see the graphical user interface which has been developed by Xerox. Xerox had developed the mouse, and standard interface styles we all know today. But the company big Whigs thought it was a silly idea and agreed to let Apple look at everything they had. Apple naturally stole everything they could.

Over at Microsoft, Bill Gates fears Apple's expansive growth, and travels to Apple headquarters to talk of an alliance. Bill weasels his way into the heart of Steve Jobs, Apples founder and has access to Apples new machines. After reverse engineering and a few modifications, Windows is born. Apple discovers this during a speech touting Apples new advertisement campaign for the Macintosh. Bill Gates yells at Steve Jobs for the first time. The great rivalry between Windows, and Mac is born.

In the movie Steve Jobs split his company, Apple into two camps. One the old Apple computer camp, and the other the new Macintosh development camp. After seeing this effect on the company, Steve Jobs is forced to leave his position at Apple. Years later the movie picks up with Steve Jobs back in command of Apple who now has partnered with Microsoft and Bill Gates.

REFLECTION:

Technology could change life. Steve and Bill are friends and yet their lives change because of rivalry. Because of technology’s rapid growth, human beings could do anything to sustain their wants and needs without considering others feelings.

Surrogates

"How can you save humanity when the only thing that's real is YOU"

In the not too distant future, technology allows humans to live their lives through robots they call surrogates. Humans have in effect cocooned themselves in their homes, never venturing outside. Rather, they explore life through their surrogates who may or may not resemble them. Tom Greer and his partner Peters are FBI agents assigned to investigate the destruction of two surrogates that has also caused the unthinkable: the human hosts were also killed. The use of surrogates is not universally endorsed with some humans living in technology and machine-free zones. Led by a man called The Prophet, the fear is that they have put their hands on a weapon that would fundamentally change human society. Greer believes they have also put their hands on a weapon that could fundamentally change society, though he begins to wonder if that might be a good thing.

REFLECTION:

This scenario would happen, whether we like it or not. In the near future, cloning would be very possible. This technology can ruin the reputation of every human being. Surrogates could be a destruction.

iRobot

"Human beings have dreams. Even dogs have dreams, but not you, you are just a machine. An imitation of life. Can a robot write a symphony? Can a robot turn a... canvas into a beautiful masterpiece?" -Detective Del Spooner

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In the year 2035 at Chicago, Detective Del Spooner wakes from a bad dream. He was heading in to work and he sees robots around him performing tedious tasks. Upon walking, he sees a robot thief. This turns out not to be the case, much to his embarrassment. Spooner gets a good talking to at the station from his boss, Lt. Bergin, showing that this isn't the first time something like this has happened.

The fact is Spooner just doesn't like robots. He doesn't trust them and doesn't want anything to do with them for reasons we find out later. Hence the irony when he is called to the towering U.S. Robotics skyscraper to investigate the death of Dr. Alfred Lanning, robotics scientist and inventor of the Three Laws of Robotics.

Everyone is assuming Lanning's death is a suicide but Spooner quickly uncovers a series of inconsistencies. He points this out to Lawrence Robertson owner and CEO of U.S. Robotics and the world's richest man. Robertson is cooperative but mostly interested in keeping this whole thing quiet. His company is about to launch a new product: the NS-5 robot.

Robertson directs robotics scientist Susan Calvin to help Spooner with the investigation and the first thing they discover is a robot hiding in Lanning's lab. Much to Susan's amazement this robot refuses to obey her orders, something everyone in this era takes for granted. Sonny the robot makes a run for it. He sure makes a good prime suspect.

Reflection:

Robots have three basic law:

1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Robots are human-made. They are not created to change the law, the way people lived. The movie was helpful indeed especially to those people who relies more in technology. Sooner or later, robots have the potential to ruin and to take over world if this scenario happens.

Eagle Eye

"Disobey, and you die." - A.R.I.A.

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Jerry Shaw, a hapless nobody caught up in the cogs of domestic intrigue. He has just returned home to New York after his brother’s funeral, and stops at an ATM where he discovers his normally empty bank account now contains $750,000. As anyone would, he withdraws as much as he can fit in his pockets and heads home, wondering what the hell is going on. He arrives at his dinky apartment to find it too is no longer empty. It is now full, with all the chemicals and weaponry one might need to commit a major act of terrorism. His phone rings. A mysterious voice on the other end warns him he has only seconds to leave his apartment before the FBI arrives to arrest him. Jerry ignores the warning and in shock remains rooted to the floor until moments later when the FBI’s foot soldiers come crashing through his window and drag him off to jail.

Jerry doesn't stay in jail long, and soon the mysterious voice on the phone is directing him on an unknown mission of unknown intent. The caller controls not only his cell connection, but seemingly every other piece of technology on the planet. The voice pairs him up with a mother named Rachel, who is forced to cooperate lest the voice murder her son.

Reflection:

The movie is a total manipulation of human beings. The caller controls everything where you have you no escape once they chose you. If you did not cooperate, it is a suicide because the machine knows your every detail. The movie portrays how computer overpower humans.

Why do we need to study technology?

After the turn of the century, technology has been the advantage of mankind. Technology is an application of all the things science has gathered, researched, theorized and created. Look around us and everything we see are technologies that have been studied and made for a certain period of time.

Technology is around the globe. It brings us to the future. The fast-changing world because of technology leads us to the future. Technology makes human-beings comfortable and always directs the easiness in life and becomes our daily basis.

So why do we need to study technology? For me, in general, having these technologies around us makes our daily lives easier. Even to the slightest communication, technology can make it easier for you through mobile phones. As a student, learning how technology is made, it is my responsibility and obligation to make people's lives and mine easier and erase all remaining hassles in our daily circumstances.