Surrogates

Imagine being not just yourself, but the most perfect version of yourself. That's the premise for the mysteriously forgotten, Bruce Willis movie, Surrogates. The movie takes place about fifteen years in the future. Most people now live their lives through surrogates, which are life-like robots that a person controls with their mind. It's a futuristic concept based around robotics and virtual reality. It was a thrilling action movie that subliminally asks some serious questions about society.

In the movie, Bruce Willis' wife refuses to let him see her when she is not using her surrogate. It made me think about how I don't like people to see me when I first wake up. My breath smells, my hair is all messed up, I haven't shaved. I like people to see the public consumption version of myself. I can understand why his wife locked herself away and only allowed people to see her surrogate self. Why let people see you when they can see you the way you wish you were?

There are small groups of humans in each major city that only live as themselves. They feel that humans were not meant to live through robotics. While they are militant in their opposition to surrogates, they are happy. The live, work, go to school, and play all within the confines of their compound. It's weird to me that they could be so happy without achieving, or at least working towards, perfection. They just are who they are and they're happy with it. I'm constantly going to the gym to improve. While I'm happy with the growth I've seen, it's only temporary. I revert to an insecure, skinny shell when I see a hot guy who's bigger than me. How can you be happy if you're not working towards being better? Can you be happy with stagnation? Or worse - deterioration?

In the movie, people were using robotics to achieve perfection. But it made think of all the other things people do now in attempt to be perfection. Plastic surgery and Botox are designed to fix what's wrong with us. The people usually ends up not looking quiet like themselves; they look plastic. It raises the question - is it better to be a regular person with flaws or a medically-enhanced, physically perfect person lacking the indescribable human quality.