Condition: Human
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Loading ...Posted on: December 21, 2009
What does it mean to love? What is true companionship and does it have anything to do with love? How can we find happiness in a relationship? And above all, what is this thing called… love?
In a world that increasingly confuses love with sex and vice versa, these questions have become more than relevant. Relationships have become a means to an end, friendships a final tenuous hold on the next best thing to love. I may sound cynical, but I don’t think I’m the only one who feels we have messed up the concept of love and relationships. Terms such as “I love you”, “I love this”, “showing love” and even “making love” are misused on a daily basis, rendering their meanings… meaningless. Despite evolutions in communication, we have de-evolved in our actual communicating.
Condition: Human explores this concept in a sci-fi context, adding a new element of companionship to the mix: that of Artificial Intelligence. If we can’t satisfy our need for companionship through fellow human beings because of the element of imperfection inherent to all of us, why not create a human that can? One that is programed to be loyal, kind and loving?
The six-part show follows a young, successful man on his quest for a relationship in a Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner or Spielberg’s AI-esq setting. Not finding it in his broken family or through a purely physical relationship with a married neighbor, he resorts to the next best thing: the X&Y Bots.
Inter-cutting the vignettes of his relationships are interviews with Takumi Kenji, the creator of these humanoid bots and his takes on what it means to bring a new element of AI into the blend of human emotions, his most striking argument being that in some ways, AI bots are more capable of love than we are.
Shot on a budget of only $1500 and entirely on green-screen with a skeleton-crew, the show is a considerable indie feat. The effects creating this futuristic world are well-done yet subtle, especially since they only provide the backdrop for the story. The acting is good enough if sometimes a bit lackluster and the characters appear for the most part fully rounded. The script is well written, but there are a few brief instances of [explicit] language.
The downside of the show is that it seems production lost its momentum towards the end and could not complete it in time. Two episodes are missing and so the story leaves us somewhat hanging in mid-air. An interesting premise was set up, many questions raised, yet none answered. In a way this leaves us much like before, uncertain about relationships, how to handle them and if AIs could be the answer. For those desperate to know the end and find answers, the producers have placed the scripts online here.
But writer/director Trenton Lepp does make an interesting statement through his character of Takumi Kenji concerning what love truly is by partially quoting the works of Paul of Tarsus:
Love is long-suffering and kind. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, does not get puffed up, does not behave indecently, does not look for its own interests, does not become provoked. It does not keep account of the injury. It does not rejoice over unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails.
Blog Update: The fifth episode has come available through vimeo! Here it is!
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December 21st, 2009 at 9:59 pm
There is a fifth episode online, it can be viewed here:
http://vimeo.com/5535435
the 6th episode is still not finished