The Surrogates is a graphic novel in five issues written by Robert Venditti, drawn by Brett Weldele and published by Top Shelf Productions between 2005 to 2006. In 2009 a prequel called The Surrogates: Flesh and Bone was published. The premise of The Surrogates is the virtualization of the real world. Not merely the internet but by something way beyond.Imagine a world where instead of people, their avatar's moved about in the real world, interacting with each other, working at offices and doing all the physical chores for their owners. The owners instead sit in the air conditioned comfort of their homes, plugged on to the feed of information from their 'surrogates' in the real world. See what they see, feel what they feel, but stay away from all the risks involved. Broke a bone? Get a new surrogate. Look at the positive side. No more AIDS, no more physical injuries, no more fear of getting mugged in the lonely alley.
And come 25th of September 2009, you can watch Bruce Willis as FBI Agent Greer on the large screen taking on the world full of surrogates and a surrogate killer on the loose. With Bruce Willis is Radha Mitchell in the lead role. The film is directed by Jonathan Mostow. Set in 2017, a year that is now within the coming decade, the movie revolves around a future in which humans live in near isolation. Sometimes these kind of movies sound too absurd to be anywhere near reality, but sometimes the thought of how quickly the computer changed our world keeps the fear of something like this happening alive.
Surrogates is a thought provoking comic and movie on the lines of the iRobot by Issac Asimov. Can a robot armed with intelligence be held responsible for murder? Now the question is a little changed. Can killing a robot without intelligence be considered murder? Is killing a surrogate equivalent to murder? What is the implication of this kind of virtualization of the world? Are the surrogates merely doing what we intended them to do or are we overdoing it all over again? We found petroleum and today we know the myriad ways in which it can screw up the world around us. We found the computer and we now have diseases because of the overuse of technological products (think CTS). So, what will happen if one day we do manage to perfect the art of creating surrogates? I used to feel that Artificial Intelligence could be our enemy, but I keep forgetting that in this little blue planet of ours, the only enemy is our intelligence. Thought provoking indeed.What if? Would I like to live life through an expendable surrogate? Look my best every day? Maybe even be a woman for a day and see how people would react to me? Instead of just a nick name on chat rooms, I can now be my alter ego. Maybe a body builder at the beach? Hmm... I can almost see my private garage of Surrogates. That one is for going to the movies. That one when I want to flex some muscles. Oh, and that one for those special nights. But think about it for some time more and you will feel a disturbing hollow creep inside you. God help us, for we truly do not have any idea of what we want.
Catchy...
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