Bruce Willis is the star of the new movie Surrogates http://surrogates-movie-trailer.blogspot.com/. This movie is a fabulous concept (story is not so great) and provides insight into the human quest to avoid pain. Set in the future, technology has advanced so far that humans are able to control machines hooked up to their brains, by using their mental energy. Similar to the docking stations in the movie The Matrix, humans are “plugged in” to a device that is connected remotely to an outside robotic surrogate self. Humans can stay safely inside their home while their surrogate lives their life. Initially designed to protect soldiers’ lives in war, surrogates are now used by everyone in society, and you can choose any body shape, any face structure, hair style, etc….

Individuals send their surrogates to work, to date, have sex, to do any risky or even dangerous thing, as the surrogates do not feel pain. The individual sees what the surrogate sees, so humans are able to have experiences they might not normally have just being themselves. Society is now filled with these beautiful, model-looking robots walking around, while the humans are at home in sweats or their bathrobes living vicariously through them.

A problem is that the humans (called operators) are numbing themselves from the feelings that come from living, but they also don’t know who they are really talking to, given that the appearance of the surrogate in no way reflects the operator. People now don’t see the need to take care of themselves because they are not seen outside of their homes. This is a society of false selves, eerily mirroring our own society.

This movie provides the philosophical question to the watcher: to be or not to be. There is an existential choice between being truly real, even if it is repulsive, feeling pain, hurt and fear, or, choosing to be inauthentic and hide behind a false image that is an attempt to protect us from a real existence. Soft Addictions are what we, in real life, choose when we do not want to be real and authentic and feel our pain.  Surrogates are what the individuals in the movie choose.

The movie is a vote for feeling and being real, though I won’t tell you the ending…but I do recommend seeing it for yourself.

Tags: authentic, bruce willis, existential choice, inauthentic, movie review, pain, Soft Addictions, surrogates

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 at 3:25 pm and is filed under Leading a Great Life, Soft Addictions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.