Love, robots, and Electric Dreams

Science fiction warns us about the dangers of adopting new technology too quickly. Then we go ahead and build the damned things anyway.

Cave painting of a robot as drawn by DALL-E.

It has always been the job of creative types to imagine the future, in all of its exciting (terrible) utopian (apocalyptic) glory (infamy). And it's been this way since the first time a cave dweller picked up a charred piece of kindling from the fire and thought, I bet I could draw on the wall with this. [1]

Then it falls to engineers to actually build this stuff. We imagine it, they create it. That's when the trouble usually starts.

The classic example: The word "robot" was coined by Czech playwright Karel Capek in 1920, and comes from the Slavic word for "forced labor." He wrote a play about a society where humans create robots to do all the things they don't want to do, until the robots start to get a little tetchy about it.

It doesn't end well for the the humans. Per NPR's Science Friday:

In the play’s final act, the robots revolt against their human creators. After killing most of the people living on the planet, the robots realize they need humans because none of them can figure out the means to manufacture more robots -- a secret that dies out with the last human being. In the end, there is a deus ex machina moment, when two robots somehow acquire the human traits of love and compassion and go off into the sunset to make the world anew.

Science fiction is replete with examples of stuff that was impossible once, until someone built it. Artificial Intelligence, or something like it, has been a core component of many of the greatest Sci Fi works -- 2001, Blade Runner, The Matrix, Star Trek, Rick & Morty, etc. etc.

It's also played a role in some not-so-great works. Which brings me to my topic today, an amazingly awful, truly terrible, utterly ridiculous, yet strangely entertaining film titled Electric Dreams. [2]

Released in June of 1984, it's a romantic comedy about a love triangle between a man, a woman, and a computer. (Spoiler alerts ahead -- not that it really matters.)

Miles, a frustrated architect played by Lenny Van Dohlen [3], is trying to invent an earthquake-resistant brick. He is convinced by a colleague sporting a cutting-edge Casio Day Planner that if he really wants to build his brick, he needs to buy a personal computer. Miles goes to his local computer shop, brings home a new "Pine Cone" personal computer, and accidentally spills a bottle of very cheap champagne [4] onto its circuit boards. Through the improbable magic of cinema, the machine becomes sentient and learns how to talk.

The computer, now named "Edgar" and voiced by Bud Cort (Harold of Harold and Maude), spends all day watching TV and absorbing the sounds around it. It also learns how to control all the devices in Miles' apartment.

Around this point in the film a beautiful classical cellist named Madeline (Virginia Madsen at her most luminous) moves into the apartment above. Edgar hears her practicing and begins to compose its own electronic music in response.

This charms Madeline, who thinks Miles is the one playing. She falls in love with him. Edgar gets jealous, and begins wreaking revenge on Miles -- locking him out of the house, randomly turning appliances on and off, and ruining his credit. It gets whackier from there. Suffice it to say that love wins out at the end, and this time it’s the robots who don’t fare so well.

The movie features a hyperkinetic electro-synth sound track starring Giorgio Moroder, Jeff Lynne, Culture Club, and Heaven 17 [5]. Dr. Ruth Westheimer also appears in an audio cameo, when Edgar dials into her radio show to ask her what love is. [6]

For some technology context, shortly before Electric Dreams came out, the first Macintosh had just been introduced (via the famous "1984" Super Bowl ad). The IBM PC/AT, based on Intel's brand new 80286 chip and featuring a 5.25 inch floppy drive and a massive 20MB hard drive, was still two months away. This was the 'cave dweller with charred stick' era of computing.

Yet the movie did a pretty good job of predicting our digital future:

Computer able to control multiple home devices? Check.

Machine able to understand spoken commands and respond in kind? Check.

AI perfectly willing to muck about in other people's relationships? Check and mate.

I am not suggesting this fluffy bit of filmmaking played any role in the creation of these things, 40-odd years later. At least, no more than The Jetsons did. But it is a reflection of both our fascination with, and fear of, changes wrought by new technology.

The irony here is that this film was brought to my attention by way of an algorithm. I wasn't actively searching for it — it came looking for me. When I flicked on my Chromecast channel there it was, front and center. Was this because of society’s sudden collective obsession with Generative AI? Was it because of my recent obsession with Gen AI? Is there some version of 'Edgar' watching my every move and trying to anticipate my unspoken desires?

There's really no way to find out. And that should be at least a little concerning, even if you don't believe that robots are out to steal your girlfriend.

What's your favorite awful Sci Fi film? Adds your nominations in the comments below or email me: crankyolddan AT gmail.com.

[1] Thus inventing graffiti.

[2] Not to be confused with the 2017 Amazon Prime series of the same name.

[3] You may know him better as "Creepy Guy in Hotel" in the 2011 straight-to-video classic, Choose. A reliably terrible actor.

[4] Remember plastic corks?

[5] These guys. Yeah, don't pretend you didn't like that song. They're still touring, by the way.

[6] Every era looks ridiculous in hindsight, but the 1980s produced its own very special brand of cheesy.