DOCUTAH Review- Fixed The DOCUTAH film “Fixed” presents a wealth of ideas concerning human modifications. It explores the issue from many different perspectives, among them, ethical, scientific, social, and economic. There are different levels and goals with the various modifications that were discussed. The presenters were a thoughtful group whose responses to various forms of divergence from “normal” gave me a lot of new ideas and attitudes to consider. Once again, this is a film I wish I was writing about after several viewings and a period of time to consider, but I will do my best with the snippets I remember fairly clearly. One of the presenters was a man who I believe was born without legs. His position was that he did not consider himself disabled, but has a different set of abilities than many other people. His example showed that by thinking of other people as disabled we make them less-than, which is not necessarily true. He discussed, for example a method of locomotion he uses regularly, crawling, which is seen by society at large to be undignified. He does not see it that way, but as a useful means of getting from one location to another. I felt he was most hampered by the way other people see him, and how they classify his life experiences and abilities to be inferior to his. He seemed to be a happy man, and well connected to his life. His tack was to use some technology but mostly to adapt to life using the tools he was born with. In direct opposition to him was a man who had lost his legs. This man, explaining that he would not want his natural legs back even if somehow that could happen, creeped me out a bit. I thought, “You had sensation and you prefer these metal, technological implements to your legs? You would not choose to be able to feel your feet tickled or massaged?” He emphatically would not. He defined life as what occurred between one’s ears and said it made him smile to think that at age 80 his legs would be just as useful as they are now, unlike most peoples’. I had the distinct impression that if he could have a mechanical android housing for his intellect he would find that ideal. A lady in an electric wheelchair that often stopped working and left her stranded, unable to change her position which becomes painful for her thought we as a society should spend a larger part of our resources making basic equipment and accessibility features more reliable and widespread than developing fancy esoteric technology. I do not know if the man paralyzed from the neck down who underwent a brain implant to allow his mind to interface with a computer and gave him the ability to move objects would agree. The film touched on so many concerns, like the idea that eugenics is becoming popular and could lead to the disappearance of certain diseases. Under discussion was the phasing out of abnormalities like Down’s Syndrome an Tay-sach’s disease and the messages to people who have what the normal population would consider a disability about the value of their lives. I am a science fiction aficionado and have been my whole life. Humans are the species whose dreams become real. But what do we dream? Enhanced intelligence, at the expense of what? Android interfaces or conversion of our energies into a computer ala The Matrix? Slave populations with “off” switches built in like Blade Runner to prevent rebellions? We are so creative and so adept that all of these are possible and even probable, as is much, much more. But my feeling watching the movie is that we are still so young and savage a species, should we proceed into very ethically iffy territories just because we can? I am not sure of the existence of God, or if said Being is omniscient and omnipotent as often described. But if that is the nature of God, He She or It placed us in a world where we would need to make decisions about how to share resources and how and if we should care for one another. God could have made a world where any flight of fancy could be fulfilled effortlessly. Why, if there is a God, is our experience one of limitation and prioritizing? Could these aspects of character be far more valuable than mere wish fulfillment? And what if we all had perfectly working bodies with many more senses and capacities than we do now? If we were all “beautiful” to some standard of beauty that the passing culture holds as most pleasing, what would be the loss to us if we didn’t have goofy imperfections and challenges to overcome which develop spirit?
Posted on: Mon, 09 Sep 2013 03:18:39 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015