The Singularity Is Near (2010)

Computer avatar saves the world from self-replicating microscopic robots.

Directors:

Anthony Waller, Toshi Hoo

Stars:

Pauley Perrette, Raymond Kurzweil, Anthony Robbins

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Pauley Perrette	...	Ramona
Raymond Kurzweil	...	Himself
Anthony Robbins	...	Himself
Alan M. Dershowitz	...	Himself
Lillian Askew	...	Samantha
Borzin Mottaghian	...	The Marine
Matt Silverman	...	Capt. Smith
Daron Jennings	...	Joel
Rod Loomis	...	Justice Collins
Anthony Waller	...	Dr. Carlton
Keith Stevenson	...	Turing Test Judge #2
Ples Griffin	...	Turing Test Judge #3
Joan Mankin	...	Turing Test Judge #1
Cully Fredricksen	...	Agent #5
Golden Henning	...	Granny

Storyline

The brilliant inventor Ray Kurzweil creates a computer avatar named Ramona (Pauley Perrette). He raises her like a modern-day Pinocchio, and she gradually acquires consciousness. Ramona detects a secret attempt by microscopic robots to destroy the world, but her warnings are ignored by everyone because she is not recognized as a person. Her computerized nature lets her stop the robot attack but lands her in trouble with the law.

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Plot Keywords:

computer | turing test | nanobot | docudrama | futuristic | 

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Taglines:

A True Story About the Future

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Genres:

Documentary | Drama | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

R

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 July 2012 (USA)

Also Known As:

Ha'singulariut krova

Box Office

Budget:

$5,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fighting Ant Productions, Cometstone Pictures, Exponential Films

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Soundtracks

Victory
Written by Audra Hardt, Gary Bieber, and Jeffrey Mallow
Performed by Audra Hardt

User Reviews

I thought this was going to be a serious documentary

I've always been interested in computers and anything related to them. I've followed cyberpunk trends for how it relates to the near future and how it showed a visionary capacity in its theories. I've been particularly focused on the evolution of artificial intelligence, and its effects on reality.

All this said, this movie was a HUGE disappointment. The documentary is basically a host (a bad one, at that) exposing what the future might bring regarding the birth of A.I.s with capabilities surpassing human intellect. Through the movie, he interviews a number of individuals and so-called experts in this and other matters that, in one way or another, might be affected by the singularity. These interviews and opinions are connected by a parallel fictitious story telling us about the birth and evolution of a "female" A.I. So, how would I put it? This fiction is one of the worst attempts at storytelling I've ever watched. The acting is beyond poor. It's sad, pathetic. The special effects are worse than a children's version of scify channel, the make-up and atrezzo seem to have been taken from a clown paraphernalia shop. And the dialogues come straight from a low budget scifi B movie. It's extremely boring and totally unnecessary. I reckon this was made to help the public understand the possible reality of the singularity, although it seems more like a useless distraction for toddlers than anything else.

Apart from that, most of the comments that the host states as realities are almost edging pseudo-science (it reminds me a bit of What the Bleep - Down the rabbit hole, although I believe I found that interesting back in the day, contrary to this terrible documentary). The people being interviewed, except for 1 or 2, seem to have been taken directly from an "elite" of individuals who think that it's great to have thinking computers, and that software will have at some stage "human" rights (no matter how little rights humans still have at the moment). This is one of the arguments that bother me the most: they talk about A.I.s with "feelings" and "alive", which is all very good and sound, although it's clearly a problem how these same humans completely disregard the feelings and lives of actual living creatures. It's utterly absurd to be discussing how they can define a living A.I. wisely when they can't even respect what it's clearly alive at this moment in time. I'm pretty sure that, for these "geniuses", the fight for the rights of a computer program is worthy, even though they wouldn't even consider to give other animals any rights or happiness in their lives. Bizarre and extremely creepy. For Pete's sake, they even got in the interview a person whose living consists simply in gain as much money as possible, no matter where it comes from! The same person who says that he will do anything to be able to prolong his life or to be immortal... What kind of nightmare world is coming?

One of the few people (perhaps, the only one) who made sense to me was Bill McKibben, talking basically about how humanity is destroying nature and how we should actually take care of our home Earth rather than daydreaming about how fun will be to have a singularity.

Alas, this movie left me with a creepy feeling. It's scary to see people so enthusiastic about computers and other humans inventions with total disregard for the natural world, for the environment and for "real" life itself. And, bear in mind, that I DO find computers interesting! So you can imagine...

Our only hope is that the singularity occurs once and for all and decides to do the most logical thing with the human species. You think about it.