VOA标准英语2015--电影《机械姬 Ex Machina》反思计算机时代的社交焦虑

Film Ex Machina a Reflection of Social Anxiety in Computer Era 电影《机械姬 Ex Machina》反思计算机时代的社交焦虑

Ex Machina, an intelligent and sleek¹ sci-fi drama by first time director Alex Garland focuses on the relationship and power play between a female sentient² robot and two men: its creator and a computer programmer.

Ava, played by Alicia Vikander, is an artificial intelligence created by Nathan, a genius and the CEO of the world’s largest internet search engine.

Nathan, interpreted by Oscar Isaac, invites Caleb, a computer programmer from his company to assess Ava’s intelligence.  Caleb is asked to be part of a “Turing Test” in which a human being tries to determine if he’s interacting with artificial intelligence or another person.

Charmed by Nathan’s charisma³ and Ava’s cool intellect and femininity, Caleb, played by Domhnall Gleeson, does not realize that ultimately he is the subject of the experiment. It is Ava who is assessing him and influencing his behavior.

First-time director Garland blurs⁴ the lines between human and artificial consciousness and raises questions about gender⁵ and relations between humans and androids.

“Where does gender reside?” The filmmaker asked during an interview with VOA. “Is there a male or female consciousness, or is it an external form that denotes gender?"

Ava, the center of this power play, has human characteristics. She empathizes, deceives, manipulates and has a goal: to escape the glass room where she is kept. Such behavior sets her apart from earlier artificial intelligence characters on the large screen.  

Take Maria in the 1927 futuristic film Metropolis⁶. She was created to be evil and destructive, leading innocent workers to their doom⁷ - a reflection of society's mistrust of machines at the time.

The man versus⁸ machine tension continued in space with Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi drama 2001: A Space Odyssey⁹. A spaceship’s self-aware computer, Hal 9000, goes rogue¹⁰, killing¹¹ 4 astronauts and refusing to let another back into the vessel¹².

Steven Spielberg showed an emotional side of artificial intelligence in his 2001 film A.I. That story is told from the perspective of the machine, an android boy programmed to have feelings for his human mother that are not reciprocated¹³ because he is not a real boy.

But Garland’s Ex Machina goes a step further. Ava is the product of massive data harvesting from people’s personal smart phones and computers. In short, her intelligence is us.

“We all have telephones and lap top computers and tablets and none of us really understand how these things work. They are mysterious to us,” Garland said. “But, they seem to understand a lot about how we work. And we know we’re giving them huge amounts of information. And the traffic is all one way."

He said Ava reflects today's social anxiety about data gathering¹⁴, search engines and loss of privacy.  In Ex Machina, Ava is humanity’s brain child - intelligent and willful, a magnificent creation that defies its parents.

1 sleek   

adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢

参考例句：

• Women preferred sleek,shiny hair with little decoration.女士们更喜欢略加修饰的光滑闪亮型秀发。
• The horse's coat was sleek and glossy.这匹马全身润泽有光。

2 sentient   

adj.有知觉的，知悉的；adv.有感觉能力地

参考例句：

• The living knew themselves just sentient puppets on God's stage.生还者认识到，他们不过是上帝的舞台上有知觉的木偶而已。
• It teaches us to love all sentient beings equally.它教导我们应该平等爱护一切众生。

3 charisma   

n.(大众爱戴的)领袖气质，魅力

参考例句：

• He has enormous charisma. He is a giant of a man.他有超凡的个人魅力，是个伟人。
• I don't have the charisma to pull a crowd this size.我没有那么大的魅力，能吸引这么多人。

4 blurs   

n.模糊( blur的名词复数 )；模糊之物；（移动的）模糊形状；模糊的记忆v.（使）变模糊( blur的第三人称单数 )；（使）难以区分

参考例句：

• The electron clouds are clearly visible as blurs surrounding the invisible nuclei. 电子云就象环绕着看不见的核的一片云雾。 来自辞典例句
• The letter had many blots and blurs. 信上有许多墨水渍和污迹。 来自辞典例句

5 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

6 metropolis   

n.首府；大城市

参考例句：

• Shanghai is a metropolis in China.上海是中国的大都市。
• He was dazzled by the gaiety and splendour of the metropolis.大都市的花花世界使他感到眼花缭乱。

7 doom   

n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定

参考例句：

• The report on our economic situation is full of doom and gloom.这份关于我们经济状况的报告充满了令人绝望和沮丧的调子。
• The dictator met his doom after ten years of rule.独裁者统治了十年终于完蛋了。

8 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

9 odyssey   

n.长途冒险旅行；一连串的冒险

参考例句：

• The march to Travnik was the final stretch of a 16-hour odyssey.去特拉夫尼克的这段路是长达16小时艰险旅行的最后一程。
• His odyssey of passion, friendship,love,and revenge was now finished.他的热情、友谊、爱情和复仇的漫长历程，到此结束了。

10 rogue   

n.流氓；v.游手好闲

参考例句：

• The little rogue had his grandpa's glasses on.这淘气鬼带上了他祖父的眼镜。
• They defined him as a rogue.他们确定他为骗子。

11 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

12 vessel   

n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管

参考例句：

• The vessel is fully loaded with cargo for Shanghai.这艘船满载货物驶往上海。
• You should put the water into a vessel.你应该把水装入容器中。

13 reciprocated   

v.报答，酬答( reciprocate的过去式和过去分词 )；（机器的部件）直线往复运动

参考例句：

• Her passion for him was not reciprocated. 她对他的热情没有得到回应。
• Their attraction to each other as friends is reciprocated. 作为朋友，他们相互吸引着对方。 来自辞典例句

14 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。