Film Review: Dark City

What makes us human? What makes us an individual? This is the question this film asks. I once answered this quiz on a site that asked if every part of your body is replaced with a mechanical equivalent, assuming we are living in a time where this is possible, would you still be the same person that you are? It's the same question in different disguise. After learning so much we have found out that it is that human brain that holds the key to us being humans. But can putting one mind (brain) in another in another body gives a new life to the same person?

 

Our modern understanding of the brain (mind used as equivalent) is predominently influenced by our progress made in the field of electronic compution, in other words software. That's why among the cognitive scientists the primary model for explaining the various functions of the brain is typically "computational". This influence of the computational model has led us to believe that a mind is a computer with all our memories stored in it and all our senses and actions being stimulus and response. There is this software embedded in the "hardware" of the brain that is responsible for all the thinking and understanding. Our cumulative memories from the day we are born to this moment, giving us the personality and individuality that we have. Is it the case? Can we, at a later point of time, be able to "copy" all memories and software from one mind to another and "transfer" the person to another body? Or is ther such a thing as a soul?

 

Our religious thinking depends solely on the concept of soul. Soul which is independant form the body but can live in it until we are dead. It's not the brain that holds the memories and the "person" but the soul, which on dying will still survives with the person and personality. The individual cannot be copied, but the soul could possibly possess another body. The soul holds the conciousness that makes us human. Other animals also have brains but it is only human beings that have conquered this world, displaced every other animal from its place and put them in zoos as a form of amusement. It is with the arrogance of our intellect despite the fraility of our physical bodies that we ask the question, What makes us human?

 

This film explores this topic in its own way and I dont want to spoil the fun by describing it, you would have to watch it yourself.