Neill Blomkamp – Transhumanism, spirituality, and reflections on intelligence

An interesting article based around an interview with filmmaker Neill Blomkamp – District 9 (2009), Elysium (2013) and Chappie (2015) – on how his new film(s) based around the character of ADAM focuses on “[t]ranshumanism, spirituality, the idea of artificial intelligence, machine intelligence and human intelligence. The idea of the rise and fall of civilisations.”

“If you go back to 2001, Arthur C Clarke, or Robert Heinlein, that’s the stuff that I gravitate towards. It’s like Descartes. There’s a duality, and there’s this matter-versus-metaphysical discussion that is happening. Algorithms and machine learning and true AI, the takeover of autonomous weapons, aren’t part of the discussion. It’s more a discussion about what reality is, what consciousness is. I think I fall more into that category than something like The Terminator, which is explicit, algorithmic artificial intelligence.” (Blokamp)

District 9’s Neill Blomkamp on science fiction, AI and his problem with Marvel
Trailer for ADAM: The Mirror & the Prophet