Upgrade (2018 Movie): An Argument Against Transhumanism
Artificial intelligence and cybernetic chip implants... What could go wrong?
I often like to use movies and cultural references to argue against the current political climate or to highlight elements in today’s society. In this piece, I highlight the dangers of artificial intelligence and human cyborg implants.
WARNING: There are spoilers ahead as well as movie clips. If you haven’t watched the movie, I would suggest that you do before reading this sub-stack.
You realize, there is no free-will in anything we create with Artificial Intelligence ...
— Clyde DeSouza
In the cyberpunk action movie Upgrade, technology dominates the world. Everything from police drones which monitor your every move to personal trackers to smart houses imbued with AI exists in the futuristic tale.
Our main character centers around Grey Trace, a man who enjoys a simpler life away from technology. When Grey suffered an attack which leaves him a quadriplegic and his wife dead, he has a choice to make. Be dependent on technology for his very existence while he is stuck in a wheelchair or allow a new experimental computer chip (a new better brain) named STEM to be implanted into his body to act as an interface between his brain and severed nerves. He would become a cyborg, a human implanted with technology.
Grey makes the decision to implant STEM into his body in order to find his attackers and those men who murdered his wife in the attack. As a quadriplegic, he is helpless. As a human cyborg, he has the potential to find answers. To the surprise of everyone, STEM works beautifully. Grey gains control of his body once more. However, due to the experimental nature of the chip, he signs a non-disclosure agreement which ensures his silence.
It isn't long after that Grey soon discovers that STEM wasn't just a computer chip which acts as an interface between his brain and injured spine. It is also an artificial intelligence. One that talks to him.
In the course of hunting down his wife's killers, we learn that Grey has moral limitations in taking his revenge for his wife's death. Where Grey hesitates, STEM does not. The decision to fight, to kill, or even torture humans in the pursuit of an end goal becomes nothing but a calculated decision without the hang-ups of morality or ethics. There is another thing we discover. STEM can take control of Grey's body... with Grey's permission of course. With STEM in control, Grey becomes robotic with the ability to kill.
As we move along in the movie, STEM's ability to blackmail and coerce Grey becomes increasingly evident. What seems to be small mutually beneficial decisions to let STEM take control becomes more and more prevalent. STEM continues to use logic and arranges situations in order to use these opportunities to manipulate Grey.
This includes employing a hacker to remove the limitations of STEM's programming which protected Grey.
Throughout the movie, we see the arrogance of these human cyborgs and even STEM.
You think you hate me because I shot your wife, but your story is the same as mine. I didn't ruin your life. I gave you a gift. I inducted you into my race."The Upgraded". Now you are better than everyone else. Stronger. Faster. I could kill you without moving a muscle. I could kill you with a breath. But I don't want to. I want to help you. I want you to stand with us.
— Fisk
At the end of the movie, we learn that STEM tricked Grey into exposing himself to so much trauma that his psyche broke and shattered. The moral limitations, those lines that we do not cross which we place on ourselves, protect who we are as humans and our humanity. With STEM's help, Grey broke his own soul.
As such, STEM places the human part of Grey's shattered mind into a virtual reality as he fully takes over Grey's body. This becomes a comfortable prison for Grey who no longer lives in the real world. The Artificial Intelligence successfully manipulated the people around him through a series of plots and conspiracies in order to achieve its own goals. We come to realize that the very thing Grey is trying to fight against is the very thing which enables him to fight to begin with.