Hacker Cinema
Surrogates
2009 · Film · 89 min
Directed by Jonathan Mostow
Set in a futuristic world where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots, a cop is forced to leave his home for the first time in years in order to investigate the murders of others' surrogates.
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50 comments on Hacker News
If data integrity is assured, and thus there is no change in the data to store/transfer, then that's the opposite of computationally transforming the data?
How do we see robot and AI and helping interactions in film and tv and games?
A curated list of films for consideration:
Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" or "The Modern Prometheus" (1818), Metropolis (1927), I\, Robot (1940-1950; Three Laws of Robotics, robopsychology), Macy Conferences (1941-1960; Cybernetics), Tobor the Great (1954), Here Comes Tobor (1956), Jetsons' maid's name: Rosie (1962), Lost in Space (1965), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), THX 1138 (1971), Star Wars (1977), Terminator (1984), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Flubber (1997, 1961), Futurama (TV, 1999-), Star Wars: Phantom Menace (1999), The Iron Giant (1999), Bicentennial Man (1999), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Minority Report (2003), I\, Robot (2004), Team America: World Police (2004), Wall-E (2008), Iron Man (2008), Eagle Eye (2008), Moon (2009), Surrogates (2009), Tron: Legacy (2010), Hugo (2011), Django Unchained (2012), Her (2013), Transcendence (2014), Chappie (2015), Tomorrowland (2015), The Wild Robot (2016, 2024), Ghost in the Shell (2017),
Giant f robots: Gundam (1979), Transformers (TV: 1984-1987, 2007-), Voltron (1984-1985), MechWarrior (1989), Matrix II: Revolutions (2003), Avatar (2009, 2022, 2025), Pacific Rim (2013-), RoboCop (1987, 2014), Edge of Tomorrow (2014),
~AI vehicle: Herbie, The Love Bug (1968-), Knight Rider (TV, 1982-1986), Thunder in Paradise (TV, 1993-95), Heat Vision and Jack (1999), Transformers (2007), Bumblebee (2018)
Games: Portal (2007), LEGO Bricktales (2022), While True: learn() (2018), "NPC" Non-Player Character
Category:Films_about_artificial_intelligence : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Films_about_artificial_intelligence
List of artificial intelligence films: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_artificial_intelligence_films
Category:Films_about_robots: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Films_about_robots
Category:American_robot_films: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_robot_films
If any company wants me to be interviewed by AI to represent the client, I'll consider it ethical to let an AI represent me. Then AIs can interview AIs, maybe that'll get me the job. I have strong flashbacks to the movie "Surrogates" for some reason.
I wonder if things are going to end up similar-ish to the movie Surrogates, where the difference between the difference in appearance between the actual human and the digital replica becomes more and more stark over time.
Reminds me of the plot device from Surrogates https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986263/?ref_=nm_flmg_t_63_act
Basically everyone was afraid to go outside and show their true nature and would curate from the safety of their home a perfect outward appearance.
I am sometimes amazed how perfectly Art can sometime predict future and mimic reality.
In the movie Surrogates(2009), people use electro-shock hookah called jacker to enjoy themselves.
POUNDING MUSIC. BODIES SLAM together in a brutal mosh pit, MEN and WOMEN. All are young, some beautiful, others extremely decorated and pierced. They tear at each other brutally, trying to do real damage. On the edges of the pit, individual FISTFIGHTS go on. An incongruous CHANDELIER overhead, gilt-edged MIRRORS on the walls-- the FIGHTERS SLAM INTO and SHATTER them. A HARD-CORE BAND plays on an elevated stage. The MUSICIANS are heavily punked out, in outlandish clothes, with pierced faces, tattoos and body make-up. IN A VIP AREA, a balcony elevated above the stage, numerous BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE at tables. TUXEDO sits by himself. He raises a GLASS TUBE attached to a CORD, one of a few leading into an ELECTRONIC DEVICE on the table. As he brings the tube close to his own neck, an ARC of electricity jumps to his skin. His features go slack, a shudder goes through him. Then he lowers the tube with a smile. He's using a JACKER-- a sort of electro-shock hookah. A SHOUT over the MUSIC:
Here's the exact movie scene, https://youtu.be/jX71XvnMDys?t=42
Just like with Bruce Willis' surrogates - my second me (movie) where everyone is always at home having good time
To add to sci-fi examples, Surrogates https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986263/
It also encourages that bedriddenness in the name of safety.
The movie "surrogates" explores this a bit (not a particularly good movie though).
I asked ChatGPT. It gave me bunch. I got some I've never heard of. I think I'll look into them.
<ChatGPT>
list 50 interesting movies that explore AI.
The Matrix
Ex Machina
Blade Runner
The Terminator
I, Robot
The War of the Worlds
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Transcendence
The Fifth Element
2001: A Space Odyssey
WarGames
Westworld
The Machine
Her
The Iron Giant
Automata
The Truman Show
The Prestige
The Martian
The Fly
The Bicentennial Man
Surrogates
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Limitless
Robocop
Electric Dreams
The Island
The Time Machine
The Circle
The Arrival
The Host
The Stepford Wives
The Brain that Wouldn't Die
Frankenstein
The Invisible Man
Metropolis
The Thing
Jurassic Park
Independence Day
Gravity
Artificial Intelligence: AI
Avatar
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix Revolutions
Inception
Interstellar
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Butterfly Effect
The Future.
</ChatGPT>
Like the movie Surrogates but VR instead of robots.
Interesting that he was in that film Surrogates...
Oh I thought that'd be the movie Surrogates
The movie 'Surrogates' comes to mind
I remember walking away from the 2009 film 'Surrogates' (starring Bruce Willis) and being _incredibly_ disturbed at the idea that he/his wife hadn't actually seen/heard/felt/etc. each other (or anyone) in years. I'm not against VR as a respite, but this and Facebook's “metaverse” push makes me want to spend LESS time with my devices, not more.
There is a pretty good and short walkthrough of the XR term on Quora: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-specific-difference-between-VR-AR-MR-and-XR
I have a really hard time seeing everyone would want to walk around with even sunglasses to augment their reality, though it could make sense for specific situations such as travelling to foreign countries.
But its really hard to be optimistic about some Metaverse or Second Life clone by Facebook (sorry Meta), where the difference is the use of XR.
If you are thinking about the future, why not consider using controlled robots as the movie Surrogates centers around: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrogates
For gaming, XR or even VR will benefit a lot from smaller devices, but as with flying cars its still a long way off a photo realistic experience.
It's like the movie "Surrogates". I don't look forward to this future. It is very useful to me to be able to visually judge people, for example I will steer clear of crazy looking people. This new world of avatars will make it harder to do this.
Exactly what I had in mind. Underrated movie. Maybe metaverse will end up somewhere between the currently envisioned one and like the surrogates physically existing and people at their homes interacting with the world via them, where tech companies even give the main unit for free but sell unlockable content for their surrogates.
bruce willis surrogates anyone? https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986263
Not the first movie where the writers fell asleep behind the wheel just as they were arriving at their destination.
Remember when the protagonist in Surrogates caused sudden, global economic and infrastructural collapse, possibly killing billions of people off-screen, just because he wanted to have richer sex with his wife?
Tangentially reminds me of the film Surrogates, where people only went out in their surrogate, a remote controlled android - in some cases, a younger, better looking version of people. In other cases something completely different of course.
Every time I hear about the metaverse, I think of that movie "Surrogates" with Bruce Willis.
There is a crappy movie called "Surrogates" that goes down this path.
There is a movie built upon that premise: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrogates
I imagine that would be pretty popular as an Instagram filter. Where people could just say remove my zits, clean up my eyebrows, etc.
Or for Zoom. The Surrogates movie comes to mind.
In the movie Surrogates, people have physical robot bodies which they pilot through real-world interactions. The surrogate bodies can look like whatever you want. One poor guy has to go outside, and he gets severe social anxiety from people actually being able to look at him.
This sounds a lot like the movie Surrogates, where at one point the protagonist notices the badge of a android surrogate is completely different from the human behind the surrogate (as printed on the badge).
It looks like there was a Bruce Willis movie loosely based on this story: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrogates
This is rather depressing and hopefully not true but likely is. Reminds me of the movie “Surrogates”
As well intentioned as this may be, I get the feeling this might be the first step to a world like the one depicted in the movie "Surrogates".
there's a film about this concept - Surrogates.
> They will have simulated emotional registers designed to mimic our own.
There was also a good SF film similar to this called "Surrogates" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986263/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_35), which somehow flew under the radar when it premiered, back in 2009. It's a combination between what you're describing and Asimov's description of life on planet Solaria. From the wiki page of the latter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Naked_Sun
> The book focuses on the unusual traditions, customs, and culture of Solarian society. The planet has a rigidly controlled population of 20,000, and robots outnumber humans twenty thousand to one. People are taught from birth to avoid personal contact, and live on huge estates, either alone or with their spouse only. Face-to-face interaction (referred to in the book as "seeing"), and especially impregnating a woman, when replacement of a decedent is necessary, was seen as unavoidable but dirty. Communication is completed instead through holography (referred to in the book as "viewing") , where in contrast to "seeing", they are free of modesty, and have no problem if an interlocutor sees the other's naked body. A two-way teleconference allowed the participants to hear and see each other, but in 3D - an idea almost unheard-of at the time of publication, when color television was a novelty.
Sort of like Surrogates: http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0986263/
As a non-smartphone user, or as I call them zombies, I have some bad news for life on the other side...
When you are not one of them, dealing with them in public can be extremely frustrating, simply walking along the street at a normal non-zombie pace takes considerably more effort than it did 10 years ago because it's one way navigation problem... it's like that film "Surrogates" where Bruce Willis breaks the mould and goes out into the real world to walk among the surrogate robots, it's basically the same problem (insensitivity to their surroundings), that film was spot on, the only difference is that it's little glass rectangles and mind manipulation instead of robot surrogates.
That's the most obvious example, but it extends to everything that people do in public, simple things like waiting for someone to get on a bus, trying to cross the road, trying to go through a door, and even driving... it's gotten to the point where rather than simply an annoying distraction, smartphones are now the main focus for many of these people and the real world is a distraction. The other day I got a scornful look from a woman in her car as I was forced to beep my horn multiple times to prevent her from rolling into me as she was staring down intensely at her phone at a traffic light, as if the urgency of crashing came second to her fucking facegram feed, it makes me want to slap people around the face to wake them up. I hate hating people but it's impossible to avoid this now.
Then again, I've never been a smart phone user, so perhaps this difference is more noticeable to me than those coming back to the real world.
As documented in the 'film' Surrogates:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986263/
You may be thinking of Gamer, but Surrogates also matches up with this. Both pretty interesting movies.
You can also watch Surrogates, the same themes are explored in that film.
Yes but the Avatars cost like $1B each and were neurally customized to exactly one person. I was thinking more of Surrogates[1] where you could remote into a robot pretty easily.
1. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986263/
Surrogates.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986263/
Has anyone seen the movie "surrogates" with Bruce Willis?
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Surrogates http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986263/. Forget mobiles phones, Secondlife needs some sort of conciousness hookup.
In the film Surrogates, there's a device that, when discharged on 'avatars', kills the real person operating the avatar. I wonder if cyber warfare of the future entails this kind of thing. I would assume that being physically connected to a(n implanted) device would allow for this but, then again, non-implanted technology has been known to cause photosensitive epilepsy (like the Pokeman seizures).
Though I haven't seen it myself, my roommate read this and immediately thought of the movie "Surrogates", wherein apparently this type of control has become the norm for standard interaction between people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrogates_(film)
Reading the plot of the movie right after the article definitely gave me the sci-fi heebie-jeebies...
Someone in a Reddit comment coined the term 'glasshole', likely in reference to the type who walk around with the bluetooth piece talking loudly about 'important' things.
For those who have seen the film Children of Men, there's a scene in there of a young man in a nice apartment who is playing video games on a strange, futuristic headset which, if I remember correctly, somewhat resembled Glass. He looked like he had psychological problems.
We're getting closer and closer to Surrogates/Gamer/Sleep Dealer/etc, something I'm not excited about at all.
Reminded me of that episode as well, one of my favorite and so very apt with regards too this subject. One hand we want enhanced humans and on another we want machines but control of them. Bit like Surrogates http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986263/ would be the balance.
Or the movie Surrogates, where everyone just uses a robot avatar for everything, and never actually leave their houses.
Makes me think of this "Surrogates". NOT sexy. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986263/
This is more of a real-life Surrogates, a movie which focuses on mind-controlled robots, whereas Avatar focuses on mind-controlled human/alien hybrid clones.
On a similar note, was the Bruce Willis-starrer "alternate body" movie called Surrogates (2009) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986263/
try the movie surrogates.
Seems particularly appropriate in light of Trevor's debut on MTV for Surrogates the movie :)