The trouble with Lichen. novel by John Wyndham and Short circuit movie - Literature review Example

?Introduction I will review two s, one is a movie and the other is a novel. The novel is d “The trouble with Lichen.” John Wyndham is the author of the novel and like all of his other works; this novel is a science fiction. The author of the novel takes a futuristic view into the next century and writes a book that has an interesting plot of a young biochemist that stumbles on a strain of Lichen that has the ability to prevent the process of ageing. The plot of the novel takes the reader from the lab where the doctor, Saxover Francis, with his assistant, Brackley Diana extract the drug from the Lichen to the time when she has to make a run for her life when the secret about the drug leaks into society and her life is threatened. She eventually fakes her own death in order to avoid the death. Ironically, her product is actually supposed to avert death- at least for three hundred years. The movie is about a company that develops a set of five robots. The robots were originally intended to carry out some mundane activities like playing of musical instruments and others. They are named number one through to number five. After Newton Graham has finished developing the robots, he goes to demonstrate them to the other company at the grounds. His demonstration is however abruptly interrupted by a storm. It was while he was still evacuating the robots that one of them was struck by electric current. The electric current causes a “short circuit” and ultimately changes the instruction codes in the robot. This, as we later find out, gives the robot life. The two pieces are both science fictions that are somewhat related. They both predict on future innovations that actually took place many years down the line. Even though man has not yet found a solution to ageing that would make him attain the age of here hundred years, there are at least some drugs that are being used to control ageing to a significant degree. Consequently, the prediction made in short circuit have also come to see the light of day. There are much technological advancement in the ICT field that can be comparable to the ideas propagated in short circuit. The main reason why I chose this novel and this movie is the fact that they made some interesting predictions about the innovations in the future and the innovations eventually came to be. The other reason is the fact that they both took a realistic approach as far as how society responds to new inventions is concerned. The Trouble with Lichen This is a novel about a young lady who is working as a biochemist and who in the course of her day to day duties, stumbles upon a certain strain of Lichen that can actually be used to reverse the aging process in humans. It is from this Lichen that the novel draws its title, “trouble with lichen.” Supposedly, this strain of lichen can be used to lengthen the lifespan of an average human being to anything from two hundred up to three hundred years. The author of the novel approaches the issue by speculating on how the wider society would deal with such a discovery. There are two main characters in the plot of the book. The first is Brackley Diana and the second one is Saxover Francis. Both are biochemists who are involved in research. Saxover is a doctor and Diana is his employee. They are doing independent experiments to investigate the characteristics of certain strains of Lichen. Diana stumbles on a life transforming discovery when she notices that a certain strain of the lichen prevents milk from turning sour. The strain of Lichen that she discovered was rare and it actually originates form East Asia. She works tireless with the help of Francis Saxover and two eventually manage to extract a new drug from the Lichen. They call this new drug antigerone. Antigerone can be used to slow down ageing in the human body. Francis decides to secretly use the medicine on his family members and on himself to prevent their ageing. On the other hand, Diana sets up a spa and cosmetic business and starts using the product on a number of rich and influential women n England. Eventually, Francis discovers her arrangement and is mad that she is using the product that they worked on together for her sole profit. However, Diana is not just after the monetary gain of the business but she is more interested in the opportunity that she has gotten to be empowered by this rich and influential women. Her fear is that if the drug was finally released into the market, it would only be available for the influential l men in the society. She is therefore trying to get an early advantage before it come to that and the best way she knows to do it is to use the product as a way of earning some favors form the influential people in the society. As fate would have it, one of her customers in one of her spa outlets starts exhibiting some allergic reactions to the drug. It is as a result of this mishap that the truth about her drug begins to come out in the limelight. Diana tries to cover up the real source of the rug since it comes from a strain of Lichen that is not only rare to come by but also hard to produce. However, her efforts are not very successful and she eventually loses the battle as it is soon discovered where she is getting the drug. When word about the product went out, there was soon a scramble that Diana had arguably anticipated. It appears to be a tug of war between the big corporations who are interested in mass producing the product, and the power brokers among the politicians, trade unions and many rich conservative men. It suddenly gets dangerous for anyone that holds the information on the drug Even though she loses the secret, she still does not give up easily. Diana decides to feign her own death. She hopes that her “death” will help the women in England by inspiring them to rise up against societal discrimination and fight for their rights. She goes into hiding hoping to return back after the incident has been forgotten and when things have simmered down a little. Francis, who knew her better, does not believe that she had actually died and decides to try to establish if his suspicions were true. He eventually finds out that she is actually alive and kicking. Diana is hidden off in a remote field where she has actually succeeded in growing some amount of the Lichen even though in small proportions. She tells him of her plans to return back to the society using the alias of her sister and continue with her work from where she left it when she died. Analysis There are myriads of speculations on what really inspired Wyndham to write the novel. Arguably, this is the novel that is closest to his heart. This is mainly as a result of the turbulent relationship he had with a lady that was a school teacher. The lady was independent and she was too committed to her career that she was not ready to settle down to start a family (Hart, 1960). The book can therefore be said to be a peep into a future that has a solution to ageing and how it would change the world – especially for the women that wanted to do so much yet seemed to have very little time on their hands. There appears to be a kind of crossover between the Diana of the novel and Grace (the lady that Wyndham was romantically involved in). The second protagonist has just lost his wife. When Caroline Saxover passed away, Francis Saxover gets devastated by the loss. He gets lonely very quickly and perhaps the thought that he does not stand a chance to get someone else at his age make the situation even worse. The discovery of this drug however changes the landscape completely as it is now obvious that age does not matter any more. The author of the trouble with lichen novel decides to explain to his audience why he chooses to write science fiction. He says, This is not the age of reason; this is the age of flummery, and the day of the devious approach. Reason’s gone into the backrooms where it works to devise means by which people can be induced to emote in the desired direction (Wyndham, 1960, P.60)." However, this novel is the closest to reality among all his other works. While he is a writer that specializes in fiction, he has allowed his wild imagination to lead him to other wild conclusions in his other writings. He could have extended the novel into the next few centuries but he chooses to leave the science fiction only at the point where the Lichen is discovered to have medicinal value. The rest of the book is geared at revealing how the society reacted and responded to the discovery. The author does a great job of revealing how the people in present life would respond if such a product was unveiled and how it would impact life. Needless to say, there are those that would want to control the product and they would be willing to twist arms in order to achieve their goal. There are those that would be skeptical about the drug and would wait to see the effects of the drugs on other people before trying. However, there are those that would jump for it at the first available opportunity and use it to fight ageing. Man is mortal but there has always been a desire to cheat mortality. Different things are done on a daily basis by man in a bid to avoid death and if a drug was to prolong the life of man by more than two centuries was invented, it would be an instant best seller. Needless to say, the drug would also be expensive and would be out of reach for the poor people. The novel relates well with the theme of technology in the society. We are living in a world where the technological trends are huge and the changes that are made in life as result of the technological changes are significant. The innovations that are seen on the technological scene are mainly aimed at making the life of individuals better or at improving the life of man. The author of this novel can be said to have clearly seen the future. Even though we have not yet discovered a drug that can make man to leave up to three hundred years as it was purported into the book, we have at least come up with some drugs that could help in decreasing the ageing process. The drugs have attracted a lot of controversy but they are currently being used by many people who want to appear younger than they are. Even those that are not using them would still try them out if they were sure there are no side effects and if they could afford it. .Short circuit Short circuit is a science fiction movie that was released in the year 1986. The movie is a science fiction and the story is developed around a robot that is called SAINT number five. SAINT is actually an acronym that means “Strategic Artificially Intelligent Nuclear Transport.” As the plot of the movie develops, the robot is then simply referred to as Johnny five. Set out at a time in history when the cold war was at the apex, the movie is about the robot (number 5) that was developed in order to be used as a weapon by the United States Military. There were four other prototypes that were used and number five was the one that came out well and that is where the robot got the name. The five robots were originally invented by Professor Newton Graham (who is also a scientist) together with his coworker by the name Ben Jabituya with intentions of using the robots for peaceful purposes only. For instance, they were thinking of using the robots in the playing of musical instruments and other areas of artificial intelligence like performing some industrial as well as home tasks and chores. After the completion of the prototype development, Newton and his assistant are out on the company grounds (Nova laboratories in Damon) testing and showcasing the abilities of their new inventions but are forced to abruptly end the demonstration when a sudden lightening storm emerges from the blues. It is during the storm that a power surge somehow hits the robot labeled as number five. The surge significantly alters the coded instruction that had been preprogrammed in the robot. This ultimately results in a malfunction of the entire robotic system. After a little while, another accident again leads to the robot being taken away from the premises of the company and it is while off the company grounds that number five decides to wander off and eventually gets lost not knowing where it is or what to do. Eventually, number five ends up at the premises of an animal lover who goes by the name Stephanie Speck. Stephanie lives in Astoria Oregon. On first sight, she first thinks that the robot is a creature from outer space like an alien or something of the sort. However, she later establishes that the Robert is a creation of Nova laboratories. The robot and Stephanie become friends and she helps the robot fulfill its need for input. The need had been created when the robot was hit by the lightning. Stephanie feeds in instruction to help solve the need and after that, she begins explaining to the robot the meaning of life and death. It is while trying to discus the concept of life and death that she realizes that the power surge had actually given the robot life. The realization that the robot now has life significantly alters the life of both the robot as well that of Stephanie. For starters, when number five develops a genuine respect for life and decides to reject the military codes that it was developed with since they were destructive and dangerous for the human life. In addition to this, the robot is now afraid of the eventually disassembly that is bound to happen at the Nova industry factory. It kind of realizes that this disassembly is in a way likened to death among the humans. Another important character in the plot of the movie is Captain Skroeder. He successfully dodges the military that is after capturing him since he disobeyed the orders of his superiors in the quest of destroying the robot. The captain eventually gangs up with Stephanie and together with her boyfriend and the robot itself, they manage to get in touch with Newton and convince him of the sentience of the robot. They eventually decide to come up with a plan to throw the military of their tracks. This they do by creating a replica of number five using spare parts that Newton collected from his workshop. The military destroy the robot and are happy since they think they have succeeded in eliminating number five but unknown to them, number five is still safe and sound. After the supposed destruction of the robot, the project that sponsored the creation of the robot is stopped and Skroeder is also fired from his job position at the company. Eventually, number five decides to rename himself as Johnny five after hearing a song that was titled, “who is Johnny?” Johnny five leaves for Montana in the company of Stephanie and Newton who also decided to side with the robot and even quit his job as a result (Short circuit, 1986). . The production of the film Short circuit film is an idea that stemmed up from the successful video that had been created for education purposes. The educational film had been created and distributed to a number of local colleges. The producers studied prior movies that had robot characters in them like the famous star wars series so as to get some ideas on how to produce the movie. They decided to take a very realistic approach to the robot in the movie. Obviously, an average person would never buy the idea that a robot has gotten the breath of life. This is the main governing principal that guides the produces as they develop this movie. This must have been the main reason why the movie producers decide to introduce Captain Skroeder who is the character that comes out in the movie as the rational person. He does the “right” thing even though he is supposedly a villain. While producing the entire movie was without any doubt an expensive affair, the commentary on the movie openly states that the most expensive part was Jonny five. Since video as well as simulation technology had not evolved as much as it has today, they had to develop various versions of the robot in order to realize the different effects that they wanted. In fact, everything else in the film was relatively inexpensive and that gave them the ability to concentrate most of the resources that they were left with in the production of the different versions of number five. Jonny five was designed and developed by Syd Mead. Mead is described as a visual futurist as his past work has proven. Some of his other famous pieces of work include Blade Runer as well as Tron. Mead is called a futuristic designer since he kind of predated the future using his designs. He is in fact on record for saying that he had actually brought science fiction ahead of its time. The biggest part of the arm movements realized by Jonny five were manipulated using a telemetry suit. A telemetry suit is a metallic kind of skeleton that is usually carried on the upper torso of the person that will be controlling the robot. It is the same concept that is used in puppets except that the puppets are usually hand held. All of the joints in the suit had their distinct sensor. The sensor allowed for the controller to relay his movements to the different parts of the machine. The robot was also voiced by the person controlling it in real time. The movie director believed that was the best way to increase the synchronization between the robot and the other actors instead of having the movie acted out and then casually inserting the wording later during the editing and the other post production processes. However, there are still some words that had to be edited out to ensure the movie come out in its best quality in the long run. The director of the movie actually makes a brief appearance in the movie that plays the role of a news camera man when Stephanie does a news interview as a last minute thought. Even though there is no album for the sound tracks that was released at the time of the release of the movie, DeBarge was on the top of charts with is single song that was an instant hit. The title of the song was “who is Johnny.” The movie inspired the creation of least two video games (Whitburn, 2004). Analysis The introduction of a robot that came to life is creative. While there were many other movies in that generation that had used the idea of a robot in the movie, this was the first movie that was based on science fiction but still took a realistic approach. It is very far fetched for a company to create a robot which then comes to life as a result of an electric fault. The movie therefore illustrates how society would react to the thought of introducing such a device. The lady that gets the robot first thinks that it is an extra terrestrial creature. There has always been the debate of aliens and there are those that do no believe there is any other form of life on other planets but there are those that hold the view that there are other living things on outer planets that are more advanced in technology than we are. Stephanie clearly believed in the former. Technological advancement has always had its pros and its cons. There are limited ways of predicting the outcome or the impact of an invention. That is why after the development of a system, there is always a need to destroy or abandon it if it does not function as originally intended. The company can then focus on developing other systems that are more palatable or they can just forget about the whole idea altogether. A case in point is the introduction of Google buzz. The invention was supposed to be a revolution in the social networking industry and it was created to try to compete with other established social networks like face book and twitter. However, it did not take off as originally thought and Google was faced to bite humble pie and withdraw it from the market. However, they went back to the drawing board in order to improve on the shortcoming of Google buzz and see if they could come out with a more superior product. The result was the introduction of Google + which has done well so far and it is slowly rising in popularity. The accuracy of the movie as far a predicting the technological innovations of the future years are impressive. As of now, there are many artificial intelligence innovations that would make one believe the movie was developed in the last decade or even sooner. For instance, we now have the Human User Interface. This is one of the technological advancements that was introduced to be used in the gaming industry but could also be used in simulating lessons and other important concepts. This is a concept that users sensors and other technologies to capture the actions of the human user onto the screen or the panel. This way, the user is able to user the application without necessarily touching the console. It has revolution the ICT sector especially as far as gaming is concerned. Howe ever, it is projected to be the future in computing where computers will most likely run on the platform of Human computer interfaces that are not only intelligent but easy top use. The impact of this innovation can be measure by the huge success it has brought. In fact, Microsoft has few applications that can compete with the number of sales per day that the human interface attracts. This is the future of computing. For a long time, computers have been confines of the people that are physically fit. There are many people of yester years who gave up on learning computing and continued with their life on the grounds that computers were hard to learn. However, the onset of the human interface will make computing possible for anybody. These include the old people as well as those people that have disability that makes their use of computers a huge hurdle. Another important innovation in the artificial intelligence industry is the machine vision. This has totally revolutionized the military operations of the countries of the world. With machine vision, it is now possible to boost the security to a great extent. The use of robots in the current society has greatly increased. Robots are used in industrial operations where using human workers would be very risky like in the handling of life threatening substances. It is still possible to have robots for domestic use but the cost of acquiring and maintaining them is too huge to be economical viable for many people. However, it is possible that in the next years, the costs could come down and people will start using the devices in the homes. A robot is the ideal solution for many employers. It does what it has been programmed to do, it asks no questions, it works robustly without ever getting tired and it does not ask for salary increment. In fact, it is feared that the introduction of robots as workers in industry could threaten the future of the employees. Trade unions have been in the protest against this Comparison of the movie and the book The novel (the trouble with Lichen) and the movie (short wire) have a couple of things in common irrespective of the fact that they propagate different types of science fiction. The novel is talking about a medical discovery while the movie is talking about artificial intelligence. However, both of them take a daring by making some futuristic predictions in the next technological advancement. The trouble with lichen predicts the introduction of drugs that will help to avert the ageing process in humans. Today, there are drugs that are being used to control ageing al though they are not as effective as the factious ones in the novel. The movie predicts innovation in ICT that will allow artificially intelligent machines to be developed. Today, the study of neural networks has resulted in the developing of intelligent machines and ICTs that have greatly impacted the world of ICTs. There are many science fiction movies and novels set out in this time and era but most of them took a common stand on science fiction. They were mainly set out in a society that was fairly receptive to the inventions and they were not in conflict with technology. However, this book and movie took a common and different view point form the other novels and films. They booth took a realistic approach to how society would react if such a product or invention was to be given to them. In the trouble with Lichen, the life of Diana is threatened after the information about her invention leaks out. There are many forces that interested in controlling the product starting from large pharmaceutical companies that are interested in patenting the drug and mass producing it, to the politicians whop wanted to have a stake in it as a result of the power that it would ultimately bring them to the tycoons who wanted it for various reasons. Information about the drug suddenly becomes a threat to life and she ends up faking her own death in order to avoid the eminent death. After he convinces the world that she is dead, she goes into hiding and starts to grow the lichen. She is hoping to have enough linen in some time then she plans to reintroduce herself into the society as her won sister and pick up her work from where she had to stop abruptly when things became risky for her. Generally, this is a realistic way of how society would respond if such a revolutionary product was introduced. Anybody that is powerful enough would not pass the chance of owning or at least influencing the product. The owner of the idea would definitely guard it jealously and do anything within his or her power to keep intruders at bay. The life of the inventor might even be threatened as a result of the innovation. Luckily, innovators of the current generation have the benefit of a legal framework that could protect their idea. The only problem would be that copyrighting and patenting a product is often too expensive for small individuals who are just starting out. They therefore end up being slaves to the huge corporation that the money and the power to make it happen. Short circuit also takes a generally realistic way to the way society would respond if they were to meet a robot that is actually alive. This is something that can be accepted in the confine of fiction and movies but it would seldom be accepted in the ideal society in real life. That would explain why the producers of the movie created a scenario where the entire army was out on destroying number five. No one wanted to take a chance at allowing the robot to survive- except of course for Stephanie and her friends. However, even Stephanie did not believe that she was standing before a robot at first sight. She originally thought that she had just received a visit from an extra terrestrial being (Short circuit, 1986). In both cases, that is, in the movie and the novel, the protagonist was afraid for their life. The threat in the novel was on Diana and the threat was as a result of the knowledge she had on the lichen strain that could be used to prolong life. On the other side, number five was the one that had his life threatened. It is interesting to think of a robot that has his life at risk. Machines have no life in the real world but number five is different. According to the movie, the robot was hit by a power surge during a demonstration on the company grounds. It is this power surge that altered coded instructions in the robot. When the robot warned off and finds himself in the compound of Stephanie the animal lover, she eventually tries to explain to him what life and what death really is. It is only during the explanation that they both realize that the robot had actually come to life after the surge. This realization makes the robot decide to fight its death. The looming disassembly of the robot is what is akin to the human death. The robot and Stephanie seek the help of the professor and together with some two other friends, they decide to save the robot from “death” Conclusion The concept of saving the robot from death is more like the same concept of prolonging life that is talked about in the novel. In the novel, averting death is done by the use of the drug that has been invented by Diana but in the movie, averting death is done by creating a clone of the robot and handing him to the army who on “killing” it, are convinced of a successfully mission and call of the operation. Arguably both storylines bring out the underlying desire in man to conquer death. It is a desire that is elusive but there is much advancement that has been made towards that direction. All in all, the two pieces pass for very good predictors of future technological advancements References Hart, D. 1960. John Wyndham discusses the nature of evil in his novels. BBC archives, London Short Circuit. 1986. [Movie] directed by Badham John. USA: Tristar pictures. Whitburn, J.2004. Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004.New York: John Wiley and sons Wyndham, J. 1960. The Trouble With Lichen. New York: Penguin Books. Read More