Lo and behold: Reveries of the connected world. [Review and Personal Thoughts]

Lo and Behold is a documentary about the Internet. It talks about the possibility, the positive side and the negative side of it as well as what the future will be at the presence of Internet. The film features many personalities and professionals such as Elon Musk, the owner of Space-X and the well known former hacker Kevin Mitnick. They share the history of Internet, the weakness of the Internet security, what they think the artificial intelligence (AI) can affect humans and so on. Upon finishing the documentary, I would like to share my opinion on the topic discussed.

PERSONAL THOUGHTS

First of all, the Internet was a great invention and a big leap for humans. We are now able to communicate and keep everyone in touch by just using a small electronic device such as a smartphone. Media transfer wasn't as easy as it is now. From rocks to papers and from papers to hard drives, the weight became lighter and the capacity became larger. However, the ability to hide ourselves behind a virtual identity also gives us freedom; a freedom that is too much for people without cyber ethics.Somewhere in the film, the interviewer interviewed a couple. The couple suffered from the loss of a daughter that passed away in a car accident. One witness of the accident took picture of the horrifying figure of their daughter that died in that accident and emailed it to another friend, and soon the picture was everywhere on the Internet. The couple received hate mails that made fun of the dead and can do nothing about it because they were disguised as someone else. What I am saying is, the Internet encourages us to become someone we couldn't be in real life. We become something we admire to be or do something we cannot withstand the outcome in real life. It could be used for good, but in this situation obviously, it is not.

Can Robots have dreams?

The documentary also brought up the topic of AI and the possibility of human to live on Mars. This is a very futuristic topic and there are only opinions of what might happen in the future. AI can learn faster than us and process very complicated task when ordered, but they do not have the ability to dream, to feel and fall in love. That is what make robots robots, and what make humans who we are. However, no one knows what the future of AI holds. What if they start dreaming? What if they start having consciousness? For now, we are trying to make AI more humanely. Maybe in the near future, we will regret our decision. No one will ever know.

Closing words

This is a very interesting documentary to watch. It shows that there is still a lot more about the Internet that we can figure out. It also put us into wondering what might the future looks like and keep us alert that our privacy is always at risk no matter what anti virus software we use. As Kevin Mitnick said, "The problem is not with the technology, it is with us." We become vulnerable because we are not perfect. It takes only one traitor in a company to make a system permeable. Keep that in mind. Good night.

Link to the documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSbhsPNnVWo