All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (2011) The Monkey in the Machine and the Machine in the Monkey
This episode looks at why we humans find this machine vision so beguiling. The film argues it is because all political dreams of changing the world for the better seem to have failed - so we have retreated into machine-fantasies that say we have no control over our actions because they excuse our failure. At the heart of the film is one of the most famous scientists in the world - Bill Hamilton. He argued that human behaviour is really guided by codes buried deep within us. It was later popularised by Richard Dawkins as 'the selfish gene'. It said that individual human beings are really just machines whose only job is to make sure the codes are passed on for eternity. The film begins in 2000 in the jungles of the Congo and Rwanda. Hamilton is there to help prove his dark theories. But all around him the Congo is being torn apart by 'Africa's First World War'. The film then interweaves the two stories - the strange roots of Hamilton's theories, and the history of the West's tortured relationship with the Congo over the past 100 years.
A series of films about how humans have been colonised by the machines we have built. Although we don't realise it, the way we see everything in the world today is through the eyes of the computers
Primary Title
- All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace
Episode Title
- The Monkey in the Machine and the Machine in the Monkey
Date Broadcast
- Tuesday 7 June 2011
Release Year
- 2011
Episode
- 3
Channel
- BBC Two
Broadcaster
- British Broadcasting Corporation
Programme Description
- A series of films about how humans have been colonised by the machines we have built. Although we don't realise it, the way we see everything in the world today is through the eyes of the computers
Episode Description
- This episode looks at why we humans find this machine vision so beguiling. The film argues it is because all political dreams of changing the world for the better seem to have failed - so we have retreated into machine-fantasies that say we have no control over our actions because they excuse our failure. At the heart of the film is one of the most famous scientists in the world - Bill Hamilton. He argued that human behaviour is really guided by codes buried deep within us. It was later popularised by Richard Dawkins as 'the selfish gene'. It said that individual human beings are really just machines whose only job is to make sure the codes are passed on for eternity. The film begins in 2000 in the jungles of the Congo and Rwanda. Hamilton is there to help prove his dark theories. But all around him the Congo is being torn apart by 'Africa's First World War'. The film then interweaves the two stories - the strange roots of Hamilton's theories, and the history of the West's tortured relationship with the Congo over the past 100 years.
Classification
- PGR
Owning Collection
- Chapman Archive
Broadcast Platform
- Television
Languages
- English
Live Broadcast
- No
Subjects
- Rand, Ayn--Influence
- Ecology--History--20th century
- Social Darwinism--20th century
- Documentary television programs--United Kingdom
Contributors
- Adam Curtis (Writer)
- Dominic Crossley-Holland (Executive Producer)
- Lucy Kelsall (Producer)
- Adam Curtis (Director)
- British Broadcasting Corporation (Production Unit)
Subjects
- Rand, Ayn--Influence
- Ecology--History--20th century
- Social Darwinism--20th century
- Documentary television programs--United Kingdom