Techno$chaft Run Amuck?

"Does Ridley Scott's vision of the future seem plausible- will techno$chaft lead naturally to this disarray (what Mike Davis calls "dystopia")- or has he got something wrong?"
Thesis:
We believe that Ridley Scott's depiction of the future in Blade Runner is a possible view of the way that technology is negatively affecting the world, but that it was impacted by the production value needed to sell the movie. This is our group's analysis.






Wednesday, May 6, 2009

McDonaldization-Harrigan

Probably the biggest connection between Hannigan's "Future City" and Ridley Scott's BladeRunner would be the McDonaldization process. This is most evident with the Tyrell Corporation. It is easy to tell that the corporation basically runs the future version of L.A.  While Hannigan talks about how our society is becoming "McDonalized," in Blade Runner, this process becomes reality when the corporation actually does have control over everything.
     Another part of the McDonaldization process that really shows through in the movie is its operation model of efficiency. Efficiency is shown the least just because you would think the city in Blade Runner would be cleaner, with all of the technology coming in, but efficiency is still seen in the fact that humans have moved off-world once the Earth began failing. The city is also more efficient with the use of "city-speak," which makes it more efficient to communicate easily and quickly. Efficiency is also demonstrated with the "high-tech" photo enhancer that is used. Other examples would be  key card access, police control, talking crosswalks, fast moving vehicles, hover cars in air and cars on ground, and voice activation software.  
It is easy to see control through looking at the police force in the movie and the Tyrell Corporation.  The police seem to always have a presence in the city. Another example would be all of the giant billboards, advertisements, and physical presence of product everywhere throughout the city, which continually is convincing the citizens to spend their money in certain areas.Surveillance is also a huge part of the control of the citizens: the Tyrell corporation can see every part of the city at all times.  
     A smaller comparison could be seen when Hannigan discusses Richard Branson and his Virgin Company.  Branson's status within Britian reached an almost God-like elevation, like the one that Mr. Tyrell had in the movie.
Simulacra is the main idea of the movie. We can see the fake masquerading as the real in the ideas of the replicants and the animals, which look exactly like real people but are in fact robots. The off-world colonies are made to seem like a "better" Earth. The city of L.A. is in fact a simulacra, because it is similar to the current city, but exaggerated technologically and made to look darker and dirtier.

The main difference between the idea of McDonaldization and Ridley Scott's idea of the future in BladeRunner is the contrast between a utopian environment with a dystopia. Harrigan states 
"Why, then, has the McDonald's model been so successful? Ritzer contends that what is really on offer is the possibility of fun" (Harrigan 82,83).
The image of the city in BladeRunner is extremely negative, and portrayed as a McDonaldized dystopia. However, McDonaldization supposedly happens in order to create a more fun, happy, successful urban space.
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Conclusion

So, did Ridley Scott create a probable future, a dystopia where techno$chaft takes over the human race?

 

Our analysis of the movie BladeRunner led us to believe that:

Technological advancements will negatively impact us through globalization. Obviously there are advancements like the invention of the wheel that have made life quite easier, but we think we have now developed a dependence on technology, and this in return will in fact be detrimental.

We don't know what the future holds but Scott provides one view, however it may be partially inaccurate due to the fact that everything had to be sexed up because it was a view created in Hollywood. Technology also isn't inevitably going to make life easier for everyone, although certain aspects of the movie were probable, including city speak and voice control. Scott overemphasized the negative aspects of modern cities to create an interesting movie, but the fact still remains that the things that got overemphasized, large corporations gained lots of power, there were extreme forms of advertising, dependence on technology, and increased surveillance and security do in fact exist in cities now, just to a lesser degree.

The most important part though, is that one should not completely believe that the future would inevitably resemble Blade Runner because Ridley Scott is a director, not an urban geographer.

 

If we could have conducted more research, we would have based our findings on actual theses by real urban geographers, and studied other movies, books and productions to see what other people said about this.