World of Tomorrow: a Reveiw

I am not sure if this is clear at this point, I am a bit of a geek. I consume lots of different types of media from most genera. It helps that my room mate wants to work in film, so I get exposed to most of the stuff he has to watch for class. Sometimes I have to watch movies too, (cough cough GATAGA cough cough) but I was surprised when in my syllabus for Science Fiction literature had a whole class dedicated to watching short films from the genera. It was nice to just enjoy the different expectations and perspectives. While our class focused much on the expanses of Afrofuturism. (Marketed by the recent film at the time, Black Panther, but more represented by the works of Octavia Butler) we also had the chance to sit and watch a quirky animated film that came out in 2015 by the name of World of Tomorrow. 

There are only two characters with true voice acting roles, Emily "Prime," voiced by the animator's niece, and Emily "3," played by Julia Pott, known for her work as a writer on Adventure Time. The film is about 17 minutes of a tour of a future that mainly focuses on treatments differing between classes, cloning, robotics, alien interactions, and life after death. Granted, the stick figures and dark humor blend nicely with the sweeping use of music and proper use of silence to stick the emotional conversation between the two.

I do not wish to spoil the short movie that is easy to find, but I would like to talk about some of the ethical concerns that this potential future gives. So I will highlight the following spoilers in black for those who care. Except the last one because I think it's funny.  The cloning process involved cloning the person and impregnating the woman(in Emily Prime's case, herself) and giving the original's memories to the clone when they die. This is seen as something to do for the middle upper class or at the very least, something that needs to be done early in life. I say this because another character mentioned, Emily Prime's Grandfather, was not cloned but instead had his mind put inside a box that can communicate with the outside through email, his only response being an existential nightmare. Emily 3 has "romance" with a moon rock, a metal pipe, an alien, and eventually marries a man who's memories she displays in an art gallery after his sudden death. That feels like a breach of privacy to me but the standards must have changed over time. Emily 3 programs solar powered robots on the moon to fear death. The ethical concerns are clear in this case.

I don't know why, but while researching my human genetics course, I had this movie playing in the background, just listening and laughing again at the absurdity(and potentiality) of this strange future.

You can watch the full film here (or elsewhere for free if you really care that much. This clip is...not ethically important but very good.

I highly suggest watching it, anyone else have any connections between ethics and another course?