The ‘Future’ of A.I Goes Up in Flames
Artificial Intelligence in the hands of man: a cinema perspective
On New Year’s Day 2025, a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside President-elect Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel. The culprit? A disgruntled U.S. Army Green Beret who used artificial intelligence to plan the attack.
Welcome to Earth.
As I sat in my doctor’s waiting room, watching this unfold on a smart TV, I couldn’t help but think of Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni’s works—L’Avventura, La Notte, and L’Eclisse—which explored the alienation of man in the modern world. His films warned us about the dangers of technology and failed human connections. Fast forward to today, and Antonioni’s warnings feel eerily prophetic. 
Eros is Sick, Gaia is Dying
Eros, the Greek god of love, is sick. Gaia, the Earth, is dying. Not because of technology itself, but because of the alienated men wielding it. The Las Vegas attack, along with others in New Orleans and Waukesha, are stark reminders of this.
We’ve ignored the Gaia hypothesis, which sees Earth as a self-regulating organism. Humans, like bacteria, can either nurture or destroy it. Right now, we’re the bad bacteria.
The Cinematic Warning
You don’t need to know Antonioni or German philosopher Günther Anders’ “Promethean gap” theory to see the truth: prolonged exposure to technology warps our minds. The New Year’s Day attacks are proof.
This isn’t the future Czech writer Karel Čapek envisioned. His 1920 play R.U.R. introduced the word “robot” and sparked our sci-fi paranoia about AI. Čapek, a national treasure, was nominated for the Nobel Prize seven times but died before receiving it. His legacy lives on in our fears of AI gone rogue.
From Fractals to Bombs
In 1991, Linus Torvalds released Linux, Tim Berners-Lee invented the web, and our lives changed forever. Before that, we lived in an analog world—writing shopping lists on paper, calling to order pizza, and playing Joust! on 8-bit computers.
But then came fractals, Mandelbrot Sets, and image compression technology. Suddenly, we were addicted to our devices, snapping selfies, and uploading JPEGs. Even the CIA saw potential in video games, using them for “combat training” in the 1980s.
Hollywood’s AI Warnings
Long before AI became a reality, Hollywood warned us about its dangers. From HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey to Skynet in The Terminator, the message was clear: man’s creations will turn against him.
Even lesser-known AI like Colossus (The Forbin Project) and Proteus IV (Demon Seed) echoed this theme. Hollywood’s vision of AI was bleak—machines subjugating humans, enforcing their will with cold, digital logic.
The Real Pandemic
The most dangerous pandemic we face today isn’t organic—it’s inorganic. Our obsession with technology exacerbates our alienation, spreading rumors and falsehoods that fuel real-world chaos. Antonioni was right: “It is the men who don’t function properly—not the machines.”
The Las Vegas bomber left a note calling it a “wake-up call.” It was—just not in the way they intended. The real wake-up call is this: when will we learn to coexist harmoniously with both each other and the machines we create?
I believe we can. Humans have a knack for pulling together in the worst of times.
