Battlefield Earth

Work Title: Battlefield Earth
Medium: Film
Episode Title:
Year: 2000
Writer(s): Corey Mandell
"Original" Writer: No Writer(s): J.D. Shapiro
"Original" Writer: No Writer(s): L. Ron Hubbard
"Original" Writer: Yes Own work?: No
Summary:

In the year 3000, man is no match for the Psychlo's, a greedy, manipulative race of aliens on a quest for ultimate profit. Led by the seductive and powerful Terl, the Psychlo's are stripping Earth clean of its natural resources, using the broken remnants of humanity as slaves. What is left of the human race has descended into a near primitive state, believing the invaders to be demons and technology to be evil. After humanity has all but given up any hope of freeing themselves from alien oppression, a young man named Tyler decides to leave his desolate home high in the Rocky Mountains to discover the truth, whereupon he is captured and enslaved. It is then that he decides to fight back, leading his fellow man in one final struggle for freedom. (IMDB)

Era/Year of Portrayal: distant_future
Distinctive characteristics of the world in portrayal:

It is the year 3000. An alien race has taken over the world and is using people as gold minors. They have space traveling capabilities. The alien race (the Psychlos) cannot breath oxygen.

Technology

  • Name of portrayed presence-evoking technology: Rapid Learning Machine
  • Description of the technology: One of the captured humans uses the alien's technology to learn information. By 'hooking' himself up to this rapid learning system he can learn an infinite amount of information. The technology is not mobile. It is stationary. The character sits in a chair and hooks the system up to his head. From there he is able to receive the information The information is transmitted in real time and there is no response lag. Social technologies does not have a personality.
  • Nature of task or activity: This device is commonly used by the Psychlos race to learn information instantly. The character in the movie was not supposed to use this system but he did anyway. He was therein able to escape from his imprisonment.
  • Performance of the Technology: The technology does not break down in the story. It continues to work as it was supposed to. Although the alien race does fall because of the human's revolt.
  • Description of creator(s): The Psychlos aliens created the technology. They are a brutal race of giant humanoid aliens.
  • Major goal(s) of creator(s): They developed the technology, seemingly, to attain as much information as possible. Their brains are larger then humans and can hold more information.
  • Description of users of technology: The users of the technology in the Psychlos race are only men in the movie. The human character was not supposed to use the device but he did anyway.
  • Type(s) of presence experience in the portrayal: spatial_presence
  • Description of presence experience: The person seems uncomfortable when they are receiving the massive amounts of information. It is similar to The Matrix when Neo is being programmed to learn information.
  • User awareness of technology during experience: The character that uses this device is not away, at first, of what the device does. When he finds out he makes it a frequent habit to use the technology whenever he can.
  • Valence of experience: At first the technology users find it unpleasant but the outcome is worth it for them - as they keep going back.
  • Specific responses: The character using the technology seems to get a little motion sick at first.
Long-term consequences:

The long-term consequences for the human race turned out to be beneficial in the end. While the technology was not theirs to begin with, they ended up using it to their advantage.

Other:

While the movie was absoluetly terrible and received horrible reviews from critics, it demonstrates the role that telepresence could play in future worlds.

Coder name: Matthew D'Avella
Coder email: mattdavella@gmail.com
Coder affiliation: Temple University