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For New Movie, “The Prototype,” The Singularity Pits Man Against Machine

Peter Murray
Jun 25, 2012

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Gun fights, cop chase scenes, a damsel in distress, and a good man caught in a bad situation – exactly what you’d expect from a movie depicting one scenario of how the singularity might play out?

I may have forgotten to mention the experimental humanoid robot gone bad.

Following the success of its last film, , movie-making collaborative Bandito Brothers has moved from military to man and machine. The trailer for their new film, The Prototype, has just been leaked, according to Deadline.

Personally, the trailer (below) doesn’t turn me on. Seems like a lot of gun fights and cop chase scenes. But while that’s not normally my cup of tea, I am pleased by the fact that this movie is being made. Addressing the risks of creating robots smarter and stronger than we are in movies is nothing new – but actually calling it the “singularity” is. The Bandito Brothers are obviously fans. Even Ray Kurzweil gets a shout out. The fact that the words “singularity” and “Kurzweil” are making their way into mainstream entertainment is notable.

How many people really recognized Kurzweil when he appeared in a commercial during this past Superbowl?

The Prototype’s take on our robotic future is a lot more fearful than Frank and Robot’s thoughtful portrayal of robots gradually making their way into our homes as assistants rather than breaking out of secret labs bearing guns.

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But who am I to disparage films that look to be more about shock than substance? The $40 million budget should make for some pretty decent imagery. And anyway, a movie about robots can't be that bad after all.

[image credits: TRAILERS via YouTube]
[video credit: TRAILERS via YouTube]
images: TRAILERS via YouTube
video: TRAILERS via YouTube

Peter Murray was born in Boston in 1973. He earned a PhD in neuroscience at the University of Maryland, Baltimore studying gene expression in the neocortex. Following his dissertation work he spent three years as a post-doctoral fellow at the same university studying brain mechanisms of pain and motor control. He completed a collection of short stories in 2010 and has been writing for Singularity Hub since March 2011.

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