- Upload , the new series by Greg Daniels, is broadcast this Friday on Amazon Prime Video.
- The series dissects the future predicted by transhumanists who plan to download the consciousness of human beings to guarantee digital immortality.
- On paper, the idea is dreaming, a little less in practice.
Imagine a world that has successfully eliminated death with technology. It's the transhumanist dream: to copy human consciousness and save it on a machine (or in the cloud) to make it immortal. It is also the pitch of Upload , the new Amazon series signed Greg Daniels, the brain behind the cult sitcoms The Office and Parks and Recreation . This time, the genius of the small screen swaps the world of business and the American administration for that of technology, and the result is nonetheless hilarious.
In the futuristic world of Upload , new technologies have found a way to download the consciousness of humans. Few are those who turn their backs on the promises of “digital paradises” where avatars can continue to dialogue with the living through existing digital tools (telephone, tablets, screens, etc.). Nathan (Robbie Amell), who lost his life in an autonomous car "accident", meets Nora (Andy Allo), a customer service employee at Lakeview, a very luxurious digital afterlife. The latter will help him become more human, however ironic this idea may be.
"A kind of" middletopia ""
Beyond an emerging romance, the seriesAbove all, it seems to show with humor the dark side of the future promised by transhumanists who, like Raymond Kurzweil, world icon and director of engineering of Google, foresee immortality and the digitization of the brain for 2045. Even if Greg Daniels defends himself from to make a criticism of it: "It is neither a utopia, nor a dystopia," he explains to 20 Minutes . Rather, it is a kind of mid-topie [“middletopia”] where, just like in real life, there are good things and bad things in human society ”.
Because, on paper, these artificial paradises sell dreams: the dead raised in the form of digital duplicates continue to live and to feel the world as if they were authentic. The software simulates a paradise hotel surrounded by idyllic landscapes where synthetic humans have access to four-star service. They can dive in Lakeview water, kiss their loved ones and even make love with someone from the real world. Thanks to virtual reality glasses and a haptic combination (which reproduces the sense of touch), the living carnally find the dead.
But Lakeview is in the image of reality: everything has a price. If the richest take it easy, take advantage of the abundance of goods offered by this beyond luxury, the poor have limited access to supply. Reading a book, tasting gargantuan breakfast, chatting with the real world on the phone is expensive… So you need a full bank account or generous relatives to hope to live this "dream". And when the counter reaches zero, the most deprived avatars are put on pause until the following month.
Neither a dream nor a nightmare
From dream to nightmare, there is only one step. And Upload shows the risks that such a model would entail. Technology is neither good, bad, nor neutral. Its effects on the world, positive or negative, depend on the use that man makes of it. "This is one of its characteristics," continues the creator of the series. It's the way we use it that makes it good or bad. With what wisdom do we use it? How useful is it to improve people's lives and take care of each other? "
Facebook's premise - connecting people to each other - did not suggest that the platform would be used to manipulate minds during the 2016 US presidential election. Likewise, the Lakeview system did not anticipate the difficulty for a child to keep his youthful appearance forever and to see family members continue to evolve without him.
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“I don't think of this world as a dream or a nightmare. Likewise, life on Earth has horrible aspects, but we only know that and those we love live on Earth, says Greg Daniels. This would also be my position on the issue of downloading, if there were many downloads, I wish I could talk to my children and my wife as long as possible. Even if I was digital. "
Neither dystopia, nor utopia, Upload is above all a romantic comedy with a thriller background that offers a gallery of succulent secondary characters. For once the future makes us laugh in a series, we are not going to be deprived of it.
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