Shaping Our World Through Technology

 To what extent do we create the “worlds” we live in?  To what extent do we shape and manipulate the world?

Highways, iPhones, and fracking.  These are just a few of the ways we significantly shape the world around us.  The human race has shaped the world for as long as we have inhabited, by making it better suited for our optimal lifestyle and comfort.  We innovate the world for our benefit, and we do so by inventing things like cars which helps us travel with more comfort and ease as well as less stress on the body.  Evidently, technology plays if not the biggest, one of the biggest roles in human's shaping of our world.  

Technology is a major way we have shaped our world, especially in the past 15 years.  Since the late 90s, we have made unbelievable progress in what we are able to achieve with technology.  For instance, we have factories that barely require humans to be on hand.  A major way that technology has physically shaped the world are highways.  The length of all interstate highways is 47,182 miles.  To put that in perspective, there are more miles of interstate highways than square miles in the state of Pennsylvania.  We have shaped vast amounts of land to fit our needs, and in doing so play a major role in creating our world. 

Another example of our shaping the world via technology is cellphones.  Cellphones are a part of our world as much as water is a part of world.  We use the everyday to easily contact our family or friends.  We invented them to make communication easier, more portable, and more accessible.  Some phones even play a major role in culture, such as the iPhone, which you see in just about every magazine and on many billboards.  The physical impact of the cellphone is satellites.  We have launched satellites into orbit around the earth in order to make the use of cellphones possible.  Obviously these are not natural satellites, so this is yet another example of us shaping the world and making it better suited for our needs.

Technology plays a major role in the shaping of our political world as well.  The best example of this is the atom bomb.  We have the power to blow up an entire city in a matter of seconds, and because of this, countries have to try to keep harmony in our political world.  It has become evident that countries with weapons of mass destruction, such as the atom bomb, have more political power than those who do not.  This leads to many countries having to rethink their priorities in order to not upset those with these weapons.  In the past we have use atom bombs to end wars in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and since then we have never had to use the bomb, and hopefully it can stay that way.  A nuclear war would obviously, although not in a beneficial way shape our world.  We have the power to shape our world, even if it is not in a good way.

Humans play an undeniably large role in how our world is.  Although some of these are not good for the planet itself, such as fracking, we are able to make the world better for us.  As evident by climate change, we may need to scale back a bit in terms of changing the world through technological advancements, or better yet, focus them on helping the environment.  

Mise-en-Scene

This is a really cool shot in my opinion, as it is full of information.  We see Phyllis's face during the act of Neff killing Mr. Dietrichson.  This shot is very interesting because they did not show the act of the murder happening, but we could tell it was happening through sound and through Phyllis's face.  It is remarkable that the actress, Barbara Stanwyck, with the addition of sounds of struggle, is able to convey the act of murder.  At the same time, Stanwyck confirms that Phyllis is in fact the femme fatale, as she is not sad when Mr. Dietrichson is killed, but has a smirk on her face.  In addition, the shot of Phyllis's face is clearly fading in to another shot, that being of the train station were we see their plan go down, furthermore packing this shot with meaning.  It is also important to recognize the use of darkness in this shot.  It is almost as if the dark plays a role in the movie, especially in this shot.  Darkness in film is a constant reminder to the viewer that something ominous is afoot, and the director is able to capitalize on this with this two in one shot.

Analysis of Minority Report Still image

The overall subject of the shot is the pre-crime unit, trying to find John Anderton as he is leaving the mall because he took Agatha, one of the pre-cogs.  The part of the subject that draws the eye, in my opinion, is the tilt of the pre-crime officer on the right's head.  The tilt of the head capitalizes on the fact that pre-crime's failure to locate Anderton and Agatha, which is due to an abundance of similar looking umbrellas.  In the frame, the officers are foregrounded, whereas the view below them is in the background, due to the camera being at a high angle. The placement of the officers and the view below them is to show the viewer that the officers are looking down at the people, trying to spot John Anderton and Agatha.  I believe the elements of the background, the officers' view, are more important than those of the foreground, the officers. The key objects in the shot are the umbrellas which prevent the officers from being able to spot Anderton, and the umbrellas are in the background.  In terms of lighting, nothing in the shot is lit up, as it is raining.  I believe this is to emphasize that it is a gloomy day.  It also could be used to further the fact that something ominous is afoot, being Lamar's actions in the movie.  The shot is a high angle shot. This helps capitalize on the officers' search for Anderton, as we are able to see them searching for him among the crowd.  Obviously, the umbrellas contribute greatly to our understanding of the events in the shot.  The two officers searching for Anderton are unable to spot him because he too has an umbrella.  Again, the rain emphasizes the ominousness of the events in the movie as a whole.  

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