Terminator and Philosophy: I'll Be Back, Therefore I Am (15 page)
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Authors: Richard Brown,William Irwin,Kevin S. Decker
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Now that we’ve met Skynet, we need to understand how capitalism works before we can really pull meaning out of Cameron’s epic saga. According to Marx, the main force behind society and all its pieces is the economy; that is, how things are produced, who they go to, how they are protected, how people’s needs are met, and so on. Both the production of goods and the
control of
this production are at the center of every economy. Every person has some relationship to the production process, and people who share roles in production are in the same “class”—they perform the same general function in society. So far, so good; but for Marx there is a dark side to this equation. Every economic system that has existed since the earliest hunter-gatherer societies has had both a class that produces goods and a class that does not produce goods but instead lives off the
surplus
produced by those who do (meaning that the producers produce more than is necessary for themselves).
2
control of
this production are at the center of every economy. Every person has some relationship to the production process, and people who share roles in production are in the same “class”—they perform the same general function in society. So far, so good; but for Marx there is a dark side to this equation. Every economic system that has existed since the earliest hunter-gatherer societies has had both a class that produces goods and a class that does not produce goods but instead lives off the
surplus
produced by those who do (meaning that the producers produce more than is necessary for themselves).
2
Also, each economic system has basic laws dictating its operation, and these laws explain what the economic system tends to do. Some of these laws express the idea that different classes have different interests from one another. Most basically, the producers want to keep what they have worked to produce, and the “exploiters” want to take from the producers. Anyone who works hard for a living knows that the wages they get when they put their hands to the production of some item are less than the total money their boss gains from what they produce.
Marx argues that laws inherent within a class-based economic system will produce fragmentation in a society because class interests are not in harmony. When a system’s inherent laws pull society in two different and incompatible directions, we have a
contradiction
. These contradictions build until the only true solution is to change the economic system entirely.
contradiction
. These contradictions build until the only true solution is to change the economic system entirely.
According to Marxists, capitalism has two distinct classes—the laborers and the capitalists. Capitalists hire labor to produce things for a profit, and the capitalist class as a whole tends to control the economic, social, and political realms of society, while workers struggle to meet their basic needs.
3
As Marx puts it, “The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political, and intellectual life.”
4
3
As Marx puts it, “The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political, and intellectual life.”
4
Consider this class struggle in terms of James Cameron’s world. If the general public interest or the interests of the working class were to be considered by Cyberdyne, the artificial intelligence that emerges from Dyson’s research could be used for medical technology, or to reduce monotonous work conditions, or for a variety of other humanistic purposes. Marx makes it clear that class-based behavioral norms tend to preserve the status quo, and that only the transcendence of these class-based norms can aid human liberation. Similarly, Cameron portrays both Sarah and John Connor as useful to humanity when they forgo lives as laborers. In the first film, Sarah is a waitress, soft and prone to panicking, while by the second film she is a tough-as-nails warrior, who instead of working, builds up skills and weapons to pass on to John in his quest to save humanity. John, in the second film, gets money through hacking into ATMs, not through labor; in the third movie he reveals that he has been “off the grid,” taking only odd jobs here and there for money. In short, Sarah is useless when she is a wage laborer and does not transcend the “class dynamic” of the blue-collar worker, yet strong when she is outside of the class system. Likewise, John shows that the useful skills needed to lead the human resistance are very different from those that constitute normal class-based labor.
According to Marx, all capitalist production is for profit, and nothing else. And since capitalists and their interests directly or indirectly influence all other parts of society, most of what happens in society is aimed toward making money for capitalists.
5
Marx argues that since capitalists fund research and development, technology, too, is aimed at making profits. Furthermore, technological development for profit causes alienation, which generally means that an outside force takes something away from you (for example, your ability to connect to others or control your own life, or the product of your labor). Technology is alienating under capitalism, for example, when it prevents you from having control over your labor, or removes you from contact with others.
6
5
Marx argues that since capitalists fund research and development, technology, too, is aimed at making profits. Furthermore, technological development for profit causes alienation, which generally means that an outside force takes something away from you (for example, your ability to connect to others or control your own life, or the product of your labor). Technology is alienating under capitalism, for example, when it prevents you from having control over your labor, or removes you from contact with others.
6
For the most part, capital is owned and controlled not by
individual
capitalists, but by
corporations
, who also control the development of technology. So next we need to turn to the role of corporations, which play a part in Cameron’s movies in the guises of Cyberdyne and Cyber Research Systems.
individual
capitalists, but by
corporations
, who also control the development of technology. So next we need to turn to the role of corporations, which play a part in Cameron’s movies in the guises of Cyberdyne and Cyber Research Systems.
As a capitalist corporation, Cyberdyne’s decisions center around the pursuit of profit—in Marx’s terms, extracting the profitable “surplus value” from labor and reinvesting that profit to the corporation’s benefit. When Cyberdyne finds a Terminator arm in its factory (along with the computer chip inside it), it does not give the technology up for the benefit of society at large. Rather, Cyberdyne keeps it in a secret, highly secured vault and reverse-engineers it in order to become the biggest defense contractor in the United States. The people working on the project are not necessarily so profit-obsessed, however. Miles Dyson, for example, explains to his wife why his work on artificial intelligence is so important to him:
Imagine a jetliner with a pilot that never makes a mistake, never gets tired, never shows up to work with a hangover. Meet the pilot.
Dyson is a good man, but his intentions mean little against the law of the profit motive. In Marx’s understanding, Dyson is still nothing more than a skilled laborer who takes orders from the owners of the company, who themselves are slaves to the laws of capitalism. When a young lab assistant named Bryant asks him about the origin of the arm and its technology, Dyson acknowledges how alienated he is from the knowledge of what’s actually going on, and so from real control over his own project:
Bryant: Listen, Mr. Dyson, I know I haven’t been here that long, but I was wondering if you could tell me. . . . I mean, if you know . . .Dyson: Know what?Bryant: Well . . . where it [the Terminator arm] came from.Dyson: I asked them that question once. Know what they told me? Don’t ask.
Dyson clearly has little control over the results of his own work. As Marx sees it, while the faceless owners of Cyberdyne make its particular research and development decisions, individuals, corporations, and capitalists aren’t fundamentally responsible for the development of technology. The drive for profit is the real culprit. The need for businesses to grow (or else get shoved out of business) requires them to place profitability on a pedestal above everything else.
7
Cyberdyne, in the timeline before its destruction, became the largest supplier of military computers after the development of Dyson’s artificial intelligence:
7
Cyberdyne, in the timeline before its destruction, became the largest supplier of military computers after the development of Dyson’s artificial intelligence:
Terminator: In three years Cyberdyne will become the largest supplier of military computer systems. All stealth bombers are upgraded with Cyberdyne computers, becoming fully unmanned. Afterward, they fly with a perfect operational record.
Although Skynet is developed as a militarized AI, it could still have been used for neutral, or even beneficial, purposes if average skilled laborers like Dyson had had any say over its application. In this case, though, the profit motive results in the Skynet fiasco, taking mankind’s most deadly weapons out of human hands. Through the plotline of these movies, Cameron shows how technological developments emerging from the capitalist system quickly spiral out of human control and into catastrophic consequences that could end human life and civilization altogether.
8
8
For both Cameron and Marx, capitalism and its technological gains are like a runaway train, speeding beyond control of the laborers that are its engine, or even the intentions of the capitalists themselves. Let’s be honest: Skynet is not exactly a cure for cancer or a “green” energy source, but a computer designed to kill things really,
really
well, a purpose it shares with machine guns and nuclear weapons. Marxist theory can help explain how destructive machines are allowed to develop, but do Cameron and Marx see the development of ever more efficient weapons as a direct result of capitalism, or as simply the actions of neutral capitalist corporations responding to demand from a world market for violence?
really
well, a purpose it shares with machine guns and nuclear weapons. Marxist theory can help explain how destructive machines are allowed to develop, but do Cameron and Marx see the development of ever more efficient weapons as a direct result of capitalism, or as simply the actions of neutral capitalist corporations responding to demand from a world market for violence?
In
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
we get a peek at Cyberdyne in its capacity as a military contractor, and so see a limited aspect of the military’s involvement in the creation of Skynet. Mostly, however,
T2
focuses on Cyberdyne itself as an independent corporation. In
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
, Cyberdyne’s patents are absorbed into another contractor, Cyber Research Systems, whose entanglement with the government and the military is portrayed much more clearly. After the destruction of Cyberdyne, the U.S. military contracts with Cyber RS to continue the development of Skynet in order to put machines in control of U.S. weapons and to remove human soldiers from combat operations. In other words, they want to ensure that horribly destructive technology is taken out of fallible human hands, yet remains under ultimate government control (that is, controlled by Skynet while fulfilling U.S. command directives issued by humans).
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
we get a peek at Cyberdyne in its capacity as a military contractor, and so see a limited aspect of the military’s involvement in the creation of Skynet. Mostly, however,
T2
focuses on Cyberdyne itself as an independent corporation. In
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
, Cyberdyne’s patents are absorbed into another contractor, Cyber Research Systems, whose entanglement with the government and the military is portrayed much more clearly. After the destruction of Cyberdyne, the U.S. military contracts with Cyber RS to continue the development of Skynet in order to put machines in control of U.S. weapons and to remove human soldiers from combat operations. In other words, they want to ensure that horribly destructive technology is taken out of fallible human hands, yet remains under ultimate government control (that is, controlled by Skynet while fulfilling U.S. command directives issued by humans).
Marx himself never articulated a full theory of all the connections between government and the economy. In fact, that connection was more completely analyzed by Friedrich Engels and other Marxists, post-Marx. In
The Communist Manifesto
, Marx and Engels argue that “the executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie [capitalists].”
9
They elaborate on this in
The German Ideology
by claiming that the capitalist class itself organizes the state “for internal and external purposes, for the mutual guarantee of their property and interests.”
10
Marxists argue that militarism, or the tendency for governments to throw
lots
of money into better ways to kill people—often building an empire at the same time—is the primary way for the state to protect its vested economic interests.
11
Militarism actually serves a number of purposes: it takes resources from areas of the world that weren’t open to capitalist markets before, and puts them at the disposal of capitalism (this is called “primitive accumulation” by Marx; think “your land and resources weren’t anyone’s property before I arrived, and my guns say I own them now”).
The Communist Manifesto
, Marx and Engels argue that “the executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie [capitalists].”
9
They elaborate on this in
The German Ideology
by claiming that the capitalist class itself organizes the state “for internal and external purposes, for the mutual guarantee of their property and interests.”
10
Marxists argue that militarism, or the tendency for governments to throw
lots
of money into better ways to kill people—often building an empire at the same time—is the primary way for the state to protect its vested economic interests.
11
Militarism actually serves a number of purposes: it takes resources from areas of the world that weren’t open to capitalist markets before, and puts them at the disposal of capitalism (this is called “primitive accumulation” by Marx; think “your land and resources weren’t anyone’s property before I arrived, and my guns say I own them now”).
Aggressive militarism also allows governments to spend tons of taxpayer money in ways that meet no one’s needs at all. After all, it wouldn’t be right for society to provide for the neediest, if that would compete with capitalist corporations who want to make money off our needs. Militaristic imperialism, finally, creates a world market for goods that grows perpetually larger. Militarism, in other words, causes a government to transfer tons of taxpayer money to whoever can develop the best ways to kill people—creating a huge demand for technology such as Skynet. While Cameron doesn’t explicitly blame capitalism in the
Terminator
saga for the militarism that creates Skynet, all the pieces are there exactly as a Marxist would place them.
Terminator
saga for the militarism that creates Skynet, all the pieces are there exactly as a Marxist would place them.
We’ve seen the dangerous paths that technology may pursue when it is developed in response to profits rather than human good and when it is put to the service of militarism that is itself integrated into government policy. All these points Cameron shares with traditional Marxist views of capitalism. But beyond this, Cameron also depicts Skynet as the result of the “technological determination of capitalism reaching a contradiction.” This weighty-sounding phrase (Marx had many!) simply means that technological development speeds toward a “contradiction,” in which the laws inherent within a class-based economic system effectively fight against one another, each pushing classes and interests within society to take opposite directions simultaneously, because the various class interests are not in harmony.
Because of the laws of the capitalist system, technology can develop destructively—indeed, according to Marx’s view of militarism, it must necessarily do so. But another common goal of technology is to reduce labor costs both through making machines perform more of the difficult and creative aspects of work, and so also using less and less of the worker’s particular skills, and through reducing the number of workers needed to perform the same tasks, allowing the unemployment level to rise (referred to by Marx as the “reserve army of labor”).
12
This extends to the development of artificial intelligence, where the goal is ultimately a computer program that can perform
at least
as creatively and intelligently as a human being. Combine the tendency toward destructive technology with the movement to make machines and technology increasingly independent from
us
, and you have Skynet.
12
This extends to the development of artificial intelligence, where the goal is ultimately a computer program that can perform
at least
as creatively and intelligently as a human being. Combine the tendency toward destructive technology with the movement to make machines and technology increasingly independent from
us
, and you have Skynet.
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