A LOOK AT THE SCIENCE BEHIND SURROGATES

Next month’s big release Surrogates starring Bruce Willis looks more interesting by the day. The neat video (top) gives you a feel for the scientific premise behind the blockbuster action of a movie set in 2017, a near-future in which humans live in the ultimate ‘Health-and-Safety’ society - in isolation, never braving the outside world except through robotic bodies. These are the ‘surrogates’ of the title, and are wish-fulfillment fantasies incarnate - stronger and better looking than their human originals, tucked safe and sound away from the world.

It’s a peaceful planet, with physical harm restricted to the surrogates, until FBI agent (Bruce Willis) has to investigate a series of murders, the first victim being the bright spark who invented the surrogate system in the first place. For Willis, life suddenly becomes tough - and deadly dangerous - when he has to actually leave home in order to solve the case.

Health and Safety legislation has become quite a problem in our ‘real’ society - not so much the rules themselves, so much as the fear of litigation they promote. It’s a societal issue - despite recessions and other current woes, many of us live in some of the safest and richest societies the planet has ever known: so rich in fact, that they can afford to worry about ever smaller details, and in doing so encourage us to live in fear of our very shadows.

Visit the Surrogates website here.