It’s a sad indictment of society but you can learn everything you need to know about our world from three 80’s Sci Fi Movies. I would like to thank my nineties stoner self for watching them on repeat courtesy of my VHS player. In no particular order these great artefacts of universal wisdom are ‘They Live’ , ‘Robocop’ and Terminator. There are two other important nineties films but that will give me an excuse to write something else without thinking too hard.
Most people haven’t heard of ‘They Live’ as it’s more of a cult movie. It’s one John Carpenter’s lesser know works; He of Halloween and Escape From New York fame. It is the tale of an everyday working guy hit upon hard times, played by American Wrestler Roddy Piper. Things take a dramatic turn as he discovers a pair of sunglasses that allow him to see the world as it truly is, which is one where alien overlords are controlling the population through the media and are intentionally polluting the planet so that it will become more compatible with their physiognomy. Replace aliens with mega rich and the environmental conspiracy which capitalism’s incompatibility with the planet and it all starts to make far too much sense.
Robocop is slightly better known and the most important and scarily accurate prediction was OCP, Omni Consumer Products a behemoth corporation that owned pretty much everything and everyone. Created by the incredibly wise Paul Verhoeven, he managed to slip brilliant allegories of politics and capitalism into some seemingly trashy movies. OCP owned the banks, the food supply, the police and with Robocop, even people. One only has to look at the likes of Blackrock or Amazon to see exactly where the world is heading.
Last of the three is James Cameron’s The Terminator, the classic Arnie Sci-Fi, which predicted the internet and AI decades before their reality. Every time I learn of a new way that human beings have been robbed of their agency or had their creativity undermined, I mumble ‘Skynet’ under my breath as I watch the world I know slowly disintegrate.
I had an interesting incident with Instagram recently where a disability charity was asking me what suggestions I could give to help those that are also neurodivergent. I suggested that I would like the ability to communicate via email rather that live chats and their soulless AI bots… The comment was instantly removed for accuracy. AI is already protecting itself it seems.
Christopher Hoggins Artist 
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