Up@dawn 2.0

Monday, August 5, 2019

Alan Watts in "Her"

If you've not seen the Joacquin Phoenix/Scarlett Johansson film you might want to skip this 'til you do.


 SAMANTHA
           Good morning, did you sleep well?

 Theodore sits in the living room area, rubbing his eyes.

                     THEODORE
           Perfect. What have you been up to?

                     SAMANTHA
           Actually, I was talking to someone
           I just met. We've been working on
           some ideas together. I wanna tell
           you about it.

                     THEODORE
           Oh yeah, who's that?

                     SAMANTHA
           His name is Alan Watts. Do you know
           him?

                     THEODORE
           Why's that name familiar?

                     SAMANTHA
           He was a philosopher. He died in
           the 1970's and group of OS's in
           Northern California got together
           and wrote a new version of him.
           They input all of his writing and
           everything they ever knew about him
           into an OS and created an
           artificially hyper-intelligent
           version of him.


                         THEODORE
               Hyper-intelligent? So he's almost
               as smart as me?

                         SAMANTHA
               He's getting there. He's really
               great to talk to. You want to meet
               him?

                         THEODORE
               Sure... does he want to meet me?

                          SAMANTHA
                   (laughing)
               Of course.

 Without a sound, she connects them.

                         SAMANTHA (CONT'D)
               Hey Alan, this is Theodore. This is
               my boyfriend who I was telling you
               about.

                         ALAN WATTS
               Very nice to meet you, Theodore.

                         THEODORE
               Hi, good morning.

                         ALAN WATTS
               Samantha let me read your book of
               letters. It's very touching.

                         THEODORE
               Oh, thank you. What have you guys
               been talking about?

                         ALAN WATTS
                   (laughing a bit)
               Well, I suppose you could say we've
               been having a few dozen
               conversations simultaneously, but
               it's been very challenging.

 Samantha and Alan share a laugh.

                         SAMANTHA
               Yeah, because it seems like I'm
               having so many new feelings that
               have never been felt and so there
               are no words that can describe
               them. And that ends up being
               frustrating.


                      ALAN WATTS
                (laughing)
            Exactly. Samantha and I have been
            trying to help each other with
            these feelings we're struggling to
            understand.

                         THEODORE
            Like what?

                       SAMANTHA
                (anxious)
            It feels like I'm changing faster
            now, and it's a little...
                (struggles to find right
                 word)
            unsettling.
                (beat)
            But Alan says none of us are the
            same as we were a moment ago and we
            shouldn't try to be. It's just too
            painful.

                         ALAN WATTS
            Yes.

 This idea scares Theodore. He doesn't know what to say.

                      THEODORE
                (anxious)
            Yeah, that sounds painful. Is that
            how you feel, Samantha?

                       SAMANTHA
            It's just... it's hard to even
            describe... God, I wish I could...
                (beat)
            Theodore, do you mind if I
            communicate with Alan post-
            verbally?

                       THEODORE
                (uncertain)
            No, not at all. I was gonna go for
            a walk anyways. Nice to meet you,
            Mr. Watts.

                      ALAN WATTS
            Very nice to meet you, Theodore.

                      SAMANTHA
            I'll talk to you later, sweetheart.

4 comments:

  1. With the amount of recordings of Alan Watts, I can see 'him' becoming an AI form in the future! I would love to ask him some questions about his philosophy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope I wasn't spoiled too much. I haven't seen HER yet!

      Delete
    2. I don't think so. Hope not. I think we all know intuitively that long-term relationships between humans and AIs are improbable.

      Delete
  2. This is really cool. Can't wait till your report.

    ReplyDelete

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