On Monday night I managed to catch the first in this series of films by Adam Curtis, looking into the impact of computers on our society. This first episode looked at the russian philosopher Ayn Rand and how her ideology would go on to influenced the computer reliant social and economic system which economists of the 90's thought would lead to a more stable, self-regulating market creating infinite good times for all (yay!).
While deeply interesting I freely admit that the intellectual clout of the subject matter did leave me with a headache at times, pondering terms such as "logical positivism" and "planetary consciousness" but the way in which Curtis covers the subject, with dizzyingly quick cuts and clever use of music and archive footage, you never failed to engage. I also enjoyed the footage of Loren and Rachel Carpenter's Pong experiment where thousands of participants were packed into a dark barn with a giant screen showing the classic video game. Participants were also handed a paddle with a red side and a green side. Using these they had to work together with their side of the barn to control the onscreen paddle. I think the results really told us something about human nature and our ability to form a subconscious consensus .
The program is still available on iplayer at the moment so I recommend giving it a go.
Ayn Rand
One of the Carpenter's later but very similar experiments
