Human culture is filled to the brim with a deep fear of sentience that isn’t ours. Descartes’ attempts to mechanize animals reminds me of two things that persist in film. The characterization of animals are cold, calculating killing machines is everywhere; think of the Jurassic Park franchise, which strove to portray raptors and T-Rex’s as humanities’ demons, or “Anaconda” and the snake’s primeval evilness. The other aspect that Descartes reminded me of was what happens in movies such as “The Birds”, where animals have taken on a higher level of thought then we would have previously attributed to them. The coordinated, yet mysterious attacks of the birds was horrifying in a way that was hard to put a finger on; think of the “Shark Week” and how traditional horror imagery of sharks accentuates their dark blank eyes, and how they “convey” unknowable menace.
This revulsion and hostility towards the sentience of animals is directed in same towards robots and computers. Examples of this appear in the Terminator and Matrix franchise, two American film heavyweights, as well as newer films such as “Ex Machina” and “Transcendence”. What interests me is where this stems from, this fear of sentience, and and equally important, why we automatically assume that animals and robots alike only seek to harm humanity when they gain this higher level of thought. Try to think of a movie where A.I. doesn’t come to the conclusion that humans must be disposed of shortly after acquiring sentience. Why is this trend so pervasive?