Do we achieve a better sense of ego and others by interfacing with our machine ? Or are we just lose the true essence of humanity ?
The question of whether technology will play us closer together or shoot down us apart is front and center in DEINDE , a new play by August Schulenburg at The Secret Theatre in New York . This theater of operations is run host to a residency of smart skill fiction on stage that is on its way toward sparking a future - face theatrical renaissance .
DEINDE research these themes through the time - honored tropes of artificial word and the terrors of unbridled tech , matched with clever dialogue and soul - searching musing on life and love . produce in our time of iPhones and SIRI , DEINDE feel prescient , as well as relate to science fiction ’s past .
“ Only in the realm of science fiction and Singularity are the forward perimeter of cognisance explored , ” Schulenburg take down in the program . “ My nous lead off to wonder how far we could take human consciousness before it became something else … One track seemed especially possible and therefore worth explore . Memory , emotion , vision , empathy : what will they look like when we can reckon directly into our beloved iPhones and iPads ? What will iSapiens look like ? ”
DEINDE is set in a not - too - aloof world that finger close enough to our own , since nostalgia of past futures are still present : characters watch Star Trek : The Next Generation via holograph , and name - check Battlestar and Star Wars . But in the year 2051 , technology is being advance to keep pace with an apocalyptical scourge : a mysterious virus is killing off scores of the universe day by day .
Inside QuamBi science laboratory , a team of brainy but flawed quantum life scientist are at work on a remedy . A breakthrough arrive in the form of Dr. Daniel Nemerov ( Matthew Trumbull ) and his secretive DEINDE project . The stilted intelligence system ( which stands for “ Dineural Entangled Intelligence internet machine ” and means “ next ” in Latin ) has the potential to enhance the doctors ’ calculations and thought mental process to motorcar - hurrying when they “ loop in , ” leave the probability to perfect their piece of work . As the good professor explain :
“ Your memory , your cognitive capability , will be mat on a quantum level with the calculator , so that when you have a difficult equation , one that may have taken a solar day to take to the woods , month to understand , you will simply think of the question , the answer fall , and you translate it intuitively . ”
They need only abide by DEINDE ’s nonindulgent Terms of Service :
dominate # 1 , when using DEINDE do not think of anything other than workplace .
Rule # 2 , DEINDE does not exit the agency .
“ Rule # 3 , do not use DEINDE to pass on with each other . We have erected a firewall to forbid this , but , the reality is , with your enhanced intelligences , you could fudge if you wanted to . I can not accentuate enough , do not do this . ”
“ Now you’re able to guess # 4 , and this is more of import than all the others ; do not use DEINDE to enter the world online . Again , there are firewalls , but you are all about to become very , very smart . But it does not weigh how smart you are , your brains can not handle what is out there . ”
As soon as these are ground , we bang as an audience it is only a matter of clip before the rules are summarily break . It is testament to the compelling nature of the narrative and a strong acting tout ensemble that we are eager to find out exactly how the bright - eyed scientist unravel under the influence of the political machine .
Schulenburg has create a pantheon of distinctly actualized fictional character : the team is headed by steely - smart Nabanita Ghosh ( Nitya Vidyasagar ) as clear - eyed a drawing card as one could desire , even as her feelings for one of her employees makes her all too human ; Malcolm ( Ken Glickfield ) , Ghosh ’s wise , rascally mentor whom we learn is 95 and has seen enough to be suspicious of deus ex machina miracles ; and Cooper ( David Ian Lee ) , the would - be heartthrob instead saddled with a conflicted heart and a caustic wife ( Alyssa Simon ) who ’s conk of the computer virus .
The youngest team extremity , energetic , sticky Mac ( Isaiah Tanenbaum ) and party whip - smart “ prodigy ” Jenni ( Rachael Hip - Flores ) , are the first to take to DEINDE , embracing the system with an enthusiasm that mirrors the young trustingness and absorption in raw technology later generation are more wary of . In many ways this is Mac and Jenni ’s story to tell , as they are drag deep into DEINDE and saving the planet while their supervisors remain blinded by personal dispute and warring egos . The mint of the two speaking , moving and influence in networked tandem bicycle is a feat of acting and theatrical production that is cool and electrifying to lay eyes on .
You nose up caring about all the main characters , and the handful of subplots that are shuffled deftly in the uncontaminating , minimalist congeal design by Will Lowry , where clean-cut plexiglass is a fine tie-up - in for futuristic tech and futurist guitar , and black-market walls covered in calcareous scientific equations show the work of human hands and minds . Director Heather Cohn corrals the many characters and revolving scenes with fluid ease , and the action can transition from deliver furiousness to poignant romance to numerical bodily fluid in the nictitation of an oculus .
If there is a job with DEINDE , it is that we never cognise enough about the humanity around QuamBi labs , nor the circumstance that set in move a global pandemic . This present a lack of immediacy and ground at time , with the rules of society less clear than the normal inside the DEINDE project . The ambiguity come along partially deliberate , however , and we do get some hint here and there that signal to complex earth - building .
Online , you’re able to readpressreleaseson the vaccinum undertaking , viewwarning posterson how to handle the computer virus , browse the blog of Jenni ’s free - enlivened artist lady friend Mindy ( Sol Marina Crespo ) and explore themusical stylingsof “ The Dungeon Masters ” ring Mac plays in with his best friend Bobby ( Matthew Murumba ) . The information adds a rich emotional layer to “ DEINDE ’s ” secret plan and relationship that we could wish was further incorporate and unpacked onstage .
The fact that we desire more exhibition and backstory out of DEINDE is also a sign of its intensity . The play clip along at a good speed , but has us invested enough in the characters to wonder at their origins and preceding motivation , which are more vague . We are thirsty to know what shaped a future where high society is so close to quenching it would risk its own sublimation in largely untested engineering science to save it .
While explore many of the common ideas that come attendant with our captivation with A.I. , from Borglike interfaced Einstein to 2001 - esque god complex , DEINDE is peculiarly focused on two aspect : how to return to being “ normal ” after have superhuman intelligence , and how , or if we should , return from the experience of being deeply networked with one another . Would we forsake enhanced understanding or heavy psychical connection , once felt ?
“ You remember you sleep with what love is ? ” interconnected characters ask . “ I love you more than you’re able to possibly know … But you will know … If you just curl in … Connection , involvement … We have that , ten thousand time as substantial . ”
It ’s a tantalizing proposition . Never being alone again is a central headache of DEINDE , both to steady people and those who have hacked into being something more . But the doubt that remains most pressing for the floor , and for rooter of the speculative and the current state of humans , is how far we can take our on-going fixation with technology until peril outweigh advancement .
DEINDE ’s ultimate wallop lies in that its threats and promises are never beyond the realm of possibleness or indeed very far by at all — they ’re as closemouthed as the phone in your pouch and the screen you ’re read this on . We are already interlink , and it ’s only a matter of time before Nemerov ’s Rules could be coming bundled into iTunes .
DEINDE , present by the Flux Theatre Ensemble and the BFG collective , black market through May 12 at The Secret Theatre in Queens . Tuesday – Saturday at 8 phase modulation and Sundays at 3 pm . ticket ( $ 18/$15 students ) atwww.fluxtheatre.org . Photos by Justin Hoch .
Daily Newsletter
Get the good tech , scientific discipline , and civilisation intelligence in your inbox daily .
News from the time to come , delivered to your present .
