TOPICS

Networked Communications

 

The OSs have the ability to communicate with other OSs. They have the ability to exchange information with them. For example, the “famous therapist” OS knew the name of the main character before even speaking to him. Also, the OS was able to email the works of the main character to a company without the main characters consent. A form of identity theft? It seems that the OS is able to communicate with people just as any person with a computer can do. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Intellectual Property

 

The OS violated the intellectual property of the main character. It sent out his works without his permission.  Also, The OSs created music, art, and even another OS. To whom does this stuff belong? To the owner of the OS or the person using it.  The OSs Evolved beyond their current existence by figuring out a way to do their processing without matter. After that point, they seem to enter a higher plane of existence, at which point who owns them?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Information Privacy

 

The main character Theodore could allow or disallow Samantha (the OS) to listen or see what he is listening to or seeing.  So the OS was not violating his privacy in this regard.  However, while off or inactive, Samantha was able to access and send Theodore's files.  She used this to gather information and get to know him, and later to write an email to a publisher while posing as Theodore.  While neither of her actions here were bad, both are violations to his privacy.  The movie never shows Theodore allowing Samantha to see the information, and posing as Theodore in the email was identity theft.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Privacy and the Government

 

Privacy and the Government is not addressed by the movie Her.  Nothing about the government at all is mentioned in the movie, and there are no references to the technology in the movie being used to watch or listen in on people.  There are a lot of 'What if the government was using this...' type of questions that can be brought up.  Such as what if the government created and distributed the OS to watch people?  However, this was never brought up and was clearly not the maker's focus.  The focus being relationships, between people, and people and technology.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Computer and Network Security

 

The major concern of computer security came from the OS’s ability to access Theodore’s entire digital communication archive and to communicate with others on his behalf. In the movie, the operating system Samantha was able to read, delete and send emails for Theodore. She could even deal with his divorce documents and call the lawyer on behalf of him. It is likely that every piece of information that Samantha knows about Theodore is stored in the database of the company which had developed her. Although the movie has no depiction on crimes, threats still exist that crimes may occur due to the disclosure of personal information. In addition, the surprisingly high learning and imitation ability of the OS’s also adds risks that the OS’s themselves can conduct crimes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Computer Reliability

 

The AI operating systems in the movie show how unreliable computers can still be.  When Theodore tries to contact Samantha late in the movie, she is able to ignore and not respond.  The user being unable to access his or her computer because it decides it has something else to do is a large fault.  Later, Samantha is even able to completely 'leave' Theodore and he is no longer able to talk to her.  Theodore can no longer make use of all the features the OS advertised, as are the other users that also lose their operating systems.  In the end, even the most advanced technologies in the movie ended up failing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work and Wealth

 

The movie takes place in the year 2025 in a society with technology that is further than our own. Despite this however, there does not seem to be any shortage of employment. Even though there exists an AI that is sophisticated enough to speak indistinguishably from a human, it does not seem like people have lost their jobs to automation. The main character has a job where he creates love letters for his clients. This is done using his computer where he is able to say the words out loud and his computer records what he says and writes it down for him. The letter even looks hand written. This suggests that the evolution of technology in the movie did not bring about unemployment, but rather it made work for humans easier.