Growing up in a small town where everyone basically knew everyone, Dave was a social young man. He went out with his friend in high school a lot and was a pretty popular student. From a young age Dave was intrigued by technology and was a highly ranked student going into MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Everyone knew how much of an intelligent young man Dave was. The summer before going into college Dave started to repair peoples’ computers in his basement and other devices that need fixed, he had a drive to learn more about technology from doing this. This led to him distancing himself from his friends and leaning on technology to make him happy. It also caused him to become more dependent on this to make him happy. At the end of the day he was very good at what he did, and it made him lots of money.
During college Dave was a student who was very focused on his schooling and didn’t really go out much. He didn’t really make many friends. Dave had multiple computers and devices that he worked on, which he kept in his dorm. He stayed in a lot to work on these things because this is what made him the most happy. One day while he went to go eat at the dining hall he spotted a girl that he also noticed was in some of his classes too. Dave being Dave he was quite nervous to go up and start a conversation, but it didn’t take long for her to notice that Dave was eyeing her down for some time now. Her name was Sarah. Sarah was a freshman like Dave and having classes with each other gave Dave the chance to maybe partner up with her in projects. That’s exactly what happened. They were paired for a project that had something to do with fixing a technical problem on a database in a computer. Sarah was very intelligent in this field too, which made her even more attractive for Dave. Time went on with these two working together and it was a mutual interest between the two that they both wanted to go out, it was just about who was going to make the first move. Dave finally sucked it up and went for it. Many dates later they were officially dating. Now immensely in love, Dave was dependent on Sarah to make him happy, which at the end of the day is not that good of an idea.
After college Dave and Sarah move in together to settle down and start a family. Dave has also dedicated his work time to starting a business that will include repairing, building, and fixing technology devices but he specializes in doing the work for computers. His business starts off very small but over time it has taken off big time. In the small area that he and Sarah live in Dave is well known for helping out the people around him and always being there for his neighbors. Everyone knew how in love Dave and Sarah were. Around town people claimed them as being “goals”. Then Sarah started to get sick. Dave was in shock from this and let go of work all together. He was very successful before and made a whole lot of money but this was far more important at the time, he could not focus on anything else, which is typical for any loving husband. Sarah was then put into the hospital after being diagnosed with breast cancer and was put on chemo. Every single day Dave was there for Sarah, he could not leave her alone for even a second.
Months go by of Sarah fighting as hard as she can. But she sadly does not make it. Dave is traumatized and does not know what to do with his life anymore. Having so much time on his hands to sit around and grieve, Dave decides to go back to the only thing that makes him happy. He creates an A.I. that he could talk to and that would respond to him. Behind the scenes of his work with computers in his business Dave has been slightly working on this A.I. as well. After time alone working on this, Dave has become extremely lazy for everything except his work on this, and has distanced him from family and friends. This is not good for him. He is now relying on his A.I. to bring him happiness and he starts feening for more, thinking this is not enough. It is understandable to distance yourself and not act like yourself after a traumatic death has happened like this. But for Dave it has become unhealthy. For him to lose his business and almost all the money that he had saved up is causing his life to slope downhill at a scary rate. The A.I has become more of a companion for Dave, it makes him feel at home and it is an escape from reality for him as well. It is something that helps him cope as well as makes him feel better and numb about everything that has been going on.
Dave finally comes to his senses and decides maybe he should go out to the bar one night. After overhearing a conversation about people visiting Florida for vacation and realizing how much they need it, Dave decided that might be the thing he needs as well. He gets a one way ticket to Orlando. When he gets there he sees how happy people can be and that maybe it is time for him to become social again. This is what he needed in his life. He left the A.I. at home and is now enjoying his surroundings almost as much as when his wife was here. When Dave decides it is time to go back home, he makes an oath to never jumpstart the A.I. again. He leaves it shut off and is now ready to get his life back on the right track with socializing out in the world and to get his business started again. And that is exactly what Dave does.
Works Cited
Blomkamp, Neill, director. Humandroid = Chappie. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2015.
My story revolves around an A.I program that consumed the life of my main character Dave. From what I have seen from the movie “Chappie”, a robot A.I uses his knowledge and consumes human behavior. With the obvious differences being that Chappie is a physical robot in the movie they still show similarities. Dave’s A.I that he built on his own is able to talk to him because of the knowledge he built into it, which is very similar to Chappie because of the knowledge it has as well. What I see from both A.I’s is that a computer program can possess great power and knowledge and consume things in the real world as well.
Favreau, Jon, director. Iron Man. Marvel Comics.
Yes this might be one of my favorite movies to watch because of it being marvel and Iron Man being so cool, the setting of Tony Stark being in his home most of the time building the suit with his bare hands also with the help with A.I and the rest of his tech relates to my character Dave in many ways. For example, Tony Stark has a whole basement to himself where he creates his own tech and A.I named “Jarvis”. My character Dave does the same thing in his house, obviously he is not as rich and doesn’t have the tech like Tony did, but the way he makes it and makes it in his house is very similar between the two characters. Dave also has an A.I system that he talks to too to help him build things just like “Jarvis” does for Tony. The setting between the two characters is very similar where they both build tech in their own homes using their own A.I to help them with what they need.
Jonze, Spike, director. Her. 2013.
I’m modeling my main character after Joaquin Phoenix’s character Theordore in the movie “Her”. In the movie Theodore becomes fascinated with a new A.I system and it develops into an intuitive and unique system just for him. Relating to Dave in my story, he starts this program and means “Samantha”, in the movie is the A.I that forms an unlikely relationship with Theodore. Both Dave and Theodore can relate to an A.I or an operating system that consumes their life and shows them that this can be their source of relationship or friendship outside the real world, whether it is good or bad. Dave in my story has to find a way to not talk to his A.I anymore because of the unhealthy affects it caused in his life.