

Elysium’s Director Thinks His Hellish Paradise Is Our Future - dylandrop
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/07/blomkamp-elysium/

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gnosis
Way back in 1984 (starting with _Neuromancer_ ), William Gibson wrote about an
orbiting space station owned by the super-rich.[1]

(WARNING: Spoilers below)

 _" Tessier-Ashpool is a fictional family appearing in William Gibson's Sprawl
trilogy novels. The family owns Freeside, a space station shaped like a
spindle Bernal sphere constructed in high orbit. The family resides in the
Villa Straylight, which occupies one end of the spindle._

 _The family is organized and run as a corporation, Tessier-Ashpool S.A..
Family members are kept under cryogenic stasis and thawed out periodically so
that governance of the family is cycled between members. According to "orbital
law" they are legally dead while cryogenically preserved._

...

 _The Tessier-Ashpools were founded with the marriage of scions of two
powerful families: Marie-France Tessier, who was Swiss and John Harness
Ashpool, an Australian who inherited a Melbourne engineering company. After
the two were married, Ashpool began construction of Freeside in high orbit due
to the relatively relaxed laws governing construction._

 _The family became extremely successful financially, developing the attached
space station, sponsoring human colonization of space, and acquiring a number
of other firms which subsequently flourished._

...

 _However, following the death of Marie-France, the family became extremely
reclusive. Family members, including Ashpool, tended to place themselves in
cryogenic sleep. At any one given time, only one or two of the children would
be awake. They are also known for cloning their own assassins, "vat-grown"
ninja who follow their orders without question._

...

 _By the time of Neuromancer the family has become extremely degenerate and
dysfunctional. The patriarch Ashpool spends almost all of his time in
cryogenic stasis. A dissolute alcoholic and heavy drug user, when he is
awakened for the final time he has sex with and subsequently murders a clone
of his daughter prior to committing suicide. "_

[1] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tessier_Ashpool](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tessier_Ashpool)

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cryptoz
The future as described in 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson I think is more
likely, perhaps scarier even, and taken to levels beyond Elysium (though don't
get me wrong, I'm very excited for Elysium).

2312 is a future where many generations of people have lived on colonies on
Mercury, Venus, Mars, hollowed-out asteroids ("terraria"), the outer moons.
The spacers live in a new paradigm, not a rich paradise like Elysium, but a
very pleasant, long and happy life, while those who inhabit the Earth live in
a warring, diseased, overpopulated and climate-change-disaster struck Earth.

I think the crowd here would like this book. You should read it.

~~~
jgh
I tried getting into it, but found it a little on the slow side. Perhaps it
was because I had just read Leviathan Wakes directly before it, which is a lot
more fast-paced and similarly covers human colonization of the inner solar
system and asteroid belt (aka "Belters")

~~~
cryptoz
Reading the Mars Trilogy first is probably a good idea, because it sets the
pace: the hard science fiction nature of these books means you get long
technical descriptions and character analysis. It's awesome, I think, but you
definitely have to get in the right zone.

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sp332
In case you missed it, like I almost did: there is a little "Page 2" link way
at the bottom. [http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/07/blomkamp-
elysium/2/](http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/07/blomkamp-elysium/2/)

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riggins
a) District 9 was a great movie both as entertainment and as something to
think about

b) having grown up in South Africa, Blomkamp may have some unique insights
about human nature.

it's certainly interesting to contemplate what's going to happen.

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eps
I don't really care for the story line, but _finally_ somebody worked a high-
quality render of a full-scale rotating habitat into a movie! Always wanted to
see how that might look since _Rendezvous with Rama_ and Hamilton's books.

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namespace
In a parallel, HG Wells too imagined a society with two diverged class of
human species. One serves as the prey and other as predator.

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scotty79
I highly recomend
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beggars_in_Spain](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beggars_in_Spain)

You can find there rich and poor, genetic modifications only rich can afford,
one (lack of the need to sleep) so special that it reshapes world. You can
find there universal income as payment for voting. You can find philosophy of
exchange through voluntary mutually beneficial contracts promoted by such
influential inventor that it raises to the same eminence buddism has. Awesome
read.

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loceng
If current systems and economics stayed the way they are, then I imagine that
it has a higher probability of being true. I foresee those economic structures
shifting / changing though.

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fireflash38
Elysium doesn't sound too different from the book Oryx and Crake by Margaret
Atwood. They both do sound like very possible futures for the human race.

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vineel
The picture in the article is confusing me. What's going on with his hand?

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znowi
Please, NO SPOILERS! A lot of people haven't seen it yet :)

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untothebreach
I don't think it's out yet?

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nephronim
Still looking forward to the movie.

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dmead
how long until science fiction set in the slums of south africa gets
recognized for being formulaic?

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cobrausn
The slums in the movie are supposed to be Los Angeles, circa 2154.

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evro
I believe it was a reference to the director's previous movie, District 9,
which was set in the slums of South Africa.

~~~
sp332
And his next film _Chappie_ , "a $60 million contemporary sci-fi movie due to
begin shooting in Johannesburg in September" according to the article.

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crusso
The trailer looks like an OWS supporter took every 1 percenter and anti-
immigration trope in the book, added a bunch of explosions and called it a
"film".

I really hope the actual movie is more nuanced in the politics it looks like
it's trying to shove down our throats.

~~~
wetmore
Your comment makes it quite clear you haven't actually _read_ the article.

> The director finds it unfortunate that observers are already drawing
> parallels between Elysium and the Occupy movement, a phenomenon that he says
> wasn’t even a consideration. Blomkamp identifies as neither liberal nor
> conservative, which doesn’t stop people from ascribing all sorts of agendas
> to him and his films.

and

> But Blomkamp insists Elysium isn’t some sort of filmic Paul Krugman op-ed
> piece. It’s important for him that his movies grapple with things that
> matter, in this case economic disparity, immigration, health care, corporate
> greed. But he disdains prescription-happy “message” movies—that’s what
> documentaries are for, he says—and intends Elysium to be first and foremost
> a mass-appeal, summer popcorn flick. Allegory, satire, and dark humor
> interest him; providing pat answers to society’s woes does not. “Anybody who
> thinks they can change the world by making films,” he says, “is sorely
> mistaken.”

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crusso
_Your comment makes it quite clear you haven 't actually _read_ the article._

No, it makes it quite clear that I didn't just nod my head and agree with
whatever came out of his mouth.

