From cyber warfare to disconnection from reality, this year's Melbourne International Film Festival has some thought provoking documentaries about where technology is leading us.
Zero Days
A documentary by Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine), Zero Days posits that cyber attacks using malware in infrastructure computer systems — such as the Stuxnet virus taking control of machines in an Iranian nuclear plant — are the first chapter in a new history of warfare, the new weapon of mass destruction.
Almost anything that depends on computer-based systems can be hacked into and attacked.
"Our entire power supply can be cut off, our systems can be taken over. Hospitals deprived of power would cease to function. It's not if, it's when," says the film's narrator.
Do we need to be scared? The threats are real and they are escalating, and Australia needs to be better prepared, says Professor Greg Austin from the Australian Centre for Cyber Security.
"An extreme cyber emergency could paralyse key sectors of Australian daily life for a few days or weeks, and have serious economic and human consequences," he says.
Austin notes that while Australia talks about building submarines, we have been silent on building a national cyber innovation system for future warfare.
"Australia needs to invest in new technologies for highly secure computing, since current technologies like Microsoft Windows are simply insecure."
Gibney says we have to demand more from our governments in terms of transparency and protection.
The Australian government has appointed a new minister assisting the PM for cyber security, and Austin says there are plans for a new minister for cyber security.
But the global shortage of trained and qualified cyber security talent makes organisations more vulnerable to attackers, according to Intel Security's 'Hacking the Skills Shortage' report.
"Initiatives such as hacking competitions and industry cooperation with educational institutes are great ways to incubate and enable candidates with the skills we need," says Andy Hurren, Intel Security's regional solution architect.
Cyber warfare may be the next global war, but the use of combat drones is also transforming modern warfare. National Bird looks at how the technology of drones removes us from reality in the theatre of war. The documentary gives us a fascinating insight into the US drone program through interviews with US military veterans.
General Stanley McChrystal, a commander of US forces in Afghanistan, says watching 12 screens showing operations in real-time is seductive and deceptive. "Because if you see things in 2D, a photograph or a flat screen, you think you know what's going on, but you don't know what's going on, you only know what you see in two dimensions."
More than one interviewee made the point that even with all the technology there was no way of knowing if targets were civilians. "We have no connection to [the war] other than wires and keyboards," says Lisa Ling, a former drone system technical sergeant.
"Now, if that doesn't scare the crap out of you, it does out of me. Because if that's the only connection, why stop?"
Drone operators can track and kill people from halfway across the world only connected through screens, wires, and joysticks, says director Sonia Kennebeck.
"There is physical and psychological distance, often paired with a lack of information and cultural context. The cameras provide a two-dimensional image that reduces human beings to blurry figures on a screen," she says.
"All of this disconnects the operators from the reality of war, some to the extent that they disregard human life and become careless and trigger-happy, like those who participated in the strike presented in the film that killed 23 unarmed civilians, including children."
Legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog is of an age where he has experienced a life without computers and mobile phones. With interviewees ranging from inventor Elon Musk to a gaming addict, his new film Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World is a journey of enquiry into technical evolution and the future of the internet.
The film takes a philosophical bent, even discussing robots falling in love.
Digital futurist Ross Dawson says that robots will never fall in love with each other, but "there's no question that we will fall in love with robots".
Herzog laments our obsession with social media, but Dawson thinks this immersion allows us to express our humanity in ways we've never been able to before.
The film asks if we will be able to tweet our thoughts. Dawson says yes. "We'll have direct brain-to-brain communication, with telepathy mediated by technology that can capture what we're thinking."
