8. In Time

                Of all the ways I’ve looked at of modifying humans I think the most interesting, and least likely to happen is the technology of In Time. In this universe people stop aging once they’re 25. On their 25^th birthday a clock on their arm starts ticking down from 10 years. When your clock hits all zeros, you die. Time has replaced money as currency. That’s the only way to live past that decade. Now you are literally working to keep your health, and paying with your health to get anything.

                What this has also done is create a social divide. The poor live very short lives because they can never get much time to extend their clocks. The rich are able to live basically forever. They’ve built up millennia of time. They’re gaining time faster than they can use it.

                This brings up the big question of the film. Should people be allowed to live forever? More than any other system this one keeps you the most human. The only thing that has changed really is the aging process. If you’ve earned the right to live forever by hard work and gaining that time should you keep it? We see this in the beginning as Henry, a man with centuries of time decides he’s lived long enough and gives all his time to Will, who lives in the ghetto. Will then uses that time to try to make things right and becomes basically a time-bandit version of Robin Hood.

Henry’s speech to Will (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDCWEJK5r6k) sums up the problem with this new society. “For a few to be immortal, many must die.” Humans have evolved to the point that very few actually care about others, they’ve lost that part of themselves. All they care about now is themselves. Which is why the few and the privileged have built barriers to keep the meek and poor out. This way the poor dies so they don’t take up precious space.

Overpopulation really does threaten to be a large problem, not just in this movie, but also in real life. The population may be growing, but the world itself isn’t. The world can only sustain so many people. That is the problem with immortality. You may be immortal, but resources aren’t. Also, as Henry says, eventually you’ve just seen it all and are ready to die. It’s something that’s inevitable.

Works cited

movieclips "In Time #4 Movie CLIP - Cost of Living (2011) HD" Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 22 Nov. 2011. 

Niccol, Andrew, dir. In Time. CD-ROM.