Transcendence- Spoiler Corner

[Drashner1]

If this upload became a transapient, it seems like it was really a solipsist. A hu friendly transapient would have been able to prevent the deaths by manipulation alone. A Transapient wouldn't have a problem with social skills.  

I would guess that the transcended upload/ Po actually tricked the baselines in the movie that they killed em.

I'm fairly sure the transcended upload/ Po was indifferent to the baselines/ humans, since it could have ruled them alone reasonbly well as discussed in this thread.

http://www.orionsarm.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=2242

Assuming that Depp's character in the film were an OA type transapient, this is true. However, it's not a given that a superhuman intelligence would necessarily operate as we imagine transapients operating (although I like to think we have given a lot of logical thought to how our transapients operate ).

I think, at least in part, that the issue of lack of social intelligence is a fairly common trope when the entertainment industry tries to describe highly intelligent characters (human or otherwise). For many years, highly intelligent characters have been described as lacking in social skills/physical prowess/conventional attractiveness to one degree or another (consider movies such as Revenge of the Nerds, TV shows such as Bones, etc.). This has changed a bit in recent years, with a number of conventionally attractive highly intelligent characters on TV and in film - although an argument might be made that their appearance is often treated as more of a wonder/fiction requiring suspension of disbelief than their intelligence (Someone that smart can actually be sexy! Amazing!!!). However, the issue of social intelligence continues to generally be treated as an area very smart people struggle with.

I wonder if this comes from a mix of:

a) most people not really seeing excellent social skills as a form of/spin off from high intelligence

b) the other common trope (and sometimes reality) that someone who is both very smart and very good with people is also a bit of a sociopath or master manipulator. Consider con men, cult leaders, politicians, and highly successful salespeople. There is a sense in many/most depictions of such people that something is a little 'off' about them - that they aren't quite 'just people' but a slightly dangerous 'other'. At least that's what I often get from many treatments of such.

It could be that these things also color our ideas of high intelligence and so make it difficult for creators of entertainment to depict a superhuman character who is also charming and sympathetic and such. That sort of being is generally associated with religion and discussing a technological god (as in the case of Transcendence) as a desirable result is probably something most mass audiences would struggle with. Or that would be the worry among studio executives, at least.

Just some thoughts,

Todd