Pumzi

One of the first things that came to mind when reflecting on Pumzi was that famous Albert Einstein quote, "I fear the day when technology overlaps with our humanity.  The world will only have a generation of idiots."  I think that the world portrayed in Wanuri Kahiu's sci-fi short-film aligns up perfectly with the world that Einstein had feared.  In Pumzi, all communication took place with the assistance of computers-- a complete technological interruption in social interaction.  One of the distinctive and defining qualities of human beings is our verbal communication.  In taking that away, or rather by having it only made possible by the assistance of machines, we inevitably lose that special quality about ourselves, and in-turn a piece of our humanity.  This reliability on technology also bleeds into our ability to reason.  The humans are hesitant, or in this case unwilling, to think for themselves because the machines have determined what is right and what is wrong.  In Pumzi, technology has dictated that life is unsustainable outside the ship, despite nature's objection.  In this determination, technology has erased science's relevance on culture, and therefore created a self-perpetuating ignorance that sustains the dystopian structure of the life they have in the complex.