In the first half of his documentary, Adam Curtis looked at the relationship between mankind and the machines that we had created, how we had loaded them with sentience and granted them social omnipotence. In the first episode, we used computers as a means to create social stability, assuming that they would take care of the economy whilst we enjoyed ourselves as we wished. The second episode, meanwhile, looked at the comparison between ecology and cybernetics and how ecologists had worked under the assumption that nature, like electronic systems, was self-stabilising, able to support itself and right any wrongs without any human intervention. Both episodes looked at how we treated computers and technology outside of ourselves, how we gave them false power and assumed that everything would take care of itself. We made the computer a deity of the modern age.
In the closing part of All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace, Curtis directs his gaze on the human behind the technology. ‘The Monkey in the Machine and the Machine in the Monkey’ looks at the human machine and how the discovery of the selfish gene could have brought us closer than ever to the machines with which we surround ourselves. The episode centres in and around Africa and how various discoveries and social events sparked a change in the way we think about ourselves. English biologist William Hamilton was responsible for catalysing that change, founding the selfish gene theory. Whilst on a research trip, he noticed a colony of ants that were being attacked by a neighbouring colony. He noticed that a number of defending ants made their way into the attacking insects, sacrificing their lives for the good of the colony. Hamilton wanted to know why some ants would willingly give up their lives for others and if this behaviour was present in the human race. Leaving his trip, he made his way to Waterloo station, studying the humans there for hours to detect patterns in their behaviour. After hours and months of studying, he came to the conclusion that most of the humans’ behaviours were due to the structure of their genes and that in fact, humans were only machines that were important for carrying genes. In Hamilton’s mind, it was logical for a gene to sacrifice a human if it meant that a copy of the gene elsewhere would prosper. In the case of the ants, if it meant saving the genes of the other members of the colony, it made sense for a few to sacrifice themselves.
Curtis becomes increasingly consumed with acts of altruism, wondering if, in a world in which we are all lead by the selfish gene, can altruism really exist? If we are really machines led by our genes, can we really do anything to positively alter the people and world around us? Curtis then expands his gaze to other events in Africa during the same time. In Rwanda, civil war had been brewing for some time. Due to the false claims of a Western-produced documentary, two Rwanda tribes were pitted against one another. The film explained that the Tutsi tribe were a noble race, having come from Egypt whereas the neighbouring Hutus were a peasant race. In fact, both groups were racially identical, separated by geography, not genetics. Rwanda was under the weight of a Belgian rule and rather than doing anything to prevent burgeoning tensions, Belgian leaders exacerbated the myth, claiming that the Tutsis had a right to the land. Of course, this led to mass unrest amongst the Hutus and very soon, the Tutsis were being captured and slaughtered.
Things only got a whole lot worse. In 1994, the new government set out to eradicate the Tutsi minority, explaining the rivalry between the two tribes as being due to ancient tensions rather than the exploitation of the myth by the Belgians. Unsurprisingly, the Tutsis fought back and very soon, Western agencies became involved, seemingly in attempts to ease tensions in the country. Troops from other countries started flooding into Rwanda, in half-hearted efforts to aid the situation. The world looked on from afar, gasping in horror at the bloodshed. However, troops sent to aid tensions used their positions to gain access to the country’s natural resources, previously untapped. The gathered resources were used to produce consumer goods for the rest of the world.
In the meantime, researcher Dian Fossey was studying a group of gorillas in a remote camp in the Congo. Trying to protect the gorillas from the country’s raging civil war and other humans, she began terrorising the local people, in attempts for them to leave her alone and becoming subsequently hated. Eventually, she and her gorillas would be slaughtered from local fighters, brought down by those she had terrorised to protect the animals.
Curtis’ documentary, whilst hardly uplifting, actually went some way to cement the theories of the selfish gene, showing more than ever how humans act according to pre-existing genes. In more recent history, Richard Dawkins has popularised the selfish gene theory and the idea that humans are machines driven by their genes is generally accepted. In light of events in Rwanda and Congo, Curtis argues that we can use the theory in a more fatalistic approach, explaining that, despite humanistic efforts, we are essentially unable to improve and change the world around us. Whilst we believe that we are acting altruistically, the self-sacrifice that some take (in whatever form) may be to better the lives of those directly linked to them. Apparent efforts to change the world are actually steeped in selfish attempts for self-improvement and calculated moves to gain dominance.
The third part of the documentary is perhaps the least easy to swallow. Not only is it near impossible to believe that our kind gestures are due to selfish genes but also, none of us would admit it if it were true. Looked at sociologically, it is easy to see how human beings can be likened to machines but then, that could be said of anything. In the world, living beings tend to work in groups, working with or against each other to survive. The same can be said of man-made machines. Built by humans, they follow human structures and ‘thought patterns’. It is not us who emulate machines but rather, the machines which emulate us.