Technologies

Technologies Conclusion:

The movie is a semi-realistic representation of what a future society could look like. Many of the technologies present are existing and the overarching premise of a wealth-divided society is possible. While genetic engineering and capturing time are likely to not come into place in the next 140 years, it was simply an extension of the play on the words "time is money" and was used as a tool to highlight the flaws of our current society and show the exaggerated endings that we may come to if we allow the current issues to get out of control.

Existing Technologies

Facial Recognition

Timekeepers use this advanced technology to identify Will Salas as he crossed over multiple time zones.

Today, facial recognition is used by law enforcement to help indentify suspects who are caught on video.

Payphones

Payphones and landlines are the only form of communication we see between the average citizens. This technology compared to where we were in 2011 is relatively primitive. This was used as another boundary set in place by the elite as the poor has to pay in order to communicate with each other, and both parties need to be at a payphone. This makes it a lot easier to restrict communication and potential revolts against the elite.

Biometric Scanners

Biometric scanners are used in In Time to transfer time between individuals. There are placed on the wrist and time is either given to or taken away from the individuals.

Biometric scanners exist today in different formats such as fingerprint scanners for security and in the medical field to measure blood pressure and oxygen levels.

Emerging Technologies

Genetic Engineering

In the movie In Time, every person is genetically engineered to not age past the age of 25. Whilst this strong of a technology does not exist, genetic engineering and gene editing is being developed to increase life expectancy [1].

This is a photo of the grandmother, mother and daughter in the Weis family.

Fictional Technologies

Time as currency

In the movie, every person has a clock that determines the amount of time they have remaining for their life after the age 25. The clock is a person's "bank" and "time" acts as a currency in this dystopian future and once your clock hits zero you die. While genetically engineering technology is developing to extend life expectancy, "storing" time to create humans that can theoretically live forever is mere fiction currently.

Plausible Technologies

Time Zone Display Board

The board displays the zones across the country and will track the dispersal of time throughout the world. This allowed the Time Keepers to determine if there was a large breach in security between time zones. While there are no reports of such technologies existing, government and law enforcement technologies definitely have access and resources to data on monetary assets amongst certain populations. Therefore, creating such a technology could be plausible.

Sources:

[1] - https://www.news-medical.net/news/20190306/Genetic-manipulation-can-double-life-expectancy-and-increase-health-of-offspring.aspx

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