Conclusions

WALL-E is a salient tale about humanity’s ability both for destruction and creation. Throughout the film countless examples of humanity’s careless destruction are shown, Earth itself being the biggest example. The movie is also full of very positive moments of humanity, although they often come from the robot main characters. In this WALL-E tells us that technology is innately human, from the first rock used to break open a shell to the cell phone that we all carry in our pockets, we are not fully human without technology. 

Technology has always guided our evolution, agriculture changed the size of our jaws [1] and our ability to make tools like clothing allowed us to dominate every part of the globe [2]. WALL-E shows us that a balance is needed though, technology does influence human development on the Axiom but in a negative direction. In the movie technology encourages humans to continue their destructive habits, even after destroying Earth humans are still throwing out mountains of trash on the Axiom. In our modern world the increasing ease of access to everything from our homes has increased our apathy to certain things [3], but has also contributed to social and scientific breakthroughs that have helped many.

Throughout time humanity’s destructive ability has been proven time and time again, from the many cities on earth whose archaeological profile includes layers of ash from when they’ve been burnt to the ground [4] to the horrors of the 20th century. In South Sudan a trend of increasing violence was noticed with the rapid introduction of firearms [5], spears forced warriors to look in their opponents eyes when they killed them and thus most battles only had a few dead, but with guns the fighters could kill without seeing any humanity in the person they killed. This exemplifies the way that improving technology increases the human ability for death and cruelty. Another more abstract example is in industry, while it has long been a double-edged sword the ability to mine a whole mountain side with relative ease, for example, has increased our destructive capability exponentially. No one would argue that mining is inhuman, but strip mining is on its face a destructive practice only enabled and continued by our technological prowess. This very issue is explored by WALL-E, the shots of a dead and barren Earth bare the recognizable marks of humanity. Derelict skyscrapers and old plastic food containers. Without the technology that made these things the Earth’s oceans would still be present in the film.

That is not to say that technology cannot emphasize the human spirit of creation. WALL-E has a beautiful scene where the titular main character and EVE dance in space, both are technology, products of human invention, and both are creating beauty in their movements that feels uniquely human. Art is one of the prime examples of how our ability to meld with technology can bring beautiful things into the world. The first recorded evidence of art is 30,000 years ago [6], since then we have only continued to create. Most art is impossible without some amount of technology and with our progress we’ve unlocked new mediums like 3D printing and even the very computer animation that WALL-E was made with. Technology has helped us heal too, we see the compassion of robots in WALL-E and efforts are underway to create companion robots for the elderly [7] that could have personalities like his. Infant mortality has gone from 50% to 4% since the early 20th century [8] as a direct result of the increased computational ability that we have gained in that time.

The journey humanity takes in WALL-E, from its start as a destructive, lazy, and ignorant populace to a kind, hard-working, creative group is one that we need to model. Without accepting technology as a part of humanity, and therefore something we have direct responsibility for and control over, we will end up on a forever vacation too. WALL-E and EVE show us that the human spirit defines humanity more than silicon or blood, as our society continues to advance we have the responsibility to put that human spirit in everything we do. We must embrace that we are rapidly growing into cosmic adulthood, no longer can we languish in the childish ways of the version of humanity depicted in WALL-E, we must think beyond our own bodies and integrate our technology into our view of ourselves. After all WALL-E changed the world just by becoming more human, why can’t we change the world by accepting that our tech is a part of us.

[1]Magazine, S. (2015, February 6). Before agriculture, human jaws were a perfect fit for human teeth. Smithsonian.com. Retrieved May 2, 2023, from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-dawn-farming-changed-our-mouths-worst-180954167/#:~:text=Early%20farmers%2C%20on%20the%20other,remaining%20around%20the%20same%20size. 

[2]Toups MA, Kitchen A, Light JE, Reed DL. Origin of clothing lice indicates early clothing use by anatomically modern humans in Africa. Mol Biol Evol. 2011 Jan;28(1):29-32. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msq234. Epub 2010 Sep 7. PMID: 20823373; PMCID: PMC3002236.

[3]Fulalas. (2022, August 10). From dispersion to apathy - how technology makes US lonely. Medium. Retrieved May 2, 2023, from https://medium.com/@fulalas/from-dispersion-to-apathy-how-technology-makes-us-lonely-1d489ee6004f 

[4]The trust excavates Boudican Destruction Debris at Williams & Griffin Site. (n.d.). Retrieved May 2, 2023, from https://www.thecolchesterarchaeologist.co.uk/?p=11727 

[5]WP Company. (n.d.). Sudanese Tribes Confront Modern War. The Washington Post. Retrieved May 2, 2023, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/july99/sudan7.htm 

[6]Morriss-Kay GM. The evolution of human artistic creativity. J Anat. 2010 Feb;216(2):158-76. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7580.2009.01160.x. Epub 2009 Nov 9. PMID: 19900185; PMCID: PMC2815939.

[7]Berridge, C., Zhou, Y., Robillard, J. M., & Kaye, J. (2023, January 19). Companion robots to mitigate loneliness among older adults: Perceptions of benefit and possible deception. Frontiers. Retrieved May 2, 2023, from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1106633/full 

[8]Roser, M. (2023, April 11). Mortality in the past: Every second child died. Our World in Data. Retrieved May 2, 2023, from https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality-in-the-past