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In general I'll take any excuse to go see a kid's movie. Aside from the fact that I'm currently at the stage in my life where I find six year-olds to be annoying, content created for them often seems to be extremely entertaining. Proving, once again, that since I'm a grown-up now...it's my turn to decide what that means.
But, obviously, as chief geek here at EcoGeek I had to go see Wall*E; the story of a little solar-powered robot left behind to take care of the mess left on Earth. The result, aside from a wonderful and humorous love story in which the robots seem considerably more human than humans, contains some interesting ideas about the environment and technology.
In the movie, the Earth is abandoned in about 2110...about 100 years from now. In that time, we've made some good advances in renewable energy, and even efficiency, but it wasn't enough.
Wall*E himself is the most prominent example of clean technology. We've covered robots that may help to sort trash, or break it down into more manageable chunks. But obviously Wall*E's finest clean technology are his exceptionally (in fact, impossibly) efficient solar panels. Just like the Solio charger, Wall*E's panels expand and fold-out to become larger than the surface area of Wall*E himself.
However, the surface area of the panels, at most two feet square, won't ever provide enough electricity for Wall*E's roving and trash compacting (never mind his high-powered laser.) To actually renewably charge the army of self-sustaining robots (of which Wall*E is the last remaining survivor) a huge solar array would need to be maintained (by other robots) and Wall*E would have to visit it regularly for recharges.
Alternately, it's possible that an invisible and undiscussed satellite array is collecting huge amounts of energy in orbit around the earth. And when Wall*E needs a charge he calls down a super-powerful beam of photons or microwaves. That would allow him to charge for a full day's work in a matter of minutes.
Additionally, on the post-apocalyptic earth, advertisements are solar powered and holographic projections for the mega-corps who have taken over as our government are only turned on when they detect movement.
Aside from the disturbing idea that Wal-Mart may one day be our government, it's true that they're using similar technology to turn off display lights when there are no shoppers, saving tons of electricity. And they have what may turn out to be the largest privately owned collection of solar panels in the world.
In Wall*E's world we seem to have developed some great environmental technologies. Wind turbines abound...though they are covered up to their necks in the refuse of our civilization. This, for me, was the movie's most powerful statement. Is it possible that, no matter how much power we produce renewably, we will never satisfy the demand of the Earth's people. Will we simply consume our way back into the hole of unsustainability no matter what solutions are presented by technology?
Obviously I hope that's not the case. I do, however, think it's possible. While humans are very good at creating solutions, we're also very good at being stupid. The massive amounts of refuse on the planet don't seem to be the true problem. It's the pollution of the skies and ground that has destroyed plant and animal life that really seems to have forced humans off the planet.
And while there are several examples of robots that are looking to monitor pollution, and even some that might help us grow food or clean pollution, the massive scale of the potential problem is daunting.
Obviously, I'm taking all of this from a movie that is about robot love...not about the environment. But the fact that such a vision of the future is even culturally acceptable and doesn't seem at all ridiculous is a pretty big step. Recognizing you have a problem is the first step in the treatment of any disease. And, in the end, that may be Wall*E's biggest contribution to environmental technology.
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written by Hank, June 29, 2008
Kids have far more flexible notions of how the world works, and are ready to have their ideas formed and reformed a great deal. Adults think they actually know how the world works...and if we'll be damned if someone's going to try to prove us wrong.
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written by Tracy, June 29, 2008
Seems like this vision of the world is what we need to get kids thinking about it. And it's not like I am expecting my bubble house and flying car, which is what the vision of the future was when I was a kid.
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written by Kevin, June 30, 2008
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written by Hank, June 30, 2008
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written by Mad Marcus, June 30, 2008
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written by Tracy, June 30, 2008
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written by Hank, June 30, 2008
I'm not really nitpicking either...at least, not until the comments. I don't care...I just think it's interesting to think about these things.
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written by Conrad Nied, June 30, 2008
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written by Clinch, June 30, 2008
Leave it to a collection of geeks to over-analyze a children's movie for technological flaws
Well, this is a geek site, it even has geek in the name, so what did you expect? If you can't understand that, then maybe you shouldn't be here.
As for how Wall-E's solar panels get so much juice, maybe there's no ozone layer, and a much thinner atmosphere, so more light gets through, or the earth's orbit has shifted closer to the sun.
And while it's highly unlikely that we'll see them anytime soon, I think solar cars are potentially possible for mainstream use.
Current solar races have been going since 1985, and, although the cars are completely impractical for normal use, the potential improvements in technology, of increased solar panel efficiency, increased electric engine efficiency, and decreased car weight (using super-lightweight materials), could improve solar cars by ten times or more! (although they would still be useless in places with commonly bad weather)
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written by Rachel, June 30, 2008
My very small cousin asked me if Wall*E could work in real life, and I was torn about what to tell him. Eventually I told him that Wall*E would have to run on solar power and, also, magic, which he found to be a completely satisfactory answer. Because apparently "magic" is my go-to phenomenon-explainer. I probably read too many fantasy novels.
I thought Wall*E did a great job of incorporating the environment without being completely obnoxious about it (*cough* The Happening *cough*). And it has adorable robots, so really, what's not to love?
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written by Warrior, June 30, 2008
Kill a couple billion people and we will go back to the dark ages for centuries.
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written by AJ, June 30, 2008
They will remember how awful a world with brown skies and a surface covered in junk is.
They will see how beautiful one plant is compared to a mound of garbage.
And the garbage wasn't "garbage" as we see it - plastic wrappers and food refuse. It was the stuff of our lives. Eye glasses, toys, video tapes, trinkets.
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written by Caroline, June 30, 2008
As a geek it's often useful to step back and consider that no amount of exciting, innovative technology won't solve our problems--and I think this was one of the strong messages that the film produced.
In the movie the apocalypse was preventable, and only preventable given a level of human compassion for the Earth that surpasses the desire for needless consumption.
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written by Drew Long, June 30, 2008
Sometimes I think the worst part about geeks is that often they're not very complex or holistic thinkers.
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written by A. L., June 30, 2008
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written by Dan, June 30, 2008
I believe(pray) that day will be coming soon.
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written by Magnulus, June 30, 2008
And Hank, if you're reading this: I'm sorry. I saw no other way.
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written by Chris, June 30, 2008
Job security!
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written by Ian, June 30, 2008
So, in a nutshell, the movie criticizes modern-day issues by showing the future where those same issues (lack of environmental concern, the increasing divide between the rich [consumerist ideal - humans] and the poor [working ideal - robots], and the lack of political intervention) have come to full fruition.
Personally, I thought the movie was a great love story and kids movie. I Thoroughly enjoyed it.
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written by Clinch, June 30, 2008
Moore's Law for Solar?
Moore's law can only work when there's possibilities for continuous large advancements, which isn't the case for solar panels, as they have a maximum theoretical efficiency of 100% (although in reality, it's probably something more like 99%), and once they get there, that's it (they're about 30% at the moment).
As for solar powered cars, and making them more viable if we make the engines more efficient, well it turns out some of the engines have up to 98% efficiency (so not much room for improvement there then)
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written by Melanie, July 01, 2008
I mostly had problems with other inaccurate parts of the movie, since I don't know much about new sciences.
Maybe I'm just PMSing, but I balled at the end. I thought it was really good at bringing the idea of a wasted planet forward.
Also, awesome love story.
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written by Tuan, July 13, 2008
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Hopefully, they'll just ignore the science, just think it's a film about cute robots, but it give them unreasonable expectations of alternative energy, and if they think they can get all their energy from a 2 foot solar panel, they might not make any effort to conserve energy (assuming that there are some kids that would, which probably isn't true anyway).
As for Wall-E's energy problem, maybe he's also got some kind of ambient energy collector, or can absorb and store energy from lightning, because to be honest, in a world covered in smog and pollution, solar panels are going to be useless (e.g. the Matrix, which brings me to my next point, Wall-E obviously gets his energy from eating the last remaining humans on Earth...).