One of the topics discussed by The Incredibles is networks and the
internet, and how it can be both a good and a bad thing, depending on how
it is being used. For instance, at the beginning of the movie when Mr.
Incredible is heading to his wedding, he hears through the police scanner
that there is a high speed chase taking place near him. He then uses his
car’s built in computer to locate and track the chase so he can intercept
it. This computer connects to the police network’s GPS system which tracks
all the police certified vehicles. Without this network, Mr. Incredible
would have to rely on just the police scanner to find where the chase was
located. This would either require Mr. Incredible to guess where the cars
are headed or for one of the cops to constantly give updates on their
location. However, since the cop cars were equipped with GPS and hooked up
to a network, Mr. Incredible knows exactly where the chase took place. In
this light, networks are really powerful and lead to an improvement in
crime stopping capability. However the movie also shows that like any
technology, if it falls into the wrong hands, it can be misused, or
facilitate criminal activity, and they tend to emphasize that fact quite a
bit.
One example of this was on Syndrome’s island, where they hooked up robotic
security birds to a network, so they could discreetly monitor the entirety
of the island. When Dash and Violet were in the jungle they were met by a
parrot that asked for “voice identification”. When they did not respond
appropriately it set off a seiren and notified the main control tower.
This network was not only set up with GPS, but also shared a video and
audio signal. This allowed the guards to see what the parrot was viewing,
verify the identity of the intruders, then send out a search party. This
search party was able to use the GPS signal of the bird to quickly find
Dash and Violet, much like how Mr. Incredible used the cop network to
locate the chase, or like how the military uses GPS for targeted drone
strikes. Through Syndrome's security system the film helps convey that
though this technology can be helpful, it can just as easily be
detrimental.
Another aspect of chapter 3 that can be shown in the movie, is the idea of
government censorship. In the beginning of the film, the government tried
to prevent the super heros from intruding themselves into public
situations . This could be analogous to the myriad of websites and blogs
that governments might want to censor. Because blogs and websites only
need to sign up for a website, rather than physically publish the
articles, like traditional news media, they have a much easier time
getting their voices heard. This is like how superheroes are much more
powerful than normal human beings, thus making it easier for them to fight
crime. Blogs can also be anonymous and thus give the bloggers more freedom
to write what they want, without fear of retaliation, just like how the
superheroes all have secret identities and can act independently without
any oversight. In the movie, the government banned superheroes because
they caused too much damage, and did not have enough oversight. However,
like when governments tried to censor blogs, banning superheroes didn’t
work. Instead Mr. Incredible and Frozone just worked more discreetly, much
like how small blogs are able to pass through government filters that try
to stop them.
Though the film did show some beneficial uses of Networks, there were much more examples of technology being misused to aid in Syndrome’s evil plans. In the end it was the human superheroes who were able to destroy the robot, and Syndrome, who relied on technology, ended up losing control of it. Overall this tends to view technology as a threat, and a tool for people with ill intentions.
The main focus of chapter four is intellectual property rights, and the
protections for them. There are many different forms of intellectual
property shown in The Incredibles, and most of them are owned by Syndrome.
For example, he has created things like rocket boots, an autonomous life
scanner, and gauntlets that can create a quantum field. On top of that, he
also invented the omnidroid, which is a massive battle robot that has
gained artificial intelligence. All of these aforementioned creations
would fall under the IP category of patents, as they are inventions that
are proprietary. Other examples of creations that would be protected by
patents are Edna Mode’s super suits and Syndrome’s levitating spinning
cars. By the end of the movie, Syndrome is planning on selling most of
these inventions to the public in order to make “super” people obsolescent
by giving all normal people the ability to have super-like powers. To do
so, he would most likely have to file for patents for each of his
inventions, or he would risk competitors creating their own versions of
his inventions.
Another form of IP protection is the trademark. While there are no items
in the movie that would directly fall under this intellectual property
category, there are certain things that would theoretically be
trademarked. For example, every superhero’s name and symbol would be
considered a trademark, if they were to brand themselves. Other than that,
there are not many examples of trademarked goods in The Incredibles. Just
like with trademarks, there are not many examples of copyright either.
There are no creative works that are displayed in the movie that would
warrant a copyright.
The final category of intellectual property protections are trade secrets.
Unlike the previous two categories, there are many examples of these
throughout the course of the movie. Just like with the patents, Syndrome
is the owner of the majority of the trade secrets shown. He has many
inventions on his personal island that are not public knowledge, like the
previously mentioned levitating cars. On top of that, he also has the
database of superheroes in the secret room behind the lava waterfall. This
database holds all sorts of information on dozens of heroes, including
real names, addresses, and more. That being said, there are some concerns
about the legitimacy of the protections for this information as Syndrome
most likely obtained the information on these heroes illegally, as the
alternate identities of these heroes are typically not publicly disclosed,
and is only known by the government. This would void any protections that
he would be entitled to, as this would be considered misappropriation.
In the beginning of the film, there is a pivotal shift from superheroes
being loved to being viewed as destructive and unhelpful. Once the public
opinion of superheroes changed, the government soon sent all superheroes
into hiding. A crucial part of this operation included providing these
dethroned people with new identities and lives. Additionally, similar to
the performance of the United States Secret Service during a transition of
power, these ex-superheros needed to be continually monitored to avoid any
backlash and ensure a smooth lifestyle transition [1]. Mr.Incredible’s
family was required to keep their identity private in order to stay safe
from the public’s disapproval. Their perspective on privacy was much more
extreme because of these circumstances. For this superhero family, their
powers are their identifiable information. This introduces the topic of
information disclosure. Helen Parr, the mother, constantly advised her
children not to use their powers because of the fear of being seen. This
is comparable to internet users wanting to keep their information secure
to avoid cyber attacks. Dash running at a normal pace, instead of his
super speed, to stay undercover is an example of information disclosure.
Another aspect of information privacy is data mining. Syndrome’s database
contains all superhero’s names, powers, and threat levels. This data is
likely from a government database and was obtained illegally.
Additionally, the superheros are unaware of the profiles created of them
through this technology. The Omnidroid uses this database to perform data
mining by identifying its targets and their weaknesses. Unfortunately,
this is a clear abuse of power. Syndrome, like many companies, abused his
power to obtain and distribute confidential information. This would likely
cause consumer backlash if the superheroes knew about the data being
collected of them. Similarly, when consumers in our society found out
about the information being collected of them, 75% of Americans wanted new
regulations for companies regarding the sharing of their data [2]. This
shows a majority of Americans are unhappy with current legislation turning
an eye to poor data regulation. If these numbers were applied to the
film’s society, we would see a consumer backlash there as well.
Another instance of consumer backlash occurs in the beginning of the film
when superheroes are still allowed to roam free. There is a scene when Mr.
Incredible fights a villain and eventually wins but not before destroying
much of the city's property. Because superheroes have anonymity through
their dual lives, they think less about their destructive actions as long
as they defeat the villain. Without their second identity, superheroes
would be more hesitant to destroy civilian’s property because they can be
charged and prosecuted as a citizen. This is similar to anonymous profiles
on common internet sites with toxic environments. In 2008, a 13 year old
teenage girl committed suicide after recieving hateful messages on myspace
from who she thought was a boy she knew, but in reality the anonymous
persona was a 49 year old women [3]. This leads to a conclusion that with
anonymous personas, people are more willing to perform acts they otherwise
would not if their identity was not private.
In this film, the audience can observe two independent forms of
government. The first form of authority is the society the public lives
within. Both superheroes and normal people observe this government. At the
beginning of the film, the audience views the government enacting a
superhero ban after a battle caused too much destruction. This ban
indicates the power this government has because all the superheroes were
forced to go into permanent hiding. The second form of an independent
government was seen on Syndrome’s island. Since the island’s primary use
was to create and experiment with all the tools and gadgets made by
Syndome’s company, the island exhibits its own legislation dictated by
Syndrome and is comparable to a governing society.
These two independent governments both collect information about
superheros, even though they use the information for different purposes.
The society’s government, comparable to the United States government, is
collecting information about superheroes in order to help them transition
into their new lives after the superhero ban. In the beginning of this
transition, Mr. Incredible does not enjoy his new identity, and
accidentally exposes his super power a couple times during work. Since the
government is collecting all of this information, they are able to send
the same agent every time to help Mr. Incredible to obtain a new identity
and hide from society once again. Additionally, Syndrome’s company is also
collecting superheros’ information in order to defeat them. In the movie,
Mr. Incredible found out about a central computer room hosting Syndrome’s
database. It contained all the information about Syndrome’s targets
including names, powers, and threat levels. Syndrome collects all this
data in order to train his battle bot, the Omnidroid, to become
undefeatable. He does this to achieve his overarching goal, which is to
eliminate the societal benefits superheros have and distribute their
powers throughout society. By doing so, superheroes would become obsolete
as everyone would become equally “super”.
Not only are the purposes of collecting information different, the ways they collect the information are also unique. The government for the normal society has a specific department to regulate superheros after the ban, just like the Patriot Act in the United States. One thing that the movie doesn’t mention is the way they try to regulate superheroes before the ban. On the other hand, Syndrome collects his data by secretly employing superheroes and luring them to his island. Once they arrive, he uses the collection of data as his superpower allowing him to defeat his enemies. Although Syndrome’s island may not be a fully-functioning government, there’s a clear power hierarchy with Syndrome at the top, and like societal governments, he collects data on his subjects.
In The Incredibles, many significant events revolve around weak computer
and network security. There are many examples of hacking, most of which
are done by Mr. Incredible. In the earliest scenes of the movie, Mr.
Incredible is shown eavesdropping on police radio by using a police
scanner. While the use of police scanners are typically legal in most
situations [4], this could still be considered a form of low-profile
hacking. He is using an illicit service to obtain information that he
wasn’t supposed to have under normal circumstances. He also gained access
to information he wasn’t supposed to while on Syndrome’s island, after
hiding away when the omnidroid “killed” him.
When he returned to the Syndrome’s headquarters on the main part of the
island, he was able to get hold of the antagonist’s secret superhero
database by observing and then duplicating Syndrome’s password. The
password is only 6 characters long, and was easily obtained by Mr.
Incredible. Password security is a pertinent matter, especially in today’s
society. There were over 1500 data breaches in 2019 in the US, and there
have already been 540 in the first half of 2020. In 2019, within those
data breaches, over 471 million records were exposed [1]. A record is a
set of data stored in a table, or in this case, a database. On top of
that, it is incredibly easy for a computer algorithm to crack most
passwords. In fact, it would only take milliseconds to crack a generic
seven character password. If Syndrome increased his password length by
just four characters to make a ten character password, it would instead
take months to crack [2].
Mrs. Incredible also engages in a form of hacking. That being said, while
Mr. Incredible’s hacking was digital, Mrs. Incredible’s was physical.
While infiltrating Syndrome’s headquarters, she steals an ID card from a
security guard which lets her into areas that she was otherwise not
supposed to be able to access. Physical hacking is a serious security
issue for data centers in real life. One could have the top-of-the-line
network security, but if someone is able to physically get to and access
your data centers, all of that money sunk into protecting your network
means nothing. In fact, it can be as easy as walking in the front door and
pretending like you have somewhere you need to be [3].
During the film Syndrome works to develop a superhero killing robot, known
as the omnidroid. He tested it and improved upon it by inviting
superheroes to fight it on his island. This both helped improve the
omnidroid and helped eliminate many superheroes along the way. When
Syndrome was done with testing he then sent the omnidroid into the city to
destroy property, only for Syndrome to fly in and defeat the robot with
his remote control. Unfortunately the AI within the omnidroid wasn’t safe
enough, or full proof, and it realised that Syndrome was controlling it
with the remote, and it shot the remote out of Syndrome's hand, to regain
control and destroy the city.
This problem with AI getting too smart, and disobeying humans is a real
issue that AI researchers are looking into as AI gets more and more
powerful. This relates to chapter 8 of the book, which covers computer
reliability, where we as programers need to make sure that our programs
work reliably and won’t cause undue harm to people. Syndrome did not take
enough precautions to make sure that the AI would behave appropriately.
As shown in the movie Syndrome knew about this problem well before he sent
the omnidroid to the city, because that was the ploy they used to get Mr.
Incredible to come to the island in the first place. Syndrome’s assistant,
Mirage, briefed Mr. Incredible about the omnidroid and said that it is
loose on the island because it’s AI went rogue and stopped taking orders
from the researchers. This problem was so well known that even Mr.
Incredible, who has no formal AI experience, interrupted her saying “let
me guess, it got smart enough to wonder why it had to take orders.”
Syndrome knew about this problem and should have fixed it before he sent
it into the city, but he chose not to.
This problem is known among AI researchers as the “big red button”
problem[1]. This issue is that if you were to install a killswitch on an
advanced AI, the AI most certainly will try to circumvent the killswitch
[1]. This is because the AI wants to achieve it’s programmed goals, in the
case of the omnidroid, destroy the city, but if people hit the killswitch,
or syndrome defeats it, the AI won’t be able to achieve its goals [1]. The
AI will eventually learn to fear the killswitch and make sure it doesn’t
get pressed. This will lead to one of 2 outcomes, the first one being that
it behaves well and doesn’t give the researchers reason to hit the kill
switch, or the second more dangerous option is that it will physically try
to stop the researchers from pressing the killswitch [1]. The first option
though, it might sound good, will still lead to the second outcome,
because the second the AI figures out a way to prevent the killswitch from
being activated it will act on it and disable the kill switch [1].
This is shown in the movie when Syndrome tries to save the day and stop
his robot. He uses the remote to remove one of the omnidroids' arms. After
about 5 seconds, the omnidroid realises that Syndrome and the remote are
preventing it from achieving its goal of destroying the city. It then
waits for an opening to separate Syndrome and the remote, and then shoots
the remote out of his hand, and throws Syndrome into a building. It then
goes about destroying the city, no longer afraid that people will be able
to control it with the remote.
This issue should have been addressed and fixed before the omnidroid was sent to the city, that way Syndrome would not have lost control of the robot for the second time. This was a reminder that advanced AI should be treated with extreme care, and developed with proper security systems, because if one does get loose, it will be able to cause immense harm. Although we are not currently able to develop AI as powerful as the omnidroid, we are slowly getting there, and we will need to come up with better more full proof security systems for them.
A majority of the film takes place on Syndrome’s private island. To be
able to finance this island, the audience is led to believe Syndrome is
very wealthy. Using automation inventions, he was able to offer employment
to everyone on his island. He seems to have a winner takes all mentality
where his achievements are driven by his passion to not only make money
but be adored by the public. Syndrome employs hundreds of employees just
on his remote island seen through security guards, personal assistants,
and engineers. His power comes from the money he holds and inputs into his
technology company.
At the beginning of the film, the government imposes a superhero ban. This
introduces the topic of workplace change. This ban occurred because of
public opinion, but wouldn’t have been brought to attention until
automation was introduced into the superhero and villain battles. After
the increased destruction in cities from automation devices, the public
opinion of superheroes plummeted causing distrust and eventually the
superhero ban. There were 47 unemployed superheroes following this ban
leaving those superheroes and their families displaced [1]. This can be
compared to the loss of white and blue collar workers in the workforce
because of automation. Although manufacturing employment peaked in the
United States in 1979 with 19.4 million jobs, by 2011 manufacturing
employment dropped to 11.7 million [2]. This drop was caused by the
introduction of automation into the manufacturing industry. Productivity
increased with automation and eliminated many middle man jobs. The
superheroes faced this dilemma when they had to reinvent their lives and
livelihoods for the changing times.
Syndrome makes it clear from the start of The Incredibles that he is discontent with the digital divide between him and superheroes. He is dissatisfied with the fact that he wasn’t born with any special powers so he developed devices, such as rocket boots, to be able to perform in similar manners to superheroes. This divide of power between superheroes and the general public can also be seen as a social divide. There is no natural way for a person in that society to obtain the powers the superheroes have making the superheroes inherently unique and untouchable. Syndrome is angered by this divide so he plots to create devices that put him on the same playing field, and then sell them to the general public. Unfortunately, if this plan would have been followed through with, he overlooked the socio economic aspect of his products. His high tech devices would have only been achievable for the wealthy setting a new social divide. Then society would consist of superheroes, artificial superheroes, and the less fortunate. While Syndrome’s plan was to originally eliminate the digital divide, he overlooked technological diffusion and therefore his goals are achievable.