Spike Jonze's new film may be science fiction, but we're practically there.
If aliens were to suddenly descend upon Earth, they might notice most humans have their own glowing box. Each morning, they stand on the train with their necks craned peering at the box, on their way to an office where they sit and stare at a similar box, and then they retire home to watch their glowing box a little more. The extra terrestrials probably would think, "I don't know what that glowing thingy is, but, man, it's special to them."
Such is the idea behind Spike Jonze’s new film, Her, which opens nationwide today. The film stars Joaquin Phoenix as Theodore Twombly, a fumbling bachelor in a not-so-distant future L.A., who finds himself growing closer to his artificially intelligent operating system, voiced by Scarlett Johansson. Without giving too much away, Theodore falls headphone-over-heels in love with his OS, even introducing the non-corporeal "her" to his friends. This is a science fiction film, but it all feels eerily probable.
Here's a list of technology we've already invented that may seem outlandish today, but in a few years, it might be as ordinary as our iPhone reliance. And in twenty years, we could be in love with it.
