The Circle [SPOILERS]

So, lately I've been watching quite a few movies and TV shows getting some inspiration for my game and I came across The Circle with Emma Watson and Tom Hanks while I was looking at Digital Dystopia movies. I will admit, it was a movie I had been wanting to watch for some time but I finally got a chance to do so.

I figured I'd write down some notes and transcribe those notes here as a record.

• Mae is very desperate for a better future because she wishes to care for her dad who suffers from Multiple Sclerosis.
• Customer service is taken very seriously in The Circle to a point where the Customer Service team are expected to get around 100% each time.
• Eamon comes across as a very relatable guy.
  • Very funny
  • Very charismatic
• Eamon is very dismissive of the consequences for placing a small camera on a tree so no one would notice.
  • He goes onto mention that cameras have been placed everywhere so there is no real way to hide from the world.
  • Privacy is demonised a lot in this movie
• "Sharing is caring"
• Accountability -> Open-ness
  • Eamon wants the world to be an open book. Especially politicians.
• Mercer is a very hands on person
  • Prefers to make stuff with his hands instead of technology
  • Anti-social because of the way technology has transformed social interaction
  • One of the few characters that is aware of the ethical implications of SeeChange
• Everyone is expected to be an open book
  • Everyone should have a social media profile that is constantly posted to
• Work life balance is somewhat non-existant
  • People are expected to show up on the weekends for "activities"
  • Social groups for just about everything
  • Person got offended because Mae went kayaking alone.
  • "Participation"
  • "Just for fun" and yet they were forcing it down Mae's throat
• Ty has caught onto the ethical implications of SeeChange and hates seeing his product TrueYou being used the way that it is now.
  • He's "off the grid". He keeps to the shadows but he's still there to keep an eye on things.
• Mercer got death threats for making chandeliers with deer antlers
  • Everyone immediately assumed that he kills deer
  • Mob mentality in full effect
• People filmed the confrontation between Mercer and Mae.
• "Perfectibility" of Humans
  • Personal note: There is no such thing as perfect. Eamon seems to have this idea that this perfect utopia is everyone being able to live freely with millions of people watching your every move
• Experience of others
  • Feeling like you are actually there by watching videos
  • Eamon's son has cerebral palsy
• Consent seems like an afterthought
  • Her parents were weired out by having their lives watched by millions of people through Mae
  • They were having sex which is a fairly private moment and Mae accidentally broadcasted it to the world.
  • As a result, they ceased contact with Mae for quite some time
• Annie could no longer have personal conversations with Mae like she used to so she actively started avoiding Mae as well.
• Circle Accounts seem to hold quite a lot of confidential data that normally governments would hold.
  • It was proposed that you could use your Circle account to vote
• Mae doesn't quite realise that her parents need their own space that isn't inhabited by millions of viewers.
• When SoulSearch was used to find a fugitive, people literally risked their lives to get a camera on her.
  • Again, mob mentality at work
  • If she had a gun and started killing people, what would have happened?
• They were tresspassing on private property to find Mercer.
  • Mercer worked in the woods to get away from technology
  • Tom kept pushing Mae to keep going just to prove that the technology worked. He didn't care about Mercer at all despite the fact that he was Mae's friend.
• People didn't know where to stop. They found Mercer but kept following him.
  • Even a drone was dispatched and that eventually led to his death
  • No repercussions at all
  • Only Mae seems to feel remorse at the situation
  • He was treated like a criminal
• Mae refused to accept that The Circle killed Mercer
  • Came to the conclusion that if people were more connected, Mercer may have survived
• Eamon and Tom seemed more worried about Mae's cameras not being on compared to Mae's wellbeing
• Mercer became a martyr
• Eamon and Tom are hypocrites
  • Secret bank accounts, messaging profiles
  • They were hiding quite a lot despite preaching open-ness
• Mae ultimately learnt nothing.
  • Final shot of the movie is Mae in a kayak with several drones watching her every move

Overall, it was a frustrating movie to watch because so many of the consequences were just glossed over. No-one seemed to care for the repercussions except for Ty. Someone actually died because people were effectively harrassing him.

Any ethical implications of this technology were pretty much discarded as if they didn't matter at all. A senator at the start of the movie was very skeptical of the Circle due to privacy concerns and they pretty much did away with her very quickly. The Circle was quick to silence any critics and Ty was barely seen by anyone else except for Mae.