All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (TV series)

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace is a

Episodes

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Part 1. 'Love and Power'

In the first episode, Curtis traces the effects of Ayn Rand's ideas on American financial markets, particularly via the influence of Alan Greenspan, who was a member of a reading group called the Collective, which discussed her work and her philosophy of Objectivism. While Rand's novels were critically savaged, they inspired people working in the technology sector of Silicon Valley, leading to the emergence of the Californian Ideology, a techno-utopian belief that computer networks could measure, control and help to stabilise societies without hierarchical political control. Rand had an affair with Nathaniel Branden, another member of The Collective, with the approval of Branden's wife, Barbara Branden. The affair would eventually end acrimoniously and the Collective disbanded. Rand's circle of friends contracted considerably, though Greenspan remained loyal to her.

Greenspan entered government in the 1970s and became

Alan Greenspan would rise to greater prominence after his handling of the

In 1994, Carmen Hermosillo published a widely influential essay online, "Pandora's Vox: On Community in Cyberspace",^[4] and it began to be argued that the use of computer networks had led not to a reduction in hierarchy, but actually a commodification of personality and a complex transfer of power and information to corporations. Curtis ends the piece by pointing out that not only has the idea of market stability failed to bear out in practice, but that the Californian Ideology has also been unable to bring about long-term stability. Curtis contends that the ideology had not freed its proponents from hierarchies, but has instead trapped them in a rigid system of control from which they are unable to escape.

Contributors

• Barbara Branden, member of Ayn Rand's circle, 1950s
• John McCaskey, Digital Entrepreneur, Silicon Valley, 1990s
• Kevin O'Connor, Internet Entrepreneur, Silicon Valley, 1990s
• Loren Carpenter and Rachel Carpenter
• Kevin Kelly, Wired Magazine
• Stewart Brand, Global Business Network
• Alvin Toffler, Digital Futurologist
• Peter Schwartz, Global Business Network
• Kenichi Ohmae, author, The End of the Nation State
• Nathaniel Branden, Ayn Rand's lover
• Joan Mitchell
• Stephen Roach, Chief Economist, Morgan Stanley 1990s
• Joseph Stiglitz, Head of the Council of Economic Advisers 1995–97
• Robert Rubin, US Secretary of the Treasury 1995–99

Part 2. 'The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts'

In the 1960s, an idea penetrated deep into the public imagination that nature is a self-regulating ecosystem, there is a natural order," Curtis says. "The trouble is, it's not true – as many ecologists have shown, nature is never stable, it's always changing.

This episode investigates how ideas such as cybernetics and

By the 1970s, new challenges emerged that could not be solved by normal hierarchical systems, such as overpopulation, limited natural resources and pollution. Jay Forrester applied systems theory to the problem and drew a cybernetic system diagram for the world. This was turned into a computer model which predicted population collapse. This became the basis of the model that was used by the Club of Rome, and the findings from this were published in The Limits to Growth. Forrester then argued for zero growth in order to maintain a steady equilibrium within the capacity of the Earth. However, this was opposed by many people within the environmental movement, since the model did not allow for people to change their values to stabilise the world, and they argued that the model tried to maintain and enforce the current political hierarchy. Critics compared Forrester's ideas to a dispute between Arthur Tansley and Field Marshal Jan Smuts. Smuts had invented a philosophy called holism, where everyone had a 'rightful place', which was to be managed by the white race, which Tansley called an "abuse of vegetational concepts." The 70s protestors claimed that the same conceptual abuse of the supposed natural order was occurring, that it was really being used for political control.

The belief in the stability of natural systems began to break down when a study was made of the predator-prey relationship of

• Peder Anker, historian of ecology
• Jay Forrester, systems theorist
• Fred Turner, historian of media and technology
• Peter J. Taylor, historian of science
• Dr Daniel Botkin, ecologist
• Randall Gibson, former member of 'Synergia' commune
• Molly Hollenbach, former member of 'The Family' commune
• Stewart Brand
• Alexander King, co-founder of the Club of Rome (archive)
• Tord Björk, environmental activist
• Dr Steward Pickett, ecologist
• Dr Dave Swift and Dr Sam Bledsoe, Grasslands Project
• Al Gore, former US Vice President
• Dr Laura J. Cameron, historical geographer

Part 3. 'The Monkey in the Machine and the Machine in the Monkey'

This episode looks into the

In the 1930s,

In 1960, Congo had become independent from Belgium, but governance promptly collapsed, and towns became battle grounds as soldiers fought for control of the mines. America and the Belgians organised a coup, and the elected leader, Patrice Lumumba, was kidnapped and executed, causing chaos. However, the Western mining operations were initially largely unaffected. Mobutu Sese Seko was installed as president, killed his opponents and stopped a liberal democracy from forming. Mobutu changed the Congo's name to Zaire, looting millions of dollars and letting mines and industries collapse.

In Congo, with a civil war ongoing, Dian Fossey, who was researching gorillas, was captured. She escaped and created a new camp high up on a mountain in Rwanda, where she continued to study gorillas. She tried to completely protect the gorillas, which were very susceptible to human diseases and were hated because they terrorised the local people. Fossey sabotaged the local people's traps and tried to terrorise them by claiming to cast spells on them. Ultimately, Fossey's favourite gorilla, Digit, was killed by the vengeful locals. Curtis draws a parallel between Fossey and the colonialists who oppressed the Congolese, describing her as one of many westerners who brutalised and terrorised African peoples for their own high-minded ideals.

Bill Hamilton was a solitary man who saw everything through the lens of Darwin's theory of evolution. He wanted to know why some ants and humans give up their life for others. In 1963, he realised that most of the behaviours of humans were due to genes, and he began looking at humans from the genes' point of view. From this perspective, humans were machines that were only important for carrying genes, and it made sense for a gene to sacrifice a human if it meant that another copy of the gene would survive. In 1967, American chemist George R. Price went to London after reading Hamilton's little-known papers and discovering that his equations for the behaviours of genes were equivalent to computers equations. He was able to show that these equations explained murder, warfare, suicide, goodness and spite, since these actions could help the genes. John von Neumann had invented self-reproducing machines, but Price was able to show that the self-reproducing machines were already in existence – humans were such machines.

These revelations had an enormous effect on Price. Previously a staunch

In 1994, the ruling Hutu government set out to eradicate the Tutsi minority. This was explained as incomprehensible ancient rivalry by the Western press. In reality it was due to the Belgian myth created during the colonial rule. Western agencies got involved, and the Tutsi fought back, creating chaos. Many flooded across the border into Zaire, and the Tutsi invaded the refugee camps to get revenge. Mobutu fell from power. Troops arrived from many countries, allegedly to help, but in reality to gain access to the country's natural resources, used to produce consumer goods for the West. Altogether, 4.5 million people were killed.

By this point Hamilton was well-honoured. However, by now he supported

• Prof. Michael Ruse, friend of Bill Hamilton
• Kathleen Price, George Price's daughter
• Edward Teller (archive)
• James Schwartz, George Price's biographer
• Bill Hamilton (interviewed 1999)

Interviews and reviews

In May 2011, Adam Curtis was interviewed about the series by Katharine Viner in The Guardian,^[5] by the Register^[6] and by Little Atoms.^[7]

Catherine Gee at The Daily Telegraph said that what Adam Curtis reveals, "is the dangers of human beings at their most selfish and self-satisfying. Showing no compassion or consideration for your fellow human beings creates a chasm between those able to walk over others and those too considerate – or too short-sighted – to do so."^[8]

John Preston also reviewed the first episode, and said that although it showed flashes of brilliance, it had an "infuriating glibness too as the web of connectedness became ever more stretched. No one could dispute that Curtis has got a very big bite indeed. But what about the chewing, you ask. There wasn't any – or nothing like enough of it to prevent a bad case of mental indigestion."^[9]

Andrew Anthony published a review in The Observer and The Guardian, and commented on the central premise that we had been made to "believe we could create a stable world that would last for ever" but that he doesn't "recall ever believing that 'we' could create a stable world that would last for ever", and noted that: "For the film-maker there seems to be an objective reality that a determined individual can penetrate if he is willing to challenge the confining chimeras of markets and machines. Forget the internet tycoons. The Randian hero is Curtis himself."^[10]

Music

Curtis's style is typified by the use of frequent and often incongruous cuts of film and music, often lasting only a fraction of a second, in a technique similar to sampling. Music used in the documentary includes:

See also

• Darwin among the Machines

References

External links

• All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace at BBC Online
• All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace at
  IMDb
• Teaser on Adam Curtis's blog
• Longer promotional video on Adam Curtis's blog
• Curtis, Adam (29 May 2011). "How the 'ecosystem' myth has been used for sinister means". The Observer. This article by Adam Curtis in The Observer complements the second episode.