Imagine returning to earth after having been away for so long only to realize that tech has taken over. In Voyager, an animated short, this is exactly what has seemed to happen. The days of humanity seem to be pretty well over in this film, and the discovery of this is something that is very bleak. If there are humans to be found upon the earth any longer then they are very few since none seem to exist in this film, only the memories of a world that was once diverse and rich in a wide variety of people, creatures, and landscapes that defied and enhanced the imagination all at once.
It’s saddening to think that such a fate could eventually befall humans and one that is fantastical in nature since human ego won’t allow any widespread idea to take root that one day we might no longer be here. The world we’ve built and left behind will no doubt survive us and be left as a remnant of what we were, what we valued, and what we believed in, but the idea of humans being able to withstand our own hubris seems a grand joke to which we haven’t yet figured out the punchline. We’re a species that unknowingly seeks to make everything around us obsolete as we search for new and inventive ways to reach the limits of an imagination that we don’t fully understand. What is left behind is what we brought to life to replace the simplicity that we sprang from, the remains of something that we once cherished and then took for granted.
The voyager seems lost, as though she doesn’t really understand what’s going on. Then her cybernetic leg armor, that’s it appears to be anyway, is suddenly hacked or controlled and leads her to a bicycle that’s attached to a contraption that begins to power up the city around once she starts pedaling. Once she does this she eventually find a TV screen that begins to belt out the message we hear in the beginning of the movie, about how humanity has changed, how it will continue, and so on and so forth. These words are haunting since they are being spoken by a voice whose owner is gone and has likely been gone for many upon many years. The sad plight of humanity is that even when we are long gone and returned to dust those things that we treasure now will remain and tel a story of us that might very well be incomplete. Does anyone ever think of that?
Think of history and how it has possibly been rewritten countless times throughout its long and winding course simply because someone that did not enjoy the events of their lifetime decided to change the narrative. What will future generations then think of those of us that live now when they play back the audio, watch the videos, and read the words? Will we be seen as wise and studious people that thought ahead to the future, or will we be a confusing morass of humanity that engineered our own confusion? It’s bound to be a mess any way it goes it would seem.
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