FM · Film · 2006 · 84 min
Idiocracy
Mike Judge
The machines
Everything is automated and nobody remembers how any of it works.
What people do all day
Watch television, eat, litigate, attend monster-truck events. The infrastructure runs on autopilot and degrades slowly because no one retains the competence to maintain it.
Pattern
Enforced idleness — Everything is provided, so nothing is left to do — and that turns out to be unbearable.
Note
Cruder than WALL-E and blames the wrong thing — the premise is hereditary intelligence, which is both bad science and beside the point.
Same answer, different work
- The Time Machine · Book, 1895
- The Machine Stops · Book, 1909
- Last and First Men · Book, 1930
- With Folded Hands · Book, 1947
- Childhood's End · Book, 1953
- WALL·E · Film, 2008