Dreams and Nightmares of Future Tech

Surrogates
Robert Venditti

Robert Venditti is no stranger to the social aspects of virtual lifestyles. Inspired in graduate school by "Cybergypsies," which chronicles the sociological aspects of people addicted to the internet, and armed with classics like "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" and "1984," he began writing in May 2002. The resulting graphic novel, The Surrogates, explores a similar world. For those not pathologically addicted to online worlds, "at some point with online gaming, poker, Second Life, or other online life, you have to get up and go out to live your life," Venditti describes, "but in the world of The Surrogates, you don't ever have to stop."

Surrogates are virtually linked android representations of the user, who sits comfortably at home. Complete sensory emersion takes place through a device that rests on the temples of the users. The reasons for owning a surrogate expand upon the current desires for a virtual self -- control over body-image, access to distant locations, or a myriad of other reasons -- that are conveyed to readers through product advertisements woven between chapters. But not everyone can afford a surrogate and the dystopia abounds with the rich interplay society and the cybernetic technology.

In the world of The Surrogates, people never stop getting input and experience from a disembodied source. For many with cyberspace lifestyles, such a non-corporeal existence is not a great step from their current life. Already in post-production, a Hollywood feature film starring Bruce Willis and Ving Rhames, called simply Surrogates, will be released September 25th of this year.

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