Last week we shared a photo from the set of the upcoming adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s sci-fi novel Ender’s Game, which gave us a look at the Ender’s world, or more specifically, his cluttered bedroom. This latest photo gives us a look at how the military is able to view Ender’s world, via the monitor implanted on the back of his neck.
(Though it probably shouldn’t need to be said, mild spoilers ahead if you haven’t read the book!)
Ender’s Game is set in the future where humans have been involved in a war with an alien race, and children are recruited to attend “Battle School.” In order for the military to determine which kids qualify for the school, the children are implanted with monitors, which allow the military to watch them from inside their heads.
The latest photo posted on the Ender’s Game Blog gives us a look at the monitor on the back of a child’s neck.
It’s small, metal, and it looks like it might light up. The book begins with Ender getting his monitor removed, so it’s very possible we’re looking at the back of lead actor Asa Butterfield’s head.
The caption does talk about the technology featured in the book, mentioning handheld tablets like iPads, which I’m guessing is a reference to the “desks” the kids use in the story...
Though Ender’s world is one worth saving, it sometimes comes with a price. The novel was amazingly prescient about a great many things: remote controlled drone wars, the internet, the influence of blogging, hand held computing tablets like the I-Pad, and of course, electronic surveillance implants. Implanted tracking and monitoring chips are no longer a science fiction concept. They exist now. And one day, they may be as advanced as the monitor implanted into Ender, which allows Colonel Graff to “see through his eyes” and know: HE’S THE ONE.
Technology has indeed come a long way since Card’s novel was published in 1985. There’s a creepy-factor with the monitors, as they allow the military to survey pretty much everything the monitored subject sees and hears, even if the subject is too young to understand what they’re witnessing. Though it's meant to monitor the child, it basically turns a child into a spy.
Creepy or not, it’s exciting to get a look at this one piece of technology. Hopefully we’ll get a glimpse of more soon!
Ender’s Game arrives in theaters November 1, 2013. More information on the film can be found in our Blend Film Database.
