Gravity Will Take Us All

Zeno Gries

Artwork Description:

Norbert Wiener, the originator of cybernetics, has collapsed while on a lecture trip. As the view starts moving up and flies over the streets of Stockholm, a dreamy and at times delirious introspection into his mind is heard. The film constructs a fictionalized account of Wiener’s final moments in Stockholm in 1964 to examine cybernetics and its future implications for humanity, society, and technology. Cybernetics was conceived by Norbert Wiener as a unifying theory to account for both human and machine behavior. By modeling organisms and machines as comparable systems, it laid the philosophical foundations for the later development of AI. Wiener’s monologue consists of original audio from his lectures and a speculative text, spoken by an AI-generated approximation of his voice. Memories of his childhood are interwoven with his thoughts: how the nervous system functions like a computational apparatus, how identity is a pattern of potentially reproducible information, how machines can learn. The film comments on his ideas visually, filming Stockholm from high above. This non-human perspective suggests overview and control: everything appears legible and interconnected. Until the drone falls at the moment of his death and that fantasy of mastery is lost. Distinctions between humans and machines become blurry. Who is speaking? While Wiener was critical of automation and its effects on humans and society, his work nonetheless enabled technologies such as LLMs, systems now set to replace humans in work and emotional life. Who has agency? Is it the creator of a theory or the theory itself?

Project Collaborators:

Crew Camera: Björn Olin Music: Carl Michael von Hausswolff Sound Design: Katarina Pichler Electron Microscopy Imagery: Zachary Tong Script Editing: Res Sigusch Best Boy: Jarno Asmus Cast Norbert Wiener: Michael Segerström Margaret Wiener: Inger Sehlqvist Voice of Margaret: Carolin Mylord Voice of Bystander: Michael Segerström