Lo and Behold

Part history, part technical primer, part panegyric, part cautionary tale, part speculative rumination, and all Werner Herzog, this episodic documentary about the Internet carries the filmmaker's distinctively idiosyncratic voice—and is all the better for it. Divided into chapters, Lo and Behold begins with the birth of the Internet on October 29, 1969, when a UCLA student tried to communicate via computer with another device at Stanford. While typing the word “login” he only got as far as “lo” before the connection crashed, but those two letters marked the start of a revolution. From this launching point, the film takes a scattershot approach, serving up discussions with aging pioneers of the World Wide Web, an eccentric philosopher of hypertext, and a family whose personal tragedy was turned into public torment by information placed online; observing demonstrations by scientists teaching robots to learn; and making visits to both a clinic in the woods treating online gaming addicts and an enclave where folks sensitive to cellular waves have come to escape. All of this culminates in the question: what next? How will artificial intelligence develop? Is the Internet achieving self-consciousness, and if so, what are the ramifications? Will humans grow increasingly isolated? Will sunspots disrupt the Internet, with dire results? Should we colonize Mars? Herzog addresses all of these matters in his usual wryly quizzical tone, and though one scientist worries that computers might eventually destroy critical thinking, Lo and Behold suggests otherwise—as long as there are people around who are endlessly curious. Extras include an interview with the director. Highly recommended. (F. Swietek)