Since I began writing The Elevator, my Instagram algorithm shifted quite drastically.
From Below Deck Mediterranean scandals, to small robots crashing and burning during dance eisteddfods and self-imploding while lifting weights during the first World Humanoid Games held in Beijing this year.
Small robots, participating in the same events that our world’s greatest athletes train their entire lives to compete in. For me, this does not compute (pardon the pun). Aren’t events like the 100-metre sprint or the hurdles or the weightlifting all about celebrating athleticism and how amazing the human body is?
To me, it’s a deeply human thing. Like giving birth. The human body can do the most phenomenal things.
It’s impossible for me to write this without acknowledging the elephant in the room, which is the sense of impending doom that the news has thrown us: the potential of AI destroying humanity in the next 10 years. An utterly terrifying thought. I can only think about my 5 year old daughter, who is currently surrounded by barely any tech in her world (well, at least we try), whose imagination knows no bounds and she is pure joy. Can we not create without self-destructing?
Unfortunately, like Margot’s CEO position in The Elevator, we are being set up to fail. We are unsafe because particular tech bros and leaders tell us that we are safe. It was only yesterday that Donald Trump referred to this 10-year impending doom as a ‘hoax’.
When Margot enters The Elevator to attend to a PR emergency for the driverless car company that she is the face of, she is 1 day post-partum. Like many women, this corporate universe expects us to be nurturers and carers, but also boss bitches and high-powered career women. And so of course failure in a sense is imminent, because what does it cost us?
Recently I’ve heard the saying “just cry it out on the street and go back into the office” more than once. Because the expectation is you just have to make it work. The three excellent women in The Elevator all behave badly because it’s the only way they can make it work. And so the questions I have tried to ask within the play are: is it all worth it? And where are we going?
As tech giants ‘move fast and break things’, how much do they have to break before they remember that it’s actually humans that have the ability to feel empathy and show kindness and generosity.
At the end of the day, the small robot kicking down hurdles in flames can’t do that. When those at the top tap into a little of those traits that make humans wonderful, perhaps we can work towards creating a world where the 5 year old girls of the world can aspire to be leaders and run companies without having to sacrifice it all to get there.
And a world that still exists in 10 years.
The Elevator is produced by Ensemble Theatre and runs from 18 September – 18 October. Tickets are available here.
