All Watched
Over by
Machines of
Loving Grace

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace is a 2011, three-part documentary made by Adam Curtis, for the BBC.

The three ﬁlms trace the emergence of what might be called our current speculative, bio-mechanoid economy. Employing brilliantly cut-up found/archive footage, narrative tightness and horse’s mouth interviews, a world-wide history unfolds, both weird and deeply unsettling.

It is a “buzzing, blooming” evolution involving hippies, computer scientists, heads of state, bankers, liberals, mercenaries, conservatives, authors, biologists, and every stripe of utopian; all of whose irrationally exuberant faith in some version of stability (whether biological, computational, political or ideological) yields transcendental shortsightedness — continually plunging the globe into enslavement and chaos. Ultimately a masterly piece of film making — ingeniously assembled, intimate, frighteningly dark, and jauntily humorous — a staggeringly relevant construction. The horror! Oh the complexity!

1 — Love and Power

2 — The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts

3 — The Monkey in the Machine and the Machine in the Monkey

Additional resources

This page is a tribute; it is not affiliated with Adam Curtis or the BBC