“The Last Job on Earth” takes place in one of those nebulous near-future worlds so beloved by fiction. In it, the world is 99.99 percent automated. Instead of a utopia or dystopia, it presents something that is pretty much in between. The tolls of automation are more internal than external.
Made by Moth Collective in collaboration with The Guardian’s “Sustainable Business” section, “The Last Job on Earth” is about the travails of Alice, who is the only person with what we’d recognize as a job. What is nice about this short is that the trouble isn’t being oppressed by the machine, it’s the isolation. Alice’s inability to turn to another human being when things go wrong.
The article tied to this short is optimistic, but there’s still something melancholy about the animation, which is lovely. And rings more emotionally true.
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