Survival of the fittest has always been the mantra regarding the animal kingdom. It used to be for mankind but I am not so sure of it these days. Our gene pool has taken so many hits from various sources. In fact, I recently saw a television program where a scientist was talking about the overuse of antibiotics in our society. He said as a species, mankind has had good bacteria inside of them that dates back eons. With the constant ingestion of antibiotics we are killing off these defense fighters and they will not be passed down to future generations. I find it scary. As it stands now our gene pool produces people that fall on the spectrum from one extreme to the other. I remember there was a kid in elementary school who was different from the rest of us. The questions he would ask in class went over all of our heads and would even stump the teacher. There were students who were book smart, were good at memorizing and testing; but he was so different from us, talking about things that we did not even hear the adults around us ever talk about. I know a 3 year old boy, who when told he had 5 more minutes of playtime before he had to go to sleep, asked what was 5 minutes in a lifetime; it just makes you wonder doesn’t it? This biographical documentary written and directed by Brian Knappenberger (Into the Body, Life After War) was about a boy from one extreme of the human scale. Aaron Swartz was pivotal in the development of basic internet protocol, what we refer to as RSS. He also was the co-founder of Reddit. At a very early age Aaron was already far advanced from any of the other kids around him. This Sundance Film Festival nominee traced Aaron’s life from childhood prodigy to internet activist. I had never heard of Aaron Swartz before; only recently becoming aware of him due to seeing his name in the news. The layout of scenes in this film provided me a clear and easy picture of Aaron’s life. I found the home footage of him as a child quite fascinating as you could see he was someone special. The interviews of family members, friends and peers painted an amazing picture of Aaron’s life; it made watching this movie a highly interesting and fascinating experience. After watching this film is when I really started thinking about the gene pool we all share. What I assumed to be a random process in our development I now question when I see someone like Aaron.
3 1/2 stars
