by William Manson / July 16th, 2021
Director Werner Herzog’s documentary
Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (2016) begins with “Internet pioneer” Leonard Kleinrock, who welcomes us into the, yes, actual laboratory where it was “born”! To Wagnerian strains in the soundtrack, Kleinrock complacently calls the place “a holy shrine”– quite a revealing phrase for this acolyte of possibly the last of the false religions. We then hear another “pioneer,” Bob Kahn, who matter-of-factly notes his early involvement in the Pentagon development of Arpanet (DARPA).
Is Herzog’s primary intention satirical? I fear not. As in his other recent documentaries, he seems to wander about, credulously interviewing often eccentric persons — in this case, cyber-tech promoters with obvious vested interests. Herzog’s wandering — I wouldn’t call it a coherent narrative — jumps from one thing to another without any logical continuity, and he passively allows cybertech developers free air time to pronounce, with breathtaking