The vaguely stated goal of the bio-dome is “to live in harmony
with nature,” and the conflict centers on establishing a harmonious,
sustainable, homeostatic relationship between humans and their environment. The
dome is regulated by a computer system that gives a readings of the area's
homeostasis levels, warning when they become too low. So what exactly does the
computer mean by this all-important notion of homeostasis?
We could define it as a state of nature that must be preserved in
order to sustain human life. And this state of nature? We could take it is as
an ideal state of nature before human intervention, or rather, a state that can
thrive as if humans didn't exist, in which case the optimization of
nature hinges on the minimization of human impact. We begin to understand that
the dome is not a biological or environmental experiment, but a social one.
That is to say, the dome was formulated with a particular view of acceptable
human practices in mind, and the homeostasis value, with the constant danger of
its falling, is a mode of exerting power over its inhabitants by obliging and
prohibiting certain practices. This is the dialectical counterpart to our
original definition of homeostasis: a state of human nature that must be
sustained in order to preserve the current environment. With this formulation,
we can see that homeostasis is not an objective scientific truth presented by
the supposedly neutral voice of the computer, it is a means of enforcing a
particular lifestyle devised by Dr. Noah. Under the veil of optimization hides
a whole decision making process based on values presented as unchallengeable
scientific fact, which are forced into reappraisal through the radical alterity
of Bud and Doyle.
Given the general reliance on tools and foods that could not be
produced inside the dome, not to mention the very machinery required to create
the simulation of the environment, the sustainability is totally hypothetical.
In this respect, it is very telling that the film pivots on scenes that take
place in air vents and tunnels. The hidden mechanical infrastructure, the
unquestioned requisites of a sustainable environment, are not self-sustaining
at all, but evidence of the artificiality of the state of nature.
A reminder that they are trapped inside an 'as-if': an ideal,
fantasy nature that allows them to act as if the world came ready made for
human habitation, while discounting the extent it must be positively altered,
and ignoring all that is uncontrollable and unalterably inhospitable. This is
why raiding the storage closet of Cheetos and nitrous oxide, while not harmful
to the environment in any way, is offensive enough to have the boys exiled into
the desert – it uncovers an embarrassing secret, while simultaneously flouting
their miserly, hypocritical conservation for a moment of blissful and careless
squandering.
Dr. Noah would like to retain the fantasy that a perfect
environment prescribes a single way of living, in which everyone is calm and
orderly, satisfying only their minimum biological needs, and faithfully serving
their master, who holds the reins of the complex through a centralized
administration system called “homeostasis”. As he explains earlier, “Everything
you did at home, you're forbidden to do here.” Bud mockingly affirms, “Here at
bio-dome, we're dependent on balancing homo's within the system.” The battle
between pleasure and utility takes on homoerotic tones throughout the film,
culminating in the boys being paraded about by a team of buff, half-naked
throne-bearers at a festival of ruinous indulgence. But right after their
victory over the dome, their desire for the girls gets the best of them, and
they dedicate themselves to restoring homeostasis. In the end they successfully
adapt themselves to the demands of the machine, but much to the chagrin of Dr.
Noah, its function has been hijacked by the girls. The technology only acquires
importance for the boys when it becomes directly linked to the girls'
affection, it only acquires power through the aid of sexual leverage. In short,
it becomes a measure of the girls' attraction to the boys, a quantified
desirability value.
Why is the return to 100% not enough to satisfy Dr. Noah? Because
its successful recovery from the festival of joyful squandering, and its
ultimate compatibility with the utterly chaotic and moronic lives of Bud and
Doyle, means that even when functioning properly it falls short of total
administration, and admits the possibility of different social arrangements
(the female scientists are now ready to put out for the boys, but are denied,
perhaps because the act would cause the desirability meter to fall). First they
beat the system through sheer disregard, then they join it for a more thorough
and subtle humiliation that leaves Dr. Noah completely powerless. The impotence
of the machine without female aid and the hijacking of its meaning by these
unwanted characters are enough for Dr. Noah to disown, and seek to destroy, his
entire project: “My creation, I know thee not.”
-Brian Mallace
-Brian Mallace
