A Techno-Military Takeover in the Social Imagination...

 

Its enough to remember both world wars to get a stark glimpse of what everyday life was like when there was...a military takeover. Did machine technology have a major role then? Yes. And, isn't' it very interesting that media today produces scenarios with plots mimicking exactly that but with newer machines. You may or may not have seen the USA Network series, "Colony" (2016-18). 

As a 'show' it was meant to entertain of course but perhaps to warn; after all, it had an eerie historical element (Nazi occupation of France i.e.). The series was cancelled when it seemed to be riding high in viewership. In fact, it has had petitions since created to bring it back but sadly to no avail. Why? Maybe it was too close to a planned coming scenario to be implemented in your everyday life.

Let's look at the plot for Colony. 

In a dystopian near-future Los Angeles, residents live under a regime of military occupation by an organization known as the Transitional Authority. The Authority serves an extraterrestrial group referred to as the "Hosts", about whom little is known until later in the series (an alien robotic race finds itself hunted, who came to Earth to use humans as allies and labor in their own battle). 

The symbol of the collaborating forces features stylized birds of prey, or raptors, which gives rise to their nickname, the "Raps". The Authority enforces Host policy via militarized police called Homeland Security and nicknamed the "Redhats" for the red helmet cover of their otherwise black tactical attire.

The Hosts took control on a day known simply as the "Arrival". That day began with massive worldwide communication interference and jamming, which came after a weeklong hunt for relevant key figures around the world. Late that day, massive rectangular blocks descended from the sky, linking together to build walls dividing the city. One of these walls, 20 to 30 stories tall, many meters thick and many miles in length, surrounds the central part of Los Angeles, where the series is set. 

Other similar walls have been constructed around neighboring urban areas, called "blocs", with the whole referred to as a "colony". Traffic passes through the walls at heavily secured checkpoints, called "gateways", which allow the Authority to strictly control the movement of people and the distribution of consumables, such as food and fuel, which are rationed. The geographical extent of the alien invasion is unclear, but later scenes in the series shows Authority members from all over the world - hence making the invasion scale worldwide.

A privileged class of elites, drawn by the Hosts from the local population, are denigrated by some bloc residents as collaborators. The ruling forces maintain control through the separation of family members, shoot-on-sight curfews, forced disappearances, random checkpoints, frequent electronic identity checks, limitation of motor vehicle usage (most people walk or ride bicycles), pervasive visual propaganda, slave labor in a place called the "Factory" (later revealed to be located on the Earth's moon to mine radioactive materials), and massive continuous electronic surveillance with both hidden cameras as well as host-provided drone aircraft that launch from hangar bays inside the wall and capable of killing humans by extremely lethal high energy weaponry. 

Some medical problems, such as diabetes, have been "deemed unworthy for treatment" by the Hosts, to cull the population. A resistance movement is referred to as both the "Resistance" and the "Insurgency". An informal barter-based black market has also sprung up, trading in surplus materials and home-produced goods.

In a May 21, 2015, interview with Collider, executive producer Carlton Cuse stated that the show was "conceived as a metaphor for France during the Nazi occupation"^.   

In a separate interview with Entertainment Weekly, co-creator Ryan Condal detailed that the original concept behind Colony was that they "were actually inspired by Nazi-occupied Paris during WWII, where people went on living their lives, having coffee in street-side cafes while Nazi officers marched along the roads". 

Today, we don't need officers to march along roads or walk around towns... just machine technology called drones as we saw in the film Oblivion. 

ONLINE SOURCE:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_(TV_series)