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These are the questions that have bedevilled Jedi scholars for generations: when and where did the Force awaken? Sure, the latest Star Wars movie carries the title The Force Awakens, but clearly it was up and about long before then.

The answer, at least for this galaxy, turns out to be Montreal in 1964. That was where a young Canadian filmmaker named Arthur Lipsett, working for the National Film Board of Canada, created an experimental film called 21-87. The disturbing short, all of nine minutes and 33 seconds, features a hodgepodge of images that include a man acting like a robot; a robot hand picking up a beaker; and a Mercury astronaut in a space capsule.

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It also features a startling snippet of dialogue, taken from a conversation between artificial intelligence pioneer Warren S. McCulloch and Roman Kroitor, another Canadian and the co-founder of IMAX.

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Told by McCulloch that animals and even humans are nothing more than complex machines, Kroitor replied: “Many people feel that in the contemplation of nature, and in communication with other living things, they become aware of some kind of a Force, or something behind this apparent mask which we see in front of us.”