Blog #21 - The Time Macine

In the film The Time Machine, the theme of time travel was present. It made me question the place of time travel in our society. In the case of this movie the main character used the machine to go and see what the future holds and what lessons he might learn so he can pass on the knowledge. He also used it to go back and help the people rebuild their society. I think that in our society we would use it for negative and selfish reasons. I don't even think that we should have any business going into the future and past even to learn from it because I believe that everything happens for a reason and we shouldn't be altering history to make it to our liking. I thought that the storyline of this movie was very clever in the way that it went in a loop and then went back into the future. Besides that I thought that it was a pretty decent movie. The monsters that lived underground were creepy and freaked me out.

Blog #20 - Final Blog

i think that the most important thing I learned in your class had to do with the Frankenstein complex. During this unit we discussed that to have this complex meant that you were afraid of what you create or the possibility/knowledge of what you could create. I realized that in life sometimes this fear holds us back from things that could bring us further along in life or give you a life lesson. Then it made me think of all of the missed opportunities that I have passed.

I came into this class with the thought that all science fiction was about aliens and time traveling. I have learned about all of the different elements that come into play in science fiction. I learned of Extrapolation and the possibility of all of the cool gadgets that could come into play. I also learned about xenophobia and frankenstein complex and how these fears control our actions and how it plays into the storyline of science fiction stories.

My favorite unit this semester was the Frankenstein complex unit. I liked this unit the most because I enjoyed all of the short storied that we read during this time. I also really liked the episode of X-Files that we viewed during class. In general I loved watching the episodes and movies that you picked out because I feel like they complimented what we learned in class nicely.

Blog #19 - City on the Edge of Forever / Carl Sagan

                In City on the Edge of Forever, a point is brought up about our impact on the timeline of history if we were ever able to travel forwards or backwards in time. This episode of Star Trek shows how one action might change the entire history. In some cases, interaction with one person might have no effect but in some it might change an entire outcome. Another issue that was brought up was the notion that when we travel in time, we cannot be in two places at once. In this episode, the main characters are only gone from the others for a couple of seconds, but for those seconds they only existed  in one place at a time.

                In the article Carl Sagan brings up the point that all of us are time travelers in some sort of way because we are all going further into the future with every day we live. I don’t think that people really think of this concept because we don’t normally think of living our everyday lives as time traveling. I agree with Sagan’s thoughts about time traveling in the past. I don’t think it’s something to be messed with because it might mess with our own existence and fate/destiny wouldn’t be present. I also believe that we cannot simply go back in time to kill our grandfather’s. If we were somehow able to do this I think that somehow the universe would prevent it because there always has to be a root of a cause.

Blog #18 - Sound of Thunder / All You Zombies / Into the Universe with Steven Hawking

In Into the Universe with Steven Hawking, a question about whether or not time travel is actually possible arises. In my opinion, I think it will eventually become possible due to our constant discoveries and inventions in the field of science. But, if it does become possible in the future I think that there would be a major downfall. For example, being stuck wherever you are dropped off by the time machine.

In the short story All You Zombies, It raises up the point of if will we be able to see ourselves if we were able to travel backwards and forwards in the future. I think that if we could go backwards in the future that there would be a possibility of seeing ourselves because it would be apart of an event that already happened. But in contrast, I believe that if we were to travel into the future we wouldn't be able to see ourselves because we haven't been through that part of our life yet.

In A Sound of Thunder, it implies that time travel is a very risky thing and shouldn't be messed with. I totally agree with this concept because I believe that everything happens for a reason and we shouldn't be messing with what has happened and what is going to happen the future. If we had the choice to go and change something that we didn't like I don't think it would be with it because then we wouldn't learn from it.

I really enjoyed watching the film and reading A sound of Thunder. I didn't like reading All you Zombies because it was kind of hard to follow.

Blog #17 - I Borg

This episode of Star Trek raises up many questions about our relationship with robots. The first one is 'What makes a human a human and what makes a robot a robot?' In the movie we see a young Borg transform into an individual named Hugh. At first most of the crew saw him as strictly a robot but as time went on they came to the realization that he had thoughts and feelings just like humans. Like them, I believe this is the aspect that defines someting as a living thing. Individuality in Hugh was first seen as a bad thing by the ship's crew. They all become too attached to Hugh. This brings up another question 'What can robots do to weaken our strrength?' In this episode the crew's weakness was becoming aware of Hugh's emotions and sympathizing with him. I don't think that this would have happened as soon as it did if he was in any other form. His human-like apparence made them want to help heal him so he could return to the ship. I thought that a great point was given when two of the shipmates were having a fencing match. It shoed how being concerned with others emotions might end up hurting you in the end. Good thing it was the opposite in the episode. The last question I want to bring forth is 'Do robots deserve to have the same rights as we do?' In the case of hugh I believe that we should accept his wants and needs because of his developed feelings. I totally agreed with the crew for letting Hugh keep his memory because it wouldn't be fair to take all of that away from him. My favorite part of this episode was at the very end when Hugh was about to leave when he looked over. It shoed that the Borg population did have hope in becomeing more like Hugh.

Blog #16 - Reason, Isaac Asimov

Reason by Issac Asimov, is a classic example of frankenstein complex. In the story, Cutie a robot made and proggramed to take over the starship Takes Powell and Donovan out of power. He claims that he is superior to the humans and starts claiming to be "the prophet". He doesn't let the two men touch the controls and this makes them fear that the robot became disfunctional. I think that this was scary part of the story because it showed the possibility of robots programmed to have higher thinking to have the notion that they are more intelligent and superior to us and that they should be in charge. The other scary part was that the men couldn't even control the beam in order to keep Earth safe. The story also brought up the idea of faith and how we blindly follow what we read in books, instead of going by personal experience. I thought that the story came to a good ending. It suprised me that even though it may have seemed that the robot wasn't following the three rules of robotics; he had good intentions and saved Earth and the ship. I didn't really like this short story compared to the others, it seemed too slow-moving to me.

Blog #15 - Star Trek: The Next Generation Measure of a Man

In this episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation of a Man, Data and the crew explore the idea of what characteristics define and separate humans from robots. When the man comes and tries to take Data away, almost everybody opposes. Data is very similar to humans. He has the same emotions, actions, and he was even made to loook like a human. But, why would man make a robot in the image of themselves? I think it would stir up a bunch of contraversy . Would we give the robots the same rights as us? I hope we don't get to this point. It would fear me to see them taking over our job market when we hardly have any jobs to distribute for ourselves. If we do make a robot that has human-like emotions I think it would be the result of an experiment gone bad. Unlike all of the short stories that we read in class, this episode is kind of the opposite of what we would expect in a frankenstein complex story. In this episode, data is not feared by his crew mates; he is looked upon as a key member of the starship. I think one of the main messages of this episode was to have an open mind to the advancements we are making in the terms of technology. Overall, I liked watching Star Trek. I thought it was a very well thought out episode.

#14 - EPICAC, Eyebem, and Mimicry

EPICAC was my favorite short story that we read during this unit. I found it weird how EPICAC was a machine designed to solve complex problems and how it ended up having human-like feelings. This made me ask myself "As scientists start programing robots to become smarter, is this going to eventually lead to them acting and feeling like we do?" It seems like a very far-off idea right now but I think that it could be very possible in the future.

In Eyebem, I found it weird how the robot seemed t think it was superior to humans. I also found it strange how they were sending robots out into the wild. To me, when I think of the wild I usually don't connect it to be inhabited by robots. In the end of this short story I found it ironic how he was the one who was struggling to survive instead of Mark. You sense the jealousy that Eyebem has towards Mark and his ability to adapt to nature.

Even though Mimicry isn't a traditional frankenstein complex story, it still follows a lot of the same elements of the genre. The main character Fen, becomes uneasy of the robotic servant that her father created to replace her when she married Frank. She becomes aware of its desire to mimic and become her. The robot starts to desire a life as the main character and uses a spell to transform herself into a human. This story kind of scared me because it brought up the idea of the robot having feelings of jealousy that ultimately made the robot try and ruin it's master's life.

Blog #13--Post-Modern Prometheus X-Files

In this episode of x-files a creature called "The Great Mutato" was created by Dr. Pollidori. His father saved this creation and attempted to raise the creature himself. It seemed as though the doctor discarded him because he saw him as a failure and didn't know the potential that he held. I think this connects with humans because sometimes we fail and we immediately try to get rid of this failure because we don't see it as something to use as a positive opportunity. I think the doctor was also very afraid of his creation. This also connects with the Frankenstein complex because we are sometimes afraid of our own power and knowledge. I thought it was kind of neat how the father took in "The Great Mutato" and raised him instead of being afraid. I think this shows how it is in some people's character to be confident in themselves and in their actions and make the most out of everything. In general, I actually liked this episode of X-files. I liked how it was very comical at times.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers Blog #12

In Invasion of the Body Snatchers, most of the town starts to notice their friends and family start to seem like they aren't themselves. The little boy fears being alone with his mother because he knows something is terribly wrong with her so he had to spend the night with his grandma. Also, there was that one lady where her uncle became very different. Even though these people couldn't find anything out of the ordinary with their actions, they could notice the lack of warmth and emotions that they usually had. I think that they saw this missing and became afraid that they would become the same way. They didn't even know the cause of this madness until the same thing was happening to them. This movie reminded me of The Monsters are Due on Maple Street. In both films, the neighbors feared each other because of the presence of the aliens. In both, the aliens made the humans act abnormally and become suspicious of each other. I agree with this film crossing genre boundaries. I think that it could also be considered a suspense and romance movie. In most of the plot we follow the two main characters as they confide in and fall deeper in love with each other. It also is very nerve wracking so it could be considered as a suspense movie.

Blog #11 -- Random Sample &The King of the Beasts

Random Sample was a little confusing to begin with. I think its about a young girl and how her brother and her saw a spaceship land while playing with some ants. I think she was sent to a psychologist because the adults didn't believe that she saw aliens. It shows that they hardly know nothing about the aliens and how all of this unknown information grows fear inside if them. I thought it was weird how the little girl and her brother started to beat the alien up because it wasn't paying attention to him. The alien only seemed to be interested in the wildlife. I think one underlying message in this short story is that us as humans think that we are completely in control of earth and tend to overpower nature when we should be trying to protect it and let it strive. I thought it was creepy in The King of the Beasts how they were growing clones of different species of animals. It makes me wonder what happened to the human race that made it become extinct. I also wonder what the dominant species is if humans aren't in control. It seems like they fear humans in this short story. I question wether they fear us for what we did or for what little knowledge they might have of us.

Blog #10 -- Planet of the Apes

The theme of Xenophobia appears in the film through the apes fear of the humans. This is also the same for the men who land back on Earth. The apes fear the humans because they were brought up to do so. The higher authority told them to fear the humans because they knew of the destruction that they brought upon themselves that ultimately ruined their society. This gave the apes a chance to evolve and become more advanced. This is why the humans were afraid, because when they left earth it wasn't normal for apes to be so advanced.

Planet of the Apes shows us that no matter how different the society, there is always going to be distinctions within it. There is always going to be people who stand for different things in a society. And people are always going to be discriminated because of their differences. I think that apes and humans were created equal but our mindset doesn't let us get over the little differences that we might have.

I think that Planet of the Apes has a message that sometimes it's alright to follow authority. In the apes' case they did find bliss in ignorance. They were protected from the information by the leaders. I think that the apes should be told of the world that came before theirs. If they were to have this knowledge I believe that they would be able to better understand the humans and maybe prevent another end of the world to happen.

Ender's Game #4

It surprised me that the identity of ender’s siblings wasn’t disclosed to the public. But then as the story progressed, I understood why they weren’t revealed. They were crucial to the war that was happening on earth and they were the some of the only ones strong enough to lead the people. People would feel uneasy if their real age was found out because adults naturally think that they should be smarter than children. I agree with Ender when he was with Valentine and he expressed his worries about defeating the buggers when he doesn’t even know anything about them. I think it’s totally unrealistic to conquer something you can’t understand in the most basic form. I don’t know if the people at the battle school don’t know anything about the buggers or if they are simply filtering all of the information they know away from the kids. I still think that it would have benefited them. I didn’t like how they set up Ender and the commanders in the end and lied about their battles being just a game. In my opinion, I think that Ender could have dealt with the pressure. It surprised me how Ender went back to the tactics he learned during Battle School and used them to win the war with the buggers. I thought it was kind of cool how Ender came to understand the buggers. I think that the government should have put in more effort to understand them so they all didn’t have to die due to people’s fear of them. I wonder where Ender ended up putting the cocoon because it implies that he did find a place to put it.

Enders Game #3

It is very apparent in the beginning of chapter 10 that the Colonel and commander are rushing to get Ender ready for battling with the aliens. They think that the war with the aliens is going downhill. Ender provides to be the only hope they have to win the war. I think that they put unnecessary stress on Ender and the children at the school. They don’t have time to be and act like children. It is unfair to treat them like adults even though they have a higher level of thinking than most of them. This shows again how helpless and afraid they feel because of the presence of the aliens. Ender shows a lot of strong leadership qualities in these two chapters. He takes a group of kids who are inexperienced in battle and leads them to victory in every battle. He becomes a strong and respectable character in order to gain the attention and respect of his soldiers. He gives them high expectations and expects nothing less. And the last quality of a leader he has is understanding. He knows the limit of his soldiers and knows what exactly they are going through. I think Ender showed extreme intelligence when he went through his last battles at the school. The teachers rigged the battles to his disadvantage and yet, he always came out victorious.

Blog #9

In The Monsters are Due on Maple Street, the neighbors getr paranoid about each other being aliens. They go after and put blame on eachother in order to put reassurance within themselves. They don't want to live in fear with people who are close to them like their neighbors. We as humans, usually fear the unknown and different and all of the possibilities that come with it. We live in this fear and let it eat us up until it destroys us and the people whom we surround. I thought it was horrible how all of the neighbors went crazy because they were too xenophobic. There wasn any threatening that people were doing. The power went out and this started the whole chain of events. I really enjoyed this video. I thought it was neat how they showed the aliens in the end and how they were purposely going to every Maple Street to see how the people reacted when the power went out. I didn't expect this ending at all.

To be honest, Muse creeped me out. I find it weird how the slug tapped into his thoughts and conversed with him that way. This story reminded me of a book I read called Host. In both stories the main character has an alien that taps into their thoughts. The only difference is that in Host, the alien controls the persons thoughts completely. I cannot decide weather or not the slug in Muse controls his thoughts completely or if he combines his thoughts with the main characters. We cannont tell because the character wouldn't know if he was being controlled or not. I didn't like how the father didn't accept his son's choice to have the slug with him. It shows that we are afraid of being controlled by the unknown.

Ender's Game #2

In chapters 6-9, the presence of the fantasy game proves to be a reflection of Ender's most personal thoughts and feelings. The giant symbolized Ender's obstacles in school that he needed to overcome in order to perform to his fullest potential. The mirror with the image of his brother in it symbolizes how Ender couldn't get over the fact that he was "murderous" like his older brother. In the game and in his personal life, he decides to "kiss the snake" in other words; accept this part of character and use it to his advantage. In these chapters, we see ender grow as a leader. He manages to use his intelligence to win over his peers. For instance, in one of his first battles he figures how to make it so the laser beam only paralyzes his legs so he is able to shoot at the opposing team to prevent his team from taking a loss. He also assembles a group to practice his combat skills with and has many under and higher classmates join in to be trained by him. It really surprised me when the point of view changed to that of Valentine and Peter's. In my opinion, I think that Peter is using Valentine to get the power to rule earth. In the past he was very power-hungry; there is no way that he is willing to share the power with Valentine.

Blog #8 (Puppet Show)

I didn't really enjoy this short story. I found that it was hard to differentiate the characters. I thought it was really suprising that the burrow was the alien in the end. Throughout the short story you were expecting to know how the story was going to end. I think it was sad how the people failed the test. They were trying to attach themselves to something that was in a way sort of similar to themselves instead of being open to every possibility. If I was in the same positin I don't think that I would've passed either because the ending totally took me by suprise. I think this story says a lot about our society and how we are programmed at a young age to expect certin things in life. It isn't benificial at all to have this mindset because you will miss out on certain things in life. I found it interesting how the main character had blue hair and eyes and red skin. I don't think he would be accepted in our society because usually when people are born with "deformities" they are often picked out of the crowd and juged by the masses.

Ender's Game #1

I have enjoyed Enders Game this far. I find it very interesting how Ender seems to act so much like an adult. He always knows the future actions of those around him and has a very deep knowledge of technology. I keep wondering what the people who are in charge of Ender's new school are trying to train him for. We as readers know that there is a presence beyond humans in this book but we don't exactly know what these aliens are doing to threaten the humans. To me, it seems that they don't even know much about the "buggers"and are just blindly fighting them because they are afraid of how different they are from themselves. This misunderstanding is shown in the first chapter when Ender is playing buggers and astronauts with Peter. He questions if the aliens play games like the one he plays with his brother. This again, shows that there is this complete lack of knowledge about the aliens. I kind of connected with Ender and his Relationship with his brother and sister. Sometimes I get into fights with my older sister like he does with Peter, but in the end I know we have relationship like he has with Valentine where we would do anything for each other.

Forbidden Planet

With the parts that we did watch of Forbidden planet, I think it does fit our class definition of science fiction because it is set in the future, space and has some advanced technology. I didn't really like the part I watch. I found it a little bit confusing and hard to follow. I can see how other works of science fiction took ideas from this movie.

Repent, Harlequin

In this short story, it had elements of being set in a hopeless future where being on time is crucial. The story is very believable because there is the possibility that someone might take over our society and set limits to our daily lives. That idea itself is a very scary concept. The Ticktockman serves to be the mysterious alien-like man who has the power to end any persons’ life at any given moment. This story didn’t have as many clear elements of science fiction as the stories that we have read in the past. This short story did have some extrapolations. A few examples are; stiktytes, finks, fallaron, and a Betillon system. None of these extrapolations were really explained in detail. I liked the concept of the piece. It made me think about how we; as humans, are tied to time and how important it is to us. I think That the Harlequin’s philosophy about ignoring the hands on the clock and living your life without restrictions was very refreshing. The only thing I didn’t like was that the storyline was a little hard to follow.

Sales Pitch

In “Sales Pitch”, there are elements of robots and space travel apparent in the storyline. The robots seem to have taken over the planet and the people fear the power the robots have gained. Mr. Morris, the main character uses a space ship to travel to his job that is located on a planet far away from earth. Everything seems to be moving fast in their society. An example of extrapolation in this piece is the robots that follow the people in the streets. Forcing them to listen to their sales pitches and consider buying their products. Another example is the ads that were placed everywhere in space. They seemed to be very distracting and overbearing. To me, they seemed to be the problem behind many of the accidents that were happening along Morris’s commute. One last example of extrapolation that was present was the fasrad. The fasrad could do all of the normal things humans could do. When the fasrad was first introduced in the story I though it was the robot’s first step to take over the world. I thought that this story was alright. It was kind of boring throughout the beginning and middle. Even though I didn’t like these two parts of the story, I still though that the author ended it in a very interesting way that I never expected.

There will come Soft Rains

This short story was believable according to the time of place that it took place. We as humans expect the future to be filled with advances in everyday life. The house in this story had devices that would make everyday life more manageable. I hope that in the future we have inventions like these but I honestly think that 2026 is too soon to see such changes. I also hope that we don’t see too much reliability in technology because if we do we might see the human population become lazy and have less purpose in life. The only thing that was missing from our definition is extra terrestrials and space/time travel. What it lacked in those aspects it made up in things like technology, robots, and the setting of the story (year 2026).

A couple of extrapolations were found throughout the story. For example on the first page there was talk of a voice clock, a breakfast stove, a weather box, a hot washer and tiny robots that cleaned the house. As a whole, all of these extrapolations give the reader a sense of being in the future where we would expect more simplicity in life. If the extrapolations weren’t present then I think this piece would lose its image of being science fiction.

I really enjoyed this story. It kind of made me wonder how reliant we are going to be on technology and how we are already so reliant on it. It was kind of sad reading towards the end because the house was so advanced that it seemed it had feelings. For example, it reading the poems even though everyone was gone and making meals for the family it missed. The line of the poem that went, “not one would mind, neither bird nor tree, if mankind perished utterly” made me think about our place in life as humans and our impact on the world.

Events Proceeding the Helvetican Renaissance

According to our class definition of science fiction, "Events Proceeding the Helvetican Renaissance" fits our description. The short story was very believable and could possibly happen in the future. It also had elements like space travel, time travel, robots, and other science based things we would expect in the future. The story had a bunch of examples of extrapolation. For example, on page 2 a “scanlid” was mentioned. This invention seems like it would be possible to replicate in the future. With all of the examples of extrapolations as a whole, I think they make the story more believable in being classified as science fiction. It makes the story seem set in the future and it also makes the story more interesting. I enjoyed reading this piece. I liked all of the inventions that the author put in. I also wasn’t disappointed by the ending. The sudden twist also took me by surprise and make the reading more enjoyable.

Homelanding and Cause and Effect

In “Homelanding” by Margret Atwood, the language is very mysterious and only describes things halfway. When describing characteristics, the author chose very unordinary words to describe the creature. For example, to describe the fur on the creature she chose to describe it as being similar to a “species of seaweed”. The last thing that Atwood does is make it seem like we are the aliens that came onto the world she described. All of these elements successfully illustrate elements found in science fiction. In the Star Trek episode that we viewed in class there was always the element of the unknown. Whether it being why the ship blew up or how the ship got stuck in the repeating time loop; we never knew what was going on until the end. Other things that were present were a robot, a brown creature that I couldn’t figure out the species, and the fact that they were on a spaceship traveling through outer space. All of things were effective elements of science fiction.

I think that you choose these pieces because they showed that yes, physical elements are important in portraying the science fiction genre; but also, things less noticeable like the unknown, description, and perspective are very important. These pieces do hold up to my definition as science fiction because there are a lot of elements of science fiction in them. I didn’t really like the short story that we read because I like to read things that have more of a storyline and more action. But, I guess it was alright. I really liked watching Star Trek. My best friend really loves the show and sometimes talks about it so I’m glad I had the chance to view an episode. I liked the storyline and it was very interesting.

Science Fiction Blog 1

Hello, my name is Dakota Giroue. I have one older sister and a younger sister and brother. I'm really close to my mom and older sister. I am coordinated in no way whatsoever so I don't usually like to do sports. In my spare time I love to read and watch movies with my friends and family. My favorite thing to do is to go shopping. My closet is filled many pairs of shoes. My family has banned me from buying me more after they gave me 6 new additions for Christmas. When I was a child, Star Wars highly impacted me. I used to watch it almost on a daily basis and I swear I own almost every action figure that came out. I remember playing out scenes from Star Wars with my cousins in my backyard whenever they came over to visit. To me, science fiction tells stories about supernatural beings in a setting that is make-believe and/or set in the future.