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.