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.