Blog set 8 Gender and Sexuality

This short story "Day Million," by Frederik Pohl is a straight to the point kind of story. It seems that we have some kind of strange cyborgs or robots in the story playing Don and Dora is not a girl genetically speaking. I find that the author played with many different things in this story such as not keeping to the normal love stories as we all would read about. Taking this so called love story into a whole other dimension, the future. In this future sexuality and gender does not mean anything because it can be modified anyway that they want it to be. The way that these characters lives are it seems that sex is a big factor in this story but not in the way we think. Their jobs as I might assume is that Dora is an exotic dancer, maybe at a futuristic strip club and Don job seems as if he is either a prostitute or a sex slave or some sort. These are things that would horrify some people in our world but this is something that is normal in this future. What do you guys think about this future they live in? Are there any humans left? Is there more to the story than what I found?

“When it Changed” by Joanna Russ just blew my mind when I figured out that the earth men that came to Whileaway were the only men there in “thirty generations.” This story was very interesting to find that genetics could be used to achieve a new colony of just women to keep on surviving. The way that they act some of the women is what you would see in a man. They our married the main characters, wives, and these earth men want to give them something they think is missing in their world but they are happily content. There is a big component in the story about sexual equality, so I to assume that this world they lived in was for only woman to finally live and love who they wanted to and not be judged for it. I enjoyed this story. What was a part in this story that interested you?

Blog set 7 Philip K. Dick

    

In “We Can Remember You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick and the adaptation movie of the story “Total Recall” Directed by Paul Verhoeven, have similarities but as always movies that are adapted from stories usually do not stick with all the details. As I read the story it had a different aspect it to it compared to the movie, but it had a unique ending as well. The beginning of the story and the movie were kept similar as for the main character’s name was kept the same but his wife’s role in the story was way more different than in the movie. It seemed no matter how much they tried to erase his memory and implant something else, and that something else already existed in his mind. The story is short and of course in the movie they had to add a lot more to give it a good viewing appeal it related somewhat to the story but did not continue on the same path the story did. On that note adaptation has a positive and negative impact to the story they are adapted from.  I think that the casting decision for Douglas Quail as played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie adaptation was a good casting even though they made Arnold play Douglas a lot more tougher than in the story but it still worked. For example in the story he is a clerk and in the movie he is a construction worker. It seems that in most cases movie adaptations take a different look at the story to show a better picture or sometimes a worse one, in this case it was a good visual to the story. Some questions that I think would have changed the outcome in both movie and story is if the wife acted the same in both such as how she did in the movie sort of to not give away anything or maybe the whole dream about going to mars or being on mars. Either way they both turned out interesting in both cases and I think the adaptation had more action than the story does but of course did you see who was playing the main actor.

Blog set 6 Computers and Virtual Reality

This story was interesting with all the hacker language being used and its view on everything. So as I got from the story was that two war veterans became hackers, and they were good at it. They intended to take Chrome down, but were scared of the mob that it was connected to. This story was a little hard to understand at first with all the technology lingo they use but towards the middle when they meet Rikki, it starts to show what’s going on. Bobby is basically obsessed with this matrix world they are always working in but he has his down falls and the only way up for him is falling for someone new to be his luck. Towards the end they get to their goal of “icing” chrome and becoming rich even though it never was for the money, I think it became about the love triangle that neither of them could admit to. There was a price for Rikki to get the eyes she always wanted but that would be 3 hours of something to never happen or be spoken of again. In the end all three are alone again and even with Jack and Bobby being rich, they just wanted the girl in the end.

     Reading this story “Computer Friendly,” by Eileen Gunn, was a very good one. It was intriguing to find out what they were doing this to these children and why. I found it to be horrifying when they were going to euthanize children who did not pass the personality test as they wanted them to, as if a child with some character is dangerous.  Elizabeth wanting to help her friends out was an amazing thing to see, to have been so brave to journey into dangerous territory where she could be caught and never questioned or seen again. Towards the end I really liked how even Elizabeth wanted to be with her friends and her dog and not want to be different from them. It is a weird place that you have a child that must take tests just to show how influential and intelligent they are to show that they deserve to be a part of this society in which I feel they are all slaves to computer systems. Imagine as the dad who leaves work gets his memory wiped  from what he was doing at work and it takes time to remember who he is all you receive back from your memories are the important parts. The question I have is what they are really hiding, that they must erase your memory every day from work?

Viewing Blog Set 1 "Deep Impact"

   Deep Impact where Earth is doomed to be destroyed by a comet, unless someone stops it (IMDb). This movie came out around 1998 (Mimi Leder) and is 2 hours long. This movie might be old but fits perfectly in the Sci-Fi era that we have spoken and read about in class. This movie can show how people that are in higher authority get the first pick to being able to find shelter and being taken care of during a major crisis.  After they think that the astronauts have failed their mission to destroy the comet, the President of the United States, “declares Marshall Law” (Morgan Freeman). Imagine being one of the people that gets chosen for the lottery that they have commenced to live under ground for 2 years, but there is a price not everyone can go only a million people and that excludes anyone over the age of 50. This means that your grandparents or even your parents if they are of that age would not have the opportunity to live through this horrendous time. As always chaos comes about and it seems that all is doomed. There is tear-jerking moments and there is intense ones as well. I like how the movie shows each characters reactions and all they go through in those devastating moments. As we go towards the end of the movie hope becomes available and heroes come to the rescue as which is one of the tropes we talk about in class, there is always a hero/heroes to conquer the day and save us all, well in this case most of us. I do not want to give anymore spoilers away so here is a trailer of the movie, I hope if you have not seen it, go check it out you might like it.

Blog set 5 Artificial/Posthuman life- forms

  

   Part I of The Culling shows, desperation, admiration, betrayal, and hate. All these combined is crucial pieces to the story and why things are happening how they did. I see how many others look at it that a higher position in society can really change a person especially someone you once knew and not always for the better. It is very inhumane having to put five 16 year olds together to fight to defend their loved ones and if they lose their loved ones die now that is harsh. This story so far reminds me of Hunger games somewhat, such as the hierarchy of the people and the way they live and what they have to do to survive. Overall the story got intense towards the ending of part I and I’m waiting to see what is next for Lucky and Digory.

To think that a Robot you build yourself could take over your ship and treat you as if you were nothing is insane but interesting as well. The technology and scientific happenings in  Reason,  went well with each other. It was interesting at one point when the earthmen were about to give up, they seemed to start to kind of to believe what Cutie was saying that earth was not real. I for one would not have wanted to be in their shoes at that time but when it was time to go I was anticipating their relief to have never come but it did. I feel bad for the Prussian guy that they left with Cutie since he would be there for a couple of weeks they did not tell him how Cutie really was and he was in for a rude awakening. What would you have done if robots took over your command center and did not believe you for anything you say?

Intriguing story this was and reminded me of the movie that was made an adaptation of this story, A.I. It is fascinating and scary as well to know that this advanced technology can one day maybe be possible. Synthank has come up with many different “synthetic life-forms,” (pg.445). Always finding ways to advance humanity by helping them with these A.I. that they built from overcoming obesity to figuring out a way to take away loneliness. It seems that this is only for the privileged, people with money, because at one point in the story Henry says during his speech, “though three-quarters of the overcrowded world are starving, we are lucky here to have more than enough, thanks to population control.” Now we see that David does not know if he is real or not and that means he is truly indeed an A.I. I’m wondering if the story continues on and if the movie takes on from there or the movie does not go along with the story itself, besides those questions I enjoyed the story even though I was expecting a longer story.