Of the topics we have went over I think that the ones discussing the distinction between human and non-humans as the most interesting. We began with Frankenstein, in which a creature composed of human parts and has a brain as intelligent as a human is treated as a monster. The creature is even treated worse because of his human traits, as if his attempt to be human made him more monstrous.

In the middle of the course we went over Bladerunner which muddled the line between human and non-human. Because each replicant was practically a human, except in origin and longevity, I felt that I could sympathize with the replicants more so than I could with the protagonist, Decker. The final scene really brought that sentiment out to light, when Roy speaks his last words after he saves Decker. Roy overcame his lack of humanity and became human by choosing to save Decker, the very man trying to kill him for being a replicant.

It is at this point in the course that I really began to question how much a human life is worth compared to other forms of life. It is applicable because we are moving into an age where technology begins to merge with humanity. Not only are we beginning to implement things like pacemakers, nanomachines, and prosthetic limbs into people, we are also creating AI that are “learning” to be human. So when humans become more machine, and machines become more human what will happen?

Finally we end with the video game “Papers, Please”. Here there is no boundary between human and machine, but between human and human. We are forced in this game to allow and deny entry of people based on their credentials or, later on in the game, how much they are willing to offer. Here we are pressured to evaluate who is allowed to enter the country, and who isn’t. In some cases it’s a matter of life or death, as people with illegal documents or contraband are sent to jail.

This is even more drastic in it’s evoking of the question “How much is human life worth?”. It asks additional questions such as “What makes this person more suitable to be in my country than the next?”. Then it’s a matter of questions of morality as the player is literally subject to playing with the lives of everyone who crosses the border. How can one person hold so much power?

I have found one of the most satisfying elements of the class to be the speed at which the class moves through a variety of texts or concepts that at first seem unrelated. In drawing connections between the different articles and texts I’ve gathered a deeper understanding of what the works have to offer.

There are two main concepts which I would like to explore in the final weeks of the course. The first is the idea of a cyborg. Cyborgs represent a fascinating cross between man and machine, and symbolically, science and the humanities. I believe exploring the scientific and ethical repercussions of integrating machinery with the human body could allow for fascinating discussion in class. The prominence of cyborgs in pop-culture film and television should allow for some great examples for discussion.

The second topic I would love to address is social media. I’ve seen many of my classmates express an interest in studying the topic in addition to myself, and believe it to be exceptionally relevant to our lives as consumers of modern media. I think from a philosophical standpoint this could be a great topic for discussion as there are unique traits as to how social media both brings people together and pushes them apart.

While in the first section we discussed heavily how the thought of technological innovation, in the form of fictional narratives, has shaped how humans viewed ourselves, we really haven’t covered many nonfictional examples where humans measure themselves against machines. It was once thought that chess required uniquely human skills to play, but there now exist computers better than the best chess players, and a similar thing has happened with Go, a Chinese game. In the future, artificial intelligence experts a contemplating other games that, as of now, only humans can play as targets for artificial intelligence. I think it would be interesting to discuss the societal implications when people measure themselves constantly against what machines can do.

I think the topics we have covered in class have focused on a variety of important issues when it comes to technologies’ interaction with literature such as what it means to be human in comparison to machines, the responsibilities of AI creators, human android interaction, digitization of media, and technology’s version of memory.

I would like to talk more about the future of societal integration of robots and androids.  There are many potential benefits to machine integration into society: for example, more convenience, less tedious work, objective performance and execution of tasks. But there are also many potential uncertainties or dangers: level of emotitional intelligence, rebellion against humans, greater intellectual capability. I want to discuss the ethical concerns as well. Should they be held responsible for their actions. Is it right to treat a machine as a humans equal. What role exactly should robots fulfill in our society? Should they be workers, whose sole purpose is to serve humans, or should they be independent, free-thinking beings of their own meant to live in harmony with humans? What limitations should be hardwired/programmed into their “brains”? Or should there be none so they are treated as humans in relation to judicial system? Should they be designed to look like us or should they be clearly distinguishable?

I believe it is fair to say that machines will only become more involved in our lives, but under what conditions and it with what level of autonomy are considerations that must be heavily discussed in this time of AI emergence. I think humans need to establish a set of conventions like in the Little Lost Robot that define the bounds of robots in our society. Some type of protocol will be necessary to maintain peace and order in this new age of society.

Throughout this course, I felt that the most intriguing topic we covered was the dangers associated with the machines we are creating. This mainly surrounded our discussions of Frankenstein and the complications the creation had on society. I think that this topic could be expanded on much more and related to some modern forms of technology. This could include smart cars, smart phones, smart homes, and really any of these technologies which people are becoming increasingly more dependent on. There comes a point where certain aspects of these machines can dominate our world. For example, whenever we have a question, it is nearly instinct to consult google, which usually answers our question but to some degree prevents our mind from wandering. Although these questions are interesting to me, I unfortunately have no readings in mind to promote further thought.

I think it would be interesting for us to talk more about modern issues with technology and also just the role that technology has played in modernizing our society. There is a lot of controversy surrounding technology in general, so I’m curious to hear everyone’s viewpoints. Things like Google Glasses, self-driving cars, etc. We are using technology so much more, integrating it into everything we do, to try and improve even the little things in our daily lives.

Technology has also vastly improved our health and has made strides in medical developments, for example, Stephen Hawking and his computer-based communication. It would be interesting to talk about not only the current technology we have but how it seems to be changing and progressing for the future – what everyone thinks the future will be like with technology.

Another thing I think would be helpful to talk about is to reflect on the course as a whole and on the three sections. Since the final project/paper involves a lot of reflection and making connections between everything we’ve done, it would be nice to hear everyone’s thoughts on how it all connects. Maybe we could brainstorm by taking different texts from the different sections and comparing them. It might help to have people share what they are thinking of creating or writing for the final project, too, so we can hear new ideas, get some inspiration, and give feedback.

I think that it would be interesting to explore the role of robots in our life. Obviously technology keeps improving and humans are getting closer to implementing robots into our lives to make things easier. When we watched Blade Runner and looked at Little Lost Robot it seemed to be focused on the negative aspects of these machines. I think it would be interesting to compare the negatives to the positives. If there are so many negative associations with mixing robots into the human race then why does progress continue to be made? This relates to Frankenstein’s creation of his creature, he never seemed to think about the actions of his creature and it ended up being catastrophic. To do this, it is important to determine what tasks robots would take over if they were introduced to society and if this would benefit people in positive or negative ways? Yes it could make things easier, but would it put people out of jobs? This could be tied back to the course and see if the ideas brought up by the class reflect the ideas of characters that we observed throughout the semester.

I think it might be cool to revisit Agrippa. The entire project is fascinating, and although we read about the aftermath of Agrippa’s release, I think there was a lot to talk about regarding Agrippa itself.

Agrippa is multidimensional. The primary quality of the object—that upon inspection it is destroyed—raises an interesting question of whether an objects existence or the memory of the object is more valuable. A debate about what each of us would do with Agrippa might be a useful way to explore this question.

There are several other aspects of Agrippa to be considered. Gibson calls Agrippa a monument to his father. In what ways does Agrippa pay tribute to Gibson’s father? Additionally, the poem in Agrippa has a nostalgic tone throughout. What might be the purpose of this?

We might also discuss the book aspect of Agrippa. I believe that the DNA sequencing on Agrippa was in reference to the recent attempts to genetically alter organisms (or at least the recent discussion of such an action). In what way does this topic of genetic alteration tie into that which is discussed in the poem? And the physical book of Agrippa was made entirely from hand. Why is that the case?

Agrippa raises a lot of questions, and I feel that we covered it so recently that it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch to resume our discussion of it.

We have discussed in depth the differenced between humanities and sciences, and explored various topics regarding the interaction of people with various forms of mechanics. I think it would be interesting to examine the effect of a complete wipeout of technology. In other words, what would happen if modern people essentially returned to the stone age. I can’t help but wonder and even perhaps be a little concerned about dependence on technology, particularly since we’ve examined how easy it would be for things to go wrong within a mechanism.

Could we please of over transitions one more time in class? I have been working hard to improve my transitions in my papers and I am still struggling to create well structured transitions. Also if we could go over how to use commas and semi-colons well, that would be great. I litter my papers with commas and semi-colons and always wonder if I am using them correctly.

Would you be able to suggest any further reading for the course, or just good books in general? I have liked the books that we have read in class and could really use some good, educational literature while I am on my active duty tour. Other than that, I am happy with the coverage of the books in this course.

For our final writing assignment in this class I am struggling with how section three, “Word Virus,” interplays with the other two sections. Could we possible talk as a class about section three before we begin our final papers and the last parts of our scalar project. That would help me get a better grasp on this section and the course as a whole.