TERMS ON THE CYBORG IMAGE

1. BION
2. MEGASTRUCTURE
3. AVATAR
4. TRANSHUMAN
5. SAPIENT
6. WALDO
7. MEGATRON
8. POSITRONIC
9. NANOTECH
10. NEUTRONIUM
11. SUPERLUMINAL
12. GROKKING
13. SOPHONT
14. HUMAN-LIKE

Ex - Machina follow up

While I don't have a lot of experience viewing Japanese anime, I can say that I fell for the Ex Machina  right away. I love it! The premise is based on the actions of a paramilitary task force knwn as E.S.W.A.T., and is set in 2199, a futuristic utopia that includes humans, cyborgs, and bioroids (bioengineered humans). The action scenes are brilliant and the graphics spectacular, so much so that it is hard to look away from the screen. I give the Ex Machima a thumbs up, and would recommend it to everyone.

Cheers!

APPLESEED: EX MACHINA

I just got the DVD and I'm excited, I can't wait to watch it this weekend after Tebow time. Check back for my thoughts on the Ex Machina and other sci-fi related items.

KIDS SCI-FI BOARD GAME** FOR CUNY ENG 301 SCI-FI STUDENTS

Hey classmates,

while taking our class I designed a sci-fi terminology board game for my kids and they love it. If you are interested it will be posted  on our discussion board. There are 3 attachments, game board, questions, and game tokens. Print them out and cut with scissors, it's pretty self explanatory and my kids really enjoy it. Thanks to all for your help and best of luck.

Harold

Hooked on Sci-Fi

Hello,

thank you for reading my blog and for the comments. My sci-fi class is coming to an end but not my blog. I had a really cool class ENG 301 Science Fiction at CUNY with a fittingly cool Professor. Dr.Joe Bisz and it has encouraged me to want more so I will continue to keep the few of you who read this blog abreast of my science fiction finds.
Shalom!

I Am Legend: A Review

                                                                                  

                                                          

     What is science fiction? Science fiction can have many elements and what exactly it constitutes is subjective. For me science fiction is science, fantasy, futurity, technology, and the unknown. I have chosen to review I Am Legend, the original novel by Richard Matheson (1954) and it film adaptation by Francis Lawrence (2008). I am certain I Am Legend meets my science fiction criteria and will relate to our weekly class themes, particularly Week 7 - Planetary Disasters, Week 8 – Alien as Other, and Week 11 – If Robots Are Slaves, Can Logic Be Freedom?
     In I Am Legend, Robert Neville is the only man left on the planet who is not infected with a vampiris virus and he is determined to find an antidote. The original novel is set in the Los Angeles suburb of Compton, while the film adaptation is set in New York City. Due to the nature of the creatures Neville has to find solutions in the daytime, before nightfall comes and the vampires come after him. In the novel he spends his days removing dead vampires from his lawn, from the previous night’s activities and relocating them to a massive fire pit, which contains his late wife and daughter, victims of the virus. In his spare time he locates the vampires in their comatose states and drives wooden stakes in their hearts to kill them off. When he tries to kill them by shooting them some of them die, some don’t and this is similar to the Week 8 reading of John Campbell Jr’s “Who Goes There?, in which The Thing gets shot after thawing and escaping and the group determines it is unkillable. And just like the group in “Who goes there?” who are faced with a situation of the unknown, to examine the creature and risk releasing a deadly plague or to leave it frozen and safe. They end up realizing that by continuing to investigate and not giving up would be the way to answers and lead to the elimination of the deadly viruses. Neville pillaged the public library for scientific journals to lead him in the right direction. Neville was living in a complex life in a world that seemed anything but, he had unlimited freedom during the day, and lived his evenings in terror.


 
Neville’s freedom was reminiscent of the main characters in Larry Nevin’s Inconstant Moon reading from Week 7 when he states:
      “And I was free. For me there were no more consequences. Tonight I could satisfy
        my dark urges, rob, kill, cheat on my income tax, throw bricks at plate glass
        windows, and burn my credit cards”.
The only difference was night and day, and neither took advantage of their freedom by destruction.
     In the novel Neville sees a dog during the day and fantasizes about owning it and gives chase on several occasions before catching it. In the film the dog is with him from the very beginning and it is clear that they need and rely on each other. The dog is immune to getting the virus via airborne particles as Neville is, but is susceptible to being bitten. Also the vampires in the movie were a lot more aggressive and athletic than those depicted in the original novel and as a viewer it appears that Neville’s demise is surely inevitable. The vampires would bite the dog, after ending up inadvertently in a dark warehouse during the day, and even with Neville’s vaccines, it would die. The vampires were nothing like the robots from Week 11, in   Brian A. Aldiss’s “Who Can Replace Man?” who had different class brains and could carry out different tasks, the vampires acted in unison.
     There is an intrigue that automatically comes with destruction, because of the unknown and this was certainly true for both I Am legend and in Week 7’s critical article “War and Nation” by J. Robert Oppenheimer in which there were concerns about not only our purpose on Earth, but also its future:
     “No world has ever faced a possibility of destruction – in a relevant sense
      of annihilation – comparable to what we face, nor a process of decision-
      making even remotely like that which is involved in this”.
A major point depicted in both I Am Legend and War and Nations is the moral fallout that exists within destruction.
     In the film, Neville sends out daily radio broadcasts on all AM stations to see if anyone is out there, he lets them know that they can meet him at the pier and offer help in the forms of food, shelter, and security. Neville is caught with the sun down and incurs a vicious vampire attack, from which he is saved by a woman who with her son has come from Maryland because she had heard his radio broadcast. Understandably lonely since losing the dog and having no human contact in three years, Neville is ecstatic to see them and takes them home. She tells Neville that she has heard of a colony that has survivors and that is their destination and they came to give him a ride after hearing his voice on the radio. He assures her that she is wasting her time by going to the colony because everyone is dead. She recognizes that Neville has lost touch with people, and he is insistent on fixing the problem and has vowed to stay at “ground zero”. The vampires from the vicious attack had followed them home and the next night launched an attack with hundreds of vampires and they finally made entry, this coincided with Neville discovering his cure for the virus worked, he had found the antidote. As the vampires began to destroy Neville’s lab he pleaded with them to stop for he could cure them, return them to human beings. He comes to the realization that his attempts are futile and they are not going to stop, so he grabs a hand grenade and launches himself into the pack of vampires. The woman and her son survive and make their way to the colony that does indeed exist and it is later announced Robert Neville did indeed find a cure for the virus. This discovery was big, like the discovery in our Week 8 readings of Johnson and Edy’s “From Lucy” where the initial discovery left the paleoanthropologist wondering what they had discovered, but they did know it was big.
     The novel and the film adaptation compared favorably, I wish the character of Ben Cortman who was so prevalent in the book has been used in the film, I think it would have been a great dynamic and could have enhanced the film further, therefore I would give the nod to the novel. I Am Legend has many science fiction elements in common with our weekly themes and topics from the great science fiction writers we have read this semester.

BIBO

My name is Bibo and I have just completed the most complex computer that the 23^rd century has ever imagined. This computer dubbed Dlorah will be responsible for many of the social aspects that govern the everyday lives of the nation’s inhabitants. I was hand picked by the leaders to design and build Dlorah, and almost immediately I had reservations.

I knew that having a computer with the capabilities of controlling the lives of up to 25 million inhabitants in a mega metro-plex would be dangerous. Dlorah will assign living compartments, employment, and social activities based on demographics and data.

As of now I am the lone person who can program, communicate, and control Dlorah, the nations leaders have given me six months to find and train an apprentice, so that someone else has the knowledge, in case of an emergency. The society is in fear that once Dlorah is deployed, their lives will be changed forever. I must say I too am fearful.

I must say that if Dlorah pans out the way I think it will, there will be no time for an apprentice, but it is nice to know that I alone might be able to terminate Dlorah, and put society's fears to rest.

Harold Thomas

ADONIS

To become the ultimate football player has always been my goal and I have always been willing to make any sacrifice to obtain it. Athletes are always looking for an edge and I’m no different in that respect, but I am willing to go further than anyone has ever gone.

How far? Manipur, India. I am here because Dr. Patel has assured that he has a procedure that “Will allow you to achieve your athletic goals”. The procedure will allow me to play without pain and leave me with blinding speed and superhuman strength. This procedure has never been done before, so I am scared, but also excited at the prospect of becoming the greatest football player in the history of the NFL. The procedure last approximately 5 hours and I have moderate pain on my temples with sutures behind each ear and in a couple of days I will be back in the U.S.

I don’t feel any different, and Dr. Patel says that I will only notice the effects of the procedure when I am actually playing football. Today is my first day back on the football field and it is immediately clear that the procedure was effective; I’m faster and stronger than everyone else and I feel no pain, I actually feel nothing when I now play football. Gone is my ability to high-five or celebrate with my teammates, my compassion is also gone as I have no regard for anyone. Football without emotions. What have I sacrificed? What if this happens when I’m not playing football?

I’m more scared now than I was in India, my fear is that my brain will be stuck in football mode and I will lead a robotic life on and off the field. What happens after football? I didn’t think of that and I guess I’m not willing to make any sacrifice. My goal has done me in; tomorrow I will retire and return to India to see if Dr. Patel can reverse his procedure.

Final thoughts on Woman On The Edge Of Tme

 

     Woman on the Edge of Time is a futuristic novel of fiction written by Marge Piercy, which tells the story of Connie Ramos, a Chicano woman in her mid-thirties with an unfortunate past, struggles between regaining her life as she knew it, and resisting a brain control operation. The brain control operation will allow doctors “to electrically trigger almost every mood and emotion-the fight-or-flight reaction, euphoria, calm, pleasure, pain, and terror” (Piercy). Her resistance finally works, but I think Connie should have had the surgery to prevent her past tragedies from dominating her existence, and unforeseen tragedies from happening.
     Just having being released from a commitment at Bellevue Hospital under the condition of weekly aftercare visits, Connie is ready to conquer New York City. Drug and alcohol abuse, after several tragic events is the reason Connie landed in Bellevue. One of the events was Connie’s blind African-American boyfriend being killed by the police, and another event would see Connie charged with child abuse, which would result in the loss of her daughter Angelina, to adoption.
     The novel begins with Connie’s world being encroached by her niece Dolly and her boyfriend Geraldo, who also doubles as Dolly’s pimp. Connie hates Geraldo, who is abusive to both Connie and Dolly, who constantly defends his actions. Mental issues are definitely present with Connie seemingly unable to release the pain that lingers from her daughter’s adoption, and boyfriend’s murder. She becomes more delusional, when looking at girls; she begins to wonder if her daughter Angelina resembles any of them, and also thinks about the past, with Angelina’s father, Eddie. More evidence is when Connie says “In a way I’ve always had three names inside me. Consuelo, my given name. Consuelo’s a Mexican woman, a servant of servants, silent as clay. The woman who suffers. Who bears and endures. Then I’m Connie, who managed to get two years of college-till Consuelo got pregnant. Connie got decent jobs from time to time and fought welfare for a little extra money for Angie. She got me on a bus when I had to leave Chicago. But it was her who married Eddie, she thought it was smart. Then I’m Conchita, the low-down drunken mean part of me who gets by in jail, in the bughouse, who loves no good men, who hurt my daughter” (Piercy). These multiple names and personalities have left Connie with a past that have imprisoned her.  Connie also starts to communicate mentally with an ambiguous being from the year 2137, which refers to himself as Luciente, who Connie would later discover has breasts and is indeed female. In Luciente’s community gender does not matter, and each child has a total of three mothers, and is raised collectively by the community. The evidence continues to grow.
     After attacking her niece and her niece’s boyfriend/pimp, Connie finds herself back in Bellevue, thanks to Geraldo. Connie would abuse another patient, and then escape where she would spend several nights in the woods before being captured and returned to the institution. Upon her return, Connie starts to play the system by not taking her medication and telling counselors that her condition is improving. Doctors have slated Connie for an operation that will implant electrodes into her brain; these electrodes will control her emotions. Connie, frightened, knew that there was no way she would let them operate on her. The doctors had a signed permission slip from her brother giving them the go ahead with the surgery, Connie had other plans. In an action as surprising as Jirel’s fatal kiss in the Black God’s Kiss, by C.L. Moore, in which Guillaume, the unruly conqueror once stated to Jirel “I’ll wager your mouth is sweeter than your words” before she set out to hell and back to find a terrible weapon to be used against him. Guillaume could not have been more wrong and the wager would have certainly been lost, as her mouth proved to be fatal, with a long anticipated final kiss.  Connie slips poison in the coffee pot to kill the doctors, thus find a way out of the operation. In Connie’s mind this is all apart of a continuing war, and with this act she had finally won. Jirel, like Connie was consciously aware of her fatal actions, but was unable to fully understand the severity, until it was too late.
     With the poisonings, Connie’s tragic resume will continue to expand, as will her mental issues. If she would have had the surgery, she would have had a chance!




                                                  References
Moore, C.L. The black god’s kiss. Retrieved October 8, 2011 from CUNY text.
Piercy, M. 1976. Woman on the edge of time. Retrieved October 8, 2011 from
     CUNY text. Ballantine Books

Woman on The Edge of Time

I just embarked on reading Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy. It is the story of Connie Ramos, a mid-thirties Mexican american living in New york. Connie is diagnosed with mental issues and committed to an institution, where doctors want her to undergo a brain control operation........Fascinating!