Blade Runner

According to Donna Haraway’s essay titled “A Cyborg Manifest,” the concept of Cyborg is a rejection of rigid boundaries, notably those separating humans from animals and machines. Cyborgs are perceived as the next generation of people. They are organisms that contain both organic (“natural”) and cybernetic (“machine”) parts (Haraway 150). In the movie Blade Runner, the director seeks to highlight how machines have taken over human duties, which they accomplish efficiently and in a short time. Blade Runner is built on an unanswerable conundrum raising different questions wondering at what stage Robots become humans as they evolve and at what stage humans become machines as our lives become more and more computerized.

From the movie, Tyrell Corporation builds replicants that are like humans, but they are to be used as slaves outside the earth. As Haraway elaborates, technology is essential to our daily lives as it streamlines, simplifies work, and businesses by coordinating activities (Haraway 150).  The film Blade Runner uses this concept to build replicants that can execute a job faster and more accurately in various industries (Scott). Additionally, the robots are constructed in such a way that they exhibit emotions and care for each other. From the movie, the replicants appear to show concern for one another, and they are contrasted against human characters who lack empathy. The film goes as far as snagging the audience to the point of making them doubt whether Deckard is human (Scott). Tyrell Corporation has specialized in building this technology by improving from their previous creation. As the film shows, the replicants in question were named Nexus-6s because it is believed that they are advanced enough to extents that they may have developed emotions, which might make it harder to detect them via Voight-Kampff test (Scott). For instance, Deckard fell in love with one of the replicants to the extent of making out an indication that the replicants are highly emotional.

Moreover, the movie goes ahead to elaborate that the replicants have a four-year lifespan, which can be compared to the life of humans (Scott). Even though human life does not have a definite lifespan, it compares to that of the robots because of people’s mortal nature. In the pursuit for the replicants, the main character must ensure that he meets the genetic designer for the Tyrell Corporation so that he could understand the genes. The technology used to build replicants is so advanced that it makes their intelligence so high (Scott). The aptitude levels of these machines are exhibited in the film when one of the replicants saved the life of Deckard while he was being attacked by one of the other rogue replicants.

As a result, this brings about the debate on at what stage humans become machines as our lives become more and more computerized. From the explanation in the movie, it is evident that people are creating technology, which they will later use to execute jobs. For instance, Tyrell Corporation in the film created the replicants so that they could be utilized as slaves outside the earth (Scott). Thus, this raises the question whether humans will become lazy by using the excuse that they have the required technology to help sort out or solve issues. Computers are slowly replacing our memory, thinking, computation, and even calculations. This adds to the question whether technologies such as computers achieve the complexity comparable to one of the human beings, thereby assisting people to do all sorts of things. For instance, we depend on computers and the Internet to do our research and computations such that we feel that we cannot function normally without them. As such, this has changed our mode of operation at schools, homes, and even at workplaces.

In line with this, the advent of social media has significantly contributed to us acting like robots. Social media has made us more confined to ourselves, and this can be explained through the less physical interaction we do with friends and family. Social media has made us so committed on the online sphere to the extent that we do not value meeting face-to-face. Moreover, it has led to humans losing empathy. Constant streaming of violent scenes on video games, TV, movies, and YouTube may cause people to become insensitive to destruction. The normalizing of bad things happening and the culture of narcissism imposed by social media creates a society of individuals who lack sympathy.

Technology has allowed scientists to develop genes and hormones that are controlled or programmed to give the best and maximum output. Scientists are manipulating these hormones by combining them to be more productive and intelligent. This raises the question whether all humans will have the same features in the next years to come. Technology has also made it possible for people to be supported by machines in case of treatments or accidents. This is a proof that human organs can be replaced by genetically modified ones, thus suggesting that people are becoming robots as our lives become more and more computerized.

Besides, Microchips in humans have also sparked debate on the privacy of individuals. Those in support state that this is a way of restricting access to sensitive data. However, it shows the extent of development of technology, even to the levels of humans being micro chipped. The microchips in humans can be used to access places, unlock or even authorize activities resulting in the breach of privacy and confidentiality.

From the discussed points above, it is evident that robots become humans when we create them and try to make them more powerful than people themselves. This is achieved through incorporating human-like features, such as empathy and thought process, into the robots. However, this might become risky if scientists build high technology robots. On the other hand, overdependence on technology has made individuals lazy and less thoughtful; thus, humans are becoming like machines as lives get more and more computerized. Competition amongst humans has also made people seek for technological options for them to increase their intelligence. Just like competition, security of sensitive data has also made people to install gadgets into their bodies. Nowadays, there is a closer merger of biological and digital intelligence.

Overall, the advent of brain-machine interfaces will force humans to redefine where humanity lies. This technology is anticipated to blur the boundary between humans and machines. As we become increasingly dependent on technology, it is easy, and it can become tranquil to think of the body as a kind of machine with parts that need replacements. As much as technology is making work easier and cheaper for us, it is also important that we keep in mind that there is need to have free thinking human beings.

Works Cited

 Haraway, Donna. "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York; Routledge, 1991.

Scott, Ridley, Director. Blade Runner. IMDb. Warner Bros, 1982. 

The Matrix

In the movie The Matrix one of the leading characters says, “Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony (The Matrix).” When analyzed closely, this statement is a classic use of irony. When stating this, Morpheus was making relation to the human dealing with machines where he stated that “throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive." From this and the subsequent quote on fate, one can deduce that the relationship between humans and machines have changed over time as fate would have it. Considering the two statements as a single one, they can be considered to mean that throughout human history, people have been over reliant on machines to live. Humans needed the machines to exist, but with time the technology got out of hand, given that people were killing their natural power source. However, the irony here is that humans heavily depended on machines to leave, but fate has change, and now machines heavily rely on humans for energy.

The quote from Morpheus is a classic use of rhetorical devices, which, in this case, is an irony, to elaborate something that is happening and needed human attention (The Matrix). In most cases, the use of irony in explaining world events has often been misunderstood as people confuse it with coincidence. By the Merriam-Webster dictionary irony is defined as “the utilization of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).

When the words of Morpheus are closely examined, they can be classified under two forms of irony. The first form of irony that can be used to analyze the words of Morpheus is the tragic or dramatic irony. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the tragic irony as the one that happens when the words used or the action of a character contradicts the reality of the narrative that the audience can recognize (The Oxford English Dictionary). In this case, the audience senses the irony in the words of Morpheus on how he explains humans and machines. In his statement, Morpheus speaks of the human creation of machines to survive on. However, the irony in his statement is that machines are now feeding off energy harvested from humans to survive (The Matrix). Given that in the movie viewers are unable to see the change from the decree of man to the rule of machines, it can be easily argued that the statement is an example of tragic irony. This is particularly due to the fact that as humans we have always promoted the use of machines to improve our standard of living. However, people are now watching as machines lead to their demise.

Another form of irony that can be used in analyzing the statement made by Morpheus is the cosmic irony which can be defined as an implementation of an idea in which those involved often do not see the effects of their action (The Matrix). In most cases, the expected results of the idea are often out of the control of those responsible for its implementation. In this case, the adoption of the machines by humans seemed to have been a great idea; however, from the statement, it is clear that while creating the machines, there was no forecast on the effects resulting from depending on them.

Overall, humans created machines hoping that the apparatus would be able to serve and improve their lives. However, throughout the movie The Matrix the same machines that humans created and hoped to rely on are now ruling and controlling them. The film shows that overlying on something can be detrimental to the dependents.

Work Cited

The Matrix. Dir. Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski. Warner Bros. Pictures, 1999. DVD.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 2016.

The Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon, 2016. 

Black Mirror

Introduction

The question of the realness of life has battled many thinkers and scientists for many years; it dates back to the origin of life. Psychologists, philosophers, and sociologists have not been left behind to unearth the meaning of reality, but all of them seem to have failed to create a clear, accurate and consistent definition of reality. Some philosophers have argued that reality includes not only that which is imagined but also that which exists physically (Bradley).

What is not contested, though, is the fact that reality includes something that is observable and comprehensible. Reality can also be defined to include substances that exist during a particular time. It may also relate to future occurrences. Certainly, reality is not static:  hence, it changes. The reality is not illusory or delusional. The reality is not false or fictional: to the contrary, it is a product of critical, creative and logical thinking. The reality is sometimes used to mean the truth and that substance which is not a falsity. Fictions are categorized as unreal in nature. The reality is arguably based on world views and attitudes.

 The movie Black Mirror certainly brings to the fore a set of chilling realities in a collection of dark parables. It deals with aspects of the near future and some other exaggerated aspects of informational technology, which people already use in the modern and progressive world. The phrase "what if" indeed sends some shivers down the spines of the audience as it challenges them on current and future possibilities and realities.

What If Our Likes and Wishes Mean Everything?

The episode titled "Nosedive" is predicated in the future, which is also near, where the Uber rating style system is to be applied to all aspects of life. It is hard to believe in this because this can change the way life is currently, As a matter of fact, it’s possible, for example, to obtain a huge rating if you open the door to a strange person and on the other hand a low one if you shut them out using the door. There is no doubt that the episode cautions viewers against revealing or attaching meaning to the audience and the followers. The starring character by the name LaCie Pound, also known as Bryce Dallas Howard, goes into a meltdown as he attempts to chase the perfect target. After a series of mad occurrences, he lands the episode in jail.

Are We Faking It Consistently?

In the same episode  "Nose Dive" in a light-clouted globe of "Nose Dive", human beings apply special contact glasses or lenses to view the people’s scores in the real time. This should be viewed between the Terminator vision and Pokémon Go, which is sopped up. With the increased reality on the rise,  Black Mirror movie questions what would happen if the technology goes beyond attempting to arrest Pikachu. In this episode,  AR is applied as the barometer or a scale for entirely new class structure assessed not by the history, but by the persuasion that you are a decent and good person.

Who Do We Become Without Our Memories?

In the episode titled the “Playtest," which also happens to be the second edition of  “Black Mirror”, movie sits somewhere between a Black Mirror perception of a haunted house tale and a video game. Backpacker Cooper is mourning the sudden demise of his biological father, who succumbed to the disease known as the Alzheimer's when he concurs with a games company to test for them a new type of technology referred to as the VR. His father’s illness apparently hit him below the belt as he goes to the extent of losing his memory because he tries to figure out the life of his Dad cruelly, especially the time of having a disease. He lost his mind completely to another violent and unforgiving world. This episode is  brutal and cruel as it resurrects the traditional or medieval horror tropes such as massive spiders and spooky apparitions as well as using informational technology as a mode of confronting viewers with the reality of fear, which is enshrined deeply within any human being (Goldratt et al). This fact video apparently uses viewers' memories to usher their worst fears in the real world around us.

Human beings by virtue of being on earth are, in essence, participating in the physical reality. Essentially, who a person is in the world is derived from non-physical awareness or reality, which is also called augmented reality. Before someone assumes the face of physical reality, it must first have been augmented reality. The thinking of a human being is non-physical, but it becomes part of physical reality once it’s injected with awareness. The hyper-reality is a product of a blend between physical reality and augmented reality. The consciousness of human beings is unable to decipher reality and the simulation of the same in this advanced technological era.

Conclusion

Emotions sometimes hamper or tamper negatively with people’s thinking process, and this is called cognitive bias. Emotions accrued from life experiences can lead to a consistent deviation from the basic standards of rationality and sober judgment. The preferences flow from the heart of fallacies.

Works Cited

Bradley, F. H. Appearance and reality a metaphysical essay. Routledge, 2013.

Goldratt, E. M., Cox, J., & Goldratt, E. M. The goal: a process of ongoing improvement. Routelege, 2016. 

he Monstrosity of Saddam Hussein

The world has an equal number of good and bad people. No one is purely good, nor is anyone a hundred percent bad. But some people have a higher proportion of wickedness than goodness, while for others; their moral uprightness supersedes their evil tendencies. The latter always try to do good to the society, but the former do the opposite. Some of these evil people were at one time good, but the gradual frustration with their surroundings made them so evil that they lost hold of thoughts and actions, and as a result, they ended up taking extreme steps to destroy and demolish everything that came their way. Before judging others, one should try to understand why these bad people turned to be so.

Saddam Hussein was the fifth president of Iraq. He ruled for 24 years. He first became a leader of one of the political parties known as the Arab Socialist Ba’ath and later moved on to another which accommodated both nationalist and socialist views. In addition, Hussein played a major role in the 1968 coup, which was referred to as the 17 July Revolutionary, which brought the party to power in Iraq.

The Iraqi society under his regime was tarnished by tales of the abuse of human rights. Hussein’s administration caused fear because of the crude ways that the officials used in maintaining control. The methods included undercover law enforcement agents, rape, torture, genocide, assassinations, deportations, coercion into exile, and chemical warfare. The violence led to death of innumerable Iraqis.

Hussein also orchestrated the launch of several attacks on the adjacent countries of Kuwait and Iran. Iran was attacked for the abundance of resources in the nation. The conflict resulted in war between Iraq and Iran. According to Miller, many civilians in Kurdish and Habalja were killed by use of chemical weapons (37). Hussein also attempted an assassination in the town of Dujail by attacking the inhabitants with military weapons and destroying their farmland, crops and, and water sources. Furthermore, he got hold of several people and mistreated them at detention sites, where many perished. Some families were buried at an isolated compound for a long time, and those who did not die were taken to court where they were unfairly convicted and killed.

Hussein’s monstrosity was encouraged by his supporters in the United States who sponsored his fight against the Iranians in 1980. When he tried to annex Kuwait, the United States-led forces tried to stop him but it was too late to tame the monster in him. He also killed 60,000 Iraqi Shiites and Kurds after they rose up against him. No gathering was allowed unless it was meant to advance the government’s reign, and those that were held were stringently supervised. Additionally, ordinary citizens were not allowed to travel across the nation without the government’s authorization; neither could they afford to travel abroad because of costly visas.

According to Miller, cruel punishments, including amputation of limbs, burning with hot objects, and death sentence for various criminal offences was applied by the government, but the president’s and the government officials’ families were excluded from this (47) Those who had died during the 1991 uprising against Hussein were believed to have been buried in a mass grave that was discovered in Iraq.

Hussein’s administration tortured their targets by battering and bludgeoning them with wooden and metallic objects, electrically shocking their private parts, and inserting hot metal rods into their mouths. Other cases involved crushing toes and removing victims’ toe nails, submerging detainees in acidic solutions, poisoning, raping women as their family members watched, burning, breaking their bones, amputating various body parts, and rendering them visually impaired.

Cohen’s second thesis which states that the monster always escapes is true. When the United States forces tried to capture him, he eluded them for several months. Fortunately, he was eventually captured, arrested, tried, and executed. As Miller notes, it is no surprise that his first born son Udday had also taken after him, for instance, he once raped a 14-year-old girl and threatened her father with murder (56). He even went further to order the girl’s father to give him his other 12-year-old daughter as his girlfriend, thus making both the two sisters his lover. He was a dictator just like his father and always wanted situations to go his way.

Hussein’s mother gave birth to a child just like any woman but she never knew that the son would one day turn into a monster of a man. His monstrosity may be because of the difficulties he underwent as a child. Some experiences in life can change even the best of people into monsters If Saddam Hussein would have been brought up by a loving and caring parent then he would not have turned out to be a monster in making. The society should look for ways of helping the bad to change their ways and advising the good not to turn to monsters.

The image above shows the remains that were found at a mass gravesite in Iraq (Graham).

Works Cited

Graham, Christopher. “Remains at a Mass Grave Site.” Marine Corps Photo web, 7 May 2003. Photograph. georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/09/20030929-14.html  Accessed 28 March 2017.

Miller, Ruth A. The Erotics of Corruption: Law, Scandal, and Political Perversion. Albany, 2008.

The Seven Theses of “The Monster”

The word “monster” comes from the Latin word monstrum which means something that reveals or warns. A monster exemplifies a particular cultural moment between which there is a difference between when it is conceived and the time it reveals itself to society. It represents a combination of desire, fear and anxiety, all of which are revealed at this singular cultural moment.

Thesis II: The Monster Always Escapes

       No matter how hard society may try to exterminate monsters, this is never achieved. Whenever attempts are made to destroy the monster, it disappears to another place whereat it recreates itself through assuming another form. In order to fully understand monsters, one needs to appreciate the systems that create them fully. These include social, cultural and historical aspects, all of which are closely intertwined. Cohen alludes to the vampire, which, even though it may be “killed” at some point, it returns in another form, with different clothing. It fits into that particular moment in which it returns.

Thesis III: The Monster is the Harbinger of Category Crisis

       In reference to Thesis II, monsters escape because they are difficult to fit into any acceptable categories (Cohen 6). The monster threatens to break the barriers of definition, where the existing systems in society leave them hanging on the peripheries of norms.

Thesis IV: The Monster Dwells at the Gates of Difference

       The best description of a monster is the “outsider”. Due to society’s inability to fit them into any particular categories, they exhibit differences in regards to cultural, racial, political, sexual and economic norms. Cohen provides the examples of Muslims at the time of Crusades and Native Americans in the Manifest Destiny period. The monster’s differences with society are in themselves monstrous.

Thesis V: The Monster Polices the Borders of the Possible

       The very existence of the monster sets the borders which society must not cross. The borders in this sense may be intellectual, sexual or geographical. An attempt by someone to step outside these borders would be tantamount to becoming monstrous themselves (Cohen 12). In essence, the monster is an existing contradiction. A certain element in their being tells the story of how the monster grew to their present condition, while another aspect elucidates their role in society – perhaps to warn others not to break the rules, which would create the monsters in them.

Thesis VI: Fear of the Monster is Really a Kind of Desire

       While the monster represents the fear of becoming ostracized from the larger society, there is a simultaneous desire of people to explore it, the dangers notwithstanding. Certain parts of the world, such as Africa, Scandinavia and South America represent this monstrosity in their non-conformity statuses. However, they provide the possibilities of exploring sexual fantasies. Monsters naturally worries and fascinates society at the same time (Cohen 18).

Thesis VII: The Monster Stands at the Threshold of Becoming

       Although society goes to great lengths to push monsters out of their geographical and normal discourse, they do return. When they do so, they usually have a fuller knowledge both of themselves and of society (Cohen 20). They understand the history of the place from which they were chased better, more so because their knowledge is now influenced from the “Outside” from which they return.

Analysis of the Monster Culture (Seven Theses) by J.J. Cohen

Jeffrey Jerome Cohen articulates the monstrous dialect by remarking on its proliferation during the techno and media culture age and the ubiquity of the Frankenstein syndrome. Cohen highlights seven theses that depict the characteristics of the monster and how its manifestation is exposed. The article deviates from the previous modes of cultural studies. Cultures have different ways in which they carry out their activities; as such, the writer highlights the need for understanding them through their monsters. The author describes seven elements within the essay that hypothesizes the relation between the monster and the culture. The theses offer an understanding of the particular cultural moments through which the monster is illustrated.

In many societies, the monsters are a personification of a cultural instance. According to the first thesis, as a cultural body, a monster does not represent what it seems. The writer notes that the monster’s body is a character that incorporates the aspects of fear, anxiety, desire, and ataractic fantasy that offer them mysterious independence. The author compares the space occupied in culture by the monster's body with the Derrida's familiar chasm of difference. The monster implies something different from what is known as it is shown to inhabit the disparity between the time of disruption that caused it and the period into which it is time-honored to be reborn.

The second thesis explains the monster’s ability to break away from a particular place only to resurface elsewhere. Over the previous times, the monsters have found their place repeatedly in the society. Monsters can be explored and comprehended following the social and historical characteristics of culture such as the common gender issues. The relations that generate the monsters always change. It is important to review every time a monster reappears against the current social relations.

In the third theses, the Monster is the Harbinger of category crisis. The monster refuses characterization due to its ability to appear and reappear hence making it difficult to apprehend its status. The monster’s body is incoherent with the normalcy and expectations of the societal concerns. The thesis conveys the point that monsters are different from each other and difficult to understand. The monsters slip away hence making it difficult to categorize them within the various categories. In addition, monsters change concerning the demands of people across a particular region. The fourth thesis highlights the existence of the monster in the gates of difference. The author depicts that monsters are born out through cultural differences. The amplification of cultural difference into monstrous peculiarity is familiar. In the fifth thesis, the monster policies borders of the possible, the monster is a counsel against potential exploration that hinders sexual, geographical, and sexual mobility. The monster restricts the societal space in which humans can move as it enforces the law of exclusion.

The sixth thesis regards the fear of the monster as a kind of desire. It highlights that concern amongst individuals in a culture is not only a kind of hope but also rather a form of freedom. Monsters are depicted as creatures that cause panic and fear among the people who interact with them in their cultures since they can change their appearance and traits, which form a good source of power amongst individuals. Lastly, the thesis portrays monsters as creatures that learn their ways of life from the very humans within their reach. In case we try to get rid of them, they reform and come in ways that are more different.

Finally, Cohen’s theses imply that monsters are half animals and half creatures that do not fit into the social system of the human existence and which can prevent us from being defined as coherent species. Throughout the essay, the author highlights the need to appreciate the monsters in our cultures and the role they play in defining our cultural status of existence. It illustrates that the same creatures that we make or formalize to exist among us are the same animals that come to haunt our ways of life thus creating fear and discomfort amongst us.