The plot forces the audience to question whether humans can control the technology they create and if our desire to continually make advancements in technology might be to humanity’s detriment. The novel, ‘Black Hole’, written by Geraldine Stowe, is set on a star colony called ‘Estra’ in the year 2305 where technology has become so advanced that nearly anything is possible. The social comment reminds the audience that even though we live in world full of advanced technology, our negative traits remain the same. This is presented through Dante and what he is forced to go through abuse just because he is different from his society Examples of futuristic and advanced technology are interspersed throughout, ‘I, Robot’, placing the film easily in the science fiction genre. Detective Del Spooner is employed to investigate the apparent suicide of Dr Alfred Lanning who “practically invented robotics.” During Spooner’s quest to uncover the truth, he stumbles upon Lanning’s “unique” creation, Sonny.
Ridley Scott states, “it is a film about whether you can have a meaningful relationship with your toaster”. This is a direct quote and metaphor about the replicants. This means that you cannot have a relationship with a replicant as they are robots and do not have the same qualities as humans. This is comparing the replicants to robots, and humans. Another quote about the prescribed text is by Rita Kempley, a Washington Post Staff Writer who said, "It is, in fact, an amazingly sophisticated, sumptuously visionary treatise on the consequences of attaining god-hood."
Analysis of Sarah Madsen Hardy’s Critical Essay “Bloodchild” In her critical essay “Bloodchild”, Sarah Madsen Hardy explores the unusual power dynamics between human Terrans and alien species called Talics. Hardy analyzes Octavia butler’s story “Bloodchild” and Butler’s afterword to the story, in order to help the readers understand, what the author intends to convey in her story. The main idea of Hardy’s essay is to rebut common misconception, suggesting that the exploitation is not the main theme of the story. She argues that although the way how Talics deprive humans of their humanity and reduce them to a function may seem like the story about slavery; it is an intimate relationship between Gan and T’Gatoi that complicates this theory. Her analysis suggests that it is the knowledge and acceptance of otherness what helps the relationship between two different races achieve new evolutionary level of social and biological symbiosis.
The great debate on rationalism versus Empiricism, whether to believe in a priori or a Posteriori knowledge has many of great arguments from both the rationalists and the empiricists. Are you just a, Tabula Rasa, blank slate or is all knowledge formed by Reason? As this debate grabs your mind and twists it to the reality it may already belong in. How can we know anything of itself, are our minds just wandering in an alternate reality? A quote by Albert Einstein “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” one of the most influential people discussing limitations on the rational mind.
DATE \@ "MMMM d, y" April 20, 2015 Dear Editor, Im writing to express my belief in why the short story “Bloodchild” by Octavia Butler should be published. Butler creates a dystopian society in which humans form together to build a little agency. “Dystopian is the complete opposite of utopian because it describes an imaginary society that is as dehumanizing and unpleasant (vocabulary.com)”. The humans ( who are referred to as Terran) are detached from earth and placed in this far away world that they have to share with Tlic ( referred to as the aliens) . The science fiction elements play a big role throughout the story because the fact that it is located in a far away world it gives this mystery that keeps you on your toes .
The Colour of Magic Science fiction is a genre that has a wide variety of subgenre and themes; it is a genre that is hard to define as Damon Knight states “science fiction is what [we] point at when [we] say science fiction” (Card 13). However, there are archetypes and conventions that come with science fiction that helps define the genre separating it from fantasy; “if the story is set in a universe that follows the same rules as ours, it’s science fiction. If it’s set in a universe that doesn’t follow our rules, it’s fantasy” (Card 23). One such story that fits into the category of science fiction is Philip K. Dick’s The Minority Report; it has also been adapted into a film directed by Steven Spielberg. The film is a neo-noir science fiction film that encapsulates what the future would or could look for us; on the other hand Philip K. Dick’s short story was written in the 1950s, hence, Dick is writing about the future that is no longer futuristic in this present era.
Based on the messages of the Masters, beings such as Aetherius, Jesus, and Goo-Ling, who are much more evolved than humans, King functions as the “Primary Terrestrial Mental Channel” through which their wisdom is revealed to us humans so that we may restore balance to this world (Ellwood and Partin, 1988, p. 126). Before taking this course, I had never heard of the Aetherius Society. I knew of the existence of UFO cults but never ventured beyond that. Perhaps it is my disinterest in science fiction and space exploration that kept me from such a pursuit. Also, the portrayal of such groups in movies does not shed a positive light on such institutions, conveying extraterrestrial groups as being somewhat deranged.
It is clear that the physical Universe, including life on Earth, is an evolutionary process. Darwin's Theory of Evolution is but just one theory as to how this process occurred with regard to the evolution of 'life' on this planet and is considered by most educated humans to be a self-evident fact, yet rather surprisingly careful scrutiny reveals a dearth of empirical scientific evidence to support it. If there were ever a case of "never letting the truth get in the way of a good story" then this would appear to be such a case. The following essay outlines the manifest shortcomings associated with Darwin's Theory of Evolution and is written to promote thought and discussion about this issue. DARWIN'S THEORY OF EVOLUTION postulates that 'life' 2 on Earth arose from non-living matter entirely by way of some unknown, 'unconscious', mechanistic, natural process on a pre-biotic earth and then proceeded to evolve into more complex life forms almost exclusively by way of a random mutation and natural selection process, 3 and all occurring without the involvement of an over lighting consciousness or 'creator'.
The journalistic genre, for example, conditions us to expect to see a particular form of text: headlines, columns and blocks of writing. But this genre also prepares us to expect to be able to trust and believe in what we are reading. Such is the power of genre. Genre also conditions us to perceive facets of what we read as entirely natural and realistic such as the representation of women in different genres. Feminist science fiction, a sub-genre of science fiction poses questions about how society builds gender roles, the role reproduction plays in defining gender and the unequal political powers of men and women using utopias to explore a society in which gender differences do not exist, such as in Ursula Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness and Joanna Russ' The Female Man.
A Critique of “Mallaise: How to Know If You Have It” by William Kowinski Any creature’s entry into an alien, bewildering world usually produces a set series of emotions and reactions on the part of said creature. Discombobulating vertigo attacks are possible. Aggressiveness towards others is not unusual. An all-encompassing cold fear is to be expected. But could any location on Earth really produce such lonesome, distressing symptoms in humans?