Year: 2022

For this blog analysis we watched Marjorie Prime and “Measure of a Man” from Star Trek: The Next Generation. While both of these deal with memories they both deal with them in different ways, making them unique compared to one another.

 

In the movie Marjorie Prime we initially follow Marjorie who’s deteriorating health and mind has caused her daughter and Son-in-law to give her a “Prime” who Marjorie makes into a younger version of her late husband. This “Prime” is an AI who Marjorie has to speak to and teach in order for it to become more like her husband. She tells him stories of their past so that he can become more like her husband and gain these same memories. Later when she passes her daughter obtains a Prime version of Marjorie and does the same thing. Until finally the son-in-law obtains a prime and creates a version of her. Throughout the movie the cycle of creating a prime continues throughout, with the characters creating the prime version of their loved ones and using their versions of the memories to teach them. I say their versions of their memories because even though they may have experienced the same things people always remember events and small details differently. The version of events that these characters are teaching these primes are the versions from their point of view. So they can leave certain details out and accidentally add things in and since these primes have no mental connection to the person that they are supposed to be they will never be able to tell the difference. 

In the episode “Measure of a Man” from Star Trek: The Next Generation; Maddox wants to examine Data and take him apart to do so. He expresses to Data that the memories that he currently has will still be there; however, Data believes that while the memories will still be there, the feeling from those memories will not be. And so Data rejects this idea before being told by Maddox that he is just the property of Starfleet and will be transferred so that Maddox can examine him. And so believing Data to be a person of his own rather than just the property of Starfleet they have a hearing about what it means to be human and whether or not Data qualifies as more than just an “It”.

This week we watched Marjorie Prime and the Star Trek: TNG episode “Measure of a Man”. What I thought was interesting about both of these texts was how similar yet different they are. They both deal with the creation of memories through the experiences has with different people. At the same time, they are both different because one deals with how a memory, no matter how fond or intimate, can be easily rewritten or even convoluted as you grow older and the other deals with our certain certain objects both define a memory and how that memory is associated to things.

As a Star Trek fan, this is one of my favorite episodes. I have a real soft spot for Data and how his sole purpose is to be human or to be as human as possible. The one scene I would like to focus on is the court room scene. Although this scene has alot to do with Data’s rights as both a sentient android and his rights as a Starfleet officer on board the Enterprise, Picard uses Data’s memories as a way to argue that Data is able to feel and self-aware of the deep feelings he and other people have. Picard brings a tote of various objects that Data has a very intimate connection to. During his cross-examination of Data, Picard pulls out two things that have a deep and intimate impact on Data. The first is a book that was gifted to him by PIcard. Data says that the book “is a reminder of friendship and service”. Picard then pulls out a hologram of the late Tasha Yar. Data is hesitant to talk about it as the hologram has a deep, emotional meaning to him. Data says: “She was special to me, sir. We were… intimate.” This object, if not both, is the reason why Picard and Data win the court case. In relation to the voice thread, the scene has a lot to do with extended cognition–part of the reason why we keep certain things with us in our life is because of what they make us remember. They help us remember people, places, and events and how they’ve shaped who we are.

I loved the concept of Marjorie Prime. It reminded me a bit of Blade Runner 2049  and topic of human v. hologram in that. Unlike Blade Runner however, Marjorie Prime is easier to follow and explain in relation to the topic at hand. I think this movie is a good representation of how our memories change. I feel as if our memories change to bring us more comfort as we age especially when we start to lose our memories; we change certain things to make ourselves feel more safe and secure whether we realize it or not. Another reason is that we’re not just remembering the original event but our memory of the event as well–this is a good example of why eye-witness accounts are, most time, very unreliable.

As we learned in this module, memory is constructed and is built by the mind, they are not recorded or stored in an archival mind. Our memory is influenced by context, emotion, and our environment.

In the movie “Marjorie Prime,” we are introduced to a woman in her 80s who is being told stories about her past with her deceased husband by a holographic replica of him called Walter Prime. I would consider this movie to be cognitive integration because you have an outside source assisting the main character with her memories and helping her to remember them. Marjorie and Walter Prime feed off of each other’s memories. Walter Prime will tell her a story about her life before her husband passed and brings things back to her memory that she had forgotten, and she will also update his program by telling the holograph something she remembers that he did not know about.

There is a scene in the movie where Walter Prime is telling Marjorie a story about the time Marjorie and Walter (when he was alive) went to the pet store and bought a Black French Poodle, who eventually dies. Shortly after the poodle Toni with an I dies, Tessa Marjorie and Walter’s daughter are born. When Tessa was about three years old, her parents took her to pick out a dog, and she picked out the same black poodle her parents had years before her birth. This dog is named Toni 2, but eventually, the family drops the two and calls her Toni. What strikes me about this story is when Walter Prime tells Marjorie that eventually, memories blurred, and they couldn’t tell the difference between Toni 1 and 2. That, to me is Affect Priming because the dogs are two different animals; however, because of the love that was had for the dog, the emotion blurs the fact that one was owned years earlier and Tessa was not yet born; all they remember is that they dogs are both loved and in their memories have somehow become one. Marjorie remembers one fact, Toni 2 loved the ocean no matter how much it irritated her to have sand in her fur.

Tessa was not very fond of the holograph that played on the memories of her parents and looked like her father. In one scene, she tells her husband that memories are not sedimentary layers in the brain that have to be dug out as he suggests but that they are, according to William James, remembered from the last time you remembered the memory and not the exact moment itself. This is like what we are taught in this module memories can change and still be accurate.

In Star Trek’s “Measure of a Man,” Data is requested to be disassembled so he can be studied for a research project about memory, and he refuses. Data remembers the man who wants to take him apart as Commander Bruce, who was against Data being on the enterprise because he was not part of what makes a sentient being he is an android. This episode is about cognitive offloading, where the Commander wants to test the theory that memory can be downloaded and contained in a separate brain. Data tells the commander that memories have an essence, and he does not believe they can survive his experiment or procedure.

Majorie Prime and Star Trek both show how each regards memory. Some believe that every time you access memory, it is not the memory itself but a recreation of the last time you remembered it, making it a copy of the memory itself. Others believe that memories can be downloaded or dug out when an individual means to access them on purpose or by accident. The question arises in my mind, though, when an individual suppresses a memory, is it not buried deep within their mind? I only ask this question because I watched an episode of NCIS today, and in one of the episodes, a suspect buried a tragic memory, and it took a lot to get her to remember the memory. What then causes the mind to suppress tragic things that occur?

Memory and its uses are considered to be one of the main characteristics that make us human. Animals remember feeding grounds and their predators, but humans are able to remember almost every event that they experience whether it be small or significant. With our memories comes how we perceive and react to all different forms of events and situations. Creating our personalities, what we like and dislike, and how we deal with certain situations all derive from how we felt about the same thing originally. Both Marjorie Prime and Measure of a Man display how memory can not only create happiness out of past events but also how they create the personalities of each character.

Marjorie Prime depicts a woman names Marjorie that has a holographic connection to an AI hologram of her late husband. Through the brain, body, and interpersonal support this hologram would remind Marjorie about events that happened in their past. It seems that the whole point of this hologram was so Marjorie can continue to have good memories of her life with him. This can be seen as “Good Remembering” due to the emotional content of her memories and the variety of these memories. One example of this is when Tess and Jon are remembering themselves something that happened in the past before talking about firing Julie. “Memory is not like a well that you dip into or a filing cabinet. You don’t remember the memory; you remember the last time you remembered it”. Tess believes that he was eating vanilla ice cream back then while Jon thinks that he was eating pistachio. They are both relieving good memories that, for the most part, stayed true. However, there are always little details that are forgotten for the purpose of remembering the major ones.

“Yet when I finally played poker, I discovered that the reality bore little resemblance to the rules”. Data is a robotic member of the ship in Star Trek and has good and bad memories of the crew. He can feel love and friendship towards others, and he is one of the most valued members of the team. Even with this, many different people aboard the ship like his inspector only view him as a robot that does not deserve the respect of a human. When confronted with the question of whether or not humans had souls to separate themselves from robots, both Captain Louvis and Maddox could not produce an answer. It is also shown that he remembers romantic feelings for Tasha and that he valued the friendships of all the crew members, especially Captain Picard. Overall, Data may be considered a robot but he feels and remembers the same if not more than any member on the Starship Enterprise.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “Measure of a Man”, the Starfleet Enterprise seeks to answer the question of whether or not Data has a soul. If he has a soul, that means he is human. And if it’s proven that he’s human, that allows him the right to resign or refuse being disassembled. Of course, in the end, it was proven that he wasn’t human, but that he possessed human characteristics such as consciousness, self-awareness, and intelligence. In addition, he was regarded as a valuable asset to the team. 

The part that was most interesting to me is when Captain Louvois admitted that she didn’t know if she had a soul. Neither she nor Maddox could explain what made their sentience different from Data’s. Aside from being extremely intelligent and aware of his current situation, Data was capable of loving someone romantically (Tasha) and placing value on friendship (he packed a book that was given to him by Picard). However, he was still considered to be a machine/automaton, or in Maddox’s words “property”. 

And, while it might seem cruel to suggest that, Maddox wasn’t entirely wrong. Data’s name suggests that he is simply a collection of information, hence why Maddox believes that disassembling him won’t affect his core memories, since data (the way it’s viewed in the tech world) can be backed up and restored. It’s not entirely lost except in special circumstances. But, while Maddox views Data’s memories as, well, data, Data views his memories as human memories (he holds a constructivist view of memory). These memories, that, once destroyed, cannot be remade. Even if he were to attempt replicating the situation in which he experienced the memory, as he said, “The substance or the flavor would be lost”. The memories would just become facts, facts that would not have any special meaning to him. His claim reminded me of last week’s movie “Inside Out”, where it was shown that Riley’s memories were influenced by her environment, which is why her emotions thought that sending her back to Minnesota would help her recreate the core memories that she lost.

 

“Marjorie Prime” also focused on memory, but it did so through the portrayal of a lady, Marjorie,  who has Alzheimer’s. Marjorie is able to remember the past through the use of a “Prime”- a projection (I think) of her husband, Walter, who relays the past back to her. I’m not sure if the Prime is really a projection, because he seems to be physically present when ice is thrown at him, and he’s able to hold a conversation with Marjorie’s family and caretaker.

So, I guess he’s a robot? Anyways, the Prime is fed information from Marjorie’s relatives, who themselves seem to have little recollection of the past, considering that Tess was a child and the in-law wasn’t even there to experience it. 

 

A quote from the movie that explains memory best is, “Memory is not like a well that you dip into or a filing cabinet. You don’t remember the memory; you remember the last time you remembered it”. The act of remembering something was compared to making a photocopy of a photocopy. Funny enough, a real life example is provided right after this quote. Tess says that she remembers eating vanilla ice cream the last time Jon told her the quote. Jon says that it was pistachio. Tess calls him insane and says that it’s vanilla ice cream. They are speaking about the same event, yet their memory of what they ate is different. The memory has changed over time that neither one can differentiate between the truth and a false memory. 

 

While Tess and Jon experience a false memory, Marjorie can’t remember at all unless prompted. However, it seems like her brain is able to recall memories that weren’t even given to her. For example, Jon tells Walter Prime not to bring up Damian, but despite that, Marjorie randomly retrieves the memory of their dog, Toni and her son, Damian. This is surprising because, ever since Damian killed himself and Toni, Marjorie never spoke of him again. I think that forcing that memory into her subconscious mind where it could be forgotten was a form of protection. She didn’t have to confront a memory that hurt her-until it came into her consciousness in her old age.

 

In this final module, we learned about memory and how we construct memory with experiences, technology, and people around us. When recalling memories, we are often not remembering the whole experience, but parts most significant to us. As we remember these memories, they become significant to the time in which we are remembering them in. 

Marjorie Prime (2017)

In Marjorie Prime (2017), Marjorie is an elderly woman diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease,  and her daughter and son-in-law have acquired a program, Prime, that creates holograms of one’s loved ones. This hologram helps patients with Alzheimer’s to try to remind them of memories while holding conversations with individuals they once knew. 

Memory is not “true” and “accurate” as we often forget small details and try to seal those small cracks by mistakenly adding other small details that weren’t actually part of the memory to begin with. In the film, Tess and Jon speak about William James and his idea of memory. Stating that it is not a filing cabinet, but that when you remember something, you remember the memory, and the last time you remember it. The actual event is getting harder to remember, and so when cracks are sealed with false details/memories, those are remembered the next time you try to remember that event. We’re also viewing these memories at different times in our lives, making them significant in different ways. Due to the added experience that comes with age, a memory we used to hold fondly as children, we might think of it differently because we have experienced life differently at this point. It does remind me of the film Inside Out, where we talked about how as Riley was growing up, due to certain life experiences, new emotions kept popping up and her core memories were eventually mixed emotions of those joyful memories she held as a child. Remembering those emotions helps our recollection of them.

Seeing each Prime in the final scene of the film speak about themselves, their memories and experiences reminded me of the term autobiographical self. In the film, the Primes are “constructing” themselves by learning about themselves from what they are told. The people and the stories they learn about are helping them build the version of themselves that most closely resembles the actual individuals. The building of ourselves leads to an understanding of those experiences, leading to autobiographical memories. Walter Prime learned from Marjorie and Jon about his life, and became better when it came to acting and expressing himself similar to the actual Walter.

“Measure of a Man” Star Trek: The Next Generation

In the episode, Measure of a Man, Commander Maddox wants to examine Data’s brain in order to make many more like him. His plans, however, are not entirely clear and so Data refused to be examined by him. His refusal makes everyone question if Data is allowed to choose for himself, and if he is sentient enough to choose. During the hearing, Commander Riker is forced to represent Maddox, and argues that Data is a machine with physical strength no human is capable of in an effort to show how different his body is to a human body.

In order to show that Data is sentient, Captain Picard points out how intelligent and aware Data is. In this episode, cognition is extended by Data’s interactions with the world around him, experiences, and other people. Data is able to cherish a book given as a gift from Captain Picard, medals that remind him of special occasions and of his achievements, and a hologram of a significant other that reminds him of special times. Extended Cognition is not just the body and the mind, it is extended out into the world in our usage of technology (phones), culture, and other people as well.

This week we watched Marjorie Prime and Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “Measure of a Man,” both show how our memories, emotions, cognitions, and societies are built and connected. Especially Marjorie Prime made me cry a while watching it. The loved ones are gone, only their memory remains, and I can only talk to the memory over and over again, and I am no longer alone with the former one. The memories we remember each time are only those we remembered the last time, and the people in our memories will disappear in the end. Is memory just a piece of a story?

Marjorie Prime

One of the exciting things about the movie is Prime’s service in the film, which provides holograms for deceased family members and “feeds” according to the patient’s memory to assist Alzheimer’s patients. They can “recite” them just in case they forget them. Marjorie has a quote that stood out to me; she said, “You remember the last time you remembered it, not the source. So, it’s always getting fuzzier, like a photocopy of a photocopy. Even a very strong memory can be unreliable because it’s always in the process of dissolving.” My understanding is that all your memories are memories and not facts. Because, as mentioned in Voicethread, memory is constructed. It is not that in the mind of an archive, they aren’t recorded or stored, but they are being built. The mind is actively constructing them—also, the emotional value of memories changes with changing experiences. Thus, memory, emotion, and cognition are interrelated, and together they create our perception and understanding of the world.

Another point of the lecture relative that Andy Clark and David Chalmers mentioned is that the mind could expand into the world without being limited by the boundaries of the brain and body. Holograms are an example of extended cognition, as they use “the brain, the body, external tools and technologies, interpersonal and social support, and culture to create complex interactions that form a cognitive system. In the film, Walter is in the process of chatting with Marjorie; he is also constantly learning and revising those memories. He always says, “I’ll remember now or next time.” Therefore, Walter can extend Marjorie on What the memory she has spoken of in the past is now blurred. Moreover, Jon begins to create a holographic AI version of his beloved wife and fills “her” with his own memories. So memories between Jon and his wife, especially Jon’s flashbacks to their marriage, underscore emotions’ pivotal role in how and when we remember.

The director’s cleverness is that he chose an elegant and mysterious villa by the sea to house most of the scenes, and there is no high-tech expression. The audience sees the beach, rocking chairs, and dogs but does not see any computers or other technology. It seems that in the future of human life, all technologies have been hidden and penetrated our lives. The entire film also embodies the concept of autobiographical memory, through the construction and control of each “AI”‘s memory, the stories they tell others and themselves about who they are, with an element of self-preservation, self-control, and self-definition. For example, in Walter and Marjorie and Jon and Tess, the dialogues and memories between them affect Walter and Tess’s memory and style and also impact Marjorie and Jon’s emotions.

“Measure of a Man” Star Trek: The Next Generation 

Data isn’t just a robot; he’s family. Data is called IT, and this episode made me think about when robots will become human. For example, while Maddox promised to recover the data after analysis and assured Data that his memory would be intact, Data believes that while will be preserved the detail of his memory, the nuances of his experience may not be reserved. The data, therefore, reject surgery. The critical factor that Data is a human rather than a robot here is that he understands that his memory is full of emotion and values ​​the people and things in his memory. Memories and emotions shape our understanding and perception of the world and determine who we are. Without our memories and the feelings in our memories, we are not complete beings. So, Dade is not the property of Starfleet but a living being. Meanwhile, when Data finally found Riker alone in a conference room, ashamed of having to argue with his friends at the hearing, Data understood his behavior. Data said, “That action injured you and saved me. I will not forget it.” I comprehend that Riker’s actions and emotions strongly influence Data, and he can empathize with Riker’s actions and feelings.

I find the whole concept of memories very intriguing. How we choose to remember things and how deeply we remember them. Our memories really develop us as people and we definitely have defining memories in which we simply can’t forget. I really feel like this is where emotions come in. We really feel like we remember something accurately based on the deep emotional ties to it. Memories like those are ones we hold on to and create who we are as people.

In the Star Trek episode “Measure of a Man”, we are really able to explore the concept of memories creating who we are. In the episode Data is essentially fighting for his right to make decisions for himself. Data being an android, which essentially is a machine, he is technically not looked at as a living being. However what really defines a living being? Data is more afraid of losing the emotions in his memories. As Maddox is explaining to Data that his memories will not be erased, Data is trying to show Maddox that although his memories will not be erased the emotionally connections he has made will be lost. This really plays on this aspect of how affect strong influences memory. Data is essentially afraid that he will lose how he properly perceives these memories. There will no longer be an affect influence on his memories and essentially they will just be things he knows not feel like things he actually experiences. I feel like this also plays apart in personality because without affect of memories we don’t properly experience these memories and there is no layers to add to how we are. Memories and emotions sculpt who we are and if we can’t remember the emotions we experienced how can we properly know the influence of the memory?

Marjorie Prime was a film that really focused on memory. Marjorie had Alzheimer’s and essentially utilized a hologram of her husband in order to remember. However once Marjorie passes away her daughter, Tess, utilizes the hologram to recall memories with her mother. Eventually she commits suicide and her husband then buys a hologram in order to talk with Tess. I felt like the film was overall very sad because essentially these holograms were like a storage for memories which in turn the characters utilized them as a coping mechanism for the loss of loved ones. Here we see cognitive offloading because essentially the holograms were storing these memories of their loved ones and when talking to them they can recall memories they shared together. The scene above really discusses the concept of forgetting memory which I found really interesting. Tess was talking about how every time you remember a memory it becomes less reliable. It becomes less reliable you don’t remember the original source but the last time you remember the memory therefore it keeps dissolving with time. I just really find this scene fascinating because even the memories the seem like they just happened yesterday can become very skewed especially with the input of other people. As this scene progresses we see that because Tess and Jon continue to speak of the last time they talked about a memory and started disagreeing on the ice cream flavor he was eating the last time they talked about this. It really just shows how everyone remember things differently and I am sure the next time they tried to remember the ice cream flavor would change because of the input from someone else. It really just makes you wonder, what did I actually experience and what is just a false? Also, why does it feel like I actually experience something when it never happened?

Marjorie Prime is a hauntingly beautiful depiction of the grief that comes along with losing a loved one. This movie felt super real; between the characters stumbling over their words and their subtle facial expressions, it felt as if I were watching real people. The story follows a Marjorie, and older woman with Alzheimer’s disease who talks to a hologram of her late husband to learn about her life. Later on, after Marjorie dies, her daughter, Tess, gets a hologram of Marjorie in order to relieve memories with her. Tess ends up committing suicide after being unable to deal with the death of her mother, and her husband, Jon, purchases a hologram of her. The movie ends with Marjorie Prime, Walter Prime, and Tess Prime reminiscing about memories together.

In every instance of a Prime being created, memories become a little mixed up. This is because memories change with time and vary from person to person because of their emotions and experiences associated with the memory. An example of this can be seen with the opening scene compared to the ending scene. In the opening scene, Marjorie asks Walter Prime to invent a beautiful rendition of their proposal so she could remember it that way. Since Marjorie has Alzheimer’s, she truly believes in this story. Walter Prime is a program taking orders from the people who own him, so because of Marjorie’s intervening, he also remembers the proposal that way. In the last scene, Walter Prime recounts this made-up proposal to Marjorie Prime – as that is how they both remember the memory now. The final scene also includes Damien, who was erased from earlier stories, as they have finally accepted the terrible truth of his suicide. The storytelling with these memories shifting and growing makes the viewing experience chilling. Though the thought of memories changing in my head overtime makes me uneasy – to say the least – it’s a natural process that doesn’t undermine the existence of those memories, but, in a way, enhances them by making them new again.

“The Measure of a Man”, an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and, once again, I am absolutely enamored by this show. Every character has so much detail and the plot is always so interesting. This time, Data, a highly advanced and sentient android, is debated being taken apart by a scientist to learn about his inner workings. When Bruce Maddox, the scientist, confronts Data about why he doesn’t want to be taken apart, Data responds that he believes that the emotion connected to his memories might not survive the transplant. He admits that these memories could be transplanted successfully, but that the experience of these memories would not survive. This reminded me of the memories in Inside Out. Riley’s memories are all stored with emotions that accompany them, signifying that the experiences aren’t complete without these emotions. Even if Data’s experiences can be stored, there is no way to know if they will be as whole as they were when they were formed.

Finalizing on our last module is memories. I feel like it’s kind of fitting because likewise memories are bittersweet and so is having our last module for this class. It’s very poetic. In our last two films, “Marjorie Prime” and “The Measure of Man”, I see that memories are things that cannot be recreated. Physically, these films show that it is possible, but the experiences and emotions of it cannot be cloned.

In “Marjorie Prime”, we see that Marjorie has interactions with a holographic version of her late husband to ease her Alzheimers. The recreation of Walter is based off of Marjorie’s memories, maybe the best version of him that she wants to reimagine. While he knows the objective versions of each story, its essence is not the same. She even adds her own twists to each stories because the hologram absorbs everything that has been told to it. Therefore, the memories are not accurate and very subjective based on who is talking to hologram Walter. I think this relates to “Good Remembering” with the concept of subjective truth. While each person’s memories may be different due to their own personal experiences, this makes every persons’ truth to only be true to themselves. However, that doesn’t make the memory any less significant. For example, in the scene where Marjorie is telling hologram Walter on when they got engaged. She added many different details that were not part of the original memory, but it doesn’t decrease its significance because it was important enough for her to recall despite her Alzheimers.

In “The Measure of a Man”, the concept of transferring Data’s memories into the starbase mainframe is similar to hologram Walter. Even though Data is a cyborg and it is similar to a hologram, his networks and consciousness is personalized to himself. His experiences shaped his own memories, whereas with hologram Walter, others’ memories shaped its own memories. The argument between whether Data is a conscious being or not is brought up between Maddox and Picard, which leads me to make the own question. Emotions and memories make up one’s consciousness, and while Data is a cyborg, he seems to possess memories that are full of emotion and his own experience. While Maddox thinks that Data’s memories are stored and will be able to be rebooted, Data disagrees. This is similar to the Reconstructivits view of Memories where they are build by the mind. With Data’s own consciousness, he seems to have to process his memories like we do and put meaning to it. It seems to be influenced by his emotions, environment, and other factors, instead of just objectively taking it like a computer. Even computers have emotions I suppose.