In the first episode “Out of the Past”, Takeshi Kovacs is awakened 250 years after being killed. As he looks at his reflection for the first time, he sees his new body (“sleeve”). When you die you are given a new “sleeve” but your brain is kept in a disk that keeps the mind of the individual. This is similar to Cybernetics in which the mind is thought of as a computer, the mind being the software and the body the hardware. Although the mind is being treated as separate from the body, there’s a moment towards the end of the episode where Kovacs gets a dragon tattoo on his forearm, similar to the dragon tattoo covering his back in the beginning of the episode in his old sleeve. There’s still a connection between his body and mind, his new body is missing what his old body had, a tattoo, an individual’s self-expression on their body. Another similar scene was the seven year old girl in an old woman’s body. Her awkward demeanor in the beginning of the episode is further explained when her father brings up the unfairness of her situation, as she was killed in a hit-and-run. There is a connection with one’s body to one’s mind, as she does not feel connected to this older person’s body.
In Star Trek: The original series
In the episode “Return to Tomorrow,” the characters are flying through space and they encounter a talking-sphere on a different planet. However, what they encounter are the minds of three “people” that are considered to be dead on a dead planet. The characters acknowledged that there is “energy but no substance…matter without form is impossible.” The three minds of Sargon, Thalassa, and Henoch transfer into the body’s of Captain Kirk, Spock, and Dr. Mullhall. When they transfer, they are in awe as to what it feels to be “alive” again. They can feel their lungs expanding as they breathe, and their heart pumping. Sargon and Thalassa embrace, touching and caressing as husband and wife. They are using the physical and social world around them to further express their feelings towards each other. Thalassa reminds Sargon that if they decide to live life without a body, their bodies won’t be able to touch, or kiss.
Futurama
In the episode “The Day the Earth Stood Stupid,” the brain spawns attack planets by making the people in them more stupid. The brain is portrayed similar to “The Brain in a Vat” experiment, in which a brain would function on its own without a body. The brains roam freely and “live” on stimulation and the big brain even states, “We have long since evolved beyond the need for asses,” implying that they are deemed superior because they are able to function without a body. Having to need a body is deemed as inferior and beneath them.
I enjoyed watching the three different episodes this week. There were clear points/scenes in each episode that immediately reminded me of our topic this week about the body and the mind. It’s interesting how in Star Trek the body was as important as the mind otherwise you might as well be dead. In Futurama, the brain was seen as elevated compared to the body, and needing a body was seen as inferior. In Altered Carbon, the mind is what makes you your own person, and yet they don’t feel like their own person when they are in a new sleeve.
In all three episodes, the idea of cognition and the mind being able to survive millions of years is relevant. They take different approaches with this idea, yet the fragility and decline of the mind is taken far beyond with technology and science.
In Altered Carbon, with the use of cortical stacks places in the spine that have “pure human mind inside coded and stored as… digital human freight… consciousness can be downloaded into any stack, in any sleeve”. Relating back to our lecture, this plays upon the idea of cybernetics. The mind is no longer an unknown and the technology in this show takes us beyond any that we can comprehend. It breaks down the humanness of the mind and the fragility of it; the mind is the most powerful essence of the body. The only weakness varies upon injury of the stack, which is not a human error, but a technical one. Bodies are less valuable, replaceable upon every physical death, which is separate from a “real death”. The realness of death only settles in once the mind is destroyed, suggesting a the disconnection of mind and body. Through the main character, we can witness an embodied cognition because despite his new sleeve, his emotions and thoughts that he felt within his last body are still very prevalent even after its physical death.
Embodied cognition is shown again in Star Trek with the emphasis on the human experience that is only integrated through the body. As the crew touches down onto the unknown planet, they meet Sargon, Thalassa, and Henoch. They are minds inside a ball, expressing the idea of a brain in a vat. They seem to be more powerful, intricate, and intelligent than any race in the universe, yet lack touch. How does one find meaning in living without experience? One can only understand experience through understanding what it feels like to be a human. Sargon and Thalassa value of a body, which is opposite of the value of body in Altered Carbon. As Henoch is ultimately defeated, I believe it provides a greater message that the mind and body are interchangeable; ultimately, one cannot survive without the other. Henoch’s plan to simply exchange suits of armor to survive in is not enough for the minds to survive in, highlighting that the human experience and body are just as important as cognition.
After watching these three films, I have a conjecture; if cognitive functions can be transplanted into new physical bodies like computer chips, will no one die? If cognition is not a reality but only a part of the brain that directs the body’s movement, can this cognitive function be like the computing function of a computer? Can it be separated from the “hardware” of the brain’s physical structure and become a kind of detachment from the body? “software”?
“Out of the Past” Altered Carbon
Its highlight is that it introduces the concept of cortical stack and sleeve. In the future, everyone will be implanted with a cortical stack when people are one year old; inside is the pure human mind, coded and stored as DHF: Digital Human Freight. If you are killed, as long as the cortical stack is not damaged, you can be resurrected with a prosthetic body. This cortical stack is a bit like the U disk we use now. As long as the cortical stack is not corrupted, the mind can be imported into anybody like data. Consciousness can be transmitted, people will have a new sleeve/body, and human beings will live forever, but human nature is unchanged. For example, Bancroft, the richest man in the world, became “God” because his consciousness is immortal. The physical body is just a carrier. Cognition and consciousness can be digitized, copied, and downloaded to a new carrier anytime. Here, As Viocethread said, the body is more associated with women, people of color, and gay people; the body is a commodity, and there are different types, and the mind becomes the data stored in the USB flash drive. Losing the USB flash drive is death.
“Return to Tomorrow.” Star Trek.
The episode “Return to Tomorrow” is similar to “Out of the past.” Mind and cognition can be stored in any container, including spheres that act as brains to hold the mind, but the characters believe that without a body, the mind cannot reach its full potential.As Captain Kirk and the rest of the crew heard Sargon’s voice in a sphere, we got some visual footage of him (showing their confusion); Sargon said: “I am Sargon. Sealed in this receptacle is the essence of mind. A body much as yours. Although our minds were infinitely greater.” Sargon also showed that he could transmit his consciousness to the captain through a light beam. In a later scene, Sargon’s wife goes to Sargon, Sargon’s wife is in the Doctor’s body, and Sargon is in Captain Kirk’s. While it is theoretically believed that we cannot put our minds in our brains or bodies, cognition occurs through our interactions with the environment, and awareness extends from our brains and bodies into the atmosphere. We think in terms of context, including contextual cultural context and social or interpersonal context. Therefore, cognition is always abstract. In this cognition, the mind is how we experience the world around us – not our brain or body. So Sargon and his wife have consciousness and mind and can be embedded in any container; they are immortal.
“The Day the Earth Stood Stupid.” Futurama
In the episode “The Day the Earth Stood Stupid,” it is fascinating to show that the brain is itself. The mind in Voicethread is not necessarily our body; the brain is the organ of thought and exists in neural networks. In this episode, the gains brain begins to attack Earth, and Leela escapes with Nibbler to his home planet. This scene takes a “brain in a vat” approach to the concept of cognition. The brain can think freely without the need for a body, has enormous power over people’s brain waves, and it’s clear here that the brain becomes a flying organ that relies entirely on neurostimulation. Utterly inconsistent with the Cartesian dualism that there are two different fundamental entities in the world, mind and body. The essence of the reason is to think, be conscious and perform other mental activities. The nature of objects is that they are in space and have extensions. The biggest flaw in dualism is that it doesn’t explain how body and mind are united, or rather, it doesn’t explain how body and soul (mind) interact with each other.
In the show Altered Carbon, Takeshi Kovacs wakes up 250 years later after being resurrected from his death. He wakes up in a whole new body called a “sleeve”. “Sleeves” are the new bodies that one wakes up to after dying and you look different from your last body but your brain in still intact. This goes with what we learned in this week’s lecture because one of the terms we learned was called , Embodied Cognition. Cognition does not occur in a disembodied mind but is an embodied process. To quote the slide, “A body is not something you have; it is something you are.” I think this related to the episode because Takeshi was put into a different body, however, his emotions and personality are still intact. His “body” is who he is because both of his sleeves were nicely built guys that play along with his soldier like traits. When he first wakes up, after fighting the doctors he asks for a mirror and sees his old body in the reflection for a second before seeing his new self. Our bodies and emotions are integrated into our cognitive system, not separate from it.
In Futurama, the episode was about how brains were taking over the plants and making everyone dumb. Fry then has to stop the brains by using his own brain. He goes against the biggest brain of all and has to actually think of a plan to stop it. He reads a book to it and defeats the big brain. I feel that this episode of Futurama contributed to “The Brain in a Vat” concept and Embodied Cognition. “The Brain in a Vat” concept connects with the episode for the reason that the floating brains in the episode “made up” their own worlds by making other planets dumb which is similar to the experiment where the scientist would create an entire fictitious world that he captive brain would feel normal. Embodied Cognition also goes with this episode because the slide from the lecture explains how we don’t notice the thinking our bodies do. We think with and through our bodies. I’ve only seen a few episodes of Futurama to know that Fry isn’t the smartest character but he unknowingly used his brain to save his planet.
In the Star Trek episode, this voice appears and as the crew investigate, they find a device that contains a mind; Sargon’s mind. Sargon then takes over Captain Kirks body and starts to reminisce as if he were re-enjoying having a body again. He also got a chance to rekindle his with his wife. I think this goes with 4e Cognition because it shows that being just a brain isn’t enough. You need your body to express emotions physically, you need your 5 senses. To quote the lecture, “Cognition is embedded, always occurs and is often off-loaded onto, a physical and social environment.” The body is such an important factor in every thought and decision one makes.
Fun fact: the brain is the only organ to have named itself…
*Vsauce noises*
Did the brain really name itself, or did we, an outside force, name it? Well, having watched the three assigned TV shows, I can safely say that I frankly have no clue. In any case, it doesn’t change the fact that each episode has a unique way of viewing the brain/mind.
Altered Carbon has been sitting on “My List” on Netflix for months now, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to watch it. I’m a sucker for cyberpunk settings, and the shows portrays it very well (I’m planning on continuing it). In any case, the show takes a more cybernetic approach to the brain. To quickly summarize, since folks have covered this already, people can transfer their consciousness into a different body after they die. This body is called a sleeve. Inside their nape, they have cortical chips, which “hold” their memories, feelings, senses of touch, etc. Takeshi Kovacs is transferred into a body 250 years after his death. He is hired to solve the murder of Laurens Bancroft because of his status as an Envoy.
Cortical Stack, Real Life Replica
In this universe, people can solve their own murders by simply being transferred into a different body and telling the police who killed them. Very neat, right? Not only do they get a new body for free, but they also imprison the ones who took their lives. Actually…well, it’s a bit more complicated than that. Very early on, the show makes a point of this. We see a very young girl “sleeved” into an elderly woman’s body.
Cindy (7 years old), meeting her parents in an older body.
Apparently, despite having a right to a free sleeve, Cindy only gets “what’s in inventory”. The only way they could get her in a body fitting her age is to pay for an upgrade (this is obviously a ploy get rid of old sleeves, since the government could easily give a body appropriate for a child).
Now, this raises an interesting dilemma. Cindy being in an older body terrifies her, and her parents are equally terrified. This shows just how important one’s body is to themselves. Cindy cannot properly process what she is going through; her entire cognitive system is disrupted, because the body once holding her, the body that used to express her emotions and thoughts through gestures, is gone, replaced with a body that has a handful of years ahead of it. How does a child live with that fear, that despite her being mentally young, she is physically old?
How would you feel if you suddenly were transferred into an older body? Or maybe even a younger body? Sure, you’d be physically younger, but you’d be barred from a lot of activities you can do as an adult, and you’d, perhaps, have to go through high school, or even college again.
That scene is directly at odds with Cartesian Dualism. We are not just our minds; we are our bodies, too. They’re much more important to us than we think.
On the other hand, the scene where Laurens Bancroft meets Takeshi suggests the opposite.
Laurens Bancroft
He tells Takeshi that he always backs up his “mind” in a satellite orbiting Earth. Almost like his mind is a hard drive. He very casually says this like it’s not a big deal, and he doesn’t seem fazed by the fact his old body is gone, since he presumably has gone through other bodies, too. He is extremely comfortable with this, perhaps because he knows all his knowledge and emotions will be safely stored and good for use, regardless if his cortical stack gets destroyed. Unfortunately for him, his stack was destroyed before his memory was backed up (otherwise, no plot).
The Netflix show is ambiguous in that it doesn’t take one stance. Some people are comfortable with a new body, since their minds are the safe. Others need a body that fits them mentally (like Cindy).
This is not the case with Futurama, which, for the record, I’m glad was an assigned episode. The animation sees the brain/consciousness as an independent entity, Quite literally. There are flying brains making people stupider.
Mr. Brainley painting a fence…please tell me you get the reference
Big Brain, the leader of the flying brains, makes fun of humanity’s need for bodies, very bluntly saying, “We have long since evolved beyond the need for asses” when Fry tells him, “I’m here to kick your ass”. This episode takes a “brain in a vat” approach to the idea of cognition. Big Brain can freely think without the need for a body, and has immense power of people’s brain waves, mostly likely because he evolved outside of a body, like he claimed. The episode reduces the brain to just a flying organ relying solely on neural stimuli. Safe to say, Cartesian Dualism would not fit here.
I just realized I’m theorizing about a gag cartoon…
In all seriousness, this is the most disagreed on way of looking at the brain. Most modern philosophers, especially those in support of 4e Cognition, would immediately disagree and say that we need both the body and mind to fully feel “human”.
And this is excellently highlighted in the Star Trek episode. Now, for whatever reason, I had the blasphemous idea that Star Trek copied Star Wars. If I offended someone with that sentence, no need to get your pitchforks, I already punched a hole in my wall and put my hollow head in there.
Quick plot summary: the Star Trek crew are floating through space (as one does as a pass-time activity) when their radio waves are intercepted by a male voice that calls himself Sargon. The voice is coming from a seemingly “dead planet”, with a toxic atmosphere and all the rest. The crew decide to go to the source of the voice, and they find a spherical storage device that holds Sargon’s mind. He claims he cannot see or feel, and that he is as “dead as [his] planet”.
Sargon talking to the crew
Eventually, he transfers himself into Captain James Kirk’s body and makes a big deal about feeling human again: “Lungs filled with air again. To see again. Heart pumping, arteries surging with blood again. A half a million years. To be again.”
Similarly, when his wife, Thalassa is put into Ann Mulhall’s body, she says, “I’d forgotten what it felt like even to breathe again”.
This episode puts heavy emphasis on the body, how important it is to make someone feel alive, complete. It suggests that a person must have both to properly function, however, not as much emphasis is put on the psychological consequences of having a body after a long time without it, as seen in Altered Carbon. At the same time, the show tells us that it is possible to live as this body-less entity, so long as your thoughts are preserved in a form of storage. But it’ll not feel the same as having a body.
So, you can have your brain in a vat, so to speak, but you will never get the full experience unless you possess a body…which I hope all of you do…you do, right? None of you are flying brains, right? Please tell me at least one of you is so I can excuse this cringe humor.
Ahem.
I enjoyed all three of the episodes, though Star Trek’s music nearly made my ears bleed because of the volume and the distortion that comes with old school film. Looking forward to the rest of the modules.
