Altered Carbon
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.
4 thoughts on “BODY OR MIND? WHICH ONE IS IT?”
Hi Alessa,
I love that you draw our attention to the moments in Altered Carbon where we continuity of the self across different bodies. As you note, Kovacs getting the tattoo suggests that he is attempting to connect this new body to his old self. When we talk about memory, I will introduce you to the concept of the autobiographical self: our constructed conceptualization of ourselves as a continuous self. Kovacs getting the tattoo suggests that he is attempting to construct a continuous version of himself—even if he is in a different “sleeve.”
You observation about how the little girl is moving in the old woman’s body is also a great observation. It speaks to what is called body schema, which refers to the ways—outside of consciousness—that our bodies move. The little girl’s body schema is for a different body, and needs to adjust to her new one.
The Star Trek quote that you pulled about the impossibility of matter without form is also really interesting. It invites us to think about the idea of the ghost in the machine. What would it mean to be a mind without a body? Or just a floating brain, for that matter!
Glad that you enjoyed the episodes this week and felt like they connected to what you learned about on the voicethread!
Jessica Hautsch
Hi Alessa, I like that you mention how in the episode of Altered Carbon the seven year old girl who ended up in an old woman’s body. She is suddenly brought back and not only does not look like herself but is immediately is treated differently when Kovacs offers her a cigarette because obviously he does not recognize the fact that she is a child just from looking at her. This definitely made me think because for someone older, who is put into a new vessel as long as they are around their own age at some point they would get used to their body. However, this child is so young that she’ll likely never get used to it.
Rebecca Kennedy
Hi Alessa,
I thought similar to you on what you picked up related to Cybernetics. It definitely feels pertaining to hardware and software. I am definitely very interested in your point about one personal connection to your body. I found the section with the little girl in the Hit and Run particularly heartwrenching. I appreciated their quick social commentary slipped in where the “best” bodies are reserved for the rich, unsurprising as this also takes place in a capitalistic world, not too unlike our own. We see many hints at potential future further exploration of commentary, perhaps through the form of corruption not only in the government but in the rich themselves.
onobs
Hey Alessa!
I love how you highlight the physical changes that result in switching bodies. From the way the little girl seems terrified in her new body and how Thalassa is scared that she won’t be able to touch Sargon with her android body, it is clear that these transition periods between bodies would be very taxing on the mind.
To apply this concept to the Futurama episode; though the transition period isn’t shown, the brains are implied to have evolved beyond the need for bodies, yet they are shown to wear hats and other clothing as if they did have bodies. I thought it was hilariously hypocritical that they denounce having a body yet function exactly the same as if they did have one.
mchupick