Month: July 2022

In this week’s module, we are exploring the relationship between our minds, bodies, and brains. How exactly is this relationship portrayed in Altered Carbon, Star Trek, and Futurama? Let’s go on a mission to find out.

Altered Carbon

In the pilot episode “Out of the Past”, there is a scene in which Takeshi Kovacs’ “sleeve” is about to be taken out of its bag at Alcatraz Prison. We get many close-up shots of the sleeve while it is still packaged. In the voiceover we hear, “Your body is not who you are; you shed it like a snake sheds skin.” This perfectly encapsulates the relationship between mind, body, and brain in Altered Carbon: they are separate entities to the characters. The mind is downloaded onto disks, which are like brains, that can be changed from body to body, or in terms of the show, sleeve to sleeve. The body is a commodity, not a partner to the mind. We get close-up shots of the sleeve packaged to show this. This relationship is similar to the concept of Cybernetics, which is the comparison of the mind to a computer. In Altered Carbon, the disk is like a central processing unit (CPU), aka the “brain” of a computer. The sleeve is like the tower of a computer, which essentially holds everything inside. Without the CPU, the tower is nothing. In Altered Carbon, the sleeve is nothing without a disk. The sleeve is simply used in order to experience the environment.

Star Trek 

In the episode “Return to Tomorrow”, there is a slightly different approach to this mind, body, and brain. There are spheres that act as the brain and hold the mind, but the characters don’t consider the mind to be at its full potential without the body. When Captain Kirk initially hears Sargon’s voice after discovering a dead planet, we get somewhat of an eye-level shot of him (showcasing his confusion) as he says, “The planet is dead. There’s no possibility of life there as we understand life.” Sargon responds saying, “And I am as dead as my planet.” Sargon is technically not dead, as he is one of three “people” left from his planet, but he considers himself to be dead in the sense that he is there, but he has lack of experience. Sargon exists, but he has no body to experience the environment. In a later scene, Sargon’s wife goes to Sargon, she in Dr. Ann Mulhall’s body and him in Captain Kirk’s body, expressing concern about transferring their minds to the humanoid robots. She touches him and says, “Can two minds press close like this? Can robot lips do this?” It is clear that she values the capabilities of the human body in order to fully experience the mind’s reaction to the environment. This is similar to Distributed Cognition, in which the mind is how we experience the world around us- not our brains or bodies. Even though Sargon and his wife have “minds”, they feel as if they don’t have the full extent of it without bodies. With bodies, they have the 5 senses and can touch each other to experience a closeness that they can’t without their environment.

Futurama

In the episode “The Day the Earth Stood Stupid”, it is considered in the beginning that cognition is simply located in the brain. Leela escapes with Nibbler to his home planet after flying brains start attacking earth. After the Nibblonians eat food, Leela sits with them (and pets the cuties). She asks, “So why are these brain spawn attacking Earth Nibbler?” He responds and says, “The brain spawn hate all consciousnness. The thoughts of others screech at them like the forced laughs of a billion art-house movie patrons.” Another nibblonian adds on saying, “Thus they travel from world to world making everyone stupid in order to wipe out all thought in the universe.” Essentially, the brain spawn attack people’s brains in order to make them stupid, and therefore affect their cognition. It creates lack of thought. However, Leela proves this wrong as she uses her body in order to showcase her thoughts. When she arrives back on Earth, she tells Fry, “Brain! Brain make people dumb!” Fry replies saying, “No Leela, brain make people smart.” Out of frustration, she grabs him and spins him around so he can see the flying brains outside the window. Leela used her actions, therefore her body, to express her thoughts when she couldn’t explicitly share them through words. Her mind, body, and brain worked together. This is just like Embodied Cognition, as Leela shows that the body is involved in cognitive thought. It works with the brain to create our cognition. As stated in the Voicethread, the body isn’t something you have- you are the body.

All in all, all of the shows have different approaches with the mind, body, and brain, especially when it comes to the importance of the body in the cognition process.

In Altered Carbon bodies are viewed as “sleeves”. Sleeves are a body that the government can put anyone stack in. A stack is basically a small computer containing a person’s digital consciousness and is inserted into the back of the neck. Inserted into the persons spine, the medical person in me has to say it seems like the cervical spine of C4-C5. After Takeshi Kovacs wakes up after 250 years of being dead, he is put into a random sleeve that they had available at the time. The government gives what is available at the time and if you want a better sleeve or an upgrade you must pay for it. Showing how they think of bodies, that they are just vessels to hold our DHF: Digital human freight. It shows that if they keep the DHF safe, they can live in any sleeve- even multiple sleeves. Bodies are easily replaceable, but the mind is not. Once the chip that holds the DHF gets destroyed there is no way in saving that mind. That person is now considered officially dead. Just like a computer, if the motor board is safe and not broken it can be used in a different computer. The mind in this case is the chip that holds the DHF. The mind is the software, and the body is the hardware.

The episode of Star Trek “Return to tomorrow”, viewed bodies differently. A person’s body was seen more than just a vessel but something that was needed to live a life. A body can feel, touch and in the episode that was a big component. Having a brain full of knowledge is one thing but you’re not able to live life fully. For example, when the crew went to go see Sargon, the crew witnessed how these “peoples” mind was stuck in a sphere alien like object. They did not have a body to live in, there were stuck in this sphere.  All they wanted were bodies for them self’s and they wanted to create them by being in three crew members bodies. But once they were in the crew members bodies, they quickly fell in love their new borrowed bodies. Sargon even explained what it was like going into Jim’s body, he felt the air in his lungs, he saw things, and he felt his heart beating. The classic things our bodies do every day automatically and we don’t cherish that enough. We take something like breathing for granted.

Going back to the 4E cognition this is an example of embodied cognition because the idea that the mind is not only connected to the brain but that the body influences the mind. The idea that you need a body to live a complete life.  At first, I thought that Sargon felt more superior to the crew because he is light years more intelligent but once he was in a body, I could tell that it was an act and he missed feeling alive. Sargon stated that he needed a body to live again. Being stuck in a sphere is not living, it’s the bare minimum of being alive.  During the lecture this really stuck out to me, “a body is not something you have; it is something you are”. Showing that you won’t feel complete without a body to live experiences from.

At the end all he wanted to do was be able to kiss his wife one last time, to be able to touch and feel her kiss. Viewers were shown of their love for each other and how precious it is to feel and touch.

Lastly the show futurama really had me thinking on what this episode really meant about the body and mind. In this episode everyone who lived in earth became stupid. As the title of the episode suggests, but one character was not affected. Fry was not affected because he was seen as the most unintelligent character. When the brains came to earth, I instantly saw that everyone was looking up at these brains. The floating brains were higher than anyone there. And it showed to me that the brains wanted to feel like they were superior to the people living there. However, these brains did not speak. I thought that was comical considering to be intelligent people believe that you need to speak. The only brain that spoke was the “big brain”. He is the master mind behind all the other attacks on the planets. The big brain states “We have long since evolved beyond the need for asses”.  Demonstrating that he doesn’t need a body, his mind was far superior to anyone else’s. He was able to attack other planets and take over them without having a body.  Fry knew he needed to do something, he noticed he was alone, and everyone was now stupid. When Fry was thinking of ways to stop the big brain, he realized that the big brain was losing his powers and becoming substantially weaker and smaller. Demonstrating embodied cognition that the brain and body are needed; fry was able to beat the brain by thinking. When Fry thought more, he decided to write a story and that is what ultimately made the big brain loose and everyone turned back to their normal self’s.

As shown in all three episodes in different ways, we need a brain and a body to feel alive. without the other, we are not complete. That embodied cognition is not limited to the brain, rather we think through with our bodies. Being able to touch and feel something thru our bodies help us feel alive. If we just all were brains with no body, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy life to its full capacity. We think with and through our bodies and not just our mind.

The three episodes we watched this week allowed us to see different interpretations of cognition and whether or not bodies and brains work together as one entity or as separate entities. They were all quite different, but also similar because of the concept they were portraying.

In Altered Carbon’s “Out of the Past,” viewers were shown a completely different society full of people that essentially lived forever because they were controlled by a disk that encapsulated memories and knowledge. The idea of cybernetics was used greatly because the mind or the chip that was installed acted as the software and the physical body which was easily replaceable was the hardware. The body wasn’t important, just used as a form for the chip to live and experience life. The “software” could be running for years and years and never die off, unless destroyed, unlike a normal body.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Star Trek’s “Return to Tomorrow” was a bit similar in portraying the idea that a body was needed to live. Sargon was energy in the universe, but it was never able to experience life because without a body, thoughts weren’t able to fully exist. It was almost as if Sargon and all the other energies were trapped and had no real purpose. This made me think of a person who is in jail for a very long time. In jail, the person has thoughts and feelings, but their bodies are physically trapped and they can’t really experience life in a way that others can or in a way that they probably would like to. When Sargon first came into Jim’s body, he felt the air in his lungs, he saw things, he felt his heart beating (13 minutes)– it was something that as energy without a body, he would’ve never been able to experience. This is showing embodied cognition because the body and emotions are integrated into the cognitive system, so both are needed simultaneously.

Futurama’s “The Day the Earth Stood Stupid” also uses embodied cognition to show that brains and bodies are needed simultaneously. In this episode, brains that make people stupid take over the world and everyone but Fry was affected. The brain was winning, but it lacked one important thing… a body. Fry isn’t the smartest person in the show, but he had a brain, that wasn’t affected by the brain attacks, and a body of course. Fry was able to beat the brain by literally thinking. When the brain was beat and Leela came back to her senses, she felt “a bit better in cognitive faculties” (21 minutes).  The brain is a very strong in life, but the episode showed that without the body to complete the cognitive system, it was essentially useless. The cognitive system is made up from bodies and the brain and both are needed to experience a lived life.

In all three episodes, the idea of cognition being made up of some form of a body and brain were used to show full life. In the episodes, the brain concept was alive, but it didn’t have the body there to aid the life experience. I feel the episodes showed cognition as being embedded because the brain or the idea of a brain wasn’t able to be successful living on its own without a body. Yes, it could be there thinking, but it wouldn’t mean anything because no action or real experiences could take place. A brain in a vat, is just a brain in a vat. It doesn’t have any definite characteristics that make it a full on living thing that has the same experiences and motives as a brain in a body.

This week we watched three different episodes from very different series that deal with the implications one’s mind and body deal with. Although each episode was so different in its setting and story, they all seemed to deal with the question of whether or not the mind and body work in tandem or on the contrary that the mind(brain) creates its own cognition.  This was my first time watching any of these shows and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed each episode. 

In the first show Star Trek “Return to Tomorrow” the mind is depicted as something that stands on its own. At 10:00 minutes the crew comes in contact with the sphere that holds the mind and essence of a past physical being of Sargon. Furthermore, Sargon reveals that he was once a physical being just like the crew. Although it seems that the episode is opposing the idea that in order to be truly cognitive one must have more than just a mind, viewers quickly see that Sargon only feels truly alive and conscious once he enters the body of the captain. It seems that this episode resides on the side of 4e cognitive beliefs. In order to be fully cognitive, a being needs more than just a mind. It needs to be immersed in culture, relationships, physical senses etc. 

On the contrary the episode of Futurama “The Day the Earth Stood Stupid” depicts the brain as a stand alone entity. As the brain invades Earth, Fry must defeat the essentially “mother brain” and through doing so the brain reveals that them and their kind have evolved past the point of needing a body. Meaning that the brain itself is the physical being and therefore tells Fry “we have long since evolved beyond the need for asses”. Because the brain doesn’t have a body Fry can’t physically fight it, he instead has to fight it with his brain and his thoughts. I found this to be a very cool theme. It helps viewers to understand and differentiate the mind and body. The episode ends with Fry trapping the brain in a book even further supporting the notion that the brain itself was the entirety of that being. 

Lastly, Altered Carbon on Netflix deals heavily with cybernetics. This show was quite freaky. Moreover, it delves into the possibility of a society where your consciousness is contained in a chip-like device. With that, so long as the chip is not harmed, you can switch bodies. The main character, Takeshi, goes through just that. In the beginning of the episode we see this character played by a different actor in the past scenes than the current scenes. This show seems to follow a belief different than that of the Star Trek episode and more similar to the Futurama episode. The belief portrayed in this show depicts cognition as something that is contained in a chip not a body or a brain. I felt that cognition was being shown as something that is tangible. 

 

In the three episodes we had to watch this week, the ideas relating to the body, mind, and soul are explored through the characters and plot. In the Futurama episode “The Day the Earth Stood Stupid”, the idea of the brain being its own entity was depicted throughout, demonstrating the different ideas relating to Cartesian Dualism  In one the beginning scenes (6:25), Leela is being chased by the brain spawn invading Earth. The brains did not speak, nor did they show any evidence of being able to communicate verbally (besides the Giant evil brain), they were still able to move around on their own accord without the need of a body. This ties in with the  “ghost in a machine” mentality when thinking about the consciousness/soul of a person, as we were seeing the ghost without the machine. In a scene later on in the episode (16:01), Fry and Leela find the big evil brain in the library. He says to them “ we have long since evolved beyond the need for asses”, showing how he is able to exist on his own and looks down upon the humans who are stuck in their physical bodies. This is similar to how Cartesian Dualism was described as the mind being separate from and elevated above the body, as we see the Brains tend to float above the humans in the episode. Fry is able to defeat the evil brain at the end of the episode by physically writing a new story and trapping the brain inside, which calls into question the limits of the so-called “ghost” or evil brain when it isn’t connected to a “machine”. 

In Netflix’s Altered Carbon, Kovac’s introduction to the world has him grappling with his past self and the new body that he now inhabits. In the scene (11:59) where he and the other people who received new sleeves are receiving an orientation on their new bodies, it gives us insight on how the characters view the mind and the body. The society built in this tv show expresses the importance of a mind/soul over a body. It seems that the physical bodies are not valued as a person’s consciousness is stored within a what they call a stack, located within a person’s spine.

The lady tells Kovac and the rest of the people that “inside is pure human mind, coded and stored as DHF: Digital Human Freight. Your Consciousness can be downloaded into any stack, in any sleeve. You can even needle cast in minutes to sleeve anywhere in the Settled Worlds. A sleeve is replaceable, but if your stack is destroyed, you die. There is no coming back from real death”. Death seems to only become a reality when the stack is involved, whereas the physical body, or sleeve, is replaceable. Similar to the Futurama episode, there is a distinction made between the body and the mind. The fact that people’s consciousness are not restricted to one sleeve, or in this case a singular lifetime, shows that the mind is able to function and continue on once its current body has run its course. In this scene, the show uses high technology graphics to demonstrate the complexity and mechanics behind the stacks that are placed within the bodies. This parallels the idea of Cybernetics, and how the stack, or mind, is the software and the sleeve is the hardware. Also, just as a computer stores information, the stack stores the memories of a person’s past life as well as the traits that make up their identity. 

In the Star Trek episode, they seemed to take a different approach on how the mind and body are connected, and explore how the body plays a bigger part than some may expect. When Sargon enters Kirk’s body for the first time to demonstrate his abilities (11:57), he notes the physical sensations that he experiences being back in the human form. He can feel the air in his lungs and his heart pumping, and explains that he misses experiencing those things. This is an example of Embodied cognition, as his consciousness and soul seemed incomplete when he was trapped inside the receptacle. This is seen again later on when Henoch is taunting Thalassa about placing her consciousness inside of a robot while she is currently inside of a human body (31:24). He tells her “In two days, you will have hands of your own again Thalassa. Mechanically efficient and quite human-looking. Android robot hands, of course. Hands without feeling. Enjoy the taste of life while you can”. The idea of Embodied cognition is being reinforced by Henoch, as he doesn’t view his existence as full without a live body to experience life through. In the lecture it was discussed that “ a body is not something you have; it is something you are”, and without that body your soul may not be completely whole. Later on Sargon states that  “We need your bodies so that we may live again”, leading us to think that living involves interacting physically with other life, and not just existing as a consciousness. From this episode, cognition is represented as extended as well, especially with the relationship between Sargon and Thalassa, who are husband and wife. Their consciousnesses remained together for many years, but they weren’t able to really connect until they were inside other people’s bodies and could physically touch each other again. 

 

Episodes blog #2

In Altered carbon Out of the past Takeshi Kovacs wakes up resurrected 250 years after he had died.  What it is interesting is the body is referred to as a sleeve. The scene in the beginning where there is a body floating in a dark fluid and then you see the body breathing heavily as he rises to the surface. You see a shadow of a nude body. The woman he is with is seen cleaning and stacking cortical stacks they have collected. A cortical stack is basically people’s minds downloaded into these.  The mind can be put into any “sleeve” or body. Takeshi was sent into the future to solve his own murder.  Showing the mind and his sixth sense is a very powerful thing. To compare this to what we have learned it is like Cartesian Dualism: The mind body split.  It is said that the mind is separated from the elevated above the body.  Plato believed the mind and soul were imprisoned in the body. I think this episode seems to metaphorically stand for the mind is thought as a computer with software and the body is the hardware. The body is the vessel transporting important information from the brain.

 

In Star Trek Return to Tomorrow The starship meet Sargon who has telepathic powers and tells them to arrive at his planet where he and two others are the last surviving of their kind.  Their minds have been stored in spheres.  In need of human bodies Sargon transfers his mind in Kirk’s body and then kirks mind into this sphere. The bodies again comparing to the first episode are just vessels and the mind is the power.  The transferring into the bodies can be exhausting.   Henoch begins to prepare a serum as kirks body becomes weaker, he requires this serum. This is almost like the brain in the vat thought experiment.  Neuro activation.  Like a mad scientist, our professor users an example as phantom limb, through neuroactivational.  The brain plays an important role in our perception.

“The Day the Earth Stood Stupid.”                                                                                                   
Futurama

Is a play on human and alien life.  This show is a comedy and the part of the episode, Nibbler uses telepathically That he is an ambassador sent to observe humans.   Brains then starts sending beams toward buildings and fry discovers all the citizen of New York have are now “stupid”. A brain spawn was sent to invade earth and wipe it out.  Everyone is powerless against the stupidity of brain spawn.  Since Fry was the only one not stupid, she is the only one who can defeat it.  The part in the scene where they pin the information to her shirt was funny because once she entered back into the earth atmosphere, she would be too stupid and would not remember.

 

One common theme between all three episodes is the body seems like it is treated as just a vessel.  We can interchange the body, but the mind is what makes us who and what we are. In embodied cognition, this believes are bodies are just as important as our minds. “Cognition is not limited to the brain, rather we think through and with our bodies.” The interpretation in these episodes that the brain is strong and there can be powers beyond with mind control.  The future could be where we can upload our brain into other bodies.  We must take care of our minds and our bodies.  We have to make sure we take care of these vessels for the brain to work as well.

We watched three different shows for class, and they all were different in their display of the mind and consciousness. In the first piece of media, Altered Carbon I recognized many topics we covered in the lecture. In this episode, there is the format of the sci-fi tech used in the show. In the show, they explain to them as, “This is a cortical stack… Inside is the pure human mind, coded and stored as DHF, Digital Human Freight, Your consciousness can be downloaded into any stack, in any sleeve, you can even needle cast to any sleeve in the settled worlds, a sleeve is replaceable…”There is a lot to unpack there, the human mind is simplified into freight, the human brain irrelevant.  Bodies are demeaned to sleeves, mere vessels for the cartridges of memory stored in the body’s neck/spinal area. Multiple times the idea of getting a new body is made to be a joke clearly the body is a joke to them. There is a strong feeling of the cybernetics understanding of the mind as well. With the discs simplified into software and the body remaining hardware, it fits snuggly into this understanding.

This is the technology that contained people’s thoughts:

In Star Trek: The Original Series there are definitely different, unexpected examples of cognition. Immediately the “brain in a vat”, thought experiment comes to mind. The other form of life in the episode have resigned in jars like glowing spheres for a long period of time. The main life form communicates, and can clearly sense his environment. But when inhabiting a human body it is clear that is a very different experience. Namely, the experiences of the senses again, going as far as the feeling of breathing. Saying even, “Lungs filling with air again, to see again. Heart pumping arteries surging with blood again… too feel it all…” This brings to mind embodied cognition, that we think through and with our bodies. That is a core focus in this episode. The way they consider bodies in this universe is a stark contrast to the previous show, here they are revered and coveted,  because there isn’t what appears to be a surplus of alternatives like in Altered Carbon. In both shows, they do not see the bodies themselves as deeply connected to one’s self at all, merely as vessels.

The episode of Futurama “The Day the Earth Stood Stupid” I found by far the most challenging to digest. Though arguably the most simplified in concept, I found it all the more difficult to pinpoint the key arguments. The show plays far less with discussions of self and leans much more into simply the human brain. saying, “The thoughts of others screach at them like the forced laughs of a billion art house movie patrons…” while the end of the punchline is irrelevant, the beginning does explain the motivation of our brain-bodied villains. Their interaction with the world is wholly dependent and affected by the people around them. This reminded me of enacted cognition or the socially extended mind, the villain in a literal sense is affected by other people’s thoughts. In the conclusion of the episode, we see that it literally harms them when people think close to them.

 

Hello everybody!

My name is Madeline, but you can call me Maddy. I use she/her pronouns and am an English major with a Creative Writing minor at Stony Brook University. I’m going into my senior year, which feels so unreal! I took off a year during COVID, so it felt like I’d never reach graduation, but now it’s just around the corner!

I’m very excited for this upcoming year. I play drums in the marching band here at Stony Brook, which is definitely my favorite non-school activity I do. This year I’ve been chosen for drum captain – a position I’ve wanted since I first started marching – and I couldn’t be more excited! If you go to any football games, keep an eye out for me – I’ll be the blonde girl yelling directions at the drumline. I’ll also be living in a house with other people in band, which is going to be TONS of fun!

Besides drumline, I love to read and write. I enjoy mostly fantasy and sci-fi. I’ve had writers block recently, so I’ve been rereading the Percy Jackson series – my go-to – to get me passionate again.

Of course I have to brag about my pet doves. Their names are Mordecai (the one farthest away in the photo) and Rigby (the one closest to the camera), and they’re my best friends. They like to sleep, eat peas and edamame beans, and look out the window. They also make a laughing noise which cracks me up daily (look up “ringneck dove, burt” on YouTube if you want a sample, that video is amazing). Here’s a cute candid picture of them with my boyfriend Riley.

I’m taking this class for a credit, but the topic of this class caused me to take this instead of a different one. I love sci-fi and the topic of cognition in relation to sci-fi sounds super interesting.

I’m excited to start learning with you guys!

 

Hi everyone!

My name is Alessa, and my pronouns are she/her. I’m a Psychology major with a minor in English, and I’m also a Senior graduating (finally!) this summer. My plans after graduating are to land a job in research (preferably in the Psychology field) in the city, and be able to use my English minor as a way to further enjoy reading and writing.

I decided to take this class because after taking multiple English courses where films and documentaries have been part of the syllabus, I became interested in how and what I can learn through films. I’ve never been a fan of sci-fi, but hopefully this class changes that! My favorite film so far this year has been “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” I related so much to the overall message of the film, and I recommend it to everyone. 

I enjoy reading, which has been a hobby of mine since I was young, mostly classics like Pride and Prejudice, Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, The Great Gatsby and so on. As I’ve grown up, I’ve also outgrown certain genres and developed an interest in others. After taking a class where environment and culture were studied, I developed an interest in environmental literature/novels due to what’s happening with climate change. Also, while my first language is Spanish, I don’t read books in Spanish, but I’m slowly trying to change that. I recently bought a poetry book by Pablo Neruda, so we’ll see how it goes! 

Please enjoy this picture of Luca, my puppy. He’s one, but he’ll always be a puppy, and he’s the best. He loves to chase squirrels, is tired of eating kibble, and has too much energy for his dog mom to handle.