Year: 2022

Hello, folks.

I hope you’re doing splendtastically well. It’s the last analysis of the class. Kind of bittersweet if you ask me. But it’s also, I suppose, good for some of you that I won’t be allowed to post any of my top notch, professionally presented, High Quality Jokes™.

Well, it’s okay. We’re all bound to forget those amazing jokes anyways. Speaking of forgetting things…

…

Uh…hold on, give me a moment.

*pretends to look through a file that details an outline of a blog draft, even though the so-called writer never plans what to write and instead wings it*

Ah, found it. Okay, so let’s talk about memory.

I have to say, that both the movie and the episode did a great job expressing the complexity of how memory works. I want to cherrypick some small scenes that stood out to me…well, I’m kind of supposed to cherrypick scenes because…you know, assignment and all that…

Let’s start off with Marjorie Prime. I have mixed feelings towards this movie. I’m not sure how to feel towards it (oh, is that what mixed feelings mean?). In any case, if we’re talking about memories, it, undeniably, does a great job at portraying how they shift over time, and how we’re the ones that, inevitably, rewrite our own versions of how our personal histories happened. Case in point, there is a scene where Tess and Jon are talking while the latter is playing piano and drinking Scotch. Jon is talking about a student who got an A on an exam by basically saying, “I don’t feel like it” (wish this was possible in real life). Tess recalls the first time Jon told her this story by remembering the ice cream they were eating. In her memory, they were eating vanilla. Jon denies this and says it was pistachio, but Tess says, “You’re insane, it was vanilla.”

I really enjoyed how simply this scene showed that these little things such as ice cream flavors can have an effect on what you remember. Though Jon and Tess remember different ice cream flavors, they both implicitly agree that Jon had told Tess the story when they were eating ice cream. This is autobiographical memory. Perhaps Jon, in his later years, started to prefer pistachio ice cream over vanilla (which, for the record, ew), and so he rewrote the original memory with this flavor in mind. Or Tess did that with vanilla. Who knows? One thing is certain: the central idea to the memory (the story about the student) has remained the same.

It’s interesting because both of them are technically right and wrong at the same time. Sure, maybe it was vanilla, but does that make the story false? Nope. Same thing goes if the flavor was pistachio. Definitely a cool way of showing that, sometimes, there is no objective right or wrong when it comes to memory.

Star Trek, on the other hand, focused on the value of memory. I generally love seeing android characters defending their right to existence. This episode was thematically reminiscent of a video game called SOMA that tackles the same kind of idea of “are machines capable of feeling?” If you like video games, please give SOMA a chance. It will not disappoint you.

Basically, Data’s life is threatened. He is to be taken and dismantled and used in a dangerous experiment. Apparently, the researcher (whose name I have forgotten because he pissed me off with his pompousness) claims that Data will have his memories intact. However, Data says he will lose “the flavor of the moment”. He makes an example of this by sharing how he read books about chance and probability, only to lose a poker game, which is an experience he is able to cherish and attach, not only to the people around him, but also to the act of learning about something only to be shown that textbook knowledge isn’t enough. If he simply gets these memories wired into him after he gets re-assembled, it’ll be like reading through a textbook, not really adding anything to that knowledge.

I adore this analogy, because it’s like knowing something without knowing why or how you know it. I have had moments where I just simply know things without understanding how I came across that information. It happens. Maybe I picked it up at school and forgot how I did so. Now imagine if all your memories were like that. It’d be…terrible, to say the least. You’d be disconnected from everything you remember.

I, personally, would have an existential crisis. I wouldn’t feel any form of emotional attachment to the memories of me getting my first electric guitar, or coming to the United States and leaving the place I’ve called home for 16 years, or eating my first Italian pizza in Rome, or laughing with my friends. I’d just know I did these things, and any form of emotion would be gone.

The Star Trek episode really made me appreciate my memories more, both the sad and happy ones. They have all shaped me as a person, affected my thinking, brightened and darkened my days. They have a grander purpose than just them being reminders of what you have done.

Anyhow…

Hello, folks.

I hope you’re doing splendtastically well. It’s the last analysis of the class. Kind of bittersweet if you ask me.

Wait…hold on…I feel like I’ve said this already.

You know, just in case I have, I will just call it a day.

Thank you so much for reading, folks. I have enjoyed going through your blog posts and reading about your opinions and experiences.

Warmly,

Guga

In “Marjorie Prime” the concept is very interesting, imagine being able to have a replication of a deceased partner? A digital reboot clone of Marjorie’s deceased husband Walter. He learns to become more human by interacting with humans.   He’s the Walter who Marjorie knew when she was the younger woman being courted, and eventually proposed to. It is hard for her daughter to understand the memory of him because she was so young. The Primes learn and improve as the people they’re designed for get steadily worse. Marjorie herself says as much to Walter before she dies, complaining, “You said I’d get better, but you’re the one getting better.” Hologram Walter is there for Marjorie to help her remember her past.  As a hard reminder also of Alzheimer’s disease and affecting memory. During the first hour and 38 minutes of the movie there is a slow and sad conversations involving painful memories of the death of their first child. Subjective memory is one’s perceived memory ability, independent of objective standards or performance. Subjective memory reflects one’s perception about his or her personal memory functioning. As we learned about this in lecture it changes up the theory a bit.  How can she know if she cannot remember?  She may have episodes of Episodic memory of remembering bits and pieces.  Maybe it is better because the hologram is having her remember the good times and not when the marriage began to fall apart. The good ole days.

 

In Star Trek  “Measure of man” similar to Marjorie Prime where these prototype’s that are not actually living and breathing.. are they capable of the same human capacities? Do they have memory.  In one scene Captain  Louvois exclaims” It sits there looking at me; and I don’t know what it is. This case has dealt with metaphysics – with questions best left to saints and philosophers. I am neither competent nor qualified to answer those. But I’ve got to make a ruling, to try to speak to the future. Is Data a machine? Yes. Is he the property of Starfleet? No. We have all been dancing around the basic issue: does Data have a soul?”

The question is will this happen in our future? It is a possibility there can be prototypes of living deceased relatives but they will not be able to have what humans do and those are emotions and memories.

 

While we watched inside out Riley remembered a happy memory but realized there was sadness attached.  We can feel a happy part of the memory and then it makes us feel differently after when we remember it differently. As we spoke about in lecture When we recall a memory, we retrieve specific details about it: where, when, with whom. But we often also experience a vivid feeling of remembering the event, sometimes almost reliving it. Memory researchers call these processes objective and subjective memory. You remember the joy later on and it can change over time. How you remember something can be influenced! I thought it was interesting in lecture how we spoke about the Mandela affect.  I had done further research and  false memory occurs when people incorrectly remember the same thing.  Many people had thought Nelson Mandela died in prison in the 1980’s. However he passed in the early 2000’s.  Widespread incorrect information can influence individual memories! crazy! so for the longest time everyone knew the saying in star wars as “Luke, I am your father.” It is actually “No, I am your father.” I actually took a poll with friends and ALL of them thought the incorrect saying was actually in the movie! *mind blown*.

Our memories are changing as we get older! what we remember as a child is different as we age!  I remember less details the older I am getting from what I remembered in my 20’s.  My emotions feel differently with certain situations tied to the memories! Just like Riley!  To this day it is important that I write out my shopping list or I will not remember what I need at the grocery store. Human beings are so interesting, aren’t we?

This week we watched Star Trek and the film Majorie Prime . I have to say that the episode of Star Trek this week made me emotional because it was so good. I didn’t think a science fiction show would make me feel so many emotions but it did. I must say I think I will start watching Star Trek: The Next Generation on my own time even after this class ends.

Starting with the episode of Star Trek titled “A Measure of a Man”, I realized how influential memory is on humans and more so how it makes us human. This episode of Star Trek revolves around the debate on whether or not Data can be dismantled for examination because people are arguing the star fleet on Data not having any say in what happens to his body. Something that stood out to me as important was when they’re in the court and Data is asked why he carries around 2 items. His response is that he does not know. I think that this is true for actual humans. I hold onto to things without really knowing why other than that it carries a memory or some emotion to it. Although Data wasn’t a human to some, the people that really knew him believed he was just as human as them. I do believe that Data was cognitive. He had memories a past intimate relationship and furthermore in the lecture it was stated that cognition is constituted and extended by our interactions with the environment. I think Data definitely felt and was sentient. I also really loved the scene when the was Data was being treated was compared to how slaves are treated. Data was described as an “it” and was expected to not put up any argument to being dismantled because he supposedly had no emotions and feelings. They assumed he had no memories or cognition because he was an android. Slaves are treated the same way; they aren’t seen as human and therefore people think they can do whatever they want to them.

The film “Marjorie Prime” was crazy. I feel like that is an understatement somehow. The movie was just really mind boggling and good at the same time. The film revolves around an old woman spending the end of her life with a computerized version of her husband. I think the main thing I learned from the film was that a memory of someone is all we have left after someone passes. I think something the film really focuses on is autobiographical memory. The relationship of Majorie and Walter was remembered differently throughout time. As time passes the memories that Marjorie has of Walter changes slightly the more times she thinks back to certain times. This is true to real life and even how I think back at certain moments. Over time the way I remember things changes because I add different emotions to the experiences.

Memory is a powerful feature in the human mind. Merriam-Webster defines memory as “the power or process of reproducing or recalling what has been learned and retained especially through associative mechanisms”. It can help us remember moments we made with others, even as time has well long past. This is why I think the concept of memory was used well in the film “Marjorie Prime”, and the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Measure of a Man”.

Unlike all my other modules, I first started with the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Measure of a Man”. Now, I think that I can say, without a single shred of doubt, that this was one of my favorite episodes of Star Trek that I’ve seen for this class. Yes, in a show with aliens, space travel, and characters with empathic abilities, an episode where Data has a trial to fight for his right to choose ended up being my favorite. I love stories that asks deep philosophical questions, such as “Do robots have the right to choose for themselves”? It reminds me of a video game called “Detroit: Become Human”, where androids that are built to serve humans should have the same rights as humans have. I recommend it, its a really good game, and one where every single decision you make will result in a different ending.

Anyway, back on topic. In this episode, Commander Bruce Maddox, a Starfleet cyberneticist, wants to take Data from the Enterprise in order to recreate his positronic brain and create thousands of Data’s. Maddox felt that Data was not a sentient being, going as far as referring to him as “it”. Of course, Data was not down with that, because he felt that we was alive and sentient, even though he was an android created by Dr. Noonian Soong. I believe that Data and his fight for sentience is a perfect example of Socially Extended Cognition. As time marches on, social and cultural institutions that we are a part of shape the way we think, and sharing those memories with others is an important part of our cognitive lives. So, when Data was working as a crew member of the USS Enterprise, he was able to shape his positronic brain to make memories and relationships with other members of the crew, including Lt. Commander La Forge, and William Riker. As another example of him making memories is him keeping mementos during his time on the Enterprise, including his medals and a holocube portrait of Tasha Yar, a late Enterprise crewmember, who Data had strong feelings for. Some can say that he even loved her.

Afterwards, I watched the 2017 movie “Marjorie Prime”. This movie was based on the stage play of the same name, written by Jordan Harrison and released back in 2014. I am not kidding when I say that the minute I finished watching the film, I said to myself out loud, “What the hell did I just watch”? But after taking some time to process what I had just seen, it all makes sense. Marjorie, an 80 year old woman, speaks to a hologram of her late husband, Walter, and reminisce on the moments they had with each other. But, as the movie continues, there are different accounts to the relationship that Marjorie and Walter had. I think that this is a perfect example of autobiographical memory, which is defined as “a revisable and negotiable record of the personal past, constantly updated and subjected to ongoing retrospective revision”. For example, in one scene, we are to believe that Marjorie and Walter watched the film “My Best Friends Wedding” on the night he proposed to her. But later, Marjorie remembers a different film on that night, “Casablanca”.

One think I would like to start out with is this quote from Saddness, ““Crying helps me slow down and obsess over the weight of life’s problems.” What I really appreciated about this is how Joy herself comes to understand this in a new way. Particularly when she sees that saddness isn’t an entirely negative thing, it can heal and that in general negative emotions can indeed be positive in the end. We see this being threaded through the whole film as we cover different aspects of Riley’s maturity progress.
I think emotions are pretty much depicted as happening to us in Inside out, I think automatically of the scene where Riley is at the dinner table and anger takes hold both in Reilly and the fathers brain. What I find interesting as well, is positing what would have happened if joy was there? Would things went as far as they did? Perhaps so, if you feel this was the natural curse of things.
I don’t want to lean to deeply into the lore of the Disney Inside out film, but i also find it very interesting how the emotions cooperate within the mind, They all know the role they play, and typically don’t try to step in when it is another emotions time. I am curious what that is commenting about the emotions themselves in general.
This Star Trek: The next generation episode is a lot. It plays with the common trope of a villain hiding in plain sight. (This is also seen in frozen with Hans 😉 ) I think it actually adds a lot to the episode in terms of helping us sympathize with the charecter. Seeing the physically toll the emotions of this single man has on a EMPATH was an interesting twist. I am curious why he truly choose her specifically because, it makes me concur that he didn’t foresee that someone more sensitive to emotions would have a. More challenging time containing all of his abundant ones. I think looking at this from a psychological point of veiw would be interesting. In the real word often people are crushed by their abundance of emotions and are crippled by them, and we see this idea conveyed in the episode “Man of the People”

Alkar, at one point in the episode says, “You see, I discovered long ago I had the ability to channel my darker thoughts, my unwanted emotions, to others, leaving me unencumbered.“ This was a very interesting concept to bring forth, particularly for someone with his job title. I would presume that it would be a major part of his job, his emotions, yet he is decided in his choice that it actually improves him. I also I appreciate the use of the word, “unencombered” because I think that word holds a visual weight, which goes along with the visualization of usually unseen emotions.

In this week’s module, the film Marjorie Prime and the Star Trek episode “Measure of a Man”, demonstrated the different ways in which memory can be represented and utilized in understanding one’s identity. In the film, Marjorie speaks to a hologram version of her dead husband called Walter Prime, who was brought in to give her comfort at the end of her life. I think it’s interesting because each of the Primes are given information by the loved ones in order to act in the most realistic and accurate way, but they are receiving skewed versions of events (to no one’s fault but the fact that each person has a different experience). But, it should be noted how some characters would leave out information while speaking to the Primes, and we can see how those gaps of information cause some confusion with the Primes in the very final scene.

We see this when Tess has a conversation with Marjorie Prime, and explains their strained relationship, or the relationship she had with the real Marjorie. After the real Marjorie dies, Tes admits to Jon that she just wanted her mother to love her as much as she loved her brother Damien (1:09:30). Jon tells Tess that “She did, it was obvious from a little further away”. This reminded me of something I heard in the lecture which stated that “memory change over time as we construct and think about them through different contexts and from different perspectives”. Tess never got to see what her experience with her mother looked like from an outsider’s point of view, and Jon is trying to comfort her with the idea that Marjorie did love her, and it was easier to see for him. Tess’s relationship with Marjorie Prime won’t replace the memories and experiences she had with her real mother, but it does add on to the dynamic she might have while looking back on those memories. This supports the idea from the lecture that “memory is influenced by content, emotion, and environment”. We find out later on that Tess takes her own life, but for the sake of the argument, if she did find closure and emotional healing while spending time with Marjorie Prime, that could have an effect on how she remembers the interactions with the real Marjorie. 

One concept that I think the film portrayed in an interesting way was the extended cognition. The Primes are examples of cognitive integration, which is “the brain, body, external tools and technology, interpersonal and social supports, and culture create complex and interactions that form a cognitive system”. The characters are able to speak to the Prime’s about past events in order to help the piece of technology undergo the process of becoming an accurate representation of the person.

In Marjorie’s case when she had Walter Prime, he was able to help her remember things that she wasn’t able to in her old age. But, it was Marjorie herself (as well as Jon) who gave Walter Prime the memories in the first place. It was like watching them prepare a tool that they knew would eventually help them in the future. In one scene, when Tess is talking to Marjorie Prime(1:02:10), she says “Do you have emotions? Or do you just remember ours, do you feel anything?”. Tess is trying to get an understanding for how the Prime is taking in and internalizing what she is telling it. Is the Prime able to connect certain feelings to the memories, or is it just “storing it away” until it is needed for recall. This made me think back to the film Inside out, and how each memory had an emotion attached to it. The Primes have what I thought of as an “artificial” emotion attached to what they are told.  I think this also leads into the idea of a constructivist’s view of memory. Because the Primes did not experience these events themselves and are only told how the real version of themselves felt during it, they are not able to construct memory. The people who speak them construct the memory and the Primes simply remember it, as we hear them say throughout the film “I’ll remember that next time”. Remembering and actually having the memory are two different things. Their idea of “self” is not their own. 

In the Star Trek episode, I think we see through Data how emotions are so closely knit with memory. In the scene where Maddox is explaining the procedure he will do on Data he states that “I will run a full diagnostic on Data, evaluating the condition of its current software. I will then dump its core memory to the Starbase mainframe computer” (9:21). Data is an android, and his memory seems to be something that can be separated from his body, but we know that the body is a tool that helps the mind process and take the interactions around it. We heard the term “core memories” in Inside Out, and we know that in that film, the core memories are what makes a person themselves, it creates individuality.

The episode focuses on the argument that questions if Data should be considered property, or if he is his own person. Data has experiences with the other crew members, most of them being his friends. Maddox goes to Data again and tries to convince him to do the procedure, assuring him that his memories will remain intact afterwards (16:27). Data replies saying “Reduced to mere facts of the events. The substance, the flavor of the moment could be lost..I do not believe you have acquired the expertise necessary to preserve the essence of those experiences. There is an ineffable quality to memory which I do not believe can survive your procedure”. Data is trying to point out that as our lecture stated, “we experience emotions when we remember, both of the memory itself, and how we feel about the memory”. Data doesn’t want to lose that element of himself because without the feelings attached to those memories they won’t have significance to him and his relationships he has with the other crew members anymore.

First of all I want to say how much I love Inside Out and I am not ashamed at all that most children’s movies make me cry – they really know how to get me in my feels. Especially when they have personified them. The movie suggests that everyone is controlled by  5 basic emotions – Joy, Disgust, Anger Fear and Sadness. The movie doesn’t seem to count surprise nor contempt as basic emotions, which in my opinion is a missed opportunity because surprise would have been a funny addition to the crew. In Riley, Joy is mainly in charge (although other emotions take the wheel at times) however it appeared that in other minds, other emotions were at the helm. In the father’s mind it was anger and in the mother’s- sadness. It felt like this could be alluding to a person’s general affect. While certain emotions might be temporarily “in control” Riley is generally led and influenced by joy. I wonder if this remains constant throughout life. Is a person born being controlled by a particular emotion – and that emotion remains in control – or do certain emotions get “promoted” as a person changes and grows? Are all children inherently governed by joy?

 

Inside Out portrays embedded cognition and Arnold’s appraisal theory of emotions.  As stimuli are received and life events occur the emotions assess/appraise the stimuli and then a certain emotion takes control and dictates the action.  The broccoli clip is a perfect depiction of the appraisal theory in action.

The islands as facets of Riley’s personality reminded me of schemas – how Riley sorted and divided information and memories collected and fit them into different categories that made up her understanding of the world and herself. This movie is so nuanced and there is so much to unpack in every moment of the movie, I think a lot of it could be used when we discuss memory, since a major portion of the plot was delving into how we store memories and the way we retain/forget information. Inside Out does a really great job of conceptualizing memory making and how our emotions affect our decision making.

Like Joy in Inside Out who initially viewed sadness as a detriment to Riley’s cognition, Alkar in “Man of the People” also views difficult emotions as a cognitive deficit. However, this weeks Star Trek episode goes back to pitting emotions against rational thought rather than an embedded cognitive process. Ambassador Ves Alkar states “I discovered long ago I had the ability to channel my darker thoughts – my unwanted emotions to others, leaving me unencumbered.”  While he doesn’t get rid of all of his emotions/thoughts he channels the ones he sees as “cumbersome” leading him to be a better negotiator for peace because he isn’t influenced by rage or sexual desire. While he is unencumbered the host for these emotions and thoughts are not only mentally affected but also suffer physically. After being the host for these emotions Deanna ages rapidly –  This seems to depict an ideology that emotions affect you physically and age and eventually kill you, while without these negative emotions the ambassador is free to make more rational choices and lives in a youthful state.  I wonder why he died in the end of the show. Has he been doing this for so long he is actually ancient and those years caught up to him or was he so unprepared to handle any negative emotions from his years of casting them aside that he was instantaneously crushed by the metaphorical weight of them?

This week we watched the movie, Inside Out, and the episode “Man of the Future” from Star Trek: The Next Generation. These two both had a focus on emotions and their effects on you, although they both had pretty different takes on that concept.

 

In the movie, Inside Out, in the beginning of the film we are introduced to the main character Riley and we immediately are introduced to the film’s main concept which is that the emotions that people feel throughout their lives are physical beings within one’s mind. In many scenes we are able to see how quickly emotions can change such as when a younger Riley is sitting down in her highchair with her father attempting to feed her. We see Disgust take over when they see that the food is broccoli, we see Anger take over when her father says that if she doesn’t eat then she wont get dessert, and finally when her father begins to make the food “fly” towards Riley like an airplane we see Joy take over. We also see how the emotions that Riley has can make up her core memories such as her love for hockey and her family etc. We can see how Riley needs all of her emotions to function properly, when Joy and Sadness are trying to get back to headquarters and it is just Disgust, Fear and Anger they are unable to help Riley function which leads to her running away. In the end when Joy and Sadness finally work together, Joy is able to understand Sadness better and they both are able to get back to  headquarters. After a time skip we are able to see that Riley is even better then she was before and she is able to properly express all of her emotions. 

Next in the episode “Man of the Future” from Star Trek: The Next Generation, we see how negative emotions can affect people. In this episode we learn that ambassador Alkar is projecting his emotions onto Deanna Troi causing her to become aggressive and age rapidly, while he becomes level-headed and calm. In the end when Alkar is unable to project his emotions onto someone else and he begins to feel all of his emotions, he quickly ages and dies. 

In this module we focused on the different theories behind emotions. Emotions are part of our cognitive system and it’s impossible to separate our rational mind and emotional body. We created emotions with our life experiences, they do not just happen to us. This week we watched Inside Out and episode Man of the People from Star Trek: The Next Generation. 

“Man of the People” Star Trek: The Next Generation

In this episode, the Enterprise is set out to help Ambassador Alkar be transported to Rekag, where he’ll be a part of a negotiation between two other planets. After his mother’s death, Alkar performs a ritual with Troi in which he transfers all his negative emotions to her. Since counselor Troi is considered to be an empath, it is hinted that Alkar chose her for this because she would be able to take in emotions easier than anyone else. Counselor Troi quickly begins to change along with her body, further conveying the connection between the body and mind. We see Troi during meditation (in which body and mind are intertwined) staring at a mirror, and studying her body as if she were seeing it change before her. She begins to act out in anger and jealousy towards others, and ultimately her body ages fast, shocking Alkar. It’s possible that because she was an empath, she “absorbed” the negative emotions quicker which resulted in her quick transformation compared to other receptacles. This episode further explains the Theory of Emotional Construction because the emotions did not just happen to Troi, they were transported into her mind, which would mean they happened to her, and in turn deteriorated her body.

Inside Out

In Inside Out, we meet eleven year old Riley and her 5 emotions: joy, sadness, anger, disgust and fear. Her memories and emotions were created from experiences she went through while growing up. The older she got, the more memories she made and the more emotions she made, which explains how emotions are created by us, and not just happen to us. This is further explained when she decides to leave San Francisco to go back to Minnesota to create more joyful memories, which will make her happy again. 

The emotions made her act in certain ways because emotions are constructed concepts based on our social reality. Going to a new school meant she wanted to get in with the popular crowd, which is why she tried acting “cool” in front of the popular kids, and why she was devastated when she began crying in front of her classmates. Since bodily sensations are emotions, we were able to understand and see she was sad when she started to cry remembering her life back in Minnesota. I thought the core memories being created towards the end in all different colors of her emotions was a creative way to show how complex emotions and memories are.