Author: nperalta

Watching Marjorie Prime and Star Trek’s “Measure of a Man” this week made me really think about at what point would a robot become human. Both of the texts this week depicted artificial Intelligence with an enormous data storage capacity and the ability to learn. So where is the difference between them. Why was I sympathetic to Data’s plight in Star Trek, while agreeing with Tess, that the Primes were nothing but “sounding boards” – not human.

I think a major difference lies in emotion. While Walter prime is telling stories to Marjorie in the beginning of the movie, he emotes, his face smiles and he can capture physically an emotional response. However, he’s missing the feeling to truly be sentient. There is only information storage and regurgitation. Marjorie asked Walter Prime in the beginning of the movie if he feels the emotions or just remembers the emotions experienced by the person telling the story. He responded that he likes to learn more because it makes him better/more human. Which as Tess points out when discussing memory is what makes them the opposite of human. She says that humans don’t retrieve memories from a well, but rather are retrieving a copy of the memory from the last time we recalled it, and therefore memories are always in the process of deteriorating. I don’t agree with deteriorating as the right word for this, this week’s voice thread discussed how memories change over time. Our understanding of a memory changes, which also affects the way we view that memory. Our emotions also play a major role in memories, we remember the emotions felt during the memory but there are also a second set of emotions that we experience while discussing/remembering. This is where the Primes fall short. Their “memories” are perfectly preserved forever with the same emotion described the first time they heard the memory. They don’t have meta-emotions, they aren’t reevaluating how they feel about a different memory when a new contradictory memory is given. Like the Parrot talked about in the movie, they just repeat back the information, the same way they heard it, forever.

Data on the other hand is different. While his reasoning behind his decision to not undergo the procedure may appear more pragmatic. He still has more complex emotional reactions regarding the situation. He is worried about his consciousness being dumped and backed up into a computer he doesn’t want his memories “reduced to the mere facts of the events the substance, the flavor of the event is lost.” This is what the primes are missing. They are receiving the facts (with emotion being filed as a fact of the event) While losing what Data calls “The ineffable quality of memory.” For Data, his memories are rich with emotions. He keeps mementos to remember people and events that are important to him. He doesn’t want to lose those reminders. At the end of the episode, he understands the complexity of Captain Riker’s actions. He didn’t just look at it as fact that he argued the case against him, Instead he could empathize with what he did.  He eased the captain’s mind by telling him I understand that your actions “injured you and save me” This shows his ability to process complex and process his own complex emotions and evaluate how he would proceed in a similar situation.

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?

1 obvious and prevalent theme throughout both Arrival (2016) and the episode “Darmok” is how nuanced language and communication is and how it can serve as a barrier between people. The movie and episode showed significant misunderstandings stemming from inability to communicate. Not understanding a person’s culture can lead to not understanding a language (and vice versa) and not understanding intentions/meaning in words. This doesn’t only apply to people that speak different languages, even when speaking the same language, the words people use have different meanings to different people.

In Arrival (2016) there was a lot going on to try and make sense of. I want to start with the repetition of language as a tool versus language as weapon. When the heptapods were offering something, it was immediately translated as weapon but as Louise points out, languages isn’t that simple (as she demonstrated in a previous scene by stating the different translations for the Sanskrit word for war as either an argument versus a desire for more cows). The “mistaken” definition of weapon versus a tool reinforces the notion throughout the movie of language representing both a weapon and a tool. The words in the preface of her book even states that it is the foundation of civilization and “the first weapon drawn in a conflict” The whole movies demonstrate the way words are weaponized.  The colonel makes Louise have the words she’s teaching them approved, because he worries about teaching them too much and having it used against them. In the end, what they were offering wasn’t a weapon, it was a gift or a tool in teaching their language.

Another prevalent aspect of arrival (probably the most prevalent)  is the way our cognition is shaped by language. The characters discuss The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis and how learning a new language can change your cognition/brain and the way you perceive the world (spatial/temporal processing), this hypothesis is explored to the extreme in the movie through learning an alien language that allows her to experience time different, however the movie also highlight more realistic/subtle ways it alters cognition. The best example is the Chinese decision to communicate/connect with the heptapods through a game. Louise explains this is a horrible method because all the words they’re learning every way of communication will be filtered through terms of winning, strategy, victory and defeat – she uses our own conceptual metaphor “when all you’re given is a hammer, everything is a nail” to explain how this will shape cognition and set the framework for all future communication and attitudes between them.

The Star Trek episode “Darmok” is all about a race that’s entire communication uses these conceptual metaphors anchored in their mythology, as explained in the episode, knowing the words isn’t enough. To understand their language a person needs to have knowledge of all of the stories their language is based upon. The episode highlights the detriment of not understanding the meaning behind language. When shown 2 knives, Picard kept thinking he wanted to fight against him rather than fight with him in order to unite them – had Picard acted on that assumption, the effect could have led to war between their civilizations rather than a step closer to understanding each other. Something that interested me that I thought also demonstrated the Sapir-whorf hypothesis was the statement that their race had no sense of ego, they spoke through imagery and metaphors of the stories of their past and interpreted meaning through those stories.  Does having this language that speaks of other people’s story and places such high value lessen each individual’s perception of their own value. The captain of the other ship was knowingly willing to put his life in jeopardy for the advancement of his people and his crewmates while upset, let him go alone and left him there to die, while knowing he was in danger. Is this because the culture values are shaped by their lowered self-identity due to their collective identity through these stories?

The Futurama episode “I second that emotion” and Possessor(2020) both highlighted a debilitating component of empathy.  In the Futurama episode, Bender initially (and ultimately) lacks empathy, he still experiences emotions however he seems to reflect a child that hasn’t reached the Theory of mind stage. His actions come off very much like a toddler because his actions are selfish. At the birthday party, he gets jealous because all of the focus isn’t on him. He gets angry that having nibbler affects his life. The issues isn’t emotions for him its understanding other people’s perspectives are different from his. He truly can’t see why Leela is so upset when nibbler is flushed down the toilet – The episode goes against the Embodied theory, because even though he is able to pick up on all the clues that she is upset and hurt by his actions, he sees that she is crying and know that means she is sad, but he has no emotional empathy for her because he is unable to simulate how that would make him feel.  When he has the chip on his actions are guided by the emotions he is experiencing (Leela’s emotions)

Ultimately, Leela’s emotions end up almost costing them their lives, because feeling that fear for everyone’s life (as a robot, I don’t feel like Bender’s life was ever in any jeopardy) paralyzes Bender. It’s only when Leela is able to shut off her emotions and therefore Benders forced “empathy” is he able to attack and overcome the monster.

Possessor also demonstrates how emotions and the desire to really FEEL something get in the way for Taysa to do her job. Girder mentions to Taysa that it takes a certain type of person to do what they do. In order for her to be able to do it, she needs to be detached from any emotions. In the beginning with the butterfly, while she is desensitized, she is not completely devoid of empathy- she describes feeling guilty at taking the butterfly’s life. However, once she gets rid of her own emotional ties and she becomes completely detached physically and emotionally from her family she can state plainly as a fact without guilt that she killed the butterfly. This demonstrates how having emotions can and did hold her back at her job.  Her emotions and her ties to her family weakened her mentally. Sharing a consciousness would affect anyone’s psychological state. There is such a conflation of primordial and non-primordial emotions that it would be difficult to resume your own life after being pulled out of someone else’s. The tangible personal artifacts seem to be needed to reset and remind her who she is.

The scenes where he is wearing her skin shows that its difficult to separate in the mind who is whom. She essentially is wearing his skin, however he also has access to her thoughts and her emotions – so when he wears her skin, it just shows that the consciousness are merged, he is using her memories and emotions the way she is using his, therefore like with bender, having those emotions weakens her and she needs to shut them off in order to best perform at her job.  I think in these cases it’s stating any empathy is debilitating, but  more as a commentary that in  the real world  too much empathy cripples people.

The episodes we watched this week all delve into the split between the mind and the body. Alva Noe said “you are not your brain” but these episodes all conceptualize the brain as independent consciousness, beyond the body.

Altered Carbon explicitly states, “Your body is not who you are, you shed it like a snake sheds it’s skin, leave it, forgotten, behind you.”  But the episode seems to grapple with this statement. On one hand there are very cybernetic theories at play. The mind, people’s consciousness are downloaded into other bodies(sleeves). While Bancroft explains his “murder” to Kovacs its all very analytical, like a computer he is backed up to an orbiting satellite feed, he is theoretically immortal as long as his backup remains intact.  This approach to consciousness appears to embrace the duality between mind and body, that the body is just imprisoning the mind and easily switched, because the consciousness is the core of the person not the body. However, there are many instances within the show that seems at odds with this thought, taking a more embodied approach to cognitions – that left me with so many questions. The most obvious variance from cybernetics is the conscious tie to the body as a form of the human identity. When Kovacs wakes up, he is told not to look at his reflection because he risks schism/a psychotic break. An Identity crisis seems like a logical assumption for someone suddenly inside a different body. So much of a person’s identity rests on their appearance, race, age, gender, perceptions. The consciousness is affected by the body’s production of hormones which fully displays this embodied conscious theory. When Ortega is speaking in the precinct, she states the envoys can “drop into any sleeve and be combat ready in minutes.. absorb local language culture and customs” This is where I have questions, were the languages and culture and customs a part of the sleeve’s knowledge, it seems like the envoy is merging their own consciousness with the remnants of the body’s conscious. For the first episode, I would need to see more of how this is explained but if that were the case, it would be interesting to see how the merged consciousness affects the stacked conscious.

What was interesting in the Futurama episode is the similarities between the brains race and the nibblonian race. These are 2 presumably far superior and ancient intellectual races.  While the nibblonians were intelligent and perceptive enough to send nibbler to earth in an effort to save the galaxy from the brains, they are driven to an almost compulsory need for food. Plato would consider them a slave to their bodily needs, even in the direst situation they are easily distracted and influenced by ham. The brains, however, claim to be so advanced they have evolved “far beyond asses” yet they are said to be driven by pure hate – Plato associates emotions within the confines of the body – so it doesn’t fit in with the cartesian dualist theory that they would be motivated by emotion rather than any reason/logic. It’s interesting that the 2 ancient intellectual races seem to be driven by more primal needs.

In the Star Trek episode, we are introduced to another superiorly intellectual race, they had transmitted their consciousness out of their bodies, however when Sargon takes over Captain kirk’s body he breathes in and feels, and exclaims “to be again” almost completely diverging from Descartes exclamation, for centuries Sargon has been thinking – however, only once he is in a body and can see and feel again, does he consider himself as “being”. Similarly Henoch goes against plato’s perception of the body as the mind’s prison. When he is trying to convince  Thalessa to steal the body, he calls the unfeeling bots they were creating a prison, trapping them out of a living/feeling body. I find these overt departures from the cartesian dualist theory important it denoting that humans/people are beyond just thoughts, we are a collection of our senses, our environment our bodies, our perceptions and our thoughts. This episode truly highlights what it means “to be”.

My name is Nicole, I go by she/her pronouns. I recently returned to school after about 10 years. I have an 8 year old son and now that he is older and in school, I have come back to pursue a degree in English Education.  A lot of my summer will be working and trying to entertain my son – but I also have a family vacation planned to go visit family in Florida and a short cruise from Florida to the Caribbean, which we are both excited for.

Most of my week revolves around sports, I run soccer and kickball leagues for LI-Kick, which is LI’s largest adult social sports league – so I spend most of my time on a field. I’ve played soccer my whole life and have been running/playing kickball the last 8 years.

Kickball has turned out to be way more competitive than it was when I was a kid, and a major part of my life the past few years. I even went to nationals (surprisingly this exists) in Las Vegas last year for kickball – which is a statement, I never thought I’d say. 

I am taking this class because it fulfilled the requirements, I need to graduate. When I originally signed up for the course- I didn’t know what the course entailed, however now that I’ve read through the syllabus the course strikes me as a really interesting course. I love a good story and sci-fi and genuinely like the content and am looking forward to some really interesting posts/discussions within the class.