Author: onobs

In Marjorie Prime, we got a fantastic display of memory being “constructed”. When this phrase was introduced in the lecture I found it hard to wrap my head around. But seeing them being built in real-time is much more comprehensible. Also during the lecture, we cover how context can affect memory, you can see many examples of this in the film but what comes to mind personally is how Marjorie reacts to the topic of her son, Damian. At different points, Marjorie has forgotten in the case of Marjorie Prime never learned of the tragedy of his death. Without that context, she is open to speaking about him willingly, he is no longer the black sheep in family stories. You can see how the daughter Tess finds the casualness with how her mother mentions this long forbidden topic very upsetting, this has other reasons but the root is she has a different context of these memories than her mother currently has in front of her.

We also see a more abstract version of what is not “Good Remembering” during the course of the film stories are told and retold. This is a more literal explanation for the process of memory where we remember not the initial incident but the last time we remembered that memory. For example when Marjorie is speaking to Walter Prime and she re-writes the story of their engagement, intentionally, where instead of the reality where they watched My Best Friends Wedding, Casablanca was on instead, a classier alternative, perhaps?

Every week I am truly surprised by the diversity of topics that the show, Star Trek, regardless of what generation it is the topics explore many different areas of thought. In this episode, “The Mesure of a Man” the question was posited “Is Data the Property of Starfleet?” within this question came many more, including, Does he have a soul? The show had a surprising amount of nuance considering the time it originated from, yet it definitely had some failings. I noticed they implemented a kind of “white savior ” moment for Dr. Picard. When one of the black cast members makes an appearance and explains a comparison to a race of Data’s being treated like property by bringing up slavery. He then goes on to use this point of view to bring everyone into the light and save the day. I found this slightly unsettling in viewing this episode. I think this is also an example of thinking through the world or extended cognition.

In the episode it’s made evident that one of Data’s functions is being, a quasi-memory vault, this made me think of what we spoke of in class about offloading memory. At any time members of the crew expect to be able to turn to Data and access an innumerable amount of information about any matter. He almost serves a similar function as a cell phone. This would be considered offloading memory onto technology in class.

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 the movie Arrival, I think I saw many overlaps in things we spoke about in class. With Aliens coming down to earth in a pack of twelve there are many issues at play with the main focus of Arrival being communicating with them. One thing is how “cognitive linguistics focuses on the importance of context”, this was a point of interest within the film because a word like weapon could easily be misconstrued as the word tool. When you are developing a basis of communication the specifics are yet to be finely tuned. I think this also has to do with frameshifting in one way or another. Going on the same example, weapon partnered with the word gift is not interpreted in the same manner as the other usage, use weapon. They also mention the Sapir Whorf Hypothesis which was a key point in our lesson, they define it as saying “the language you speak determines how you think, it affects how you see everything” which is accurate to what we learned in class. The point of noting this Hypothesis is brought to mind in the following scene where she references the problems of framing communication around a board game, making everything into a win-lose scenario, effectively making everything more dangerous. https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fs.studiobinder.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F03%2FArrival-Video-Essay-How-to-Balance-Fear-and-Intrigue-WP.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.studiobinder.com%2Fblog%2Farrival-movie-analysis%2F&tbnid=lYI_AyqcijQLKM&vet=12ahUKEwiqpvvFkJX5AhWon3IEHSaWDs0QMygFegUIARDoAQ..i&docid=ZRtX6nyNPLBzzM&w=1920&h=1080&q=arrival&ved=2ahUKEwiqpvvFkJX5AhWon3IEHSaWDs0QMygFegUIARDoAQ
In the episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation we watched has much more to do with conceptual metaphors. In this episode, the gang’s trip is met with a group of people who, up till now have never been able to be spoken to. They attempt interaction and the captain is transported to their planet. Though I can’t concede to knowing entirely what was happening in that episode, by the end the Leader of the federations ship, understands that the other race’s language is wholly based on metaphors and imagery. They communicate wholly through making specifics general. This is clearly brewed in the concept of conceptual metaphor, which is defined as, “Helping us make what is abstract, concrete.” though during this episode it appears to have more of the opposite effect. What assisted me to understand the idea of their language better is their comparison of Romeo and Juliet. “The Tamarian Ego Structure may not allow what we think of as self-identity. Their ability to abstract is highly unusual. They seem to communicate through narrative imagery, a reference to individuals and places that appear in their mythos. It is as if I were to say to you, Juliet on her balcony..” This helps the audience to get a handle on what our two main characters of the episode are saying… yes. But also helps you build a better idea of how the language fundamentally works. We see the understanding most clearly at play, during which the captain has figured out the idea behind some of the phrases he has been repeating the entire episode. Eventually concluding it was about two people coming together. Not simply about those two people at the end of the day. Clearly referencing their own groups within this deep sorry of extended metaphor.https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fntvb.tmsimg.com%2Fassets%2Fp7896684_b_h8_aa.jpg%3Fw%3D1280%26h%3D720&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tvinsider.com%2Fshow%2Fstar-trek-the-next-generation%2F&tbnid=ByrBEGP2vK4YYM&vet=12ahUKEwiqp8qwkJX5AhX3r3IEHbvTDCkQMygTegUIARCIAg..i&docid=2xooLp0DpzvIDM&w=1280&h=720&q=star%20trek%20the%20next%20generation&ved=2ahUKEwiqp8qwkJX5AhX3r3IEHbvTDCkQMygTegUIARCIAg

Wow, I found the movie, Possessor quite jarring, the imagery was initially very shocking. When we look at the concepts in class in regard to the film, I definitely see some elements at play. Throughout you can see that in a way Vas has a very concrete understanding of the Theory of mind. When we see her standing outside the house, she is practicing how she will act. “Hi, darling. HI darling. What have you got there? What have you got there?” Varying her tone and intonation slightly, clearly attempting to find, what lends to making her sound so natural. The fact that she does this informs me she understands the average person’s perspectives are different than her own. Her identity, body, and empathy are very much at odds during the course of the movie. You can see her identity, which she ushered into the forefront was that of mother and wife. But by the end, we see clearly this is not the core part of herself that she felt day to day. We see her kill that part of herself when she kills her son and husband. At that point, Vas has decided to end that part of her life where she deluded herself. The technology in the film certainly blurs the lines between bodies. As far as empathy is concerned, Vas doesn’t concern herself with this issue. In her interaction with other characters, she does not seem to consider their perspective. In fact, she seems entirely detached from empathy. Her motivations appear entirely motivated within the self.

In the episode of Futurama, “I Second that Emotion” is much more focused on empathy, rather than ideas in regard to the body. The episode takes us from Bender not having any empathy to gaining the mimicked feeling of empathy. This take was very interesting being that the empathy displayed is not internally inspired but rather projected from the other character, Leela’s head. It is empathy at its most scientific, broken down to triggers in the brain that lead to emotions as a result. This idea brings me back to the idea of the brain in a vat, that emotions can be falsified and replicated by electronic pulses. Another interesting moment in the episode was when Bender tells Leela to stop caring and, “Start thinking about the things you want, the things you deserve…” It’s an interesting suggestion that when you put yourself first you no longer care about others. One moment that is overlooked is the moment that bender has right after. When he regains control of himself he continues to attempt to save Leela’s pet nibbler. This emotion was not present at the beginning of the episode. Though he went on this quest to retrieve him from the sewers, he most likely would not have put himself in any kind of harm’s way. Yet we see all kinds of growth when he does this without hesitancy, even after his arms are ripped clear off his body he completes the mission and saves the day.

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.

My name is Olivia Nobs, Olivia is fine! My pronouns are she/her! I am a sophomore studying English at Stony Brook. I’m a commuter, I live only 15 minutes from campus! I love to read, all types of books, though I usually prefer fiction. I love music and musicals, my favorite is Mitski and The Zombies. My comfort show is New Girl and I’m obsessed with my baby boy Georgie, he is a Shichon (shih tzu/ bichon)
I have been doing a lot of embroideries this summer, as well as gardening in my yard. I work at a public library in the children’s department, and I am planning on being a librarian in the future.
I took this class because, like everyone else, I’m fulfilling a credit, but I am also interested in this genre of media, particularly those that involve dystopian highlights. I have been told in the past I am very introspective, so I think this class suits me quite well. After browsing the class materials it also has elements that resemble psych which I also have an interest in. So I am looking forward to delving into the materials the class provides.
My favorite series of novels is the Scythe trilogy by Neal Shusterman, it actually relates to a lot of the Ideas we play with in class. It plays with morality, death, and one’s sense of self. My other favorite is Little Woman by Louisa May Alcott, I have a soft spot for classics similar.