Author: Sara Giarnieri

In our last module before the final project, we are looking at memory. Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s episode “Measure of a Man” and Marjorie Prime explore interesting aspects of memory and how it connects with our cognition. Let’s take a look.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

In its episode “Measure of a Man”, Data has a one-on-one conversation with Maddox regarding Maddox’s experiment plans. In an attempt to get Data to go along with his plans willingly, he says to Data, “Your memories and knowledge will remain intact.” Data responds, “Reduced to the mere facts of the events. The substance, the flavor of the moment could be lost.” Later Data adds, “While I believe it is possible to download information contained in a positronic brain, 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.”

In this scene, Data explains the difference between being able to remember an event and actually feeling the emotions of that event’s memory. He fears of losing the latter. This is quite similar to the VoiceThread’s discussion of when we remember emotions, as recall leads to emotions “both of the memory itself and how we feel about the memory (meta-emotion).” Data could lose that quality in the process of recall.

In the trial, Data mentions how the experiment can cost his life. I think he means quality of life. Losing the emotional aspects of memories breaks the thread of meaning behind those memories. He will simply be an empty shell, quite literally just a machine, or at least the type that Maddox references.

Marjorie Prime 

Tess and Jon converse inside the bar by the piano. As they recall the last time they were in the bar, Jon says, “Memory. Sedimentary layers in the brain. You dig in, you know it’s there, you just have to-” and Tess interjects saying, “No, no.” She explains, “William James had the idea, and it’s been confirmed scientifically that memory is not like a well that you dip into or a filing cabinet. When you remember something, you remember the memory. You remember the last time you remembered it, not the source, so it’s always getting fuzzier, like a photocopy of a photocopy. It’s never getting fresher or clearer. So even a very strong memory can be unreliable because it’s always in the process of dissolving.”

Tess’s point is very interesting, but is she quite right about a memory being unreliable because it’s in the process of dissolving? Thinking about the VoiceThread, I don’t believe so. It says that “Memories can change and still be “accurate”.” There is “emotional accuracy” in the memory. Even if a memory becomes fuzzier, you can still feel the emotion from such memory. It’s that “flavor” that Data was talking about. Hypothetically, let’s say I have a memory of a really crappy birthday party in which nobody I invited showed up (this didn’t actually happen I swear). At first, I remember myself crying when my mom brings the cake out. I remember feeling sad, and I feel sad when I think about the memory. As I grow older, I can’t experience the episodic version of the memory because I lost the details about the cake and me crying, but I can experience the repisodic version, the thematic version. I can still remember feeling awful because nobody showed up. So, is the memory really that unreliable as it gets fuzzier? Food for thought.

So today we’re going to talk about how I cried for a solid 20 minutes because of Inside Out…

Umm, let’s restart that. We’re going to discuss emotions and how they are interpreted within Inside Out and Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s “Man of the People.”

Inside Out 

Inside Out has such interesting concepts when it comes to emotion, and also very important ones.

The emotions, mind, and body play as a team in this movie. Even though the emotions are viewed as separate characters and entities, they still work with Riley and her cognitive processes. They are a personified version of how humans think. We don’t have one track minds- different experiences give us different emotions, making us ponder how to react.

Riley has plenty of emotions her first night sleeping in her new home. She hears the noise and sees the shadow of a bus, and we see Fear start to flip out going, “What is that? Is it a bear? It’s a bear!” After some dialogue, Anger inputs his thoughts about the move. He says, “This move has been a bust.” Fear believes there’s 37 things for Riley to be scared of, Disgust mentions the icky stench in the house, and Anger exclaims, “I can’t believe mom and dad moved us here!” Joy tries to lighten things up, saying things like, “We’ve been through worse” and “Let’s make a list of all the things that Riley should be happy about.” This is much like how we in real life process emotions. If I were Riley, I’d have similar thoughts. I’d be scared of the unknown, disgusted by dead rats and the smell, and pissed at my parents for making me move. Possibly, I’d try to focus on the positives to feel better (I say possibly as someone who struggles with depression, if you know you know). Inside Out exhibits emotion similar to Arnold’s Appraisal Theory of Emotion. The emotions see something happen in Riley’s life, and usually say aloud if it’s good or bad. Their thoughts related to emotions are then exhibited in conversation, and from there they figure out the action they must take. After all, anger somehow came up with the “let’s jump on a bus to Minnesota to fix the occurring problems.”

On a more important note, Inside Out reveals that it is important to express our feelings in order to get the help we need. After Bing Bong’s rocket gets sent to the dump, he is overcome with sadness and says, “Riley can’t be done with me.” Joy says, “Hey! It’s gonna be okay, we can fix this. We just need to get back to headquarters. Which way to the train station?” Joy tries to pull him, but he says, “I had a whole trip planned for us” and stays put. Joy keeps trying to cheer him up to no avail. On the other hand, Sadness says, “I’m sorry they took your rocket. They took something that you loved. It’s gone, forever.” The two continue to talk about Bing Bong’s feelings, and he ends up crying and feeling better. Joy is like Riley in the beginning of the movie, pushing to hide feelings and avoid the problems to “stay positive.” On the other hand, sadness is like Riley at the end of the movie, pushing to express feelings in order to acknowledge and overcome them.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

I think it’s safe to say the episode “Man of the People” was weird.

I’d consider this episode an opposition to the Theory of Emotional Construction. This theory claims emotion as something that doesn’t happen to you, but rather something that is constructed. This episode shows emotion as something that happens to you.

We watch Deanna Troi deteriorate throughout the episode both mentally and physically after the “funeral meditation” with Alkar. Picard confronts Alkar after the autopsy of Alkar’s (not) mother to figure out what has been done to Troi. Alkar tells Picard, “You see, I discovered long ago I had the ability to channel my darker thoughts, my unwanted emotions to others, leaving me unencumbered.” He later says, “She’s an empath. I was reasonably certain I could establish a link with her. Frankly, I was amazed when I saw how quickly she’d aged. Usually my receptacles survive for years.”

Emotions are looked at as transferrable. It is also clear that it’s easier to transfer them onto empaths, which are people that can feel what others are feeling. Dr. Crusher called these transferred emotions on Troi “psychic waste.” It is as if emotion takes control of the person depending on how much dark emotion is transferred. Troi becomes a completely different person- more sexual, cruel, and attached. They happen to her; she doesn’t construct them. When the emotions transfer back to Alkar, he grows old and dies. He has no control of them.

The film Arrival and the tv episode “Darmok” in Star Trek: The Next Generation acknowledge the idea of linguistics. It exhibits how it affects our cognitive perception, or rather how it is part of our cognitive perception. Language influences how we understand who and what is around us.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

In Module 2, we briefly discussed embedded cognition, which acknowledges our interaction with the environment as a part of our cognition. The context within our physical and social environments are considered an important piece of our cognition. Embedded cognition goes hand in hand with this episode.

In one scene, Dr. Crusher, Data, Riker, and Deanna are seated together. Data and Deanna explain that the Tamarians communicate through imagery, specifically imagery of their mythological history. Deanna mentions how it’s like saying, “Juliet on her balcony”, to which Dr. Crusher adds, “An image of romance.” Riker mentions the possibility of being able to communicate with them with this information. However, it’s not the case. Dr. Crusher says, “If I didn’t know who Juliet was, or what she was doing on that balcony, the image alone wouldn’t have any meaning.” Essentially, if someone didn’t know the story of Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare, they wouldn’t know the context of “Juliet on her balcony”, and therefore no emotions or ideas would be evoked. This is the issue the crew has with the Tamarians. They have trouble depicting the Tamarians’ imagery because they don’t know their mythological history. Embedded cognition takes on a large role here. Additionally, the discussion of meaning in the VoiceThread is active in this scene. The idea of the meanings we get from language being influenced by interactions and experiences is demonstrated. The Tamarian language would produce more meaning to the crew if they experienced the same history. That is why Picard reads a Greek mythology book at the end of the episode- to connect his personal mythology history with other species’ and produce meaning. This is like Simulation Theory in Module 3, which is when you can simulate others’ feelings in a situation based on your own experiences.

Arrival

This movie reveals how the body, language, and cognition play a role together. There is a scene when Louise writes her name on a whiteboard and points to herself saying, “Louise. I am Lousie.” She was attempting to teach the heptapods her name, but to no avail. She then risks her safety and removes her hazmat suit. She says, “They need to see me.” She touches the screen with her hand, to which a heptapod copies. She says, “Now that’s a proper introduction.” Ian ends up repeating her actions, removing the hazmat suit and saying his name while it’s written on the whiteboard. The heptapods then share their names in their written language. Louise recognizes that she must use her body to fully express herself and connect with the heptapods. According to the VoiceThread, cognitive linguistics see language as “embedded in the… interactions with the world.” Louise and the heptapod placing their hands on the screen allow them to truly connect for the first time through their physical interactions, and therefore allows the heptapod to understand her intentions and what she means. Staying in the hazmat suit creates a disconnect, as it is more of a scientific observation between the humans and heptapods rather than a true connection.

Conclusion

Star Trek: The Next Generation and Arrival both share the importance of bodily experiences and interactions with the environment in order to gain an understanding within language.

 

Our visual media of the week, Possessor and Futurama‘s “I Second that Emotion”, explore the topic of empathy. However, it shows empathy in a way that the average person may find unsettling. Empathy is expressed in a manner that is forced or curated, not natural. How far does the mask of empathy go?

Possessor

In Possessor, empathy is a rather disturbing topic. Our main character, Tasya Vos, is arguably unable to feel the emotion or characteristics of others without observation. She is the opposite of our module’s discussion of direct perception: when you can feel how another is feeling without interpretation. Vos plays people (including herself) like characters in order to get into their mindset. Early on in the film, Vos talks to Girder about the assassination of Elio Mazza. Girder asks, “Why stab Elio Mazza. You were provided with a pistol.” Vos answers, “Well maybe it just seemed more in character.” Girder replies, “Whose character?” Vos doesn’t provide an answer to this question. The way Vos views herself as being “in character” implies that she cannot directly feel emotion.

There is another account in the film that exhibits the idea of playing a character. Vos observes Colin Tate with his fiancée Ava through a camera with a large lens. Colin says things such as, “I don’t think there’s any left” and “You wanna get dinner?” In this scene, we can see Vos copy his mannerisms to emulate his character before she must take over his cognition. She repeats the lines multiple times to perfect them. We come to a close-up shot of her face as she copies the words, “Let’s just go walk and find somewhere.” She closes her eyes and repeats it to herself as if she is trying to memorize it. She is like an actress practicing her lines. She cannot naturally feel what Colin is feeling.

Part of what makes us human is our emotion affected by the experiences of others’ and our own. Vos doesn’t quite have this. If anything, she is robotic. She can be compared to the concept of cybernetics. Kind of like how AI uses the information around it to learn, she does the same in order to play her characters. She stores the information in her mind for later use.

Futurama

The way empathy is showcased in Futurama‘s episode
“I Second that Emotion” is not disturbing, but we are dealing with another character that has a lack of natural empathy. Without the empathy chip that is attached to Bender by Professor Farnsworth, he cannot feel any of the emotion that radiates from others.

Before the empathy chip, there is a scene in which Bender watches the television. A robot is visiting the doctor, and the doctor tells him, “Your entire family died when a plane piloted by your fiancée crashed into your uninsured home, and you have inoperable cancer.” A normal, empathetic individual would feel terrible for the robot, but in the next seen we get a medium shot of Bender laughing at the television. He doesn’t feel the pain of the character on screen.

After the empathy chip, Bender can feel Leela’s emotions. Leela and Fry find Bender in the sewer. Leela says, “Bender, you didn’t have to come down here.” Bender responds, “I know, but I just miss Nibbler so much.” Leela says, “He was so cute.” Bender adds, “He was so sweet.” The two end up hugging while Bender cries. Bender has emotion in this scene because he can directly feel how Leela is feeling- the love and longing for Nibbler. This scene encapsulates emotional empathy, which is defined as feeling similar emotions to someone else in the VoiceThread. Bender can feel the same emotions as Leela, but only with the chip.

Conclusion

Both Possessor and Futurama share a mask of empathy. Vos’ is curated, and Bender’s is forced. Neither can feel the natural empathy that we do.

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.

Hey folks! My name is Sara Giarnieri (she/her/hers). I am majoring in English and minoring in Creative Writing. I love writing poetry, short stories, and flash fiction. I am actively attempting to get published in small online journals. My dream is to edit for Penguin Random House, Harper Collins, etc. and write poetry collections on the side. I am currently an Editorial Intern for We Rise 4 Wellness.

It’s a given that my hobbies include reading and writing. My favorite book is The Shining by Stephen King. I also enjoy video games (PC/Xbox), art, and listening to music. Momentarily, I’m loving Slipknot, Deftones, and $uicideboy$. My favorite Slipknot song right now is “Custer” which is on .5: The Grey Chapter. I saw them live in May on my birthday, and it was amazing. The mosh pit bruised me a bit, but it was worth it.

I plan on seeing my online friend of 7 years for the first time this summer. We are thinking of meeting in Florida and going to Universal Studios. I am also going to a concert this summer. Alice in Chains, Breaking Benjamin, and Bush are playing. I am thrilled!

I chose to take this course because I saw it on the summer 2022 classes flyer, and it seemed like something I’d be interested in. I love discussions that are psychological and get the cogs turning. I am also excited for the films/shows we are investigating, especially Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I’m hoping this course will increase my analytical skills for visual media.