Author: yichen8

This week we watched Marjorie Prime and Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “Measure of a Man,” both show how our memories, emotions, cognitions, and societies are built and connected. Especially Marjorie Prime made me cry a while watching it. The loved ones are gone, only their memory remains, and I can only talk to the memory over and over again, and I am no longer alone with the former one. The memories we remember each time are only those we remembered the last time, and the people in our memories will disappear in the end. Is memory just a piece of a story?

Marjorie Prime

One of the exciting things about the movie is Prime’s service in the film, which provides holograms for deceased family members and “feeds” according to the patient’s memory to assist Alzheimer’s patients. They can “recite” them just in case they forget them. Marjorie has a quote that stood out to me; she said, “You remember the last time you remembered it, not the source. So, it’s always getting fuzzier, like a photocopy of a photocopy. Even a very strong memory can be unreliable because it’s always in the process of dissolving.” My understanding is that all your memories are memories and not facts. Because, as mentioned in Voicethread, memory is constructed. It is not that in the mind of an archive, they aren’t recorded or stored, but they are being built. The mind is actively constructing them—also, the emotional value of memories changes with changing experiences. Thus, memory, emotion, and cognition are interrelated, and together they create our perception and understanding of the world.

Another point of the lecture relative that Andy Clark and David Chalmers mentioned is that the mind could expand into the world without being limited by the boundaries of the brain and body. Holograms are an example of extended cognition, as they use “the brain, the body, external tools and technologies, interpersonal and social support, and culture to create complex interactions that form a cognitive system. In the film, Walter is in the process of chatting with Marjorie; he is also constantly learning and revising those memories. He always says, “I’ll remember now or next time.” Therefore, Walter can extend Marjorie on What the memory she has spoken of in the past is now blurred. Moreover, Jon begins to create a holographic AI version of his beloved wife and fills “her” with his own memories. So memories between Jon and his wife, especially Jon’s flashbacks to their marriage, underscore emotions’ pivotal role in how and when we remember.

The director’s cleverness is that he chose an elegant and mysterious villa by the sea to house most of the scenes, and there is no high-tech expression. The audience sees the beach, rocking chairs, and dogs but does not see any computers or other technology. It seems that in the future of human life, all technologies have been hidden and penetrated our lives. The entire film also embodies the concept of autobiographical memory, through the construction and control of each “AI”‘s memory, the stories they tell others and themselves about who they are, with an element of self-preservation, self-control, and self-definition. For example, in Walter and Marjorie and Jon and Tess, the dialogues and memories between them affect Walter and Tess’s memory and style and also impact Marjorie and Jon’s emotions.

“Measure of a Man” Star Trek: The Next Generation 

Data isn’t just a robot; he’s family. Data is called IT, and this episode made me think about when robots will become human. For example, while Maddox promised to recover the data after analysis and assured Data that his memory would be intact, Data believes that while will be preserved the detail of his memory, the nuances of his experience may not be reserved. The data, therefore, reject surgery. The critical factor that Data is a human rather than a robot here is that he understands that his memory is full of emotion and values ​​the people and things in his memory. Memories and emotions shape our understanding and perception of the world and determine who we are. Without our memories and the feelings in our memories, we are not complete beings. So, Dade is not the property of Starfleet but a living being. Meanwhile, when Data finally found Riker alone in a conference room, ashamed of having to argue with his friends at the hearing, Data understood his behavior. Data said, “That action injured you and saved me. I will not forget it.” I comprehend that Riker’s actions and emotions strongly influence Data, and he can empathize with Riker’s actions and feelings.

The two films in this unit are my favorites, mainly because of “Inside Out.” I cried while watching. It is a warm and heartbreaking masterpiece. If there is no sadness, where is the meaning of joy?

 

Insider Out

I don’t think “Inside Out” expresses James Lange’s theory. The emotional role is to transmit Riley’s emotions through the organ button of the brain command. The hypothalamus inspired the interior design of this fun brain commander, and the producers didn’t want it to look too sci-fi but wanted it to be a place that looked warm and comfortable, where emotions could make their home. I think this design expresses that emotions, minds, and cognition are one rather than separate. Additionally, Riley feels disgusted is shown when the character Disgust flips those power switches, and Riley’s behavior does the same, so she knocks over the plate. It goes against James’ idea because Riley’s mind (Disgust) understands the situation and then makes Riley do her act. However, James’ point is that Riley would be disgusted for not liking broccoli. So “disgust” wouldn’t be the one who flipped the switch for Riley to Disgust. James believes that the physical sensation is the emotion, not the character of Disgust. Thus, one of the things I love about this movie is that it does an outstanding job of connecting emotions, bodies, and minds, and we can see how each emotional character can provoke Riley’s reactions.

Another link to the lecture is a quote from Lisa Feldman-Barrett, who said emotions are socially constructed. For example, emotional changes in Riley’s parents stem from social constructs, including family and the workplace. When we observe Riley’s upbringing, we realize that the world is not perfect. The film’s turning point happened when Riley’s father moved to San Francisco for work. Although Riley was very uneasy facing the new environment and new classmates, she still faced it positively and optimistically, but then sadness suddenly appeared. Uncontrollable behavior, she will involuntarily touch the memory, even the core memory, which frightened Joy and quickly warned sad not to feel it. It reflects our usual attitude towards sadness – try to avoid it; it’s OK to pretend you’re not painful and try to make yourself happy, even if it’s fake happiness. Barrett’s point is Riley’s sadness in the face of new circumstances and the stimulation of new classmates. Moreover, this film keeps emotionally resonating with audiences because we all had a Bing Bong in childhood. The debilitating and disappearing Bing Bong is a trigger point when we sense an emotion, which arises by categorizing physical stimuli in our cultural context. Emotions do not happen to us but because we perceive them. Therefore, I believe that emotions are part of our cognitive system.

“Man of The People” Star Trek

This episode brings up the concept of empathy again. Alkar revealed to Picard that he could channel his negative emotions onto another person, a “receptacle” that allows him to be clear-headed and level-headed as a negotiator. Knowing that this would lead to accelerated aging and death of the recipient within a few years, Arka did not foresee her rapid symptoms when he chose Troi as his next recipient. So Troi becomes more and more vulnerable until death. It’s incredible to see how these negative emotions Troi was going through caused her to age very, very quickly. But it also shows how emotions, minds, and bodies are linked, as we see the harmful effects of negative emotions on the body. At the same time, the ” receptacle ” role reminds me of the empathy chip in the episode of “Futurama,” where Bender experiences Leela’s emotions. Both Alkar and Bender lack empathy, and thus both lack the ability to understand feelings in a given context. On the other hand, neither Troi nor the chipped Bender can express their emotions.

Ps: Why do we need sadness? She said,”Crying helps me slow down and not obsessive worried of life’s problems.”

Does thinking determine language, or does language determine thinking? When I watch Arrival, I think hundreds of thousands of scripts are written worldwide, but why are most written linearly? Of course, the expression is line by line with the writing method of letters, and even the complex Chinese characters are still written. Why don’t humans tile language into two dimensions like drawing?

Arrival

When the heroine and the alien learn each other’s language, the Sapir-Wolf hypothesis mentioned is the hypothesis of the relationship between language and thinking. All high-level thinking depends on the tongue. Language determines thinking. “The language you speak determines how you think and yeah it affects how you see everything” (1.02.18). People who use different languages, the feelings and experiences of the world are other. This assumption leads to the conclusion that there is no accurate translation at all, and the learner cannot simply learn the language of another area completely unless he abandons his thinking mode and acquires the thinking mode of the other language. I think that many students who are good at learning languages ​​must feel the same way. Those who are good at foreign languages ​​have partially abandoned their original thinking habits. People who know foreign languages, such as Howard Goldblatt, have two thinking systems in their brains, just like the two systems of Windows and Apple installed on the computer. One of the problems with poor foreign language studies is the inability to transform thinking patterns. In the same way, generally speaking, all human languages ​​have a timeline, which shows that human thinking is also trapped in time. It is impossible to transform language and thinking modes, and a breakthrough will take a long time.

Metaphor is the most significant metaphor in this film and is closely related to language. If we regard language as a belief with a mystical solid color, like the Sapir-Worf hypothesis, a linguistic theory that appears in the film, then All language-related behavior directly affects the changes in the world. Therefore, the film quickly establishes various causal models. For instance, the last words of the Shang’s wife, which is the passcode, are deeply symbolic – the life of the entire earth depends on a personal death that has already occurred. To understand the film or the original novel, one must start with the metaphorical language of poetry and learn how the metaphor and the parasitic imagery are close to the truth. The words of the “heptapods “are inevitably presented in the form of ink circles. This state most intuitively illustrates what imagery language thinking is. The metaphor of time moving. So, in this case, we are stationary, and time is moving towards us. For example, Louise’s future in the movie shows that she is still while time moves toward her, and she sees herself, her daughter, and her husband in the future, as well as divorce and death.

It is also a pity that Dr.Brank and her collaborators’ interpretation of the ink language in the film still cannot escape the Western thinking of technological analysis. It may be a self-irony of the movie. At the last minute, Heptapod can’t wait and adopts a direct way to teach the opportunity, just like the Zen of Buddhism. The universe is a palindrome, but it has no words. Also as mentioned in Voicethread, conceptual metaphors are based on culture and experience, and metaphors in different cultures are not the same. For example, the name Hannah ‘Hannah’ is also a circle. It mirrors the film’s theme in a non-linear timeline, where the past is the future, and the future is the past. Louise knows the new language has mastered, giving her the same way of thinking as the heptapod. She can see both the “past” and the “future.” Simultaneously, now that the ending is known will it change the future?

In the film Dr. Brank and China, Russian experts almost simultaneously translated an alien language that could destroy the world: offer weapons, nearly a world war. It also shows that a lack of communication can create many unnecessary problems. In the end, we understand that the language of the heptapods is precisely the weapon (gift/technology/tool, gift to humanity) because once the language is truly mastered, it is possible to sense time and even turn it on. Language does affect our perception and understanding of the world. On the other hand, the process of Heptapod and Louise learning languages ​​also deepens their understanding of each other’s world, showing the concept of frame switching. Dr. Banks and Ian used their own body and body language to connect with heptapods, the body-brain connection we learned earlier about embodied cognition.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

In the episode “Darmok” of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Captain Picard, and the Tamarian are teleported to a planet and stranded. The language barrier is the problem they need to solve the most; otherwise, they can’t understand each other. So “Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra,” Picard could not understand the meaning of this sentence as he tried to understand the definition of each word to understand the sentence. As a result, it is conceivable that he could not understand the meaning of each word. As mentioned in Voicethread, we need to understand these words in a specific context. The Tamarian said, “Tamba, his arms are wide,” and threw the fire. Picard can guess from his body language that the Tamarian fires him in good faith, even without knowing the sentence’s meaning. Judging from Picard and Captain Tamaria’s initial reaction and request for the second knife, he knew of the danger on the planet that he had tried to warn Captain Picard about. As they confront this enemy, Captain Picard realizes that the Tamaris speak metaphorically. Moreover, Picard could turn their conceptual metaphors into his own based on his interactions. “Give me more about Darmok. Darmok on the ocean. A meraphor for being alone. Isolation? … He went the same island as Darmok….” Judging from the conversation between Picard and Captain Tamarind, he was in Speak with metaphors of self-moving rather than time-moving metaphors. In addition, the relationship between mind, language, and body is embodied in the theory of conceptual metaphor, which is the basis of people’s experience, cognition, thinking, language, and behavior; it is the top and fundamental way of human existence. For example, the Tamarian and the way they communicate. The Tamarians use visualizations and situations from their culture and history to share what is happening in the present. In addition, after Captain Picard, and the Tamarian fought off the enemy together, even if they did not fully understand each other’s meaning, in constant communication, through some phrases, context, and body language, they also showed the theory of empathy and frame-shifting theory. So we learn that metaphor is one of the main ways we understand the world. These metaphors are rooted in our material and cultural experiences. Because each language has many metaphors, such as Chinese and English, our thinking about their understanding is entirely different not just because the conceptual systems in language and patterns are fixed in the body, but more importantly, because the body is an essential part of how we understand and physically comprehend language.

After watching these two films, I immediately feel empathy is a way of “understanding” and”perception,” sympathy is a “relationship.” In empathy, we substitute ourselves for another person. And in compassion, we replace others for us. Empathy is like a brain parasite, parasitic in the host’s body, perceiving everything about him. How does a person feel when he is empathizing with others? Just said: “Hello~! Friend, I am no longer who I am. Are you still my friend?”

Possessor

Empathy? Parasites?
In this film, Vos has to control the target host through “spiritual parasitism” to complete the company’s requirements and tasks. The copyright belongs to the author. When Vos’s “object consciousness” is “withdrawn” from other people’s bodies and consciousness, Girder will have to evaluate her “mental health” to ensure that her consciousness is not contaminated, carry playing the “pretend mentality” generated by others, it gradually gets out of control. Also, this process is realized through two of Vos’ items—a pipe and a stuffed butterfly. In the framework of “consciousness manipulation,” the possessor takes the “competition” of “two consciousnesses” for a body as a breakthrough point, trying to interpret the relationship between embodied cognition and theory of mind in an existential way. As mentioned in Voicethread Theory of Mind refers to a developmental moment in our cognitive process where we begin to understand that other people do not necessarily have the same thoughts, beliefs, perceptions, feelings, desires, and knowledge that we do. Butterfly specimens are a concrete manifestation of empathy. Vos said, “I killed and mounted it one summer when I was a girl, and then I felt guilty about it.” “Guilty” shows Vos has empathy because it was the first person she killed when she was a little girl; In the final answer, Vos also recounted the origin of the butterfly specimen but did not say that she was very guilty. And this subtle difference reflects the change in Vos’ psychological situation; that is to say, she used the fact that “Tate & Vos” killed Michael and her son, wholly abandoned her concern and identity questioning, let her subconscious mind peel off, get rid of the shackles of self, and bring closer to a more pure self. “I am absolutely starving.” Before going home, Tate and Voss talked, indicating that they controlled each other and eventually became one. Both became parasites to each other.

As Giovanna Cohen Betty theorizes, she argues that we see another person’s body; we feed into their body and live through it. The idea that we feel or feel is our acknowledgment of the place of another person’s body as subjectivity. For example, when she uses Tate’s body is inevitably brought into the host consciousness, she begins to question her identity and, trapped in Tate’s body, begins to rethink who she is. Vos becomes Tate; at this moment, she can understand and perceive that Tate/male is different from what she sees. And Tate’s girlfriend uttered words similar to Michael’s and continued passion. So it made Vos and Tate’s bodies highly integrated, and the previous indifference was no longer there. The excessive immersion allowed Vos to enjoy this body, and at the same time, it was also counterattacked by this body. Through the parasitic method, Vos does not need to read the mind. Although the body belongs to other people, the body she perceives directly gives her the information she needs. Just as in simulation theory, when we interact with another person, we simulate what the other person is feeling in our minds.

“Just think one day your wife is cleaning the cat litter and that worm ends up her brain. Whether you really married to her or married to the worm” (1:28:47). This passage shows that Vos is the parasite and Tate is the wife. Meanwhile, Vos is that wife, and Holly’s killing memories are the parasites fueling her killing genes. What is interesting is that in the scene of the implantation of consciousness, the appearance of the reconstruction of consciousness is expressed in a way that imitates the melting of wax people: that is, the consciousness is the electric wave, the soul is the body, and the body is the soul. Voicethread also mentions embodied cognition, we live through the body, which is other people, and the body is the brain. Our bodies constantly adjust to stabilize our perceptions; we often don’t even know about that.

Futurama

What does it mean if humans lose empathy? Leela complained, “You have no sympathy for anyone else’s feeling” (7:10) after seeing Bender throw Nibbler down and flush it down the toilet. But after he was forced to implant an empathy chip, in the scene at Futurama‘s bar, Bender could sense Leela’s emotions at the bar, including jealousy and loneliness, from the couch at home. And these two things happened simultaneously as if an invisible thread was pulling Bender to feel the same emotions as Leela. This thread is the empathy chip through which Leela’s mood changes are transplanted to Bender. Because of the chip’s empathy, Bender can synchronize with Leela’s emotions. He could realize he was crying because he felt Leela’s grief.

Can emotional empathy be forced? When the professor implanted an emotion chip in Bender’s head, he said, “I’m installing an empathy chip. Yes…If by “allow” you mean “Force” (8:51). The professor’s move of implanting the chip into Bender’s head can be understood as empathy can be placed in our brain, just like the intervention method used by psychotherapists when treating autistic patients, but this also requires the patient’s thinking. To understand, not force. As explained in Empathy in Voicethread, I can understand a friend’s happiness. But it’s empathy. I know that’s not my happiness. While we’re emotionally disconnected to some extent, we can sympathize with what’s going on with others, but we can’t necessarily have natural empathy. On the other hand, how we perceive and empathize things is part of our cognitive process. Cognition exists in the brain, the brain in the body, and the body in the environment. The three interact to perceive things, form concepts, and solve problems.

     According to Voicethread, the Theory of Mind is the understanding that other people’s perspectives and ideas differ from one’s own, including thoughts, experiences, feelings, desires, and beliefs. This point is demonstrated when Bender admits that the emotions he feels are not his own and that he can distinguish between the two. Bender said, “Now, I’ll simply turn it to Leela’s emotional frequency. I’m overcome with …Feeling” (9:16). Bender experienced Leela’s emotional change from being happy to angry to sobbing. We can think of this empathy chip as the neurons in Leela’s brain. When Bender was forced to implant the chip, he could directly feel Leela’s love and desire for Nibbler through the chip. It is also the mention of empathy and neurons in Voicethread; we see someone unhappy, and our neurons fire, so we see someone laughing, and our neurons fire in response. What does it feel like to be forced into empathy? If an empathy chip could be implanted, would there be no autism and AHDH?

After watching these three films, I have a conjecture; if cognitive functions can be transplanted into new physical bodies like computer chips, will no one die? If cognition is not a reality but only a part of the brain that directs the body’s movement, can this cognitive function be like the computing function of a computer? Can it be separated from the “hardware” of the brain’s physical structure and become a kind of detachment from the body? “software”?

“Out of the Past” Altered Carbon

Its highlight is that it introduces the concept of cortical stack and sleeve. In the future, everyone will be implanted with a cortical stack when people are one year old; inside is the pure human mind, coded and stored as DHF: Digital Human Freight. If you are killed, as long as the cortical stack is not damaged, you can be resurrected with a prosthetic body. This cortical stack is a bit like the U disk we use now. As long as the cortical stack is not corrupted, the mind can be imported into anybody like data. Consciousness can be transmitted, people will have a new sleeve/body, and human beings will live forever, but human nature is unchanged. For example, Bancroft, the richest man in the world, became “God” because his consciousness is immortal. The physical body is just a carrier. Cognition and consciousness can be digitized, copied, and downloaded to a new carrier anytime. Here, As Viocethread said, the body is more associated with women, people of color, and gay people; the body is a commodity, and there are different types, and the mind becomes the data stored in the USB flash drive. Losing the USB flash drive is death.

“Return to Tomorrow.” Star Trek.

The episode “Return to Tomorrow” is similar to “Out of the past.” Mind and cognition can be stored in any container, including spheres that act as brains to hold the mind, but the characters believe that without a body, the mind cannot reach its full potential.As Captain Kirk and the rest of the crew heard Sargon’s voice in a sphere, we got some visual footage of him (showing their confusion); Sargon said: “I am Sargon. Sealed in this receptacle is the essence of mind. A body much as yours. Although our minds were infinitely greater.” Sargon also showed that he could transmit his consciousness to the captain through a light beam. In a later scene, Sargon’s wife goes to Sargon, Sargon’s wife is in the Doctor’s body, and Sargon is in Captain Kirk’s. While it is theoretically believed that we cannot put our minds in our brains or bodies, cognition occurs through our interactions with the environment, and awareness extends from our brains and bodies into the atmosphere. We think in terms of context, including contextual cultural context and social or interpersonal context. Therefore, cognition is always abstract. In this cognition, the mind is how we experience the world around us – not our brain or body. So Sargon and his wife have consciousness and mind and can be embedded in any container; they are immortal.

“The Day the Earth Stood Stupid.” Futurama

In the episode “The Day the Earth Stood Stupid,” it is fascinating to show that the brain is itself. The mind in Voicethread is not necessarily our body; the brain is the organ of thought and exists in neural networks. In this episode, the gains brain begins to attack Earth, and Leela escapes with Nibbler to his home planet. This scene takes a “brain in a vat” approach to the concept of cognition. The brain can think freely without the need for a body, has enormous power over people’s brain waves, and it’s clear here that the brain becomes a flying organ that relies entirely on neurostimulation. Utterly inconsistent with the Cartesian dualism that there are two different fundamental entities in the world, mind and body. The essence of the reason is to think, be conscious and perform other mental activities. The nature of objects is that they are in space and have extensions. The biggest flaw in dualism is that it doesn’t explain how body and mind are united, or rather, it doesn’t explain how body and soul (mind) interact with each other.

 

Hi everyone! My name is Yi! Most of my friends called me Yiyi or Eve (which are my nickname). She/her pronouns. In addition to going to work during the summer, I like to exercise/workout for about 30 minutes every morning after getting up and then showering. This process makes me full of energy to start my study or work every day. Secondly, after exercising, I will continuously spend 1-2 hours a day listening to books and speaking practice to improve my speaking ability! Exercise + listening + speaking, I especially enjoy this process, completely relaxed and immersed in it. I occasionally go shopping with friends, watch movies, sleep on weekends, and go to the library to read. I chose this class because of the course requirements and thought it would be fun. I had never learned multimedia analysis and expertise before. Many people have become self-media or related social media careers, and I usually follow some bloggers such as TikTok.

I love watching anime, action, crime, and comedy movies and TV series, among which Kung Fu Panda series, Red Notice, Squid Game, and How to get away with Murder are all TV movies I am currently watching. I also hope to learn more expertise in multimedia. In addition to work and school, I am planning to become a tutor on some Chinese learning platforms to accumulate my own teaching experience. In the future, I want to be a Tesol teacher! I am very much looking forward to studying with you all this semester.

I share one of my favorite songs, My Love by Westlife. Have a great summer time!

@westlifeclips

Wow what a moment. Westlife and the Backstreet boys come together and sings 2 songs. #mylove and I want it that way. #westlife #backstreetboys #bsb

♬ original sound – Westlifeclips