I found San Junipero to be so interesting especially because it seems to be set in the 80s and I LOVE 80s movies. The music was well curated and even though I didnt live in the 80s it still felt nostalgic to me. The premise of San Junipero is that the dead can live in a simulated reality where they are their younger selves. It was a very interesting concept and reminds me so much of the matrix in a way. Its also so interesting to see that Yorkie is experiencing all these emotions and feelings while in this reality which makes me wonder how this is any different from true reality. The Entire History of You was more exciting for me because it felt way more closer to reality and what is possible. Contact lenses that record your entire life is absurdly scary especially because they dont allow you to be in the moment and enjoy yourself. You go back and relive terrible experiences or moments that worry you because you’re trying to figure out what went wrong just like Liam was doing in the beginning when his work appraisal went poorly. The story escalates tremendously through the course of the episode and it feels like the essence of life which is all about living in the moment and NOT allowing the past to haunt you is gone. Although the Grain helps Liam find out his wife cheated on him it brings more issues up than solutions. This made me think about my life and whether I would want to have a Grain and I definitely would not. I prefer to live my life knowing what I am supposed to know and if i had the grain my curiosity would ruin me.

The authors of Understanding Rhetoric walk us through the history of the word and its deeper meanings. What is rhetoric exactly? Rhetoric comes from the greek word Eiro which means to say. But it is far more than just speaking. It is a culmination of logic, memories, and feelings. It is as they say “ a way of THINKING about how we talk that takes into consideration the entire situation in which that talk takes place”. They walk us through the understanding of rhetoric through two lenses one which posits it as a negative state of thinking who Plato so famously believed that teaching rhetoric was to instruct a student in ways of deception rather than betterment of their state of conversation. Luckily Aristotle came along and flipped the script. Aristotle believed that rhetoric was a vital tool in putting across a broad range of ideas. I agree with Aristotle and believe that rhetoric is a integral tool of thinking and speaking so as to persuade and enlighten an audience to your thoughts and claims. Rhetoric is split into three categories. Ethos, logos, and pathos which respectively represent ethics, logic, and empathy. These three concepts need to be considered to be an effective communicator because they target the most sensitive parts of our psyche when listening to a claim somebody is making. I like to think of rhetoric as a structurally sound plan. You must target all important aspects of the idea from different perspectives so that you cover all grounds for which somebody may try to challenge your claim. If an idea of yours is of value and you strive to convince somebody of it then you should make sure it comes across logically sound while also ethically intact. The last aspect of your claim that needs to be clear but a bit more difficult to quantify is the empathetic chord it strikes within the person receiving this claim. If you cover all three concepts then you can rest easy knowing that you presented a complete argument.

The Offspring is a quite interesting episode about the development of a new artificial intelligent life created by Data who itself is the first android in the Star Trek series. He creates what he calls Lal from a series of neural network copies of his system and knowledge database. Lal is referred to as his child as Data feels that he is passing on his legacy and uniqueness as a species but Picard feels this was a grave mistake. Creating a new life form bothers him because Data was once a unique being and now that he has created life it brings up a slew of ethical questions. The step forward in technological AI development is what worries the admiral of the Starfleet because it is a huge stride in the field. This stride has been done in secret by Data and it primarily worries the Starfleet that this transition will end their control over all technological development. More importantly they understand how dangerous it can be if there are more androids which can be stolen by enemies who may use them for destruction. This relates so clearly with how technology is developing at this very moment in time. Artificial intelligence is highly researched and developed but where can a society begin to draw the line on the ethics of the matter. How can we teach a system to think for itself and expect it to abide by our strict system of behavioral mannerisms and ethical judgments. The more developed as a society the more control we lose on the things we create. In my field AI seeks to help aid in the processing needs we require to read and analyze data. There are many things that programs aid us in completing exponentially faster and ultimately i can see a future where AI should focus on improving those practices. It worries me that AI could become destructive that is why it should be monitored closely so that it functions within the parameters of what we require it to do.

Black Mirror: “San Junipero” and “The Entire History of You”

These Black Mirror episodes share the common theme that technology will be our downfall or something else. In “The Entire History of You” we see how technology backfires. You literally able to relieve your most moments. Black Mirror is using sort of a scare tactic to get us to wake up and realize that all this technology will be our undoing. Each episode is faced with different characters and different issues.

I believe that the technology portrayed in “San Junipero” can be best described by the social construction of technology. This theory goes on to explain that social structures (created by humans) go on to shape the development of technology, rather than the other way around. I think this perfectly describes “San Junipero” because humans feared death and the unknown after life, so they developed a technology that helped them escape the inevitability of death.

Whereas, the “Entire History of You” episode has got several communication concepts that are depicted in the movie, this notion clearly help us to understand and interpret what we see in the media. The episode is an alternative reality depicting that most people have “grains”. This grains record everything they see, do, speak, hear and see. This allows them to play back every memory that they have. Communication concepts portrayed in the episode, makes us clearly comprehend the entire plot.

Obtaining technology that allows you to record and re-evaluate your memories and experiences would be rather unique and intriguing but could string along with its consequences and dangers. Your secrets would never really be safe.  Relationship fights would end up consisting of both partners replaying memories to catch the other in a lie or to visually bring up past fights. Inevitably, it would lead to an obsession. People wouldn’t want to live in the moment because of the off chance that something bad could happen. They’d rather relive happy memories where they’re guaranteed to be content. With that, this small little chip holds your entire life, everything you’ve ever done. That’s kind of scary. What happens if it becomes removed? The government seizes it.? What if it’s hackable? If someone else can hack into your chip and essentially download all your memories, what happens then? The opportunities that arise that they can do with it are endless. No secret would ever be safe.

Black Mirror Season 3 Episode 1: Nosedive

The episode of Black Mirror “Nosedive” is set in a world where everyone is connected to their phones and they rate each other from one to five stars for every interaction they have, which can impact their socio-economic status.

The main character is a young woman named Lacie who is consumed by her ratings. She gets an opportunity to make her ratings skyrocket by being the popular childhood friend’s maid of honor for her wedding. Her obsession leads to several mishaps and causes rapid decrease in her ratings. In this world you need a high rating if you want to buy the nicest houses or the nicest cars which is almost like having good credit. Even something as human as accepting coffee from anyone who is below a 3 could bring down your own rating.

I really enjoyed watching this episode because it makes you take a step back and realize how obsessed our generation really is with technology, our phones and social media. This episode teaches you that we should not always care what people think about us or how they perceive us. We should let loose and scream a little sometimes. Which is exactly what Lacie does toward the end of this episode. Once Lacie arrives at the wedding she sneaks in and manages to say a speech, but she becomes extremely upset to the point everyone negatively rates her and security comes and arrests her. She is taken to prison; the rating system is removed from her eyes and they placed Lacie in a cell. She gets into an argument with a man in a separate cell who’s in the same position as her, and both realize how liberating it is to speak your mind without worrying about being rated.

“The Offspring” From Star Trek

Artificial intelligence and artificial life have long been a controversial topic among scientists, psychologists, and many others who study human life and development. The main issue is differentiating artificial life from natural life, particularly in the case of human beings. Regarding artificial life, we often come to the dilemma of where artificial life ends, and where natural life begins. If something is sentient is it alive? Is a robot that can effectively communicate with a human being alive? Or are there other factors?

“The offspring” is the name of the star trek the next generation episode, in which Data, an android aboard the enterprise, creates an artificial being. Data created the offspring and programmed it with the ability to act almost human, much like Data. Data also considered the creation to be his child, and when confronted about it he claimed that he had as much right to “procreate” as the human members of the enterprise did.

Data creates his offspring in the belief that if any the members of the crew had decided to have a child, they would likely have not been met with any opposition.  When confronted about the creation of his “child” he claims that once he had been accepted as a sentient member of the crew, he had also gained the right to “procreate,” however since he cannot procreate in the fashion that humans can, he just created his own child in the fashion that he could.

Lal is interrogated by Haftel later in the episode. During this interrogation scene, she begins to showcase more of her ability to have emotions. She expresses a strong desire to stay on the enterprise with Data, whom she calls her father, and the rest of the crew whom she is friends with. Although Haftel is too close minded to accept that a robot can display these kinds of emotions, it is very evident that Lal is capable of feelings. This is confirmed in the scene directly after when Lal visits Troi in his room after being interrogated. A clearly confused and distraught Lal is soon overwhelmed by the emotions that she is feeling and returns to Data’s lab. These few scenes in the episode play a role in showing how thin the line between real human emotions and “artificial” emotions can be. If this event were to happen, it would be difficult to argue that Lal would not be able to pass as a human being.

Although humans today have not been able to create a robot as sophisticated as Lal, it is only a matter of time before technology catches up to the imaginations of human beings. When it does, the philosophical line between artificial life and real life will become blurred. It will be impossible to break the scientific barrier as robots will probably never be made up of cells, but it will be difficult to look at a robot with these emotional capabilities and not at least regard it as a human being.