E.C Android Apocalypse Article

In this article, many things are discussed of machines taking over. The biggest question is will the machines be smarter than us? Stories and theories of "artificial humans" have been around for many years. The fear of them being smarter and stronger than us is on going. There are visions of battles between humans and robots, says Garis. He believes that they will try to take over and wipe out our race. Moravec thinks Garis is compeletly wrong. He believes that humans and robots will work hand in hand. Machines are great inventions to our society and can benefit the human race. Moravec believes that a machine will never be as smart as a human, due to the fact they can never make a simple pot of coffee or write a poem. 

In my opinion, I do not see this happening in the near future. I believe it could possibily occur after I'm dead. Technology is so advanced these days and just in the matter of years it has drastically changed. My parents did not even have black and white television, let alone smart computers. Who knows how the technologically advanced things will be or how our human race will be able to handle them. I think that we should not make artifical humans until our human race knows they can prepare themselves for the worst possible. Even though they aren't making them for something bad to happen, with all the problems we face now, who knows what it could do to society as a whole. The whole war with robots thing seems so unrealistic now, but it's scary to think about it being possible in the future. My opinion of Moravec is that he is naive about it. I feel as if it would end up us being slaves to these robot humans, going back to civil war era. Garis seems to have a more fantasy like idea, but it could happen.

E.C Netflix Article

James Ledbetter's article is about Netflix and it's progression. When created, people thought it was just going to fail and be another idea put away in a filing cabinet, per se. It seems to be that critics have been eating their words, due to Netflix being on the rise. One would think that blockbuster or even downloading illegally would take down this company, but they have not. Netflix has a rising income month to month from customers. The stock market has rose from nineteen dollars per stock to one hundren and thirty. Netflix now can stream to tvs, xboxs, ipads, computers, and ipods. It is the new thing and is continuously advancing. 

I think James Ledbetter is trying to explain the rise of Netflix, as well as explain that technology is advancing everywhere. He says that Netflix is not bulletproof, but what is really? Any type of technology could fail at any given moment, due to it's unreliability. A company is just the foundation. It does not control if the product or advancement will go under. Netflix is such a great invention. You save time going to buy a dvd from Blockbuster. Lazy could be one perspective but it is more convenient for anyone. As much negative Netflix has gotten, the company is a great aspect to technology. 

Last Blog

I think English 151 has improved my writing style quite a bit. In high school I got A's on papers I could write overnight, but I now know that I have to put all my effort into everyone. I learned how to write proper papers, as well as the steps before you actually write one. I can now free write and take notes on my assignments, which makes writing so much easier. My favorite paper we wrote is the argument paper. I loved my topic, so I'm having a lot of fun with it. I liked this class overall. I think that blogging was cool, and the papers weren't too bad. This class will help me in the future. I liked Do Androids Dream, but I didn't like Blade Runner. I think you could do without the movie next year, to be honest. Apocalypse was not a new term to me when we entered into this class. All my guy friends from home love that concept, so I knew a lot about it.

Free Writing Activities

1) This weekend I watched Dawn of the Dead. I didn't get to watch all of it but I watched the majority of it. It was about the zombie apocalypse. It opens up with Ana, a nurse, in her work setting. She goes home to her husband and all is well. They wake up to find, their next door neighbor's little girl, a zombie. The little girl kills her husband and then her husband comes back as a zombie and tries to kill her. She escapes and drives away, only to get to so far, by running into a tree. A police officer sees her and they join together, finding two other guys and a pregnant lady. They go to the mall and lock themselves in. Their are a few zombies in the mall, who they kill. Then they run into three security guards, who two are very rude. The guards lock them in certain stores as prisoners, due to the lack of trust. Finally, the group breaks out and locks the two rude guards up and the other one is on their side. Then more survivors come to the mall, and a few had bites. They had to kill the ones who did. The pregnant lady was involved with one of the first survivors. She had her baby, but it was a zombie as well because she was bit. He tied her up and would not kill her or the baby. One of the survivors went to check and he ended up killing her as well as the lady killing the baby and his girlfriend. The rest of the movie was encounters with the zombies, living day by day. That was the last point I really got in the movie.

I really liked this movie. I am not into zombie movies particularly. I have seen Shawn of the Dead and thought it was really funny, so my friends wanted me to see this one. The plot was good and I wish I could have seen the ending, but I had to leave. I thought the introduction was cool, showing how it happens in less than 24 hours. The graphics was silly but good. Overall, I thought it was not that bad.

2) If there was an apocalypse, I feel as if the whole world would be in ruins. The cities and towns would be ghost towns, decaying and quiet. There would be certain safe places, where survivors would go and live together, without fear. It would happen suddenly, less than 24 hours notice.  This wouldn't be a zombie apocalypse, but people are worried still. They would live in a constant state of fear until they came in contact with a safe house. The world is full of war, hate, and ignorance. Finally, it had gone too far. Like  Blade Runner, the world would be ruined due to our own stupidity. The world would not be covered in ash or aliens taking over the world type thing. The majority of humanity died off by fighting. The smart ones took shelter and gained alliances. In the end, there were only a few hundred people left. Those who were left searched about the towns and cities, gathering food and anything else they may need. There were a few more fighters out there, so the only fear would be from that or the lack of food. 

My future is different but yet the same from Philip K Dick's future from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. The concept of humanity being ignorant is the same. The humans destroyed everything with ash due to a nuclear bomb. In my future, the humans destroyed everything with their own stupidity of war. In the novel, people moved to mars, so it was a more unrealistic future. In mine, the people had safe houses, where groups of people migrated to. There are no androids or fake humans killing people in my future. My future is more of the end of the world type thing, rather than humanity just simply migrated to Mars  and living the good life. Both have struggles and hardships. Both have bloodshed and ignorance. Both are very unlikely, but I feel as if mine could happen more so than Dick's can.

3) The dialogue was very monotone and short. The words they spoke were simple and so were the sentence structures. It just flowed one after another. The lighting was strange. It captured typically one side of each characters face, or none at all. It was very dark except the sun setting down on the city through the huge side of the building. You could not see their eyes very well, due to the darkness. It seems, now that I've seen the movie, that the lighting was doing that on purpose. It was hiding something. Maybe the eyes were a giveaway, due to the owls eyes being shown vividly, and not Rachel and Deckard who are replicants as well. I'm not entirely sure. The costumes didn't strike as anything but normal to me. I mean, the bow-tie is not typical for a man to dress in very often, but the suits were normal, as well as her dress. It was a little different, but nothing out of the ordinary. Deckard had a huge coat on, so you could not really see his attire. These three things clearly relate to the rest of the movie, because they are main elements of a movie. Throughout Blade Runner, the dialogue never gets too complex. It is short, simple, and to the point. There is without hesitation most of the time during a conversation between two people, simply firing back words. The lighting is always dark and grim. It is always raining, which gives it a dark scene as well. The costumes were ridiculous as the film goes on. The snake girl and her awkward costumes and Rachel's huge coats and weird attire were the main ones. Pris wore spandex and Roy wore strange attire as well. It was mainly the replicants that wore weird things. You'd think they wanted to blend in but they didn't. Everyone else in the city wore normal coats, as well as other clothing that was an everyday thing. They all just blending in. 

4) The sound, dialogue, and music work together to give the audience a feel of sadness. I think the music almost gives Roy a sense of heroism, as weird as that may sound. The dialogue is very monotone on Roy's part, but it is emotional as well. The sounds of rain in the background help the scene a lot. It gives the dreary feeling, due to Roy dying. The dialogue made Deckard feel a lot of things. He's in pain because of his broken fingers and I think his heart hurts for Roy. There is so many emotions going through Deckard. I think he doesn't know how to react to anything that is going on at that moment. He was depressed for Roy dying and I think he realized at that moment he was a replicant. In all the words that Roy spoke, there was a hidden message. Then when the "sun" shown through the cloudy skies, that was a sign of him being a replicant. He was imagining the unthinkable. I think Deckard is crying. Even though he is a replicant, in my opinion at least, he can still show emotion. Roy is clearly one and he shows more emotion than half the humans in the movie. Deckard is crying for the loss of a newly found friend. Roy may have tried to kill him, but he knew how he thought and felt. They had a bond that could not be broken and in that moment, they became friends. 

5) The future of Rick Deckard is a strange one. He is a replicant, therefore he only has a few years left to live, as well as Rachel. At the end, he runs away with her. Where did they go? They went to the last secluded place on Earth where it was still normal. They couldn't migrate so this was the next best thing. Rachel cannot reproduce so basically they are there to live and then die together. Deckard gathered enough to survive on, becomes a handy man, a builds a sweet house for them to live in. They have a replicant dog named spot, which they stole him from the Tyrell Corporation. The sit around and do nothing everyday. Some days they will explore the last remaining normal part of the world, with green grass, flowers and such. Picnics are made and piano is played. They have a merry little time. Then it is time to die. They both know it is coming. Due to their strong love and affection for each other, they die together, hand in hand. Sound familiar? They die just like The Notebook's ending, except they are not old, human, or in a retirement home. The nuclear bomb finally hits that spot and covered in ash, NEVER to be found. 

6) My research is a work in progress right now. I haven't written anything down so far because the sources I found so far are at the library ready to be picked up. My research question is: What is the future of print when E-Books are taking over? Once again, I have not found very much information. I have a few articles about the future of newspapers, e-books in general, and a few others, but I want to get information on most forms of print. I have not found any solutions to my research topic as of today. I'm sure I will tonight once I finish up my sources and begin research. 

Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 is an interesting movie. The main character, Montag, is a fireman. Instead of putting out fires, the fire department burns books. Although he works for them, Montag actually enjoys reading books. This is an illegal act. They think that books are rubbish and make people sad. Anyone who is to be caught with books in their homes will be arrested. Montag's television obsessed wife, see's him reading, and ends up turning him in to the authorities anonymously. Throughout all of this silly drama, Montag makes a friend. Clarisse is her name, and she is a book fanatic. She tells him of this place where people memorize books. She says that they "become the book." After they part ways, she goes to seek that place, while Montag is running from the town. He ends up there as well. It is truly a happily ever after ending.

I wanted to see this movie since I read the book in high school. It was not what I expected. I didn't expect the movie to be fantastic, but the acting was terrible. Besides the humor of it, the plot was good. I thought it was neat to put a picture with the book I read my sophomore year. I had visions of what the characters looked like and it was interesting to see how the director thought of them to be. I did not particularly enjoy the movie, but it was not a bad one to see. I would suggest it to people who have read the book and can appreciate the overall story line, rather than someone who is just seeing the movie.

Objectified Documentary

Overall, this documentary was pretty interesting. It gave a wide spectrum of information, that included awesome visuals. One thing I found interesting was the fact we have so many old things in our houses that we never even think to use them. We could simply recycle them or design them to be improved. Everyone always wants the new thing, so we discard the old. That is just not right. Another thing I found interesting was the robots the two people made. The robots were not "typical" robots, but designs of simple things. One was a constructed piece of wood into a random shape. You stared into it and it fed information to you. Another was huge ring. The designs were so simple and yet we did not associate it them with robotic language because they looked different. The weird thing is, we want new, yet when given something out of the element, it is somewhat frowned upon. Lastly, I really thought the concept of how many chairs we have sat on what interesting. So many chairs have been made throughout time, yet there are still uncomfortable chairs. How is that possible? This ties into the old and new concept. Even though we always want new, there is still old chairs out there. Therefore, we have an uncomfortable chair. Every designer wants to be the best, as well as design a product that will sell. Chairs are so simple to the consumer, yet complex to the designer. I think that is pretty neat to think about.

Summary/Response & Image Analysis Process

A summary/response is quite simple. It is the summary of the piece as well as your response to it. The summary of the piece is usually between 150-250 words. You use MLA format. In the response, you critique the piece of work and explain it in details, including your own experiences or examples.

An image analysis process is a more complex process. You start off by looking at the authors angle of vision and techniques used. Next, you look at the compositional features. You look at what is and isn't included as well as the product as a whole.

The two papers were not that bad. I realized that my writing style was not up to par when we did the first copy of the first paper. I did not put forth my full effort, therefore I received a 75. That is not the grade I wanted so I redid it and got a 92. I did so much better just by revising my paper. The summary/response paper was easier I thought because I had an idea to feed off of. I had my own opinion about cloning and that helped a lot. The analysis paper is not hard, just complicated. I did not like the movie and it is hard to feed off of that. I liked the book but the movie was very confusing to me. That is also hard to feed off of. The process of the two papers wer similar, just the analysis one had more information I needed to cover.

Blogging helped me a little. It gave me ideas as I was blogging and allowed me to write out instructions of writing that needed to be covered, as well as scenes that I needed to remember. Typing the content was not that hard. I just needed to be motivated to do it.

My writing is fairly good, at least I think so. I just need to learn to not procrastinate and put forth all my effort into the papers. I know I can get an A. I saw my introductions becoming more interesting. I need to have my information flow better in my next paper and present it in a cleaner way.

Peer review is good. It allows me to see what others are writing. It also allows me to see what they think of my paper, so I can change it if need be.

Social Network

The Social Network, directed by David Fincher, is interesting to say the least. It is the story of Mark Zuckerberg's hard journey that goes back to the very beginning. Being the computer savy person he is, he gets a reputation that attracts the Winklevosses. They want to design a website that connects Harvard students in a new way. Mark decided to help them, yet he never does. He instead teams up with Eduardo Saverin to create a website now known as Facebook. Sean Parker, creater of Napster, see the website and a light bulb goes off. He wants to use Mark for all the money he can get. Not only is he manipulative but also rude to Eduardo as well. He leads Mark into destruction of his friendship with Eduardo and his life. Mark betrays Eduardo with the contracts which ends in law suits. He sues Mark for all of the money he put into Facebook.  Mark ends up losing a lot of friendships but keeps facebook.

I really liked this movie. It was the so interesting to figure out the origins of something everyone uses everyday. There is so many things that were controversial. In my opinion, Mark did not do anything wrong legally, but morally yes. Everyone knows he took the idea from the Winklevosses; not entirely, but the overall idea, yes. The Winklevosses should have been smarter and made him sign contracts when helping them with their site. What Mark did to Eduardo was wrong, though. He did not give him the recognition he deserved and he should have done away with Sean Parker from the beginning. He was scum. Overall, Mark was being an idiot but due to no papers being signed, he did nothing wrong legally. The Winklevosses did not "patton" the idea.

Scene from Blade Runner

I could talk about quite a few scenes that I did not like but this one sticks out a lot. I did not like the scene where Deckard was saved by Roy. The scene consists of Roy and Deckard chasing each other around, trying to kill one another. Deckard gets on the roof, jumps to another building, and is slipping on the ledge. Roy jumps there too and saves him. Then he sits down and releases a dove, while telling Deckard about his memories being tears. The entire movie we are lead to believe that replicants are terrible creatures. Yet for five seconds, we have empathy for them? I think that is ridiculous. I had this image as to where they lacked a soul and were meant to destruct. My entire mind set was changed. Roy was a psychotic thing while he was chasing Deckard all around the building. I just think it was not the right twist for the end. That showed that the replicants actually had feelings and emotions, yet they killed a lot of people for no reason what so ever. I just don't get that. Also, reading the book made it that much worse, due to the fact that I believed Roy was terrible and did not have empathy for anything. I also believed that Deckard was a human, and not a replicant. It just was frustrated almost.

Climax

I did not have any specific expectations for the climax, really. I figured it could go any direction because of the plot taking unexpected turns through out the book. Rachel pushing the goat off the building was such a surprise to me. I did not see that one coming. I truly though that she loved Rick and that in the end, it would work out. Maybe that was the naive part of me, wanting them to have a happy ending. I figured all the androids would die, though. So that was one of my expectations, you could say. So far, I like this book. We never really read anything like this in high school, so it's almost refreshing in a way. Do Androids Dream is intriguing, due to that fact we could possibly have this in the future. I mean, technology is improving everyday. We do not know if cloning is in the future, but it has potential to be. So this book definitely shows possibilites, even though it's simple science fiction. 

Specific Scene

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is just getting crazier as the chapters move on. Never did I imagine one of the humans having sex with an android. That was the scene where I found most interesting. Rick and Rachel were discussing the events still needing to be done, then they end up in bed together. I feel as if Rick knows he does not want to. On page 163, Rick even says that he needs to go home to his wife. He is doing exactly what Phil said to, which he never imagined doing. Clearly he did not kill her after, but how does he know he wont? I just do not believe that Rick is not freaking out about doing that. One, he has a wife and two, she is not real. That would just make me want to not do that. 

I found a few things confusing.

1. How is Rachel going to kill a fellow android, Pris?

2. I don't get the concept of the Mercer guy or the Buster guy. I thought, by the way they were described, that they were just simply made up identities. Androids are the only things they could be, yet they are still in question. I just thought that was weird.

Chapter 11 of A&B

Chapter Eleven of A&B is all about revising and drafts. I already knew about revising and what a draft was, but once again, A&B went far more in depth than any high school class I had. I found two concepts pretty interesting, which are locally and globally. Locally is to make changes to text that affects only the sentences you are working on, currently. Globally is to make changes to one part of the draft that drives changes in another part of it. I never considered making changes in my draft to be categorized, so I learned something new.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

"Blade Runner: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep," by Philip K Dick, is a strange book. The focus of Rick's life seems to be getting himself a real animal. I don't understand the importance of having a real one, rather than his electric sheep. If status is what he wants, then he already has that. No one but his neighbor knows about his electric sheep. Everyone else in his building believes it to be a real sheep. Therefore, his obsessive and constant desire to have a real animal is unnecessary. Also, I found it really cool that in the end of chapter four, Rachel Rosen was his first test subject. The fact he got to test people to see if they were human or androids was pretty neat, but he was blown away that she was his first test subject. I feel as if this is foreshadowing something to come, whether that be good or bad, I do not know.

Concept 7

While reading through A&B, I learned about a few concepts. The one I find most interesting would have to be concept 7. During high school, I wrote numerous papers and thought my writing was correct. I was wrong. A thesis was always needed for the papers we wrote, but I never knew there was so much to it. Concept 7 explains how thesis statements are supported by points and particulars. A point is an idea, generalization or a claim, while a particular gives evidence, details, examples, data, and subarguements. I found this concept so interesting because I never knew there was so much to a simple thing such as a thesis statement.

I learned plenty of things while reading A&B. Along with the new facts of a thesis statement, stated above, I learned about reading with and against the grain. Reading is one of my favorite things to do and to find out there are many different styles, in which you can read, was really neat. Going with the grain is based around a man named Carl Rogers. He states that it's "empathic listening", which is trying to see the world through the authors eyes. You can also read against the grain. This is simply questioning the author. There was so many new things I learned, but those two ideas stuck out the most.

My ideas of writing changed slightly. I now realize that something so simply is actually quite complex. Writing has rules and regulations, just like anything else.  I knew most of them, to which high school prepared me for. But never did our high school english courses go in depth as much as A&B did. I will have to alter my writing style for future writing assignments.

Eng 151

This class is English 151. It's a class to help us be prepared for other college courses in writing and literature. The focus of this class is on the Apocalypse. I am writing this blog to share with my classmates my thoughts on the class and the materials we are covering.
The technology I'm most exposed to is my computer and my cellphone. I also work at a movie theater, so I am exposed to things such as cash registers and film computers, and other computers used in the office. During high school, we wrote papers frequently. We used MLA format, which will be helpful now. I enjoy to read, so I'm exposed to reading often. There's no specific type of book I read.