Month: March 2017

In class on Tuesday Professor Perrone presented about the concept of memory and the connection between human memory and computer memory. During the discussion, there was a mentioning of a new device being constructed by Elon Musk. Musk has been a figure at the forefront of scientific discovery, exploration, and innovation for years, and his newest development may very well be one of his most controversial.

It is safe to say that forgetfulness can conditionally be a beneficial characteristic. For instance, it can be very beneficial for athletes to forget the moment they were injured, or devastating losses, or maybe even mistakes they made earlier in a game. When athletes or other professionals are able to forget information or memory from their short term or long term memory, they production and efficiency can benefit greatly. Elon Musk has created a device which will enhance memory and provide space for external memory to be held outside of the relatively minimal  capacity the human brain has.

This device would be implanted into the body of humans and allow for human memory to be “logged” on the hard drive. After class, i thought deeper about the potential that this device could have on the livelihoods of many people. The most beneficial impact I could conceive of was the potential to aid those with Alzheimers Disease. As Alzheimers attacks the memory of the human brain, the presence of this device could enhance memory and allow for more retention and less degradation of memory. On the other hand, this device could have negative impacts on the ability for athletes and professionals to take advantage of their ability to selectively forget certain memories.

I can genuinely say that I struggled while reading Samuel Delany’s novel, Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand. I mainly struggled to grasp the concepts that Delany was trying to stress in the novel, because I found them difficult to follow and understand. One thing that I did note though, was how advanced Delany’s ideas of society and culture were in the novel. Delany published Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand in 1984, yet his opinions on sexuality and gender pronouns were far more advanced than those that were accepted in the 1980’s. Rather than adhering to social norms and writing a novel with standard male and female characters, Delany chose to depict a multi-gendered universe that was both technologically and sexually advanced from what we know in the present-day. I found this fascinating because Delany presents a more open and free view of social diversity in the novel that did not parallel with what was generally accepted during the time the novel was released. Delany’s thought process aligns more with modern-day thinking of transgendered individuals and intense sexual relationships. Although I struggled at times interpreting and understanding the novel, I was impressed and satisfied to see that Delany was able to depict a universe, thousands of years in the future, that shares some of the same advancements in today’s society, such as rights for all individuals, regardless of sexual orientation.

While reading the Stars in My pockets like Grains of Sand it was interesting to note how the issues Delany tried to address through his science fiction novel are those issues our society struggles with today. Delany introduces future societies that challenge and question the concepts of ethnicity and gender sexuality through established interactions among different races such as humans and aliens, homosexuals, and pronoun usage. There is also the concept of the Family and the Sygn which can equate to the views of the various groups comprising our society (I equated them to the Democratic and Republican party ideals). The Family believes in the nuclear family centered in one culture and founded in heterosexual relationships. The Sygn in the other hand, accepts the idea of many types of relationships and understands the value of distinct cultures coming together in the same society. Delany’s cross-cultural and cross-racial themes wants to convince readers to escape what has been dictated by society pertaining these subjects, and rather see them as the norm. I believe Delany words seek to free those who feel oppressed and in turn make them feel hopeful of one day being able to achieve a society where such “perfect world” exist and there’s not a “better” or “more normal” than the other type of relationship, race, or identity but everyone is driven by their personal desires without being judged or oppressed. I believe with the legalization of gay marriage we are making some improvements but there is still more that has to be done to reach this “perfect” society.

Journal 6
Sexuality is a prominent theme that runs through Delaney’s Stars in my Pocket like Grains of Sand. In his world, rules, regulations, and computer programs govern the dating life of the humans within the society. Although these rules seem to limit the sexual exploits of the people and Evelmy in the society, the Sygn also allows for homosexuality and interspecies relationships. Moreover, gender in their society is not tied to sex, but rather an indicator of sentience and desire. In this day in age, although the world is becoming more open and accepting of those that do not align with traditional sexuality and gender preference, we still have a long way to go until the world looks more like Delaney’s then our current society.
It took a while for me to grasp and understand the gender pronouns and the societal structure as it pertained to sexuality throughout the novel, however, eventually I began to wonder whether Delaney’s ideas are not out of reach. Although, unless some closely related species to humans is discovered, I do not believe that there will come a time when humans engage in interspecies relationships, the world is moving towards the general consensus that both sexuality and gender is a spectrum or continuum. This idea, if widely adopted, is the first step to abandoning gender as it pertains to sex and adopting alternate meanings for “he” and “she” as Delaney describes in the novel.
It will be interesting to see where the world arrives within my lifetime on the topic and policies surrounding sexuality.

This week in class, we explored the different themes in the book Stars in my Pocket Like Grains of Sand. Something that stood out to me in the book was that RAT Korga was sought out by everyone because he was a “survivor”. They were curious for many reasons. He was very different from everyone else because he did not have a GI. The GI gave everyone access to cultural knowledge, which helped them be more integrated and understand each other. Mark was nervous every time RAT Korga interacted with another human or other species because he was unaware of the social standards. I think it is interesting to think of how a GI system would work in our world. Although it seems as if having “perfect knowledge” would be ideal because of the information given to make certain decisions, it takes away one’s privacy. Privacy to me is very important because people are opt to act certain ways to make themselves look better or to fit in to what society considers “normal”. Privacy allows an individual to explore and find out who they really are when nobody is looking.

With this dependency on others and a loss of individualism, it made me realize that if I was a survivor of some catastrophic event, I would question why I am not dead. Although this is a pessimistic view, it is very real and happens to people all the time. In war, soldiers suffer from PTSD because of all of the gruesome and painful times they suffered through. They create a connection between the people that they are with, and when they become the last one standing, they often feel lost. I would also feel very frustrated and would not see the point in continuing life. If everyone you knew and loved had died, it would be extremely hard to build new relationships. This occurs when RAT Korga leaves Mark and Mark feels like nothing else compares to him. I would also feel anger towards the world because it seems unfair for your loved ones to be taken away. I guess it also just really depends on what kind of person you are. If you are a person that does not need anyone, you would have other feelings. The other side of this situation is that a survivor would be given a new chance to start over, build new relationships. If they had problems or hardships in the past, those could potentially be replaced. I feel like people would not judge you as much, they would only praise you and think highly of you because of how you were able to come out of such a situation where everyone else died.