Month: April 2017

The movie, Memento, shows how with the absence of the human short term ability to make memories, a human is left to operate in a way similar to that of  computer. This outlines both the complexity of a well-operated computer, but also the vastly different system in which humans operate under.

Leonard, in Memento, lost his memory in the aftermath of an accident that he suffered in an attack on his wife. As a result, he experienced, unequivocal trauma that left him without the ability to form new memories. With a general sense of awareness, he was left with the emotion and want for retribution on the attacker of his wife. To achieve this with his newfound condition, he used a system of photos and notes to log memories, very similar to how a computer creates memories. He can only act and rely on the memories that have been logged for his future actions. The story of the movie is structured in a similar abstract way where the only recognition of plot is by physical distinctions that have been realized.

The stark contrast between how humans normally operate and the computer like operation of Lenny shows how developed the human mind really is. At the beginning of this course, we discussed the question of if the human mind is a computer. With this movie in mind, I think the similarities are between the normal capacity of the human mind and a computer are vastly different. The movie emphasized the mundane nature of computer operations and how our perspectives and abilities would be barred with them. Perhaps the future of computing will allow for more similarities, but regardless, the human possesses unique capabilities that classify our abilities.

After watching Memento this week, it really made me think of how dependent we are on our memories. The director of this movie did a phenomenal job on putting the audience in Leonard’s shoes. The way the plot ran backwards made it so that I was left feeling very lost, just like Leonard felt about finding out who the murderer was. It also shows how manipulative people are capable of being. I shouldn’t have been shocked that people would take of someone like Leonard with his condition, but the scene where Natalie berates him and calls his wife horrible names and steals the pens so he can’t remember what she did, shows how low some people can go. Memory has always been a confounding concept to me because it is hard for me to understand how images and moments are captured. I would love to think that we are capable of remembering things exactly as they happened, but I think we interpret moments and twist them into what we want them to be. For example, after Teddy told Leonard that he had been manipulating him so he could get his revenge and “play detective”, Leonard chose to make up his own story. It often makes me question whether my memories are true, or if I overthink situations and make it more than it is. It is quite delusional, only proving that humans are definitely flawed. Another interesting part of the movie was that Leonard’s system for remembering things was to take pictures and write notes. This was his only way of preserving moments and it reminded me of how a computer works. This systematic programming runs along the same course as how the brain remembers things. But yet at the same time, there seemed to be a lot of emotion clouding his judgements, which made him alter some things because he wanted them to be different. The biggest lesson I learned from this movie was that humans are very flawed and trust their memory too much, even though it is often smudged with bias of our own selfishness.

Over the past few classes, we have been discussing the human memory. We watched a movie called Memento, in which a film technique knows as hapax was used. In this technique, the movie opens up with a scene that we would later realize was the end of the plot. The movie ends with the beginning of the plot line. The scenes of the movie filmed in color appear in the movie backwards. There are also black and white scenes in the movie that appear in chronological order. The differences among plot order and color contrast makes it difficult to realize the hapax until the very last scene of the movie. At the end, we discover that the main character, Leonard, actually is not as innocent as we originally thought. Even though it was difficult to determine the sequence of events of the story line, I think it is fair to say that most viewers would think that Leonard was an innocent victim to a brain injury that distorted his memory.

When discussing the movie in class, it was pointed out that the directors of the movie made is obvious in the first scene that it was supposed to be backyards and the end of the plot when the bullet from the gun and the blood moved in reverse. Although the story was somewhat hard to follow because of the hapax, I think the directors gave obvious clues such as the difference in color and the Sammy Jenkins scenes that hinted that Leonard was not innocent. It began to make me think that sometimes, the human memory of events or stories can be lost or missed because of our emotional connection to a person involved. We learned relatively early that Leonard lost his wife because she was raped and then murdered in their house. Immediately, we feel sympathy for him and are invested in the revenge that he is seeking. Even later in the movie when we see that Leonard hits Vanessa, I never assumed that he was a bad person or might be causing himself some of this harm. I think the viewer’s emotional attachment to Leonard gives important insight to our human memory; emotions and feelings are just as if not more powerful than observing actions or discovering fact. Although Leonard would forget everything since the accident, he always woke up feeling the urge to get revenge. He also remembers the feeling of losing his wife. These feelings overpowered his self-discovery of what really happened that night, causing him to seek revenge even after he murdered the rapist years previous. Similarly, our feeling of pity that we originally felt for Leonard prevents the viewers from picking up on all of the clues given about the real Leonard.

I think our emotions interfere with our interpretation of a bunch of other books that we have read in this class, specifically the Buried Giant. Throughout the whole book, we are presented with Axl and Beatrice, whom we observe to be truly in love. Although they are not treated well by the community, Axl is always looking out for Beatrice whom he called his “princess”. Both Axl and Beatrice have problems with their memories. At the end of the book, we discover that Beatrice had an affair so their love was not as true than we originally were lead to believe. It makes me wonder if there were any clues throughout the book that would have given hints to this affair. I think that our first memory of the feeling of love and admiration could have distorted our memory or recognition of other details that would have questioned their relationship.

After watching the movie Memento and our class discussion following it, I realized how uncomfortable the movie made me and the connection to Buried Giant. Throughout the whole movie I really had no idea what was going on, what was going to happen next, or the true story line. As the movie was told starting from the end then going to the middle and so on, I was left feeling like my memory and thought process was very affected. It made me feel uncomfortable because my brain could not really process what was going on. It really made me feel like I was Lenny and lacked the ability to form memories or know what was going on. The director did a great job of making you feel everything that Lenny felt. In thinking about this I realized what Axel and Beatrice are going through in Buried Giant. They both are very aware of their memory loss and it makes them very uneasy. A huge part of their life is missing especially their son, who they both know that they had one point in time. Their feelings of missing their son is similar to Lenny’s feelings about his wife. All “characters” feel lost and a need to bring back the missing pieces of their life. They all must work through a loss of memory and almost starting their lives over everyday. Throughout Memento, I questioned why Lenny even wanted to live in the first place. There was such an emptiness inside of him that I feel is similar to Axel and Beatrice that made me think what type of life is that to live? All characters are not sure who they can trust and who they cannot trust. Lenny feels distant from the world because no one understands his condition or experiences it with him which makes him live a lonely isolated life. Axel and Beatrice are different and isolated because they are the only ones in their village who are uncomfortable with their memory loss and who see answers.

This also brought me to the idea of robots. Can they relate to Lenny Beatrice and Axel in that they are empty and missing something such as emotion and feeling. While robots can remember a lot, they are incapable of feeling, but because they have memory, they technically know that they cannot feel. To me, this is not a life worth much which makes me wonder if creating robots is ethical at all.

While searching for a topic to cover for the group presentation, my group members and I stumbled upon the emerging technology of Brain to Brain Interface. BTBI connects the brains of two organisms, and allows for the transmission of signals from one (the sender) to the other (the recipient). BTBI involves either invasive or noninvasive operations. The use of BTBI calls into question an array of ethical issues. Some of which include Neural Privacy, Enhancement, and Agency and Identity.

Neural Privacy is in jeopardy when BTBI is used because the brain has no ability to refuse the impulse that it receives, and there have been very few measures taken to protect neural data. Without protection of neural data, the hacking of neural impulses could become possible in the future. Potentially the most frightening threat pertaining to neural privacy is the possibility of silent communication. Imagine if two people could communicate without any trace of interaction (text or verbal). The possibilities of silent communication could enhance the ability for criminals to execute missions more efficiently.

Enhancement through the use of BTBI refers to the ability to enhance learning and skill acquisition; a sure way to widening the inequality gap. The use of at-home BTBI is very costly, and will therefore only be available to those who can afford it. using such technology to enhance learning skills and decrease sill acquisition time could lead to the enhancement of wealth accumulation for the rich, and the resulting widening gap of inequality.

lastly, this technology brings about the ethical issue of agency and identity. Assuming one’s identity is defined by their neurophysiology, their sense of identity may be skewed if they are connected to another brain. If one is connected to another’s brain, they may adopt a communal sense of being rather than an individualistic sense of being.

With the advancements that have been made in the use of BTBI comes great ethical issues that must be considered. Without the approbate introspection into these ethical issues, the further development of BTBI could be detrimental to its users.