The Future

The Future, My Future:

To conclude my time in this course, our last blog post is supposed to be about where I see myself, and how I see this world in the next 50 years. 

In 2068 a lot of things would be different, and that includes both the good and the bad. The environment will get worse with time and the more we continue to destroy our world. Maybe with our technological advances we could do better with building sanctuaries and protecting the wildlife but chances are a lot of animals will be dying off. The technology in medicine and science will be so far advanced. And a lot of things like cancer will be cured.

For my personal life, and where I see myself honestly I have no idea. What I thought I would be as an adult is different from what I ever expected it to be when I was a child. 

And I know that the world works unpredictably, but I guess the only thing I can say is for the future I will still be the same person I am today. Someone who stays up all night procrastinating watching cartoons and eating junk food, the same way I've always been. 

In 2068 I'll be 70, and as a 70 year old person who's stuck in the past and remembering the world how I do today. Of course I hope I'll be in the game design industry. The game industry is still so new, and there is so much that's going to be developed, like virtual reality and the world that's going to be created.My 70 year old self would tell myself not to waste time, and get out more. 

Like dang, I need to not stay in my room waiting for the world and not to worry about all the things that happen around me like little problems that in the end doesn't matter and eventually will just disappear. To look care more about important things, not the things that never mattered. 

Continue to create, and stay up working on my games and making experiences for people.

Week 14: Science Fiction and Satire

Week 14: Science Fiction and Satire
DON'T PANIC!
The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy!

To finish the course, I decided for I would finish off by listening to the Hitch Hiker's Guide Radio Show. I've originally both read the novel and watched the movie.
I grabbed the nearest towel, and was ready. This is definitely one of my favorite all time books in the galaxy. It begins with the duo Arthur and Ford escaping the earth before it is destroyed to make way for a freeway. They begin their journey and use the guide. I would  like to add this is probably one of the best audio books I've ever listened to, especially the effects. They add a lot to the listener. The beginning starts out with the duo escaping earth and hitching a ride on a Vogon's ship which this particular Vogon is one of the worst poets in the galaxy. In which they have to either tell him how good is poem is or die. Of course, them saying his poem was good ended up getting them the death sentence anyways. These two meet a lot of different people throughout the audio book after they get thrown out of the airlock like Zaphod Beeblebrox who is the president of the galaxy and Trillian. They embark on a journey to a planet that sells planets. This is where we learn that the meaning of life is 42 from the supercomputer and Marvin, who I like because he's basically a depressed robot. In the end Trillian's mice don't even want to build a second earth but rather have Arthur's brain instead. Zaphod ends up saving Arthur from getting his brain removed from the mice and decide to go to The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

Week 13: Literary Speculation

Week 13: Literary Speculation

This week I decided to read more out of Cosmicomics a collection of short stories by Italo Calvino. I decided to read these because I remember in particular we read All at One Point and The Aquatic Uncle in our class. I read Games without End, in which two creatures Pfwfp and Qfwfq are playing a game with atoms eventually breaking the universe and in a continuous loop of chasing each other. These stories make you think exactly what the heck you are reading. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed each short story and thought they were in some aspects a bit funny, or gives you something to think about.

I think in Literary Speculation the author themselves aren’t interested in exactly hitting the marks on genre, it seems they like to mix or make their own free and less strict way of writing their own stories. Every single one of these stories had a pretty strange trippy ending, or in general is just weird. Either with messing with time and space itself or its just comes from something personal to the author. Usually coming from something that’s not of our world, it’s usually pretty out of the box. It can also be a casual and not necessarily an epic either, none of these follow any epic tropes and are just free. Genre shouldn’t limit or keep a writer from mixing or writing certain characters and novels a certain way.

Week 11: Steampunk and Cyberpunk

Week 11: Steampunk and Cyberpunk

Cyberpunk is the genre for this week, this sub-genre stems from the anxieties people have about the future like the environment and the future of the world.
Common tropes in Cyberpunk/Steampunk are the role reversal of the heroine.  Suddenly we see a powerful, modified version of the typical heroine. While the male seems to be sillier, and less useful this is not typical of the heroic norm.
A lot of people in our class debated about the different ideas of how everything will be in the future. It brought up lots of controversy in our own class and I think that’s the point. A lot of cyberpunk is questioning. The world would be changing, from robots possibly having human rights or showing humanistic qualities.  Automation would eventually take over work, what worth would humans even have if machines could take over the work of humans. Our whole world is going through these changes even now. People continue to alter their own bodies to be genetically modified. These things come from modern day issues, talking about how modern day technical advances and society is changing. Like not having conforming genders, or how science is starting to affect our own bodies.

I read Johnny Mnemonic by William Gibson, definitely following these tropes, a strong woman character named Molly and the Japanese mafia the Yakuza being talked about. It even talked about when Lewis needed to get a prosthetic for Molly hurting his thumb earlier. Other than the obvious points that make it a sc-fi, like the RGB code. This is a good short story that covers the very basic of what cyberpunk tropes are.

Week 10: The Fiction of Ideas

Week 10: The Fiction of Ideas 

The novel I chose to read this week is Babel 17 by Samuel R. Delaney.
Babel 17 is about the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, a theory that individual’s thoughts and actions are determined by the language that the individual speaks.  It states that all human thoughts and actions are bound by restraints, shaping our behavior.  The books starts out where the Alliance military comes across a new code (by the invaders) from a radio transmission that they cannot crack.  They hire Rydra Wong, a top poet, cryptologist and top linguist to crack the code.  She informs them this is not a code at all, but an actual language and agrees to crack itProtagonist Wong assembles a crew and studies the data, which the Alliance calls Babel-17.  The crew is truly an unusual group.  She recruits discorporates, triplings and cosmetically surgerized team members. 

She discovers that this language is used to cause a human host to be against the Alliance and try and sabotage it.  She improves the language and shifts the power to the Alliance.  Babel-17 is really a thought experiment and cultural awareness together.  Some of these ideas are very similar to some cultural language we hear today.  For instance, when someone says, “I’m from a Third World country.”  That could imply they are less-educated.  What do most people visualize when they hear that.  We need to be more diverse and open-minded.  I find the author of this book, Samuel R. Delaney was way beyond his time, 1966.  The main character/hero is a woman and multi-cultural as well.  I feel he is attempting to stretch cultural understanding to a higher level.

Week 9: Space Opera

Week 9: Space Opera

The Martian is a humorous sci-fi opera.  A typical freak Martian dust storm (reminiscent of the movie “Mission to Mars with Gary Sinese) suddenly hits astronauts/botanists on a mission while on Mars. 

The main character, Mark Whatney, gets blown away and stuck in his side with an antenna and left for dead by his fellow crewmates.  His suit is damaged, so no vital signs are detected.  Mark realizes his dilemma, alone and stranded, and goes into survival mode.

The Martian uses his brain “I am going to have to science the heck out of this” to survive.  Mark uses his training in botany and engineering to come up with several ways to survive.  He grows potatoes out of his own “waste” and invents water by passing leftover hydrazine, rocket fuel over a catalyst.

He is a brain geek and survivalist bringing the “Nerd Thriller” genre into the Mainstream.  This is hyper-technical meets Robinson Crusoe times two!  What helps this novel be so technical is the author is an actual software engineer.  I found the humor genre in this book as well like Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  The humor cuts the tension of a very grim situation.  The dialogue undermines the bleak setting. 

It gets interesting once we read the people back on Earth realize his is alive, thanks to satellite photos that show the equipment on Mars being moved.  You really want this character to survive.

What is coincidental is this book is about the nerd that is the hero, very much like how I always thought Spock was the hero in Star Trek – even though others all made Kirk out to be the Golden Boy.  Scotty was also one of my favorite Star Trek characters as well.