I want to begin with a comment on Kabe and Ziller's discussion on 72-73. Particularly the discussion about humans and aliens, "We help to define them. They like that."
"Define them? Is that all?"
"...But we give them an alien standard to calibrate themselves against."
I think this speaks to this latter part of our class rather well (sly move, Professor Jackson). We've used other humans to define and refine humanity in the first part and now we've looked at aliens to continue this refinement. The entire set up of the Culture (what an odd name for an empire, by the way) sort of mirrors Star Trek in that it seems to be a conglomeration of different species and ways of life mashed together in a kind of utopia. I'm not quite sure how to describe it yet, though Quilan sort of does (82-83).
The preponderance of technology is also interesting in this book. Being used to Universal Translators (Star Trek) or sentient machines (the TARDIS, Doctor Who) the technology at first threw me for a loop, so to speak. Communication devices as jewelry (Kabe's nose ring), that can be activated with a mere word seems to make sure no one is ever really alone. Machines having personalities when they aren't made to look like a human, so non-androids like the Contact drone, is also new to our discussion. The drone seems to show emotions through color changes and has a name. Granted, R2-D2 has a name and he and C-3PO have personalities but they aren't common in the Star Wars universe whereas Tersono seems to be, in that Luke's decision not to have his droids' minds wiped isn't a common practice. The ship Minds were also different and seemed akin to the TARDIS, in a way, because they are sentient. However, in contrast to the TARDIS, they also seem to be able to do things on their own and Ziller talks about them being able to compose. A ship that can write music. Not your average machine, is it?
The whole soul thing was also new and different. Brings the mind-body problem in philosophy to a whole new level, really. Your personality and memories can be downloaded and transfered into anything it seems that has the right storage space or connection. Unless you really like your body, death doesn't seem to matter as much any more because if your personality and mind is stored then you can live forever. Disposables, like Feli, don't follow this practice, however, and are seen as strange by the Culture inhabitants. I'm not sure what I would do if given the opportunity to have the process done. I've got a healthy, in my own opinion, fear of death but I'm not sure I'd want to be detached from my body in that way. Then again, it has been done in sci-fi before. Doctor Who and Star Trek Deep Space Nine's Dax seem to be okay with it, though it takes on new dimensions in Star Trek. Not just one person in multiple forms like Doctor Who but one person saddled with about nine other people's memories thanks to, essentially, a worm-like parasite.
I suppose this will have to do for my points on the book, there's just too much in it, as usual. Again, though, the Prime Directive looks like a really good idea and a general respect for the sovereignty of a civilization could have helped matters a bit. Though, I too found the Hub to be interesting, Mike.
This class has been a blast and thanks to the syllabus I have reading material for months. :) Perhaps we could keep this blog going, making contributions when we come across something particularly good novel or film-wise or something comes up that related to the class. Thank you all for enhancing the experience.
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4 comments:
Well of course it all comes together in the end. Did you really think that a guy who coordinates his ties to correspond to our theme would not pull everything around.
I don't know what your talking about machines having intelligence being weird. I hear cars composing music everyday when the car in front of them doesn't move the precise moment the light turns green.
I'm with you that it is weird to think of downloading the memories so that the minds can continue once the bodies are dead.
I mentioned this in my post as well, but Data was able to download the diaries of colonists at the colony he was at before it was destroyed.
The downloading memories, sounds a bit like backing up my hard drive...
I think it would be hard not to jump on the soul keeper concept at least once. Not a believer in an afterlife myself, knowledge of something after death would certainly be satisfying. I, like Quil, would have to question the ultimate "meness" (for lack of a better word) in any new existence (sorta like the Star Trek Transporter issue), but if the alternative is death, it can't hurt to give it a go once.
The conversation on page 72-73 also stood out to me for the same reasons. It made me think of the idea that everyone conceptualizes the world in relation to themselves, so defining oneself by interacting with an alien, actually makes a lot of sense. And as you pointed out we do that in relation to other people. Which ties into our debate of authors creating alien aliens, and the fact that without using our ideas and vocabulary to describe the aliens the whole thing would fall apart because the reader would not be able to make anything of the character.
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