Monday, April 1, 2013

Frankenstein Complex or "Us In The Machine?"

What does Wesch's short video about "us in the machine" make you think? How might this video connect with The Frankenstein Complex stories to date? Explain and use one quotation from a short story to connect. Reflect, dissect, challenge, etc... Please complete this prompt in class.

25 comments:

  1. Wesch's short video "Us in the machine" makes us think about how every little thing we do with technology, mostly computers, teaches it new things. This relates to the frankenstein complex because we are creating the machines and we teach the machines. It's like in EPICAC how the engineer teaches EPICAC about love and many other things.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think this can be similar to the frankenstein complex by having us create all these different ads for whatever there trying to sell. If they have to much of something then it could back fire and turn against them. If they advertise so much for a product who knows what could happen if it got out of hand. Not just machines either it could make humans think differently maybe if the product was a drug or something.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The video "Us in the machine" makes me think because when they are changing things when they are typing or are changing what is on a website it shows that we do create the web in a way because every time we click on something we are able to make a change to it. This might connect with The Frankenstein Complex because when Frankenstein was created he was created by someone who was working to make him human like and it ended up working, the new technology that is invented helps people out in many ways to do things and create things that humans aren't used to doing or really thinking about.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wesch's short video made me think about how powerful the web is and the technology around us. This video could connect to EPICAC because both machines are learning from what us humans teach it. In EPICAC, when the machine writes poetry it shows its understanding of the concept of love which it could only have learned from humans. The machine is learning from us and maybe we aren't the best role models for the machine either. I wonder what would happen if we taught it anger or revenge?

    ReplyDelete
  5. "Us in the machine" is an interesting video. It makes me wonder if all the technology we create is actually needed. I also wonder what would happen if something were to happen to the internet, computers, etc. What would happen? Would people be able to live without these technologies? I personally think that we wouldn't know what to do if the internet or computers no longer existed. We would probably panic and have to rely on our elders for advise on how to live without computers.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This video makes me think that people are slowly creating a monster in the world. If we are teaching the machine something new every time we put in a new photo or command then it will slowly become more and more knowledgeable. This video connects with The Frankenstein Complex because we are creating our own monster. something we fear that is made by our own hands. "Therefore, they were determined to commission the construction of a special new organ of almost limitless versatility and power." .this quote from The Human Factor shows how people want to create something so great that it is most likely to much for them to handle.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This video made me think back to the Frankenstein complex because it makes you fear what your creating. The Internet learns from us, it copies our behavior and suits our needs. For example in Epicac, the machine ends up "killing" itself because it is not able to be loved by the girl it loves. Love was something learned from the humans.Therefore it has watched and learned and now wanted to experience what we experience all the time. This makes me think that ultimately computers are smarter than us because they are learning from us and advancing past us.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wesch's short video makes me think that as we approach the digital age, technology could possibly become the new human. Our dependence on technology has already made us antisocial in the eyes of our peers with its capability to communicate without being face to face. This video connects to the Frankenstein Complex story, EPICAC, because they both involve smart technology that learns something new every time we interact with it. A quote from EPICAC explains, "He was all of those things. The best friend I ever had..." This quote demonstrates the power technology exerts on humans because we become so attached to it that we begin to refer to machines as our "friends".

    ReplyDelete
  9. The video is actually pretty cool, but when Wesch was saying that we are teaching the machine, it made me nervous because we have read all these stories about how technology takes over the world and if something like that happened it would be our faults, because we taught the machine everything it knows. This relates to EPICAC how we built the machine for one thing, but it learns and can no longer be used for that purpose.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wesch's short video makes me think about how the technology is getting more advanced and how the technology we make knows more than us. This video connects with the Frankenstein Complex because it talked about how we were creating the internet and making it as smart as us and the Frankenstein Complex is about making creating a creature.

    ReplyDelete
  11. This short video makes me think that the web can destroy and is an exception to privacy, authorship and copyright. It says at the end that we must rethink all of these things. We as humans made these machines to perfect writing with the place of text and to make our lives that much easier. This can connect to The Frankenstein Complex because "every time we click on a link.. we teach the machine" by teaching the machine we make it smarter and in some ways it has a mind of its own. In theory this creation has the possibility to turn on us or try and perfect us even more.

    ReplyDelete
  12. That we are the machine, we teach the machine everything it knows, that we should fear our own information exactly what the frankenstein complex is fear of creatiion. in Epicac the machine cannot love so it short circuits itself to avoid pain and suffering as we feared the machine and what it would do

    ReplyDelete
  13. I thought Wesch's video was very interesting and can relate to the Frankenstein complex in the fact that we created it. In Wesch's video he said, "We are the web," meaning we make it what we want it to be, we have all contributed to the creation of the web; which I think is an interesting idea in regards to the Frankenstein complex. Also I think Wesch showed some fear of what we have created when he wrote that "we need to rethink somethings," just as everyone fears the monster in "Frankenstein."

    ReplyDelete
  14. Wesch's video makes me think about how we must control the internet and the way we use and share data. Whenever we upload date or use a new code we teach the "machine" how to do stuff. The short story of EPICAC told of the dangers of teaching computers new knowledge. "I don't want to be a machine, and I don't want to think about war." We must control the machine and be careful with what we teach it.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I feel that we are the machine because of the things we teach it. The computers adapt to us and they do certain things based on what we like or prefer. The video kept referring to how we are the machine. In a way i believe we are. But without us computers really couldnt do much of anything. They need us just like we need them for the information they give. It relates to the Frankenstein complex because of how we are afraid of our own creations and maybe one day computers will act alone and not need the assistance of man.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I don't feel that the video "Us in the Machine" exhibits Frankenstein complex. In order for something to exhibit a Frankenstein complex, it must demonstrate or instill the fear of something that a person has created. While having access to the internet and making it possible for others to have more access to our personal lives and information can initially appear scary or at least make us uncomfortable, it it not required. Until you force people to participate, no one can do anything to you or learn anything about you that you cannot control. By allowing the internet to adapt to our use of it and improve itself, we simply make a forum for people to communicate. While most of this communication isnt the enlightened conversation people had envisioned, it is much more free and inviting than the "real world"

    ReplyDelete
  17. This video's idea of "us in the machine" relates to the Frankenstein complex because Frankenstein's creation was made out of his image. He made it and created it. And because there is a piece of Dr. Frankenstein in his creation. In the short story EPICAC the main character teaches EPICAC how to love, and EPICAC is a computer "I had taught EPICAC about how to love Pat"(322). This links all three stories/ videos together becuase it shows the link between human and creation.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Wesch's short video about "us in the machine" makes us thinks how much the technology has advanced in the past few years, how many people are using the web and computers, and each improvement teaches us new things. This video might connect with The Frankenstein Complex because we are creating several different ads to try to sell different products, also creating machines and robots to make work easier for us.

    ReplyDelete
  19. After viewing the youtube video about "us in the machine" it made me think about how often people actually use machines to find information. Many people have a fear about the technology we are creating. Do we have anything to fear? Like the video mentioned, now we have found ourselves having to take other things into consideration like privacy, family, ethics, identity etc. if we didn't have the internet, to some extend we wouldn't have those fears. We are causing fear amongst ourselves.

    ReplyDelete
  20. The short video "us in the machine" makes me think that we are the ones who control the things we create. Saying technology will take over the world is a false realization if we would only look at the things we've created and done to feel it is "out of our control". The web is creating, sharing, and connecting with all other people of the world, and now we are beginning to have a fear of what is happening to our health and society because of it. This connects to the Frankenstein Complex in this way, that the things we've created are "destroying" or "controlling" the way we live. In EPICAC the computer asks, "are men smarter than I am?" and asks a multiplication problem, to which man could not solve. We created something that could do such things.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Wesch's video was very interesting. I already knew that technology has been a part of daily life, and it's hard to go an entire day without encountering a technology of some kind. Wesch reinforced near the end of the video what I have already noticed, that our society still functions and behaves like technology isn't a big factor in our lives. Every rule-maker pushes the idea of how bad piracy and plagiarism is, when it's all too easy to Google "Watch Supernatural season one letmewatchthis", and come across 20+ links to a TV episode that shouldn't be available (and the beginning of a great series, I might add). Even in the last sentence, I didn't give proper recognition to Google or Supernatural. The Frankenstein Complex is the fear of your own creation, and humans are the creators behind the internet, and we love it, but at the same time, fear it. If, as a society, we could somehow grow past that fear, I think technology could seriously help us, more so than it already has. In Epicac, the narrator learned to utilize the EPICAC machine to his benefit, and while I can't find a quote to summarize that exactly, it still applies.

    ReplyDelete
  22. The video made me think about how the world just keeps getting smaller. Because of advancements in our technology, and communication. It then made me ask the question if it really is an "advancement" in communication. If we are connected through the internet and things outside of us. Then it ceases to be about us. The Frankenstein Complex touches on the idea of identity. And with the world getting smaller identity seems to be harder to find. The things we have created to help us, may indeed be harming us. We may question how to do things, and how to integrate ourselves with technology. This strange regulations between the two pieces. Programming, wiring, connecting, and processing. Trying to "solve the problems of man" As in EPICAC where the computer was built by man to solve great military problems. And it would reach a point when it learned what else was out there. "I don't want to be a machine, and I don't want to think about war." EPICAC would make a choice. Unable to become human, destroyed itself. The difficulty of identity, and the power it has. To twist and destroy.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Wesch's video about us in the machine is ironic because it is exactly like the Frankenstein complex in a way "Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live?" this statement when connected to advertisement's that pop up every time we go to you tube or some other site is hilarious. This is because we created the adds through expressing interest in certain items so companies know what we are interested so then they spam us, which of course we did to ourselves.

    ReplyDelete
  24. One thing the video was trying to say was that, not only have we created the machine, but the machine is us. that is to say, the machine is the collective consciousness of those who use it. As it said, we teach it with every link we click, every time we communicate or create. It's human culture made manifest.

    ReplyDelete
  25. The video "us in the machine" is definitely interesting. It challenges us to think about how far technology has come, and how important it is to us. When I think about connecting it with the Frankenstein Complex, I think about the way that it pointed out how the computer knows what is important to us, and how the things we think about daily go into our search bar. I think that if at some point a computer developed a mind of its own, it would have enough information on the human race to wipe us out completely. In EPICAC, the war computer was thought about love, and with that power, he wrote amazing poems, If he new more, his possibilities could be endless.

    ReplyDelete