Sunday, November 3, 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 or by 2:30p.m. today.

23 comments:

  1. It is kind of silly to think that computers are going to take over the world by learning things from us but I guess it could technically happen. It is true that people use the computer and search and just do things on computers every day really, so why not let the computer learn about you. I do think that it is a little freaky that the computer could have been learning about me my entire life, and it is also a little intruding.

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  2. I think that the video connects to the Frankenstein Complex by how we teach "monsters" or give our "monsters" ideas without necessarily meaning to. In The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, you can see the monster learning how to read and write just by watching other people do it. He becomes literate and intelligent and knows how do many things just by watching. For computers or machines, we teach them everything by just using them. We give them ideas without meaning to just like in The Modern Prometheus. If we're not too careful, machines can turn against us, not right now, but maybe in the future, just like how Frankenstein's monster turned against him.

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  3. This short video made me think about new ideas for my websites. New ideas for automation, new things to script on the screen. As a web designer, i was able to connect with this short video because this is the kind of work i do everyday so it's very common to me. I don't believe that it really relates to the Frankenstein Complex because i know how these websites and systems run so it's not "different" or new to me.
    -Matt Myers.

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  4. The line in the video that really stayed with me and made me think was that "we are teching the machine. and the machine is learning." This was something I have never thought about and makes me wonder what the internet of the future will look like. It also makes me think about if the web could ever learn enough to over run us and use all the knowledge that we feed into it everyday.

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  5. we create new technology everyday. we strive to get the best newest stuff. the newest iPhone , computer . but we never seem to see how creepy stuff is getting. reading your face to unlock your phone , memorizing your thumbprint to know you. your phone now of days knows you better then most people.

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  6. In the video"us in the machine" this video makes me think that their are people smarter than anything made, because someone had to have an answer for it before the machine. This whole video is a reminder to me that man makes everything, even things designed to make other objects, and we will get bored, and move on when, I don't know but it will happen. Their will always be something better.

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  7. The amount of data that is tracked evereyday is one aspect of this video that stood out to me. Right now im in a class with 25 kids who are clicking their mouse 5 times every 15 seconds. In the school there are 25 classrooms full of 25 kids who are all clicking their mouse at the same rate. My question is how many clicks did "they" track in 5 minutes? It all seems pointless to me because we are recording all this data for no real reason. There is twice as much data in the world today then there was 2 years ago. Will we ever come to a point where there is too much data for us to store and calculate? And if that happens, what will happen?

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  9. Parker Lacy
    The video "us in the machine" made me think about how technology has taken over our world. It makes me wonder how our future will be and how technology will effect our future. This video makes us connect with The Frankenstein Complex because humans are fearing what the technology will hold for the future. Even though all of this technology is helping us now, I wonder how it will effect our future. "The new X-CAT is your personal 24 hour exterminator." This quote shows how much our technology is advancing and how it could back fire on us in the future.

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  10. Wesch's short video made me think about how technology is advancing and how we're losing meaning and how newer problems are generated. With advanced technology comes advanced problems and how to deal with the malfunctions. This relates back to The Frankenstein Complex because when we create new machines and robots, we never truly know how it will work with or against us. We want to create and know too much of technology. "I had taught EPICAC about love and about Pat." (EPICAC, p.322). This quote shows how the technology we create and not turn out the way we plan them to turn out.

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  11. This video vehemently connects with the Frankenstein complex because although Welch took it as a positive step based on the overall mood of the video, some people might take it as a problem. The video truly showed us how many aspects of our lives are controlled by machines and how we are drifting away from traditional human integration. Take for instance, the newest story, "Human Factor" where the organist is angry with the new piece of technology. The text exclaims how it was wonderful-and also humiliating, particularly when he was forced to bow and smile at the end. This really shows us how even though machines are supposed to alleviate some of the stress and pressures of life, but in some instances, can become a malevolent, overpowering entity that soon enough take over human function and replace us altogether.

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  12. This short video made me consider how interconnected we are as a world society because of the Internet and how much we all rely upon this technology. The concept that we are feeding this machine, that we grow this entity with how we interact with it, is a scary prospect. It has the potential to go beyond just what we input into it and start creating its own thoughts, processes, ideas, links, etc. This machine that we have created could push us out of the way and make us with human knowledge inferior, in the same way that Mark was the only human and inferior at the base in "Eyebem". As Eyebem said, "If anyone's out of place it's you, and I'm sure the station boss and all of us will feel a lot less concern when you go to one of the cities" (Wolfe 161), showing how robots want to move humans out not only to "protect" them, but to make everything more efficient.

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  13. The Wesch's short video made me think about how much we rely on technology. For example, we use the internet for mostly everything: projects, research, for fun, ect. The stories EPICAC is an example of how much we rely on technology for stuff in life to happen: " EPICAC gave me anniversary poems for Pat-enough for the next 500 years". Here the man is using the computers feelings towards Pat, not his. And this video connects to the Frankenstein Complex because we used to control technology, now technology controls our life.

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  14. The video "us in the machine" made me kind of freaked out and that like the computer is like brain washing us or taking our intelligence. But it also made me think about how much I love computers and the benefits they have, as well as the convenience of the internet and how much I love it. I think that this video was the closest thing to the Frankenstein Complex that we've had so far, I think that a lot of people definitely fear computers. From the story Frankenstein, Frankenstein says "cursed, cursed creator" which demonstrates the flip side of the Frankenstein complex and the relationship between creation and creator and the fear present in them both.

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  15. Tajalik Davis
    Hour 1

    The video about “us in the machine” makes me think that the internet and technology humans create is fake. The machine can’t run itself even if expected to. People check, update and hack into the internet in order to make it work. The video relates to the Frankenstein complex because like the internet, Frankenstein became the next big thing and then people discovered it was dangerous. “I don’t want to be a machine, and I don’t want to think about war, EPICAC had written after Pat’s and my lighthearted departure.(Vonnegut Jr. 323)”Technology can be manipulated in terrible ways and can cause the computer to not follow it’s instructions.

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  16. The video, Us in the Machine, makes me think about how even though we created machines, they will always be able to learn more, and recall their memory faster than us. Humans forget things, and can't do large equations, in our heads, but the machines can. In EPICAC the main, human character has to teach the robot about many words, including love, girls, and fate. This video connects with the Frankenstein complex, because as we use machines more, and they learn more, the machines could rebel, or maybe become something humans hate.

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  17. The way Frankeinstein Complex and the short video "us in the machinery" connects because the "monster" teachees himself everything he knew. He tought himself just by watching humans. This same thing comes with machinery. We use it everyday in your lives. More than 100 billion web clicks happen each day. Every time we look something up the computer process it and puts it in the data base. If we contusion to use technology will it ever over power their creators and destroy our kind.

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  18. The video showed how fast humans are advancing and becoming more intelligent and creating technology that is making science fiction almost a reality. Technology almost has a mind of its own as it advances faster and faster every year and has connected the world.

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  19. His short video makes me think about how technology is always changing. He shows us this with the power of word. With the simple program of word we can create a new paper within seconds from an older one

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  20. The video makes me think about how consumed we have become with technology and especially the use of the internet. It has shaped how our schools are run, how our government controls the citizens, and it has affected the jobs in the country tremendously for better and worse.

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  21. This video made me think about the fact we really are feeding computers a lot of information. If at some point computers develop the ability to use the information on its own, we would most likely end up destroying it out of fear.

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  22. The short video that we watched was interesting in relation to the Frankenstein complex unit that we are in currently. Most of the stories that we have read are about robots and machines that take the human element out of daily life and functions. For example, the computer EPICAC was designed to take the human element out of running the logistical side of war. When the computer discovers poetry, he realizes that he can “...write better poetry than you can…”. However, the video that we watched in class took a different perspective, combining humans with technology. It talked about how “We are the Machine”. I agree with the video in the sense that if humans can retain control of ourselves and our technology that we can control technology. I feel that when used appropriately, we have nothing to fear with the technology that we have and are capable of producing.

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  23. This video made me think how far we have advanced in technology. It also makes me think how much father we will be going. Will computers be able to think for themselves one day?

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