Sunday, November 1, 2015
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, Nov. 2nd.
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ReplyDeleteThe short video connects with the Frankenstein complex because we are controlling technology and that if something does happen with technology it would be our fault. Like the video said the machine is thinking because we keep giving it information to learn from
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ReplyDeleteThis makes me think about how we are the machine, and it is learning about us and it is gathering all of that information to make it available to others. This video connects with the Frankenstein Complex stories we have read because it can be a monster as people are starting to question morals and ethics of what is posted online. This is a scary thing and some people fear what they post online, much like the machines we have read about in class. Along with that, like the main characters in the texts some people have taken information from the internet and passed it along as their own to gain an advantage over others. This is what the video has made me think.
The video made me think about the way we share stuff constantly barely thinking about the consequences, or the bigger picture. In Frankenstein, we see that he learns through watching others, while they are involuntarily giving information to him. However the interesting part of the computer is we are feeding it information voluntarily, which means we should be controlling it, but according to the video we aren't
ReplyDelete"Us in the machine" makes me think about the way technology has changed in the world. It is using us to get smarter and advancing in knowledge. Technology gets smarter every time we use it and put in new information. This connects with The Frankenstein Complex story "Human Factor" because it shows how technology is becoming smarter and smarter and one day may be smart enough to over take humans.
ReplyDeletein "Us in the Machine" its talks about how much we use computers and tech. All that information is linked to anyone and could easily accessed. In the clip it talks about that the machines are learning, which they could, and they have accesses to everything, all the good and bad. But it also calls up machines, we are learning, learning new strategies, skills. We have the world at our fingertips.
ReplyDeleteThis video makes me think about the future of computers and what they will be capable of. This video connects to the Frankenstein Complex in terms of computers becoming too "smart" and them "learning" to much. If computers can be taught things like in EPICAC, our computers might all blow out like it did in the story.
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting because the video is really interesting about all the stuff he goes through and talks about in the video. But the tittle is really interesting because it is "the machine is Us/ing us". This is really interesting because the tittle shows that it is us that is driving this but yet it is us that is driving it. This is overall pretty interesting to think about.
ReplyDeleteSomething that made me think during the video was "We are the machine" and how we've become so reliant on the Internet that it's become 2nd nature to us.This can define the Frankenstein complex as it the Internet is becoming more than just a computer or search engine.
ReplyDeleteThe video, "Us In The Machine", makes the point that our system of internet and social media is a very powerful creation, which is getting more and more knowledge by the minute. It follows a common theme about Frankenstein Complex stories. The machine learning more and more and getting more powerful, always feeding off of our information. The internet is in a way so much smarter than we are with its collective knowledge from all over the world. It makes one think, will this technology ever go too far? Or has it already gone too far? Already nowadays you can simply look up any person on social media and learn all about them, so where do we draw the line? It seems as though we are becoming more a more reliant on technology as we progress as a race. The computer EPICAC in the story, "never forgot any information that was given to him", which isn't that far out of our reach of technology today. The entire internet system all over the world is like one big EPICAC.
ReplyDeleteThe video “Us in the Machine,” shows us that even though we see technology as separate things from us they are part of us. We teach it and do stuff on it that makes it personalized. What we type, or search on the web teaches it to be like ourselves. Every computer on the planet is like a mini society, that is connected with the entire world. The idea that we train machines to reflect ourselves is evident in all of the stories that we have read. In EPICAC, the narrator was able to train it to love pat as he did. In the human factor, Doctor Alpha was able to manipulate the organ into what he wanted it to play. And now, in modern society, we are able to manipulate personalize the internet to connect us with the world. But this should scare us. We should be afraid of teaching technology. We want to be in control of the technology we create, not the other way around.
ReplyDeleteThe short video about "us in the machine" made me think of the Frankenstein complex. It made me wonder about the advancement of technology and specifically, the web. Most sources only questioned robotics/science, not the internet, so this was a changing perspective. This video connects with the short stories by showing the dangers of technology. In Epicac, he says, "EPICAC was the best friend I ever had." (Vonnegut 318). This shows that humanity can invent machines so advanced as to have feelings and relationships, and that's daunting in the same way that the video did.
ReplyDeleteThe video about "us and the machine" connects very well with The Frankenstein Complex. Humans are the ones controlling the computer and inputting the information, but the computer remembers all of the inputs. We are making computers more intelligent, lots of machines are more intelligent than us at this point. The video is questioning what is right to put out there, how the computers have grown immensely in comprehension. It's almost scary that not only are we using the computers, but the computers are using us. As the narrator explains in "EPICAC," "The amazing, pathetic truth dawned on me. When I thought about it, I realized that what had happened was perfectly logical, inevitable, and all my fault. I had taught EPICAC about love and about Pat. Now, automatically, he loved Pat" (Vonnegut 322). The narrator of the story inputted human emotion into the computer, causing the computer to adopt and utilize it in the best way it could. It eventually destroyed itself because the only problem it couldn't compute was why fate made him a computer that could love and not a man. The machine was too intelligent for its own good, connecting back to The Frankenstein complex and the short video.
ReplyDeleteThis video connects with the Frankenstein Complex because we are the machine; which might scare some people because they might not be okay with machines learning, as well as the technology using us instead of us using it. Also, it reminds me of "EPICAC" because the video stated that the machine learns and absorbs information, much like EPICAC, who learns to write poetry, to question things, and what love is; then when it realized it couldn't love anyone it short-circuited itself, "I don't want to be a machine, and I don't want to think about war...I want to be made out of protoplasm and last forever so Pat will love me. But fate has made me a machine. That is the only problem I cannot solve. That is the only problem I want to solve. I can't go on this way...Good luck, my friend. Treat our Pat well. I am going to short-circuit myself out of your lives forever. You will find on the remainder of this tape a modest wedding present from your friend, EPICAC." (Vonnegut 323-324) And that was that, the machine was used to create poetry, and used the narrator to learn what love is, but then developed emotions and couldn't live knowing he would never be a human, nor be able to love Pat, proving that machines might be able to actually learn and comprehend knowledge as they please.
ReplyDeleteIt makes me think that instead of us using the web, the web is using us, how it is consuming us. This connects to the Frankenstein Complex because there is a thought that the web may turn against us, or it becomes so advanced, it has a mind of it́s own. Like how in EPICAC the machine that thought he had a girlfriend "Good said EPICAC. I am ready any time she is." Which means that the machine learned how to love.
ReplyDeleteOne of the quotes in the video, "We are the machine", defines the Frankenstein complex because the internet is becoming more and more human and when it becomes more human, there can be more sicknesses or viruses to be feared. Another quote, "People click on links 100 billion times per day", shows how much we rely on the internet. There is also a lot of secrets kept in the internet, things that people don't want us to see, and it is not all fun and games. Finally, a quote from the story, EPICAC, says, "I loved and won-EPICAC loved and lost, but he bore me no grudge." I think this relates because EPICAC is considered a human in the doctors mind.
ReplyDeleteWesch's video made me think of deep web, a concept I hadn't a clue of until a friend enlightened me. Deep web is the part of the web that we can't access with a search engine. So when we Google ourselves and nothing comes up, that isn't an accurate representation of our "electronic footprint", if you will. The video represented the benefits of expanding the internet but failed to mention the dark side of "Web 2.0" which could be the part that strips away the things that are most important to us, such as our privacy.
ReplyDeleteThe risks of technology are rarely laid out in plain terms until we see real people become victims who've lost things that we hold great value to. Yet with the progression of technology, there must be a progression of society - if we are to adapt to the makings of the future.
What Weschs video made me think after viewing it was how consumed we are when we use the web. He explained how there are billions of clicks going on through the web every second. Also how we can get information quickly when we use the web, so we depend on it when we don't know something. What scared me while watching the video was when he said that we are teaching the web more and more information every time we use it. And it's scary to know that we could potentially create an A.I. By using the web.
ReplyDeleteIn the short video that we watched we were being told about how the web is controlling us and it says that "We are the web" this is very true because we have to power to make the Frankenstein Complex disappear but we as humans want to know more and keep striving for more knowledge. This video makes me think what would happen if we stopped believing in the web because the video says that we are the web what would happen if we just stopped going on the web.
ReplyDeleteThe video "We are the Machine", makes me rethink all of the advanced technology that we possess. This connects to the Frankenstein Complex because we created both Frankenstein and computers, and we start to fear what we created. The video made me think of how attached we are to technology, and if we lost it, I do not know what we would do. We always want to be in control of the technology we create, but sometimes it feels as if it controls us.
ReplyDeleteI connected Wesch's short video to the Frankenstein Complex, because the video pointed out how the web, our creation has evolved and developed to the point where it can learn and know virtually anything about you and everybody else. The web as almost eliminated privacy to the point where with the simple click of a button you can destroy somebody's life. "You can call him a machine. He looked like a machine, but he was a whole lot less like a machine than plenty of people I could name," (318 Vonnegut Jr.). This quote is similar to the ideas displayed in the video because the internet was designed to serve us and now we serve it and it may be passively but we serve it none the less.
ReplyDeleteThe Internet is so full of knowledge it can be intimidating. One human can't possible absorb all of the information the Internet has. This can lead to somewhat of a Frankenstein Complex with the Internet, it is so vast and expansive that it dwarfs a single humans knowledge. The Internet is a compilation of ideas that people have decide to publish online. The Internet is evolving though making its own content independent of human thought. This can be good and bad if the Internet outpaces human knowledge. Even bough it is our knowledge to begin with.
ReplyDeleteIn "Us in the Machine" we see that there wouldn't be technology without us. Every time we add something to the internet or to other sources, we see that technology grows. This is similar to the Human Factor because we see that as these technologies grow, they can start to take over our lives. "And yet Doctor Alpha thought it not quite right that the organ should have taken the initiative, when he, after all, was the organist." The technologies can grow with us.
ReplyDeleteThe short video made me think about just how the machine is us and how it’s using us. This video connects with The Frankenstein Complex stories that we’ve read so far by forcing us to rethink how machines and computers are slowly taking over even if we don’t think that’s happening. This is because computers use search engines to find the information for us, but it’s remembering what we search for. In the story “EPICAC”, it reads “EPICAC never forgot any piece of information that was given to him” then later in the story it says “‘I don’t want to be a machine, and I don’t want to think about war’”. At this point in the story, EPICAC had learned to feel and adapt. This video connects with this story because it starts showing how computers are adapting like in the story, and how a future like this might be possible. It's not too crazy of a thought as it's already happening, but it makes me think of just how far will it go.
ReplyDeleteThe short video “Us In The Machine” makes me think about how much people, as a whole, are becoming more and more dependent on the internet. In the video, it said right at the end that “we need to rethink (ethics, aesthetics, love, family, and a lot of other parts of life like this, with each word replacing the last)”, and that is one of, if not the most impactful moment of the video because of how true it is. The internet puts the world in everyone’s hands; you can find out anything about anyone simply by typing something into a search bar and clicking on a few links. If you go out and just take a look around, at least half of the people you see will be on their phones, even if they are out with other people. I don’t really see any bad results of the internet, and in that aspect, I can relate the video to The Human Factor, because all that we have read of the story so far is that the organ can play all of these songs on its own, with no real, dangerous impacts.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching the short video "Us In The Machine", I realized how dependent humans are on technology and the internet. When the video said that we need to rethink love, family, and other parts of our life like this, i totally connected to the video. This is so true and i think that my relationships with people are more important then my relationship with technology. The internet simply is a short cut to know things, and takes away from the learning aspect and reliability, that we should have in ourselves to learn those things our selves. Humans are so consumed with their phones and computers now a days, and it is almost impossible to have a face to face conversation with person, without, a piece of technology intervening. The internet and technology certainly has a takes a major commitment in our lives, when it should be less of one.
ReplyDeleteWesch's short video about the web makes me excited for the future and advancements of technology, but also disappointed that we have become enveloped in it. "The web is using us." This can be described two different ways. Just like EPICAC, we are teaching the web and everyone that uses it what is popular by simple clicks, but we can waste countless amounts of time mindlessly clicking and watching/reading irrelevant things when we could be doing more important things and discovering the real world outside of technology.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching this video, I was really impressed by how it was made a long time ago. Nowadays some of what was shown in the video is becoming true. It is spreading like a virus. One of the quotes in the video, "We are the machine", defines the Frankenstein complex because the internet is becoming more and more human and when it becomes more human, there can be more sicknesses or viruses to be feared. In both EPICAC and Human Factor, the narrators manipulate their organ and computer to perform a task for them. Once that item has literally blown up for both cases, they seek sadness and a lost feeling now that they are gone. I hope that doesn't happen to mankind when the internet is abolished. Which it could eventually shut down at the rate it is going.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching the video "Us in The Machine", we see that we may be using technology, but technology is also using us to learn. The video connects to the stories that we read, such as "EPICAC". In this story, an advanced computer that learns how to create poetry and emotion. It did this by learning from a human, who was using it. At the current rate we are improving our technology, this may actually happen, but instead of the machine wanting to learn emotion like love and poetry, it could learn hate and warfare.
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