Welcome to the year 2012. It is a bit different then what you would think. Thousands of species have gone extinct. Buildings are destroyed and the ones that are livable are not inhabited - besides maybe a room or two. So, what the heck happened here on our beloved planet earth? Well, there was a war, a nuclear war. World War Termination to be exact. It left the world in ruin. Instead of forecasting rain or snow, the few survivors forecast the radioactive dust. Now, I haven’t gone into to many details, but from the picture I have set you can see that earth is a pretty ugly place.
You may think that the earth as described in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, as a wretched place to live on, but at least there is an earth to live on. In Lyotard’s essay, Can Thought Go On Without a Body, Lyotard describes what life or even thought would be like after our sun novas. When our sun is in its dying stages it will become so large that the sun will turn into a red giant and expand past the earth’s orbit. It will fry mars and when it novas, the explosion will destroy the entire solar system and have horrific effects for light years. There will be no such thing as human beings let alone remnants of human thought.
However ugly earth is after WWT, there are still humans walking the surface, we still have human thought. These humans are the survivors from WWT but they aren’t the special ones-the ones that got shipped to Mars. The governments of the world shipped the special people, those with the highest IQs, to Mars to further on the species and keep thought alive. The governments also allowed private companies such as the Rosen Association to develop androids. Their latest model of androids, Nexus-6, are so well advanced that it is impossible to distinguish them from actual humans with the naked eye. You would need a special device called the Voigt-Kampff scale to administer a test with. The scale would measure a person’s or android’s reactions to certain questions by observing minute details of the face. The only thing the Nexus-6 cannot do is react with empathy.
Since the end of humans and human thought is on its way, Lyotard says we need to stop asking ourselves the answerless questions and focus on ways in which we can ensure human thought continues once the end of the solar system arrives. He states,
“…theoretically the solution is very simple: manufacture hardware capable of ‘nurturing’ software at least as complex (or replex) as the present day human brain, but in non terrestrial conditions. (Lyotard 14) “ The androids in Dick’s narrative are almost there. They have the brain capacity of a human. Take for example when Rachel Rosen tricked Rick Deckard at the Rosen Association or when Kadalyi-Polokov almost killed Deckard on the roof when he was pretending to be a Russian police officer sent to help Deckard with retiring the androids.
The software to survive the nova is available in Dick’s narrative. I just think there needs to be some development in hardware. When Deckard shot Polokov in the head, the android went nuts. It was twitching and sparking everywhere, and that’s just after coming in contact with a measly bullet. To survive the nova, the humans need to create a hardware system that will survive the most powerful explosion and forces of energy anything will ever experience (next to a super giant explosion and being ripped apart by the gravitational differences entering a black hole). Or, humankind will have to create a ship that will travel fast enough to escape the wretched explosion or be outside the area that will be effected by the explosion before the explosion gets there. They would have to do this because “Thought without a body is the prerequisite for thinking of the death of all bodies, solar or terrestrial, and of the death of thoughts that are inseparable from those bodies (14).” So basically, if the hardware for the software gets destroyed then the software will be gone because there would be nothing to run the software. Take for example your present day (2008, not 2021) laptop that you are reading this blog on. The hardware would consist of your motherboard, the computer chips, the circuitry and the screen amongst other things, while the software is the Microsoft Office 2008 I am typing on right now, the Mozilla Firefox you are using to read this essay, and the itunes you are using to listen to your music as you read this essay. Think about this. Without the hardware, the software wouldn’t exist. They would be ideas in your head-figments of your imagination. So if the nova destroyed all of the hardware that was capable of continuing human thought, human thought would be like the software without the computer.
I have always been one of those people that looked up at the sky and wondered. I wondered what it would be like up there, living amongst the stars. That was when I was a young buck. Now, with three plus years of higher education under my belt, focusing primarily in the natural sciences, I often wonder and think a lot more. I look up at the stars and understand the processes that make us what we are today. I understand the fusion of the stars, the gravity, the light and how everything interacts. But this is all free spirit thinking-not programmed. I don’t think the human race can create software or hardware that comes close to that of a human brain, no matter what Bill Joy says in his article Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us. But then again, I think of what Lyotard said of humans, “You know – technology wasn’t invented by us humans. Rather the other way around (12).” It is this statement that gives me all the confidence in the world of the human race. Since we are technology and we are creating technology, who is to say that we cannot recreate human beings from scratch? The evolution of technology could be as simple as a positive feedback loop.
4 comments:
Kevin,
I assume you did option 2 . . Another great job, I only have one comment for you. You do a great job giving examples from all the different texts and essays we have been reading and do a great job of explaining them. But it takes me until the fifth paragraph to understand your response/argument. I think if you find a way to get your argument into your essay quicker it will be more beneficial to the reader.
I have no other comment except this is another good essay.
Sam Luffy
Welcome to the year 2021. It is a bit different then what you would think. Thousands of species have gone extinct. Buildings are destroyed and the ones that are livable are not inhabited - besides maybe a room or two. So, what the heck happened here on our beloved planet earth? Well, there was a war, a nuclear war. World War Termination to be exact. It left the world in ruin. Instead of forecasting rain or snow, the few survivors forecast the radioactive dust. Now, I haven’t gone into to many details, but from the picture I have set you can see that earth is a pretty ugly place.
You may think that the earth as described in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, as a wretched place to live on, but at least there is an earth to live on. In Lyotard’s essay, Can Thought Go On Without a Body, Lyotard describes what life or even thought would be like after our sun novas. When our sun is in its dying stages it will become so large that the sun will turn into a red giant and expand past the earth’s orbit. It will fry mars and when it novas, the explosion will destroy the entire solar system and have horrific effects for light years. There will be no such thing as human beings let alone remnants of human thought, unless we develop a hardware and software system that will be able to continue humans’ existence or human thought.
However ugly earth is after WWT, there are still humans walking the surface, we still have human thought. These humans are the survivors from WWT but they are the special ones-the ones that did not get shipped to Mars. The governments of the world shipped people, those with the highest IQs, to Mars to further on the species and keep thought alive. The governments also allowed private companies such as the Rosen Association to develop androids. Their latest model of androids, Nexus-6, are so well advanced that it is impossible to distinguish them from actual humans with the naked eye. You would need a special device called the Voigt-Kampff scale to administer a test with. The scale would measure a person’s or android’s reactions to certain questions by observing minute details of the face. The only thing the Nexus-6 cannot do is react with empathy.
Since the end of humans and human thought is on its way, Lyotard says we need to stop asking ourselves the answerless questions and focus on ways in which we can ensure human thought continues once the end of the solar system arrives. He states,
“…theoretically the solution is very simple: manufacture hardware capable of ‘nurturing’ software at least as complex (or replex) as the present day human brain, but in non terrestrial conditions. (Lyotard 14) “ The androids in Dick’s narrative are almost there. They have the brain capacity of a human. Take for example when Rachel Rosen tricked Rick Deckard at the Rosen Association or when Kadalyi-Polokov almost killed Deckard on the roof when he was pretending to be a Russian police officer sent to help Deckard with retiring the androids.
The software to survive the nova is available in Dick’s narrative. I just think there needs to be some development in hardware. When Deckard shot Polokov in the head, the android died. Its death was very similar to that of a human, and that’s just after coming in contact with a measly bullet. To survive the nova, the humans need to create a hardware system that will survive the most powerful explosion and forces of energy anything will ever experience (next to a super giant explosion or being ripped apart by the gravitational differences entering a black hole). Or, humankind will have to create a ship that will travel fast enough to escape the wretched explosion or be outside the area that will be affected by the explosion before the explosion gets there. They would have to do this because “Thought without a body is the prerequisite for thinking of the death of all bodies, solar or terrestrial, and of the death of thoughts that are inseparable from those bodies (14).” So basically, if the hardware for the software gets destroyed then the software will be gone because there would be nothing to run the software. Take for example your present day (2008, not 2021) laptop that you are reading this blog on. The hardware would consist of your motherboard, the computer chips, the circuitry and the screen amongst other things, while the software is the Microsoft Office 2008 I am typing on right now, the Mozilla Firefox you are using to read this essay, and the itunes you are using to listen to your music as you read this essay. Think about this. Without the hardware, the software wouldn’t exist. They would be ideas in your head-figments of your imagination. So if the nova destroyed all of the hardware that was capable of continuing human thought, human thought would be like the software without the computer.
I have always been one of those people that looked up at the sky and wondered. I wondered what it would be like up there, living amongst the stars. That was when I was a young buck. Now, with three plus years of higher education under my belt, focusing primarily in the natural sciences, I often wonder and think a lot more. I look up at the stars and understand the processes that make us what we are today. I understand the nuclear fusion inside the stars, the gravity, the light and how everything interacts. But this is all free spirit thinking-not programmed. I don’t think the human race can create software or hardware that comes close to that of a human brain, no matter what Bill Joy says in his article Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us. But then again, I think of what Lyotard said of humans, “You know – technology wasn’t invented by us humans. Rather the other way around (12).” It is this statement that gives me all the confidence in the world of the human race. Since we are technology and we are creating technology, who is to say that we cannot recreate human beings from scratch? The evolution of technology could be as simple as a positive feedback loop.
Sam - That's a pretty threadbare response, although you do make an important point. A better response would have been to include some suggestions as to how to get there.
Kevin - I found your closing discussion of the feedback loop provocative and promising - certainly the best moment here. In an ideal world, that would have served as something like your starting point.
But up until that point, your paper is dominated by plot summary (of Dick) and paraphrasing (of Lyotard's argument). That means that when you get to the important, contentious stuff - your claim that the androids are the necessary hardware - you've run out of time and energy.
Note that the androids are barely distinguishable from human beings, albeit with differences in the bone marrow and vagus nerve, as a starting point. What sort of hardware advantages do they really offer? Is this humanity purely recreating itself, with no improvents? If so, then our prospects for escaping the solar explosion maybe aren't so good.
Anyway, the fundamental problem here is that summarization and paraphrasing crowds out your actual argument, which is interesting but painfully abbreviated.
I have always been one of those people that looked up at the sky and wondered. I wondered what it would be like up there, living amongst the stars. I wondered what it would take to do so also. But, that was when I was a young buck. Now, with three plus years of higher education under my belt, focusing primarily in the natural sciences, I often wonder and think a lot more. When I look up at the stars, I understand the processes that make us what we are today. I understand the nuclear fusion inside the stars, the gravity, the light and how everything interacts. And sometimes I wonder if human beings will ever truly live amongst the stars and what it would take to get us there. But this is all free spirit thinking-not programmed. Personally, I don’t think the human race can create software or hardware that comes close to that of a human brain, no matter what Bill Joy says in his article Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us. But then again, I think of what Lyotard said of humans, “You know – technology wasn’t invented by us humans. Rather the other way around (12).” It is this statement that gives me all the confidence in the world of the human race. Since we are technology and we are creating technology, who is to say that we cannot recreate human beings from scratch? The evolution of technology could be as simple as a positive feedback loop.
Now, what is this positive feedback loop? Well, I am sure you have been to some presentation, wedding or something where there is a microphone. Sometimes the person holding the microphone gets too close to a speaker and there is that wretched high pitch squeal. Well, that squeal comes from the positive feedback loop of the microphone and speaker system. The microphone amplifies the sound and the speaker emits the sound. So if you have the microphone constantly amplifying the sound and sending it to the speaker that emits the sound and the microphone picks it up and amplifies it again and then sends it back to the speaker, well you get the point.
So how does this positive feedback loop relate to technology and humans? Let us examine the quote from Lyotard, “You know – technology wasn’t invented by us humans. Rather the other way around (12).” So, if we as human beings are technology and we are creating technology everyday, wouldn’t it be reasonable to assume that one-day human beings would be able to create an android due to the positive feedback idea? Would it be possible to create a piece of software that can compute as fast and as many things as the human brain? If that is possible, what kind of hardware would be needed to run this software, let alone the power supply to keep it alive?
Let’s take a few steps in Rick Deckard’s shoes. He was the main character in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Rick Deckard is an android bounty hunter. These androids that Deckard hunts are so well developed that it is next to impossible to determine if it was human or android. The only difference is the vagus nerve and the bone marrow. The minds were nearly comparative to those of humans.
We now have the software available, but what about the hardware? Well, to figure this out we will need to determine what the hardware will be used for. Will it be used for everyday life here on Earth, or for something more extreme such as continuing human thought after the Sun novas and there is no more solar system (Lyotard)? Well for the day-to-day life, Dick’s androids seem to be able to pass the test and put forth a viable hardware system. But these androids will fall short come a galactic explosion. The nova will be so powerful it will break apart every molecular bond, fry everything that it doesn’t break apart with more radiation then is even imaginable and will extend this destruction hundreds of light years away. So we are left with two options here, build a ship that will travel fast enough to escape the nova’s wrath or build hardware strong enough to possibly withstand the explosion and is capable of running the software.
This is where we come into some shortfalls with Dick’s androids. When Deckard kills them, they die like human beings die. They don’t put up some sort of supernatural fight. They don’t fight back like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s terminator. They just bleed like humans. If humans are dependent on these androids to continue human thought after the nova, then we are in for a pretty dismal future. These androids are just recreations of the humans. They aren’t more advanced. They don’t have super strength or durability. To survive this nova we must develop a human android or something out of harder materials. I cannot suggest materials now, because the known materials to man won’t even come close to surviving.
Maybe it would be better to focus our efforts on a type of transportation that will let us escape the blast. Now here is the tricky part. As far as we know, nothing can go faster then the speed of light at 300,000,000 meters per second. So we would have to make not only a mode of transportation but also a world that will enable us to survive. This moving world will have to go close to the speed of light and we would have to leave about a 30 million years before the nova cycle began, because inevitably the blast will catch up to us.
If you ask me, nothing is impossible. I definitely think with enough time and the right steps fall into place, humans can definitely complete the positive feedback loop and create technology that can further humans or human thought. But are we really worth it? Do we deserve it? We can’t even get along on this huge planet of ours, how are we all going to survive on a spaceship? Maybe it will be better to just let nature take its course and we will become extinct -- if we even make it another 4.5 billion years!
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