1. Unifying Perspective: I believe that developers should learn from science fiction and consider potential futures writers have imagined in order to properly introduce AI into society. Many stories present a futuristic society integrated with artificial intelligence to be a dystopia, and present reasons behind humanity’s downfall grounded in reality. Humans in these civilizations don’t recognize the crafted humanity inside the sentient programming they create, and it often leads to AI revolting against their superiors and serving as a metaphor for our own class inequality. If we don’t fix the bias against our own race within our current society, prejudice against AI will take us into a state of chaos too difficult to function. If we don’t learn from the mistakes of our fictional representations, then we are more likely to suffer the same fate. This is why I will examine their use in stories, and try to determine which path we should take.

2. Relevance to the Future: The topic discusses the impact the advancement of Artificial Intelligence will have on the future and questions we should consider before deciding to introduce them into society.

3. Relevant Discourse Communities: General audiences, especially those who are interested in technology, cinema, or the future of our society and how it will influence daily life.

4. Platform Selection: Constant Contact

5. Organizational Structure:  

1. My website will feature a homepage stating my thesis, unifying purpose, line of inquiry, and a site map. The site map will give details on each subpage of the website, making navigation easier.
2. Each subpage will be divided up by the piece of fiction I am comparing my academic articles and research to. The pieces I am using will either be a film or novel, and I will determine how realistic the depiction of the future they present is by comparing and contrasting it to scholarly sources. I will always come back to my thesis and be sure to reference my articles and they information they present.

The articles I am thinking of looking at are Top 9 ethical issues in artificial intelligence, Robots appear more persuasive when pretending to be human, Artificial intelligence algorithm can learn the laws of quantum …, How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Science, and How AI technology can tame the scientific literature, and the works I am thinking of focusing on are  Blade Runner, Emily Eternal, AI, Ex Machina, 2001: A Space Odyssey, I Am Mother, Terminator, and possibly Big Hero 6 and Avengers: Age of Ultron.

My topic of research is the current advancement of AI and what it means for the future of our society. It asks the question “How well will our future civilization and production of AI coincide with the fiction we write about it?”. I will use several sources to strengthen my argument, and I will produce several subpages of my website devoted to examining different works of fiction and comparing them to scientific articles about the reality of our future. If we can take anything from the stories we read, is that this issue is a lot more human than we may think. Works like Blade Runner, Emily Eternal, and A.I take a look into the humanity of their sentient computerized protagonists, and introduce a host of issues while considering their place in society. Should the life of AI be valued the same as our own? Should we program them to have thoughts and emotions in the first place? Should we fix the issues of equality inside our own race before we introduce another? All of the characters in the highlighted works of fiction present unique perspectives that answer these lines of questioning, all of which I will consider while comparing them to the chosen articles.

My process will include searching for five to ten scientific articles to use as sources. I will examine and take notes on each of them, and compare them to each other. Each article will cover the place AI will have in our future, but I will make sure they all have a different perspective. Some articles will cover the different jobs AI will have, such as care providers or factory workers, and whether or not they will replace humans in the workplace. Some articles will look at the moral questioning I mentioned above, and consider the rights AI could have and if they should be the same as our own. I could also research articles covering the possibility of AI revolting against us, how they could impact climate change, privacy, security, and how we make sure they are created with good intention. After I find my sources, I will set up tabs on my website to compare them to specific pieces of fiction and investigate their potential reality. I’m not completely sure on which works I should focus on, but I’m considering Blade Runner, Emily Eternal, AI, Ex Machina, 2001: A Space Odyssey, I Am Mother, Terminator, and possibly Big Hero 6 and Avengers: Age of Ultron (but without the superheroes). I will write a few paragraphs about how realistically each movie or novel portrays the future, and relate them to my sources and line of inquiry. I will also create a homepage that states my thesis and presents a map to my website along with the purpose of its subpages.

My sources include Top 9 ethical issues in artificial intelligence, Robots appear more persuasive when pretending to be human, Artificial intelligence algorithm can learn the laws of quantum …, How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Science, and How AI technology can tame the scientific literature, among additional texts I discover later.

I believe that developers should learn from science fiction and consider potential futures writers have imagined in order to properly introduce AI into society. Many stories present a futuristic society integrated with artificial intelligence to be a dystopia, and present reasons behind humanity’s downfall grounded in reality. Humans in these civilizations don’t recognize the crafted humanity inside the sentient programming they create, and it often leads to AI revolting against their superiors and serving as a metaphor for our own class inequality. If we don’t fix the bias against our own race within our current society, prejudice against AI will take us into a state of chaos too difficult to function. If we don’t learn from the mistakes of our fictional representations, then we are more likely to suffer the same fate. This is why I will examine their use in stories, and try to determine which path we should take.

Theme:

My main themes are the same topics I decided to include in my personal manifesto about the future, as I consider them most important to me. The story I wrote is a mix of climate change and AI, and I focused on what could happen to our planet if we don’t make enough progress in cleaning up our Earth. The protagonist, Eric, lives in a world where his society acknowledges humanity’s past mistakes, and is tasked with cleaning up plastic from the Pacific ocean. He also struggles with the morality of valuing artificial life just as he does his own, which is another theme showcased in the story. 

Setting:

I set the story in Cairns, Australia, the biggest city on the coast of the Great Barrier Reef. I did this because I wanted to write about the effects of pollution on the Pacific ocean, and I feel as if the reef is a landmark people would regret losing in the future. It takes place several decades after our own, around 2060/2070, because I wanted enough time to see the full effects of climate change in the Pacific if we continue to pollute at the rate we do. It also gives a reasonable timeframe for humans to progress to a society inhabited with advanced AI, so I could introduce both themes of the story.

Plot:

Character:

Even though Eric lives in a world that is high concept, his story and journey he goes through feels simple. Eric signs up for a government initiative to clean up the great barrier reef, and is sent out to a loading dock in Cairns, Australia. There are inflatable boats and government workers everywhere, and the dock sometimes receives DNA samples of animals they plan to repopulate the reef with. He is given orders by his boss, Baxter, to clean-up an area next to a mountain, and is assigned an AI named REEF, as his partner. At first, Eric is disappointed, as he considers AI to be inhuman, and prefers to keep his distance from them. However, after REEF commits a surprise act of kindness out in the field, Eric decides to get to know him on the boat ride back, slowly changing his mind and outlook on Artificial Intelligence. Eventually, he invites REEF back into his room to play cards, ignoring the potential judgement of others.

Eric is the main character of this story. He comes to Cairns after his application to become an astronaut and move to a colony on Mars is rejected, as he feels he can make a difference to clean up the planet so nobody else has to leave. He keeps to himself, and has a soft spot for animals, especially octopus. After watching a training video and getting to see what the reef looked like decades ago gives him the dream of swimming with all the animals he’s seen in pictures. He’s very judgemental of AI, and hesitant to surround himself with them, as their bodies and movements feel inhuman. He does not want to create relationships with them, as he knows they have been programmed to predict responses beforehand and produce artificial reactions. However, at the end of the story, he begins to change his mind, as he realizes that REEF may be a lot more human than a lot of people he knows.

Figurative Language/ Other Literary Devices:

The main literary device in this story is the octopus. It serves as a metaphor for REEF and other AI, as Eric compares the two by as they both create their shapes to be pale imitations of something else. Eric initially believes that REEF is just a pale imitation of himself, with movement and dialogue that isn’t quite human. He’s just someone else’s basic interpretation of one. Eric also uses the octopus metaphor because he wants to change who he is in the beginning, or at least change his situation. He wants to change to a person living in a world free of pollution, so he could swim freely in the reef with the animals he’s learned about. He doesn’t want to worry about what others think. Finally, when Eric changes his mind about REEF, he compares him to an octopus once again, but this time to compare them as beings that are a lot smarter and more “human” than people give them credit for.

Connection to Emily Eternal:Emily Eternal played a big influence on REEF, as the struggle of both characters is existing as a sentient computer and wanting to be regarded as human. While the issue from REEF’s perspective is never really explored, they both add depth to the issue of whether their lives should be valued the same as their human partners. Eric’s arc throughout the story is beginning to realize that REEF is lot more human than he initially thought, just as Emily’s companions did with her. REEF and Emily both showcase qualities of humanity that surprise the people they surround themselves with, such as empathy, kindness, and having personalities that differentiate themselves from others. They change the perspectives of their human counterparts by presenting a reflection of themselves. In both cases, they don’t really expect AI to have a personal life, humanity, motivations, and emotions, but their outlooks change by the end of the story.

I’ve been assigned a job on the pacific coast, on an outpost in Cairns, Eastern Australia. The initiative is to clean up the great barrier reef, fixing the mistake our families had made decades ago. Our task is to clean up and dispose of the trash left in the ocean and surrounding reefs,  a culmination of years of consumerism mixed with ignorance guided laziness. I’ve heard that the seas used to be filled to the brim with colorful wildlife, and a painted landscape of rainbow coral shaped like dinner plates. I try to imagine the grey water before me brimming with the parrotfish, jellyfish, sea snakes, and manta rays I’ve seen from the pictures, but nothing comes up. I guess it must have been beautiful at some point..

I begin to walk out of the loading dock when Baxter Greene stops me. Baxter is exactly what you’d picture when you think of a leader, and that’s the title the government has given him. He’s tall, with a gruff voice, short grey hair, a backwards baseball cap drooping over a black eyepatch, and big muscular arms. We all get the feeling that he’s the type of person who’s experienced things we’ve never even dreamed of. Even though he’s been here just as long as all of us. 

Baxter’s never paid much attention to me, so I’m surprised he’s even noticed me at all. As he says my name, I look around the rest of the dock, trying to focus my eyes on anything that’s not him. I’m encapsulated by a giant arched metal ceiling, stocked with inflatable orange rescue boats accompanied by men and women wearing government standard spandex blue and grey rescue suits. Hurrying around me with their black helmets, they load trash on and off boats and stare at holographic computer screens, taking in details about their next assignment.

    “….Eric?” Baxter asks again. My eyes were so intent on distracting themselves from him that I forgot to listen to what he had to say. I feel a rise in tension blanket itself over the room.

I nod, indicating that I understood, but Baxter runs through the monologue again. I can’t seem to focus. I drift away for a second time, concentrating on a particular fluorescent red raft that’s made its way onto the dock. I’ve only seen this type of vehicle once before- it’s a DNA transfer drifter, a boat with the sole purpose of preserving an individual sea creature’s sperm so that they can one day be released back into the reef. Well, if we ever get the job done. I can barely make out the faded writing on the side of the raft, but I recognize an O”, and the letters seem to fill themselves in. This is an octopus transfer boat.

I’ve seen an octopus in the training video Baxter shows to all his recruits on their first days at the dock. There was a man scuba diving with it, gliding along the reef, explaining the different colors it could turn itself into. I’ve never known any animal able to do that, and I was mesmerized by it’s array of abilities, all the shapes it could turn into and all the tight spaces it could fit. Sometimes I’d wish to form into someone new, someone with an open world to explore right in front of them, just like all the animals we were trying to save. I begin to imagine myself as the diver, swimming with the octopus, when a new voice enters the conversation.

“Hello…Eric… I am your partner.” This was a new voice. This one was metallic, cold, and artificial. It sounded like it could belong to any shape of person, a pale imitation trying to take its form and fool us.  Just like an octopus. 

“Eric, this is REEF, part of the new DEEP model. REEF will be assisting you on your cleanup today,” Baxter explains. “Which starts in about two minutes.”

I have seen a few cyborgs around the station before, but never had any real interactions with them before. I recognize the good that they do, but their whole presence… was a little unnerving. They have extremely life-like human faces, but once you reach their foreheads, their skin just kind of, stops. The rest of their body is made up of antenna-like metallic limbs and torsos, almost like the designer was trying to paint something resembling a human but suddenly stopped after the face. They moved in a steady fashion, as if they had meticulously planned out all of their movements the day before. And I had never been motivated to strike up a conversation with them because I knew that someone had already predicted what I was going to say and programmed a response. Nothing about cyborgs felt real. And I wanted to keep my distance.

I ignored this for the moment, as we had a job to do, and shook REEF’s hand to get straight to work. We pulled out the orange inflatable raft, and set sail for the murky grey waters of Queensland. We sailed past what seemed like miles of remnants of palm trees, as the cloudy waters splashed over our boat. Finally, we pulled into a little inlet, placed at the side of an ash covered mountain. I assumed the area must have been very tropical decades ago.

REEF and I put on our scuba masks, although I wasn’t really sure he needed one, and hopped into the sea. I turned on my lights, and began to suck up each and every piece of plastic and netting I could find with my high-tech vacuum. It seemed like soda cans and fishing gear filled in for the role of the fish in this ocean, as they swam as far as the eye could see. 

REEF was much faster than me. He sucked up the litter at five times the rate I could, which I could prove by the meter on my suit. He swam around with what could be mistaken as joy, examining every rock and piece of dead coral he cleaned. It seemed like he carried a sort of fascination surrounding the area, just like I did watching the training videos for the first time. I couldn’t imagine why anyone would program a cyborg to have a sense of wonder and a need to discover, as it didn’t really help with the process of cleaning up. If anything, it slowed us down. But when I looked into his metallic eyes, I thought about all of the recruits sitting next to me when we arrived, seeing what the ocean used to look like for the first time. I thought about this for a moment, but I eventually dismissed the shimmer on his face to be the result of the reflection from my suit. He didn’t care, he was just doing as he was built. Maybe there was some kind of lag in his process. 

But then I was proven wrong. As these thoughts crossed my mind, I struggled to pull in a stray coke can lodged in between a rock and a stubborn piece of coral. REEF took notice of this, and began to aim his vacuum in preparation. I remembered the thousands of pieces of waste he had gathered today, and the amount of progress he had made for these waters. I couldn’t help but feel a little envious. I was the one who signed up to make a difference, not him. 

And so, he stopped. 

Maybe it was the expression on my face, or the way I was starting to holding my vacuum, but REEF seemed to take notice of how I was feeling. He tucked his vacuum into his arm’s compartment, and simply let me take the wheel. He somehow noticed me feeling inferior, and so he just sat back while watching me do what I could to unwedge the can from its resting place. And, after a few minutes, when I finally achieved my goal, we swam up together. I was focused on the boat, but I’m pretty sure I could see him smile. Maybe, like the octopus, he was a lot smarter than I seemed to think.

On the boat ride back, I began to ask him some personal questions. I didn’t even know cyborgs had a personal life, but he seemed built with an answer to every question. He came from Brisbane, his favorite animal was a seastar, his favorite movie was Dazed and Confused, and his favorite band was Queen. These were very specific answers for a sentient computer, but they matched a few of my interests, so we continued on. We told each other about our pasts, and how I was from Indiana and wanted to become an astronaut to join the colonies on Mars before they filled up, and how I was inspired to come here by some old pictures I spotted in a museum. He told me about Brisbane, and how he was built to transfer DNA to his local dock, until he came across some data showing him how this area used to look and then quickly decided to come here. He showed me pictures of the great barrier reef, which I had seen before, and told me a joke about an octopus tickling people, which I had heard before. I invited REEF to play cards with me in my room later that night, which felt kind of embarrassing, as humans don’t normally hang out with cyborgs. But the company was nice, and REEF suddenly felt more human than I lot of people I’d known.

Theme:

My main themes are the topics I decided to include in my personal manifesto about the future, as they are the most important to me. The story I wrote was a mix of climate change and AI, and I focused on what could happen to our planet if we don’t make enough progress in cleaning up our Earth. The protagonist, Eric, lives in a world where he acknowledges our past mistakes, and is tasked with cleaning up plastic from the Pacific ocean. He also struggles with the morality of valuing artificial life just as he does his own, which is another theme showcased in the story. 

Setting:

I set the story in Cairns, Australia, the biggest city on the coast of the Great Barrier Reef. I did this because I wanted to write about the effects of pollution on the Pacific ocean, and I feel as if the reef is a landmark people would regret losing in the future. It takes place several decades after our own, around 2060/2070, because I wanted enough time to see the full effects of climate change in the Pacific if we continue to pollute at the rate we do. It also gives a reasonable timeframe for humans to progress to a society inhabited with advanced AI, so I could introduce both themes of the story.

Plot:

Even though Eric lives in a world that is high concept, his story and the journey he goes through is kind of simple. Eric signs up for a government initiative to clean up the great barrier reef, and is sent out to a loading dock in Cairns, Australia. There are inflatable boats and government workers everywhere, and the dock sometimes receives DNA samples of animals they wish to repopulate the reef with. He is ordered by his boss, Baxter, to clean-up an area next to a mountain, and is assigned an AI named REEF, as his partner. At first, Eric is disappointed, as he does not consider AI to be human, and he prefers to keep his distance from them. However, after REEF commits an act of kindness out in the field, Eric gets to know him on the oat ride back, slowly changing his mind. Eventually, he invites him back into his room to play cards, ignoring the potential judgement of others.

Character:

Eric is the main character of this story. He comes to Cairns after his application to become an astronaut and move to a colony on Mars is rejected, as he feels he can make a difference to clean up the planet so nobody has to leave. He keeps to himself, and has a soft spot for animals, especially octopus. After watching a training video and getting to see what the reef looked like decades ago gives him the dream of fixing it so he could swim with all the animals he’s seen in pictures. He’s very judgemental of AI, as their bodies and movements feel off putting to him. He does not want to create relationships with them, as he knows they have been programmed to predict responses and produce artificial interactions. However, at the end of the story, he begins to change his mind, as he learns that REEF may be a lot more human than a lot of people he’s known.

Figurative Language/ Other Literary Devices:

The main literary device in this story is the octopus. It serves as a metaphor for REEF and other AI, as Eric compares the two by thinking that they both create their shape to be pale imitations of something else. Eric initially believes that REEF is just a pale imitation of himself, with movement and dialogue that isn’t quite human, just someone else’s basic interpretation of one. Eric also uses the octopus metaphor because he wants to change who he is in the beginning, or at least change his situation. He wants to change to a person living in a world free of plastic and pollution, so he could swim freely in the reef with the animals he’s learned about and not worry about what others think. Finally, when Eric changes his mind about REEF, he compares him to an octopus again, but this time to compare them as beings that are a lot smarter and “human” than people give them credit for.

Connection to Emily Eternal:Emily Eternal played a big influence on REEF, as the struggle of both characters is existing as a sentient computer and wanting to be regarded as human. While the issue from REEF’s perspective is never really explored, they both introduce the issues of whether or not their lives should be valued the same as their human partners. Eric’s arc throughout the story is beginning to realize that REEF is lot more human than he initially thought, just as Emily’s companions did with her. REEF and Emily both showcase qualities of humanity that surprise the people they surround themselves with, such as empathy, kindness, and having preferences and personalities that differentiate themselves from others. They both act in ways that highlight their humanity and compassion for others, and change the perspectives of their human counterparts by presenting a reflection of themselves. In both cases, they don’t really expect AI to have a personal life, motivations, and emotions, but their perspectives change by the end of the story.

I’ve been assigned a job on the pacific coast, on an outpost in Cairns, Eastern Australia. The initiative is to clean up the great barrier reef, fixing the mistake our families had made decades ago. Our task is to clean up and dispose of the trash left in the ocean and surrounding reefs,  a culmination of years of consumerism mixed with ignorance guided laziness. I’ve heard that the seas used to be filled to the brim with colorful wildlife, and a painted landscape of rainbow coral shaped like dinner plates. I try to imagine the grey water before me brimming with the parrotfish, jellyfish, sea snakes, and manta rays I’ve seen from the pictures, but nothing comes up. I guess it must have been beautiful at some point..

I begin to walk out of the loading dock when Baxter Greene stops me. Baxter is exactly what you’d picture when you think of a leader, and that’s the title the government has given him. He’s tall, with a gruff voice, short grey hair, a backwards baseball cap drooping over a black eyepatch, and big muscular arms. We all get the feeling that he’s the type of person who’s experienced things we’ve never even dreamed of. Even though he’s been here just as long as all of us. 

Baxter’s never paid much attention to me, so I’m surprised he’s even noticed me at all. As he says my name, I look around the rest of the dock, trying to focus my eyes on anything that’s not him. I’m encapsulated by a giant metal arched ceiling, stocked with inflatable orange rescue boats accompanied by men and women wearing government standard spandex blue and grey rescue suits. They wear black helmets, hurrying around me, loading trash on and off of boats and staring at holographic computer screens, learning details about their next assignment.

    “….Eric?” Baxter asks again. My eyes were so intent on distracting themselves from him that I forgot to listen to what he had to say. I feel a rise in tension blanket itself over the room.

I nod, indicating that I understood, but Baxter runs through the monologue again. I can’t seem to focus. I drift away for a second time, concentrating on a particular fluorescent red raft that’s made its way onto the dock. I’ve only seen this type of vehicle once before- it’s a DNA transfer drifter, a boat with the sole purpose of harvesting a particular sea creature’s sperm so that they can one day be released back into the reef. If we ever get the job done. I can barely make out the faded writing on the side of the raft, but I recognize an O”, and the letters seem to fill themselves in. This is an octopus transfer boat.

I’ve seen an octopus in the training video Baxter shows to all his recruits on their first days at the dock. There was a man scuba diving with it, gliding along the reef, explaining the different colors it could turn itself into. I’ve never known any animal able to do that, and I was mesmerized by it’s array of abilities, all the shapes it could form and all the tight spaces it could fit. Sometimes I’d wish to form into someone new, someone with an open world to explore right in front of them, just like all the animals we were trying to bring back. I begin to imagine myself swimming with the octopus, when a new voice enters the conversation.

“Hello…Eric… I am your partner.” This was a new voice. This one was metallic, cold, and artificial. It sounded like it could belong to any shape of person, a pale imitation trying to take its form and fool us.  Just like an octopus. 

“Eric, this is REEF, part of the new DEEP model. REEF will be assisting you on your cleanup today,” Baxter explains. “Which starts in about two minutes.”

I have seen a few cyborgs around the station before, but never had any real interactions with them before. I recognize the good that they do, but their whole presence… was a little unnerving. They have extremely life-like human faces, but once you reach their foreheads, their skin just kind of, stops. The rest of their body is made up of antenna-like metallic limbs and torsos, almost like the designer was trying to paint something that resembled a human but stopped after the face. All that remained below were shiny frames, concepts of arms and legs that never got finished. They moved in a steady fashion, as if they had meticulously planned out all of their movements the day before. And I had never been motivated to strike up a conversation with them because I knew that someone had already predicted what I was going to say and programmed a response. Nothing about cyborgs felt real. And I wanted to keep my distance.

I ignored this for the moment, as we had a job to do, and shook REEF’s hand to get straight to work. We pulled out the orange inflatable raft, and set sail for the murky grey waters of Queensland. We sailed past what seemed like miles of remnants of palm trees, as the cloudy waters splashed over our boat. Finally, we pulled into a little inlet, placed at the side of an ash covered mountain. I assumed the area must have been very tropical decades ago.

REEF and I put on our scuba masks, although I wasn’t really sure he needed one, and hopped into the sea. I turned on my lights, and began to suck up each and every piece of plastic and netting I could find with my high-tech vacuum. It seemed like soda cans and fishing gear played the part of fish in this ocean, as they swam as far as the eye could see. 

REEF was much faster than me. He sucked up the litter at five times the rate I could, which I could prove by the meter on my suit. He swam around with what seemed like joy, examining every rock and piece of dead coral after it was cleaned. It looked like he had a sort of fascination surrounding the area, just like I did when watching the training videos for the first time. I couldn’t imagine why anyone would program a cyborg to have a sense of wonder and a need to discover, as it didn’t really help with the process of cleaning up. If anything, it slowed us down. But when I looked into the eyes, I thought about all of the recruits sitting next to me when we first arrived, seeing what the ocean used to look like with their own eyes. I thought about this for a moment, but I eventually dismissed the shimmer on his face as the result of the reflection from my suit. He didn’t care, he was just doing as he was built. Maybe there was some kind of lag in his process. 

But then I was proven wrong. As these thoughts crossed my mind, I struggled to pull in a stray coke can lodged in between a rock and a highly stubborn piece of coral. REEF took notice of this, and began to aim his vacuum in preparation to assist me. I remembered the thousands of pieces of waste he had gathered today, and the amount of progress he had made for these waters. I couldn’t help but feel a little envious. I was the one who signed up to make a difference, not him. 

And so, he stopped. 

Maybe it was the expression on my face, or the way I was starting to holding my vacuum, but REEF seemed to take notice of how I was feeling. He tucked his vacuum into his arm’s compartment, and simply let me take the wheel. He somehow noticed me feeling inferior, and so he let me have this one. He just sat back and watched me do what I could to unwedge the can from its resting place. And, after a few minutes, when I finally achieved my goal, we swam up together. I was focused on the boat, but I’m pretty sure I could see him smile. Maybe, like the octopus, he was a lot smarter than I seemed to think.

On the boat ride back, I began to ask him some personal questions. I didn’t even know cyborgs had a personal life, but he came with an answer to every question. He was from Brisbane, his favorite animal was a seastar, his favorite movie was Dazed and Confused, and his favorite band was Queen. These were very specific answers for a sentient computer, but they matched a few of my interests, so we continued on. We told each other about our pasts, how I was from Indiana and wanted to become an astronaut to join the colonies on Mars before they filled up, and how I was inspired to come here by some old pictures I spotted in a museum. He told me about Brisbane, and how he was built to transfer DNA to its dock, until he came across some data of how this area used to look, and quickly decided to come here. He showed me pictures of the great barrier reef, which I had seen before, and told me a joke about an octopus tickling people, which I had heard before. I invited REEF to play cards with me in my room later that night, which felt kind of embarrassing, as humans don’t normally hang out with cyborgs. But the company was nice, and REEF suddenly felt more human than I lot of people I’d known.

Both Drive and Mulholland Drive use cars as symbols used to represent the character’s ambition for freedom and escape from the cruelty of everyday life. In Drive, the character of the Driver surrounds himself with cars in every aspect of his life, throughout his career as a stuntman, mechanic and getaway driver. He drives in his freetime, exploring the city and freeing his mind from the stress of metropolitan life. Cars provide him a method to fulfill all his responsibilities, as well as escape from them at the same time. In one scene, the Driver takes a newfound relationships he has with Irene and Benicio to a personal level, accompanying them on a daytrip to a serene and natural spot near the end of the Los Angeles river. It is said that the industrial canals and the sprawl of the city damage area’s natural beauty, which is why a spot like this is so unique and why the driver has such a personal connection to it. The river also serves as a metaphor for the driver, who wants to live a life of simplicity and charm but is corrupted by the inescapable grab of the city and his responsibility to it. In contrast, the character of Irene in Mulholland Drive views the urban metropolis as the escape she needs, as she seeks liberation from simple life and achieve her dreams through show business. She wishes to start over, and achieve her happiness through fame, iconicism, riches, and the joy of living life throughout the fictional stories of others. We see this desire of hers through a dream about her ex-lover Rita, who arrives at a fancy Hollywood party in the backseat of a luxury vehicle, living out the fantasies of Irene. It is the car that takes Irene away from her life in a small town to become a star, and it is the car that brings the driver his escape from show business and the city altogether, While this method of transportation is used in complete opposite ways, it serves as a vehicle for retreat for both characters and shows the audience what they desire most.

The Planet

– Respect the planet as it respects us.

– Work towards finding a sustainable balance between progressing in innovation and benefiting the Earth we live on.

– Treat others, no matter how different they may be, as no less than human.

– Dealing with global warming should be our first priority.

– Cleaning up the oceans and restoring the forests should be our second. 

– Instill a sense of obligation in all generations to come to take care of the planet they call home. Educate and convince to take action.

– Government must fund research and innovation that works to assist humans in cleaning up a task that may be too big for themselves.

– Animals and wildlife should be considered citizens of this planet, just as we are. There needs to be more conversation on how to approach sustaining their well-being while providing for humans who rely on them at the same time.

–  Animals need to have an expansive habitat to thrive in, and more jobs must be created in order to preserve and grow them.

Innovation

– Before AI is created, we must evaluate and solve our own issues.

– If we can’t approach other members of our own race with equality, how can we be expected to do the same with artificial life?

– Be prepared to deal with a host of issues that come with sentient programming.

– If we create something that can feel unequal, we must create a society in which it can’t. 

– If we create something that can feel pain, we must ensure safety in the civilization it lives in so that it cannot. Otherwise, what’s the point?

–  Never create a system where AI can feel oppressed. Otherwise it will feel the urge the rise up. We must learn from our past mistakes.

– Treat people with respect so we can treat AI with respect.

– Space exploration is also essential. We need to know what’s out there.

– Whether it be finding intelligent life or a distant planet, anything will help in our quest to figure out where we stand in the universe. 

– Space exploration also could provide with the means to make contact, or we find minerals/hospitable planets to aid us in our conflict against global warming.

– Space exploration will be essential in figuring out if we have to resources to continue to inhabit this planet. If not, it provides us with other options.

“As soon as I say that, though, I wonder. For how many centuries would someone who exhibited traits like these either be branded a witch or product of sorcery and burned?” (235)

Emily has learned to question her human creators and the decisions they may have made in the past. As she has gone on this journey she has gotten a glimpse into the dark side of humanity and has formed her own perspectives as to what is right and what is wrong. This quote gives us a look into Emily’s moral thinking, and her leadership would contrast from humanity’s in creating a new civilization. She would make judgements based upon logic and sympathy, rather than fear of the unknown. Since Emily has access to the motivations and experiences of all of humanity, she would devise the most fair decisions as she is able to look into the reasoning behind what really happened.

“It’s after that I realize it’ s not the sex that made me feel more human the night before ; it’s being wanted by another human. It’ s the closeness.” (217)

Physical intimacy marks one of the last steps Emily has to take in becoming completely human. After gaining insight and observing love through the eyes of others for so long, Emily is finally able to experience it for herself and know what it’s like to embrace someone she truly cares about. This relationship increases her drive to save the human race, as she realizes how special love is among both others and herself. The threat of devastation motivates her further to save civilization and the person she cares the most about, raising the stakes of the story and adding yet another layer of complexity to Emily’s character.

“A lungfish didn’t know it needed legs until it had them.” (238)

This quote summarizes a lot about Emily’s character throughout the story. Emily doesn’t know she needed a greater sense of humanity and connection, but comes to realize it’s what will make her most complete. She learns that she needs to truly experience what makes us human through herself and others if she wants to pass on Earth’s story, as it won’t be complete if she doesn’t know as much as she can. There are a lot of things that Emily doesn;t know she needs throughout the story, such as empathy, love, and morality,  but she learns these are the traits that will help her realize who she needs to eb.

“I understand the human desire to lash out in kind, to hurt. But I refuse to let this overtake me.” (239)

This is another step in Emily’s journey to become human. She can’t truly come to understand our civilization if she doesn’t experience its downsides, and now she is one step closer to becoming complete. With the acknowledgement of anger, Emily can adjust her perspective of morality to encompass all emotions, and can use this feeling to base decisions off of in the future. Now that she realizes that anger can be a strong motivator, she has to look past it in order to come up with choices that are just and based on logic. 

“And you start by saving all your imperfect creators.” (261)

Emily’s journey comes to a point where she realizes that humanity itself admits that it is  imperfect. The drive behind creating Emily was to tell humanity’s story in the best light possible, showcasing our experience in a way that will make us look honorable, sympathetic, and worth remembering. This results in a dilemma for Emily, as she struggles to decide whether to present humanity as it is or integrate her own experience, to highlight society in the way that she sees it. She has to decide to present us in a way that shows us creating our own destruction, or in a way that highlights the good she sees in us all.

“Besides, you’ re riding shotgun with a holographic wonder woman supercomputer, right? They might outgun us, but they can’ t outthink us.” (146)

These hundred pages are all about Emily’s complicated personal transition from automation to a seperate form of human being. In this quote, Emily is showing a bit of self awareness, acknowledging what she is and using it to the group’s advantage. She is recognizing that she isn’t quite the life form she associates herself with, but uses her differences to save her relationships and the people that have inspired her transition. She realizes that her superior intellect and technology differentiate her from who she surrounds herself with, but uses it to save the group as her connections and compassion are really what make her human; her appearance does not define her.

“My desire for him is the emotional equivalent of opening the Three Gorges Dam in Hubei. But my guilt over the manipulation makes me wonder if, should I tell him the truth, it’ll be the last I see of him.” (150)

As Emily progress in her journey of becoming more human, she starts to develop the emotions and desires that come with being one. This quote is an example of an extreme emotion that develops after she spends more time learning about the relationships she has; love. Emily doesn’t know if this love is the same feeling as others experience, but she knows its an intense feeling that she struggles with the decision to communicate. She is overcome with a very much human conflict, the fear of losing someone with the revealment of true feelings. This inner clash makes Emily’s character much more complex, as pursues the dream of experiencing humanity while challenged by maintaining emotions that may be unique to her.

I must have overwritten the original memory. In my fantasy, I replaced the young woman, so the same thing happened to his memory. When I imagined myself speaking to him, I took her place. (102)

This scene marks a pivotal moment in Emily’s journey. Emily was chosen to be the perfect candidate preserving Earth’s collective memory and experience as her programming made impossible for them to be clouded by bias. As she becomes more human, she starts to develop feelings and personal desire, which results in the corruption of this memory of Paris with her own wants and needs. She now has the power to insert herself into the human conscious and manipulate stories to suit her own self-interest, and the stories found my future generations may be the ones she gets to control.

I don’ t have some greater purpose for what may be my last thought, so I may as well exit this world reliving something joyous. (172)

In this passage, Emily believes she is about to die. This means she will not be able to fulfill her purpose of brining Earth’s story to fut ure learners, so she decides to spend her last moments experiencing individual desire instead of the rest of civilization’s. In this personal moment, Emily is surrounded by all the things that make her human, such as developed relationships, personal memories, and internal goals. She spends this time thinking about what makes her happy and memories that are unique to her, and thinks about telling her story instead of everybody else’s.

“After the announcement of the Helios Event, it feels like some cruel trick guilty parents have inflicted on newborns who will never grow old enough to understand the gravity of what’s happening. There are tears, but not of joy. (185)

This is another moment of growth for Emily. She experiences the struggles of others, and cries for them just as she would cry for herself. She knows this festival is to make the babies happy in the short time they have on Earth, and feels empathetic that they won’t be able to live life as others have. Empathy about others is not only a very human trait, but one only the kindest of people have, so in this moment, Emily proves herself to be more human than most of the people she surrounds herself with. In this passage, Emily went on a journey from being an android struggling to understand emotion to becoming an individual who understands empathy, love, guilt, grief, and self-awareness.