Media and Technology in the Future

Where do I feel the media will be in five years? Unfortunately, I am unable to be as current in what has been going on in the world, but with the knowledge of the new leak on WikiLeaks, it seems as if media will begin to be more controlled. At the moment, the media seems to be out of control and running free with their ability to basically say whatever they want in any form, where someone will read it or hear it. Technology is so accessible to the common man that if you want to get some sort of information, you probably can. Google is basically the tell all browser where you can find anything you need, it will give you a link. Perhaps in five years, things will be different. Google may be under more supervision and certain websites may not be allowed to be posted. Bloggers could become censored. It is already like this in China, so it does not seem impossible that that amount of strict control could end up in the United States.

How about in fifteen years? So this is way more of speculation than anything else, but in fifteen years technology should be amazing. Each year something new comes out that outshines the previous model or anything outdated. Right now, people are basically connected 24/7, with the ability to have internet on their cellular phones. In fifteen years, with many advances in technology, people could really be connected all day, everyday; even when they are sleeping. Personally, that just freaks me out. It is strange when people have to be on their phone all of the time because of emails or for the feeling of being connected to multiple people at once. New ways to interact with technology will also be invented, like taking stereoscopic televisions to a new level, perhaps making the computer stereoscopic, just to have an out of body experience at all times. Technology takes awhile to develop and expand so I do not think fifteen years will be too outrageous, but definetly as time moves forward, technology will begin to take over our lives on a whole new level.


In fifty years? I do not know where to begin. I probably will not even care about what kind of technology is out there in fifty years. Hopefully, I will be retired by then. Even though I am in the computer animation major, technology is cool, but it is not something I care a lot about unless I am looking to buy something. Trying to speculate about fifty years I can not really think of it.

A Clockwork Orange

It has been a couple years since I have read Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange, and so this week I decided to revisit that novel. Anthony Burgess is a very talented author and every time I read A Clockwork Orange, I discover a new detail I had previously over read. The first time I read A Clockwork Orange was in ninth grade when my parents were given a vhs of the film adaptation. I had decided to read the novel prior to watching the film, since films tend to leave out many of the details that authors write. The novel was hard to understand at first with the colloquialism Burgess' characters speak. The further into the novel that I got, the more invested I felt in the plot and the life of Alex and his droogs.
The main character Alex's inability to experience feelings in response to the crimes he commits creates an interesting plot; his droogs an interesting sub plot. Alex, as the leader, is very reluctant to give up his position when he is tested by his colleagues and he is quick to respond with violence. Of course being violent themselves, his droogs trick him into getting caught at the scene of one of Alex's worst crimes where he murders a woman. My favorite part of the novel is when Alex gets out of prison early to be in an experimental method of brain washing. Everytime they played a movie of violent acts, Alex would eventually begin to feel nauseous. The cool part was when he also began to associate Beethoven's 5th with violence and nausea. The entire novel is excelently written and following Alex's journey through his crimes to punishment back to how he ends up at a house where he commited earlier crimes is very interesting.
Of course I saw the film after I had read the novel, and it was a good portrayal of the novel. I was impressed with the adaptation. Burgess' novel is better than the film, but I feel like the actors and the script were a good portrayal of the events that happen throughout the novel.

Children of Men

For this week, one of the recommended movies was Children of Men. I had not previously seen this movie, but had heard about it that I decided to check it out. This film was definitely not what I had expected. In truth, I actually really disliked Children of Men. Nothing that occurred during the course of the film was remotely interesting to me and I did not like the plot.
Children of Men takes place in 2027 in a world where women can no longer conceive. No one has been able to become pregnant within eighteen years and miraculously a woman does. The rest of the film is about Clive Owen and his journey to help this woman get to freedom and safety from dystopian London with violence and warring nationalistic sects. The course of actions that occur do not make sense and explosions and incidents occur without any explanation of how that happened and what was even happening. At the very beginning of the film a building blows up and that explosion is really unnecessary. That does not help the plot and it does not really even explain why there are explosions happening randomly. Nothing was set up for the viewer. The ending was also extremely unsatisfying. Clive Owen dies with the woman and her baby in a row boat in the middle of this random body of water. She is left all alone to wait for a mystery boat that may not even exist. They went through this entire journey for a mystery Human project that no one was actually completely positive of it actually existing. I can understand why they would try; they had nothing to lose, but just the fact of it is ridiculous. They broke into an immigrant camp that was a whole lot like concentration camps which was really disturbing. That made me think about how if we do not look at history, it will repeat itself, which is clear in this film that they did not learn from the past. The cinemetography was fine, I was mostly unimpressed with the plot and subplots throughout the film.

Bloodchild

The short story read for class this week was Bloodchild by Octavia Butler. This short story was under the diverse position of science fiction section. I am not a fan of the science fiction genre; I tend to find the plots too strange for me. I sometimes pass by the science fiction channel on the television and stop to see what's on, but I tend to change the channel.
This short story in particular was not my usual reading material. The title Bloodchild makes the reader wonder the context of what that could mean. I originally thought about blood sisters and that tradition where kids will share blood to become related. The story itself is, lack of a better word, weird. Between the strange relationship the Tlic has with the Terrain at such a young age seems unnatural. Also, the role reversal of the child bearing was interesting. The Tlic's choose the men to carry their children for them so that the women can bear children for the Tlic's to have. It seems like the only reason the Tlic's are trying to protect teh Terrains is only to use them for children so they can have their children and continue on their bloodlines. definitely raised the question about how much the host knows about childbearing and how the Tlic's children actually work. The grubs hatch and eat their shell, but if they are not taken out in time they will eat their host from the inside out. That circumstance actually reminds me of the movie Alien vs. Predator or just Alien because the alien places its egg inside the human host, and when the egg is ready to be born, the alien baby will eat its way out of its host.
I am stuck at the age the Tlic chooses the Terran to be. In out society the age of the boy is so young and it seems so weird that he would be engaging in this way with the Tlic. The main character's brother seemed the most interesting to me. He's been in a situation that the main character can never imagine being in, which is why the brother is so against the Tlic's. Although, he has learned that as long as his brother is willing to carry the eggs of the Tlic than he is safe from being involved with them in anyway.

Blade Runner

The Movie Blade Runner was one of the better science fiction genre films I have seen. When Blade Runner was made in 1982, it was clear that it was ahead of its time. Taking place in the future of 2019 in Los Angeles with replicants of humans. Harrison Ford was the Blade Runner, a cop who was sent to terminate replicants who had excaped an off-earth colony and were threatening the city of Los Angeles. The effects of Blade Runner was what was ahead of its time. Computer Graphics were just beginning in the early 80s and really not that great. This film was definitely impressive. The cyberpunk story was also interesting. The connection that Harrison Ford's character, Rick, developed for the female replicant he had to test was a nice subplot to this film. The sophostication of the woman replicant and her ability to show feelings was also seen in the male replicant, Roy, at the end. When Rick was finishing off the last of the replicants he killed the girlfriend of Roy's which of course pissed Roy off and wanted to exact his revenge on Rick. Of course he was already planning on killing Rick, but it gave him more of a reason once he saw his love dead by a bullet. Roy had Rick off the edge of a building, but had an epiphany of the meaning of life and death at the very last second and saved Rick's life at the time of his own termination.
The growth of Roy's character was short lived, but Rick had the most development throughout the film. Rick begins as a retired Blade Runner who comes out of retirement to terminate these six replicants who escaped an off-earth colony who are dangerous. He starts off just as he would any other time he had to terminate replicants but it starts to become more personal when he develops feelings for the woman replica and when they start to come after him and he has many close calls with death. When he gets saved by Roy, he has become a changed Blade Runner. His new experiences have caused a change in his feelings towards his job.

The Drowned Giant

For the week of the multiverse narrative, I read the short story "The Drowned Giant" by J.G.Ballard. I am not sure what a multiverse narrative is, but the short story was different than others I have read. The title is basically what this short story is about. There are no surprises at all. Literally a giant that drowned washed up on shore where everyone went to investigate it. There are great details about the body of the giant and his size in comparison to the fishing boats that went to investigate the body. Even the description of the people walking and playing on the giants appendages gives a great comparison of size.

Conventions of Science Fiction

What makes Sci-Fi?

I personally do not watch or read a lot of science fiction, but out of the few I have seen, there are many similarities...

monsters or aliens
chessy effects
bad acting
distant planets
stories based on urban legends (ie Chupacabra)
suspension of disbelief
alternative timelines
time travel
robots
outerspace
future