Ex Machina

Many people often say "save the best for last" and I believe that my instructor Kristin Kaz did exactly that. In my opinion, Ex-Machina was the best movie that we were assigned to watch this semester for my English 114B class, this science fiction movie is one of the most interesting I have ever watched. There is not a lot of action, but there are a lot of concepts and questions that fly around throughout the movie and the ending leaves a huge debate question that is whether or not Ava would cause human beings harm or if she just acted on behalf of her safety at the end. Because the fact is that only Nathan and Caleb knew that Ava was not a human but an Artificial Intelligence robot acting as a person. Caleb was the one who helped Ava escape but she left him locked in Nathan's room most likely to die, so it seems that Ava was only acting as if she had feelings for Caleb in order to manipulate him so that he could assist her in her escape. Although she doesn't kill Caleb just for knowing that she is an AI robot, she shows mercy and asks him nicely to please stay in the room and just locks him inside. On the other hand, she kills Nathan-- the man who was keeping her imprisoned in a room in his home just because he was running tests on her. But doesn't that mean that she passed his test because he was trying to create a robot that knew how to manipulate her resources in order to accomplish her objectives? She did accomplish escaping even though she had to become a murderer while doing so, with the help of another AI robot who stabbed Nathan through the back meanwhile he was about to crush Ava into bits. It was a very good movie and I liked it very much overall, I would give it good reviews and recommend it to others.

Transcendence

This movie definitely makes a person think about our future with technology given the improvements that technology has already gone through so far. Transcendence is one of the most recently released Artificial Intelligence movies that I have seen and at first, I found it kind of boring because there was nothing going on, but after it set up the storyline for the big question on who the audience should side with, that is when it began to get really interesting. The ending was fascinating and left the story question wide open for audiences to answer, "was the AI system really intending to turn our world into a better environment or turn us into a massive army under its control?" In my opinion, that question was very interesting to put out in the world because it seems like the time will come when Artificial Intelligence will get up to this intellectual point, so this movie has provided a great discussion on whether our society should allow technological advances to get so far in progress. Also, if we do decide to allow technology to advance to such great heights-- we must ask ourselves, are we willing to give up the value of being human in order to achieve better environmental wellness? Because at the end of the movie it reveals to us that we would have had purified water everywhere that could be drank from whenever because of this super intelligent robot and how it would be controlling our every move and would not allow for people to pollute or cause any harm towards nature. The AI said that forests would be regrown as well full of trees and will be filled with beautiful greenery, factories would not be allowed to cause air pollution anymore so that the air would be cleaner, in other words, this AI robot had imagined this whole utopia for us but under the condition that we had to obey its orders. If this were to occur, the human race would be a hybrid species that when called upon by the AI must respond with its one command although humans would still go through their daily lifestyles when not told by this super power to follow its orders. This could be nightmares for but we must not allow these advancements to fall into the wrong hands that only wish for a malignant future for mankind, it must really be seen as a singularity that could happen if we choose to go down that path.

Twenty-First Century Radical Rhetoric

In the current 21st century there are ten observations for understanding the rhetoric of contemporary activists which are our rhetoric; is anti-authoritarian, promotes diversity, is idealistic and prefigurative, is multi-historical, is anti-representational, privileges complex interrogation, is symbolically powerful, is confrontational, is visionary, and it is self-righteous and self-critical. For our rhetoric to be anti-authoritarian it means that there are to be no hierarchical power structures. Promoting diversity is beneficial both individually and collectively because individually we mix multiple experiences, knowledge, and actions; and collectively a more diverse community standing side by side to each other is more productive and powerful. It is idealistic and prefigurative because it embraces social justice for everyone not only white men and what we do and say try to bring things upon ideals that currently do not exist. It is multi-historical because we all have different sets of heritage which allows us to have multiple narratives and experiences not only one source. It is anti-representational because we can see that no one person's stories can represent another's past experiences. It privileges complex interrogation because that way we get full details rather than simple answers in order to challenge one another's viewpoints and make us reflect. It is symbolically powerful because one's actions can motivate others to do the same and take into consideration the purpose in order to take similar action. It is confrontational whether it is aggressive and upfront or subtle and laidback but it is about speaking truth to power and confronting all forms mistreatment. It is visionary because we believe that we can be a better society, a better person, and a better world and we can see these realities in our hearts and minds. Our rhetoric is self-righteous and self-critical because we want to change the world and we think we know how but our answers are specifically just for our time and place and there are others that must revolutionize their own realities.
There are five suggestions to mending the rhetorical gap which is to; specify your audience, make adjustments, name and explain your rhetoric, make more observations, and take personal responsibility. First, specify your audience because the general public is too broad and to talk to address certain groups helps you create more effective actions and messages. Second, make adjustments because this allows you to fit the wants and needs of your audience which increase the chances of people actually taking an interest in your saying. Next, name and explain your rhetoric because people often fear what they do not understand and it is better to be clear so that your full audience will comprehend. Also, you must make more observations than the ten named above because they are not the final word and more observations should be made. Finally, take personal responsibility because when we take personal responsibility for our action we eliminate the need for rhetorical leaders.
Network Rhetoric is a paradigmatic figure if contemporary activists. It is composed of three parts which are multiple and decentered messages, dialogue among those messages and the formulation of public statement, and message or action. Some examples of network rhetoric could be Indymedia, social forums, and protests.
There are three basic steps that can make your network more appealing and intelligible which are to create a rhetorical frame, use categories to manage the connections, and to strive for clarity and accessibility. To create a rhetorical frame you must summarize the connections among the different issues in a single word, phrase or title that is catchy and general to catch the attention of wide audiences. Using categories to manage the connections helps you maintain the focus of your audience and not let them tune out because it specifies and doesn't keep going on forever so that you could test people's patience. Striving for clarity and accessibility is essential because confusion alienates people and draws them out instead of making them intrigued by what you're saying.
The new form of activism is neo-radicalism which has five guidelines for developing a neo-radical agenda which is: neo-radicalism is based on the idea that human beings create their realities through communicative processes, neo-radicalism asks you to walk toward your innermost political desires and create whatever realities you so choose, neo-radicalism believes that every reality should be accepted, respected and appreciated so long as one reality does not impede another reality, neo-radicalism seeks to establish social systems that enable the free creation of our desired realities; this involves investigating, confronting and uprooting any social system that hinders this process, and lastly this struggle continues indefinitely, for even if we create a world of truly decentred realities, there is no guarantee against the reemergence of obstructive, controlling and oppressive forces.

Moon (Spoilers)

Many people in today's society fear the future of technology because the bad connotation of future more advanced robots might take over our world and make us less superior. I choose not to believe in this manner because although that may be a possibility technology has just served us beneficially so far and I like to believe that the more technology grows it will only improve on our own knowledge and research. In the film "Moon" there is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) robot named Gerty who I liked because it had little emoji faces on a screen to display the emotion that it was trying to convey and I thought that was pretty cool/funny. The robot displayed a helpful and compliant to the owners orders rather than showing a robot who only does human beings harm and intends to beat the human beings who control it. In the movie Gerty told Sam (the human who Gerty responded to) "I'm here to keep you safe, Sam. I want to help you" and it was true, all the robot did was help Sam. He helped him type the correct password to get into Lunar's (the company that they work for) files, also when Sam began to eat his meal Gerty asked him if he wanted sauce for his beans, and when Sam asked Gerty if he (Sam) was a clone-- Gerty replied to him by changing the subject instead meaning that he was a clone. It was pretty funny and touching because the robot was kind of offering Sam its condolences when it broke the news to him, by trying to pat his back with its robot hand. The movie was pretty interesting and I can say that I enjoyed watching it, I liked the AI robot most of all and this film goes to prove that AI robot may not want to do us any harm just serve us beneficially. 

The Power of Language

Language is an idea that many human beings take for granted, but without the use of language in a society, there would be chaos because no one would be able to understand one another. So language is a powerful tool that has been created and language can also be manipulated to persuade an audience or change their minds on a certain topic. Language is the method of communication between two or more people that use words to express thoughts or feelings to each other. The media is a social institution that lives off of the manipulation of language in the way that they present new ideas and concepts to our understanding. Through the media we gather different perceptions of things all around us, but only the things that they would want us to know because they do not tell us everything and sometimes they break up stories to add in details in order to make us think or feel a certain way. The five guidelines to language and communication are; to be accessible, to be clear, to be respectful, to be provocative and to be interesting. The majority of this generation do not tend to follow these guidelines either because they do not know how to or just because it is not in their personality to do so. Although, there are some individuals that do follow these guidelines without even knowing it probably because they like to spark up conversations and not be left in a moment of awkward silence. In the novel "1984" by George Orwell, the quote "War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength" is telling the people of this society how to think on these subjects. It is telling them that through war they will acquire peace when in reality it will only bring on more destruction. It is saying that all the right things to do are in fact the wrong things in the real world and it is being rhetorical. The language on social media is influencing us the same way by telling us if this trending celebrity said it, then it must be correct to use; but in reality celebrities get paid to say what other organizations and groups want the public to hear which may not always be true. The media introduces the world to propaganda and since the media has a strong presence in our society, this biased information is usually heard by most. Although, the information provided to the world may sometimes just be junk, some people may believe the false information that some media outlets provide to us.

Labors of Multitude

In today's society, technology has had an astounding impact on us both beneficially and harmfully. It creates an easier access to information we want to search up and it facilitates our communication with loved ones or business co-workers. In addition to technology proving to be beneficial for us, it just as well does us bad in the aspect of making us lazier, not allowing us to have an in-person conversation, and if we lose this technological device we lose a lot of things because we tend to store so much information in one little gadget. Social media is the biggest benefactor from the disadvantages that technology provides for this generation of human beings since social media gives us everything that is trending and popular out in the world. If a certain catch phrase is popular at a time most people begin to use it in their vocabulary and say it wherever it is thought to be appropriate. Also, people speak with slang through social media and with so much use of that slang it begins to stick to them and I have seen some people incorporate it into their writing and school work. Social media creates a barrier between us and getting the courage to do a public speech and in person conversations with one another. In the book "Rhetoric for Radicals" the author says that there are four rhetorical approaches which are persuasion, argumentation, storytelling, and invitation. Persuasion is the act of convincing another individual of an ideology that they may not believe or have a mindset on. Argumentation is the act of debating with the use of a claim and providing evidence to support it. Storytelling is the use of stories to get a point across. Invitation is the welcoming of different people to learn from past experiences that have happened. The media manipulates all four of these approaches to either inform people of different information or try and change their view on a certain subject since the media is where we get most of our information, if not all. One challenging situation that I have faced that forced me to respond to diverse communities was once when I was completing my community service hours for high school at a diverse middle school that I attended. I witnessed the discrimination of an African American student who was accused without any evidence of a wrong-doing just because he was at the sight of the incident meanwhile there was also a white student nearby the incident also. The African American student was falsy accused because "he was closer" when in reality both students were the same distance. I did not see who did it, but I had to sit with both students to try and figure out who really did it. I could not come to a conclusion, but it ended up being the caucasian student. This goes to show that there is still discrimination out in the world and it was the teacher who falsy accused the boy, so adults still haven't grown out of that stage of discriminating against other people with different ethnicities.

Bicentennial Man

 Some individuals fear the concept of being overrun by Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the future as technology keeps progressing but in the film "Bicentennial Man" it shows the public another possibility of something that can occur with the on-going development of AI consciousness. I found the movie very interesting and it captivated me how it incorporated ideas to make it comedic while still displaying beneficial ideas for the production of AI in the form of a human with human characteristics. The movie was able to give us an insight of a probability that AI robots walking among our society could serve as us favorable to perform our daily tasks and may even give us more time in abundance to do the things we like to do not only chores that we must complete. The film revolves around an AI robot named Andrew who instead of being normal and obeying orders of household chores, he is unique and grasps new ideas of how to feel and think in a different way than all the other robots while still performing tasks that it is commanded to do. Andrew adapts to these unique features that he has and in doing so he begins to realize that he would much rather be considered a human with human features than to be a robot with an eternal lifestyle. He finds an engineer to change up his outer features in order to look more human where he can express his feelings with his one of a kind face and body type, but this not enough for the court to consider him a human being because he has an infinite life and this would cause envy in other human beings who must die as the cycle of life goes. So he also changes this "unusual feature" but before he is announced a human--he sadly passes away. This goes to show us that future robotics may not want to do us harm but instead be more like us and will give up anything to be considered a normal human being and walk among the environment without any criticisms. In addition to wanting to be more like us, AI could also provide us with better improvements in medical research like Andrew did in the film.