In “Great to Watch”, Maggie Nelson discusses “desensitization”, the lack of response to a stimulus due to a surplus of exposure to it (Nelson, 306). In particular, Nelson discusses desensitization in terms of “image flow” (Nelson, 304). In Azar Nafisi’s “Selections from Reading Lolita in Tehran”, Nafisi reviews cases where the desensitization negatively affected society, but was able to be stopped. Moreover, in “Selections from Alone Together”, Sherry Turkle discusses some of the benefits of desensitization in certain situations. In general, desensitization plays different roles in different situations. Therefore, the real question is what role does desensitization play in society? During the war in Iraq, “horrific images”
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This is because of the artificial baby’s lack of reinforcement when it was hurt in any way. If the child did hurt the baby, the baby would shut down, giving “no cost” for hurting it. Moreover, My Real Babies were also reported to have an “unrealistic show of ‘denial’” (Turkle, 477). Here, denial means being denied the reaction that is expected. In one of the experiments with My Real Baby, a child named Alana “tormented” her My Real Baby because according to her, “the robot [had] no feelings” (Turkle, 476). However, “she does not behave this way with the many other dolls” (Turkle, 476). Furthermore, another child in the same experiment said that his My Real Baby was “like a baby” (Turkle, 477). This suggests that if Alana also thought of the toy as a real baby, then she might not have reacted to the toy the way she did and was prompted to act the way she did because of the unrealistic show of denial. Therefore, since the toy did not act like a baby, she in turn tortured it, which is different than the way she treats her other toys. Interestingly, Alana was not desensitized to the toy, but rather she was curious to see why the artificial baby was not reacting the way she expected it to. This is because there was only one piece of information Alana was getting, the denial. In the Bush/Cheney situation, Bush was “the voice of delusion...Cheney [was] the voice of justification” (Nelson, 306). Since there were two voices and therefore, two stimulus, desensitization took play. For Alana, however, she only was receiving one stimulus, the voice of delusion. Consequently, she reacted to the situation in the opposite way of someone who was desensitized to a stimulus would: she explored the toy. In the story of “A Thousand and One Nights”, the virgins did not attempt to betray because they knew the consequences of betrayal. Therefore, rather than having two voices, they had the voice from
This is because of the artificial baby’s lack of reinforcement when it was hurt in any way. If the child did hurt the baby, the baby would shut down, giving “no cost” for hurting it. Moreover, My Real Babies were also reported to have an “unrealistic show of ‘denial’” (Turkle, 477). Here, denial means being denied the reaction that is expected. In one of the experiments with My Real Baby, a child named Alana “tormented” her My Real Baby because according to her, “the robot [had] no feelings” (Turkle, 476). However, “she does not behave this way with the many other dolls” (Turkle, 476). Furthermore, another child in the same experiment said that his My Real Baby was “like a baby” (Turkle, 477). This suggests that if Alana also thought of the toy as a real baby, then she might not have reacted to the toy the way she did and was prompted to act the way she did because of the unrealistic show of denial. Therefore, since the toy did not act like a baby, she in turn tortured it, which is different than the way she treats her other toys. Interestingly, Alana was not desensitized to the toy, but rather she was curious to see why the artificial baby was not reacting the way she expected it to. This is because there was only one piece of information Alana was getting, the denial. In the Bush/Cheney situation, Bush was “the voice of delusion...Cheney [was] the voice of justification” (Nelson, 306). Since there were two voices and therefore, two stimulus, desensitization took play. For Alana, however, she only was receiving one stimulus, the voice of delusion. Consequently, she reacted to the situation in the opposite way of someone who was desensitized to a stimulus would: she explored the toy. In the story of “A Thousand and One Nights”, the virgins did not attempt to betray because they knew the consequences of betrayal. Therefore, rather than having two voices, they had the voice from