In Programming The Post-Human: Computer science redefines “life,” Ellen Ullman uses captivating, argumentative, and reflective language in order to convey the complications of making an intellectual, sentient machine and explores the unanswered, unconventional questions about humans themselves to computer enthusiasts and thinkers. Her use of questions to captivate and engage readers is noteworthy. Likewise, observations, comparisons, contrasts, and analogies support to make her argument. Careful analyses, well reasoned thoughts, anecdotes, and use of metaphors attribute to her reflective way of writing. Published on Harper’s magazine, the complexity of the content of the article and its inferences have been made fairly simple so that anyone,
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Questions appear as if you were walking through the caves, and just when you thought it was the end, a glowing stone leads you to a path which was non existent on your guide map. Yes, that magically! One question that we think would not be in an article that tackles such a sophisticated concept but is in fact existent as a tool of major importance is, “Do you have to go to the bathroom and eat to be alive?” Now, to know what the writer is suggesting, one really needs to read the next few paragraphs. The conclusion you reached from such an unexpected question is astounding. This is how her language is successful in captivating readers throughout the …show more content…
The first few lines of the journal is an anecdote that instantly captures readers’ attention. Just when you thought it started to get too technical or boring, she brings up a short narrative, uses metaphors, and you are right back on track. For example, after exploring the technical definitions of intelligence and consciousness, she writes, “Over the years, as I listened to the engineering give-and-take over the question of artificial life-forms, I kept coming up against something obdurate inside myself…….But then I had to ask myself: What else could there be?” and one, as a reader, feels the same queries she has. That way she is able to connect to the readers intimately. In addition, metaphors add imagination to the text as she uses “behemoths” to suggest the large size of the early computers, and “a sloppy programmer” to imply the lack of information handling abilities in human body during evolution. Majority of the reflection occurs in the conclusion. If you were strictly looking for the ways to “program the post-human”, you might get a little disappointed, for the writer does not identify a method of making one but explores all that has gone wrong in our attempts, and reasons why it is a hard to create such a machine in the future. “Their task in simulating a self-identifying sentient creature will be a little like trying to simulate a hurricane” is an example of how
Questions appear as if you were walking through the caves, and just when you thought it was the end, a glowing stone leads you to a path which was non existent on your guide map. Yes, that magically! One question that we think would not be in an article that tackles such a sophisticated concept but is in fact existent as a tool of major importance is, “Do you have to go to the bathroom and eat to be alive?” Now, to know what the writer is suggesting, one really needs to read the next few paragraphs. The conclusion you reached from such an unexpected question is astounding. This is how her language is successful in captivating readers throughout the …show more content…
The first few lines of the journal is an anecdote that instantly captures readers’ attention. Just when you thought it started to get too technical or boring, she brings up a short narrative, uses metaphors, and you are right back on track. For example, after exploring the technical definitions of intelligence and consciousness, she writes, “Over the years, as I listened to the engineering give-and-take over the question of artificial life-forms, I kept coming up against something obdurate inside myself…….But then I had to ask myself: What else could there be?” and one, as a reader, feels the same queries she has. That way she is able to connect to the readers intimately. In addition, metaphors add imagination to the text as she uses “behemoths” to suggest the large size of the early computers, and “a sloppy programmer” to imply the lack of information handling abilities in human body during evolution. Majority of the reflection occurs in the conclusion. If you were strictly looking for the ways to “program the post-human”, you might get a little disappointed, for the writer does not identify a method of making one but explores all that has gone wrong in our attempts, and reasons why it is a hard to create such a machine in the future. “Their task in simulating a self-identifying sentient creature will be a little like trying to simulate a hurricane” is an example of how