Hard science fiction

Synthetic Biology, Science Fiction, and the Escape from Boredom Synthetic biology may seem like an area of study that is not very connected to our popular culture, and it comes across much like a field inaccessible to the non-expert, but Kurt Andersen, who reports with Eric Molinsky, the producer of the article “Biology in Pop Culture”, has seen these ideas present in popular culture for decades. Screenwriters, such as Kurt Andersen are keen to two basic archetypes. These two basic archetypes…

always changing based on what we think about and how we discipline ourselves. Dr. Berg’s session on Bladerunner made me think about the impact of entertainment on how we think about ourselves and humanity. Dr. Berg’s topic was Bladerunner, a science fiction movie about what makes someone human. In a dystopian world with robots that are nearly indistinguishable from humans the director makes decisions to lead you to some conclusion about humanity, and in the 1982 film based on a novel the…

Can you imagine being stuck in a world where machines do everything for you? For a while it’s a dream, but after a short amount of time it would become a nightmare. In the book “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury, having a machine brushing your hair and tying your shoes is normal. It would be weird to have to do easy everyday tasks on your own without a machine helping you or even doing it for you. In this book the parents of the children threaten to turn off all the machines in their house, or they…

I would choose the Brave New World as Alpha/Beta. I would choose to live in a clean, safe place and high class. The society in Brave New World is clean whereas the society in Savage reservation is dirty as Lenina saw when she went there. Living in Savage reservation is not safe. I would choose to live a life where i don't have to worry about money. One won’t have to worry about money, kids, and STD. Some people especially women would argue that lives for women are harsh. They would argue that…

“Governments want efficient technicians, not human beings, because human beings become dangerous to the government” (Jiddu Krishnamurti) This quote by the public speaker, Jiddu Krishnamurti, is often reflected in the novels Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. The novels both deal with the recurring theme that the government is willing to remove humanity for an efficient, conflict-free society. We see this in both government's use of conditioning the…

In the novel, A Brave New World, John, who is often referred as The Savage, experiences the differences between two societies. John is the product of the two different societies, whose culture is completely opposite from each other, which influenced his moral perception of the world he lived in. With John being born naturally in the savage reservation and his parents, Bernard and Linda, being both created by The Controller in London, John is stuck between two worlds and isn’t accepted by neither…

How far has the world really come since Aldous Huxley Wrote his book ‘Brave New World’? In his book he states how babies are made in the future. I think that we are a little bit of the way to being like what he states in the book. In the book babies are made out in tubes and they do things to make one egg in to twins then so on and keep doing it till they get 96 identical twin that each batch they give them drugs and alcohol to make them at a certain stage so they all have the same job that they…

Though people are often told to be the “bigger person” most of the them will end up chasing after revenge. In the narrative, “The Cask of Amontillado” the main character, Montresor seeks revenge against a man who has insulted him. Leading him down into his palazzo under the guise of a cask of rare wine, the soon to be victim, Fortunato is completely unaware of his own imminent demise as the two wander deeper and deeper into the basement. Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Cask of Amontillado”…

Ursula LeGuin described the city of Omelas as the ideal and perfect society with beautiful things and the people of Omelas are not naïve, but mature, intelligent, passionate adults, they are free to do as they like. However, the perfection of their city and their happiness depends on a suffering child who is locked away in a confine basement. I find this short story critiques the utilitarian view a great deal. Could utilitarianism provide justice and fairness? It seems the right of one person…

television taking away interest in books. Despite his dislike in television, Bradbury produced the HBO series Ray Bradbury Theater which portrayed his numerous short stories and ran from 1986 to 1992. It could be argued that Bradbury brought science fiction to a wider audience with his Theater. Bradbury continued to write well into his 80’s with help of his daughters. On his 80th birthday, Bradbury said “The feeling I have every day is very much the same as it was when I was twelve. In any…