Sci-fi Musing of the Week: Technology

I've been slacking a bit here lately due to school being all crazy, but I just finished Ender's Game and I got to thinking about something that I wanted to discuss with you guys. Do you think that technology, such as cell phones, computers, etc., keeps us more connected to each other or distances us from each other? I love technology and I love having a smart phone where I can check my e-mail and go on the internet whenever I want, but I think it's a valid question.

Here are two awesome songs that talk about our addiction to technology. Both have pretty much the same message, but The Guild song is cuter.

I Love My Computer by Bad Religion (I could only find it as an AMV. Boo.)

Do You Want to Date My Avatar by the Guild

I see so many people walking around oblivious to the people or events going on around them while they furiously text or play with their phones. I also hate it when people can't go a couple of hours while watching a film or seeing a play without obsessively checking their phones or texting. Maybe the technology in and of itself is beneficial, but many people abuse it.

What do you guys think? Do you think in the future we will be roly poly Wall-E people that only talk to each other through technology even though we're right next to each other or do you have a different vision of the future?

Evolution's Darling

You may recognize Scott Westerfeld’s name from his popular young adult series, such as Peeps and Uglies. Evolution's Darling is an entirely different novel. Darling is a 200 year old artificial intelligence. Thanks to technology, robots have the ability to become sentient beings, detectable by a Turing test. The title refers to the fact that artificials can evolve many times during their lifetime, while their biological counterparts cannot. Darling, so named and made sentient by a past love, is an art dealer of authentic, original, and expensive art. He happens to meet Mira, a mysterious assassin, on a pleasure ship. He seeks a famous sculptor that was thought to be dead, while Mira accompanies him (with her own motives). Is Vaddum, the sculptor, a copy? Can intelligent beings be copied? Should they? Should the copies be destroyed?

Although this is a science fiction novel, the language used and descriptions are beautiful and complex. Musical imagery is used throughout. It was surprising for me that there was a balance and mixture of science and art that was wonderful to read. The two are typically seen as polar opposites and are rarely juxtaposed. All of the characters were fully realized and unique, even the minor ones. The artificial intelligence, in many instances, turned out to be more human than the biological humans. For example, Darling focuses on the emotional meaning behind Vaddum’s work, while Zimivic, his human rival, looks at the technical aspects and how much the piece will make him. It makes us question what really makes a being human or sentient. Even the not yet sentient AI has personality, humor, and their own quirks.

Evolution’s Darling was a completely unique novel. It was engrossing from beginning to end and I couldn't put it down. I would recommend this book to any fan of science fiction.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

Catching Fire

Catching Fire starts where The Hunger Games leaves off. Katniss and Peeta have to go on tour and act deliriously in love with each other. They have to convince the Capitol and President Snow that the outcome of the Hunger Games was an act of love, not a subversive act of rebellion. However it was meant, the effect reverberates throughout the districts, whether they view the couple as star-crossed lovers or rebel icons. Is Katniss’s façade convincing enough and how long will she have to keep it up? Also, what other horrors is the next Hunger Games, the Quarter Quell, going to bring?

When I read The Hunger Games, I liked it, but considered it a watered down version of Battle Royale. Catching Fire, however, elevates the series for me and leaves Battle Royale in the dust. This novel shows what happens after the Hunger Games are over. If you think the victors are safe and the trouble is over, you are very, very wrong.

The tour that takes Peeta and Katniss to the other districts illuminates the drastic difference between the rich and poor districts. The setting for the novel is in the future, so these people have many more luxuries and technology than we have. The Capitol is the height of luxury. Its inhabitants have shallow, materialistic worries and have more food than they know what to do with. At parties, it’s typical to see people induce vomiting multiple times to stuff themselves with more of the extravagant food. They have no idea about the hardships the other districts deal with every day. These districts are the polar opposite of the Capitol. If I hadn’t known the setting for the novel, I would have thought that the poorer districts were stuck back in time, being deprived of the luxuries of our own time. It’s shocking to me that despite all their amenities and technological advances that people are still left to starve or die from very curable afflictions.

This book is much more brutal than the last. Because of Peeta and Katniss’s gesture, the police are overpowering the more rebellious districts with beatings, torture, and even killings. I was on the edge of tears for most of the novel, but I was pleased to see a young adult novel push the envelope far beyond what I thought possible. President Snow is one of the cruelest characters I have ever encountered in literature. I was so surprised by the twists and turns of the plot and eventually just gave up trying to predict what was going to happen. The shocks just keep coming, right up to the very last page. I highly recommend this novel and I can’t wait for the next one!

5/5