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Science Fictions by: Jake Schwern (ALIENS AND OTHERS (Fear of the unkown,…

- - - - Humans fall into mass hysteria when their power gets shut off.
        Boy tells the citizens that it is aliens who are doing this and that one of them is an alien.
        Humans start to turn on each other and end up killing a human when they were scared.
        All Aliens did was turn off power then humans destroyed themselves due to the fear of the unknown
      - "The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices to be found only in the minds of men." - Narrator
    - - Aliens land unannounced and start to communicate in their own langue. Nobody understands what they are trying to say until Louise figures out a word they are trying to say, "weapon". People start freaking out thinking these aliens are here to conquer Earth. The fear of the unknown drives humans to stop communicating with one another and almost declare war on the peaceful Heptapods. All the Heptapods wanted was to give humanity the GIFT of their language.
  - - - In Story of Your life all the main goal is to communicate with the Haptapods. As the humans have a peaceful arrangement with these aliens and there is no threat of war. Acceptance vs. Fear
      - Agency
        
        Louise can see into the future and knows that her unborn daughter will die at a relatively young age. However, she still lives life as normal knowing she will die and does nothing to save her daughter because she knows she will die anyway. No matter what she tries the death of her daughter is inevitable. The question arises does Louise have agency? Ultimately she has very little and must live life with this horrible truth following her.
        
        Louise's sole choice she makes is that she will carry out her life as planned to ensure to birth of her daughter
      - Communication because a key factor in maintain peace with the Heptapods, and is also the key to Louise's foresight. Without the constant conversations humans have nothing other than to assume the worst.
  - - - Humans have come to New Tahiti to ravage the planet and take all of its wood. We have already destroyed our own ecosystem so we have now come to another planet to destroy somebody else's. Le Guin uses this as a knock against humanities awareness of how bad we treat our home.
      - Le Guin also comments on our hierarchical power structure and how this breeds violence. We receive all our orders from one person and we carry out violent actions without fault and with no sense of resentment. She then compares our vertical system to the horizontal system of the Athseans and notes how peaceful they are.
      - Humanity also corrupted this peaceful species once Davidson raped Selver's wife. Humanity's greed and power lust lead to not only our destruction but that of another nation. We ended up teaching this species about violence and have now corrupted them. Le Guin describes this as our GIFT to the Athseans. Different use of GIFT
    - - Humans when forced with the decision to trust Louise with the miss interpretation of the weapon choose to use force. A soldier decides to bomb the peaceful space ship and China is seconds away from launching nuclear bombs at the Heptapods.
  - - - Avatar Humanity's wrongdoing
        
        Humans have depleted their natural resources on Earth and have come to Pandora in search of more resources. The humans in the year 2154 have also developed technology to be able to transfer consciousness into another body. Jake Sully (main character) is a soldier who undergoes this process to get his consciousness transferred into the body of a scientifically created Na'vi (native species).
        
        Power
        
        Humans invade this peaceful planet and destroy the environment. Led by a power hungry general the humans plan on destroying the native race and taking all the resources for themselves. James Cameron uses this movie to argue the importance of being one with nature and to also bash the idea of colonialism. No one country, species, people etc. have the right to enact absolute power over another whenever they please.
        
        War
        
        James Cameron also uses this film to show the true devastation humans cause bring upon one another. He uses the strife between the Na'vi and Humans as an allusion to the war in Iraq.
        
        People, especially Americans, are not privy to what it's like to be invaded by a foreign nation. We have always been the ones invading, so we do not have that perspective of what others feel when we are invading them. James Cameron was quoting on this topic and said, "Cameron said, "We know what it feels like to launch the missiles. We don't know what it feels like for them to land on our home soil, not in America."
        
        Sully eventually fends off human invasion. He decides to ditch his human body to become one with the Na'vi to complete his immersion into their culture. He learns they ways of the native species are understands that this is the only way he will find peace at the end of the movie.
- - - - Androids
        
        Cannot be differentiated between humans. The only way to determine if somebody is an android is to give an empathy test. Created by humans to be slaves on Mars.
      - Cylons
        
        Extremely human like. Cannot be differentiated from humans and the humans have no true way to identify humans and Cylons apart. They were created by humans to be slaves.
      - Hailsham Students
        
        The students are clones and are extremely human-like. They can not be differentiated between humans. They were created by humans to be organ donors.
    - - Souls
        
        At Hailsham the students are supposed to draw pictures. At the beginning this seems like a meaningless task, however becomes very important when they are nearing the ends of their short lives. These pictures are used to determine if these students have souls. This is a plan to prove to the outside world that these kids are in fact kids and not robots. It proves that the inhuman acts that are being committed to these kids are unjust.
      - Love
        
        Love becomes a huge topic in all three of the works within this section. In all three love is to show humans that their creations in of themselves should also be considered human, because how can a machine feel love? Tommy loves Kathy, Cylons love humans and humans fall in love with androids (Rick & Luba). Why not then just classify all parties under human?
    - - Mercerism
        
        Created religion where people use a device to put them in the perspective of a common individual, Mercer. The religion preaches empathy towards others and the wellbeing of the community. All practicing parties use the empathy box to enter the "world" of Mercer where everyone can share the same feelings.
        
        Religion that is practiced through the use of technology and was artificially made and unhuman-like.
      - Cylon Religion
        
        Cylons followed a monotheistic religion while the humans have adopted a polytheistic one over time. This begs the question whether or not the Cylons could be considered human do to their religion matching the most common one that humans used to practice.
    - - Cylons
        
        Cylons were created as slaves and now have become humanities greatest nightmare. These creations have fought back and have almost destroyed all of humanity. Humans are so terrified of what they have done they were willing to destroy a ship that had humans on it just because they knew they were accompanied by some Cylons.
      - Androids
        
        Androids, also salves, have fled human custody. Unlike the Cylons though, they have poised no immediate threat to humanity. The androids escaped because they were fed up with being slaves. Humans are hunting them down as if they have plans to destroy the humans. Humans are just extremely paranoid and think that the androids are automatically evil.
      - Donations
        
        Donations are the sole purpose of the clones. They were created to be carers and donors. The humans have gotten to a point where they cannot turn around. They have failed to think of the repercussion of following through with thus process without thinking of the moral issues. Now if humans want to get rid of this system they will think in terms of loved ones. Humans will think that if we take away the donors we are killing real humans because they no longer have access to organs to save lives.
      - Sci-Fi by Tracy K. Smith
        
        We are beginning to come to a point where if we keep progressing forward we will have no where else to go.
        
        She ends her poem by saying "scrutable and safe". She argues we will get to a point where nothing will scare us and we will not be tempted to step out from our norms because everything impossible will have already become possible. Lack of agency
      - The End of Science Fiction by Lisel Mueller
        
        Mueller argues that we have entered the realm of speculative fiction and that nothing more will be science fiction.
        
        As humans we have achieved or have the capabilities of achieving what previous thinkers thought to be impossible. We have now brought to life these impossibilities and as humans we now ask the question, is anything science fiction?
        
        "This is not fantasy, this is life"
      - Science Fiction by Les Murray
        
        Murray sees the possibilities of what science is capable of and is worried we might lose our humanity within it. He argues we will be consumed by our creations and thoughts that we will be left alone in the universe.
        
        Science can only get us so far, and we mustn't be consumed by the possibilities and sacrifice our humanity.
- - - - Dana frequently gets thrown from 1970's America back in time to save her ancestor Rufus. Her being an African American woman gets into trouble during this time period. Throughout the novel Dana feels she can, almost too easily, connect with the slaves during this time period. Octavia Butler uses this tool to show that somebody being able to connect with their ancestors from these time periods is not a good thing. This shows that the treatment of African Americans has changed marginally since the Antebellum South.
    - - Butler also uses the same tool to blame all white Americans. Other than the obvious reasons Americans should be blamed for such a horrific act, she blames the bystanders just as much. She uses Kevin's character to personify her stance. When Dana comes back to her present she is frightened by Kevin when he comes to help her. She, for a moment, thinks Kevin is the overseer of the plantation and freaks out. Butler constantly relates Kevin to his white ancestors to also prove that times have not completely changed.
    - - Rufus proves to be an ill tempered and hurtful character throughout the novel. However, Dana must always keep him out of harm's way to ensure her survival. Through all his harmful acts Dana stands right by side, not because she wants to but because she must. This forced partnership leads to a lack of agency on the side of Dana. She knows that for her to survive she must let Rufus rape Alice. Dana is faced with the challenge of predestination and cannot escape its grasped. No matter what she does she needs the inevitable to happen which leads to a lack of agency. Lack of agency
      - The one time Dana can freely choose to do as she pleases she decides to kill Rufus to end the pain.
  - - - Blue-collared workers
        
        Characterized by the Morlocks who were ape-like creatures who dwelled underground working with machines and making the Eloi life style possible
      - White collared workers
        
        Characterized by the Eloi who were fuzzy, childlike creatures who seemed to live whimsical lifestyles. They would eat fruit and not work.
      - H.G. Wells is highly critical of the British hierarchy and the treatment of the workers
        
        The positions these creatures hold are used to allude to the British labor system. The Eloi are used to represent the white collar workers while the Morlocks are the blue collared workers. The Eloi frivolous lifestyle is only possible because the Morlocks are working all day underground to sustain this unbalanced system. The author uses these creatures to demonstrate the harsh conditions the blue collared workers are undergoing while the others are enjoying their fruit.
        
        The comparison of creatures to the 19th century British work force speaks volume to H.G Well's view on the matter. He argues the lower class citizens, who end up being the miners and factory workers, need equal treatment. They are ignored while the upper echelons of the British hierarchy reaps the benefits.
- - - - In Station Eleven the author has a very optimistic outlook on what will happen in the event of the apocalypse. The novel is based around a traveling musical orchestra who only want to bring joy to the remnants of the United States.
      - Instead of surviving just by scavenging and fighting for food the author gives humanity hope. He does also give us our classic apocalypse example with Jeevan when he is left with no hope and has to scavenge to survive. He shows the harm this causes and how without a sense of culture your humanity will be stripped.
      - The idea of a connectivity between humanity reigns true throughout the novel. We destroyed ourselves by a virus because we are all connected. In the same way we destroyed ourselves we will rebuild through this connectivity. Without the ability to start anew with these new links we will truly be doomed.
    - - Pessimistic view on humanity. The author argues we will all die out and slowly all of our creations will follow. Also, nature will be the only thing to stand the test of time.
    - - At first the director has a pessimistic view on humanity. He shows us that we have become savages that scrap for food and water. Most of the people in the movie are reliant on a sole dictator for all of our needs and will do anything he says.
      - We do get a glimpse of hopefulness at the end when the main protagonist finds the "green place"
  - - - To survive in this wasteland the key is to have a car and a killer instinct. In this film we have a typical apocalypse mentality in that we must fight to survive. There are people who's morals have become completely stripped by the nuclear disaster and those to uphold the former norms.
      - The film does give a glimpse of hope. Furiosa (a warrior who fights for the warlord), talks of a "Green Place". This is a place describe to be the Eden of the wasteland. A place that has been untouched by the apocalypse where we can start anew. This hope of a new beginning drives Furiosa to save some captives and set out to find this place.
      - Furiosa comes to learn that this Green Place has become destroyed like the rest of the world. However, she realizes that this hope has kept her alive this whole time and that if she returns to the group with nothing but despair then there will be no hope to live anymore. Instead of lying down to let her humanity slip away she fights to find a new "Green Place" and continue living.
    - - The key to survival is not fighting, looting or scavenging. To live on the author wants people to enjoy themselves and carry on culture. In this instance music is what drives the characters to survive. They believe their music will provide hope to those who lost it all. Music will be the savior and encourage life.
      - There is also another way people choose to live and that is through religion. The prophet preaches his own convoluted religion but people follow. People will latch onto anything they can in times of need whether or not it be in their best interest. Religion just like culture gives waste landers hope. This hope is what drives human survival and without it we would all be wandering around aimlessly like Jeevan.