The Word for World is Forest considers complex topics such as the effects of colonialism and impact of advanced technology on primitive societies. In short, this text tells of native aliens and humans as they expand to the planet of Athshe to extract resources from the flourishing forests. The story is told through three major perspectives: Don Davidson, the stereotypical "white savior" who leads the humans in slaughtering and enslaving the locals to capture their territory for resources; Selver, a native Athshean who leads a revolt against the humans and eventually succeeds in pushing them off Athshe; and Raj Lyubov, likely the only human sympathizer with the Athsheans, who represents the good morality of humans but is ultimately suppressed. The story concludes as Selver and the Athsheans successfully drive the humans away from their peaceful colony, but only after the humans have introduced mass violence to their culture for the first time.

AGENCY: When the humans invade the planet of Athshe, it is made clear that they have no consideration for the natives. Their job is to harvest the planet for wood, and that is all they care about. This brings to mind the concept of agency and free will, as it is implied that the humans hold all of it in their power dynamic. Ultimately, this serves to critique this type of involvement within a society, as the overpowering nature of it is destructive not only to the environment, but the civilizations that reside there as well.

GOING TOO FAR WITH TECHNOLOGY: This text also serves to critique the unwanted introduction of advanced technology. In this world, while the humans are now capable of expanding and colonizing this planet, the underlying sentiment of the novel reveals that this type of involvement, when it is not needed nor wanted, is severely destructive to those impacted.

Key to the madness:

Summary and analysis appear on its own (like this)

Colored lines indicate a connection between texts

THE BLUE LINE references the essence of human communication, the connecting factor between these texts. What these three stories all have in common is their emphasis on the basic need for human communication, despite the circumstances of each personality involved.

A major theme of the course this semester was love and communication. Through a variety of texts, we considered how love and the compulsory need for communication impacts critical decision-making as well as the will to continue living.

THE PURPLE LINE: Both these texts ask us to consider who the real enemy is. In this episode of The Twilight Zone, while the aliens are ultimately in control of the humans, they are not attacking. Rather, they allow the humans to attack themselves. Similarly, in Station Eleven, while disease is wiping out the population, the real threat is other human beings. Ultimately, both these texts deliver a stronger message: we are our own worst enemies.

This is not fantasy, this is our life.
We are the characters
who have invaded the moon,
who cannot stop their computers.
We are the gods who can unmake
the world in seven days.

Both hands are stopped at noon.
We are beginning to live forever,
in lightweight, aluminum bodies
with numbers stamped on our backs.
We dial our words like Muzak.
We hear each other through water.

The genre is dead. Invent something new.
Invent a man and a woman
naked in a garden,
invent a child that will save the world,
a man who carries his father
our of a burning city.
Invent a spool of thread
that leads a hero to safety,
invent an island on which he abandons
the woman who saved his life
with no loss of sleep over his betrayal.

Invent us as we were
before our bodies glittered
and we stopped bleeding:
invent a shepherd who kills a giant,
a girl who grows into a tree,
a woman who refuses to turn
her back on the past and is changed to salt,
a boy who steals his brother's birthright
and becomes the head of a nation.
Invent real tears, hard love,
slow-spoken, ancient words,
difficult as a child's
first steps across a room.

THE PURPLE LINE indicates the similarity behind the method of delivering a message in these texts. Arguably, both of these stories are allegories; The Word for World is Forest symbolizing the Vietnam War and "There Will Come Soft Rains" targeting the looming threat of nuclear fallout during the Cold War. Both these texts employ an underlying commentary on society considering current events and, ultimately, critiquing military involvement.

THE PINK LINE represents the common thread of aliens in these texts. While they differ in who the aliens are, all provide commentary on effects of an "other" on a certain environment, whether it be earth or the fictional planet of Athshe.

THE PURPLE LINE here is simply a formality. Though the medium is different, these texts provide essentially the same narrative, considering that the movie Arrival was based entirely on Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life."

A major recurring theme of this course is agency. In many of the stories we analyzed, we have considered who is capable of making decisions for themselves and others, and who isn't. The importance of decision-making can be extended to consider the results of the decisions made. Who made the decision and why? Who was impacted by the decision? Do they have control over their decisions?

Death and dying were everywhere in the texts we analyzed this semester. Whether it be on a minuscule or a mass scale, many of the narratives we examined explore how one deals with death or knowledge of it surrounding their circumstances.

Octavia Butler's Kindred asks us to consider a lot of important themes through the lens of a black woman transported back in time to 1812 on a plantation. The narrative follows Dana in the first person perspective as she is repeatedly and unwillingly thrown into the past where she must save her ancestor, Rufus Weylin. As she bounces back and forth from the present and the past, she is forced to stay on the plantation for increasingly longer periods of time in which she must protect Rufus from the danger he puts himself in. This text, which is arguably a slave narrative, explores the complex roles of race, gender, agency, and death.

WHO HAS CONTROL?: The concept of agency consistently looms over the text, as we are inclined to examine the role of decision-making in both Dana and Kevin's lives in the antebellum south. While Dana is in the past, she has no free will. Rather, for a majority of the narrative she relies on Kevin, her white boyfriend, to make decisions for her. In this sense, Butler utilizes agency to explore the advantages of race and gender in America during the period of slavery, and also in present day.

DEATH AND DYING: Furthermore, the motif of mortality is frequently recurring. Dana's role in the past is technically to prevent Rufus from dying, yet she must put her own life at risk to accomplish this. Ultimately, we see how the threat of death to both her and Rufus affects her decision-making in the past.

THE PINK LINE represents the common thread of conveying love for artificial intelligence. "Be Right Back" portrays how AI can serve to replicate and replace a loved one who died too soon, while Blade Runner showcases how one can fall in love with AI in the first place. Ultimately, both texts comment on the possibilities of artificial intelligence, suggesting that it will one day be capable of replicating human beings to the extent where we cannot tell the difference between the two.

Carmen Maria Machado's "Inventory" considers the complex topic of love in an apocalypse. The story is set in the future, when a disease wipes out a significant portion of the world's population. Through small tales of sexual encounters, Machado conveys the gradual digression of the narrator as she isolates herself further and further from the remaining society.

MORTALITY: This texts dissects the effects of mass mortality, as the narrator witnesses the world around her crumble under a plaguing disease. Machado explores how death impacts others through the narrator's devolvement throughout "Inventory"

LOVE IN A WORLD OF DEATH: "Inventory" advocates the undying necessity of love and communication, even in a dying world. While the world collapses around her, the narrator finds comfort in the relationships she can create with those who remain. This is reiterated through the final scenes, where despite the threat of contracting the fatal disease, the narrator continues to seek love and affection, until there is no more.

Lisel Mueller's poem "The End of Science Fiction" serves to comment on the advances of modern technology. Through contemporary examples, Mueller demonstrates how humans have in essence caught up to the fictionalized characters we write about in the genre: "We are the characters who have invaded the moon, who cannot stop their computers" (2-4). She suggests that because we have built off of imagined futures, now that we are here, the only thing left to imagine is the past. Ultimately, she writes with the sentiment of loss. Mueller critiques the advances of society, arguing that what we have imagined is not what we wanted, and that we must reinvent the genre and possibly even ourselves.

THE BLUE LINE here, extending from The Word for World is Forest to "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street," Kindred, and both iterations of Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life," serves to indicate a different form of agency and free will utilized in these texts. All demonstrate the importance of free will and self-determination through certain characters' lack of it. All indicate the greater need for free will as significant characters are forced to comply with the needs of others, whether it be aliens, plantation owners, or their future selves.

This episode of The Twilight Zone is set on Maple Street, U.S.A., a town intended to represent the average American suburb.The episode begins as the neighborhood experiences a large shadow pass over, and then a strange power outage, causing all technology such as home appliances and cars to malfunction. In confusion, the residents concur that this must be a result of alien involvement. They bounce back and forth, accusing different members of the community of collusion, before they accidentally shoot the man who went to go find help. The neighborhood quickly devolves into panic and rioting, before the episode zooms out to find aliens sitting atop a nearby hill plotting the whole mishaps. It concludes with a narration considering how easily humans can be manipulated, suggesting that simply playing with consistency can lead people to paranoia and panic. "There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices...to be found only in the minds of men."

FREE WILL: Considering agency and free will in this narrative is interesting. In a broader sense, the aliens planning to conquer the world by mentally breaking each community have complete control over the decisions made in the text. But the story serves to comment on the threatening power created through the combination of a panic within a group mentality. Ultimately, it goes to emphasize the importance of free will and the decision-making of an individual, as this is lost within the mob mentality which devolves the community into witch hunt.

THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY: This text could arguably demonstrate a society that is over-reliant on their technology. When malfunctioning, the community quickly devolves suggesting their incessant need their electronics.

In both these texts, the narrative utilizes the concept of remembering the future to comment on the power of free will and decision-making surrounding death. The plot introduces this concept through aliens. As the foreign species arrives on earth, Dr. Louise Banks is directed to work on translating their language so humans can communicate. Upon doing so, she finds she is able to remember as they do, in blocks. While she could always remember her past, she is now able to remember the future. Through this, though in the present she is not pregnant, she can remember that she will have a child, and that her child will die young. The story is told in multiple tenses, conveying information about how she engaged this ability through her work in the past, as well as small instances that compile to create the life of her daughter in the future.

ABSENCE OF FREE WILL?: One of the more complex underlying motifs of this story is agency. Throughout the novela, Chiang utilizes strategic structure, tense, and language to develop the notion that the narrator is aware of both her own and her daughter’s future, suggesting that either the prophecy is fabricated or that neither have agency over their lives, more likely the latter. Yet, he alters this implication by expanding on the understanding of their motivations. While both characters may have an anticipated outcome to their lives, Chiang stresses that neither are being forced to comply with what is prophesied. Rather, he demonstrates that each character is propelled by their motivations to follow their individual paths. While we may have a predetermined path to follow, Chiang advocates that free will and agency still prevail, but our motivations will provide a natural inclination to enact chronology.

DEALING WITH DEATH: As Louise's daughter's young death is indicated early in novel, a major theme throughout the story is considering how the narrator will shape her life around this inevitable truth. This ties in with the concept of free will, as Louise must not only consider whether she wants to stray from her set path if it means saving her daughter's life, but also if she is capable of altering it. The texts use this notion to comment on how one deals with an inevitable death, suggesting that death is a truth of life and that, ultimately, the only thing you can do is accept it.

Through the implementation of a time machine, H.G. wells explores the impact of decision-making in the past on the future, as well as the question of whether rapid technological improvements are improving our world or destroying it. The story follows a man deemed The Time Traveler, as he tells the story of his time in the year 802,701 AD. He tells of the futuristic race of Eloi, creatures vaguely similar to humans but much weaker who are kind and welcoming to him. In opposition, he discovers that there is a second race, which the Eloi call the Morlocks, who hunt the Eloi at night for food. Wells represents the future in this world as corrupt and inhuman, essentially suggesting that humans are not evolving into more perfect beings, rather they are devolving and becoming more savage.

TECHNOLOGY AND EVOLUTION: This text asks us to consider the effects of technology on the evolution of human beings. Written relatively soon after Darwin's theory of evolution, which argued that human's were an ever-evolving species, Wells provides the counter argument of the degeneration theory. Using the fiction as an example, Wells argues that advances in technology are actually impacting humans in a negative fashion, and that we are devolving into weaker forms.

DECISION-MAKING AND ITS IMPACT ON THE FUTURE: Wells utilizes the time machine to deliver a stronger message on the impact of our decision-making. While we generally assume the future will be more advanced and innovative, a world where we have solved all the problems of now, Wells argues the opposite. Through presenting the future as a dystopia, Wells asks the reader to consider the decisions they make in the present and their lasting effects on the future.

"We Can Remember it for You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick investigates the intricate themes of memory and existence through the introduction of advanced technology. The text explores the possibility of creating memories through "Rekal Incorporated," a futuristic company specializing in memory implants. When protagonist Douglas Quail discovers this establishment, he chooses to participate to feel as if he has fulfilled his dream of traveling to Mars. Though, through a complicated process, Quail discovers that this technology has been used on him in the past to suppress his previous memories of his work as an assassin. He later discovers that his well being is key to the survival of Earth, as aliens have decided to hold off on invading with the superior technology as long as he is alive.

HAS TECHNOLOGY GONE TOO FAR?: Dick applies the technology of memory implants to question if society has gone too far with technological advances. In what is intended to be a beneficial development in science, Dick explores the worst case scenario, where this technology has been abused to the point where Quail does not know what is real and what is not. Ultimately, Dick employs this narrative to warn against rapid advancements in science, as they often have unintended effects with drastic outcomes.

Through artificial intelligence, love, and death, Blade Runner explores how technological advances can have unintended consequences on those who abuse them. The narrative follows Rick Deckard, a former police officer who is assigned to track and kill four bioengineered beings, referred to as "replicants," who are illegally on Earth in the year 2019. The replicants are created so intricately that they can barely be distinguished from humans. Throughout the text, Deckard is continually conflicted over his assignment, as he has fallen in love with Rachael, a replicant, yet the others are willing to kill anything preventing them from extending their lives.

ROBOT LOVE: Blade Runner examines the possibilities of futuristic love through Deckard's relationship with Rachael, a replicant. While he is assigned to eliminate any replicant remaining on Earth, the text ends as they escape together. Ultimately, this serves to argue that love has no boundaries. Whether the being be human or bioengineered, Ridley Scott makes a point to suggest that love is love. Furthermore, this goes to emphasize how advanced the technology is.

INDISTINGUISHABLE AI: This text critiques technological advances by providing a worst-case scenario for humans after they have designed artificial beings so similar to themselves they cannot tell the difference. While Blade Runner commends scientific growth by indicating this, they suggest that humans have been blinded by their own desire to further society and have not thought through the effects of their inventions.

Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go examines the emotional development of technology through the narrative of clones intended to breed organs for humans. The story is told by Kathy, a clone, as she recounts her experiences growing up at Hailsham and the Cottages, environments created for clones to live as humans do. Throughout the novel, she conveys the complex emotions felt by artificial beings identical to humans, yet treated vastly differently.

ARTIFICIAL LOVE: One of the most prominent notions of the text is love, and its existence in artificial humans. Never Let Me Go indicates through a plethora of love stories that despite being designated as clones, they exhibit the same emotions as humans, bringing to question what really makes them different after all.

DEALING WITH DEATH: The students of Hailsham will inevitably live shortened lives. Through this knowledge, Ishiguro explores what it truly means to live. He considers the decisions they make, the goals they set for themselves, and the relationships they hold knowing their end is near to convey commentary on what the purpose of all this seems to be.

TREATING TECHNOLOGY HUMANELY: A very relevant concept Ishiguro investigates in this text is how humans treat technology. He offers a sympathetic perspective towards advanced technology, arguing that artificial beings with developed feelings should ultimately be treated in a similar fashion as humans.

THE TEAL LINE here, which extends from "Inventory," to "There Will Come Soft Rains," Station Eleven, and both iterations of "Story of Your Life," indicates unorthodox methods of story telling. "Inventory" conveys information through a list of sexual encounters; "There Will Come Soft Rains" through the perspective of a house; Station Eleven through people who have all had some type of relationship with a dead man; and "Story of Your Life" through various fragments in the past, present, and future. While unique in their own ways, these texts employ interesting techniques to comment on different aspects of the world they take place in.

Station Eleven comments on the impact of disease on society through a narrative that jumps between the past and present, linking characters through the common thread of Arthur Leander. The text compares how civilization works differently before and after the Georgia Flu, considering who and what people find valuable in a post-apocalyptic world.

SUSTAINING ART: One of the major themes of the novel is art. Even as the world burns, The Traveling Symphony continues to perform Shakespeare and play music for new towns and villages, and Miranda's graphic novel is preserved. This relates to free will and agency as it demonstrates the importance of decision-making. Despite being surrounded by death, some humans pursue art over anything else as they understand the impact it has on themselves and others.

SURROUNDED BY DEATH: In the shambled world presented in Station Eleven, death is an everyday occurrence. Much of the text examines how the characters deal with death, as they are forced to witness the decaying bodies literally surrounding them. Additionally, while the flu still presents a lethal threat, the greater threat is human beings. Thus, this text asks us to consider what the real danger is in a world with no rules.

Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains" narrates the final day of a smart-home following an atomic bomb. While the house completes its required tasks, such as cooking breakfast, cleaning, and preparing to entertain, there is no one left to enjoy it. Ultimately, this story serves as a warning for the effects of nuclear war, demonstrating the devastating impact the technology could have on the world we know.

DECISION-MAKING WITH TECHNOLOGY: This texts serves to critique military involvement concerning nuclear warfare by exemplifying the consequences of such a catastrophe. Bradbury utilizes the perspective of the home to indicate that while in some aspects, technological advances are greatly beneficial, yet, if we are not careful, there could be no one left to appreciate them.

DEADLY CONSEQUENCES: Bradbury uses the death of mankind as an ultimatum in his novela. While his story certainly represents an extreme consequence of the use of nuclear technology, he signifies that without regulation and carefulness, life as we know it could come to an end.

A classic theme of the science fiction genre, technology plays a role in everything we do these days. Throughout the semester, we have studied texts to consider the impact technology has on us and the surrounding world. We evaluated futuristic technologies and the ethics surrounding them, as well as present technologies and their effects.

In this episode of Black Mirror, the protagonist, Martha, is coping with the recent loss of her boyfriend Ash when she is introduced to technology permitting her to communicate with artificial intelligence that imitates him. Despite her early skepticism, she finds solace in the system, and upgrades to a more advanced replica of her former lover. This episode explores the major themes of love, coping with death, and the beneficial yet alarming effects of artificial intelligence.

TECHNOLOGY TO COPE WITH GRIEF: "Be Right Back" demonstrates a beneficial application of futuristic artificial intelligence. While Black Mirror often demonstrates how advances in technology can go wrong, here they provide an oddly optimistic view on how it can be utilized to cope with the loss of a loved one. However, it is slightly creepy.

ROBOT LOVE: This episode exhibits the love despite the dire circumstances. While Ash died in a car accident, Martha is able to fill the void in her heart through advanced technology. Though it is not the same, in a sense she is able to find closure through the artificial Ash.

THE PURPLE LINE, which stretches from "We Can Remember it for You Wholesale" to Blade Runner and both iterations of "Story of Your Life," designates stories relating to memory. In each of these texts, characters are deeply affected by implanted memories. Ultimately, all emphasize the significance of memories and the capabilities of new ones.

"The Fog Horn" by Ray Bradbury emphasizes the basic need for communication through the metaphor of a great sea monster and a fog horn. In the short story, two men working a lighthouse stand watch, when a sea monster appears from the deep. McDunn, says this is recurring, and this is the fourth year it has happened. The two observe the primitive beast as it approaches, bellowing in a similar fashion to the fog horn itself. The monster believes that the fog horn, a tall and skinny tower vaguely resembling itself, is a creature of the same kind. But, after attempting to communicate and receiving no affection, the monster becomes upset. It rushes the tower, destroying it, then disappears back into the deep.

SOCIAL BEINGS: This story serves to comment on the essential need of communication. While the monster lurks in the deep, and has for millions of years, it is the only one of its kind left. As it has no one to communicate with, it finds solace in the similar sounds and appearance of the fog horn. By acknowledging the monster's continued reappearances, Bradbury implies the instinctual desire for communication in all beings. Similarly, this theme is paralleled by the two men who work the fog horn alone and find consolation in each other.

HEARTBREAK: "The Fog Horn" additionally critiques the concept of love. While the monster is drawn to the fog horn because it can communicate, it ultimately destroys tower because, like McDunn says, "Someone always waiting for someone who never comes home. Always someone loving some thing more than that thing loves them. And after a while you want to destroy whatever that thing is, so it can hurt you no more."

"Hang the DJ" follows an individual simulation part of a larger dating app advertising a 99.8% match rating. Within the simulation, two individuals are paired with each other for a certain period of time, then unpaired and matched with someone new. The program is intended to simulate the dating life of human beings, in a more controlled and polished environment. Ultimately, the goal of the simulation is to encourage two individuals, such as the protagonists Amy and Frank, to escape the artificial world they live in as a statement of their love. As this happens, our perspective is zoomed out, where we realize there are 1000 of these simulations, 998 of them resulting in this. Following, the camera switches to the real world, where we discover the story we have been following is artificialized as part of a real dating app that introduces real humans.

TECHNOLOGY AND LOVE: This episode of Black Mirror comments on the impact of technology on love. Through its simulations, it suggests a dystopian-like future in which love it manufactured through a set process. Though, it offers a comforting prospect concluding that all this occurs in an artificial universe to match real humans together. Through this, it reflects on technological advancements of the future, implying great improvements in artificial intelligence-related automation.