Week 14: Final Cyborg

Ligaments motion 1.	Trust
Endoskeleton growth 2.	Nonsense
R. L. feet balance 3.	Humanity
Torso protection 4.	Revolution/Evolution
Stomach-want 5.	Good vs. evil
Heart-? Uncertain 6.	Self-sufficiency
Blood ambition 7.	Don't stop
R.L. arm goals 8.	Discovery
Nervous system-Pain 9.	Secrecy
Hands-sense 10.	Evolve
Skin Acceptance 11.	Adapt
Head-Reason 12.	Tolerance
Eyes-soul path 13.	Growth
Mind-program ON 14.	Survive

Week 13: The Evolving Self-Aware Human

“I don’t think he’s a boy any longer, Jubal.”

Week 12: Man is the Animal that Laughs

"There was a cat who lived on the place (not as a pet, but as a co-owner..."

Week 11: If Robots are Slaves, can Logic be Freedom?

"To lengthen our lives, and improve our minds, in the future we will need to change our bodies and brains." (Minsky)

Week 10: The Stranger is Programmed

"I have much learning to learn and much growing to grow." (147)

Week 9: The Stranger Learns the Signs

"Secrecy begets tyranny." (42)

Week 8: The Alien as Other

"'The camp was rocking with excitement. That first night we never went to bed at all.' Any science can be like that, if you understand it properly." (from the Lucy excerpt)

Week 7: Planetary Disaster!

“You don’t stop planning just because there’s no hope.” --Oppenheimer.

Week 5 Cyborg

Ligaments motion 1.	Trust
Endoskeleton growth 2.	Nonsense
R. L. feet balance 3.	Humanity
Torso protection 4.	Revolution/Evolution
Stomach-want 5.	Good vs. evil
Heart-? Uncertain 6.	Self-sufficiency
Blood ambition 7.	Don't stop
R.L. arm goals 8.	Discovery
Nervous system-Pain 9.	Secrecy
Hands-sense 10.	Evolve
Skin Acceptance 11.	Adapt
Head-Reason 12.	Tolerance
Eyes-soul path 13.	Growth
Mind-program ON 14.	Survive

Creative Writing Reading Response

In theory, requiring that everyone learn the same material no matter where they lived in the country, seemed like a good idea. For the first time, in perhaps ever, students everywhere would be equally prepared for college and life after. The current system was proving to be simply not enough. There was too much opportunity for discussion and questioning, in some schools students were even able to give their input on which direction the curriculum went. The freedom had to stop, as too much freedom most certainly meant that not enough learning was going on. It was necessary for the bar to be set higher, for lessons to be more structured. It made sense to raise the standards for everyone rather than only for some and not provide a challenge for the most advanced of our youth. 

Unfortunately the standards were too challenging. The policy makers were relentless however, and the standards would not be lowered; rather, students would be brought up to meet these challenges or their mentors would be held responsible. For years everyone suffered, the most creative and innovative lesson planners among the diverse rank of mentors were stifled, forced to fall in line or removed as they were now deemed ineffective. Similarly, the most creative and innovative students were also forced to fall in line or were pushed to the margins of their academic world, labeled inappropriately and unfairly as trouble-makers or unable to learn. 

Eventually the mentors who were successful were those who had created a successful formula: day in and day out they prepared their students the same way for the same tasks. Students were completing the same products, just using different materials to do so. As years went on, fewer and fewer students were raising red flags, fewer and fewer were voicing creative suggestions or alternate ideas. Soon after, there were no new ideas, no creativity, no questions. Over a period of time and students experiencing the same preparation to complete the same few tasks, they eventually met the very challenging standards. 

The years continued and the former students eventually became the policy makers. Clearly this method worked, was working and would continue to work. The standards had been met! What else mattered? Things would continue the same as they always had been. As generations continued, the original policy makers were long gone and there was no one left with the cognitive ability to even fathom the creation of something so horrendous: the intentional removal of creativity from the genetic makeup of an entire society.

Week 5: The Dystopian Prison

"Did it ever occur to you," Chien said, " that good and evil are names for the same thing?" (Dick)

Week 4: The Integrated Circuit

"The powerful don't make revolutions." (Piercy)

Week 3: Woman as Robot Doll

"Caught in the vortex of desire, we have to struggle to recall the wholeness of persons, including ourselves."

Week 2: Battle of the Sexes

"If you've heard one speech about how liberation of Earth is just around the corner if we all pull together, you've heard them all.  Semantic content zero, nonsense quotient high."

Week 1

"In reading a novel, any novel, we have to know perfectly well that the whole thing is nonsense, and then, while reading, believe every word of it." -Le Guin