Captain's Log Stardate 12012016: Ain't Got No Sympathy for the Devil

The Terminator character kills the other two Sarah Connors and anyone who gets in his way in “cold blood.” Even when someone shoots it, it gets up as if nothing happened and keeps going. It is a machine that can walk, talk, and speak like a human, with the bonuses of mimicking voices and being almost physically indestructible.  It is less intelligent than a human but superior as a military unit because it does not feel the human weaknesses of pain, love, and fear. It is the pinnacle of AI.

The Terminator is also a representation of Death. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards, an influential Christian sermon in the Great Awakening, portrays God as unstoppable, that only God’s mercy prevents sinners from going straight to Hell. Reese blows up a eighteen-wheeler with the Terminator in a massive explosion and it survives, and even when he puts a grenade right in its metal body it’s upper half chases Sarah. From a religious standpoint, the Terminator represents this God-like figure, unstoppable and inevitable once Sarah is doomed for a crime she has yet to commit. From this standpoint, Reese is an angel, dropping in from another time to save Sarah and do battle with the Terminator.

In most movies, there are good guys and bad guys, but the bad guys are people too and they were likely hurt by other bad people to make them like they are. Even though he’s a downright terrible person, I can sympathize with Voldemort - he’s a guy with serious childhood issues and a mental disorder, which is why he became a merciless killer. But we can’t and don’t sympathize with the Terminator character because he is an unfeeling death machine working for other unfeeling death machines, quite unlike robot portrayals in Transformers, making the conflict in this movie very black-and-white.

Captain's Log Stardate 112816: Terminator and Time-Turners

I’d watched about half of The Terminator when I said “I’ll be back” to my screen and began to ponder what I’d watched. First thoughts included how bad ass and violent the Terminator is. He is the ultimate killing machine, and I would be just as scared as Sarah if I knew he was after me. I enjoyed the fight scenes and the tension pervading the movie. However, the fundamental and crazy idea in this movie is that someone could go back into the past to change the future.

The Terminator's purpose is to kill Sarah, whose survival is necessary to the birth of the rebellion against the bad guys. By killing her, he is supposed to make the rebellion never come into existence. Doing so would stop this specific rebellion started by a specific person at a specific time, but there are infinite possible futures and it’s possible that different rebellion might spring up. The people who sent back the Terminator certainly understood this, but they were being defeated by the rebellion and were desperate.

This idea of changing the past intentionally is also present in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, where Harry and Hermione use a Time-Turner to go back in time to save a griffin and Harry’s uncle from death. As Hermione explains before they do this, they must not be seen by anybody or they will cause unintended consequences such as making their other selves go crazy.

Time-travel is tricky stuff. It’s certainly unnatural and something humans should never have access to because it would be an extremely powerful tool, which humans are notorious for misusing. Time travel eliminates the one certainty we all face - death after living, and could be used to make small changes that affect the future hugely.  Is it ethical? I don’t think it would be ethical to use, but, like an atomic bomb, it could be used for the right reasons or for the wrong ones.

Captain's Log Stardate 102916: Make Love Not War

What would history and human life have been like without war?  “A Private Little War”, an episode in the original Star Trek TV series, begs the question. Kirk and McCoy go to a planet of humanoids that were originally peaceful, but after some were given flintlock rifles by the Klingons, they began to kill other natives. Kirk and McCoy are faced with the dilemma: should they give the other natives flintlocks to balance the playing field, or would that only increase the conflict?

War is central to human history. Here’s for some depressing statistics. Between 315-755 million people have died either in direct conflict or of other war-related deaths such as from epidemics. Humans have been at peace (no major conflicts were fought) during eight percent of the 3,400 years of recorded history. War is the pinnacle of human suffering. It’s easy to say that human history would have undoubtedly been better without war.

But war is a double-edged sword (pun intended). War has driven innovation, from ancient defensive architecture to the microwave oven and the Internet. War plays a key role in art, technology, religion, politics, the economy, etc. Also, some wars are justified in my eyes; rising up against an oppressor causes short-term destruction and sorrow, but can lead to greater happiness for the civilians.

If I could and did choose to live in a world without war, it would mean sacrificing my relatively awesome life for a potentially primitive one, because I find it hard to believe that a technologically advanced society could be entirely peaceful. I don't have an answer as to whether war makes life better in the long term. I'm content to sit in my room and think about it.

Captain's Log Stardate 102616: Relationships to Parents

In Frozen Journey by Philip K Dick, the protagonist (Victor) is forced to relive his childhood memories and discovers his buried guilt over helping his cat to kill a bird. He has anxiety issues, it seems, and the guilt about this and other little things has screwed him up. This is based off the Freudian mind, that the unconscious mind has trauma buried within it which could potentially affect the conscious mind. Also, Victor feels guilty about the death of the bird and feels like he should have been caught by his mother, but simultaneously doesn't want to have the wrath of his mother turned on him, which would likely lead to punishment.

The idea of wanting love and attention, not punishment, from one's mother is definitely Freud-derived. However, I think that child-parent relationships have changed quite a bit since Freud's childhood and even since 1980, when Frozen Journey was written. For most of human history, children were cherished as gifts from deities but also had to do manual labor to help their parents make a living. Often, 15-year olds were treated as adults (they fought in wars, they were married, they had to work, etc.). After the first Industrial Revolution in the 19th century (in First World countries), children were more expensive than profitable to their parents, and so they either worked or were sent to school or just to run around. In the 60’s, many parents were content to sit on the couch and let their kids run around and do irresponsible things like smoke cigarettes. Nowadays in American middle-class society, most parents are more involved with their kid’s lives (some form of a soccer mom), and are both loving and protective.

To me, it’s clear to see a trend in human history that parents are paying more attention to their kids (and hopefully showing them affection) but also that kids are losing independence. I personally think that this is a good trade-off: if you have a good relationship with your parents, like I do, they can help you out in a lot of ways as a kid. My parents help me deal with my problems, drive me around, encourage me to do well in school, and are there for me. If I did run around being irresponsible, I would lose that relationship with my parents, which may be worth it in the short term but is not in the long term (when they’re helping me pay for college after they helped me get into college).

Back to Frozen Journey, I can understand how not being loved by a parent could cause emotional trauma that would be buried in your subconscious and could eventually come back to bite you in the ass. I always feel bad hearing about people with uncaring or even abusive parents (shoutout to the Breakfast Club). Parents are an essential part of a kid’s life (though many teenagers would debate if they are a helpful one), and they should be a home base you can turn to during rough patches.

Thoughts on 2001: A Space Odyssey

Thoughts on 2001: A Space Odyssey

I thought the ape story was hilarious, having seen a rip-off of it in Mel Brooks' History of the World. Jokes aside, I could go into critiques of the story, such as the the unrealistic idea of apes living in barren desert devoid of water instead of, you know, a jungle. However, I appreciate the idea: that in one moment, an ape picked up a bone and turned it into a tool, forever changing the course of mankind. This was seemingly caused by the ominous alien monolith. Are aliens controlling our technological or societal advances? Maybe. If so, thanks guys!

HAL. At first he's creepy, then downright ominous, then full-blown psycho killer. Why did he do it? If we assume that he's intelligent enough to believe he is sentient and thus is sentient, he probably did kill Poole out of self-defense because he knew Poole and Bowman were planning on deactivating him. HAL is a computer without the 1st rule of robotics (don't kill humans or allow them to come to harm through inaction, Asimov reference). But why did he kill all of the other crew members? That was NOT just a malfunction, for sure. My theory is that HAL thought that if he killed Bowman and Poole then maybe the other astronauts would be awakened somehow and deactivate HAL. Alternatively, it could have something to with the secret message HAL was carrying. I think that only a pre-programmed order to kill those men (more conspiracies!) or self defense would have led HAL to kill the crew in their comas. Still, whatever the case, HAL deserved what he got in the end: the computer version of death.

This film is a work of art for its use of cinematography, special effects, and audio (think Poole's heavy breathing). That being said, like some great art (Mona Lisa?) it doesn't make sense to the average viewer, which I am. Given the choice, I would re-watch only the ape scenes and the HAL scenes, because I'm an American who likes to be entertained enough not to be bored and I felt like I generally understood those parts. This movie does make a nice change from the hero cycle and movie cliches that encompass almost every other movie I watch.

Captain's Log Stardate 9282016: My Epilogue to the Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

Epilogue:

The sun set upon the finest apartment in the finest building of the dead city. The sounds of dinner being prepared, the pots being filled with boiling water and rations being boiled to stew, rang out in the dead air. Not quite dead: in the other streets of the city were nine other apartments lit up, hustle and bustle.
“Mom, can I have some more stew?”, asked Texas.

“Of course, honey.” said Julia, their mother.

Later that night, Texas and his twin sister Brazil, went out in the red sands to explore. There was always something to find among the crumbling houses scattered across the deserts. They found pots and pans, dolls and pencils, shovels and pictures. Who left all of this here?, they would wonder some days.  But they did not think too hard along this train of thought, because there was no one here now and this was their playscape.

Washington, their older brother, stayed behind to continue his education with his mother.  Among other things, she taught him the history of Earth. Washington understood that his grandparents had come from Earth, that it was a little planet many miles away, and that he would never see Earth in person. Mars was his home.

“The Civil War was fought over slavery. People were being treated like livestock... remember what livestock are? Yes, so anyway, the Confederates wanted to keep their slaves and the Union wanted there to only be free people.”

Washington asked, “Why did the confederates want to make other people work for them?”

Julia, pausing for a moment, said, “they weren’t the only ones.  Slavery was very common in this time period in earth and it continued even when your grandfather Tim was alive.  It’s all about greed, and money.  People on earth would do a lot for greed and money, including treating other people badly. Of course, we don’t have money now.  We just share what we have and we’re still alive, so it’s worked out, hasn’t it?”

“I guess so.”

“We’re done for tonight, honey. Could you go get Tex and Brazil in a few minutes?”

Washington climbed down the staircase, spiraling on and on until he reached the floor.  Walking out onto the sands that had blown over where the city roads used to be, Washington walked into the desert to look for his sister and brother.  He knew he would find them soon enough.  Their screams of delight at all the toys they found could be heard from far away.  As he trudged along absent-mindedly, Washington thought of Earth.

Why had they all been so silly?  Why had they fought one another?  Why had they always argued about their differences?  Why did they think that people of different skin colors or women or those of different religions were that different from them? Washington felt that if he had been in charge of Earth, he probably could have done a better job then all the supposedly brilliant people that had run the planet.  

The sun was setting, making the sand shimmer like his mom had described the oceans on Earth. And why did they always use up too much of their wood or their coal or their oil or their water and fight over what was left?  Didn’t they see the end coming?  Didn’t they know that their water should have lasted them forever?
He heard them.  They were over there, in that little Martian House.  He walked up to the house, calling “it’s time to come home!”  Their little heads popped out of the house, followed by their running bodies. Soon they were at his side, panting and laughing as they tickled each other.  Washington thought, “what the Earth men would think of us?  Did they know that this was all you needed?”  

Captain's Log, Stardate 9142016: The Time Machine by HG Wells

The Time Machine by HG Wells was written in 1895. Let's review our history for a little bit. This was during the "2nd" Industrial Revolution, where electricity was being used to help with labor such as in conveyor belts at factories. A little over a hundred years before, the first mechanical loom had been invented. In terms of history, a hundred years isn't that much. It stands to reason that many people during this era were freaked out by technology. Also, the factories in which much of the population of countries such as Britain (the leader in industrialization) had terrible working conditions. Picture dark, underground sweat-shops (the kind of places where your Nikes are probably made). Some people, the capitalists, were getting really, really rich off industrialization and living the sweet life, but most people, the workers, were making a solid two bucks a day by working in the terrible factories. Humans in a nutshell. Now to the book.

First-off, just so you know, I've only read a small portion of The Time Machine, so that's all I'll be talking about. The book is narrated by a gentleman from Richmond, England in 1895 who tells the tale at a dinner party of his travels in his time machine to Earth in the year 802,701. He meets two species of creatures who evolved from mankind. The first are the Eloi, simple, beautiful, child-like creatures who live in the sunshine. The second are the Morlocks, spider-like creatures who live underground. As he is reasoning out how the two species evolved, the narrator says that the Eloi must have evolved from the capitalists by becoming lazy and stupid over time, whereas the Morlocks must have evolved from "the Laborers," the guys working underground in sweat-shops. AND, long-story short, the Morlocks raise the Eloi like cattle and EAT THEM. How's that for a moral.

HG Wells saw the stark contrast between the factory workers and the factory owners. He figured that someday the factory owners would get so fat and lazy and stupid that they would eventually be prey to the factory workers, which is ironic because it was basically the other way around back then, with the owners, the "Capitalists," controlling the workers. I can see how someone with a crazy imaginative mind like Wells' could envision that back then, but now things are different. About 22.9 % of the world is middle-class, with another 8.4% being upper-class, according to this website. That still leaves 68.7% of the world, true, and a number that will increase as falling birth rates affect the middle and upper class population, true, but in terms of poor people controlling rich ones, I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon, especially with the fall of communism. However, I can see Wells' point about not treating your workers like sh*t. It's inhumane, and that bad karma will come around and bite you where it hurts.

I'm a middle-class American teenager who's lived a privileged life in many ways, not excluding having a reasonable yet totally sufficient amount of money. I have a lot on my mind these days, but it's all homework and friends and practicing guitar and stuff like that. For me, that stuff is very consequential and important, and it fills my thoughts. But this excerpt that I read from The Time Machine made me think about the people that are still working in sweatshops for two bucks a day. It's not a fun life-style, and survival is a hell of a lot more important to them than if they will be stuck in traffic again. I can't do a whole lot to help their situation, or more accurately I DON'T EVEN TRY. Most of us don't even try. We go on with our lives.

So here's a final moral for you. Just don't forget those people living in the shadows, and every once in a while try to donate some time or money to help someone. We get to live this wonderful lifestyle, so why not try to help those people out every once in a while?

About Me

I'm a pretty rad dude who's know for my stunning smile and charming personality. In my free time, I revel in playing Ultimate, playing guitar and writing songs. When I was a kid, my dad used to read me sci fi books like I, Robot and Dune. I'm currently in high school, still enjoying Star Trek Next Generation, and writing this blog for a Sci Fi class. Enjoy!