Topic 9 - Cyberpunk

Lecture

The lecture this week discussed the term "Cyberpunk" and how it came into existence. Cyberpunk is a form of science ficiton genre. It relates to topics such as body modifications, genetics, computers and corporate developments. There are 5 different themes that fit under the heading of Cyberpunk. They are Technology & Mythology, Utopia & Dystopia, Cities as Machines, Technological Change and Modernism to Post Modernism. Each of these themes is a starting point for Cyberpunk stories or ideas and the stories evolve to represent one of these themes.

We then watched a screening of La Jetee which was a French New Wave movie made up entirely of still shots with narration over the top. The film was a post World War III look at Paris where the remaining survivors of the nuclear disaster attempt to go back in time to the pre-war era to perhaps prevent the war and gain more food and supplies. The films production was definitely different from anything I've ever seen before. I liked that it was different, but I found it dragged in some places. The narration was distracting since we had to read sub titles of the storyline, plus their actions. One pivotal part of the story, was when the woman looked into the camera longingly. It is the only shot with movement in it, and I thought it was interesting that the director decided to use it. To me it seemed to be the only real part of the movie, the only part that evoked any real emotion.

Readings

We read a chapter from a Cyberpunk novel called Burning Chrome by William Gibson. I found it almost impossible to read. It is filled with technical jargon that disrupted the flow of the book, but anyway I somehow managed to get through it. It was set sometime in the future, with computers being the controlling force throughout this fictional world. The story focusses on two hackers, who attempt to gain profits by hacking into systems and stealing whatever they can. I guess what the story was trying to portray was how dangerous computers can be, and that while today we have sought many good things from technology, it would not do to rely on it too much. There is always something or someone at the other end of your computer that could possibly steal your passwords, your bank account details or your identity.

The second reading was Plato's Allegory of the Cave. It explains social conditioning and how we accept things as we see them because we have been conditioned to do so, not because it's the way it is. Plato uses the example of prisoners being locked in a cave, in which they are seated with their backs to a fire. In front the fire is a walkway, where the captors move puppets along, so they create shadows on the walls that the prisoners can see. Plato suggests that if one prisoner was handed a book and a shadow moved across the wall at the same time and he said "Hey, a book," that he could be talking about the shadow on the wall and not the book in his hand. This is just an example of how things are not necessarily what they appear and that we are conditioned to believe things in a certain way.

Tutorial

In the tutorial this week, we were allowed to work on our Essay's. I have chosen to do my essay about why Apple computers are better than Microsoft and show examples of that. I have started with a short history of how each company came to be, but will mostly focus on the features of each operating system, highlighting the differences between them