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Final

Michael Pu

Rosetta Brooks

November 28, 2017

Final Paper

The human mind is something that wonders people to this day, there are still so much secrets to the brain that has not been figured out yet. One of the most prominent thing that all living beings have, are monsters. The monster comes in many forms, and changes according to human fears. The television show Hannibal, pushes the boundaries of monstrosity to its human limits. It is a wild journey into the strange minds of two characters: FBI profiler Will Graham, whose unique set of disorders enables him get inside the heads of the most brutal psychopaths; and his best friend and nemesis Hannibal Lecter. The show supersedes its entertaining plot and becomes a thoughtful meditation on the horrific emotional and psychological effects of violence on everyone it touches, from victims and law enforcement to perpetrators. When thinking of the human mind, one may think, what causes humans to act the way that we do?

A monster could be something that is either physical, or psychological, it is something that terrifies you, but it could also be the thing that is driving you towards success. A monster could be a fear of something mental, while it could also be a fear of someone. The monster changes according to the person, and people tend to avoid the monster on purpose, instead of confronting it. The main characeter in the show is Will Graham, an FBI profiler that no longer works on cases, but instead, teach classes on how to classify killers. Will has two main monsters throughout the show, the first is Hannibal Lecter, a psychiatrist that was referred to Will by his previous therapist. The second is the mental monster, a greater that is sometimes a buck, or a hybrid of a buck and a humanoid creature. The humanoid creature is usually completely black, as if there was tar poured over him. The monster could evolve, while it feeds off of the fear that we create, and the more we fear it, the bigger and stronger it gets. But as I mentioned previously, this monster could also help you out when you are in a pinch. In the first episode, we see Will come back to the FBI temporarily due to Will’s friend, Jack Crawford, and he has to have a psychoanalysis by one of FBI’s psychology teacher, Alana Bloom, who is a fellow profiler. In the first case that Will comes back to, the monster is created, the killer that he is trying to catch uses buck antlers to attach the bodies, and this scene scars him, the buck monster is created based on Will’s experience, especially when we reach to the climax of the episode, where Will was forced to shoot at the killer. It was at this time, that the monster was fully born, the killer was a man namer Garret Hobbs, and on his way out, he tried to kill his daughter, Abigail Hobbs, but the buck monster combines the antlers in which Garret skewered  them on, and Garret himself. The other monster, Hannibal Lecter, is someone who is on a higher plane of being a monster. He is also a serial killer, known as the Chesapeake Ripper by the FBI, that knows the human mind. He is also a cannibal, so he has a vast knowledge of the anatomy, which he uses as a alibi throughtou the show. Hannibal furthers Will’s fears, and causes him to go further down the hole, until he eventually becomes delusional. In the show, we can see that the buck createrue approaching him when certain events happen, but rarely, it shows up as a regular buck to lead Will down the right path. Will also has a strong mental image, which makes him a valuable profiler, but that tends to cause him more problems because it is strong. In one scene, we can see Alana talking to Jack Crawford, Jack being the supervisor of WIll, telling him to pull Will out if the case gets too out of hand, because of his gift of being able to see crime scenes, this makes him have a identity crisis, of not knowing what is really happening and who he exactly is.

The human emotion is extremely important, and in the show, it is the main driving force, of turning Will insane. The daughter of Gareet Hobbs, Abigail Hobbs, is one of the emotional characters that eventually turns Will into the person that he does not want to become. Abigail has been scarred by the consequences of the actions done by her father, and has been an outcast. Hannibal personally helps out Abigail, slowly turning her into a doll only to draw WIll in. To Will, Abigail was like a daughter, and he has thought about teaching her how to fly fish, for it is one of Will’s hobbies. The emotional stress of Will not being able to save someone deeply scars him, and he has difficulty coming to terms of it. Abigail and Hannibal shares a bond that is unique, in which they have both killed, and are now partners in crime. Will is an extremely sympathetic person, this was shown by him having different dogs at his home that he saved, and he wants to save whoever is in trouble, so when Abigail seeks help from Will, he will accept it. She asks him to take her back to the cabin where Garret murdered, and she tells Will that she remembered that her dad made her the bait to lead young girls to be killed, and she was the main reason so many people were killed. This was the final straw to break Will, in his mind, Abigail was someone that brings some joy in his life, to him, she is like a daughter to him, and this thought destroyed his thought of him. At this moment, he has a psychotic episode, and begins to question reality and hallucination, and everything begins to break down. However, when he wakes up, he is back in Virginia on a plane but without Abigail. She left him because she was scared of him, and when she went back to the kitchen, she sees Hannibal there , and she tells Hannibal what happened, and Hannibal was sorry that he couldn’t save her. We see Will in a state of Dementia, he could not tell what was reality and what was the illusion. Will then tells Hannibal that he to Minnesota, but she did not come back with him, and he does not know where she is. The both of them went back to the house to look for Abigail but at this time, Will throws up an ear, and Hannibal informs Will that they should call Jack. Upon inspection, they find out that this was Abigail’s ear, and they place Will under custody. Since Will’s emotions are completely messed up, and he does not even know if he killed her. This stopped Will and caused his self confidence to drop completely.

Reality differs from one person to another, we have also seen that a lot of people has different realities in their everyday life. One of the most reality bending thoughts are when Will is thinking about the murders taking place, his reality is then both in the real world at current time, but it is also the world in which he is the crime, and there, he exists in two worlds. The easiest way of describing what is happening is describing VR, where we are in the real world but we are also in the virtual world. When realities blend together, the human mind can not differentiate what is what, and that is the different part.The reality of news is also different, even when you are looking at the show, you are usually looking at a piece of fiction, but it is up to us to see what is real and what is fake. In Will Graham’s case, he has a extremely difficult time dealing with news, especially when it has something to do with him. There is a character in the show called Freddie Lounds, who is a journalist who posts on a newspaper with cases of murder, with or without permission. She wrote a special article describing Will, and how his thought process does not make him anymore different than a regular serial killer, and its evident in the show that news like this can change people and affect how they think.

Humans are quite unique and interesting creatures, we can create things that scares us to death, and cause ourselves to have illogical fear. In the case of Will Graham, it is one person who has no choice but to continue on suffering in order to do the right thing. The monster comes in many forms, and changes according to human fears. The television show Hannibal, pushes the boundaries of monstrosity to its human limits. It is a wild journey into the strange minds of two characters: FBI profiler Will Graham, whose unique set of disorders enables him get inside the heads of the most brutal psychopaths; and his best friend and nemesis Hannibal Lecter. The show supersedes its entertaining plot and becomes a thoughtful meditation on the horrific emotional and psychological effects of violence on everyone it touches, from victims and law enforcement to perpetrators. When going against such odds, will someone really be able to remain sane?

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Ted Talk Dystopia

The impact of social media has a great effect on us because mostly everything is on the internet, if we look something up, or if we go on any social media page, we see ads and a lot of different people having different products. In the physical world, there are limitations to what type of advertisement that can go on, but the persuasion architecture can be made very easily. That is something that Ai can do, they can figure out what we like, and based on that, they can advertise different products that are similar, but without limit. In the real world, there is a limited amount of space, but on internet, there are no limit of different advertisements.

I believe that technology controls us, but we control it as well, it works like how different animals cooperate in nature. For example, one of the examples is youtube, we tend to look up one videos, but end up looking more than necessary, and the reason is because we control the computer to show us what we want, yet the computer controls us by showing us something that we would instinctively want to click on, and therefore want to watch. It is like this that we are both being controlled and controlling at the same time, there is a balance of information that gets spread around, and what people worry most is if the balance goes off. 

Going back on the social media and technology controlling us, most people tend to get controlled by social media and technology because some people are on it 24/7, and when you like, or look at something, the AI continues to suggest more and more items that you might like.

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Thesis quote new

The monster comes in many variations, and it changes according to the fears of humans. Time may also be an important feature in how we view these monsters, and how the human mind stagnates in order to become who we are.

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Final Paper

I first wanted to write about Trump, and how his presidency is just one huge circus, and there are just so many jokes and memes that have come out, but now, I actually might want to write about a Tv show called Hannibal. Long story short, a cannibal that has extensive knowledge of the human body, a psychiratrist, and an intelegent person, who leads on a team of CIA agents on a wild goose chase to catch him. All throughout the show, there are a lot of mental psychology, and I believe that it would make for a better final paper, than to just joke about Trump. This show tells us how different situations create different mental images, and how the human mind can be completely deranged by a madman.

Thesis: There are many variations of the monster, and it varies based on each person, the human mind has its limits, but to exceed those limits, requires some extensive knowledge, and a blatant disregard for the sanity of the person, and how time might differ based on how we see ourselves, the human mind has its limits, but to exceed those limits, requires some extensive knowledge, and a blatant disregard for the sanity of the person, and how time might differ based on how we see ourselves.

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West world

Based on just the opening alone, and the title of this tv show, we can tell that this show is going to be about the west, with the music being a guitar. The next hints of what might the show is going to be about is the machine drawing the string lines that are inside pianos, and it also shows a similar machine building/3-d printing a living horse, which shows more elements of the west and machinery. It also shows the same machine constructing a human hand to play the piano that the machine had previously built, with cut ins of what appears to be conception happening, and with machines guiding the people. It also shows an eye reflecting some canyons, which points us in the landscape of where this show is going to happen, along with a revolver being built. It then shows the hand moving away from the piano while it is being played by itself, in which a machine holds the person like figure, and submerges him/her in white fluid, ending the opening with an iris of the eye. In the first episode, we are in this room with this woman sitting on a chair, fully nude, with lights flashing behind her, with a deep and mysterious voice asking her questions, and we find out that the woman’s name is Delores. She is speaking with an western accent, similar of those from down south, and the man tells her that she can drop the accent, and proceeds to ask her if she knows where she is right now, and she replies that she's in a dream, and that she would like to wake up. On the woman’s face, we can see some bruises, and we can tell that she is not in the right state of mind, or she cant move because there is a fly on her forehead and she does not respond to the fly. He then replies that she will wake up, as long as she answers some questions, and he asks “Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality?”, this question seems to hint that reality to one person, might be different to another, and based on this, reality can change. She then responds with “no” and he asks her to explain her world. She then explains to the man that some people like to see the bad side of things, while she perhaps likes to see the good side, and we see her waking up, and going about her place in a western setting, with clothing and the environment straight out of the old western films. The man then asks her about the “guests” and we then see the inside of a train, with people riding it, and one particular person stands out, he has a gray suit. We then see a piano being played, but not by a regular person, it is being played by itself, like a machine, and somehow, none of the people think that its weird, which might make us think that in this western setting, there are modern day machines in plain sight. Delores then says that these guests are only people who are looking to be free, to have a dream. We see the train arriving, and the camera focuses to one person, which could be our mc, and with what looks like a couple saying how nice it looks, while the man is saying how it should be, since they paid a lot of money. This seems to refer that this place is actually man made, and that people go there to be relaxed. A little action that our mc did was that he lifted his hat, to greet someone, which was used back in the day, and it shows that he’s been researching how the people who lived in the old times have greeted others, and along with his greeting, we see things that would only happen back in the old western days, with kids playing pranks with a scorpion, to metal forging being done by a blacksmith. After the mc accidentally runs into someone, he seems to reach down to his side for his revolver, but then decides to just brush it off, as to not cause any conflict, this shows how his character is. We then see a old wanted poster of a murderer and with a the town sheriff asking if anyone’s seen him, the sheriff stops him and says that he’s a man who looks like “he would put his metal to it” which to me, seems to imply that he looks to them, like a man to would be willing to strike someone down, but the mc respectfully declines. The man heads onto a saloon and asks for a glass of whiskey, and when he’s drinking it, a woman then tries to seduce the man, but she failed, and he leaves, but as he does, he sees the woman from the beginning in a blue dress and begins to follow her, and at this time, we hear a monologue of the man from the beginning asking if there are any inconstancies in your world, or repetitions. But the woman replies that everyone has a routine, but she didn't realize that it could change so dramatically from just one thing. We see her dropping the can and the mc picking it up, which hints that there will be something going on between these two that will change her “reality”. She then rides off on a horse to a field, with the mc behind her, and we see that she is herding cows and moving them, the mc makes small talk, asking how she can get them to move in one direction. She then makes a little joke of how he dresses like a cowboy, but doesn’t have all the experiences of being one, and this also hints at how he may be dressed up as a cowboy, since he in new, he may not know everything that happens. She then points out that there are one cow out there that others will follow, and she could point one out immediately, and he asks how she knows this, but she replies with “I just know, like how I know you’ll be back” this lines gives us some context that the mc might have been there before, but left, and that might be the reason of how they are getting along so well. She seems to have some romantic feelings for him, and the same goes for him, but her dad doesn’t approve of them, they ride back at night and they hear gunshots at at his house and we see the bandits at the place, and they killed Delorses’ parents, the mc then whistles to get their attention, and he shoots both of the bandits, successfully killing them. The man then asks the last question, and that she was wrong, there are no chance encounters, and that they are there for the people who pay to go there, the people that she calls “newcomers”. We then see Delores over her dad’s when a man in black approaches her, telling her that her dad gave up easily, she grabs the gun from her dad’s corpse and aims at him, but he slaps it out of her hands, and slaps her, asking if thats how she treats old friends. Saying how he’s been coming here for 30 years, and how she still doesn’t recognize him, when the mc asks him to step away, he reveals the mc’s name,Teddy, and asks if he knows any new tricks. Then the man from the beginning tells Delores that they cant hurt the newcomers, and that they can do anything they want, so when Teddy shoots the man in black, it does nothing. The man in black says that he doesn’t understand why they paired them off, suggesting that they were made to be together by something else. The man in black then says how in winning, there is no winner, unless there’s a loser. The man in black then begins to drag Delores away, while Teddy helplessly shoots at him, then he says something that might completely change the viewer’s perspective “I didn’t pay all this money so I wanted easy”, this phrase then sets up this weird little game, where people pay to have a simulation of the west, he then proceeds to shoot Teddy. After Teddy got shot, he says “its good to be back” which might infer that this “west world" is something that has been around for a while, and is like an amusement park to people who can pay, and they are people who can do anything that they want. The man from the beginning then asks Delores if her views would change about the new comers. However, she replies no, and that she welcomes all the newcomers, and that she’s thankful that she’s alive, while this monologue is going, we see from Teddy’s eye’s reflection that the man dragged Delores into the stable and closes the door, hinting that he might molest her. Delores in her monologue also states how beautiful this world could be, which is a completely different mood from what is going on. Then, we hear this saloon music, and the day replays, with her waking up, and the mc on the train, but this time, we see two woman in the front saying how lively he looks like, and how its so boring, that she wants to see somebody guys. This might imply to the opening of the show, which shows robots. When the camera zooms out, we see that it is only a small simulation with people around looking at this marvel. We then get a look at this laboratory space where there are scientists with horse skeletons, and how they are making live models out of them, which then shows glass rooms with people inside, but they might be manmade, which is robots. We then see all these workers working with the robots, making sure that they are moving accordingly to how they are supposed to act. Then we see a specific female doing something that is not common, with scientists saying how they didn’t put that there, and with a male scientist saying Ford did. Could this be a hint that the man from the beginning is Ford, and that he was narrating? The scientists then discuss that these gestures that Ford added are based on memory, but the female scientist then says they their memories get erased at the end of the cycle, which might imply that this goes on in a infinite loop. The male scientists says that they still have those deep inside, but Ford somehow managed to access them, like a subconscious, which the little things make the guests fall in love with them, then, the male scientist gets a call and has to leave, while the woman kisses the robot. This implies that the robots are so real, that we could take them as if they were normal human beings. We see the male scientist walking towards west world with a woman saying how one of his creations have acted restless. Then the woman asks for a team to check the situation, with her requesting another security to be in full body armor. It was this remark that made the scientist say how the cast cant hurt them, they are designed that way, while the security asks the scientist if he has any kids, and he replies with no, and he then says that they eventually rebels. Along with the woman saying how everytime they have a update, something could go wrong. Which might imply that this system is not all that stable, and could have something majorly wrong happen. This happened in cold storage, which we still don’t know what that is yet, but he then says “They haven’t had a critical failure in 30 years” This means that something did go wrong 30 years ago, and that nothing has happened since. The scientist then also goes into this west world to check if something could happen. As they go into cold storage, it is a literal “Cool storage” which we see water coming out of the gate, because the cooling system is off. We then see these bodies of robots, each with different gender, and faces, as they look for one of the woman. We then see two men, one dressed in a old fashioned western costume, with Ford. They are drinking in the cold storage, as they talk about the woman with the white shoes, then we found out that the robots were called “hosts”. We see Delores waking up again, and this time, we see and hear more about what her and her father were talking about. She promises to be home before dark, and the whole scene plays out again, but this time, with slight differences. But this time, the sheriff doesn’t stop Teddy, he stops a guest, with him saying how this might be fun. When he’s in the saloon, we can see another woman with three Chinese people drinking along with a host, but she also says toast, but in Chinese. This time,  he doesn’t head over to Delores, he gets stopped by other people, and this time, when she drops the can, the man in black picks it up. The man in black then heads to a gambling table, and gambles. We see the previous host playing along with the sheriff looking for the bandits. However, the sheriff then gets “bugged” and he stops working. We go back to the lab, and we see the sheriff all messed up. Then we see a British person acting like a dick(sorry) and acting like he owns the place, while the male scientist from before is figuring out why the sheriff stopped working. The female from before also says that they should pull out some of the hosts that have been updated so that nothing like this happens, but the British guy then says that this would mess up quest lines, and it wouldn’t work. The female then says something quite interesting “The guests interrupt these story lines all the time when they want to shoot or fuck something.” This shows how they are playing god, in a sense and controlling these dolls to be toys. The British guy proceeds to curse a lot, saying how it would be a disaster if they pull hosts out. We then learn that the male scientists name is Bernard. We go back into westward where people are just having sex in a house, and the guests are loving it. Then we see more hosts being more bugged and not working correctly. We then see Delores coloring near a river and with a family approaching, and a little kid asks if she’s one of them, telling her that she’s not real. This seems to bother her only slightly. We see the father herding cattle, when he unearthed a drawing. This time, Delores is back before dark, this time the dad sees a picture taken of the real world, and the dad is wondering what it is. We cut back to the real world, and we see the British guy apologizing to her saying how he was being too aggressive. He’s saying how they are too life like, Bernard is making these too real. This time, the British guy says something completely interesting, that the corporate has a different real interest then to making some rich assholes happy. This tells of something darker, and that there is something else going on here. We see a saloon with the gambler in which the man in black was sitting at a while back, and how, he comes back to kill him. We see Bernard as he finished fixing up the Sheriff, and he looks at a picture of a little girl, possibly his daughter and he’s envious of how forgetful they are, implying that he wishes that there are somethings that he wants to forget. He gets interrupted by someone saying how something has gone wrong with one of the hosts. We see someone shooting everyone at a saloon, and he pours milk on the bodies, and as he approaches the remaining two survivors he takes a swig, but some milk seeps out of one of the bullet holes. This would mean that he should be dead, but something happened that led to him still being alive. We see this person going outside and starts pouring milk inside the mouth of one of his victims. Bernard then comes to the scene, but there was something else going on, and the woman wants to stop everything. We see the machine that was in the beginning, dipping the skeletons in a white liquid, and we see how they are created. Then, Bernard talks to Ford, and how Ford might have messed somethings up when he put in different codes in. We then see a gruesome scene of how the man in black has the dealer drained of some of his blood, but is somehow still alive, and the man wants answers, he seems to have found out that there is something else that is going on, and he proceeds to mess with him. We see Delores waking up, but this time, her dad didn’t respond to her, the dad is too absorbed in the picture, he seems to find out that they are fake, he then whispers something in her ears, and she rushes off to find a doctor. To me, he might have told her that everything is fake, and that nothing is real. When she reached the doctors office, the doors were locked and she sees Teddy, but they are approached by people in garbs over their head. It then shows that this was a scripted event, and that this was a robbery to entertain the guests. The hosts of the robbery then goes on a killing streak, killing most of the hosts on the street, they decide to rob a saloon. Then, Teddy gets shot because Delores wants to get back home. The main robber was in front of the saloon, and the couple from before shoots him and he and her starts to celebrate what they did. Teddy dies while Delores is holding him, and this might trigger some lasting effects on what she did. We go to the lab and see the Delores inside the glass room as they ask her questions, and we see the full picture, we see the man who was asking these philosophical questions. We then see scientists taking out the picture and they are looking at the father and how the picture affected him, and we see Ford and the father talking, while Ford is trying to figure out what is wrong. The dad's name is Peters, and he describes himself. Peters then says that he needs to warn her, of the things that people will do to her, and that she needs to get out. Bernard then describes it being more than a glitch. Ford then asks Ford what he wants, and he says that he wants to meet his maker, that his mechanic dirty hands, he shall have such revenges on you, and the things that they will do. To me, what Ford did was something of a subconscious, and he was gaining himself. Then, Ford discovered that Peters had accessed his previous builds, which were his previous makings, and that he was somehow referencing those words. We see Delores getting asked what her father told her, and she said, “These violent delights have violent ends”. The asker then asked if she would ever lie to them, and she replies with no, and the final question, if she would hurt a living thing, and she said no, of course not. We then find out that Delores is the oldest host in the park, and when asked to describe the world, she describes how she chooses to see the beauty. We see her waking up and seeing a different dad, while he asks her a different question. We also see Bernard putting away Peters, and moving them to cold storage. We see the man in black holding the scalp of the dealer and there is a weird marking on the underside, and when we see Delores again, a fly lands on her neck and she proceeds to kill the fly. In conclusion, west world is an amusement park for people who want an escape, for them to play god and be able to do what ever they want, and in this world, the line between real and fake are mixed, to the point where everything that would be fake, would become real. This also shows how artificial intelligence could be able to evolve, and become this thing that would change to the point where we have no choice but to cut off the energy source.

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Playtest

Playtest is a episode of a season of an tv show called Black Mirror. These tv series is about people who have gone through certain things that are unique to their own, and this particular episode is about how virtual reality can be directly synced into the brain via a chip installed behind the neck. This episode focused on how one person had an internal conflict with his family, and how he traveled around to get away from all the stress, so he went on a trip to try to discover himself, and through this, the main character gets into trouble. The main aspect if this entire episode, to me, seems to show how human nature are. The main points that speaks out to me, are when the character runs away from his responsibility, how he deals with certain things without any thought, and how he is greedy. The main plot of this episode is how our main character, Cooper, travels far away because of his family situation, and how he would not talk to his mom because they dont have a real connection, and he refuses to pick up her phone calls. Then, as he reaches London, he goes to a bar and meets a woman, Sonja, and they hit it off, and he goes back to her place, and they wake up the next morning with Cooper explaining exactly why he traveled, and how Sonja advises him to call his mom, which he still refuses to do. We see him at a ATM trying to withdraw money, but the card says that he does not have any money left, and he has only two choices, either call his mom for money, or to earn some quick cash. We see him at the staircase of Sonja again, and she offers him another night of staying there, and he is extremely thankful. He pulls up an app that allows people to see random odd jobs around the, sort of like craigslist, and he sees a ad that is suggested for people who are “Thrill Seekers” and he reads the company as “SaitoGemu” and Sonja tells Cooper that this is a massive gaming company that produces horror games, and that the company is massive. Sonja then says that because the company is so big, and their work is so secretive, if he gets any pictures, then he will earn lots of money from people who wants these pics. He then gets driven to the company, where he is being shown around by Katie, which is the boss’s assistant, and he has an extremely carefree attitude. They next enter a completely white room, in which before entering, Katie asks for Cooper’s phone, so he would not take any pictures, and provcedes to turn it off. As they enter a room, there is a briefcase on the table, and she then offers him a agreement, stating that there is a little procedure that must be done, and how he has to sign the contract, however, they are missing a page, and Katie leaves to get the final paper, Cooper takes the chance and takes pictures of what is inside the briefcase, and sends it to Sonja. Then he rushes to sit down to avoid getting caught, then they procede to install a little chip, and she activates it, showing how vr is done, and she has a little whack-a-mole game, and he participates. It is shown in this scene of how unusually calm he is, and how childish he is. After the little game, she introduces him to the main head of the company, Shou, and Katie has to translate some words into Japanese so hat they can communicate, and we see them having another test of vr in Shou’s office. This time, they take Cooper and move him into a replica of a horror house that they have modeled one of their games into, and they told him that all he needed to do was to stay there for the night, and if he gets too scared, then he can say his safety word and they stop. After a while of him looking around the house and being carefree, he sees a fake spider on the floor, and procedes to attack it. The reason of why there is a spider, is because the chip takes the person’s fears and anxieties and turns them into reality, and he is arachnophobic, during this time, through dialogue, we can see that Cooper is clearly sexist and makes some jokes about how men are better than woman, and he hears foot steps upstairs, and as he turns around, there is a person standing there, dressed like how they would back in the day, and Cooper realizes that he looks like a high school bully, Josh Peters, and Cooper again being afraid of him. He then wanders into the kitchen looking for snacks, and he jokes around, saying how if he closes the cabinet door, then he will be right there. Right as he closes it a massive spider shows up with Josh’s face on it, and it has combined the two of his fears. Next, Sonja arrives, and warns him that he is in danger, saying how the technology that Shou applied for a patent was denied because it was too dangerous, and he need to run, then she says how they have to get out. She then procedes to attack him, telling him that she tracked him through his phone, but he says that they took away his phone, and she procedes to stab him with a knife, then he says that he feels the pain and as Sonja’s face turns grosteque, he tells Katie that he wants to stop, but he has to get to the end off the room on the second floor, but before he enters, he’s afraid that he’s mom is going to be there, and katie keeps on telling him that he needs to go in. As soon as he gets in, Katie tells him that theres no way of escaping, and that was all just a mind trick, in tricking him, and as Cooper loses his mind, they rush in, telling him that the cant remove the chip because the chip has connected deeper into the brain, and they cant remove it, he then loses his memories, and shows signs of Alzheimer's, like his grandpa, and they take him away. It then shows that what happend was all in the game, and it has only been one second in real life, and then Shou apologies that it was stronger than expected and he goes home. When Cooper sees his house, he’s happy, and as soon as he enters his mom’s room, he says that he’s home, but she says that she must call him, because she is worried, and we see her face resembles someone else. Then, he gets a headache, and we show him back in the white room, on the chair, with blood coming out of his nose, and he’s presumed dead. The reason of why this has happened was because his mom called him, and the phone waves interrupted. What was disturbing about his mom was because her face resembled Josh face, which followed the trend. Then, the episodes ends.  

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Jean Baudrillard Simulacra and Simulations

Abstraction back then was something that was completely different now, back then it was something that was detailed, and when something was out of place, and distinguished, it was really noticeable. Now, abstraction is something that is completely different, and the simulation of realty is also different. Back in the day, things were able to perceived in reality, because there was not other way, there was only reality, but now, there are virtual realty, which could simulate an entire different world, that couldn't be mapped out because it is not real, only an simulation. It is only because it is an simulation that it cant be mapped out, since it could change indefinitely times. Now, tales and fantasy could become reality, made possible by technology. Back then fables were something that was spoken as something that couldn't happen, so it was written down, and it was changed into something of a literal map, books, made it possible for people to live these fantasies. Simulation is also a very broad word, with saying how simulation describes how we feel at the time, and how we can say that by lying about something that we have, we could be simulating that we actually have that thing, but in reality, we don’t. However, people also have a use for simulation that is based on something that is in a sense, a simulation. The disappearance of god, or someone on an higher plane, for example. With the thought, that there was something up there, and how they have disappeared, people can use this to their advantage to do something. Disneyland was also included in this writing, and how its saying how the whole concept of this park is based on simulations and illusions, and how they play off the illusions of talking mice, and pirates, and other magical things. That, is an simulation of something that is not real.

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Monsters

Monsters, they are something that could be both physical, or emotional. A monster could be as simple as a little dog, or as complex as a boulder of depression setting upon an individual. Some people have monsters all around them, and on themselves, it all depends on how the individual perceives these things that change the context. To me, a monster is something that is completely in our minds, for example, most of the horror movies that have a “monster” in it that terrorizes people, and affecting them not only in a physical level, but also an emotional one. A monster is some thing that scares us, in the sense of something that could be something to do with our minds, like loneliness, most people don’t think of this as a monster, but it fits the category, it is something that can affect you physically, by making yourself changing into something that you’re not, so that you get attention, which is physical, and the mentality of having that thought of always being alone will make you stop in the path of what you are doing. A monster could also be a phobia as well, if you think of it, there are buttloads of phobias out there, and the fear of these phobias wpuld affect you mentally, back to hte fear of the little puppies, to people without the fear of dogs, we view them as adorable, and cuddily animals that can do no harm, but to someone who might be extremelyy afraid, it could be a ten foot monster that has razor sharp teeth. When Cohen talks about the Monster Being a Cultural Body, was probablyy referring to how differnt cultures make differnt legends and scary stories to scare children into doing certain things. The most common would be Krumpus, the opposite of Santa, which would snatch the bad children if they did something bad, and in this certain culture, this has become somethign of a monster to those children. However, based on Cohen’s ideas, adults also have somethign that is similiar, soething called failure. When someone has a job, the monster is not the manager of the place, but rather the fact that if they failed at somethign, it could cost them the job, and that might scare them the most. Monsters are something that we put on equal grounds with someone’s internal fears, while these fears might only be applicable to some people, no one person will be fearless, the only people that claims this are those that are better at hiding their emotions. Monsters are something that already exist, they are only spread around more, we, as humans create more monsters everyday. The way these monsters are created are by our own imaginations, poelp imagine situations that are negative agaisnt them, and if they cant think of a solution, then these negative thoughts becomes a monster in our own brains. 

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Mementos

In the first scene of the movie, you can get a sense of how the movie might play out, in a post modernist way, we see a Polaroid picture of a murdered corpse with blood splattered, and as the man shakes the Polaroid, it seems to revert one step back to it before it was taken, then it reverts back to before the person was killed, then it cuts to a black and white screen. This makes the whole plot of the movie slightly misaligned, and makes it harder for the audience to make out what is what. It then cuts to a self narration of what the character is describing around him in his hotel room, then it cuts to a store where the protagonist is asking the clerk about this individual, and at that exact time, the person that the protagonist was looking for walks in. It already shows some tension in the way the two interact with each other, and what’s interesting is that the protagonist has what appears to be two scratch marks on his face. The protagonist points out that he might have some condition, but what that is, we don’t know yet. The protagonist then proceeds to head to his car with this individual, and the individual seems to be poking fun at his condition, which might count as a disability, and seems to be having a little laugh. We can get a sense of how times have changed because if this comment was made in todays society, there might be some harsh critics, because these types of comments are not to be stated in this day and age. After they get in the car, they start talking, and making little remarks, while the portagonist’s friend asks “Where are we going” and he says that he has a lead. From this little dialogue, it seems like that they might be in some partnership, because he also called him “Sherlock” while they were in the car, so perhaps they investigate certain cases? When his friend asks why they are going there, the mc says that he forgot, which might be a sign of what his condition might be. When they arrive they see a car parked at this abandoned place, and the mc makes a remark saying that the tracks are only a few days old, while his friends makes another quirky remark asking is he is pochantos, referring to how the native americans would track animals using their basic instincts. But to me, it feels like more of a jab at the American history and how the Americans really didn't do the Native Americans any justice, and here we are, making jokes about something that was essentially a dark part of America’s history. As he goes into this building, he takes out several polaroids and reads them, with one having his friends face on it, and it stating his name, Teddy , and on the back, it reads “Don’t trust his lies, Kill him”, and as soon as he reads this, he has an internal moment of clarity, and asks himself how long has he known that he has found him all this time. With this said, and the previous facts, it seems to be about his memory, and as his friend walks in, he takes out his pistol, and as he turns around to leave, the mc whips the back of his head, knocking him down, and dragging him away deeper inside the building, with them reaching the begging stage of the movie where he has a gun at Teddy’s head. The mc tells him to beg for forgiveness, but at this point, we don’t know what he is referring to, and with Teddy calling him a freak. They have a conversation about how the mc doesn't really know anything, and he himself states his name, which is Lenard, and states where he’s from, but Teddy says that’s not what he’s become, inviting him to the basement to show who he really is, and moments after, Lenard shoots Teddy. Right after, it cuts to a continuation, of a black and white scene where he is in a hotel room, and he is looking through the bedside table, while in this scene, he describes how he writes notes down so that he doesn't forget them, and showing a tattoo oh his hand that reads remember Sammy Jacks. It then shows a scene where he is writing down the information regarding Teddy and his lie, and as he gets ready, he heads down stairs and it shows him inside the main lobby, talking to the clerk from early on in the movie, and how he states that he forgets things easily. At this point in the movie, it is clear that the movie sequences and all messed up, and are playing at a random order, similar to how Lenard cant really remember things, only fragments, so the movie is conveying his point of view of how he went through all of this. As soon as Teddy walks in, the scene ends and goes back to his hotel room, showing a note that he put on himself, reminding himself to shave. The next scene shows him in the restroom washing his hands, and while he washes his hand, he glances over at the tattoo saying to Remember Sammy Jacks, and he looks around even more and finds more tattoos. This is clear that he does forget things, because of how he even forgot the tattoo on his hand, which is in such a obvious place, and it is placed there deliberately to show that the Lenard has memory problems, therefore, he needs ore help in order to get things done. All throughout the movie, it is highly suggested that he indeed has this problem, and shows it. It shows how he deals with certain situations effectively, by writing down notes, kind of like predicting his own future in what he needs to do, and how he’s going to do it. This movie has quite a bit of conflict, internal, and external, it’s clearly stated that he has had a wife who has been killed, and there are people who he needs to see in order to find out the truth. This movie jabs at how society is, and how certain little things can affect how people view you. This movie to me seems to really focus on the difference in society, and how the view of the world changes according to different people.

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Remix Culture

Remix culture is relatively huge due to the fact that there are multiple websites that promote self made videos, with youtube being one of the powerhouses on the web. Remix is about taking something, usually visual text, music, and other aspects, and combining them into something that the creator wants, whether it is to express their own views on a certain topic, to teach something using mixed media, or just for public amusement. The video I choose was a compilation  of short clips from an Anime which is Japanese animation. The anime compilation was called Gintama, which the name itself is an innuendo about something else. The anime is basically comedy, with some plot. This anime also includes other pop references, from both western and eastern tastes. One of the most common reference is about a different anime called gundam, which is a mecha anime. This compilation involves different scenes, which the creator cuts together and makes into one video. The creator mixes different clips together, and makes something that makes the creator happy about what he/she did. This is slightly controversial because there could be people who find this as stealing, but other people also argue that because it is all over the internet, it is impossible for people to strike down every single creator which has these videos online. Some creators are especially careful, and they mirror videos in order to prevent the chances of their videos being taken down. One of the biggest arguments about sharing these videos online is because since the creators of these videos do not own the animation, they do not have the right to change and distribute it, but the counter argument is that because people change it and make it into something that they made, they have the right to distribute it. But is it really copying what the original creators have made? Yes, they did copy scenes and videos from the original, but then they change it, and make it into something entirely different. However, these compilation creators are not saying that these are theirs, they created these mix of comedy moments from, but they are not saying that they drew everything and animated it. These people are creating something in the hopes of making something funny that would make people happy, and laugh, they are not stealing something and calling it theirs. These creators are not the only people who change something so that it can fit into something that they like. People have been doing this for centuries, the most common example is Ford’s Model T, which is the first mass produced car, was created by combining certain methods. Most artists also start off by copying certain things, and mixing it into their own piece, videos and movies are also a form of art. There has also been many bands that have used different tempos from other album covers and change it up, and make it into their own. Remix culture is one of the reasons that we have come this far in technological advances, because companies copy other ideas that rivals have, and they improve it, and make it theirs. This was the same with youtube, youtube was not the first media sharing site, there were others, such as Vimeo, but youtube has been this big due to the fact that they need to be one step of head of the game so that they can be the best on the internet. Remix culture can be seen in everything, from essays, to slide shows, but how people change the context of what they have made will be the deciding factor of what is considered remix, and copying. If someone reads an article, and writes another article based on that, but they change all the words, and make some adjustments, then that is considered remix, however, if you just copy someone else’s article, then submit it claiming that it is your own, then that is plagiarism. It is because people have been able to take things, copy them and making them different, that we have come this far, most things that we see are things that are copied, and changed into something different so that it can be improved on, it is because of this that we have such a rich culture, and how we have many different ideas. 

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Lady Gaga:Telephone

To begin, Lady Gaga is huge in the music world, famous for her music, and bizarre clothing choices. In the video, the opening shot is the coiling barbed wire on top of a prison wall, which then leads to a wide shot of what seems like the La river. A minor detail that most people might miss is the grafitti that is on one of the walls of this prison, it is important to have grafitti there because La is deeply rooted in the art of graffiti and the culture of tagging on an wall. What breaks the traditional rules of modernism is the fact that everything is different, and in specific, the clothes. There are prison guards that have an extremely masculine face, but with the body of a woman, and the clothing that all the female prisoners have, are all non-traditional, they all look like that they are ready for the cat walk. When they are escorting her to her jell cell, we get a view of some of the women that are in the prison, they have tattoos and are acting in an seductive manner, and when they reach her jail cell, they take off her clothes, leaving her in her fish nets and close the door. What they say next will shock the audience, “I told you she doesn't have a dick”, this was the short conversation between the prisoners, and it was interesting because now, we have a more broad view of the world, and how transvestites, are not judged severely, because of who they are. The scene then changes to the yard where people start working out and others socialize, and we see again, that there are women with muscular bodies working out, dressed in various forms of fashion statements, along with high heels, and expensive looking jewelry. We then see Lady Gaga being brought there, but this time, in a unique outfit with chains, and a pair of shades made out of lit cigarets. We see her sit down in a court yard while being surrounded by the prisoners and one sits down next to her and starts to kiss and to make out with her, while another reaches down to grab her phone, with flashes Virgin Mobile on the main screen, with the speakers telling Gaga that she has a phone call, but she doesn't seem to care. It then cuts to a large cell where people are socializing, again, all wearing different clothes, along with Gaga’s ridiculous fashion, when two women starts fighting. Whats interesting here is that even though there is a security officer outside, she does not care, which sort of replicates how the modern day officers do not seem to care if there is violence going on, with another announcement on the speaker that says Gaga has a call from Beyonce. In which she answers and starts singing the song. She states that she cant hear her clearly because the signal is breaking up and that she cant talk and she’s busy, in which she breaks out into a dance, with her singing, then the scene changes to a hallway where she is in her lingerie with others in the same styled lingerie with studs on them. The only women who has these on are the back up dancers, with others in their cells with normal fashionish clothes, with scenes cutting in of her wrapped in yellow caution tape, possibly signaling that she’s dangerous. She then gets bailed out by Beyonce, and while that’s happening, the prison guard is on a dating website, with a ridiculous name, to poke fun at dating sites. She gets picked up by Beyonce in an bright yellow pick up, with red flames in front, with fuzzy dice hanging on the rear view mirror, and in the back, a decal that says Pussy Wagon. In this scene and the next, they are seen eating junk food, and how Beyonce threw a cheap plastic covered pastry on the floor, suggesting that these junk food are trash. While on the truck, Beyonce starts singing while Gaga starts taking polaroids with an old styled camera, and the next scene is at an old styled Diner, where Beyonce met up with an African American, and it shows him interacting with her and with someone in the diner in an silent movie style, with no voices, but with neon colored subtitles and sfxs, the man leaves to get something, angering another in the process, and they start arguing, in this moment, Beyonce pulls out an vial of poison and pours it into the coffee that he was drinking. As soon as he drinks it, he starts coughing, and the screen splits, and it shows Gaga, in the kitchen with a phone singing, with back up dancers, now men, with deep eye shadow and make up dancing. Using various items in the kitchen to replace a phone. We then cut to Beyonce in a room wearing clothes that Michael Jackson would wear, and they start singing their duet, and Gaga starts making a sandwich. In the kitchen, it is interesting because the conception that men had was that women belonged in an kitchen, and makes sandwichs, and in the exact video, it shows her making a sandwich, while showcasing a brand of mayonnaise, with men behind her dancing. The men, however, was not all one color, they were all different races, and colors. It shows her putting poison in people’s foods. With the African American eating the food, and consequently, dying, with other people in the diner also dying due to Gaga poisoning them, with Gaga saying one, two, three in german with finger pistols. As soon as she reaches three, she pulls the trigger and all the customers in the diner dies. Then theres once again dancing, and people dressing like “Americans” and the news searching for these two for homicide, with them leaving and saying, To Be Continued...... This video made fun of various aspects that people have, and she broadcasts it, and tells it to the world.

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Stagnation

I agree, with the statement that we are trapped in an cycle of stagnation. But no one seems to really ask the simple question of why? To me, we are in this stagnated period because everyone is afraid of change, most people would not welcome change, in fact, they are afraid of it. People who are currently happy with the way they are do not wish to better themselves and their living style, and the people who are not happy with the way life is happening is also afraid of change because of a single reason, they do not know if change is good. People who make it by paycheck to paycheck are not happy with the way that they are living but it is the only way that they know how to live because they have lived this way for a big part of their lives and the uncertainty of trying to change is a big gamble. The gamble is their lives, literally, if they want to get out of the cycle of living on the edge, they have to be prepared to face more sacrifices, sacrifices in which people generally tend to avoid. The reason why people who are happy with the way their lives are going is also afraid with change because the change could be a negative effect to their lives, therefore making their lives less fulfilling. It is because of this thought process of people wanting things to be the same, and afraid of taking the next step is the reason of why the economy is stagnating. Innovation comes in different forms, and the reason of why we are also stopped at this stage is because people are afraid of doing something different, and being criticized for it, the biggest thing that people fear is being the only one who has a different idea, and because you are different, you have a massive target for people who are seeing the thing that you are creating. That is why if you look on the market, there are tons of big and small companies that create the same thing, except that one product is different than a product of an opposing company. Companies have a huge risk with inventions, because they are big companies, a single failure will cause them to fall significantly, “The higher they are, the harder the fall”, once a company has reached the status of reaching out globally, one single mess up could cause massive damage. Look at Samsung for example, when the Galaxy Note 7 was released, the phone caught on fire and exploded, and they still are trying to make up for that mess up to this day. All these examples of how people not wanting to go forward and take the first step is the main cause that we are in a period of stagnation, both economically, and innovational. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVBsypHzF3U