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Speculation 14: Adapting Ted Chiang’s “The Truth of fact, the Truth of Feeling”

We have become fascinated with lifelog, which is the idea of documenting our whole lives because we want a record of our precious memories and with the progression of technology it has quickly become a reality. In Ted Chiang’s short story, society has progressed forward where we have invented retinal projectors, which allows us to pull up an old memory and view it along the bottom of our vision and share this with others. With this kind of technology, no longer will childhood amnesia, an adult’s inability to retrieve episodic memories before the age of ten, be something we need to worry about.

The main character compares the introduction of missionary writing to the Tiv people with his research on Remem. The imagined life of Jijingi parallels with his life for they both journey to see “what’s right and what’s precise” when looking at the records that they are able to produce. When looking at the records writing and Remem can produce for them, one thing they realize is how new introduced technology can change the way they feel about facing the truth. When the main character revaluates his relationship with his daughter, his view of Remem changes where he becomes more accepting of this new technology whereas in the fictional story he ends up writing, he has Jijingi reject writing in favor of returning to the Tiv way.

For my remix of “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling” I would focus my vid on the similar journey that Jijingi and the main character goes through when discovering the truth through the new technology. For my casting of my video I wanted it to be diverse, so I chose Ghanaian teen actor, Abraham Attah, as Jijingi, Janine Oda as Nicole, and Dennis Haysbert as the main character. I wanted Jijingi to be played by a West Africian so it would be an accurate deception of the Tiv people who are from West Africa. In addition, I chose to bring to light on the topic of biracial marriage by having Nicole be mixed race where her father is black and her mother is Asian. I thought Dennis Haysbert would be fitting when casting him in as a hardworking father who wants to make amends with his daughter. When I imagine the retinal projector it reminded me of a young adult fantasy series called The Lunar Chronicles where the main character Cinder is part cyborg who possesses this ability. So when finding images of this advance technology I would pull images from these sci-fi and dystopia novels and movies which will be easy to find when we are always coming up with new innovations. During the main character’s journey, I would use soft music being played faintly to represent the nostalgic feeling when remembering while allowing the words to be clearly heard because they play a crucial part in our memories. For Jijingi’s journey I would use clips from African missionary and Tiv people documentaries which will be like the facts that the main character talked about while Abraham will be the dramatized aspect of the story. The background music during these scenes I would imagine would be traditional Tiv music which is hard to find on the internet.

22min, Digital Video, 2006 Directed & Edited by Tadashi Nakamura - tadashinakamura.com Produced by Karen L. Ishizuka Exec. Produced by Robert A. Nakamura PILGRIMAGE…

Step 1: Research

Maquiladora is a factory that produces goods for a foreign company in Mexico and the products are exported back to the company.

Black Feminism is the idea where sexism, class oppression, gender identity, and racism are intersectional where these concepts viewed independently insect at points. It was believed by the Combahee River Collective in 1974 that by liberating black women will lead to freedom for all people because it will end of racism, sexism, and class oppression.

Shifting the paradigm is a change in the model or a pattern.

Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) is an agency in charge of “identifying, investigating, and dismantling” issues pertaining to the nation’s border security and transportation passing through the border.

Step 2: Analyze

Gumbs bluntly states the issues of the present are oppression which led to silence-breaking and capitalism in which in the future they were successful in obtaining a socialist society. In the letter written by twelve-year-old Alandrix to her ancestor Alexis, she talks about her project on silence-breaking and since that breaking point with the war they have become patient “hope holders and healers.” From the present to the future in which Alandrix lives in, there has been a transition with society’s attitude and since the change the future has become a utopia and they were able to achieve that ideal image we all strive for. It was obvious that Gumbs is against capitalism when the last letter is from Alexis after capitalism to Alexis during capitalism where she talks about how the future has become much brighter since the change.

Step 3: Speculate

Digital Time Capsule

Item: Digital Video

Name: Pilgrimage

Director and Editor: Tadashi Nakamura

Producer: Karen L. Ishizuka

Executive Producer: Robert A. Nakamura

Date: 2006

Length: 22 minutes

Source: https://vimeo.com/41131994

Pilgrimage is a digital video that focuses on the creation of the annual Manzanar pilgrimage which became a movement when many sanseis were interested in finding out what these “camps” that their parents talked about were like. The sansei are the third Japanese Americans who spoke up about the injustices that their parents’ and grandparents’ faced when they were incarcerated during World War II. Most of the journey was told through a generation who never had to experience the injustice yet very vocal in speaking up and this is powerful because it shows the determination in preventing history from repeating itself. This video is a reminder for us in the present of history that is slowly be forgotten if we are not vocal about it and I fear in 2066 it will be unknown to that generation. Already with my generation, the yonseis, it is feared that we will become ignorant to our ancestors’ sacrifices. Not only does this video talk about the struggles of Japanese Americans but also relates it to the post 9/11 world we are living in, bringing together other communities in this fight for justice.

Speculation 13: 2066 Time Capsule Prompt

Even before the massacre of her community, Lauren did not agree with the same beliefs as her father and started to create Earthseed as way to express her beliefs about change and survival. She hid away these ideas inside a journal and it wasn’t until after surviving the destruction of her community and family she started to share her beliefs with the other survivors, Harry and Zahra, and a mixed couple Natividad and Travis. Lauren believes “ ‘The Destiny of Earthseed is to take root among the stars.’ ” in which she believes in order for humanity to survive we need to spread out and one destination she mentions is into space (222). A big part of her belief is change and she personifies this idea as God. She believes that people will remember the ideas better associating it with someone who is complex as the ideas.

When looking at the complexity of race there isn’t one straightforward answer in creating a more accepting and understanding society. One big change that will occur within this envisioned society of 2066 is changing the structures of media and the education system. Today social media has a huge impact on how we view the world and is a part of shaping our prejudices and stereotypes. So by 2066, the media would have an unbiased attitude when talking about religion and race. Another inequality seen today is the systematic racism when providing education within our schools. By 2066, each student will be put into classes that best fit their interests and skill set allowing them to use their full potential. One reason behind our prejudices is because we do not fully understand and know about others beliefs. One way to solve this issue is exposing students at a young age to all beliefs and accurately explaining each one of them. In my image, I drew a classroom of young students learning about each religion and on the blackboard I drew the symbols of these religions. I find this to be very relevant to what we talk about in last discussion about race and when we walked towards the string of comments and questions about race at UCSD.

Talk and ask questions about race. See what others have to say. Make sure to listen first. (Posted responses by Greg, anonymous person, and myself)

Fans and academics are sharing a suggested reading and viewing list that reflects the themes running through the visual album, creating a Lemonade Syllabus.

In Parable of the Sower, the main character Lauren Olamina states she has hyperempathy where she is able to feel the same emotions of others and at times feel others physical pain as well. The dystopia that Lauren lives within starts in a gated community which is a residential area surrounded by gates in order to protect them from criminals. The novel’s definition of gated community pertains to a protected community yet lives in somewhat destitute whereas in the present we associate gated community as a community of the wealthy. Lauren has noticed that the world is changing and her father agrees with this when he tells her that’s one of the reason why they eat acorn bread. Both Lauren and her father state that acorn bread was made by Native Americans and they made this food by using the available resources. She believes that they must learn how to survive when an apocalypse arrives and they must live outside of their gated community. She then creates the word Earthseed, which is her own created religion and she came up with this idea when thinking about places “where plants seeded themselves and grow long before any humans arrived.”

California is susceptible to forest fires and earthquakes and I predict that in 2066 that a huge earthquake will decimate Los Angeles. With this natural divide in the earth it has brought a social divide among the communities like in Parable of the Sower. In my sketch I drew a crack in the middle of the page depicting the divide between the gated communities and the poor. This is a realistic prediction of what will become of Los Angeles because of the San Andreas Fault and the liquefaction. In Parable of the Sower, Lauren tells Joanne about the natural disasters such as blizzards and tornadoes which are killing off people and that is why they must learn how to survive the outside world.

Speculation 9: Extrapolate from our present to imagine a near future Robledo or Los Angeles in 2066

Jazmin Truesdale’s Aza Comics aims to show women working together, instead of against each other.

#jazmin truesdale #aza comics #female superheroes #women in comics #comic

Speculation 8: Design another car of the train for Snowpiercer

At some point in our lives, most of us will have desired a life better then what we have in the present leading us to want to escape reality and that is why the entertainment world thrives. Entertainers live a life of wealth, status, and opportunities while they create worlds filled with glamour and magic.

The additional cart that I have designed is catered towards this desire of virtual reality which has already been envisioned by sci-fi writers and the technology for this has slowly become real. I was inspired by the manga, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle where the main characters must travel through alternate worlds. One world they come across is Edonis, which has a Fairy Park where the characters are sucked into the virtual reality world of Otō. The new cart will use this technology to entrap the passengers into experiencing a fantastical world of their own, whether it be something they have created or being able to relive their lives on the once thriving earth.

When designing this new cart I envisioned it to be full of machinery because the virtual reality can only be seen by the ones encased within their own pods. The pods are designed to be simple where they are in shape of doors to represent entering another world. Today in the present we have already created the Oculus Rift where gamers are able to move their own body to shift their view of the game. In 2066 this would be updated to where the players are able to be brainwashed from remembering their present condition so they can be fully immersed in this virtual reality and be a part of it for a short period of time.

The global inequality that will surface by adding this cart is the fact that it will be near the engine room. The placement of this cart will allow only the wealthy access to the technology to escape reality while the poor in the tail room is still left to fear the cold reality outside. The difference in accessibility between classes is a reflection of the today on how society is able to deal with reality.

In the novel 2312, our technology has progressed so far that we have been living on other planets such as Mars, Mercury, and Venus and their moons such as Titan and Io. A new world we are introduced to is the one created on Mercury which is the smallest planet within our Solar System and the closest one of the Sun. Those who decide to have the thrill of running away from the sun and travel around the planet are sunwalkers. Other new aspects of the future is terraforming and quantum computers. Terraforming is the process of creating a new environment of a planet and moon by changing its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography, and/or ecology and the purpose of this is to make the environment habitable like Earth. In addition, quantum computers are computers programmed to perform tasks based upon the “quantum states of subatomic part.

These advancements within our society has changed the boundaries between humans and machines and this conflict between remaining human yet at the same time trying to improve ourselves with the aid of technology can be seen through the main character, Swan. A big part of this conflict are the qubes which are a small device linked to people’s neural systems with the purpose of recording and relaying information to the user. The boundary between the two change to a point where qubes are able to have their own consciousness. The comic I have drawn depicts the scene between Swan and her ex-lover Zasha where he starts listing all of the changes she has done to herself and trying to defend these changes by stating that she wanted to try new and different things and improve upon herself. The way I presented the image is where the main focus is on the conversation between the two and drew lines from the text that I found to be most important with portraying the conflict between humanity and technology.

In 2066, I believe we will have started to create these boundary defying technology. The purpose of these technologies will be improve our state of life and one aspect of that is communication and expression. I envision due to the rising amount of tension caused by miscommunication and losing the ability to express our emotions we would be in a need for the technology to help with this process. There is both a loving and hating aspect of this technology depending on the intent with this new innovation.

Speculation #7: Imagine a machine 50 years from now that you love or hate

Why the new Chinese Superman went through a name change before he'd even taken flight.

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美智子(Michiko)