Research Project – Page 4 – Science Fiction (ENG 2420)

Indigenous Science Fiction Changes the genre, but is Silenced

Revised Science Fiction Proposal

Indigenous Futurism, the contrast of historical events with the ideas of how a world would have been if historical events would have not taken place. Events such as Forced Assimilation, Trail of tears, Manifest Destiny, and many more. In these indigenous futuristic novels, the idea is to imagine a world where such events didn’t occur and thus show a world mostly impacted by indigenous views of nature and their believes. The goal of this annotated bibliography is to show how indigenous science fiction is reshaping the genre, and also the cause as to why indigenous science fiction has been constantly overlooked.

Through history most forms of literature have contained the constant view of Eurocentric styles this includes more dominantly white characters and ideals, science fiction as well has been populated with Eurocentric ideals even though its roots have been to imagine a different kind of world. In the case of Indigenous science fiction which is pushing many boundaries by showing a different world where many of North American historical events do not take place, whereas many other science fiction stories expand on current events indigenous science fiction makes changes to the history and reveals a new world. This extends to a new form of world building, by not going with current events this reversal of events such as the Conquest makes the stories different from others. Another example of indigenous science fiction changing parts of the genre, is in the recent Marvel Comic, Marvels Voices; Indigenous Voices #1. This comic book by several indigenous authors, reveals the characters constant clash with racial profiling and relationship with other superheroes. In this comic book there is also many tribal patterns and color schemes, in which has not been seen before in other comic books.

Rebecca Roanhorse, Cherie Dimaline, Darcie Little Badger, and more, all authors that many people have not heard of. Authors who have made many stories of indigenous worlds, often considered to be invading science fiction, however reshaping the genre as a whole. Their battles with reaching more readers is in many cases not spoken of, however this doesn’t mean it has not been happening. They have obtained many awards, yet many more could have been obtained, in the National museum magazine there is a small excerpt where it is detailed what kind of obstacles tend to get in their way. One of these obstacles is named, The Puppies, which is a group of people who have vote targeted many books, such that these books are unable to gain acknowledgement to receive awards. However, many of their attempts have been short lived, yet their impact has caused many readers to not hear of such novels. Rivals such as these have arisen due to the indigenous futurism of a world where historical events have not taken place, many other authors do not agree with such methods and thus these tactics are what they resort to. The conflict of Eurocentric ideals being forced to change makes many uncomfortable, and thus such disagreements arise.

Ultimately, Indigenous futurism has caused a major shift in the science fiction genre, from introducing a new form of world building to many new views. Science Fiction which is majorly affected by how the stories world build, and often are influence by past/current events indigenous science fiction makes a completely new past and makes a new world out of these changes many of which don’t include Eurocentric ideas. However, due to these advance forms of literature many authors have opposed indigenous authors and have attempted to make these forms of writing hidden from the public eye. It is with best interest to make these known to give interest into these new worlds of indigenous writings, to give readers the ability to get into a new story.

Annotated Bibliographies and Sources

Alter, Alexandra. “’We’ve Already Survived an Apocalypse’: Indigenous Writers Are Changing Sci-Fi.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 14 Aug. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/books/indigenous-native-american-sci-fi-horror.html.

In this article the authors on many indigenous stories talk about the push that has lately been made to make indigenous writing much more worldwide accepted, as well as howe they have been overlooked for many years. This article gives a small glimpse as to how authors have adapted their novels to reach more readers, their changes and how these have affected the genre.

Beck, Abaki. “When One People’s Sci-Fi Is Another People’s Past.” Bitch Media, 5 Oct. 2017, www.bitchmedia.org/article/old-new-world-indigenous-futurisms.

In this article the author explains why the Native American Science Fiction has not made a strongly debuted until recently, as well as the process that has to be made in order to make indigenous science fiction much common. The Author titles the sub-paragraphs based on the steps, first being the normalization of indigenous knowledge; this means the knowledge of how the indigenous people had religious views and the way they connected with the land and its inhabitants. As shown in several books written about indigenous religious views, as well as how they were affected by colonization and other effects brought along. Second step was Reclaiming history, not by saying that the history was as told but rather tell it as it was and maybe how certain changes could have changed it as a whole. Third step is described as imagining new communities, a world of new possibilities and different outcomes to the ones that happened. Essentially the author places these as the steps that take to make Indigenous science fiction and the effects that could change the genre, the possibilities that these changes made to make them realistic.

Johnson, Ross. “7 Books That Explore the Many Worlds of Indigenous Science Fiction & Fantasy.” The B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog, The B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog, 14 Oct. 2019, www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/7-books-that-explore-the-many-worlds-of-indigenous-sff/.

In this article there is a new term presented which is very similar to Afrofuturism, in this case being Indigenous Futurism. Many of the science fiction stories that the authors wrote of clue into other historical events that took place, for example, Trail of lightning, by Rebecca Roanhorse, the title itself works on the Trail of Tears. Trail of Tears is a large movement of Natives as they were pushed westward away from their homes, as they moved west thousands lost their lives due to many inequalities that they had to face. As detailed by Johnson Ross the Trail of Lightning is a reverse of these events, this time there has been Global Climate apocalypse and the Navajo tribe has been spared from this demise, and in such there is world change of many new gods. As well as the search of a missing girl, and their adventure to find the girl in North America, the trail to many of their past locations. Johnson Ross takes the time to give summary to the many Science fiction and other genre novels that the indigenous writers have written and have cause a major change in the world, as well as how many awards these stories have obtained.

Ring Adams, James. “Native Authors Invade Sci-Fi: Indigenous Writers Are Reshaping Speculative Fiction.” NMAI Magazine, www.americanindianmagazine.org/story/native-authors-invade-scifi.

The author of this article lets the readers into a little hint of how the world of writer have gathered together to punish back against the indigenous writers and the many ideals that they have been pushing forwards, such as targeting voting to people would be against these ideals so that the writers would not get the recognition that they deserved. During these voting process they made their way to the public in which the indigenous writers would fail, and as such the unfairness that such writers have to face.

RoanHorse, Rebecca, et al. “Marvel’s Voices Expands with ‘Marvel’s Voices: Indigenous Voices’ #1.” Marvel Entertainment, Marvel Entertainment, 19 Aug. 2020, www.marvel.com/articles/comics/marvels-voices-expands-with-marvels-voices-indigenous-voices?linkId=97615845.

In this comic book it can be clearly seen the indigenous background that all the people worked on it made, there is an apparent difference between the bad guys that the main character of this comic book encounters and those that take place around the character. As well as the description given at the start of the comic, there reveals a whole new scheme of how marvel is portrayed differently in every culture. This comic book reveals the authors extensive connection with the character and the obstacles that the character will/has faced, in which part the beginning scene she is being discriminated against by men, and with connection as to her race.

Roanhorse, Rebecca. “Eligibility Post 2020.” Rebecca Roanhorse, 26 Nov. 2020, rebeccaroanhorse.com/2020/11/26/eligibility-post-2020/.

The Black Sun by Roanhorse is a science fiction story where many of its influences are from indigenous folklore, characters come from clans and from animals too. In indigenous believe the animals were guiders for many spirits, as well as their connection the planet was one of the most important things, in this story the main character finds herself in a higher position in which she hopes to unite the Sky Made clans. However, the city in which she resides is haunted by a terrible past event, and thus she has to find a way to over pass the priests in charge.

Shapiro, Ari. “’Black Sun’ Offers A Fantasy Set In Ancient Pre-Columbian Americas.” NPR, NPR, 16 Oct. 2020, www.npr.org/2020/10/16/924648210/black-sun-offers-a-fantasy-set-in-ancient-pre-columbian-americas.

In this interview with one of the most popular Indigenous Science Fiction writers Rebecca Roanhorse, Ari Shapiro takes the time to ask a few questions. The author Roanhorse reflects on how she wrote her book, and the connections between indigenous believes. As well as the generational trauma from the genocide that the Native Americans received, and this is what is written into the book with the main character. As well as being a vengeful being and how these many connections faced the authors live, as well as the effects that such events in real live made the writer get into the writing. The power divide and how the origins of the character connect with the writer in their past, as well as the inability to connect with how the current world treated indigenous people.

Writers, The Unbound. “Celebrating Native American Speculative Fiction: Some Favorites.” Fiction Unbound, Fiction Unbound, 15 Nov. 2019, www.fictionunbound.com/blog/celebrating-native-american-speculative-fiction.

In this article the author writes for the Native American Month, many series of book other than science fiction are shown. Further expanding the impact of indigenous futurism, and the spread of it out of science fiction, as well as the many side of views from what is known to the indigenous views. With these other novels the author contrasts how the indigenous believes behind certain animals are comparison to the current popular believes, as well as the heritage that these believe bring. The Past of knowledge shared with the indigenous people, and how this knowledge could further expand other writers’ format of writing. The author also writes about werewolves and their popular believes to them being like monsters, in comparison to how native believe is that the wolf is the person themselves and how they act in the world, “reveal itself— wolf, or not—wolf.”

Work Cited

Beck, Abaki. “When One People’s Sci-Fi Is Another People’s Past.” Bitch Media, 5 Oct. 2017, www.bitchmedia.org/article/old-new-world-indigenous-futurisms.

Ring Adams, James. “Native Authors Invade Sci-Fi: Indigenous Writers Are Reshaping Speculative Fiction.” NMAI Magazine, www.americanindianmagazine.org/story/native-authors-invade-scifi.

Roanhorse, Rebecca. “Eligibility Post 2020.” Rebecca Roanhorse, 26 Nov. 2020, rebeccaroanhorse.com/2020/11/26/eligibility-post-2020/.

The Thought and Fear of Extraterrestrial Life in Space

Science Fiction Individual Research Project Proposal Draft #2

The thought of extraterrestrial life being real has been long talked about ever since the Roswell UFO incident back in July of 1947 when a strange “flying saucer” crashed in the state of New Mexico near Roswell. After the news came out, the US military stated that it was just simply a weather balloon that crashed down, but this sparked up a number of conspiracy theories on whether alien life in real up to where we are today. Of course, the thought of alien life has existed way before this, such as with the pyramids in Egypt on how in the world they were built the way they are. There have been reports of their being alien life on the Moon when Apollo 11 in 1969 carried the first human to ever reach the moon. While there were no signs of alien life, the thought of them bringing some form of it still exists 50 years later. There have also been reports of possible alien life on Mars for several years, and just recently Venus was added to the mix. The amount of ideas, theories, pictures, movies, books and all sorts of media, old and new talk about aliens in some shape or form of them being real, or of them being fake.

For this project (proposal) I will be talking about how extraterrestrial life differs from some standpoints. From the human eye, to movies and even the future of our planet Earth. This will be going into certain views on the matter and will go into detail on how these sources go into extraterrestrial existence and future on the matter. Does life really exist in places not on Earth? Would we be ready for contact or face to face contact? How far will our imagination take us? All of these questions don’t have answers, some may have theories, but still nothing true to what can be answered. We can only go by what we would see them as, green, grey, big head and eyes, long arms and legs or anything else that comes to mind when drawing an extraterrestrial lifeform.

Dorion Sagan. “Extraterrestrial life.” britannica.com, Apr 7, 2020 https://www.britannica.com/science/extraterrestrial-life

The thought of extraterrestrial life has always been something of whatever lives or may have existed in the universe that is not on Earth, and the search for that spawns many questions. For life to be on Earth, there must be carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, water and among other elements that help life sustain itself. However, there may exist planets out there that fit these criteria’s and could be a sign for extraterrestrial life. The search for this is entirely possible, as signs, signals, photos, and videos have all been captured of flying saucers and researchers finding possible habitable planets. This search is getting closer and may happen sooner than anyone can even imagine, but only time will tell if this will really happen. This just gives the basic idea on what extraterrestrial life is and how life is needed, but this is just for us. Who knows what other life out there needs to survive.

Robert W. Rieber and Robert J. Kelly. “The Aliens in Us and the Aliens Out There: Science Fiction in the Movies.” ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, Nov 17, 2013, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7122918/

The idea and knowing of aliens happened more from an outcome of occurrences that offers very different points of view from people who have claimed to have encountered such beings. Portrayals of aliens in movies show much of what goes on in the human mind and how this can work the other way around with the alien mind possible looking at us. While aliens may fill us with a form of dread or fear of certain death, they still exert a kind of attraction to us. We want to know more, we shun people who believe it, we say that they do or do not exist, but for everyone, no one can really escape from them. Who knows, they may be standing right in front of us and we have no idea. They can be our family, friends, turn us into mindless zombies, no one knows, the thoughts about them are endless yet we fear them, but still think about them. Aliens may have existed for a long time throughout history, and we are only now figuring out about them, fake or not. Especially in movies, such as “E.T” (1982), “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951), “Men in Black” (1997) and “Blade Runner” (1982), these views on aliens vary. From being helpful, to messiahs and even clones of humans. Again, the thoughts are endless with alien life forms, there is no end until we find a sure answer. These movies give a lot to think about, but this is only what we can think of and not what is really out there.

Dion, Lee. “Why we imagine aliens the way we do.” Vox.com, Mar 15, 2018, https://www.vox.com/videos/2018/3/15/17126340/science-fiction-aliens-vfx-seti

What goes on in your mind when you picture an alien? There is no real answer as nobody can really know what they look like. From TV shows and movie adaptations, aliens are seen with a big head, long arms, legs, huge eyes and having either grey or green skin, depending on who and what media they are drawn in, even then, they are all made by us. Science fiction gives us the resources to explore the relationships between humans and aliens to any extent we want to. So as such, people draw them with some form of human features, of course they cannot exactly be like us. In media aliens are looked at as such, but for scientists that is a whole different area to work around. If there is any thought of life out there, they may be using technology in a similar way as we do. So those who work at SETI Research Center are conducting experiments to detect signs of technology in space. For now, it is seen as science fiction, but one day life may be detected on another world. Now, what we have in media is what we see how aliens look like and that may change one day.

Cathal D. O’Connell. “Here’s Why The Idea of Alien Life Now Seems Inevitable And Possibly Imminent” sciencealert.com, Apr 30, 2019, https://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-how-aliens-went-from-a-sci-fi-fairy-tale-to-a-serious-scientific-endeavour

From CGI, to E.T, the endeavor of alien life has become a scary thought for scientist looking into the matter, and even those normally who live on Earth. For the past two decades, the amount of discoveries made about alien life coming altogether, discovery seems inevitable and imminent. For life to even happen is its own kind of chemistry and those needed are not anything special to talk about. What is special is how 6,500 light years away, there is a giant cloud of “space alcohol” that floats a round there and how that can be used for life on Earth. Even things such as habitable planets have become common to finding out, with the first one being in 1995 and is now to be as high as in the thousands. Berkeley has worked out that as much as 40 billion Earth-sized exoplanets could be habitable around the universe, with the nearest one being Proxima Centauri and only 4 light years away and can possibly be reached with current technology. Since 2016 this project has been underway. The one big planet that could have life on it would be Mars as it has water underground, gas that is related to life on Earth in which changes throughout seasons (even though this is still under debate if this is really the case) and the possible chance of finding bugs in 2021 when the rover will hunt them with a 2 meter drill. Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus can also pose life with its ice. Who knows what is out there, and this spawns the ancient question “Are we alone?” many times. Life may exist other than that is currently on Earth and we have to live by that as this source says.

Denise, Chow. “What ‘Arrival’ got right about communicating with space aliens”, nbcnews.com, July 6, 2018, https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/what-arrival-got-right-about-communicating-space-aliens-ncna889061

If there ever was a chance that we could contact space aliens, would we be able to even understand them? Can they understand us? We use a language of just written words and speaking as such, but what if aliens use numbers, shapes, tones, or something else that we cannot understand, and could we even respond to them? These questions all come from the move “Arrival” (2016) as that movie shows those who have contact with human life trying to talk to them in ways only, they can do like they do on Earth. You must know when to be ready and what to say, even if what is in front of you knows more or nothing about you. The movie shows face-to-face interaction, which might not even happen, let alone a possible rouge radio signal from somewhere like in the White House or some random basement in Montana. There is no real way to really contact aliens without something by mistake happening with our current media, if they tried finding us before we had radios, they would have gotten nothing back. Language of itself is a touchy subject. No one knows what it is, no one knows where it even came from, we just have it and go by it without questioning anything about that. When and if this happens, could they understand us like in move “Arrival”? Or will something different happen once we start having contact? We may never know, but this could be around the corner. The movie went into huge lengths about what may be possible when we have real contact with extraterrestrial life.

Charles, Bramesco. “Why stories about aliens are always stories about humanity”, theverge.com, Nov 21, 2016, https://www.theverge.com/2016/11/21/13682320/arrival-aliens-humanity-allegory-film-history-denis-villeneuve

Going back to what we think about aliens on how they look what or what they would do once they find us (or them), the story about them always has something to do with humanity. Given here that whenever aliens are shown off in movies, the difference of alien and human are always shown or said right away, no matter what movie they appear in. They can be nice, evil, big, small, animals, clones, whatever the movie puts them as, but this always leads to the same thing, it mainly has to do with humanity in one shape or form. With Georges Melies clip from 1902s “A Trip to the Moon”, it shows a group of explorers going to a distant planet by weird faced cretins. Those explorers fell short with the advanced culture. Another movie by the name of “District 9” uses aliens as a metaphor for foreign immigrants. “Arrival” would then later show how much humanity ends up showing when it comes to aliens arriving. This fear of future generations that may end up seeing them as a thing of a cry for sanity in the past may become true later, yet this still offers us a brighter path to truly become human.

Peter, Fimrite. “Scientists theorize that space aliens may already be here, but we don’t recognize them.” , sfchronicle.com, Feb 16,2020 , https://www.sfchronicle.com/science/article/Scientists-theorize-that-space-aliens-may-already-15061387.php

Scientists have started to put more of their focus onto the possibility of encountering intelligent extraterrestrials. There is also a chance that their first meeting won’t be just them being green men in flying saucers and the question keeps growing on what they could REALLY look like. around 2017, a spinning, red, cigar-shaped object was spotted, which was followed by a sighting last year of a comet. These two were the first verified sighting in human history of objects speeding around in our solar system. These objects were spotted on Sept. 9 at a speed of around 196,000 mph and showed that it was spinning, but very slowly, and was also missing the tail that most comets would have, but this didn’t. This started to increase the thought about extraterrestrial life and started to grow and expand thanks to the telescopes that have detected them within a habitable distance. In some sense over the 13.5 billion years that our galaxy was formed, there has been a long ample time for a some form of different civilization to have been created advanced enough to send alien artifacts or microbes around the galaxy and even into our solar system. The possibility is out there, but for the moment we have nothing, and this shows that extraterrestrial life is still a huge mystery for everyone, even with small discoveries every once in a while.

Beau, Oakley. “Truly Alien Ideas” , lateralmag,com, May 17, 2017, http://www.lateralmag.com/articles/issue-22/truly-alien-ideas

Have you ever really thought if humanity is alone in the universe? Is it really just us? If there is ever some form of alien life and where they might be hiding? For such a thing, an equation known as the Drake equation can be used to estimate the number of alien lifeforms in our galaxy, even if we have no proof of one such thing existing. Even before this equation existing, we had an obsession with alien life, as with the pervious sources talking about this topic. There has been long debate about what these creatures from other planets could even look like, but would we be prepared if we ever make contact with them? We choose what these aliens look like and how they would see us in movies and books. However, we don’t truly know how this would go down in the case that we have contact with them. Films again such as “Trip to the Moon” and “Arrival” are key examples of extraterrestrial life, one is on how they act, and one is on how we act. This idea blew up in the 1950s, with a thing called “Not of This Earth” delivered two prevailing alien archetypes, puppetry and an ooze creator from “The Blob” in 1958. We have special effects and CGI to further depict our thoughts about what aliens look like, but we still don’t know what they would even look like, and if we would even be ready for the time we have contact with them. Only our imagination can tell us what they look like for now, but no matter where we are, we are all Earthlings, nothing else. For them? Who knows.

Reflect

Currently right now, I am still looking for different sources to further increase how people see alien life. For the time being, these 8 sources are what I have so far, and go into how us on Earth see aliens and the amount of thought that goes into how we would react if we ever had contact with any form of life that is not on Earth. Since this is still a draft part of the project, this will changed in the upcoming weeks before the due date. I will go into more detail on sources as well when I get the chance to do that.

My only problem right now is trying to find some kind of reliable source that doesn’t take me to just a copy paste of a site I already used, or a site that just leads me to a book that I have to pay for. I have searched through about 10 pages on google and only these 8 I found are good for me to use for this project. More are out there, it’ll just take me a while to find the good ones that are worth reading and not really short. What I have done well so far is doing this on time and with trying to follow instructions on what to do for this project. It’s not perfect, but I am doing my best to follow guidelines. This will be better in the coming weeks.

Timelines and the Multiverse

Multiverse theory is the idea that the universe we live in is not the only one, and that there is an infinite number of universes that may be similar to our own, or drastically different. Multiverses can also be affected by time, which is created through the ‘Parallel timeline theory’, in which every choice you have possibly not made, has a universe in which you did make that choice. The reason that it is believed that there is an infinite amount of universes is simply because of speculation and is not really set in stone because of some scientist not accepting the idea.

The reason I want to talk about the multiverse, is because alot of material I have read growing up could be rooted in said theory. For example, every comic book related material could be considered an example of a multiverse. In marvel comic books, they are even numbered to give them identity, with some time travel adventures that then end up causing another universe.

Annotated Bibliography

Marvel Publication, “Marvel Comics” New York City, 1939

Marvel Comics is a viewing of all Marvel comic books as a whole. Because there are so many, it is difficult to list every single universe that they have. However, an example of 2 would be the 616 main Marvel Universe, 1610 Ultimate Universe which are parallel to each other.

Kuhn, Robert Lawrence. “Confronting the Multiverse: What ‘Infinite Universes’ Would Mean.” Space.com. Space, December 23, 2015. https://www.space.com/31465-is-our-universe-just-one-of-many-in-a-multiverse.html.

This source goes into debt about what multiverse theory and the aspects behind it. This source applies scientific reasoning towards the topic, as well as certain aspects of science into how this theory may be supported such as quantum physics, as well as the aspect of different types of multiverse that there may be.

Insider, Tech. “Multiverse Theory, Explained.” YouTube. YouTube, January 3, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVvcOQk6G0Q.

This video quickly talks about multiverse theory and its properties in a much simpler way for the general public to understand. The video is done by astronomer Stuart Clark, who talks about the problems that could be solved based on this theory and applying physics to it.

Howell, Elizabeth. “Parallel Universes: Theories & Evidence.” Space.com. Space, May 10, 2018. https://www.space.com/32728-parallel-universes.html.

This source is basically an argument to why parallel universes exist. Parallel universes are multiverse more so affected by time, or in more simpler terms they are universes created by choices we may or make not make. These universe may be exactly the same as our own, up until own event not matter what it is causing a branch.

How is the relationship with man and machine?

Proposal

Machines have been created by human beings to help make their lives easier. Machines are used to help humans do things that they weren’t able to do with their flesh bodies. With the discovery of electricity, machines have become more developed and are able to do their job automated. These days machines are replacing human jobs. Machines are able to work endlessly without much maintenance. Sure it makes the jobs easier and cheaper but humans are losing jobs. Will machines eventually replace the human workforce entirely?

There are many who fear that as machines get smarter that humans will become unnecessary. There are many Sci Fi films that depict that an example would be the film WALL-E, where machines are doing all the work while humans are relaxing. With new technology how are people being affected? New major technological advancements like self-driving cause culture lag. Cultural lag is when culture takes time to catch up with technological innovations, resulting in social problems. Realistically, if we know how to balance the work of machines and humans, I believe it will be alright.

Sources:

Toussant, Matt.“An Evolving Partnership: The Future of Man and Machine.” CAS, 7 Sept. 2018, www.cas.org/blog/evolving-partnership-future-man-and-machine.

There was a few things that sticked out to me on what Toussant said. Humans and machine are in a symbiotic relationship. Current technology requires humans to take action in unexpected situations. In the future humans will still be a essential to create new machines for new discoveries.

Thomas, Mike. “The Future of Robots and Robotics.” Built In, 8 Apr. 2020, builtin.com/robotics/future-robots-robotics.

In the article Thomas says that many robots are replacing human jobs but they are not human like. According to IBM Institute for Business Values study, more than 120 million workers worldwide would need to retrain because of displacement of AI and robots. This may happen but the people who adapt will have new opportunities for new jobs. In today’s world robots aren’t smart enough to take over. In the future many people may not be prepared to have robots automate everything we do.

McNeal, Marguerite. “Rise of the Machines: The Future Has Lots of Robots, Few Jobs for Humans.” WIRED, 7 Aug. 2015, www.wired.com/brandlab/2015/04/rise-machines-future-lots-robots-jobs-humans.

This article written by Marguerite McNeal was a good insight of what might happen when machines take over our jobs. There will be new jobs when machine replace previous ones but even new jobs will have some automation.

Livingston, Kent. “How Will Humans and Machines Work Together in 2019?” Future of Work, 16 Apr. 2019, geekbot.com/future/how-will-humans-and-machines-work-together-in-2019.

AI makes it possible for machines to actually learn from experience, and perform human-like tasks. There are many that fear AI will overtake the world but if we take proper repercussions it shouldn’t happen. Humans will be able to train machines to work properly and protect humans.

PRO ROBOTS. “Robot Exhibition. Highlights from CES 2020. The Coolest Robots and Incredible Gadgets!” YouTube, 1 June 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfhQkLyJnsE&ab_channel=PROROBOTS.

CES is amazing, showing new technology and advancements. In this video they show many new robots doing human work. Some of these robots may not be actually for sale but just knowing that people are able to make such technology advancements is incredible.

The Concept of Symbiosis and why do most science fiction stories see it as negative?

symbiosis in nature is a very fascinating topic. when two or more parties benefit from one another in some way, shape, or form, sometimes for the better sometimes for the worst. This does not just apply to organic creatures but also inorganic ones like machines and humans. despite a lot of benefits that can come from this type of relationship it is often treated as something far more dangerous when it comes to science fiction. a lot of books and media portrayed as and all for one type of situation, leaving the host has some sort of husk. In law there are types of symbiotic relationships like that, we do not often see any other types portrayed despite being just as interesting.

For this project (proposal), I will be talking about different types of symbiotic relationships and also looking through various sources and media to find examples of these relationships that are not just parasitic in nature. From plants to animals, animals to animals, humans to machines, and any other relationship we can think of. Not to mention what types of advantages and disadvantages each party gets beyond just food or protection.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/25746441?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

2020, https://www.jstor.org/stable/25746441?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents. Accessed 1 Dec 2020.

https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-symbiosis.html

“Examples Of Symbiosis: Types Of Relationships In Nature”. Examples.Yourdictionary.Com, 2020, https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-symbiosis.html.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheSymbiote

“The Symbiote – TV Tropes”. TV Tropes, 2020, https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheSymbiote.

https://medium.com/hello-tomorrow/the-human-machine-symbiosis-3aa11b66eae5

“The Human-Machine Symbiosis”. Medium, 2020, https://medium.com/hello-tomorrow/the-human-machine-symbiosis-3aa11b66eae5.

https://biologydictionary.net/symbiosis/

Editors, BD. “Symbiosis”. Biology Dictionary, 2020, https://biologydictionary.net/symbiosis/.

Understanding human emotions through science fiction

Proposal:
The complexity of human interaction can’t be categorized with a single adjective, it can’t be seen or felt yet our emotions are the closest we can ever hope to understand each other. Society often tries to shove the conversation of emotions into the closet because of the stigma that emotions are a sign of weakness. People usually end up perpetually running away from these emotions or growing unable to control them entirely because of their fear of ever speaking up in the first place. Mental health issues in the United States are dire according to the National Institute of Mental health “Nearly one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness (51.5 million in 2019)”

Science fiction gives perspective to the emotions we constantly feel. Whether that be loneliness or happiness. These emotions are presented from perspectives that help humans feel more human. Writings and movies that make a robot feel love and loneliness, that make a man fall victim to the reality created by the internet, or maybe a strong will and happiness of a blue alien allows you to feel more human being because something that isn’t even of this world or isn’t even considered “living” is capturing those same emotions.

Sources:

Ruiz, Liliana. “ “Her” and The Loneliness We All Share” onbeing.org, 15 Jan. 2014, https://onbeing.org/blog/her-and-the-loneliness-we-all-share/

Ruiz gives a quick summary of the movie “Her” by Spike Jonze where the main character Theodore is a sweet and caring guy who is going through a hard time in divorcing his childhood sweetheart. Out of loneliness Theodore buys an OS which is an operating system that is an assistant that answers emails, organized files but also does much more by being a companion. Theodore and the OS Samantha become more intimate and leads to a relationship. Ruiz then goes to explain the depth of their relationship and how Theodore was able to tell her his most intimate secrets saying “Sometimes I think I’ve felt everything I’m ever gonna feel, and from here on out I’m not going to feel anything new, just lesser versions of what I’ve already felt.” Which goes to show the true numbness that Theodore has felt from his sudden divorce and the inability to find companionship in this world turning to a robot to mend emotions too complex. Samantha on the other hand gives perspective on what it is to feel emotions for the first time while being conscious. Samantha says “Earlier I was thinking about how I was annoyed, and this is going to sound strange, but I was really excited about that. And then I was thinking about the other things I’ve been feeling, and I caught myself feeling proud of that. You know, proud of having my own feelings about the world. Like the times I was worried about you, things that hurt me, things I want. And then I had this terrible thought. Are these feelings even real? Or are they just programming? And that idea really hurts. And then I get angry at myself for even having pain. What a sad trick.”this shows the complexity of Samantha’s emotions how she goes through happiness, anger, sadness and excitement. This connects to our humans emotions because sometimes we feel like this jumble of emotions and Samantha being an OS something that knows everything and yet knows so little of what it really means to be humans shows us how our crazy jumble of emotions are just part of being human.

“Robot ‘Wall-E’ Holds Unexpected Message About Love in Animated Film” Voice of America, 1 Nov. 2009 https://www.voanews.com/archive/robot-wall-e-holds-unexpected-message-about-love-animated-film

The article explains how Wall-E is a gentle reminder to care about each other and to care about the planet. Describing the characters Wall-E and Eve as being expressive through their sounds saying every whirl and beep matters. The reason that Wall-E and Eve were robots in the first place was to have them fight over the meaning of life. The co-writer and director of Wall-E states “We all have our habits, our routines, and our programmed things that we fall into to distract ourselves from really living. They are not necessarily bad or evil in and of themselves. It’s just that we can use that as a crutch to fill up our day and avoid the act of having relationships and contacting one another.” This is important because not only is that shown by Wall-E and Eve’s programming to do their tasks and nothing more it’s shown by the mindless people in the film who don’t interact or care anymore about anything but themselves. The emotions of two robots falling in love show us that maybe stepping out of that routine and habits can make us live life and feel love. These robots make a relationship without any dialogue and compels humans to understand how little is needed to actually feel love.

Blust, Christina. “HONORING GRIEF: BIG HERO 6” The Live Sincerely Project, 16 Dec. 2014 http://thelivesincerelyproject.com/2014/12/16/honoring-grief-big-hero-6/

In this article Christina Blust summarizes the movie “Big Hero 6” an animated marvel movie. The main characters are Hiro and his closest companion Baymax.They get involved in a dangerous plot because of unexpected events leading Hiro, Baymax and 5 other friends of Hiro’s brother to become a group of high-tech heroes. Hiro is the main character due to him having to face a devastating event, which is losing his older sibling Tadashi. Baymax is a robot created by Hiro’s brother Tadashi, his only purpose is to take care of people, he is very sweet, gentle and incredibly huggable. Hiro has to deal with grief and loss of his older brother but he also gets taken care of by Baymax who not only is a creation of his brother but “a loving supportive, healthy support for Hiro”. This is relevant to my article because the love and support from Baymax to Hiro grieving over his brother connects to human emotions and how people feel during the grief of losing someone. It gives a perspective that not all things can be replaced and sometimes you have to carry that feeling with you. Baymax is the coping mechanism to his grief showing the viewers that sometimes their feelings of loss need to be expressed.

Ho, Stella. “Ignorance is bliss: Heartbreak, memory in ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’” The Daily Californian, 18 Oct. 2019 https://www.dailycal.org/2019/10/18/ignorance-is-bliss-eternal-sunshine-of-the-spotless-mind/

In the article Ho speaks on the deep emotions all humans feel through the lens created by the movie Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind. The author gives her own personal experience in how the passing of her grandfather made her mother block out the memory of his death and she refuses to try and remember to cope with the grief. She says it doesn’t keep her mother happy but she chooses to accept ignorance then to face sorrow. The article ends talking about Joel and Clementines relationship and their reunion and explains how there are some memories, people or events that you can’t eliminate your emotions from. This is relevant to my article because science fiction through the usage of memory deletion gives us a perspective of what would happen if we forgot the painful memories in our lives. It would end up removing the things we know and we would be in a cycle of falling into our emotions with no explanation. In the broadest terms this article states that you can’t run away from emotions unless they will surely fall back into the same pattern of behavior.

Lee, Joseph M.D. “Science Fiction & Science Fact: What They Tell Us About Our Emotions” Mental Healthiness, 2015. https://www.google.com/amp/s/mentalhealthiness.com/2016/03/29/science-fiction-science-fact-what-they-tell-us-about-our-emotions/amp/

Dr. Lee mentions how science fiction has been a representation of our emotional state in society. He also relates movies like Star Trek with the responsibility of changing people’s perspective on emotions as we progress to a society with more understanding. The article begins with Star Trek in 1966 surrounded by high tensions with Russia and constant war with Vietnam and the beginning of the space race and the peak of the civil right movement. Star Trek was set 300 years in the future with an Earth that was a multicultural and gender equality society with other species besides humans. The show was optimistic which was a well needed change for the extremely high tensions that we felt during the 1960’s. The emotions drove science fiction to represent the complete opposite view to give views some hope. He also explains how in Star Trek there was a scene in the original where a character Spock sacrifices himself as his friend Kirk watches. Spock stays stoic as he dies and Kirk cries and is viewed as weak. The reboot in 2009 is later shown to reverse the roles Kirk sacrifices himself and Spock watches and unlike him to stay stoic and poised he loses it at the sight of his lost friend. This article shows the impact that emotions have when displayed in science fiction as it has a greater impact on how we view these emotions in society and as a society we have an impact of how science fiction responds to the emotions we resonate at the time period.

Science Fiction: How World building in Star Trek has lead to major scientific developments and cul?

Proposal:

The last 50 years have brought forth some of the greatest advancements in human history and this begs the question if the works of science fiction have influenced these great advancements. For example, Star Trek is a science-fiction franchise that began in the 1960s and is still growing today. Over the course of the franchise, many scientific advancements have been released based on concepts created in this fictional world. Worldbuilding is a heavy subject in science-fiction and with Star Trek being so vast and covering so much time, it has many connections to many events and advancements in society.

In Star Trek, the story based on Gene Roddenberry envisions a future where humans can travel through space and are in a united coalition with alien planets. Through this world, the producers were able to create what they envisioned existing in the future. This like many other works of science fiction have influenced many scientists to push the bounds of science and technology. The 1960s was the beginning of the age of the computer and with tv production gaining attraction, it was a perfect time to release a show that takes place in the future, and just as the world is about to make so many scientific breakthroughs.

Sources:

Books, Photograph courtesy National Geographic, and Photograph courtesy CBS/National Geographic Books. ‘Star Trek’ Is Right About Almost Everything. 16 June 2016, www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/06/star-trek-science-space-astronomy-technology-fazekas/.

This article discusses Star Trek and how the last 50 years of Star Trek have had such an impact on society. They touch on how Star Trek has inspired innovators over the years to create the technology that we use regularly today. This is important to top the argument because the article provides an in-depth look at the Star Trek Universe and talks about the impacts Star Trek has made over the past decades. This is essential in understanding how worldbuilding in science fiction has made such an impact.

Dunbar, Brian. “The Science of Star Trek.” NASA, NASA, 18 July 2016, www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/star_trek.htm

This article makes references to various technological developments designed in Star Trek and how each development has impacted real-life scientists and institutions. For example, they talk about androids and how the android character in Star Trek has pushed scientists to develop something very similar. This is important to the research paper because the article helps analyze the major impact Star Trek’s world-building has had on society technologically and culturally.

Halter, Casey. “8 Ways Star Trek Helped Change Science and the Future as We Know It.” SYFY WIRE, SYFY WIRE, 2 Jan. 2019, www.syfy.com/syfywire/8-ways-star-trek-helped-change-science-and-the-future-as-we-know-it.

One of the reasons people love space travel is because of the unknown element. While society is still even today at the beginning of space travel, there are still logistics to figure out and in this article, a discussion of the logistics of space travel is heavily talked about. This is important to the research paper because it further discusses how world-building in Star Trek has helped scientists even today create a plan for what to do if Humans were able to travel across the stars.

Howell, Elizabeth. “Star Trek: History & Effect on Space Technology.” Space.com, Space, 12 July 2018, www.space.com/31802-star-trek-space-tech.html.

This article focuses mainly on the first Star Trek series released in 1966, which is focused on space exploration and exploring new worlds. It discusses how much of the original show was also created as allegories to discuss the major issues in the 1960s. This is important to the paper because it goes into the social and cultural effects that this franchise has had on society as well as the need to explore space.

Kassé, Sam. “Worldbuilding in a Novel: 120+ World Building Questions to Get It Right.” Self Publishing School, 12 Nov. 2020, self-publishingschool.com/worldbuilding/.

This article dives into the techniques for world-building and how creating a fictional world is not a simple feat and requires excessive planning, but the harder issue is to expand a created world without creating plot holes or losing the theme of the fictional world. This article is helpful to this topic because it addresses the struggles in world-building and helps show how the Star Trek franchise has expanded successfully and maintained its theme of space exploration and united peace.

Multiverse Theory and if We Should be Worried About it

Ever since I first heard about it, Multiverse theory has always been a concept my mind grapples with. The idea that there isn’t just one universe to be seen, but a bunch of them. Tens, hundreds, thousands, possibly even millions of different universes with billions of galaxies residing inside them could exist alongside ours, and we’d never even know because of how far away from us they are. But deep down, we all know that there’s always going to be the thought of that being true, because it’s something we all ponder. As we, the Humans of this universe, grow and adapt to our ways of living and this world called Earth, we slowly start to question the possibility of something bigger than us. Something more than what we can perceive. Something far away.

The universe seems nearly endless in length and stature, no matter how far we look into the black abyss of stars and planetoids, there’s always a further point that we can’t currently reach. So what if, there was a point somewhere out there, a point so far and so vast that it splits off from our known universe and enters into another. Another universe so similar yet so different to ours. Another universe where anything can happen and one where those that dwell within ask the same exact questions we do?

For this project, I want to talk about the idea of Multiverse Theory and if it could actually exist in this world. Many people have struggled with the question of multiple universes existing at once, both in pop culture and in more educational senses, but I want to see if there’s lingering threads that connect the ideals of Multiverse Theory together and how it can present itself in media, albeit through methods of Time Travel, examples of the Butterfly Effect, or Universe Hopping.

Annotated Bibliography

Abbruzzese, John. “On Using the Multiverse to Avoid the Paradoxes of Time Travel.” Analysis, vol. 61, no. 1, 2001, pp. 36–38. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3329154. Accessed 1 Dec. 2020.

This article talks about using Multiverse Theory to better counteract the paradoxes of Time Travel. In it, Abbruzzese talks about how most media featuring concepts of Time Travel make it apparent that using Time Travel frivolously can have dire consequences that immediately affect the person who caused the rift, unless of course there was another Universe outside of the one where they existed in which the direct result of the Time Traveller’s actions took full effect.

Bernard Carr, George Ellis, Universe or multiverse?, Astronomy & Geophysics, Volume 49, Issue 2, April 2008, Pages 2.29–2.33, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-4004.2008.49229.x

Bernard Carr and George Ellis bring up a fascinating point with this article. The point of our Earth, and even further our Universe, being perfectly built to somehow house the properties to help an entire planet of living creatures to thrive. The development of life is shown to be a rare occurrence in our universe alone, so what if it wasn’t rare in another universe? What if all of the planets in another Universe were capable of housing life? What if there was a Universe with no life whatsoever? What makes ours so special?

Effingham, N. “An Unwelcome Consequence of the Multiverse Thesis.” Synthese, vol. 184, no. 3, 2012, pp. 375–386. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41411199. Accessed 1 Dec. 2020.

In Effingham’s Article, Multiverse Theory is further explained in relation to Time Travel media with the help of the Grandfather Paradox. The Grandfather Paradox is a dilemma in which a Time Traveller can go back and kill their own Grandfather before their Father would be born, but in doing so they’d never actually have gone back to kill their Grandfather because they wouldn’t have existed. With the idea that Multiverse Theory makes it so objects and concepts can’t travel through time because of a different Universe branching off from the original, Effingham studies that concept as a Consequence of Time Travel and not as Universe Hopping

Ward, Cassidy. “Science behind the Fiction: What the Reality Behind Multiverses and Alternate Realities?” Syfy, Amazon Prime, www.syfy.com/syfywire/science-behind-the-fiction-alternate-reality-multiverse-string-theory

In this Syfy Article, Ward talks about the presence of Multiverse Theory within a plethora of various novels, shows, and media examples. On of which, an Amazon Live Action series titled The Man in The High Castle details an Alternate Universe in which the Axis powers win WWII. The series itself is more than enough to serve as an example, but it goes even further by having a reference to our world thanks to an in-World novel titled The Grasshopper Lies Heavy where history plays out the way it does here and the Allied Powers win.

Alexander, Donovan. “Just Like Your Favorite Comic, We May Be Part of a Bigger Multiverse.” Interesting Engineering, interestingengineering.com/just-like-your-favorite-comic-we-may-be-part-of-a-bigger-multiverse

In this wonderful article posted to Interesting Engineering, Alexander not only explains the basis of Multiverse Theory and what it is, but he brings up the points I want to try and make with this entire research project. What if? The Universe is amongst one of the biggest and strangest things we as Humans have ever experienced. So who’s to say that another Universe that’s close by would be the exact same? As he says in the later paragraphs of his “In one universe, you could have a different job, blue hair, be born in a different country, and so on. Trippy right?” (Alexander, 20).

The Thought and Fear of Extraterrestrial Life in Space

Science Fiction Individual Research Project Proposal Draft #1

Dorion Sagan. “Extraterrestrial life.” britannica.com, Apr 7, 2020 https://www.britannica.com/science/extraterrestrial-life

Dion, Lee. “Why we imagine aliens the way we do.” Vox.com, Mar 15, 2018, https://www.vox.com/videos/2018/3/15/17126340/science-fiction-aliens-vfx-seti

Worlds change with Native American Science Fiction

Science Fiction Proposal

As of lately Science Fiction has made many strides to become all around great for everyone, even with its Eurocentric culture many great writers have taken to light to write new narratives and views as to what a science fiction world looks like. Native Americans and indigenous people have also taken this mantel of writing science fiction stories, while Eurocentric ideals still follow science fiction many of these writers have begun to change the outcome science fiction written. These changes are not only many a change in the science fiction but as well as the readers who participate, these changes are opening a whole new world of possibility. Eventually Native American or indigenous science fiction won’t be a rarity and many people will eventually be able to enjoy it.

Alexandra Alter, a writer for the New York Times writes about a few writers who have changed the North American Science fiction and many other genres. The Reporter states, “[Cherie] Dimaline, along with Waubgeshig Rice, Rebecca Roanhorse, Darcie Little Badger and Stephen Graham Jones, who has been called “the Jordan Peele of horror literature,” are some of the Indigenous novelists reshaping North American science fiction, horror and fantasy — genres in which Native writers have long been overlooked.” Meaning that these authors/novelists have made the biggest impact in the modern world of Science Fiction, As well making these changes more likely to be noticed. The reporter makes a note to specifically state that Native Americans had always been writing or telling science fiction stories, however these tales and stories were never titled as such or taken into consideration until now when science fiction has taken the passage to greater change.¹

Many of the Native American Science Fiction stories come from many of the Northern American historical events such as the Conquest, manifest Destiny, the trail of tears, and many more historical events where many Native Americans died, or they were taken advantage of. The aftereffects that took place as well, such as the force assimilation. Through these science fiction stories the authors express what the Native American world would look like if such things were to never have happened, as they turn away from Eurocentric views that the colonist brought with them.

Annotated Bibliographies and Sources

Beck, Abaki. “When One People’s Sci-Fi Is Another People’s Past.” Bitch Media, 5 Oct. 2017, www.bitchmedia.org/article/old-new-world-indigenous-futurisms.

Ring Adams, James. “Native Authors Invade Sci-Fi: Indigenous Writers Are Reshaping Speculative Fiction.” NMAI Magazine, www.americanindianmagazine.org/story/native-authors-invade-scifi.

Work Cited

¹Alter, Alexandra. “’We’ve Already Survived an Apocalypse’: Indigenous Writers Are Changing Sci-Fi.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 14 Aug. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/books/indigenous-native-american-sci-fi-horror.html.

Beck, Abaki. “When One People’s Sci-Fi Is Another People’s Past.” Bitch Media, 5 Oct. 2017, www.bitchmedia.org/article/old-new-world-indigenous-futurisms.

Ring Adams, James. “Native Authors Invade Sci-Fi: Indigenous Writers Are Reshaping Speculative Fiction.” NMAI Magazine, www.americanindianmagazine.org/story/native-authors-invade-scifi.

Category: Research Project

Indigenous Science Fiction Changes the genre, but is Silenced

The Thought and Fear of Extraterrestrial Life in Space

Timelines and the Multiverse

How is the relationship with man and machine?

The Concept of Symbiosis and why do most science fiction stories see it as negative?

Understanding human emotions through science fiction

Science Fiction: How World building in Star Trek has lead to major scientific developments and cul?

Multiverse Theory and if We Should be Worried About it

The Thought and Fear of Extraterrestrial Life in Space

Worlds change with Native American Science Fiction

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