Before our next class, write at least 250 words summarizing your reading of Ted Chiang’s story and today’s discussion. Save your work someplace safe. Then, copy-and-paste your summary into a comment made to this blog post.
If you haven’t signed up for OpenLab yet because you are having trouble with your City Tech email account, copy-and-paste your summary into an email to Prof. Ellis (jellis at citytech.cuny.edu). This will let me know that you’ve done the work. However, it is the student’s responsibility to come back to OpenLab and post their work as soon as they have access.
Ted Chiang’s novella, “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Fiction,” is a science fiction story framed as a journalist’s opinion piece. The unnamed narrator narrates his journey into researching and eventually, himself, trying out cutting-edge technology. Initially, he approaches the technology with apprehension, concerned over the ramifications of human memory being replaced with searchable video logs. When he gives it a try himself, however, he realizes that the infallible video prevents people from lying to themselves about their own histories, and this could lead to a very different future, one which he’s uncertain will be better or worse. This unfolds parallel to a completely different story, interspersed with the first. In this second story, a young man in just-colonized pre-literate West Africa is driven by his curiosity to learn how to write from a European missionary. He becomes fascinated by the way in which writing changes how one thinks and speaks, particularly how it creates an objective, verifiable, recorded “truth.” Eventually, however, he decides that he prefers his tribe’s cultural values of subjective truth. This is eventually revealed to be a fiction crafted by the near-future journalist, included in his story in order to better illustrate his point.
The narrator’s point is about the inevitability of technology and its benefits and dangers. In turn, this is part of Chiang’s goal in presenting both narratives. More abstractly, Chiang is also writing about how technology influences thought process and sense of self. The journalist fears that video memories will diminish the emotional power of selective memory recall, but then discovers that one of the foundations of his self-image was an erroneous memory. The African youth, when faced with the change in his thinking, decides that the old ways of his tribe are better, but the reader knows that progress will come to his people regardless. The journalist, with the benefit of research, education, and knowledge of historical precedent, understands by the end of his personal journey that his own rejection or acceptance is immaterial, and that he can only try to see the benefits of this encroaching mode of thought.
“The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Fiction,” is a scientific novella published by Ted Chiang. The first short story reveals near future technologies could limit our abilities. From the beginning of the story, the narrator indicated how he is interested in technologies, but fears that it would transform natural human skills. It involves in many cases, such as memory recollections from our brain nerve system, loses the ability to listen and write, and invades daily privacy ultimately. The virtual assistant named “Remen” helps human to rewind remembrance by bringing videos up of their memories, continue to damage human capability of natural memories. The narrator contradicts how future will shape in both positive and negative form. In similarity of the second short story, the West African Jijingi has found his comprehension skills from oral to literate with a European missionary. Jijingi was delighted by how literation could shape understanding and speaking skills. A journalist revealed the story, he pointed out how technology would have a positive impact based on the human.
The main point of the narrator is both positive and negative perspective of the technology transformation. Chiang persists that the technologies would impact our natural skills, it devastates humanity listening, remembering, and emotional abilities. The west African Jijingi prefers their oral speaking skills, but one day it will be transformed into literate culture under any circumstances. No matter how technology changes from oral to literate or literate to digital, both can lead to a positive and negative uncertain future.
Ted Chiang’s “The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Fiction,” is a science fiction story, in which he used two testimonials to exemplify the main idea that technology can be anything. In the first story, the narrator tells of a new technology called “Remen,” a device that logs your everyday activity. At first, the narrator sees this as a bad thing, thinking it will replace a person’s’ natural memory. But, when he finds himself in a position of natural memory vs. technological recording memory, the new technology wins. Because of this new technology, his relationship with his daughter is saved. In the second story, a young boy Jijingi lives in a small village in Africa, that had been ruled by Europeans before. When a fellow European comes along, the young boy learns of the technology of writing and reading, something that had never been in the village before. When it came down to two judgements; him being true to his community, or representing the Europeans, he chose his community. The new technology that had foreshown the truth, had to be rid away of if he wanted to stay true to his oral relations in the community.
Chiang chooses to use both of these stories as a juxtaposition effect. In the first story, the narrator is a journalist who thinks that natural memory is the best way for life to be relied on, and that a device like “Remen,” is bad, and will replace it. At the end of the story, he realizes that new technology can help the natural memory, not replace it. There is a realization that natural memory is opinion based (fiction), whereas the technology based memory is fact based. In the second story, the character Jijingi is happy about the new technology of writing, and thinks it will advance many things in his community. However, the transition of Jijingi going from being surrounded by an oral representation in the community, to learning about written technology with reading, causes a conflict. He decides to stay true to his community, and rid away of the technology he once found useful. So, Chiang’s main point is that technology can be anything; paper or a device; good or bad; helpful or useless.
Chaunce S.
Prof. Ellis
Eng. 1710
In today’s class we introduced ourselves and expressed our expectations for the class. We analyzed Ted Chiang’s “The truth of fact, the Truth of Fiction”. This story that shows how technical advancements could preserve a story when people may not be able to present the story accurately over time but how your mind can create a narrative and twist your own story. The story uses two different groups from distant time periods and illustrate how the technical advancements affected the way a story is told. Moseby, a Christian missionary enlightens Jijingi on the art of writing and Jijingi is intrigued about how three materials come together to illustrate a story that is passed down generation to generation. Jijingi becomes literate and he learned about how the power of writing and the dangers of a single narrative when he then too started to question his own ancestral history ,and found himself siding with the Europeans information instead of his own people. The other story is how a father and his family were using a lifelog machine called Remem that can record events and then project what happened that day on video. The machine started to use caught the demise of the father’s family on video. He realizes he was the reason his loved ones separated from him. Technology can create a single narrative and we need people around us to be critical lens when when we twisted or fogged up stories.
“The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling” is a novella by Ted Chiang, a technical and science fiction writer. Mr. Chiang contemplates many issues about technology by telling two stories concurrently. In the story of the near future, the protagonist is a journalist who speaks from a 1st person perspective and illustrates the shift from a literate culture to a digital culture. In this world, humans use “Remem” to recall memories by searching a lifelog recorded on implanted cameras. The journalist does not use Remem, however, and thus not all of his memories are completely accurate. When the average person recalls something, it isn’t exact usually; it’s riddled with gaps, embellishments and inaccuracies, especially if it tends to suit a guilty conscience, as the protagonist found. His flawed memory allowed him to think his daughter had deserted him out of resentment; after examining his lifelog, however, he realized it was he who had pushed his daughter away.
In the story of the near past, Chiang writes about the Tiv people from a 3rd person perspective, and he illustrates the shift from an oral culture to a literate culture. Jijingi is a member of the Tiv tribe, and he is torn between his people, whose history is passed down by oral storytelling, and the technology of writing, which his tribe distrusts but must accept. A European missionary helps Jijingi learn how to read and write, and Jijingi discovers that while recorded data shows the accurate lineage of his people, the way his elders choose to remember it is more important (and beneficial) to them. He finds that verbal stories and memories vary, whilst written or recorded data always stays the same, but also realizes that one is not always superior to the other. He discovers what the journalist discovers: although a factual recording of an event may be more technically accurate, it can be painful and more damaging- mentally and emotionally- than a history which we choose to remember through our own filter. They both discover flawless memory through technology would no longer allow room for manufactured memories that tend to alleviate or soften the past as we’d prefer it. For Jijingi, examining his past truthfully brought unwanted division within his tribe: for him, it was less important to be “right” than it was to be supportive of his tribe. For the journalist, however, examining his memories truthfully brought a needed clarity with the pain that was essential in order to begin to repair his family.
Both stories examine how technology impacts people on an interdisciplinary level: issues of science, the mind and biology, memory, linguistics, culture, high and low technologies, privacy, relationships and family are discussed, to name a few. It’s interesting and also important I think to be mindful about these issues as we continue to evolve into a society of increasingly sophisticated technology.
I enjoyed reading “The Truth of fact, the truth of feeling” by Ted Chiang, it was an easy read, the narrative was like reading someone’s essay in point of view, felt as if he was having a conversation with me. I think the most palatable summary of the story, would be a comparison with a show, I’m sure plenty of classmates are familiar with “Black Mirror”. The show features a similar technology called “The entire history of you”, this technology follows the same concept of recording your entire life and allowing the user easier access to the memory. The major difference is that Ted focuses on that one technology on hand and gives perspective and vision of how this technology would affect society and individuals. In Ted’s story, the technology is named “Remem”, a device that allows the individual’s memories to be accessible through “lifelogs” which are recordings of every moment of their life. His thought process focuses on analyzing the issues involved with the ability of instant memory access by sharing his personal relationship with his daughter and adding a storyline of a character named Jijingi, thus he appeals to human emotions to convey his message. He insists on walking us through why it’s better to forget than remember the past, otherwise, it could be incremental to our wellbeing when we are trying to move on or forgive. The story ends comfortably for me since the technology did introduce him to perspective, he learned more about himself and his relationship with his daughter. Although I did enjoy reading it, I can’t say I was a fan of the story-line, feels as though his trying to push an agenda against technology that isn’t yet existent, so it can’t be a reliable alibi as to why that technology isn’t beneficial. Our classroom discussion was informative, and I enjoyed meeting classmate.
In the novella “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling” by Ted Chiang, is about how
technology in the future will restrain society from having actual interaction with one another. For example, when the narrator speaks to a married couple, they bring up their argument. Due to this, they brought up “Remen” which held significant evidence of who was correct in the argument. This does raise major concerns for the future and what society might look like in the near future. Looking into the past, having two very different societies, the first shift allows us to see how they rely on what they’ve read and written as opposed to the second shift in culture. The second shift is literate and digital. Even though it paints two different pictures, it allows the reader to see the difference cultures and where the modern day society is heading. Through this novella, Ted Chiang expresses many circumstances that causes us as readers to raise eyebrows. However, it does makes us wonder if technology is really doing us any good in using this as a tool or just be used as a target to pin people against one another.
Jaclyn Valentin
The interweaving novella “The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling”, written by Ted Chiang, demonstrates two different movements of the impact of technology. Through the eyes of one of the protagonist, Jijingi of the Tiv culture, Chiang shows an oral tradition conversion to written language. The use of paper for written work revolutionized Jijing’s ways of communication. He is astonish of the dynamic that written language possesses versus the spoken word of his traditions. Ultimately the clashing impact of European customs questions the literacy changes occurring within his African tribe. It is in this portion of Chiang’s story, technology brings forth change in customs. Written language is strange for Jijing’s people. Yet it becomes a doorway into new ways of expression. Written word on paper became more valuable for disputes and the remembrance of family lineage. However, writing also brought forth gossiping and lies. Jijingi recognizes the benefits and faults of his new talent.
Chiang also introduces remen, a search engine which monitors memory and allows recollection to be viewed from a third person perspective. His character, who is an unnamed journalist, has myriad concerns with this new innovation. In this second movement, a literate culture is converting into a digital culture. He questions the product as it affects how one views memory. This technology will bring convenience. However, there are negative effects of machinery which are not easily seen at first. The journalist expresses concepts such as “forgive and forget”. This new product is a vivid reminder of what has occurred. Therefore, forgetfulness will never happen. Remen show memories as they are. The video itself, however, fails to capture the emotional dimension of a recollection. When he thinks about his own memories, the most troubling one involves his daughter. He recalls the event completely different from what remen displays. He states, “details we choose to remember are a reflection of our personalities”. It is in this instance he realizes his daughter’s harsh comment was actually his own. He lived his life blaming his downfalls on others rather than recognizing the faults of his own. Giving up his privacy with remen allowed him to see that the facts were different from his feelings. He is now able to change his relationship with his daughter.
Because of the discussion in class, Chiang’s novella became easier to comprehend. I was able to recognize important details and build upon concepts. Also, being introduced to my classmates made the classroom environment more welcoming and enjoyable.
The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling by Ted Chiang is a beautifully written noveleta that discusses how new technology can change human beings as a whole. It accomplishes this by interweaving two different narratives together into one story. The first narrative is about a journalist slowing watching human memory get replaced by computers and digital memory. The second narrative is about a young Tiv man, named Jijingi, who lived in Tivland and what he experienced as his tribe slowly moved from an oral culture to a literate culture. Despite being very different these two stories happen to run completely parallel.
The Journalist from the first narrative lives in the not so distant future where a new form of memory is becoming increasingly prevalent. People of the time where retinal cameras in their eyes and take videos of their entire lives, also known as lifelogging. A company called Whetstone develops a new search tool called Remem that allows people to search through their entire life logging archives by just saying a few key words. The Journalist acknowledges the positives of such a technology but is also reluctant to fully give himself up to the Remem because he sees the downsides of it.
Jijingi from the second narrative lived in the past in Tivland as a member as the Tiv tribe. The Tiv cultural was a strictly oral one until the Europeans came and with them a new form of technology, writing. Jijingi was only thirteen when he first began to see his culture slowly change from an oral one to a literate one. He soon learns that new technology, although helpful, has the power to change his culture completely.
Remem could be used to search back in your memory to find out where you misplaced your keys and it could be used by couples to settle arguments and disputes but the Whetstone company had much bigger plans for Remem. Whetstone’s endgame was for Remem to eventually and inevitably replace human beings natural memory. The ability to digitally look up anything from your life since the day of your birth would soon render natural memory unnecessary due to the natural flaws of it. The Journalist says that once that happens “We will become cognitive cyborgs, effectively incapable of misremembering anything; digital video stored on error-corrected silicon will take over the role once filled by our fallible temporal lobes.” We will become something that is less than human or at least less than the human that is familiar to us.
The Journalist goes on to tell us about a man named Solomon Shereshevskii who supposedly had the best memory of all time. He could hear a series of words or numbers once and still remember it years later. An ability like this seems like it would be extremely useful however for Shereshevskii it was not. One piece of text evoked so many things in his mind that it made it almost impossible for him to focus. The Journalist included this example to show that the new technology that accompanied the Remem may indeed be a gift and a curse.
Jijingi has a similar realization one day when the best story teller from his village tells the story of of how his people split up into different lineages. Jijingi obtains a written copy of the story and is disappointed after he reads it. The written version is too plain for him. It is simply words written on a page whereas when the storyteller cited this tale he was able to use his whole body to tell the story. He was able to use body movements, facial expressions, voice fluctuation and whole body visuals to make the story come to life. The written version, for Jijingi felt like the bare minimum. He felt as if a part of the story was lost. Is it possible that each time there is a major breakthrough in the field of technology we humans lose a tiny piece of what makes us, well human?
Jijingi realizes the importance of writing. He understands that it helps you organize thoughts and remember things in a way that cannot be achieved simply by speaking. However he is reluctant to completely give himself over to this new technology because he fears he may lose more than he gains. He has this realization when a leader of his tribe asks him “Have you studied paper so much that you’ve forgotten what it is to be Tiv?” Although he understands the benefits of literacy he is not prepared to move entirely away from his oral culture.
The Journalist realizes both the positive and negatives of Remem but he also realizes that this new technology is coming and can’t be stopped. He says, “I’m a product of my time, and times change.” We can’t prevent the adoption of digital memory any more than oral cultures could stop the arrival of literacy, so the best I can do is look for something positive in it.” Although he may wish that things would stay the same he understands that what was true of the Tiv people is also true for people of the present day. Technology will always make new innovations and for better or for worse, we can’t prevent them. So he chooses to focus as much as he can on the good aspects of this technology while remaining weary of the negative aspects. One can only hope that we don’t study digitality so much that we forget what it is to be human.
“The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Fiction”, written by Ted Chiang is a story that shows the reader how technology has evolved over the years. Although the story may be fiction, there is some truth to it and that is that technology is evolving every day and we’re relying on this new tech more and more each day. The first story shows us how a tech company has released a new search engine called Remen where it allows you to search for any moment from your life as long as you have what’s called a lifelog. This new tech has shown us that it has caused more problems for couples by using it to prove to each other who is right and who is wrong whenever they have an argument. It also shows that people are relying more on Remen for recollection than using their own memory. We can see that everything gets recorded and with it you have a perfect memory, never having to worry about forgetting things. In the second story, we can see how something simple as writing has become a new kind of technology, as well as paper. A young boy named Jijingi begins to learn how to write and starts to practice it and sees that writing has transformed his culture. Although writing has been used to write records of his culture and his ancestors, he begins to rely more on what is being written than listening to the elders. He beings to question them and goes back to what has been written. Ted Chiang shows us that no matter what new technology comes out next, there is no stopping it. The more we use new tech and begin to depend on it heavily, we become like robots and forget the simple things like knowing how to write.
Ted Chiang uses two interweaving narratives in his novella “The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Fiction” to explore how oral culture shifts to written culture and literate to digital culture. The two narratives he used to describe these changes include a story about a young man named Jijingi from the Tiv tribe and a story about the relationship between Chiang and his daughter.
Jijingi is a young man from the Tiv tribe who has been brought up in an oral culture. From ancient stories passed down from generation to generation, to important messages and pivotal decisions that impact the lives of each and every person in the tribe has been delivered orally by the elders of the tribe. One day Jijingi is met by an European named Moseby who introduces him to the literate culture. Through Moseby, Jijingi learns the importance of writing which leads him to be more influenced by the European culture rather than his own. Jijingi later realizes that learning how to write has slowly stripped away his identity of a Tiv and decides to go back to the culture he’d almost lost.
In the story about Chiang and his daughter, Chiang mentions a life-vlog recording device called “Remem”. He is concerned with how this device will affect a person’s memory and how it can change their lives. Anyone can have a different memory of the same exact event but with Remem, all memories will purely be factual and unedited with absolutely no emotions attached. Chiang is unsure whether or not that would be healthy for our humanity. He describes how he remembered a specific event when he had his heart broken with hurtful words during a fight he had with his daughter. But by trying out Remem himself, he is shocked and devastated to find out that it was him who had broken his daughter’s heart.
Through these narratives in Chiang’s novella we can learn that there are both good and bad to using technology. By using technology like writing, it has actually helped us to evolve into the complex society we are currently in. However, as we continue to advance in using and developing technology, it may actually interfere with our sense of just being human. But like how Chiang mentions whether we like it or not, using technology can not be avoided and we can only hope that it will bring us more good than bad.
In the short story “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Fiction” by Ted Chiang, it shows how humans interact with technology and how it can change them, for better or worse. In the story it has two interweaving tales, one in the past with a country in Africa getting colonized and one in the present with this artificial intelligence named Remem that tracks your whole life. It starts off with the narrator discussing an essay he had read before about reading and writing being null and void as all you’ll need to do now is just speak and it will be done. The narrator says that him and his wife were horrified by this idea and that when they would bring up their daughter that she would always be able to read and write and fall back on that if needed. Then the next part of the story starts with the arrival of the colonials in the African society of Tivland. There was a little boy named jijinigi who learned to write from one of the men named Moseby. Although it caused a bit of controversy with his tribe with some asking why is he with moseby and his petty corrections on his fellow tribesman speech. Then in the other story in the present with remem the narrator looks back on an argument he had with his wife and daughter and how he saw it and remembered it in a different way. He then later learned that through his daughter and remem, he was wrong and “self-absorbed”.
Reading this short story and disusing it in class I learned that technology is a thing that continues to advance and will forever more be a part of our lives. With that being said its not a bad thing, I just depends on how you use it and go about with it. It can either open new doors for you and teach you or it can teach you a valuable lesson that you were blind to all this time. It just depends on how you go about using it
Jessica L. Roman
ENG 1710
2/6/2018
“The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling” by Ted Chiang is a Science Fiction novella that contemplates the implications of literacy and speculates its possible future. Narrated by a journalist in the near future, the story alternates the account of two tales, one describing a shift from oral culture to literacy and the other a shift from traditional literacy to digital. In the journalist’s story, he details his doubts on a new memory based technology, Remem, which he is set to write about in an article. The telling of his experience with this technology intertwines with the telling of his estrangement to his ex-wife and daughter. The Remem technology can record a person’s entire life and gives them the ability to reference those memories at will. Throughout his research, the journalist expresses concerns with the affect it might have on human relationships and even emotional child development. He believes this can affect a person’s ability to “forgive and forget” or impede the ability for a child to be nostalgic and have what he refers to as childhood amnesia. After he begins using Remem he discovers his own memories are flawed and he has successfully lied to himself in regards to his relationship with his daughter. This pushes him to confront that truth and attempt to make amends while also changing his view of the Remem technology.
The alternate account within the story is of the near past and a shift from oral culture to what we know as traditional literacy. This story revolves around Jijingi, a young man of the Tiv people. Jijingi, begins to his journey to literacy with the aid of a European missionary, Moseby. Jijingi takes the reader on the progression from his orality to literacy, through the understanding of words, written language and semantics. As he becomes more literate his mind and thought process begins to change from that of his people. His literacy also grants him a certain amount of privilege as literacy historically has. However, once confronted with a cultural dilemma Jijingi realizes that his literacy has begun to create a rift between himself and his people, traditions and sense of morals. He must choose how he will let his literacy inform him and his decisions on what the best truth for his people. The precise truth based in written word and fact or the one based on tradition and the good of his people.
Ultimately, the message is rather ambiguous; technology is an unstoppable force that can be both beneficial and detrimental. While we cannot stop the progression of technology, it would behoove us to become agents of our own humanity and the human experience. The world of technology will continue to move forward and as the consumers of that technology it should embraced through a critical lens that allows us to question what good and bad can become of it so as to not become victim to Whig interpretations of history.
Adina Gibson
ENG1710 Intro to Language and Technology
Professor Jason Ellis
In Ted Chiang’s novella “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling” the narrator -who is known as the Journalist- delves into the complexities of fact based truth and personal truths and the shift of language and communication. The narrative fluxuates between the near past and future where we see groups of people as they react to the change in how their language is evolves or diverts from what they are comfortable with. We see how they adapt to these changes as well as how it affects them personally and how it affects society around them.
The first and main narrative is about the Journalist, beginning with him recalling an essay he read that said that ‘it might no longer be necessary to teach children how to read or write.’ The Journalist admits to having been slightly apprehensive about the idea, and went on to help teach his daughter the skills anyway even though they are admittedly unnecessary for her. His daughter Nicole is a prominent figure in the story both for being a plot point and as a example of the growing Digital age of communication. The journalist wanted his daughter to be familiare with his form of communication which was heavily reliant on Literacy but she grew in a time in which the Lifelogs and Remim algorithme where at its high of use and functionality. No one needed to write in order to put information in the open leaving literacy an option rather than necessity. The system also made it possible to recall things in perfect memory; the Journalist says though useful removes the nostalgia when recalling old memories. Lifelogs and Remem making it difficult to lie or embellish stories, and making it impossible to hide ugly truths.
The second narrative about the Tiv we find is mostly made up by the Journalist. The story is based off of a dispute in 1941 amongst the Tiv people who are a traditionally oral ethnic group. The narrative revolves around Jijingi a young Tiv boy who learns literacy from a Missionary named Moseby. The more Jijingi’s interest in writing grows so to does the distance between him and his tribesmen. Jijingi’s tale represents the transition from Oral Culture to Literate culture; the Journalists narrative represents the transition from a Literate Culture to Digital Culture. Both stories explore the ramifications that could be present as individuals adapting to a change in cultural communication which shifts social interaction. The Journalist realizes that just because the Digital Culture it’s different from what he’s known his entire life and he must adapt, doesn’t mean that it is a threat. Jijingi eventually learns that just because he’s learned the ways of a new culture doesn’t mean that it has to replace what he’s always known or that putting your faith in text is preferable to trusting others words.
Ted Chiang’s novela “Truth of Fact, Truth of Feelings,” is heavily based on technology, old and new. Technology for the most part help men go further and faster; however, we can’t help acknowledge the side effects. As we are introduce to new technology, we are seemingly losing pieces of ourselves, our humanity. In Chiang’s story, his daughter Nicole’s inability to write from organic memory is frightened, she requires help from a software. To Chiang’s other narrative which focus on the Tiv people who were being introduced to writing as a technology for the first time. In Tivland, beside not having writing as a form of communication survive. They live, tell their stories and pass them on. Back to Ted Chiang, as a journalist, he was skeptical about whetstone’s technology, the “Remem,” a monitors your conversation for references to past events, and then displays video of that event in the lower left corner of your field of vision. Chiang had doubt about Remem but had it use for his daughter nicole. A side of new technology is how they come to coexist with older law and rules within society. “You can’t have justice, until you have the truth,” said Chiang, with Remem, the truth is always on display. On the other hand, at Tivland Jijingi was in the process of adopting the new art of writing. Ted Chiang was working investing Remem lifelogs effectiveness. He was granted access from others to review their logs, from their perspective. He started reviewing logs for his daughter Nicole, and learn that she had use to Fabricated many lies about him. Chiang decide to have a conversation with her, and confronted her about the events and tried to workout their already devastated relationship. Jijingi interest in history has accelerated, and ended up going to Europe with Moseby to find previous record of Tivland history. Chiang’s point to prove that writing technology can be useful, if use right, as for most technology.
“The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Fiction” by Ted Chiangs is based of fictional stories that in a way intersect with each other. In one stories the narrator talks about an essay he head how tech will take over literacy and traditional literacy learning won’t be necessary. He wants the best for his daughter, Nicole, and try to keep the traditional way even though he comprehended the importance of technology. Nicole became an adult technology got advance enough where she can write using gestures and eye combinations. Also, he explains the company Whetstone whom created Remen. Ramen is a lifelogging technology that capture every moment of a person’s life. Another story that intersect with Remen is the one with the journalist that is trying to get more prospective about the technology. He spoke with two of his friends and the spokesperson of Whetstones He thinks Remen could corrupt the person behaviors on how the memory is retained and remembered. Another side of spectrum of literacy the story of Jijingi is introduced. He was a thirteen years old that was introduced by a European missionary, Moseby, to a book [bible] for the first time. He comes from a village that praised to the god Tiv. Moseby, told him the story of Adan, whom he stated was the first man alive and that we are all come from him even Jijingi’s god Tiv. This stories shows that by keep learning is what help us advance a little more if we stop on what we know it can become hard. However, we always have to keep open minded of how far we should go because following one path could be harmful for us too.
In class we talk about the technology advances in the past decades. The use of technology has increase drastically to a point where it became part of us. Not too many people, especially millennial, this day can be away from their phone. Also, we discussed that technology is not whether it is bad or good it is the amount we invest on it that can be problematic since we become too dependent of it. These were very interesting stories we can related a little since our phones and social media are doing that to us right now. We need to keep track of the technology but not get so involved that we forget about everything else that it is important as well.
TO: Professor Jason Ellis
FROM: Ronald C. Hinds
DATE: February 06, 2018
SUBJECT: Summary of “Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling”
“The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling” is an impressive presentation of alternating narratives by Ted Chiang who sets his two scenarios at opposite ends of a given chronological spectrum. One story depicts a journalist, who is both the father of Nicole and estranged husband of Allison, vis a vis a new technology, Remem, released by Whetstone, and their interactions and recall with regard to that technology. The other story disparately represents an oral tradition, as portrayed in one tale by Jijingi from the West African Tiv, and the literate tradition, as depicted by the European, Moseby.
One story is set in the not so distant future; a time when singularity, the inevitable union of nanotechnology, digital computer advances and mechanical design with human biology, has recently become commonplace and indeed available since shortly before the grown daughter of this passage’s narrator was born. The story utilizes technology such as retinal projection, life logging, even the digital recording of sub vocalization plus soft or social sciences. Regarding Remem, Chiang presents us with a digital culture representation of accurately recorded history which is analogous to the other story’s literature model, and faces it off against the virtues and contrasting shortcomings of memory as recorded by the human brain, replete with all its emotional and even egocentric re-framing. The parallel running scenario takes place in the not too distant past in a small tribal village now feeling, and having for the most part adapted to, in a somewhat compromising way, the lasting effects of the encroachment of Europeans upon their traditional way of life. In a nutshell, Chiang walks us through Tivland, which has a culture of oral communication, particularly in terms of historical record, whereas the somewhat imposing European tradition is that of established literature.
If at first these two stories seem unrelated and the bounce we continually experience between them at intervals makes the combined narrative flows feel somehow disjointed or even ambiguous as a literary whole, it soon becomes apparent that the real parallel here manifests itself in the examination and exploration of the concept of truth, as both a human perception based upon our ability to recall, reconstruct, retell and interpret, and as a fixed set of data and documented events which defy human malleability. These are juxtaposed here by our need to remember things only as they actually occurred versus our unconscious desire to shape and cultivate this information to suit our best interests as well as our sense of self.
This is a truly thought provoking novella which combines the styles of a science fiction writer with that of an historian but only in terms of pastiche since the real focus of these two tales is on the question it poses to us regarding what it is about truth which we value most; its most absolute and fully retrievable accuracy as recorded for all time or its pliability to serve the changing needs of times to come.
Reference
Chiang, T. (2013). The truth of fact, the truth of feeling. Subterranean Press Magazine. Re-trieved on February 03, 2018. https://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/fall_2013/the_truth_of_fact_the_truth_of_feeling_by_ted_chiang
Key words
Cyborg
Harmattan
Life logging
Ouroboric
Retinal projection
Sub-vocalize
In today’s lecture, we talked about Ted Chiang and his novella titled, “The Truth of Fact the Truth of Feeling”. Ted Chiang is a technical and science fiction writer born in Port Jefferson, New York. Chiang’s 13,700 words story gives two narratives. One narrative is told by an older journalist which is told in the 1st person, and the other narrative is told from the 3rd person and it talks about the culture of a Jijingi, a Tiv person of West Africa. The older journalist analysis his experience and research about the new technology, in the text called “Remem”. “Remem” acts as a lifelog that is able to record and act as “another memory storage”, allowing people to go back in their memory. This allows people to go from literal practice to digital practice. On the other hand, the other narrative from Chiang’s novella is Jijingi, which tries to change from oral practice to literal practice. Both narratives have a similar conclusion to their story as in relation to technology, people have to be mindful about the technology as it might have a bad impact on the humanity.
In addition, during the lecture we mentioned that this specific story has an ambiguity by letting the reader understand that there is only either black or white color but in reality, there is always some gray in between. Moreover, we mentioned Issac Asamov who promoted social science-fiction and whom also was a writer from Brooklyn, New York. Lastly, all of the students introduced themselves
Amir Ramos
2/5/18
The first narrative discussed in Ted Chiang’s novella, “The Truth of Fact the Truth of Feeling,” was through the perspective of the father who was at first skeptical over the Remen technology. He believed that the technology would have, not only a negative effect on the current generation that it is being introduced to, but the next generations who will have it from the start of their lives. He felt that peoples lives would be mediated by technology and that there would no longer be any emotional ties to the memories that they form. He had a change of heart when he went back to view a memory he misremembered where he blamed his daughter for their estrangement. The second narrative discussed is about a villager from an African tribe and a missionary. The missionary takes Jijingi under his tutelage and teaches him how to him how to read and write. Under the missionary’s wing, Jijingi’s mind shifts towards that of the westerners. Jijingi then starts to question himself since his whole being and mindset is based on his culture, which he is seeing isn’t perfect.
In the lecture we discussed the two shifts between the two narratives. In the second narrative we see the shift from an oral to literate culture. In the first narrative we see the shift from a literate to a digital culture. These shifts show the evolution of man through technology. Man took that first leap from oral to written, where the information isn’t totally reliant on one’s memory or from word of tongue. With the ability to write everything down then share it, we see a total shift in thinking. Where the information being passed down from the oral aspect maybe a lie, or incorrect. In the next leap, from literate to technology, we see how the accuracy of the technology is infallible. Where our memories can be warped and distorted, either over time or by our subconscious, the Remen technology provides 100% accuracy of whatever it records. There are both pros and cons in the end to the Remen technology, just as there is with the literate technology. We’ll find out for ourselves just how much one outweighs the other in the not so distant future.
“The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling” by Ted Chiang is a short story that allows the reader to think deeply about how we as a continuously advancing society are being affected by technology. The author is able to achieve this by including two narratives, one from the past and one from the future. Although they are different they relatively have the same message that the author is trying to address. His first narrative is told from the point of view of a young Tiv tribe member named Jijingi. Within this narrative we are able to see how the traditional oral culture is advancing to written language. The second narrative is from the point of view of the author himself and a discrepancy in his life that has to deal with the relationship between him and his daughter and the revolutionary technology known as “Remem” would actually replace human memory with digital memory so that it may be more precise. The character Jijingi in the second narrative comes from a tribe whose communication is strictly oral as well as using body language to tell stories. That is, until the Europeans came and introduce a new form of communication and technology. A European missionary named Moseby introduced Jijingi to a new form of technology which was paper and tried to teach him how to write. However Jijingi began to realize that even with the introduction to this new form of communication, it began to show that he was losing touch with his culture so he decided to abandon the technological advancement and return to his traditional values. When explaining this we technological advancement “Remem” the author is a bit skeptical. “Remem” is a form of technology that allows the user to have digital access to their memories which would make recalling certain information a lot easier and more accurate.His views on it wasn’t relatively negative. He just questioned the fact that as technology advances, we as human beings may lose incredibly crucial qualities that makes us unique. Now the author brings up a time in his life where his wife had left and how he and his daughter had an altercation which put a crack in their relationship. Based on his memory alone, he believed that the root of the issue was not on him but was in fact the fault of his ex wife. He decides to use “Remem” and came to the realization that it was in fact his fault that there is a crack in his relationship with his daughter. With that in mind he meets with her in order to talk about the situation. Chiang realizes that technology is constantly advancing and that we are unable to prohibit that. There will always be positives and negatives to technology and that hopefully it will better us as human beings.
Ted Chiang’s “The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Fiction” is a fictional piece meant to get us thinking about the ups and downs of technology (based on what we believe is the truth). The story takes on the view of two characters set in different time periods: a time when Europeans were first colonizing West Africa and a time perhaps not so far into our future. In the past, they remembered and passed down all their stories and history orally. There was no literature until the Europeans introduced it. Our character then is taught how to read and write which at first confused him. Then he began to open his eyes to the Europeans way of recording their history and thoughts on paper for reference later. In his culture, there was no wrong or lies; there were truths and facts. People didn’t lie, they just told their version of the truth and a witness would testify what was fact. The European missionary who taught our character literature didn’t understand it since he could only see it as one person was right and the other was lying. Later in the story, the village is in a dilemma about their ancestry and which tribe to unite with. Our characters village senior decides upon one tribe while their far-off division decides with the other. Our character goes to the Europeans to find the truth, and finds out his senior was wrong. When confronting him and claiming the elder was wrong, the elder tells him that he’s forgotten what it is to be part of their tribe and that he’s just like the Europeans now. He feels bad and chooses to ignore technologies version of what was true, what he has believed was a fact.
In the near future timeline, a journalist believes the technology they have to remember events would get rid of our own memories and make us rely on the devices for everything. He believes his daughter is smart, but without the technology she wouldn’t know how to do much. When he and his daughter are facing a crisis together, they use the device to remember the truth of the events and the father realizes he was wrong, but she realizes that she was also not entirely correct. This gives them something to work on if they hope to salvage their relationship.
The story shows us that sometimes what we choose to remember is better for us for various reasons, but technology can show us the truth, the hard fact of what had occurred and we may not like what we find out.
Tyné Hazel
Professor Ellis
En 1710
1/29/18
Ted Chiang, “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling,”
A short summary of “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling” by Ted Chiang the narrator–the journalist–was horrified by his daughter, Nicole, when she mentioned the dwindle in need for the english language–especially, verbal language–as technology gradually developed and evolved. In this story, technology was allegedly so advanced that microchips would be embedded in the brain’s of people and they’d be able to record specific–if not all events–in their life and to be able to share those memories with others. In this day demeanor and facials expressions. For example, in the very beginning the journalist said, “I read an essay suggesting that it might no longer be necessary to teach children how to read or write, because speech recognition and synthesis would soon render those abilities superfluous. My wife and I were horrified by the idea, and we resolved that, no matter how sophisticated technology became, our daughter’s skills would always rest on the bedrock of traditional literacy.”
Perception played a huge role in this text, and Chiang does a fantastic job with portraying how the characters witness and process ever to as opposed to what really happened.
Which resulted in him not wanting to rely on technology and ultimately he gets very preachy. This predicament reminded me of a popular series I started watching recently called, “Black Mirror,” The episode is called “The Entire History of You” In th episode, people had been given the option to implant a “grain” behind their ear that enabled them to document everything they observed and experience. Using a remote, a user can rewind by playing back the memories directly to their eye or video monitor, almost like a projector. The main character in the episode experience a number of unfortunate events–him witnesses flirtatious looks between his wife and what we figure out was her former boyfriend– which devastatingly ended his marriage. At the very end of the episode, Liam decide to cut the grain from behind his ear and everything is left up to speculation.