ENG2420 OL74 Science Fiction, Spring 2021

From birth to death, vaccinations play a pivotal role in allowing us to live healthy, productive lives and also serve to protect those who have compromised immunities. COVID-19 has reminded us about the importance of vaccines. With the likes of Moderna and Pfizer, the United States has manufactured effective vaccines to save lives and bring us closer to a world we once knew. According to Dr. Najera, a world without vaccinations would claim the lives of millions at an early age, shrink the global population by nearly 5 billion, and give rise to new variants of eradicated diseases that would impact populations (Najera et al. 2020). If vaccines are so vital to the world, then what is the reason that many fear getting vaccinated? While there can be many reasons why some are opposed to getting vaccinated, it is possible some believe the risks outweigh the benefits and others may think pharmaceutical companies cannot be trusted. While some of the reasons may seem bizarre to the rational and scientifically minded, this long term problem has paved the way for many Science Fiction novels and movies to be produced. One popular example of vaccinations being vital to saving human existence is the movie, I am Legend (2007), which starred Will Smith. 

    I am Legend is set in the near future after  a therapeutic treatment that was meant to cure cancer ultimately leads to the demise of most of humanity. Many of the cancer patients who were treated with the therapeutic treatment transformed into flesh eating and mentally unstable vampire-like beings called “Dark-seekers” who overrun the world. Dr. Robert Neville, played by the actor, Will Smith, was a scientist who began studying these dark-seekers after the world came to a sudden end. His scientific research led to the creation of the antibody that counteracted the antigens of the therapeutic treatment and ultimately saved those who became ill. While I am Legend’s extrapolations of humanity transform into vampire-like creatures is clearly an example of Science Fiction, I argue that the film is more deeply connected to the genre in these ways; its engagement with thanatology, exploration of human-made technological failures, and use of cliffhangers as a narrative technique.

The plot of I Am Legend is positively correlated with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, because in both stories scientific breakthroughs led to the demise of many others. In Frankenstein, Victor created life from the work he conducted but his own behavior and feelings toward the creature led to the creature taking the lives of many people. Thanatology, the study of death and what happens after you die (Ellis, Lecture 4), plays a pivotal role in both Frankenstein and I am Legend. In Frankenstein, we see Victor study the various mechanisms behind the causes of death and how these dead individuals can become alive again. In I am Legend, Dr. Neville captures various alpha beings and studies the causes and effects of their death with bright light. Dr. Neville further learns that the mechanism behind their death was because the pigment of melanocytes of their epidermis were non-existent, therefore light destroyed their tissues. This finding led Dr. Neville to develop various vaccines out of tissues of alpha being that ultimately led to the vaccine that saved the world. Anatomy is another key characteristic seen in both story plots. The anatomy of the alpha being helped Dr.Neville develop a vaccine in order to prevent human extinction whereas Victor in Frankenstein, used the study of anatomy to understand how life can be created or destroyed. From the works of Phillip K. Dick, we learn about the studies of epistemology, defined as the study of what we know and how we can verify we know things, is a major part of the characteristics that drive Dr. Neville (Ellis, Lecture 10). Dr. Neville’s curiosity of the reason why alpha beings act so hostile towards healthy humans is what drives his studies of how he can verify what causes the beings to act this way. His research in which he conducted for nearly three years alone at “ground zero” in Manhattan, New York focused entirely on capturing an alpha being and exposing it to various sources that disgruntled the creature. Phillip K. Dick would infer that Dr. Neville’s hypothesis was justified via scientific experiment rather than opinion.

Technology is groundbreaking. Technology does not only show the advancements made by human beings through time but also promotes promise for the future of tomorrow. In the studies of H.G. Wells and his contributions to Science Fiction, it is important to state that he warns the reader consistently through his work, The Time Machine, about the excitement and potentials of technologies. In The Machine Machine, we are confronted with a situation where an individual uses a time traveling machine that at the time was a breakthrough in scientific research by physicists however the time machine  results in him being lost in time and never returning to the period he initially started in. Also, in E.M. Forster’s The Machine Stops, we are introduced to a society that relies heavily on technological advancements that practically eliminate the social norms of what defines human interactions. Since the society abandoned social norms and relies entirely on the system for daily life activities, when the system fails, the society falls apart. Both Science Fiction readings show similar characteristics of I am Legend. In the movie, society discovers the breakthrough of a therapeutic injection that cures cancer, a deadly disease that takes the lives of millions each year. This technology, which becomes widely used globally and avoids the despair of death caused by cancer, is rejoiced as the greatest scientific finding of all time. Little did society know that this technology would lead to those who were cured of cancer to develop a disease (similar to transforming into a zombie), that would nearly end human existence if it weren’t for Dr. Neville. While technologies nearly ended human existence in I am Legend, it can also be argued that technology also saved humanity, which may seem counterintuitive. 

Cliff hangers, as we know, are scenes in which the viewer or reader is left to conclude what may happen or had happened during a novel or film. In Science Fiction film serials, such as Flash Gordon, which are low budget films, implement the use of cliffhangers at the end of each episode during a battle or conflict to keep the viewer interested and return the following week to watch the film (Ellis, Lecture 7). While I am Legend, in no way was a low budget film, it included some key components of Science Fiction film serials such as cliff hangers to keep the viewer focused. In the middle of the film, after the tragic death of Dr. Neville’s son and wife, we are immediately transitioned into a time point in the future which depicts Manhattan crumbling as infrastructure is beginning to fall apart without humans. This leaves the viewer guessing, did all humans die? Did humans abandon Earth? Rather than the film answering these questions, the viewer is left to assume that many humans did die from the spread of the disease caused by biotechnology and we are in a time point in the future. At the end of the film, Dr. Neville uses a grenade to defend a mother and her son who he gave the vaccine to from the alpha beings. After his death, the story shifts narratives to the mother, which was also seen in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, when the creature told part of the narrative of the story. As the mother is telling the story that Dr. Neville’s vaccine was tested by other scientists that survived and was confirmed as a successful vaccine, the film is suddenly cut off. This cliffhanger leaves the viewer deciding what happened after the mother and her son arrived at the “safe zone” where other survivors were. 

While we may hope that the COVID-19 vaccine does not cause the two hundred million of us who got vaccinated to transform into alpha beings, dangering human existence, it is important that we all do get vaccinated regardless of the rhetoric some may see on social media pages or some news outlets. Perhaps I am Legend portrays our collective anxiety around disease, medicine, and vaccinations. As a work of Science Fiction, it takes some scientific concepts concerning injections and cancer treatments, and it extrapolates a nightmare scenario. Yet, it is worth noting that I am Legend cannot replace the real science that demonstrates how vaccines like those for COVID-19 are safe and effective. It is certainly fine for a film to reflect our concerns, but it can’t take the place of the science and the public health messages based on science.

Works Cited-

Ellis, Jason. “Conclusion Of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” Lecture 4, Feb. 2021,

Ellis, Jason. “SF Film Serials” Lecture 7, Mar. 2021,

Ellis, Jason. “New Wave SF” Lecture 10, Apr. 2021,

René F. Najera, DrPH. “What Would a World Without Vaccines Look Like?” The History of Vaccines, 15 Mar. 2020, historyofvaccines.blog/2020/01/10/what-would-a-world-without-vaccines-look-like/.

Introduction to Bloodborne

When it comes to Science Fiction and video games, there are thousands of games that really grasp the meaning of science fiction and take it to another level. Games like Bioshock, Destiny, or Half-Life can be considered by some to have better stories than even some traditional written works. Bloodborne, however, is a special case. The story of Bloodborne is incredibly complex, and even to this day, people are still speculating and discussing its lore, 6 years after its release. A reddit user and writer known as Redgrave wrote an extensive analysis of Bloodborne that reflects the immense complexity of the video game and its relationship to the work of H.P. Lovecraft. Redgrave writes, “There is no answer to Bloodborne‘s story. Bloodborne is a game that asks you what YOU think. It asks you what YOUR story is. What do YOU make of the unknown? This is my story. This is my Eldritch Truth” (Redgrave 4). Likewise, the following is part of my story of coming to understand Bloodborne‘s relationship to Science Fiction.

Your adventure begins in Yharnam, a city that is heavily inspired by the Victorian Era and its Gothic Architecture. You play as a Hunter and your goal is to slay beasts. However the deeper you go into Yharnam and the areas after Yharnam, the more you learn about the world’s secrets. Why are people transforming into beasts? Why are there aliens in the Forbidden Woods and how did Master Willem, a Byrgenwerth Scholar succeed in making a Great One?

It all began when some scholars discovered an ancient tomb deep beneath the school of Byrgenwerth. What they discovered down there was a horror beyond their comprehension. They discovered the Old Blood. Evidence of the existence of the Great Ones. Society as it was known to man was about to change. Humans could use the Blood to evolve as a species and rise to greater heights. However some believed that the Old Blood would only bring misfortune and tragedy. This led to the group of scholars to become divided between those who didn’t want to use the Old Blood, led by Master Willem and those who used it to its full extent led by Lawrence, who then went on to create the Healing Church. Master Willem warned Lawrence to “Fear the Old Blood” but Lawrence never listened. The Healing Church was established in the center of the Cathedral Ward, a town neighboring Yharnam. Yharnamites with all kinds of diseases heard about the healing properties of the Blood and travelled to the Healing Church to receive it. This only escalated further as people from even outside Yharnam wanted to receive the Blood. The Healing Church was dominating the world of Bloodborne until the scourge of the beasts began. The people of Yharnam were turning into beasts one after the other and so the “Hunt” was established. Hunters from the Healing Church ventured into Yharnam and killed anyone that was turned into a beast, some of them succumbing to the scourge and turning into beasts as well. You are an outsider who came to Yharnam to get treatment, but instead was forced to join the Hunt and discover its secrets as you progress your adventure. The story continues, but the details are not needed at the moment.

Is Bloodborne Science Fiction?

So can Bloodborne be considered Science Fiction? This question turned out to be more challenging than I first believed. Probably the biggest inspiration for Bloodborne was H.P. Lovecraft and his idea of Cosmic Horror, specifically the idea that the greatest fear of humans was fear of the unknown. He writes, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear, is fear of the unknown.” (Lovecraft par. 1). This applies to Bloodborne because of the existence of Insight and the Great Ones. Great Ones are essentially the same as the Great Old Ones in Lovecraft’s stories. Ancient godlike creatures that are beyond human comprehension. Insight is a secondary currency in Bloodborne, but what is important about it is that different amounts of Insight change the way the Hunter perceives the world around them. Your Insight increases as you progress through the game, and with it, you start to see things that were previously invisible. In the Cathedral Ward, an early game area, there is a certain spot that if you sit under it, you will be grabbed by an invisible being and instantly be killed. If you come back after gathering enough Insight, you will be able to see a giant spider-like creature called “Amygdala” dangling from the side of the building. That is what grabbed you, but you could not see it before. To put it shortly, what was before incomprehensible, becomes comprehensible through the use of Insight, although what you see makes you not want to have gained Insight in the first place.

The fishing hamlet is another clear inspiration from H.P Lovecraft’s work, namely, “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” a story about a seaport, populated by people cursed into turning into fish people by a Deep One. The fishing Hamlet is the same thing, although speculated to be a whaling town thanks to the corpse of a whale-looking Great One on the shore of the hamlet. Speaking of which, the Great One dying, is the reason why people turned into fish, thanks to the Great One’s curse. The inspirations from Lovecraft’s works are clear but can we answer this question yet?

Lovecraft inspired most of the story for Bloodborne, but what about the scientific part? 

This is where the research becomes tricky. Bloodborne establishes its own science by introducing the Old Blood. Before the Blood was discovered, people used the method of bloodletting to try and cure diseases. Bloodletting was a commonly used method of curing or preventing diseases during the Victorian Era, an Era that Bloodborne draws inspiration for its setting from. However after the Old Blood was discovered, the normal scientific methods of curing illnesses were halted and the Old Blood was the primary “medicine”. For a story to be considered Science Fiction, there needs to be a logical explanation for the science that is introduced in the story. Bloodborne has its elements of science when it comes to bloodletting and blood transfusion, however the Old Blood goes into the cosmic scale of things. We later discover that the Healing Church has been experimenting with the Blood of a left behind Great One called Ebrietas. Innocent humans are deliberately turned into Alien creatures or just lumps of flesh in an attempt to create an ascended being. There is science behind human experimentation, as it has happened in our world before as well, but there is no science behind the Old Blood. It is just fiction. Therefore just as stated before, whether Bloodborne is Science Fiction or not is up for debate.

Conclusion

So what about my own interpretation. I have said this many times and I will repeat it again. Bloodborne is very complex. It deals with issues regarding religion, psychology and myths. Bloodborne has created its own mythos, by including godlike incomprehensible creatures, that mess with our minds, and use the Healing Church as a form of Governing power over the people of Yharnam. I am not religious myself, but if there was definitive evidence that God is real, then Churches and other places of worship in general, would explode in power and influence over the decision making of the world as a whole. 

So to conclude this research paper, I do not believe that Bloodborne can be considered Science Fiction. It leans more towards Fantasy. It comes very close to it but there is no “root” to the events that are happening in the game. It all stems from the discovery of the Old Blood which is a fictitious element.

Works Cited

Bloodborne. FromSoftware, Sony Entertainment Studios, 2015.

Lovecraft, H.P. “Supernatural Horror in Literature.” The H.P. Lovecraft Archive, www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/essays/shil.aspx.

Redgrave. The Paleblood Hunt: A Bloodborne Analysis. Google Docs, 30 Nov. 2015, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JL5acskAT_2t062HILImBkV8eXAwaqOj611mSjK-vZ8/edit.

The ethics of Artificial Intelligence has been an area of controversy in both Science Fiction and reality for quite a while now. Will they replace the need for humans? Will bias be a problem? Will they conclude that organic life’s imperfection is not necessary and proceed to eradicate mankind? Most of the time, it is humans vs machine, however, Transcendence (2014) explore a deeper layer on the topic: What if the AI is based on a human mind? The film does a good job at representing some of the good, as well as some of the bad that AI can bring to the world.

The renowned Golden Age Science Fiction editor and writer John W. Campbell, Jr. explains how SF can be used to explore what the future effects of science and technology might be. He writes, “To be science fiction, not fantasy, an honest effort at prophetic extrapolation from the known must be made.” SF allows people to come up with “what if” situations, expressing their concerns about what different futures a piece of technology could bring. In a way, it can sometimes even be seen as kind of protest, and to an extent satire, just like a lot of fiction in the past during the era of kings and monarchs. Concerns about AI are very real. Even people who are not familiar with the Science-Fiction genre are aware of problems that might arise as AI matures year after year. Mainly, the use of robots in replacing humans. Sure, in some fields that means safer working conditions as people are not put at risk for dangerous tasks. However, precisely because AI, and therefore robots are better at completing difficult tasks compared to people, what is there to stop them at being even better at simpler ones, taking away entry level jobs from humans? This is where the Science-Fiction genre’s importance shines.

Even with all the advancements in medicine throughout recorded history, there still are obstacles that humans have not yet been able to overcome, namely disease and immortality. A big part of the film involves Will Caster’s digital self’s (the AI) interaction with living human beings on these topics. Through his mind’s incomprehensible evolution after being freed from his flesh body, he makes break throughs in biology that allow him to cure any disease imaginable and even recreate human tissue. This is not as farfetched as it may sound as for some time now, the use of AI in the field of health has considered and is expected to be able to save a lot of lives by the fact that machines can overcome a lot of human limitations such as exhaustion and accuracy. But what about the ethics side of the subject? Machines might be more “perfect” than humans, but that does not mean accidents are out of the equation. Who will ultimately be accountable for when a mistake happens? Multiple organizations have launched initiatives trying to address the concerns:

Amidst the nascence of AI, ethics has been identified as a priority concern in the development and deployment of AI across sectors. In efforts to address this concern, there has been a proliferation of initiatives, including the establishment of organizations and principles documents to provide guidance to those working within the AI space. Some such initiatives include the Partnership on AI , OpenAI, the Foundation for Responsible Robotics, the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Initiative, the Montréal Declaration for Responsible Development of Artificial Intelligence , and the Principles for Accountable Algorithms. (Murphy et al. 3)

A lot of professionals have faith in the future role of AI in the field of Health. In fact, the Covid-19 pandemic kickstarted a more competitive than ever race for the research of a vaccine. A race in which the power of AI played no small part in. As of November 2020, “Ong et al. predicted possible vaccine candidates for COVID-19 using the Vaxign reverse vaccinology-machine learning platform that relied on supervised classification models” (Arora et al. par. 21).

Related to Will’s exponential growth of mind as a disembodied AI is the need ability to analyze vast amounts of data. The problem is, after everything the open web has to offer has been explored, there is only one data source left, humans. The way the people of Brightwood get “connected” to Will can be seen as a satire of how undetachable modern day people are from social media. It may not look like it at first glance, but tech companies behind social media apps know more about their users than they think. Take for example how related ads can show up everywhere right after searching for a specific term once on a whim. This sparks the question of where should the line be drawn? The film actually shows this concern when Evelyn finds out Will tracks almost everything about her both internally and externally. In fact, the technology that tracks similar aspects already exists, varying from simple fitness apps for daily exercise to sleep trackers that monitor a person throughout whole nights. In 2018, there was a scandal in which the fitness app Strava, released a world heat map showing the running patterns of its users using collected data. The problem was that the map also included data from active military personnel in military bases that were not supposed to be visible to satellite. “In locations like Afghanistan, Djibouti, and Syria, the users of Strava seem to be almost exclusively foreign military personnel, meaning that bases stand out brightly” (Hern, par. 8). The follow up defense for cases like these would normally be the argument that users could always just opt out of data tracking features. The reality of it is, more casual users, which make up the majority in most cases, do not pay attention to prompts asking for permissions. People do not usually know what apps do before using them, and even after extended use, only a fraction of a percentage go and change these settings. How does Artificial Intelligence connect to all of this? The biggest reason corporations collect personal data is because they can profit from it in the form of advertisement. Due to the number of users, the process of deciding what to do with data collected from a user is handled by some form of Artificial Intelligence. At some point, which a lot of people have been starting to realize in recent years, it becomes scary how well our phones know us.

While it is widely accepted that computers have helped humanity solve problems and accomplish great modern feats, the next stage of computing evolution with AI understandably raises some concerns, which the film Transcendence reflects. Artificial Intelligence is only the next step as the goal is to create something that thinks, solves, and learns by itself with minimal or no human intervention. A fact that everyone will one day be forced to accept is that Artificial Intelligence is a required steppingstone for humanity to reach the next stage of progress as there is only so much our limited flesh bodies can do. Sure, AI is by no means an easy field to understand for the average person, but that is why films such as Transcendence are important. They are a form of exposure to some of the ethical problems and consequences that might arise from the technology. It shows us what it could one day be capable of, both in a good way and a bad way.

Everything in life comes with both ups and downs, and technological progress is no exception to this rule. Artificial Intelligence is starting to prove its worth in the field of medicine by accelerating medical research to rates that could take humans alone years to achieve. Yet there is the question of whether it is a good idea for a machine to know more about us than we do ourselves. Transcendence explores some of the ethical concerns in a parallel world where the AI itself used to be human. This is the importance of the Science Fiction genre. By looking beyond the layer of entertainment, we can learn from the infinite “what if” scenarios as a way of avoiding issues before even experiencing them.

Works Cited

Arora, Neelima, et al. “The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Tackling COVID-19.” Future Virology, Future Medicine Ltd, Oct. 2020, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7692869/#:~:text=AI%2Dbased%20triage%20systems%20can,recognition%20approaches%2C%20digitalization%20of%20patient’s.

Hern, Alex. “Fitness Tracking App Strava Gives Away Location of Secret US Army Bases.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 28 Jan. 2018, www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/28/fitness-tracking-app-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases.

Murphy, Kathleen, et al. “Artificial Intelligence for Good Health: A Scoping Review of the Ethics Literature.” 2021, doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-29373/v3.

Transcendence. Directed by Wally Pfister, performances by Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, and Morgan Freeman, Warner Brothers, 2014.