...ignored the warnings? Two texts that have presented us with warnings are both Frankenstein and Blade Runner, concerns of their times in both Mary Shelly’s ‘Frankenstein’’ and Ridely scotts blade runner warned us of the consequences of overstepping our boundaries of man kinds moral code and the effect of technology advancement and lack of moral and virtuous conduct that is expected to human kind. These texts are critical of scientists who choose not to question the morality of their research and discoveries or to even consider the damaging consequences of humanity that may follow. Both texts even thought they are set in different times, explore similar themes concerning the disruption of natural order to create artificial life and show how both authors warn us many of the paths followed by over-reaching scientists irresponsible at best and evil at worst. Both texts give us warning to what the future may hold if science continues to strip away man kinds moral code. The time frame in which Frankenstein written was full of great changes and extraordinary discoveries such as electricity and the French revolution, which had bloody consequences which demonstrated how volatile the era was and how social order was being challenged. England was in a societal transformation. These are therefore reflected in Frankenstein such as the electrical experiment on Frankenstein, which was a warning against the expansion of modern humans. In contrast Blade runner was set 150 years after frankenstien...
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...The worlds of Frankenstein and Blade Runner are effective representations of their context and the values which were catalysts for their composition. How has your study supported this? Throughout time, literature has served well as a window into the schools of thought and social concerns of any given era of human history. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (Director’s cut), 1986, continue this trend. Frankenstein is a typical example of Gothic literature that engages with issues commonly raised during the Enlightenment and Romantic Movement. Blade Runner was composed in the early 1980’s, a time of radical change and development in areas of science and business. Despite their differing social contexts, both texts question similarly ethically driven issues. The question over man’s right to push the boundaries of science in the creation of life has transcended time, growing increasingly relevant with recent advancements in technology. The contentious issue was predominant throughout the Enlightenment period, an era characterised by significant change where reason was valued over religious faith. This contextual significance is mirrored in Shelly’s condemnation of Frankenstein’s experiment through the loathing tone of “now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.” She furthers her argument through the monster’s description of Frankenstein as an “unfeeling, heartless creator!”, reflective...
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...demonstrated in the comparison of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner? The concerns that composers challenge in their texts not only reflect the ideals and perceptions of their time, but the same issues are also found to transcend through the decades. This has been demonstrated through the comparative study of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein and Ridley Scott’s feature film Blade Runner in which their 150 year contextual difference could not create a barrier in exploring related issues. Despite Shelley’s Frankenstein being written in the early 19th century Romantic era, while Blade Runner was created in the period of late 20th century America influenced by Reaganomics, both texts delve into the concerns of the overpowering need for glory, the dichotomy between humanity and monstrosity, and the lack of parental responsibility. Through Frankenstein and Blade Runner, the desire for ultimate success is represented through the pursuit of knowledge and the application of science and technology. The underlying intention behind the project is of utmost importance as there will be dire consequences if the purpose of the creation is of a superficial motive. Through Victor, Shelley has portrayed humans as deeply ambitious yet also deeply flawed. Victor dreams of transforming society and bringing glory to his name through his scientific achievements yet his desire also makes him fallible. In writing Frankenstein, Shelley had challenged the Enlightenment ideal...
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...Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein and Scott’s film Blade Runner explore similar issues in vastly different contexts. They present the same issues; governed by the same values and perspectives. Both explore a dilemma that continues to be significant in the 21st century: the ethical and moral tension between the fear of humanity’s abuse of technology and the incredible potential for technology to extend life and even defy death. Shelley and Scott have crafted texts that portray individuals who challenged the established values of their time by considering the consequences to individuals who use technology to create life. These texts both emphasise the negative effect of progress on humanity and the natural environment through the use of language and visual forms and features. In Shelley’s novel, the exciting potential of technology that was becoming apparent in the nineteenth century had fascinated the young scientist Frankenstein. Desiring to challenge morality, he uses his new-found knowledge to fashion a creature out of human body parts who has great strength, but whose appearance is so monstrous that Frankenstein flees his laboratory in terror. The persona of Victor depicts humanities further obsession and greed for knowledge and power as he isolates himself from society. He marvels ‘It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desire to learn’ uses of the juxtaposition of heaven and earth shows Victor’s understanding of the implication of his actions. Shelley uses the...
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...Frankenstein and Blade Runner Although written more than 150 years apart from each other, and with very different mediums of production both Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Ridley Scotts Blade Runner reflect upon the societal concerns of their times in order to warn us of the consequences of overstepping our boundaries and unbridled technological advancement. Subsequently, it becomes evident that despite their temporal and contextual differences, both texts are in fact linked through their common concerns and concepts. Frankenstein was written in 1818 at the height of the industrial revolution. Frankenstein is infused with some elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement and is also considered to be one of the earliest examples of science fiction. The story is partially based on Giovanni Aldini's electrical experiments on dead animals and was also a warning against the expansion of modern humans in the Industrial Revolution. Blade Runner, on the other hand was written in 1982 at the beginning of the age of computers. The movie is set in Los Angeles in 2019 inside a post-modern, post-industrial and post-apocalyptic city. The world is devoid not only of nature, but children, sunlight and “real” animals. In the opening scene, film noir characteristics, such as disoriented visual schemes and heavy reliance of shadows and rain are used to show the vast yet dwarfed city. This leads us to believe that this city is a result of past consequences where nature has not just...
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...English Essay Practise #1 You have studied two texts composed at different times. When you compared these texts and their contexts, how was your understanding of each text developed and reshaped? (HSC 2003) Understanding of these two texts may be developed and reshaped with the further analysis into what context and values they both have in common, whether they are contain similarities or differences. Such texts which can be compared is Blade Runner is a film created by Wrigley Scott which was released in 1982, more than a century after the world renowned novel of Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley in 1818. With such concerning issues as technology advances and their impacts on the environment, class structures and the language styles and techniques used to convey these messages. Developing and reshaping a clearer and more concise understanding enhances the ideas and meanings within each text. As the creature from within the novel, Frankenstein, is created from the, what was seen as, advanced technology in a new way of writing and thinking was created for the audience of the 19th century. The ability to create life in a way which was deemed impossible, unrealistic and yet completely compelling to those which were exposed to this style of gothic horror fiction. This reflects on the time period of Mary Shelley although was not a typical way writers were expected to write and to appease their particular audiences. This developed my understanding of the technology and writing...
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...As Max Cady stated in Cape Fear: “Now you will learn about loss! Loss of freedom! Loss of humanity! Now you and I will truly be the same…” words which are so incredibly applicable to the novel, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and the film Blade Runner directed by Ridley Scott. Both these texts raise questions about humanity, particularly its loss due to advancements of science and technology, in an effort to challenge views of their respective societies. However, whilst Shelley created her novel in the 1800s, a revolutionary time of the Romantics responding to the Enlightenment, Scott created his film during the 1980s, a time of war, commercialism and commoditisation of lifestyle, thus each text automatically privileges different perspectives whilst exploring this common theme. By examining the texts side-by-side we, like Cady, learn about loss in general, and loss of humanity in particular, as we explore the strong connections between two texts created in diverse contexts. Both texts question the ‘humanity’ of the creators, with, in Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein reflecting on the Romantic emphasis of the hero within the individual, yet the portrayal of this protagonist seems to query society’s very values. Being one of the first “gothic romantic” novels, the creation of a new being for self-centered purposes, due to his perception that “A new species would bless me as its creator”, confronts the 1800’s context about the motives of individuals. This focus on self glorification...
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...…….. (REFER TO QUESTION HERE) Every text is a product of its time and may reflect changing values and differing perspectives……. (Which can significantly enhance an audiences understanding of that time and context). The capacity of such values to be ultimately universal is seen within Mary Shelley’s 19th Century Gothic novel Frankenstein and Ridley- Scott’s sci-fi thriller Blade Runner. Despite being written centuries apart both remain powerful reminders and critiques of humanity’s infatuation with science and technology and the dangers of human hubris. Both Shelley and Scott reveal these values through the integration of literary and cinematic techniques …….. (To challenge the established values of their time... However the different time periods influenced the textual form, so the way these values are represented are different, and yet the same message is explored) The context of Frankenstein/ The modern Prometheus is the product of Industrialisation and Romanticism. The novel is ultimately emblematic of the Romantic era, and is in essence a revolt against the period of scientific development, that is Englightment. This period, to quote William Blake of the “dark, satanic mills” spread progress yet at the sacrifice of the natural world…….. Shelley’s cautionary tale is accentuated metaphorically through the tragic character of Victor who forms an obsession with science and technology, in his quest to create life. As Victor recounts his ordeals, his obsession with his project...
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...Texts can transcend the time in which they are written and evolve to be applicable to a new time and a new social content by facing everlasting human concerns. Human concerns that transcend the decay of time include the influence of science, the influence of consumerism and what it means to be human. Mary Shelleys’ 1818 epistolary novel, “Frankenstein” show the early 19th century fears of the advances of both science and technology as well as what makes someone human. Ridley Scott also faces these issues as well as the influence of consumerism in a modern context in his 1991 Film “Blade Runner” These composers lived centuries apart and both critique these humans concerns. Mary Shelleys’ “Frankenstein” introduces us to the ideas of Galvanism,...
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...Frankenstein/Bladerunner In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) humanity’s manipulation of nature paradoxically erodes the human spirit and compromises integrity. Although contextually disparate, both texts explore a creator’s need to take responsibility for his creation, cautioning responders of the dangers of unrestrained scientific progress and conveying humanity’s severed relationship with nature. Where Shelley communicates with a certain ambiguity characteristic of the contradictory Age of Reason and sets her tale against a backdrop of a sublime natural world, Scott portrays a society fuelled by ecological destruction and 1980s corporate abuse. This reflects each composer’s anchoring of their visions in the socio-cultural realities of their time; a fundamental transgression of human values over time. Both texts explore the dangers of uninhibited scientific progress. In Frankenstein, Shelley fashions a gothic world where nature is tampered with and a ‘hurricane of enthusiasm’ drives the protagonist towards abandoning his conscience, prompting Shelley’s valuing of moderation. Underpinned by the Industrial Revolution and an era of scientific change, Victor embodies the obsessive passions and Romantic ego-identities of 19th century scientists. The epistolatory narrative framework adds a disquieting sense of truth to Victor’s retrospective dialogue, “how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge,” reflecting his Promethean disobedience...
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...Texts in Time Texts embody paradigms corresponding to their social, economic and historical contexts. The capacity of thematic concepts to transcend time is manifest within Mary Shelley’s 19th century gothic novel Frankenstein (1818) and Ridley Scott’s science fiction film Blade Runner (1992) as both pose similar existentialist discourses regarding the fate of humanity. As a Romanticist, Shelley condemns humanity’s intrusive assumption as creator. Similarly, Scott responds to Shelley warning by also spurning man’s ruthless ambition. However, the film’s 20th century context of capitalist greed and mass industrialisation shifts the criticism onto the pursuit of commercial dominance. Both texts employ techniques such as allusions and characterisation to depict similar dystopian visions ensuing from man’s dereliction of nature. Composed during the Industrial Revolution and radical scientific experimentation, Shelley typifies the Romantic Movement as she forebodes her enlightened society of playing God. Her warning permeates through the character of Victor, whose self-aggrandising diction “many excellent natures would owe their being to me” represents a society engrossed with reanimation. Shelley moreover questions the morality her microcosm’s pursuit of omnipotence through Victor’s retrospection “lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit”, as the juxtaposition of “all” and “one” emphasises Victor’s cavernous obsession to conquer death; akin to scientists of her time...
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...Texts in Time Texts embody paradigms corresponding to their social, economic and historical contexts. The capacity of thematic concepts to transcend time is manifest within Mary Shelley’s 19th century gothic novel Frankenstein (1818) and Ridley Scott’s science fiction film Blade Runner (1992) as both pose similar existentialist discourses regarding the fate of humanity. As a Romanticist, Shelley condemns humanity’s intrusive assumption as creator. Similarly, Scott responds to Shelley warning by also spurning man’s ruthless ambition. However, the film’s 20th century context of capitalist greed and mass industrialisation shifts the criticism onto the pursuit of commercial dominance. Both texts employ techniques such as allusions and characterisation to depict similar dystopian visions ensuing from man’s dereliction of nature. Composed during the Industrial Revolution and radical scientific experimentation, Shelley typifies the Romantic Movement as she forebodes her enlightened society of playing God. Her warning permeates through the character of Victor, whose self-aggrandising diction “many excellent natures would owe their being to me” represents a society engrossed with reanimation. Shelley moreover questions the morality her microcosm’s pursuit of omnipotence through Victor’s retrospection “lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit”, as the juxtaposition of “all” and “one” emphasises Victor’s cavernous obsession to conquer death; akin to scientists of her time...
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...Artificial intelligence From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search "AI" redirects here. For other uses, see Ai. For other uses, see Artificial intelligence (disambiguation). Artificial intelligence (AI) is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents"[1] where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chances of success.[2] John McCarthy, who coined the term in 1955,[3] defines it as "the science and engineering of making intelligent machines."[4] AI research is highly technical and specialized, deeply divided into subfields that often fail to communicate with each other.[5] Some of the division is due to social and cultural factors: subfields have grown up around particular institutions and the work of individual researchers. AI research is also divided by several technical issues. There are subfields which are focussed on the solution of specific problems, on one of several possible approaches, on the use of widely differing tools and towards the accomplishment of particular applications. The central problems of AI include such traits as reasoning, knowledge, planning, learning, communication, perception and the ability to move and manipulate objects.[6] General intelligence (or "strong AI") is still among the field's long term goals.[7] Currently popular approaches include statistical...
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...Central Curriculum and School-based Curriculum Development 3.2.1 Integrating Classroom Learning and Independent Learning 3.2.2 Maximizing Learning Opportunities 3.2.3 Cross-curricular Planning 3.2.4 Building a Learning Community through Flexible Class Organization 3.3 Collaboration within the English Language Education KLA and Cross KLA Links 3.4 Time Allocation 3.5 Progression of Studies 3.6 Managing the Curriculum – Role of Curriculum Leaders Chapter 4 1 2 2 3 3 13 14 14 15 15 16 16 17 17 18 21 Learning and Teaching 4.1 Approaches to Learning and Teaching 4.1.1 Introductory Comments 4.1.2 Prose Fiction 4.1.3 Poetry i 21 21 23 32 SECOND DRAFT 4.1.4 Drama 4.1.5 Films 4.1.6 Literary Appreciation 4.1.7 Schools of Literary Criticism 4.2 Catering for Learner Diversity 4.3 Meaningful Homework 4.4 Role of Learners Chapter 5 41 45 52 69 71 72 73 74 Assessment 5.1 Guiding Principles 5.2 Internal Assessment 5.2.1 Formative Assessment 5.2.2 Summative Assessment 5.3 Public Assessment 5.3.1 Standards-referenced Assessment 5.3.2 Modes of Public Assessment 74 74 74 75 77 77 77 Quality Learning and Teaching Resources 104 6.1 Use of Set Texts 6.2 Use of Other Learning and Teaching Resources 104 108 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 109 Supporting Measures 7.1 Learning and Teaching Resource Materials 7.2 Professional Development 109 109 Appendix 1 Examples of Poetry Analysis 110 Appendix 2 Examples of...
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...1 The Turing Triage Test Dr. Robert Sparrow Centre for Human Bioethics Faculty of Arts Monash University Victoria 3800 Australia. This paper appeared in print in: Ethics and Information Technology 6(4): 203-213. 2004. Please cite that version. 2 The Turing Triage Test Abstract If, as a number of writers have predicted, the computers of the future will possess intelligence and capacities that exceed our own then it seems as though they will be worthy of a moral respect at least equal to, and perhaps greater than, human beings. In this paper I propose a test to determine when we have reached that point. Inspired by Alan Turing’s (1950) original ‘Turing test’, which argued that we would be justified in conceding that machines could think if they could fill the role of a person in a conversation, I propose a test for when computers have achieved moral standing by asking when a computer might take the place of a human being in a moral dilemma, such as a ‘triage’ situation in which a choice must be made as to which of two human lives to save. We will know that machines have achieved moral standing comparable to a human when the replacement of one of these people with an artificial intelligence leaves the character of the dilemma intact. That is, when we might sometimes judge that it is reasonable to preserve the continuing existence of a machine over the life of a human being. This is the ‘Turing Triage Test’. I argue that if personhood is understood as a matter of possessing...
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