Final Project

So, Hemingway was a drunk. But he was on to something, which is more than I can say for myself. I think now I’m more confused than ever, which is the problem with asking yourself too many questions.

I thought that this project was a good way to wrap up the semester because we were able to intertwine all of the major ideas, questions, theories, and philosophies that we have studied since January. And yes, that doesn’t mean we found answers, but I’m starting to think maybe that wasn’t the goal. The type of conversations we got to have, I think are important for all high schoolers to engage in before they become “real people” in the “real world”. It doesn’t mean we need to send ourselves into existential crisis’ over whether we are truly human or not. But the texts we examined also didn’t provide any “answers”. It is now our job to decide how to handle the new questions that we have, and make a positive change on the way to finding the answers.

The first day that we started working on the projects, we decided on a game show, and I thought Family Feud would be the best way to ensure that we maintained some semblance of focus. Splitting up into the groups allowed us to concentrate on one theory and not only thoroughly understand it, but design interaction between the different theories. We were forced to step into the mind of Hemingway and using his principles, respond to conflicting viewpoints from the other stories we read. It also was a productive way to look back on readings and videos from earlier in the semester with fresh eyes. Actually, not so much “fresh”. Maybe seasoned is a better word. When I watched Man for the third time, I came to entirely different conclusions and made new observations. It occurred to me that the Man is in isolation for the whole video – all other life forms are destroyed at his hands. We always talk about seeking isolation from others and finding peace that way, but maybe we are already isolated as a species and that is why it’s so difficult for us to cut ourselves off yet again. We feel that there is nothing else out there which will accept us. Even an instance of camping alone: bugs and plants killed off by our insect repellent, fishes choked by the plastic from our water bottles, sunscreen intruding on the most intimate sections of nature.

I wanted to annotate a critique of Hemingway because as any famed author, he is a controversial figure. He has a clear inclination towards men and paints a misogynistic view of nature, sometimes defining it as a place where men can grow and achieve higher levels of manlihood. He is also known for anti-Semitism and racism. So that’s difficult to move past. But focusing on the analysis of his writing style allowed me to understand his work more – the short and abrupt sentences make the reader feel like they have to do all the work, and when annotating the Stoppard critique (a man who knew Hemingway personally), I realized that instead of looking for subtext, it’s more productive to look at his own personal prequel. Hemingway predicted the eternal and irresolvable conflict between technology, progress, and peace, foreseeing that we have passed the point of no return and now find ourselves unable to fully commit to a lifestyle without the daily intrusion of man-made equipment. Even Chris McCandless lost his life in a bus.

My own participation in this project included annotating two in-class texts, one outside source, coming up with our questions for the script, and answering questions from the other groups.  

Into the Wild

I finished Into the Wild on a plane, seated next to a very…fratty…college boy who was blatantly reading over my shoulder for the entire last few chapters. Yet somehow the last few chapters managed to draw me in enough not to care. I felt liberated, yet chained down. Skeptical of a careless and romanticized journey of just another stupid kid, yet in utter admiration of the story he left behind. Sometimes I’m curious as to whether it’s better to live a good and long life, or a fleeting one which will be told as a story for years to come. Christopher McCandless grew on me more than I imagined he could. I believe that at some stage in the time he spent in Alaska, he found euphoria, nirvana, whatever it is the rest of us seek but almost never find. If not, I don’t think he would have continued writing, or searching, or sharing his words. For some reason, reading the words of pain from his parents and sister feels like the most fictional part of the entire story, despite the fact that all the rest of it, while true, is stitched together by a few journal entries and a quote from a local here and there. In reality the only completely verifiable portions of the whole book come from everyone but McCandless.

I think that’s because while we can all sympathize with the feelings of those he left behind, we yearn to feel what McCandless felt on his journey. He is the hero. He lived barely a third of his life and yet we write the essays and blogs about him, not his parents, not anyone who drove him. Critics claim that he was just another stupid kid, but he is the one they choose to write about.

After I finished reading, I picked up a copy of the Sky magazine in the pocket of the seat in front of me. The first article that caught my eye was something about Beyonce swimming in Cabo, but a couple more minutes of skimming told me that wasn’t the most captivating article in the magazine. “The Internet of Things”. Daunting. The first sentence: “Imagine if your dental floss was connected to the internet.”

Luckily, the frat boy wasn’t interested in my literature anymore and I had some alone time to attempt to comprehend the rest of this article. In it, MIT professor Joseph Flaherty deconstructs the world we’re fast approaching – one in which everything we own is connected to the internet, enabling us to essentially lose all that is left of our humanity and have our existences boiled down to vehicles for capitalism. Starting off the day flossing, once our roll had been half-used, it would place an order at Amazon and have it delivered straight to our home. Sorry, but that’s just straight up terrifying. I have enough things to worry about without watching for Amazon drones here to deliver me my dental hygiene products. Creepier still, Flaherty illustrates the new era of waking up – no more alarm clocks. Instead, threads in our blankets will be in sync with our sleep cycles and a streaming traffic report. “…your REM patterns will be compared to traffic data. If it looks like a traffic jam will make you late for your 9am meeting, a wristband will gently vibrate to wake you up at the perfect time in your sleep cycle”, explains Flaherty. Ok ok ok. The floss was enough. This is too far.

But yet there’s more. In the rest of the article, the reader is introduced to technology such as

a)      Task chairs at work while will monitor posture and send emails telling you not to slouch

b)      Cameras in your computer watching your eye movement to ensure that you are focused, and if not, drawing your attention to something that will bring you back

c)      Data from a trip to the gym which will immediately be sent to your physician so that at your next check up you can’t lie about how many hours of exercise you get per week

d)     Cameras in grocery store aisles which will determine your exact demographic and tailor coupons to match your needs

e)      Air quality thermostat which can sense carbon monoxide levels and automatically shut the furnace and call the police

Had enough yet?

I have.

Industries which haven’t been touched by the internet yet – furniture, cars, buildings – are quick on the uptake. The worst part is that this isn’t speculation – all of this technology has been created and is currently bouncing around major industries with super high price tags, not yet released to the public. Google employees are driving to work in autopilot cars. This is happening.

I haven’t even shared the scariest one yet.

You’ll be begging for hacked passwords in a minute.

Armed with this knowledge, computer hackers will literally be able to hijack pieces of the internet that are inside of you. Not sure what I’m talking about? Pacemakers. We’re looking at a future where people can hold your heart for ransom.

I don’t think this is the world Christopher McCandless could ever have survived in. I barely know if I can. Privacy is one thing when you’re talking about college admissions officers looking at your profile photos – it’s another when the NSA knows what you’re eating for dinner.

Vines

My Vine project focused on the relationship we have with trees. I think I’ve been thinking about trees recently because a) in Minnesota, I haven’t seen a live one for half a year and b) this photo that surfaced on my twitter feed a few months ago.

My immediate reaction was a laugh, until I realized the gravity of this truth. We read articles about the destruction of the rainforests over our breakfast as if it’s happening on a different planet. In this age we are more connected than ever to the rest of the world by technology such as television, Facetime, and a variety of hosts that allow us to access activity in almost any major city in the world within a few minutes. A simple search on twitter of #Rio will tell me exactly what’s going on in the social, economical, and political spheres thousands of miles away. But yet we distance ourselves more than ever from perhaps the most pressing issue – our planet. We murder over borders we have drawn, and forget that all those borders live in the same shared home. The Lorax doesn’t look so much like a book of fiction.

I’m not saying it’s wrong to use notebooks or fish off of docks. It just seems that trees are yet another example of a species we have colonized and manipulated for our own gain. Forests are sacrificed to build even larger cities, cities that will likely populate and pollute our air even more. And yet for me to realize that, it had to be compared to something as ridiculous as WiFi.

Our needs have evolved, apparently. We’re too good for trees now. Let the rainforests suffer, as long as I can read about it on my phone without using up cellular data.

The last vine with my cat is related because the feline family finds its home in trees and jungles. And my cat’s natural habit (a declawed cat that couldn’t even scale a tree) is planted firmly next to – you guessed it – a computer. With a Wifi signal. He probably doesn’t even realize what he’s missing by being domesticated, but the image of seeing him sitting there was harsh for some reason. It’s okay for technology to advance but at what cost? 

Ishmael blog

I never loved biology, and after reading Ishmael, I have a whole new set of reasons to appreciate it even less. What I didn't realize in 10th grade, but now seems so glaringly obvious, is that biology avoids. Students spend an entire year at a critical point in their teenage-aging process, learning the intricate details about everything around them, even inside of them, but never studying the connection. Plant species and the animal kingdom are studied under the context of humans already controlling them - hybrid plants, mutated creatures, animal testing to ensure safety for ourselves. No examination or analyzing of the way we connect with nature. Only how we control it. Above all, we don't consider ourselves a part of this nature anymore, nor are we outside observers. Instead, we are the kings of nature, above it, both physically and mentally.

The principles and laws that species in nature follow are too elementary for us. For example, symbiotic relationships. Nearly all animal, plant, and fungi species live in a world of symbiosis. Billions. Hundreds of billions. And yet humans, who have inhibited the Earth for a minuscule fraction of it's existence, who are just one of the multiple billion species, are the sole exception. In our humble opinion.

Cue Ishmael's sign.
WITH MAN GONE, WILL THERE BE HOPE FOR GORILLA?
WITH GORILLA GONE, WILL THERE BE HOPE FOR MAN?

A sign difficult to interpret, but also shockingly simple. Both statements could imply that the species mentioned second, will have graver odds in the absence of the former. But they also could imply the direct opposite - without man, gorilla had the ability to prevail and step into it's own role of leadership. What both sides of the sign definitely signify is that humans are a part of an Eco-system based on mutual existence. Symbiosis.  Life depends on other life.
This is examined further in Ishmael even before the back of the poster is revealed. When Ishmael first disappears and the narrator works to find him, he notes that while occupied with reuniting with this gorilla, he takes a break from thinking the way he has been: thinking that Ishmael implies is essential to the survival of humanity. "With gorilla gone, will there be hope for man?" When the narrator finds Ishmael in the carnival, cold and tired, he brings Ishmael blankets, not yet knowing about the pneumonia. Without this care, he may have gone just a day or two early. "With man gone, will there be hope for gorilla?" Both rely on each other in their times of need and establish a relationship of co-dependency.

Most of our education is centered on the notion of “we”. Especially in Western countries, it’s difficult for us to imagine that maybe our practices aren’t perfect, and maybe things that are different from us might even be better. We separate ourselves from nature to a destructive degree. We should be learning how to live with it, not live off it. Only then can we hope to see real progress in Ishmael’s goals for civilization.

I both adore and despise Fight Club. It’s my favorite movie, and I dread watching it. For quite some time I’ve struggled to understand exactly how I could feel this way about a film, have such contrasting, passionate opinions about it, unable to come to a concrete decision. I’ve realized the genius of Fight Club, the reason it ranks as the #1 movie in recent history on so many lists, is that David Fincher successfully accesses and illustrates human characteristics so innate, so suppressed within ourselves, that we recoil at the idea of acknowledging them. The entire story is based off of human’s animalistic desires, our aggressive tendencies that silently direct the actions we ultimately take. The characters are harsh, live depictions of the people inside ourselves that we keep silent. Is this humanity then? Is humanity violent, self-absorbed, cruel? Or is humanity the means by which we overcome our primitive wishes?

Mahatma Ghandi (staple public figure to quote in a blog post) said that one of the seven deadly sins was “science without humanity”. Depending on who you ask (and if you’re asking me), this is essentially becoming the slogan for modern technology. Robbie certainly convinced me that humanity is less about our instincts and traits, and more about the way we communicate with each other outside of the realm of these characteristics. This article from ABC News takes the words of eighth graders explaining why the harms of technology so outweigh the benefits. One of the first reasons they listed was “waste of time”: more empty moments filled with the distraction of twitter or texting, and less communicating with the people sitting right next to you. Science, in a certain light, seems to be tearing humanity apart. The intention of increasing communication has become warped and we now find ourselves in an age where we are so obsessed with constant updates on the lives of others far away, that we neglect the words and eye contact of the people we don’t need technology to reach.

In our History of Law class this week, we were discussing whether it is rude to use your phone in the middle of a conversation with someone from an older generation. Students had strong opinions on both sides of the spectrum. But the fact that this debate now exists, the fact that it is plausible to hold a conversation with someone while deeply engaged in following the social lives of people through a screen, seems to be a detriment to humanity as a whole. However, this is the culture we live in. And if humanity creates culture, then is science undermining humanity or simply redefining it?

Of course there is no right answer. Take drones, for example, as The Huffington Post does. On one hand, these robotic planes play their role as protectors and shield communities from the threat of terror. While simultaneously blowing up homes and schools filled with innocent people who, ironically, are so impoverished that the technology which ends their lives is more fantastic and advanced than anything they could have imagined. As the article points out, technology will give you cancer and then teach you to cure it.

In the Toyota commercial we watched on the first day of class, the man rears back his angry head and accelerates through the wall and into the real world in his brand new car. Tyler Durden’s every action mirrors this aggression. Freud would agree, preaching that everything we do stems from either sex or aggression. Though this may be a trait of humans, it is not humanity. Animals share this quality too. Humanity is more. Humanity is communication and comprehension.

At least in my opinion. If it’s true, then Siri has us screwed.