Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Blog 7

A Little Into Shane's Mind

So far in this class, I’ve pretty much enjoyed it and learned quite a bit.
I didn’t think I’d find any interest in philosophy, but I have learned interesting things about my life and the world around me through philosophy. It’s helped me understand what I believe in better and opened my mind about possibilities outside of what I know.
Blogging is fun and a bit cathartic and it helps express my creativity even more.
I’m curious to experience how this semester goes.
I hope I’m not asking for something I really don’t want.

Currently buzzing on: Black Kids, Kenna, Passion Pit and a Rocker Chicks playlist.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Blog 4

The Truman Syndrome

For a while now I've had this weird fantastical feeling, which I attributed to my wild and sometimes vivid imagination, that my life wasn't completely real. I felt that everything and everyone around me were only set there to make me believe that what happens around me is destined, fated or the way life is. I felt like the people in my life or that I interact with are basically acting and when I turn the corner they unloosen their character that I know them as. To an extent I felt like things centered around me, but it never seemed that way from how life played out around me, but sometimes I wondered if there was a microscopic camera watching my every move, observing me and controlling my environment without my knowledge. I morally didn't believe that my life was that important that people around me would stage my life for their amusement or interest. I chalked it up to knowing that there were cameras, especially the different kinds and sizes that are in existence and the things that they could do.

I was a bit surprised to find out that other people had greatly similar feeling as I did. I’m not as drastic as the other people I’ve read about in researching this feeling. This feeling is something called The Truman Syndrome. The Truman Syndrome, named after the Jim Carey lead movie, The Truman Show, is a paranoid delusion where a person believes that their lives are constantly being watched by hidden cameras for an elaborate reality show.

In various articles that I’ve read, the common thread that drives people to these delusions are reality shows. I’ve had this feeling before the massive expansion of reality shows in mainstream media. Reality shows are the current driving force toward this delusion, but this delusion has been around in one form or another and driven by other forces, based on the information I’ve read. With reality shows and other additions to this current generation, such as social networking, cameras on almost anything, such as phones and computers, and cameras almost everywhere, this elaborate paranoid delusion is achieved faster than ever before.


Rockwell - Somebody's Watching Me

Friday, March 12, 2010

Blog 3

A Breakdown On The Truman Show

After watching The Truman Show I have considered some of the ways it relates and compares to life as I know it. A connection to my life and the movie are reality shows. Truman’s life was a reality show, but not completely like the reality shows that exist or have existed.

The similarities in Truman’s life compared to reality television are, the obvious one being that he’s filmed most of the time everyday. There are some moments in his life that are staged and manipulated for a desired and sometimes unpredictable, but very compelling effect. Most of his settings, like a lot of reality shows are temporary structures and facades that give a positive appeal about the lives the lead in front of the camera at the moment and the places they reside. Another similarity is the amount of emotions and the actual emotions captured for the viewers’ indulgence, accompanied by a score or soundtrack that punctuates the emotions and actions on screen.

The differences in regards to Truman and reality shows are that Truman is unaware of his involvement and that he is being watched by a multitude of viewers in a world outside of the one he knows. Reality shows usually have participants sign contracts and release and permission forms to be on the shows. Participants usually play up actions and emotions in front of the camera to entertain viewers and sometimes create a gate of opportunity to further, rejuvenate or create a career in entertainment or becoming a recognizable public figure or image. In Truman’s life his actions come naturally to him, although at times manipulated for a more network and viewer favorable result. Truman didn’t know he was constantly being watched and focused on, and that a lot of what happened was staged without his permission.

In some reality shows the people involved aren’t just observed, but in competition to win or gain something they strongly desire. Truman wasn’t in a known competition to win, especially since he didn’t know he was on a show about every aspect of his life; a fabricated life from birth. His life was handed to him and he didn’t have to do much competing to acquire the things he wanted or desired in his life, except for his freedom.

Christof and the television network are creators like God and have a lot of control of the environment that Truman inhabits. Both God and Christof combined with the network allow levels of freedom, but Christof and the network have more restrictions on Truman’s freedom. God allows us to make decisions with only guidelines that are strongly suggested to make the correct decisions. Also the freewill that Christof allows Truman is fabricated, thus it’s limitations, although it allow Truman the door to leave into the world outside.

If I were in Truman’s position I am not sure what I would do. I figure I’d be terrified by the news I’ve learned and to also venture out into a world I’d never known. But I am an explorer of sorts. I would be curious enough to venture out into a world I’d never been to and not sure of what to expect. I’m sure I can return home one day.

On the other side of the door for Truman, after leaving Seahaven, I can assume that the mechanical aspects that power and work to create the Seahaven experience, like weather and climate conditions that affect the Seahaven environment. Beyond the mechanical area Truman eventually gets to a door to exit. He is let out onto a possible bright day or cool, calm night, paved lot surrounded by fencing and fortified and amplified to keep out further intrusion. Truman would step out into the world he hasn’t really known before and look back at the massive dome construct, which used to be his home from the time he was born.

I suspect that after the televised display of Truman’s exodus, sudden hoard of television news crews descend upon him. Security of the Seahaven studio arrive at that moment to attend to his well being. They try to keep him safe from the overwhelming mass of news crews and gathering onlookers that have arrived, until law enforcement arrives to handle the situation.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Blog 2

Allegory of The Cave

Allegory of The Cave is a fictional dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon, told by Plato. In the dialogue Plato’s actual teacher, Socrates and Plato’s actual brother, Glaucon, discuss how people acquire knowledge and perceive the knowledge that is given to them.

The discussion is expressed through a story about prisoners bound from head to toe in a cave from their birth to their adult lives, and force fed to believe that shadows and sounds made by people behind the prisoners, who they couldn't see, were reality; their reality. One of the prisoners manages to be freed and ventures out out into the real world. This prisoner experiences the real world for the first time; experiencing the bright light of the Sun, and learning about the real world around him. He goes back to the cave to share with the prisoners still in the cave his new discovery and introduce them to his experiences. The prisoners don't take to what he says and dismiss what he says.

Through this analogy Socrates is sharing the idea that the reality that most everyone knows to be true may not be true, and that they, we, need to step away from what we believe and seek knowledge beyond what we believe and even question what we believe. I do agree with Socrates to a moderate extent. I am still someone who is cautious about questioning what I know, but as I learn and discover more I expand my mind to question more about the world around me.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Blog 1

Cyborg?

What makes me a cyborg? I never figured that I could be considered one. I’m not a very well constructed, detailed replication of a human being, made of mechanical and synthetic materials, combined with human attributes to make it seem as human and, or as life-like as possible with the ability to enhance, surpass or aide human abilities or replace a need for an actual human. That’s the definition I gained from pop culture, media and art. After researching the actual meanings behind cyborg, or a cyborg, beyond someone’s explanation translated through their imagination, I understand it a lot better now and why I am one.

Pop culture, media and art have it right as to what a cyborg is. A cyborg is a combination of humanity or life-likeness with a synthetic and mechanical base that produces a human or life-like response. Some of their depictions of a cyborg aren't the complete definition, but are great examples of what a cyborg is; half human, half machine hybrid. I just never realized that being addicted to my Zune music player, my newly acquired social networking addiction and my ability to get attached to television shows made me a cyborg. To me a cyborg was made by a human and not so much an acquisition that a human can have. Now that I consider it, people who have to gain artificial body parts to help them or to live normal healthy lives can be considered cyborgs. I just never thought of these people as such because of how necessary and practical their need to be attached to technology was.

I my case being attached to my Zune, although annoying and even a bit heart-wrenching if I'm without it, isn't something I necessarily need to live or survive my life, but it helps and improves my existence at times. It can help in keeping me entertained, shield me from hearing and experiencing things I'd prefer not to, can inspire my imagination to conjure up thoughts that and ideas that I may not have been able to achieve as easily without it. I even consider it one of my best friends (I know, insane, right).

Although I find it necessary to have my music player when I travel to work, take long monotonous and while I do chores at home, I am trying to reduce my use and reliance on some aspects of technology in my life. I have thought about what life was like before some of the advancements we currently have and how people lived without them. A great example was while I was watching a movie from the early eighties and realized that people had to find and use public telephones to make calls outside of their homes, compared to now having a cellphone and being able to move around and communicate with a desired party on the other end of the line. Technology has become such a major part of our current lives and and our future to come.

I'll try to reduce my unnecessary need or use of certain aspects of technology, but there is a side of me that still enjoys being cyborg-ish. I'm jus' not sure if that's a good side or the dark side.