Yamamoto: Intermission 5 - Story 5

Maddie Baum
Yamamoto: Intermission 5 - Story 5

I really enjoyed Yamamoto's story 5. I thought it was incredibly well written and Yamamoto does a great job at using AI and keeping readers involved through out the whole story. This reading reminded me much of the Black Mirror episode "The Entire History of You" (Season 1 Episode 3), which takes place in an alternate reality. The characters through out the episode have chips voluntarily inserted into them that record everything they do and are allowed to play back any memory in front of their eyes or on any screen. I thought that this episode was a great correlation to this chapter, toward Yamamoto's idea of uploading an individual's consciousness onto a computer. I find this to be incredibly impossible and do not think that it would allow society to live in the moment  if it were to be possible. Something that I really enjoyed with this story was the factor of readers never knowing what is to happen next which constantly had readers involved and gave suspension. I think that it can be incredibly difficult as an author to incorporate suspense consistently in an affective way.

Something that I really enjoyed in "A World Where Justice Is Just" it touches on what I have been contemplating on discussing for my final, the mental health that surrounds digital culture. Sarika, a high school girl, discussed messages that she sent to another character Saeko. "I regretted sending such an angry message. I shouldn't have unloaded on Saeko like that. She was going to die soon. She was going to disappear from her world. She had to be scared and sad and suffering in ways I couldn't even imagine. It was heartless of me to be so harsh" (185). I thought that this targeted my potential topic really well because of how it shines the light on our influence of others in a digital space. Regretful things that one may not typically say in a face to face environment can be said. I thought one of the most important aspects to recognize not only from what I am correlating to my final work, but also one of the key take aways that I got from this story was the norm knowledge that death was common. It attempts to highlight what we as people value in society or that play key roles in any individual's lives, which is correlated to Sarika's sim message to Saeko.