Yamamoto: Story 7 (Sam Lindsey)

Author: Sam Lindsey
Date: 5/26/2018
Post:Story 7

This was probably my favorite story of the book and here's why: this was the story Yamamoto wanted to tell from the very beginning! You can tell because of the length, the tonality, and the detail which he places so very carefully in this story. It's a culmination of what came before it and is handled extremely well. There are a good few references to other stories in this one. In the ways that Ibis thinks and learns. It makes you think of the other stories while remaining it's entirely own entity. We see common themes come up in this final story. The idea that robots are their own beings and don't have the desire to overtake humanity is the most common theme. Additionally, we have the themes of robot "rights" and the idea of multiple identities (which I find particulearly interesting). Ibis is copied over to a different computer and tortured and killed, but it's "just" a copy of her.... similar to the space station story and the story with Shion, this copy is thought of as the real thing, but is different somehow... I really love how we go from full on sci-fi battles in outer space to really interesting moral ideas and questions in this story. Ibis' creators love for her ultimately drove him to hatred of others and when Ibis saw this she wanted nothing but for it to stop. It's almost a sort of metaphor for our beliefs today in the political system with one side always needing to be "right". It summed up the story nicely for me and gave a rather positive outlook to someone who is mostly interested in stuff like Black Mirror and I appreciate that.

I enjoyed this course very much. I think it was a nice discussion based class that made me think on my feet (the activities did for sure). Sometimes I didn't really understand what Davis was saying because his way of writing could often be dense or dry for me, but I recognize that sometimes you won't enjoy reading you're assigned. There were sections of the book that I did enjoy and resonated with me, but a lot of it went straight over my head. However, and I believe this is probably the case with most students, I found Stories to be a fun, different type of read that was easy to pickup and understand. There's something fun about a good fiction book and I've never been a non-fiction type of guy. Ibis' message about fiction is important to take into consideration here... without the kernels of truth found in her story the protagonist would not have believed her last tale. By slowly building up those ground works and frames she is able to breakthrough to him. I feel like fiction is like that for me too. A good piece of fiction will make you question reality and maybe think about morals, or people, or something, anything, differently.

If anything this class has made me start questioning (more so) how technology influences the factors of my life and how I can best use it to benefit my life going forwards. I just hope the robots don't kill us all in my lifetime...hahaha!