Fourth Assignment
Choose one of the options below and write an essay in response. Your essay should be at least three and a half pages in length and should not exceed six pages. Use double-space lineation, a 12-point serif font, and one-inch margins on all sides. Your writing is expected to be error-free and up to university standards.
Essays in response to the first two options must be argumentative essays (with a thesis statement). Essays in response to the other two options may either be argumentative essays or research reports (with results, analysis of results, and conclusions).
As always, carefully document all your sources of information (whether directly quoted or not).
The assignment is due on March 29th, but may be handed in up to one week late without penalty. Consult the course outline for further information about late assignments.
Option 1: Cyborgs
Examine the portrayal and use of the cyborg in one or two of the following:
- Blade Runner (1982)
- The Terminator (1984)
- RoboCop (1987)
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
- Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
- Battlestar Galactica (2003-09 television series)
For
Blade Runner, you may consider the Nexus-6 models as cyborgs; for
Battlestar Galactica, you may consider the new-generation Cylons (the “skin-jobs”) as cyborgs. Your essay should carefully examine the way the cyborg bridges the divide between human and machine. What human characteristics are retained? What human characteristics are lost? What is the role of the cyborg within the new society imagined by the movie/show? What comment about humanity is the movie/show making through its use of cyborgs?
Option 2: Feed and Snow Crash
Examine the depictions of humanity and digital technology in the two novels. What are the novels saying about the fate of humanity in a world where digital technology has a greater influence than it currently does? How have the ways humans define who they are changed? You may talk about the ways the novels explore the boundaries between the human and the posthuman.
Option 3: Digital pedagogy
Research two opposing viewpoints on the use of technology in classrooms (at the primary, secondary, or tertiary/university level). The viewpoints should be expressed in either scholarly essays, in respectable news magazines (such as Macleans, Time, and Newsweek), or in magazines about pedagogy. Which viewpoint wins?
Option 4: Copyright and open access
Research the public (as reported in the “media”) and/or scholarly reaction to the court injunction against Napster (of 5 March 2001). To what extent is the reaction coming out in favour of or against open access to digital (copyrighted) files? How is the technology that enables open access (and copyright infringement) being treated? What attitudes are being taken with regards to the future of society?