Week 13: The Evolving Self-Aware Human

The following is from "Models of Open Relationships" by Kathy Labriola




"Having a sexual relationship with someone else often leads to becoming emotionally involved and even falling in love, frequently causing a crisis in the primary relationship, possibly leading to a breakup."

Week 12: Man is the Animal that Laughs

She has a surprise for him, a gift only she could imagine he would cherish. As they spent the last two months apart, the love they had for each other was now the invisible rope that connected them the 3,000 miles apart. On the day they reconnected, they spent every waking moment together. At breakfast they sat hand in hand, on the walk to the park he walked closest to the street while keeping her close, and at night there was an unbelievable sense of passion they shared while in bed.

 The long weekend was finally over, they had to say their good byes and reconnect that invisible love rope. But before he walked onto that airplane, he was surprised by her gift... the gift she knew only he would love. The teddy bear was with him the entire plane ride home, they fell asleep together... he imagined it was his love he just left.

 On nights he was most lonesome, the bear was all he had to keep him company, the bear was the only love he felt from his girl friend, and before he knew it the bear was returning the hug.

“The bears alive!” he thought at first, it startled him until he rethought what was happening. The bear was a symbol of his girl friend’s love and as he cherished the bear, he was not only instilling his own love into this inanimate object, but feeling the love his distant girl friend wanted him to be aware of.

To this day he still has the bear and although it does not come alive when he holds it, he still knows that the love inside it is stronger than ever.

Week 11: If Robots Are Slaves, Can Logic Be Freedom?

The following quote comes from Who Can Replace A Man.

"On the third day in the Badlands, the servicer's rear wheels dropped into a crevice caused by erosion. It was unable to pull itself out. The bulldozer pushed from behind, but succeeded merely in buckling the servicer's back axle. The rest of the party moved on. Slowly the cries of the servicerdied away."

Week10: The Stranger Is Programmed

Quote from "Stranger in a Strange Land"


"HMMPH! You're trying to force on him you narrow-minded, middle class, Bible Belt morality."

Week 9: The Stranger Learns The Signs

Quote from "Strangers in a Strange Land."


"Talking with a Martian is something like talking with an echo. You don't get any argument but you don't get any results either."

Week 8: The Alien as Other

The follow quote comes form Donald Johanson's "from Lucy."

"As a paleoanthropologist-one who studies the fossils of human ancestors-I am superstitious. Many of us are,because the work we do depends a great deal on luck."

Week 7: Planetary Disaster

The following quote was taken from "SF Signal: Interview Dr. Michio Kaku.

"English is rapidly emerging as the most likely candidate for a planetary language."

Week 5: Dystopian Prison

We were making our way through the tunnel, taking us from our homeland to a new place, somewhere to visit... or possibly stay. This tunnel was long and windy, two lanes, and not a single sign that says how much longer we would be in it for. Finally the light broke; we made it through and into this new place. We only knew it as being the best of the best, where all the bottom dwellers went in hopes to become upper society. Time has passed, I am now adapted to my new society although I do not think it is all that great, my family certainly likes it’s better than I do. We go to meetings daily, learn the new way of life, and have to take these liquid shooters before we leave... no one has ever mentioned what they were though, we just brace ourselves and gulp. Over time my thoughts have become under control, no longer do I think this place is dull but rather amazing, they want us all to think that; this is how they get more to come. The government here is in total control, tell us when to wake up, where we can work, even where we are able to park our transport. They also take all they can, pricing on goods skyrocketed once we entered that tunnel... but no one seems to complain or question, we can’t! To become upper society we must accept, live this life as if it were great and hope to be taken in. Our transports are now controlled by  trackers, this tiny object allows us to accelerate, forces us to stop, and even self-destructs if we are thinking to cause harm. You see, they control our thoughts, every second they know what we are thinking and use that to only benefit their world. This upper society has it all wrong you see, they only accept, not question.

Week 5: Cyborg

ABOVE IS MY CYBORG, HE IS A SPECIAL BEING AND UNLIKE ANY OTHER. THE WORDS THAT MAKE UP HIS BODY ARE UNIQUE, THEY STAND OUT, AND THEY BRING ATTENTION TO HIS FORM.

THE WORDS WRE CHOSEN BECAUSE I FELT THEY MADE THE MOST SENSE EACH WEEK. OUR READINGS HAVE TOUCHED ON MANY TOPICS WITHIN SCI-FI AND I WANTED TO BRING OUT THOSE TOPICS WITH KEY WORDS.

Week 4: The Integrated Circuit

"Cyborgs are no exception. A cyborg body is not innocent; it was not born in a garden; it does not seek unitary identity and so generate antagonistic dualism without end; it takes irony for granted."


-Donna Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto"

Week 3: Woman as Robot Dolls

The quote below is from "Looking at Woman" by Scott Sanders...

"I would lie on my bunk pondering calculus or Aeschylus and unwillingly hear the same few nouns and fewer verbs issuing from one mouth after another, and I would feel smugly superior."

Week 2: Battle of the Sexes

From John Varley's "Options"

"... Don't be a man. Be a male, instead. The switchover's a lot easier that way."