While the comparisons to the Nazi regime are obvious in SQ, what do you think Le Guin is saying about technological/scientific progress? Does she have a valid argument? Explain.
31 comments:
Anonymous
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I personally think that the Technological progress in this future Sci-Fi Short story is... sort of but not really advanced. For example, a tape recorder... Currently, tape recorders are already obsolete. I would have thought that if in that future, with only one order and government that has the ability to force a mass "SQ" test would be futuristic enough to have something more than a tape recorder. I would know that there would be something digital rather than... tape recorder.. Computers are doubling their power every 18 months, by then, a small digital recorder would be an option to the lower-class.
It was also mentioned that Dr. Speakie dropped information leaflets, um... messy and um... did Electronic Mail (Which most in the US would have in a future like that...) die or something? Why not broadcast it on the News? (Again, which most people would have TV's). Alright, some might disagree with me *The 6 percent people who do not have Computers or TV's*... However, would flying fliers catch 100 percent of the people?... in their language?
I do not think that Le Guin had much intention to say that technology is very advanced in this story.
-Or-
It could be towards people in present time that just will not accept future high-technology and will refuse to use it. There is actually some technological advances we are working on, their theories are beyond believable, because of that some may also fear to use them. In the next few decades, Artificial Intelligence will surpass human intelligence, some may fear the the created may turn against the creator.
In "SQ", there are some technological advances, but I do aagree with Adam that some are already "obsolete" and some of the others are becoming obsolete. The tape recorder is very old...I don't even use the one I have now hardly... Now I use an electronic voice recorder, so that is one example of an advance that didn't happen.
Info pamphelets...umm wouldn't e-mail be the way to send information by then...? I don't see as many around town as I did before the internet was a huge thing... and like Adam said "Why not broadcast it on the News?" If there isn't e-mail, then shouldn't people have TV's? I forgot when this story w written, but besides the satyr of technology, maybe this was as futureistic as Le Guin could get? Like I said, I don't remember when the book was written...I guess that Le Guin could also just be saying that because of a totalitarian dictatorship technological/ scientific advances were not on the priority list except for those that would improve the test/ ways to take the test/ etc.
And to add to Adam's last sentence..."ROBOTS WILL TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!! NOT COCKROACHES!!!!
anyway, technology is good in helping people make their lives easier, but i think La Guin is trying to get the point thru that eventually life'll be soo easy people won't know how to do anything, cuz computers will do everything. Humans'll just be lazy bums who lie there all day waiting for food and other things to come to them. For example, since the invention of cars, how man people walk and ride bikes anymore? Since computers, tv, ipods, etc, how many kids go out to play anymore? People will get so used to this laziness they won't even think about doing things on their own, hence letting robots take over and crush them.
In the story “SQ” I think Le Guin is saying that technology hasn’t advanced much, if at all, because everyone is worrying about the SQ tests or has already been thrown in the insane asylums. With everyone locked away it would be kind of hard to invent anything new. Something I don’t know is why not only has technology not improved but why they use things even we wouldn’t use in our world because they are outdated. There are a few examples in this book like the ones Dan and Adam have already mentioned like the tape recorder Dr. Speakie uses. That has been outdated for some time now. Another one also mentioned by Dan and Adam is when Dr. Speakie drops leaflets on Australia. It would be a lot easier if he broadcasted it over their TV’s, although I do see how that would have gotten their attention. Another example is if this story is far enough in the future that this department has gained all this attention and even taken over the world then how come they haven’t invented intelligent robots yet? That’s something we our trying to create in our world today so I don’t see why they don’t do it. Robots would be able to help out in the insane asylums or even take over Bills job.
Now that I look at it, I don’t even think this story is in the future at all. I think it is just an alternate version of our world but maybe a few years ahead because the book says it is in an unspecified time in the future. They have the same technology we do now and there is no weird jargon or different words so maybe somebody stepped on a butterfly when they weren’t supposed to (reference to A Sound of Thunder) and it changed what their world was like. That’s what I think Le Guin is saying: that it’s the same time period but an alternate version so we both have the same technology.
I think Le Guin is saying that technology is taking over the world and eventually everything is going to go back in time. The world is becoming so advanced that people are going to go back to the basics so to speak. They may not think that the "insane" people are able to handle technology and such things because they are not mentally capable.
If my theory is right, I think Le Guin does have a valid argument. Everything is going to computers and what not, but i think that people are going to start wanting hard copies of documents again. This is going to be because it is so easy for hackers to get into "secure" databases and get information that could ruin the lives of many.
I may be completely off, but i guess that is how i feel.
I think that this story is set in a time period very close to ours, due to the technology, as well. What I don't understand is why. Le Guin is kinda of predicting the future a little bit but it doesn't seem like the future at all. Like the tape recorder; as of now it is already obsolete. I almost wonder if our curent verisions of technology failed therefore they returned to the more primitive technology. I guess Le Guin is trying to express the thought that even with minimal technology peoples' worst instirncts can take over and lead to disaster.
Oh yeah and I think that Le Guin's argument is completely valid. I agree with her one hundred percent. All people can do terrible things if they do not focus on doing positive things. And even so situations can go bad and good intentions can turn wrong. Everyone has evil in them.
I think Le Guin is syaing through the SQ story that technology is probably just as advanced as it is going to it. Yeah we might make a few things and improve other things but I doubt were ever going to be flying around in hovercrafts. I think she does have a valid argument, I mean look around were pretty well off. We really don't need to be more advanced.
Le Guin has an easy valid argument. Technology, I feel, will eventually take over. Kind of like in Wall-e, ((I LOVE THAT MOVIE BTW!!!)) technology was so advanced in the future that everyone got super fat and had no personalities or anything. I don't really know how you avoid that happening though... Science is getting scary too. For instance, you're dog dies...no problem! We'll clone him tomorrow! ...weird..probably not going to end up well in the future when they start to try to clone people. BTW-about everyone talking about the tape recorder thing...I think that when Le Guin wrote this, they weren't very advanced then and maybe tape recorders were like the hot new thing when she wrote it. It would be like us talking about people driving electic cars and the people of the future would be like, ohhh that's so oldd. I don't know. Just my personal opinion.
I am going to have to agree with Eric, adam and others when they say that Le Guin kind of shows that technology hasn't changed a whole lot over time. They refer to outdated technology and nothing too fancy in this story.
I don't think that Le Guin has a valid arguement because like Nikki said, technology is becoming a huge part of our lives. Many people are relying on the internet, radio, playstation, i pods and other things to keep them entertained. One day, we are all going to be very FATTTTTTTTT and realize that all this technology is helpful and fun to have, but it's doing nothing for our physical health. People are becoming lazy and not recognizing it.. or maybe they are, but don't seem to care. I think we can all agree that without all of this technology, we would almost have nothing :D. However, this technology is keeping us all isolated and less active than we would be without all of it.
Okie dokie. So I'm not quite sure when this whole "SQ" story is taking place but i'm pretty sure it's close to this time period. if you think about it, we're really not that far off. We're no where near having robots replace humans but someday they might. But as far as the SQ Test is concerned, I could totally see that happening within the next ten years.(although the world domination part is really stretching it) I think overall, LeGuin is pretty close to her guesses about the future.
I think Le Guin is trying to say that there has been a lot of tech/science progress, but not all of it is necessarily benefitial.
Since everyone else has mentioned the tape recorder and I am a conformist, I will make my comment on the tape recorder. Right now, it's hard for us to imagine what's going to come next after mp3 players, laptops, flat screen TV's, etc. if we would write a science fiction novel today, people would probably have little mini-hand held computers that did everything for them. Who knows--in 50 years, will we even need computers? I don't know. I think that anything beyond a tape recorder was not even imaginable at that point. Maybe a better tape recorder, but not anything else.
also, as other people have mentioned, the whole "the world will be taken over by robots" is something that we still think about today. Personally, I don't think that will ever be able to happen (robots don't have feelings unless you're a Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy fan), but it's a reasonable argument that people make. Anyway, I think that shows that great progress has been made in science and technology, since robots were a thing of imagination and not used in everyday life.
As I said before, I think Le Guin is trying to show that great advances have been made, but they're not all good. Everything is determined by a test, people can drop bombs at their heart's desire, and the every day jobs are beginning to be run by robots (the ambulance). How long will it be before Bill the janitor is replaced by a robot and Mary Ann is replaced by a robot?
*I like what everyone else has said, but the tape recorder thing-this was written in the late 1960's to 1970's, right? That's what they used. That was high-tech. *The computer thing from adam-they dropped bombs on australia. that was what they wanted to have happen. the point of dropping the "leaflets" was so that they could say "yeah, we dropped leaflets, nothing bad, don't worry." also, the government of australia might not allow messages to come in from the president of the world or whatever Dr. Speakie is.
Alright, preview time! Okay. Pretty much epic fail at the little box and the preview.
I think that Le Guin is predicting that technological and scientific progress will reverse in coming years. This is kind of an odd prediction...maybe she has yet to take one of those test that she wrote about... I, personally, think that technology will continue to advance unless there is some large crisis that will send us back to 45's. I don't think that she has a valid argument because the government that she describes is a world wide network. How is communication supposed to be efficiant if they haven't advanced passed a tape recorder? Unfortunately, it doesn't take technology to start a violent chain of reactions. Looking at the Holocaust, we see that they had limited technology and were still able to take over. Le Guin emphasizes this point by having very simple forms of technology in her story. I understand her point, but I think that technology will continue to advance, making the spread of hate and anger even easier...until 2012, of course, when the "anti-christ" is going to doom us all...
To me Le Guin is trying to demonstrate that technology is good but there is a point when enough is enough. Technology is helpful if utilized in the appropriate ways. She does have a very valid argument, if people become overly obsessed with technology like in the story. If technology is exploited to the extreme like in the story then no one would be human. Just image what are English class would be like if they took out all the people that where insane. Well I would be far away in a padded cell with a few of my class mates and Mrs. S. Life would be ridiculous if the world would let technology control society to the point it was in the book.
In SQ I thought that the scientific progress seemed to be a little bit slow. In the story she (Mary Ann) used a tape recorder to document her information about Dr.Speakie. Now a days things are totally different when it comes to documenting things or saving things. Today a person can just get on a computer, cell phone, or even an ipod to share or watch new information. So when comparing the story with new developments she kind of was in the past about it but that's ok. Keeping it simple on the sci progress can sometimes make things less confuzing. I think her argument could possibly go both ways. She kind of relates to the past and it makes you look at how fast and more progressed things are today in technological/scientific progress.
My theory about the point she is trying to make as far as technoligical progress goes like this. She is trying to give a sense of some progress with minor mentions of things like automated robots and other things. I think she does this to make the reader realize the futuristic setting of the story. She also mentions old technologies like the tape recorder for example. This is put in the story so that we understand that the world events and Dr. Speakie's agenda stunted technological growth. It's possible that some sciences or technologies were deemed insane or banned altogether. She really leaves it up to the reader to come up with the reasons behind this anomaly. I think she has a problem with government regualations in science and economy, with good reason.
But it doesn't matter because we are all going to be sucked into a black hole created by the anti-christ A.K.A Barack Obama...
In the tale SQ there was past and future technology. Today's day in age things are changing all the time. New technology can last for a little while, but then someone else finds a better way. I think Le Guin in the story was trying to express how fast technology is coming and going. Also how it is transforming/ making the world its own galaxy. At one point in the story the main character (Mary Ann) uses a tape recorder, but then suddenly robots come into the picture.Le Guin does have a valid argument. Like in life some of technology is based on the older version most of the time; just new and improved.
**after staring blankly at the screen for 10 mins...**
***so tired***
It doesn't sound like much has changed in the future, other than the rebirth of Nazis and emergence of globalized testing for santity. Unlike 'someone' I'm not a conformist and will not mention the tape recorder...oops, darnit. but, yes, we all agree that the futuristic technology is not so far advanced as we thought it could be. But it seems like everything works, so why try to fix something that's not broken, you know? I think Le Guin is trying to say exactly that. Sure there are robots in her story, but they are not the main concern, it's the 'unmentionable item' (listed above) and H-bombs, airplanes, cars, the same U.N. building we have 2day, etc. The robots are just about the only advancement I can see, well, other than that the world is run by one person and every country is a state, but that's not really technological. I think Le Guin's point is completely valid because I agree that if something works just fine, then you shouldn't feel the need to replace it with something better.
Of course, I like other peeps' ideas that the story is about the technological breaking down of the entire planet, and how we're all going to die from our own technology, and the story totally creeped me out in that aspect. I really couldn't see how the story was supposed to be funny. Explain?
*btw, Yay Kaykay! I'm proud of you, but v-ballers got our butts kicked...MUCHO kicked...like super-karate-whop-cha-action kicked...Yeah. Im pretty tired so g'night!* **I love cherry coak, and i think its cool how my name sounds like it. Don't u think?**
**after staring blankly at the screen for 10 mins...**
***so tired***
It doesn't sound like much has changed in the future, other than the rebirth of Nazis and emergence of globalized testing for santity. Unlike 'someone' I'm not a conformist and will not mention the tape recorder...oops, darnit. but, yes, we all agree that the futuristic technology is not so far advanced as we thought it could be. But it seems like everything works, so why try to fix something that's not broken, you know? I think Le Guin is trying to say exactly that. Sure there are robots in her story, but they are not the main concern, it's the 'unmentionable item' (listed above) and H-bombs, airplanes, cars, the same U.N. building we have 2day, etc. The robots are just about the only advancement I can see, well, other than that the world is run by one person and every country is a state, but that's not really technological. I think Le Guin's point is completely valid because I agree that if something works just fine, then you shouldn't feel the need to replace it with something better.
Of course, I like other peeps' ideas that the story is about the technological breaking down of the entire planet, and how we're all going to die from our own technology, and the story totally creeped me out in that aspect. I really couldn't see how the story was supposed to be funny. Explain?
*btw, Yay Kaykay! I'm proud of you, but v-ballers got our butts kicked...MUCHO kicked...like super-karate-whop-cha-action kicked...Yeah. Im pretty tired so g'night!* **I love cherry coak, and i think its cool how my name sounds like it. Don't u think?**
I would have to say that I think Le Guin tries to show how when the the entirety of humanity is crowded in the "Asylums," technology does not progress, it either reverses or continues forward at a much slower pace. I figured out this story was written in 1978, and it is possible that at that time, all that Le Guin could think of as a voice-recording technology was a tape-recorder, the only availabe voice recording technology at the time. So, I believe that the tape-recorder is irrelevant to the story, it only occurred because of the limitations of technology in the time period of when this was written. As for having robots replacing humans, there is actually a high chance of it happening. Look at factories today, many of them use robotic technology instead of human labor because it is so much more efficient. Whether or not they will replace our race as a whole is difficult to predict. Other than the tape recorder and the robot at the end, there isn't much worth mentioning about new or old technology. She leaves the subject up to the reader, but I will say this. Because of the fact that in the story the narrator mentions airplanes, hydrogen bombs, and other things that we have here in the present, I would say that this story was not meant to take place that far into the future. In fact, I would be willing to bet that Le Guin saw it as taking place sometime around the present.
I don't think Le Guin meant to set it in a certain time period. Also, I don't think she spent too much time on the technology aspect of this story. It's just a story of corruption, basically. If you think about it, a "Sanity Quotient" really isn't science fiction. Scientists could easily come up with some standards to evaluate a person's sanity, although I don't think that will happen. The technology is not the main point in this story. However, I do think Le Guin could've done a better job of correlating the time period/technology. As many already stated, tape recorders aren't exactly state-of-the-art. Additionally, I highly doubt that tape recorders would still be used while they are using robotic ambulances. Yeah, doesn't really go together. So, I don't think Le Guin is saying anything about technological/scientific progress. I think we're just reading too much into this story.
My stand on the story is that Le Guin is trying to show us how technology is taking over the world. Think about how much one depends on their cell phone for daily things. I mean how would I ever get hold of my mother we didn't both have cell phones. I do believe however that this story is not completely bashing technology. Another standpoint is that it is showing us that if we all listen to one person's opinion we will never create anything new. It might be telling us that we have to use our own minds to create the new. I mean if the guy who wanted to create electronic dogs had listened to other people we would indeed be in lack of those metal cuddle buddies. :)
I truly do not know which message is trying to be shown to us so I can't answer the second question.
As Adam said, the tape recorders are basically a flashing light in this story. If they are "so advanced", they would've come up with something far easier and faster to use. A tape recorder is very old, considering we have phones with voice recognition, cars with voice recognition, handhelds, laptops, and iPods. Another point I agree on with Adam is the use of leaflets. With so many ways to communicate quickly: internet, phone, wi-fi...why in the world would they spend time printing leaflets? I understand that the Doctor is trying to fake the people out saying he'll drop them, but wouldn't be more convincing if he broadcasted it on T.V. or sent out an I.M. to the world? I don't know...a little confusing to me.
I think that Le Guin is trying to say that technology has stopped improving. i'm not really sure when this story was written, but tape recorders are kind of a thing of the past. i think that Le Guin is telling us that the people became so obsessed with the SQ test, that no one payed attention to the much needed technological advancements. this test was a big pat of their lives, and it determined their future. few high schoolers would be watching tv or surfing the web if they had their SAT or ACTs the next day. the SQ test is the same way. if they failed this, they went to the asylum to live. eventually, everyone was completely obsessed, and most ended up in the asylums, so there was no intelligent people left to invent new things. in the asylums, everything you need was there, and friends and family were always close by.
BEWARE! UPDATING IPOD COULD RESULT IN SERIOUS INJURY OR EVEN DEATH. Once iPods are the supreme rulers of the universe, they will reap havoc on the innocent people, playing "Disturbia" over and over, until "BUM BUM BE DUM!" starts aggressively invading your mind, your soul, and your pancreas. T'will be a dismal globe of zombies and sparkling vampires....WoOeEoO! Death and destruction will eventually come to those innocently playing Scrabble (Hasbro Inc.). Yes, Scrabble. NO MORE TRIPLE LETTER SCORE! I AM IN YOUR MIND! Doom.
Dr. Nefftly Natoopes Gassawy Nikenbojen Bonn University
i also agree with adam and nikki and keegan and watever on this one. In the book, the author makes it seem like they are so advanced but, I think that Le Guin either wrote the book at the time that tapes were cool, or she was making a prediction of the future. she could be saying that we might get so tired of all the new techno that we will jus go back to basics...or..i think that they are just a couple years off from were we are now...like the fact that they had a tape recorder...that was just a couple years ago when we first discovered the cd or computer, and in fact my dad still has a tape player in his truck so Le Guin can't be to far off from her prediction of the future.
I think that le guin is saying that we will rely on technology so much that we will forget how to do stuff. In the dark tower series the people became so advanced that they stopped learning how to build technology and eventually the people who knew how to build the technology got old and died and everything started to go in reverse because no one knew how to make new things or even how to fix the old one. I Think that it is a valid argument because we rely on technology for almost everything nowadays and eventually thats all we will have. We exist in a world that in a way is "flat" because no matter where you are you can talk to anyone anywhere and most people dont know how to fix their gagets they just know how to run them.
31 comments:
I personally think that the Technological progress in this future Sci-Fi Short story is... sort of but not really advanced. For example, a tape recorder... Currently, tape recorders are already obsolete. I would have thought that if in that future, with only one order and government that has the ability to force a mass "SQ" test would be futuristic enough to have something more than a tape recorder. I would know that there would be something digital rather than... tape recorder.. Computers are doubling their power every 18 months, by then, a small digital recorder would be an option to the lower-class.
It was also mentioned that Dr. Speakie dropped information leaflets, um... messy and um... did Electronic Mail (Which most in the US would have in a future like that...) die or something? Why not broadcast it on the News? (Again, which most people would have TV's).
Alright, some might disagree with me *The 6 percent people who do not have Computers or TV's*... However, would flying fliers catch 100 percent of the people?... in their language?
I do not think that Le Guin had much intention to say that technology is very advanced in this story.
-Or-
It could be towards people in present time that just will not accept future high-technology and will refuse to use it.
There is actually some technological advances we are working on, their theories are beyond believable, because of that some may also fear to use them. In the next few decades, Artificial Intelligence will surpass human intelligence, some may fear the the created may turn against the creator.
There is actually some technological...
Now you DO know that I totally meant to type are instead of is...
hmm Adam's grammer is...
In "SQ", there are some technological advances, but I do aagree with Adam that some are already "obsolete" and some of the others are becoming obsolete. The tape recorder is very old...I don't even use the one I have now hardly... Now I use an electronic voice recorder, so that is one example of an advance that didn't happen.
Info pamphelets...umm wouldn't e-mail be the way to send information by then...? I don't see as many around town as I did before the internet was a huge thing... and like Adam said "Why not broadcast it on the News?" If there isn't e-mail, then shouldn't people have TV's? I forgot when this story w written, but besides the satyr of technology, maybe this was as futureistic as Le Guin could get? Like I said, I don't remember when the book was written...I guess that Le Guin could also just be saying that because of a totalitarian dictatorship technological/ scientific advances were not on the priority list except for those that would improve the test/ ways to take the test/ etc.
And to add to Adam's last sentence..."ROBOTS WILL TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!! NOT COCKROACHES!!!!
I like Dan's ROBO TAKE OVER WORLD thing
anyway, technology is good in helping people make their lives easier, but i think La Guin is trying to get the point thru that eventually life'll be soo easy people won't know how to do anything, cuz computers will do everything. Humans'll just be lazy bums who lie there all day waiting for food and other things to come to them. For example, since the invention of cars, how man people walk and ride bikes anymore? Since computers, tv, ipods, etc, how many kids go out to play anymore? People will get so used to this laziness they won't even think about doing things on their own, hence letting robots take over and crush them.
In the story “SQ” I think Le Guin is saying that technology hasn’t advanced much, if at all, because everyone is worrying about the SQ tests or has already been thrown in the insane asylums. With everyone locked away it would be kind of hard to invent anything new. Something I don’t know is why not only has technology not improved but why they use things even we wouldn’t use in our world because they are outdated. There are a few examples in this book like the ones Dan and Adam have already mentioned like the tape recorder Dr. Speakie uses. That has been outdated for some time now. Another one also mentioned by Dan and Adam is when Dr. Speakie drops leaflets on Australia. It would be a lot easier if he broadcasted it over their TV’s, although I do see how that would have gotten their attention. Another example is if this story is far enough in the future that this department has gained all this attention and even taken over the world then how come they haven’t invented intelligent robots yet? That’s something we our trying to create in our world today so I don’t see why they don’t do it. Robots would be able to help out in the insane asylums or even take over Bills job.
Now that I look at it, I don’t even think this story is in the future at all. I think it is just an alternate version of our world but maybe a few years ahead because the book says it is in an unspecified time in the future. They have the same technology we do now and there is no weird jargon or different words so maybe somebody stepped on a butterfly when they weren’t supposed to (reference to A Sound of Thunder) and it changed what their world was like. That’s what I think Le Guin is saying: that it’s the same time period but an alternate version so we both have the same technology.
I think Le Guin is saying that technology is taking over the world and eventually everything is going to go back in time. The world is becoming so advanced that people are going to go back to the basics so to speak. They may not think that the "insane" people are able to handle technology and such things because they are not mentally capable.
If my theory is right, I think Le Guin does have a valid argument. Everything is going to computers and what not, but i think that people are going to start wanting hard copies of documents again. This is going to be because it is so easy for hackers to get into "secure" databases and get information that could ruin the lives of many.
I may be completely off, but i guess that is how i feel.
I think that this story is set in a time period very close to ours, due to the technology, as well. What I don't understand is why. Le Guin is kinda of predicting the future a little bit but it doesn't seem like the future at all. Like the tape recorder; as of now it is already obsolete. I almost wonder if our curent verisions of technology failed therefore they returned to the more primitive technology.
I guess Le Guin is trying to express the thought that even with minimal technology peoples' worst instirncts can take over and lead to disaster.
Oh yeah and I think that Le Guin's argument is completely valid. I agree with her one hundred percent. All people can do terrible things if they do not focus on doing positive things. And even so situations can go bad and good intentions can turn wrong. Everyone has evil in them.
I think Le Guin is syaing through the SQ story that technology is probably just as advanced as it is going to it. Yeah we might make a few things and improve other things but I doubt were ever going to be flying around in hovercrafts. I think she does have a valid argument, I mean look around were pretty well off. We really don't need to be more advanced.
Le Guin has an easy valid argument. Technology, I feel, will eventually take over. Kind of like in Wall-e, ((I LOVE THAT MOVIE BTW!!!)) technology was so advanced in the future that everyone got super fat and had no personalities or anything. I don't really know how you avoid that happening though... Science is getting scary too. For instance, you're dog dies...no problem! We'll clone him tomorrow! ...weird..probably not going to end up well in the future when they start to try to clone people.
BTW-about everyone talking about the tape recorder thing...I think that when Le Guin wrote this, they weren't very advanced then and maybe tape recorders were like the hot new thing when she wrote it. It would be like us talking about people driving electic cars and the people of the future would be like, ohhh that's so oldd. I don't know. Just my personal opinion.
I am going to have to agree with Eric, adam and others when they say that Le Guin kind of shows that technology hasn't changed a whole lot over time. They refer to outdated technology and nothing too fancy in this story.
I don't think that Le Guin has a valid arguement because like Nikki said, technology is becoming a huge part of our lives. Many people are relying on the internet, radio, playstation, i pods and other things to keep them entertained. One day, we are all going to be very FATTTTTTTTT and realize that all this technology is helpful and fun to have, but it's doing nothing for our physical health. People are becoming lazy and not recognizing it.. or maybe they are, but don't seem to care. I think we can all agree that without all of this technology, we would almost have nothing :D. However, this technology is keeping us all isolated and less active than we would be without all of it.
Nice reference Kaylyn!! I just saw your blog after I entered mine.
Okie dokie. So I'm not quite sure when this whole "SQ" story is taking place but i'm pretty sure it's close to this time period. if you think about it, we're really not that far off. We're no where near having robots replace humans but someday they might. But as far as the SQ Test is concerned, I could totally see that happening within the next ten years.(although the world domination part is really stretching it) I think overall, LeGuin is pretty close to her guesses about the future.
Thanks!!! :D
P.S. I know you guys probably don't care haha but we won both games against North Platte today!! You all should come to our games! :)
I think Le Guin is trying to say that there has been a lot of tech/science progress, but not all of it is necessarily benefitial.
Since everyone else has mentioned the tape recorder and I am a conformist, I will make my comment on the tape recorder. Right now, it's hard for us to imagine what's going to come next after mp3 players, laptops, flat screen TV's, etc. if we would write a science fiction novel today, people would probably have little mini-hand held computers that did everything for them. Who knows--in 50 years, will we even need computers? I don't know. I think that anything beyond a tape recorder was not even imaginable at that point. Maybe a better tape recorder, but not anything else.
also, as other people have mentioned, the whole "the world will be taken over by robots" is something that we still think about today. Personally, I don't think that will ever be able to happen (robots don't have feelings unless you're a Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy fan), but it's a reasonable argument that people make. Anyway, I think that shows that great progress has been made in science and technology, since robots were a thing of imagination and not used in everyday life.
As I said before, I think Le Guin is trying to show that great advances have been made, but they're not all good. Everything is determined by a test, people can drop bombs at their heart's desire, and the every day jobs are beginning to be run by robots (the ambulance). How long will it be before Bill the janitor is replaced by a robot and Mary Ann is replaced by a robot?
*I like what everyone else has said, but the tape recorder thing-this was written in the late 1960's to 1970's, right? That's what they used. That was high-tech.
*The computer thing from adam-they dropped bombs on australia. that was what they wanted to have happen. the point of dropping the "leaflets" was so that they could say "yeah, we dropped leaflets, nothing bad, don't worry." also, the government of australia might not allow messages to come in from the president of the world or whatever Dr. Speakie is.
Alright, preview time!
Okay. Pretty much epic fail at the little box and the preview.
ps-congrats Kaylyn!
I think that Le Guin is predicting that technological and scientific progress will reverse in coming years. This is kind of an odd prediction...maybe she has yet to take one of those test that she wrote about... I, personally, think that technology will continue to advance unless there is some large crisis that will send us back to 45's. I don't think that she has a valid argument because the government that she describes is a world wide network. How is communication supposed to be efficiant if they haven't advanced passed a tape recorder? Unfortunately, it doesn't take technology to start a violent chain of reactions. Looking at the Holocaust, we see that they had limited technology and were still able to take over. Le Guin emphasizes this point by having very simple forms of technology in her story. I understand her point, but I think that technology will continue to advance, making the spread of hate and anger even easier...until
2012, of course, when the "anti-christ" is going to doom us all...
To me Le Guin is trying to demonstrate that technology is good but there is a point when enough is enough. Technology is helpful if utilized in the appropriate ways. She does have a very valid argument, if people become overly obsessed with technology like in the story. If technology is exploited to the extreme like in the story then no one would be human. Just image what are English class would be like if they took out all the people that where insane. Well I would be far away in a padded cell with a few of my class mates and Mrs. S. Life would be ridiculous if the world would let technology control society to the point it was in the book.
In SQ I thought that the scientific progress seemed to be a little bit slow. In the story she (Mary Ann) used a tape recorder to document her information about Dr.Speakie. Now a days things are totally different when it comes to documenting things or saving things. Today a person can just get on a computer, cell phone, or even an ipod to share or watch new information. So when comparing the story with new developments she kind of was in the past about it but that's ok. Keeping it simple on the sci progress can sometimes make things less confuzing. I think her argument could possibly go both ways. She kind of relates to the past and it makes you look at how fast and more progressed things are today in technological/scientific progress.
My theory about the point she is trying to make as far as technoligical progress goes like this. She is trying to give a sense of some progress with minor mentions of things like automated robots and other things. I think she does this to make the reader realize the futuristic setting of the story. She also mentions old technologies like the tape recorder for example. This is put in the story so that we understand that the world events and Dr. Speakie's agenda stunted technological growth. It's possible that some sciences or technologies were deemed insane or banned altogether. She really leaves it up to the reader to come up with the reasons behind this anomaly. I think she has a problem with government regualations in science and economy, with good reason.
But it doesn't matter because we are all going to be sucked into a black hole created by the anti-christ A.K.A Barack Obama...
In the tale SQ there was past and future technology. Today's day in age things are changing all the time. New technology can last for a little while, but then someone else finds a better way. I think Le Guin in the story was trying to express how fast technology is coming and going. Also how it is transforming/ making the world its own galaxy. At one point in the story the main character (Mary Ann) uses a tape recorder, but then suddenly robots come into the picture.Le Guin does have a valid argument. Like in life some of technology is based on the older version most of the time; just new and improved.
**after staring blankly at the screen for 10 mins...**
***so tired***
It doesn't sound like much has changed in the future, other than the rebirth of Nazis and emergence of globalized testing for santity. Unlike 'someone' I'm not a conformist and will not mention the tape recorder...oops, darnit. but, yes, we all agree that the futuristic technology is not so far advanced as we thought it could be. But it seems like everything works, so why try to fix something that's not broken, you know? I think Le Guin is trying to say exactly that. Sure there are robots in her story, but they are not the main concern, it's the 'unmentionable item' (listed above) and H-bombs, airplanes, cars, the same U.N. building we have 2day, etc. The robots are just about the only advancement I can see, well, other than that the world is run by one person and every country is a state, but that's not really technological. I think Le Guin's point is completely valid because I agree that if something works just fine, then you shouldn't feel the need to replace it with something better.
Of course, I like other peeps' ideas that the story is about the technological breaking down of the entire planet, and how we're all going to die from our own technology, and the story totally creeped me out in that aspect. I really couldn't see how the story was supposed to be funny. Explain?
*btw, Yay Kaykay! I'm proud of you, but v-ballers got our butts kicked...MUCHO kicked...like super-karate-whop-cha-action kicked...Yeah. Im pretty tired so g'night!*
**I love cherry coak, and i think its cool how my name sounds like it. Don't u think?**
**after staring blankly at the screen for 10 mins...**
***so tired***
It doesn't sound like much has changed in the future, other than the rebirth of Nazis and emergence of globalized testing for santity. Unlike 'someone' I'm not a conformist and will not mention the tape recorder...oops, darnit. but, yes, we all agree that the futuristic technology is not so far advanced as we thought it could be. But it seems like everything works, so why try to fix something that's not broken, you know? I think Le Guin is trying to say exactly that. Sure there are robots in her story, but they are not the main concern, it's the 'unmentionable item' (listed above) and H-bombs, airplanes, cars, the same U.N. building we have 2day, etc. The robots are just about the only advancement I can see, well, other than that the world is run by one person and every country is a state, but that's not really technological. I think Le Guin's point is completely valid because I agree that if something works just fine, then you shouldn't feel the need to replace it with something better.
Of course, I like other peeps' ideas that the story is about the technological breaking down of the entire planet, and how we're all going to die from our own technology, and the story totally creeped me out in that aspect. I really couldn't see how the story was supposed to be funny. Explain?
*btw, Yay Kaykay! I'm proud of you, but v-ballers got our butts kicked...MUCHO kicked...like super-karate-whop-cha-action kicked...Yeah. Im pretty tired so g'night!*
**I love cherry coak, and i think its cool how my name sounds like it. Don't u think?**
I would have to say that I think Le Guin tries to show how when the the entirety of humanity is crowded in the "Asylums," technology does not progress, it either reverses or continues forward at a much slower pace. I figured out this story was written in 1978, and it is possible that at that time, all that Le Guin could think of as a voice-recording technology was a tape-recorder, the only availabe voice recording technology at the time. So, I believe that the tape-recorder is irrelevant to the story, it only occurred because of the limitations of technology in the time period of when this was written. As for having robots replacing humans, there is actually a high chance of it happening. Look at factories today, many of them use robotic technology instead of human labor because it is so much more efficient. Whether or not they will replace our race as a whole is difficult to predict. Other than the tape recorder and the robot at the end, there isn't much worth mentioning about new or old technology. She leaves the subject up to the reader, but I will say this. Because of the fact that in the story the narrator mentions airplanes, hydrogen bombs, and other things that we have here in the present, I would say that this story was not meant to take place that far into the future. In fact, I would be willing to bet that Le Guin saw it as taking place sometime around the present.
I don't think Le Guin meant to set it in a certain time period. Also, I don't think she spent too much time on the technology aspect of this story. It's just a story of corruption, basically. If you think about it, a "Sanity Quotient" really isn't science fiction. Scientists could easily come up with some standards to evaluate a person's sanity, although I don't think that will happen. The technology is not the main point in this story. However, I do think Le Guin could've done a better job of correlating the time period/technology. As many already stated, tape recorders aren't exactly state-of-the-art. Additionally, I highly doubt that tape recorders would still be used while they are using robotic ambulances. Yeah, doesn't really go together. So, I don't think Le Guin is saying anything about technological/scientific progress. I think we're just reading too much into this story.
EKAJ REKCEHWARTS (ee-kaj rek-a-warts)
My stand on the story is that Le Guin is trying to show us how technology is taking over the world. Think about how much one depends on their cell phone for daily things. I mean how would I ever get hold of my mother we didn't both have cell phones. I do believe however that this story is not completely bashing technology. Another standpoint is that it is showing us that if we all listen to one person's opinion we will never create anything new. It might be telling us that we have to use our own minds to create the new. I mean if the guy who wanted to create electronic dogs had listened to other people we would indeed be in lack of those metal cuddle buddies. :)
I truly do not know which message is trying to be shown to us so I can't answer the second question.
blah blah blah.
being sick is no fun
kk peace out
love,
Sonja
As Adam said, the tape recorders are basically a flashing light in this story. If they are "so advanced", they would've come up with something far easier and faster to use. A tape recorder is very old, considering we have phones with voice recognition, cars with voice recognition, handhelds, laptops, and iPods. Another point I agree on with Adam is the use of leaflets. With so many ways to communicate quickly: internet, phone, wi-fi...why in the world would they spend time printing leaflets? I understand that the Doctor is trying to fake the people out saying he'll drop them, but wouldn't be more convincing if he broadcasted it on T.V. or sent out an I.M. to the world? I don't know...a little confusing to me.
I think that Le Guin is trying to say that technology has stopped improving. i'm not really sure when this story was written, but tape recorders are kind of a thing of the past. i think that Le Guin is telling us that the people became so obsessed with the SQ test, that no one payed attention to the much needed technological advancements. this test was a big pat of their lives, and it determined their future. few high schoolers would be watching tv or surfing the web if they had their SAT or ACTs the next day. the SQ test is the same way. if they failed this, they went to the asylum to live. eventually, everyone was completely obsessed, and most ended up in the asylums, so there was no intelligent people left to invent new things. in the asylums, everything you need was there, and friends and family were always close by.
Part Two:
BEWARE! UPDATING IPOD COULD RESULT IN SERIOUS INJURY OR EVEN DEATH. Once iPods are the supreme rulers of the universe, they will reap havoc on the innocent people, playing "Disturbia" over and over, until "BUM BUM BE DUM!" starts aggressively invading your mind, your soul, and your pancreas. T'will be a dismal globe of zombies and sparkling vampires....WoOeEoO! Death and destruction will eventually come to those innocently playing Scrabble (Hasbro Inc.). Yes, Scrabble. NO MORE TRIPLE LETTER SCORE! I AM IN YOUR MIND! Doom.
Dr. Nefftly Natoopes Gassawy Nikenbojen
Bonn University
i also agree with adam and nikki and keegan and watever on this one. In the book, the author makes it seem like they are so advanced but, I think that Le Guin either wrote the book at the time that tapes were cool, or she was making a prediction of the future. she could be saying that we might get so tired of all the new techno that we will jus go back to basics...or..i think that they are just a couple years off from were we are now...like the fact that they had a tape recorder...that was just a couple years ago when we first discovered the cd or computer, and in fact my dad still has a tape player in his truck so Le Guin can't be to far off from her prediction of the future.
I think that le guin is saying that we will rely on technology so much that we will forget how to do stuff. In the dark tower series the people became so advanced that they stopped learning how to build technology and eventually the people who knew how to build the technology got old and died and everything started to go in reverse because no one knew how to make new things or even how to fix the old one. I Think that it is a valid argument because we rely on technology for almost everything nowadays and eventually thats all we will have. We exist in a world that in a way is "flat" because no matter where you are you can talk to anyone anywhere and most people dont know how to fix their gagets they just know how to run them.
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