Skip to main content

Reading Notes Week 5 Part B: Bierce

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?)
·      Born in Ohio
·      Came to California after Civil War
·      Had many different attributes to literature

Moxon Master
·      Nature of life and intelligence
·      An isolated system
·      Moxon is developing a sentient conscious machine, one that can think and possesses intelligence.
·      Moxon is developing a machine which he believes will be capable of thinking, acting and possessing consciousness- a robot or automaton which will be able to perform actions independent of its creator.
·      The idea of a humanoid robot 
·      Quote: “you know well enough that when I say “machine” I do not mean a man, but something that man has made and controls.” 
o   The story reminds me of Frankenstein. A creation made by a mad scientist, whose interest was to explore artificial life and it ends up exploring the madness of science. 
o   Quote: “…definition of ‘life’ the activity of a machine is included – there is nothing in the definition that is not applicable to it. According to this sharpest of observers and deepest of thinkers, if a man during his period of activity is alive, so is a machine when in operation.”


Labels

Labels:

Comments

  1. GraceCarcotMarch 8, 2019 at 10:13 AM

    Hello again Samuel, You did a good job on this reading note. I think you brought up a good idea and something I did not think of while I read this story but you are right this story does remind me of Frankenstein as well. That is a good barrel to draw off two similar but different things being made from their creator.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reading Notes W15 : Moten, Part B

Fred Moten Born in 1962 and raised in Las Vegas Focuses on black studies, poetry, and critical theory The Salve Trade The poem of Fred Moten is hard to understand, the reader should look at it in a different way. This poem is about the idea of the slave trade and Fred Moten just rearrange the letters and come up with slave trade. The poem also uses the technique it which it jumps from thoughts to thoughts which makes it interesting to read because it does not really show what the real issue it discusses. There are also a lot of things that occur in the poem which makes it really hard to understand the poem. It mostly shows the idea of black people which was not directly quoted but   Moten uses the phrase “I started reading my paper and ash flew from their big ol’” which describe the skin color of the black people.
Post a Comment
Read more

Week 4 Analysis: The Hunt for Revenge

Samuel McDuffie Literary Analysis The Hunt for Revenge John Rollin Ridge (Yellow Bird) was born in 1827 into a distinguished Cherokee family in Georgia.  His father, John Ridge and grandfather Major Ridge were prosperous farmer and slaveholders.  Both grandfather and father were influential leaders in the dispute over how to respond to pressure from the United States to give up Cherokee Lands and move west.  He was the first Indian to publish a novel. In his work  The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, the Celebrated California Bandit  is a  contemporary account of California as it was settling. In the reading assigned, the reader is introduced to lawless men in California, known as bandits, and Joaquin Murieta. Joaquin Murieta is a Mexican-American bandit, who leaves behind a legacy of morals and bravery.  The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, tells the story of the Joaquin in the Gold-rush era, wanting to find fortune and happiness;...
4 comments
Read more

Project 1

Samuel McDuffie English 205 Professor Joellen Hiltbrand March 3, 2010 Two Different Views on Love “The Luck of Roaring Camp” and Self Reliance” tell the story of different times and context. The short story of “The Luck of Roaring Camp” by Francis Bret Harte and “Self-Reliance” By James Whitfield are different themes and context but each tells a story of a certain things you need to make the most out of. Although they are two different genres and speak of two different telling’s, they both identify the meaning of love, hope and purity through harsh times.  Francis Bret Harte was an American short-story writer and poet who wrote short fiction featuring miners, gamblers and other figures during the California Gold Rush. He wrote the short story “The Luck of Roaring Camp”. The short story speaks of a woman named Cherokee Sal who is the only woman in the camp. She has gone into a difficult labor and once the child is born, Sal dies after, leaving the boy in the hands of the mi...
4 comments
Read more