Rick’s Comments (group member since Mar 04, 2013)

Rick’s comments from the EDCMOOC group.

I just finished the book. What a story!

I am planning on moderating. Please feel free to add your questions and thoughts to this discussion and I'll add them to the chat.

I'm about 1/4 of the way through. It's powerful already.

For moderating, I've got it on my calendar. I believe it will work.

Thanks for the link to the book. I'll check my calendar and see if I can moderate on that day

Thanks +Stephane I was thinking along the same lines. The connections between spirituality and science were intriguing.

For me it was also one of the darker stories we read. I couldn't get the creepy images of the "water factory" out of my head for a few days.

I wanted to discuss the link between humanities desire to control (environment, technology, each other) with the spiritual side- a belief that there is power outside ourselves that is greater. Who was "right" in this story?

I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it- Chat is at 1:30pm my time and may be out and about with family doing Christmas shopping.

If I can I'll check in on my phone.

I liked the connection between Felka and Clavain. In many ways they are similar and for both the Wall comes down at the end.

Thanks for the book link!

Here's what I was thinking as I read the work:

Where in the world did the extremely violent "Total Recall" film come from? This was not at all what I expected. It was the seed of the story, but the 1990 version added a lot more. I liked this story a lot more than the film version.

What is it about humans that creates a longing for "home?" It felt to me like Doug's longing for Mars may mirror a longing we all have for beauty, peace, "home" etc. As I read the story, I saw these longings in parallel.

If this kind of technology were available, would I want to use it? And along with this question- are we only the sum of our memories?

I'll miss the chat with you tomorrow. Hope it goes well. One thing- I wonder if we need to find a new hashtag for these chats since edcmooc2 is beginning in November and will likely use the same tag.

Thanks for the great chat today and thanks for this link. I'll do my best to get this read and join you all next month.

I will be using tweetchat. I like how it automatically puts the # in for me.

For tomorrow, I have another question for those of you not in the USA.

Where do you see similarities to the "police state" described in the book in your own context? Where do you see differences?

Chat with you tomorrow!

This isn't a spoiler at all. In the digital version that I downloaded for free, the author talks about his philosophy of "open source." He says, "If you're not making art with the intention of having it copied, you're not really making art for the twenty-first century."

What do you think?

Thanks for the reminder. I'll try and join you on Saturday. We're moving in a couple weeks and we've set aside Sat. as "non-essential packing day". I'll try and pull away for the chat.
I've enjoyed this short story very much.