Kc’s Comments (group member since Mar 02, 2013)

Kc’s comments from the EDCMOOC group.

Great. Yes, fine. Thanks Anne for your comments too. Look forward to chatting later.

Only 28! Genious.
The main topic that stood out for me was alternate futures and how the present may be the only certainty we have.
Also, what of the poor mutants - who were they and how did they know their predictions were right?

Could predictive analytics (eg learning analytics) be sending learners down the wrong route? Is society today relying too much on data without context? (Fits with Ping's second theme) What might the implications of this be?

Great story, really enjoyed it. Might have to dust off the dvd too.

Thanks to Anne for finding this list of Margaret Attwood short stories http://www.luminarium.org/contemporar...

This story had a few surprises!

Ping, your questions are spot on.

The main theme for me was how fragile our technical innovations are in the face of nature, and how humans have always seeked to have some control or impact on it - through eg. farming, sacrifice, technical solutions - and the tensions this has (Q3) with how we want to live.

There were elements of Brave New World in there too - the lower classes being used to produce water for the rich - a metaphor for globalisation perhaps?

Sorry, I've not helped with the questions much - happy to joint moderate with you though and will pop on later to see what others have put.
K

Hi Ping, not read it yet - will get back to you
K

If you have any themes, questions you would like to explore in the chat, please post them below.

Thanks

Hi Glaucia,
It's meditative too - and the best way for me to wind down.

Welcome new members to our unofficial EDCMOOC reading group. We read a book (short story preferably) each month and discuss it, via Twitter #edcmchat, on the first Saturday of each month (or Sunday depending on where in the world you are).

November: I Love You Like Water by Angela Slatter (https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...) and will be discussing it on Twitter on Saturday 7th December 21:30(GMT) via the #edcmchat tag.

December: Minority Report by Philip K Dick, discussing on Saturday 4th January

January - please vote https://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/9...

If you want to add suggestions to the group, please do - either via the Bookshelf or the Polls. We're reading short stories at the moment - but any suggestions welcome. The themes of the group arose from the utopian/dystopian/transhumanism/education themes from EDCMOOC.

Note: the 'bookshelf' will normally have the current book displayed. The current short story (I Love You Like Water) isn't actually in GoodReads so doesn't appear!

This is the read for November.
We will be discussing this on Saturday December 7th (Sunday for NZ) 21:30 (GMT).
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/science...

Also, question 5 - what does the wall represent? Is it civilisation, the Earth?
What's the next story?
Ta, Kirstie

Excellent questions Chris. I too got quite into this story after a few pages. The quote in 1. stood out for me also. The implication was that once he'd had technology implanted he'd actually be happier. The grey walls tranformed into colours etc. reminded my of what it is to perceive, what is reality and so on. Will take another look tomorrow (getting late!)

Great stuff! Thanks Chris.

A good list of utopia and dystopias can be found here http://www.utopiaanddystopia.com/dyst...

I might find it difficult on 2/3 Nov - have family staying over/birthday celebrations and not sure where I'll be in the evening as yet. Will definitely check in to the discussion though but might be via phone!

Anyone else fancy a go?

I think continue using #edcmchat - it's consistent and established and means that the growing edcmooc community may be interested and want to see what we're up to!
K

Thanks Ping, these are great questions. I will have a think more later on, but I was also interested in:

1. References and language: I found these a bit of a barrier, certainly to start with. I found it hard to connect with the place and the characters partly due to their speech which felt inauthentic to me but also it came across as 'over cool' in a self conscious way (an age thing maybe? do people really speak like that?). This fits with Ping's question 2.

2. The book split between story and educational manual and perhaps more of a focus either way would have been better -the descriptions didn't feel like they naturally fit with the story. Despite that however, I did find it informative, and was drawn into the story eventually.

3. Are the methods used actually happening in the US? have they borrowed from other countries/the past? - pretty scary. This also fits with Ping's question 2.

So, to confirm, we are now #edcmchats !

Thanks, Kirstie

Homeland is available online at http://craphound.com/homeland/download/

The paperback is out in September. It is also available in hardback.

Twitter chat: Saturday 5th October - 21:30-22:30 (UK time).

Please post any thoughts for discussion questions...

Thanks Ping for an excellent summary.

For tweet length filtering, how about:

Q1: Who is Doug? What is his Identity?

Q2: What is the difference between remembering an experience and an implanted one?

Q3: Are we programmable?

Q4: Are we the sum of our memories?

Q5: What comprises/constitutes our narratives of home?

Memories are so fluid and we create narratives about our experiences which no doubt are embellished over time! I believe the Total Recall film was an algamation of more than 1 short story and some creative license. I read it twice - some good twists!

I really enjoyed this short story, it was very though provoking. Some suggestions for discussion questions below

Who is Doug? What is his identity?

What is the difference between having an experience (in the present) and remembering it and just remembering it?

If someone implants the'ability to speak fluent French' into your brain - then, what is *learning* French?

Are we essentially programmable?

-- please add/suggest etc...