Jess Bansil's Blog

  Britannica defines Cartesianism as, “ a species of rationalism, because Cartesians hold that knowledge—indeed, certain knowledge—can be derived through reason from innate ideas,” (Britannica 2022). Cartesians believe that God is omnipotent and that his will is entirely free, therefore meaning that people who align with the cartesian belief have to deal with uncertainty in science. Cartesianism is built off the beliefs of René Descartes, and focuses on the duality between mind and matter. Cartesians believe that an individual cannot think on their own without the innate knowing that one exists, coined in Descartes’s popular phrase, “I think, therefore I am.” Based on the beliefs of Descartes and the teachings of Cartesianism, part humans/part machines do not have to align with Asimov's 3 Laws of Robotics. Since Cartesianism places an emphasis on the separation between the body and the mind, part humans/part robots would not need to follow the 3 laws, since they possess an independ...

For our project, my group and I met at Starbucks to work on the project and collectively come up with an idea that would meet the parameters of the project. When we first met, we just started talking about where we from and what our majors were, and that led us to taking a more personalized route for the assignment and making it applicable to a more individual level. We first discussed the quote, " “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the  Tannhäuser  Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.” When discussing the quote, we took it as people having collective experiences  of living on earth while also leading completely different, individual journeys. Even though we all get rained on at the same time, we're all seeing different things and get hit by entirely different raindrops. We all collectively cry, but we do it at different times fo...

 During class today, we had a debate about The Matrix and whether we would've preferred to take the blue pill or red pill. We all concluded that a strong motif in this movie is free will, and the ability of humans to intrinsically trust each other to make the best decisions for our own being. My group was assigned the red pill, which I was glad about because that was the one I favored more throughout the movie. However, a lot of my classmates made strong arguments towards taking the blue pill, with an argument that stuck with me being "ignorance is bliss." My blue pill classmates made strong points that some people and their physical and mental being cannot handle the level of awareness and sense of danger that is associated with the red pill. They offered examples like high stress jobs in the medical field, like nurses and doctors. They stated that some people couldn't handle the mental and emotional stress that jobs like these put on the individual, with a specific ...

Below are my Space Odyssey notes. I'm not the best note taker during movies, because I find it distracts me from actually watching the movie and then I end up missing parts. Instead of typing what was happening, I tried to document the parts of the movie that seemed important and had symbolic representation. NOTES:  End of the 1960s, beginning of the 1970s ppl were high on hallucinogens Apes and cheetahs brutally fighting  Very graphic and violent  Not sure if there is symbolism behind who is the cheetah and who is the ape (coming back after watching the movie, maybe a symbol of the fight between humans and technology?) Apes start making noise at the mysterious man made sculpture that appears Rectangular in shape  Apes start attacking each other and fighting over the resources Fighting with bones of other animals Pans to a spaceship with facial and voice recognition Fully automated with everything controlled by technology Americans are meeting with Russians in space ...

       When I was watching Space Odyssey in class, I was most surprised about the accuracy of the guesses of what a technology-dependent future would look like. From giving Hal commands and questions to the screens that were equivalent to facetime, I was forced to reflect on my own dependency on technology. I was excited to do this assignment to see how a piece of technology I rely on in so many ways reacts to simple questions that are inherent to a human's nature and everyday life.        I asked the question, “Where are you from?” Siri replied, “I was designed by Apple in California.” I was first surprised that she didn’t make some sort of joke, because Siri is somewhat notorious for having sassy answers to questions she can’t necessarily answer. However, watching the movie made me understand that with developing technology comes developing reservations about humans dependence on technology. Especially now, in times of a polarised culture a...

 https://www.dropbox.com/s/981hyttgk1aqf8e/craiyon_093256_jimmy_carter_eating_a_banana_on_a_balcony.png?dl=0

 My favourite short from Love Death and Robots was the season 1 episode "Three Robots". This episode had a lighter tone than previous shorts, with the three main characters being easily likable and quick witted. The robots are a part of technology I was impressed with, since we have models resembling the characters, like Alexa, who can converse and make jokes. I appreciated the irony of the robots going on this vacation to try and figure out how humans work, considering the fact we spend so much time today trying to figure out how to better work robots. When they first stop at the abandoned high school, I thought it could be a nod to high schools during COVID where they became empty and 'run down' since everyone was online (the episode was made in 2019 though). Their confusion to understand how the basketball was fun was entertaining, and also highlighted the juxtaposition between advanced technology and the simplicity of everyday objects.  I also really liked the par...