GIST

This week, I was the first to admit that the film "Conceiving Ada" didn't really do it for me. I was quick to judge its clunky technology, unrealistic elements, and unconventional protagonist. When Anne pushed my discussion group to go beyond these surface reactions and think about how we might "forget meaning" and see what extensions we can learn from such a film, I was resistant. I thought, "There's nothing to learn if it's all fake and impossible." But when I posted about my panel character for next week, I saw startling similarities between my beloved "Fringe" and this movie that had rubbed me the wrong way. They both deal in impossible technologies, sharing a focus on finding or extracting information that seems lost forever.

After getting past some of the general difficulties I had with Conceiving Ada, I tried to get past the far-fetched idea of the movie and think about how gender roles functioned within it.  For Ada, having children is a full-time job, something that as a woman, must take over her life and stop her from pursuing her own goals.  Similarly, Emmy's pregnancy frightens her at first and from looking at her life with her boyfriend, it seems clear that her work comes before any personal relationships do.  In a way, her daughter becomes her work because she is a clone of Ada, another "experiment" for Emmy to explore.

After reading How we Read, I have been fascinated by the ability of technology to effect the workings of our brains. They say that video games and search engines create and strengthen neural pathways and potentially weaken old ones. But doesn't this sound a bit scary? It suggests that the structure of our brain is physically being changed by technology!

There was one study conducted at Harvard university in which people without prior experience playing the piano were separated into 3 groups. One group had intense piano lessons for 5 days.  There was a second control group who did nothing. The third group, however, was taken into the room with the piano and told to "imagine" they were getting lessons and being instructed…

 As an English major at Haverford, I’ve found Hayles’ two articles to be particularly interesting. The idea of transforming/altering humanitarian disciplines in order to transition into a more digitized humanities is something I’m still not sure I entirely support. I think that both close reading and hyper reading are important—both are legitimate avenues to critical thinking. As someone who spends the majority of my time bogged down by close reading hundreds of pages per week, I realize the advantage, and, in fact, the necessity, of developing the skill of hyper-reading. That being said, I’ve made a point to do all the readings for this class primarily online.

So this week I'm supposed to post information about the historical or contemporary difference(s) technology makes. Well…. This week’s discussion of Conceiving Ada was interesting. I was pleasantly surprised that the class picked up on different aspects of the movie. Our minds are trained to think in such various ways that I do not why I’m surprised when people don’t think like me and vice versa. It’s funny how some of us had expectations based on what we wanted to see versus being open to interpreting the movie entirely, whether based on our training our academic expertise or not.

CONCEIVING ADA GROUP 4 DISCUSSION

1.   What was your response to the film?

Exchange of Knowledge for sex

It wasn’t a fantasy watching Ada and being pregnant

Ada was humanizing machines

Software having knowledge of real life in terms of Emmy having 1st cyber born human

2. What questions does the film raise for you?

How possible is this?

While watching movie it seemed like it was filmed in current day – during the era in which it was filmed

Analogy of death- and Ada being timeless through virtuality

Emmy’s daughter embodied Ada, or did she rebirth Ada?

Please "add a new comment" to this posting, and tell us who you will "be" (or @ least perform!)
in the panels we are hosting next Monday and Wednesday.

You should come to class prepared to say
* what role gender played in "your" life
* what role science and/or technology played
* how they intersected
* in what ways they “reciprocally shaped one another."

In "your" day, what language did you use
* to talk about “gender” and “technology”?
* did "you" use these words, or other ones?
* for example: how did "you" understand the
difference between “natural” and “artificial”?

Class Notes 2/21
Coursekeeping:

For Wednesday: Watch the 85 minute movie "Conceiving Ada" which is on reserve at Canaday library. Think about the movie in response to Hayles' call for new media and think about how you would handle this material in a 'digital humanities' mode.

For next week: Come to class prepared to 'speak as' an individual whose life or work circumstances shaped, or were impacted by, an interesting interaction of gender, information, science and/or technology. Chose your person by Friday and include this in your post. The reading for next week is in preparation for this.

Section 1:

 A webcomic devoted to Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage!**

**With footnotes!

Also, Kate Beaton's historical webcomic, Hark, a vagrant, looks at Ada Lovelace here...