Since my last critical evaluation of my tweeting experience in BCM325, we have continued our sci-fi screenings and developed our critical thinking about future cultures. From the last lot of tweets we have viewed Blade Runner 2049, The Matrix, Alita Battle Angel, Ready Player One and finally to end the semester Robot and Frank.
After the last time I wrote about future cultures in the framework of the science fiction films, I have developed my skills in critically analysing the films with the lens of the theories and concepts we have learned in our lecture. I personally believe I have seen an improvement on the quality of my tweets and the converstations with other students surrounding the films.
For Week Six, as a cohort we viwed Blade Runner 2049. As we had prevously already watched and alaysed the original Blade Runner, it was interesting to see the developments of the storyline as well as critically view it from a more developed sense of future culture theories. I tweeted things such as:
Transhumanism is a path we are quickly rocketing towards with constantly developing technologies that will enhance the human condition. It is something we have been seeing from pretty much every screening from #BCM325 Is it a good thing? Or something we should be wary of?
Tweet by Taylah
This is something that has been looked at since the dawn of time, we have no clue about the past of some nations because they didn’t write things down or have tangible pieces of history. It makes me think we are almost moving backwards with this move to digitisation #BCM325
In reply to – Jess Wainwright
Are there any memories you would want to be manipulated or even removed? This technology seems as though it has this power, but as it was said, memories make us have human responses, what would we be without them? #BCM325 #BladeRunner2049
Tweet by Taylah
These tweets, I feel, began to bring more conversation towards the content of the lecture subjects and created converstations with other BCM students in the subject. I was more engaged with this filom than the first Blade Runner and I believe my knowledge of future cultures were able to facilitate this.
In Week Seven we live tweeted to The Matrix, which was a film I was eagarly awaiting to rewatch. I had previously seen the film trilogy but wanted the chance to investigate the theories we learnt in the scope of the movie. I tweeted:
Cybernetics is “the scientific study of control and communication in the animal and the machine.” Norbert Weiner, a concept heavily drawn upon in the film The Matrix which we are about to see #BCM325#thematrix
Tweet by Taylah
How would we know if we are living in a simulation? These days the line between technology and reality seems blurred. This article discusses this idea with chances being 50/50 #bcm325
Tweet by Taylah
Cyberculture, often depicted as dystopian, in how human society is susceptible to governments and outside forces, which is something explored in the matrix and how the society crumbled to machines. #BCM325
Tweet by Taylah
The revistation of this film really made me aware of the path of the future that we as a socitey could be following. I loved seeing everyone elses phiosophical thoughts and critical thinking arounding subjects of AI and cyberculture. I had many more tweets with articles that developed futhers thoughts of the film and lecture as well.
In Week Eight we looked at Alita Battle Angel in focus of Cyborgs and further developed ideas of AI technology. I tweeted:
We have seen cyborgs before in Ghost in a shell, a being that has both biological and artificial parts. I am interested to see how this will differ #BCM325
Tweet by Taylah
The reality of cyborgs is a future we need to consider as futurologists. This article by the Conversation explores this idea in the context of Alita Battle Angel #BCM325 https://theconversation.com/a-robot-that-can-touch-eat-and-sleep-the-reality-of-cyborgs-like-alita-battle-angel-110430
Tweet by Taylah
Consciousness jumping isn’t something I have ever really considered before this film. Maybe this is another aspect of merging technology with our bodies that we should consider more #BCM325
Tweet by Taylah
After viewing Ghost in a Shell a few weeks prior, watching Alita Battle Angel was the extra step in thinking about the reality of Cyborgs and how probable this concept will be in our future. I had conversations about this, not only with BCM students, but with fans of Alita Battle Angel that came across my tweets and had extra ideas to input. As far as the tweeting experience went, I feel like this was a real turning point in the quality of what I had to say.
Week Nine we viwed Ready Player One. This movie I had heard a lot of mixed reviews for so was interested too see how I felt about it. However, as I was analysing the film in the context of all the previous theories we had learnt so far, I enjoyed the film and was able to draw out more meaning that others may have missed. I tweeted:
So far, somehow, this feels like the most realistic futuristic movie we have watched. As we already have aspects of this technology it doesn’t seem too far of a stretch #bcm325
Tweet By Taylah
Technology like VR is already climbing and becoming increasingly popular in the gaming world. Role-playing games and immersion technologies are just the beginning of cyberspace activity #bcm325 #ReadyPlayerOne
Tweet by Taylah
#ReadyPlayerOne showcases a positive to living in a VR world in comparison to the bleak view the Matrix demonstrated. This is discussed more in this article #BCM325
Tweet by Taylah
This was a film I really enjoyed and pushed myself to connect to the lecture content and outsource interesting articles that connected with the concepts. I feel as I was so wrapped in the movie itself I missed some opportunies to interact with people as much as I had in the previous weeks but still managed to retweet and like as many posts as I could.
In our final week of live tweeting we watched Robot and Frank. This was the first sci-fi film I hadn’t heard of before so very much went into this viewing blind. As I noticed in my first weeks of tweeting, I got too caught up with background research of the movies to enage with the lecture content as much as I began too so truly had little knowledge about this film. I tweeted:
Of all the movies we have watched throughout the session, this feels like it could be tomorrow. Not all sci-fi movies have to showcase a dystopian outlook on the future #bcm325
Tweet by Taylah
Very big differences here in Robot and Frank, this Robot doesn’t have as advanced AI as we have seen. But I feel as though this makes it more realistically for a nearer future #bcm325
Tweet by Taylah
This article demonstrates how Robot and Frank can actually prepare us for the future. Unlike movies such as The Matrix or Blade Runner, this movie sees the reality of things in the next couple years #bcm325 https://www.clarifai.com/blog/ai-at-the-movies-how-robot-and-frank-prepares-us-for-the-future
Tweet by Taylah
This final viewing left me on a high note for the subject that the future isn’t all doom and gloom. I personally think the live tweeting experience gave me an incredible ability to learn in a new and interesting way. SInce the first weeks of watching the films and tweeting, I utilised the feedback to create more tweets that involved the lecture content and introduce more critical articles to further my own understandings.
As always, there are places I can improve. Tweeting quickly over a long period of time can be quite draining which left me with errors in spelling, grammar, so on and so forth. In addition to this, not all 10 recommended tweets were solely about concepts we had talked about in the subject and ocassionally just little ramblings of my mind about the movie.
Overall, however, I think we can notice a big improvement since Week 1 of the quality of the tweets. I have really enjolyed this subject and may continue live tweeting in the future with similar movies just for fun.
To find all other tweets and retweets click here to be linked to my Twitter Feed.
Taylah's Turbulence 
Reblogged this on Future Cultures.
LikeLike