For Tuesday: Heller, "The Digital Republic" (pp.143-162)

Be sure to read "The Digital Republic" for Tuesday's class. We'll have a quiz, but it will be a slightly different quiz--no short answer questions, but just one longer essay question (since too many people are spending all their time looking up the short answers, and then offering a quick, vague response to the essay question--which is the most important part!). 

Some ideas you might consider:

* How might this article offer a naysayer response to the idea in our last essay of "the internet of things"? Do they want everything to be connected? Is that a utopia for most Estonians? 

* As one Estonian says in the article, "in today's world, everything will be public at some point" (161). Why should all information be increasingly public--and how will this help protect countries like Estonia in the long run?

* Why do many Estonians feel that "it is possible to imagine a future in which nationality is determined not so much by where you live as by what you log on to" (158)? Why is that an important goal? How is it somewhat utopian in their eyes?

* How does this essay address the naysayers, particularly those who might say, "if you're a citizen of the world, you're a citizen of nowhere"?

* Why is Estonia (a nation most people have never even heard of) so far in advance of this kind of technology and thinking? What makes them uniquely qualified (or inspired) to develop it?

* Why is internet citizenship in Estonia relatively popular around the world? What is the advantage that some people see in this unorthodox approach to business? 

* Why does this essay argue that to change the world, you have to change how you think about society? 

Conversation Paper #1 due Tuesday, October 1st by 5pm

Conversation Paper #1: Traveling to Utopia

One of the advantages of reading about other cultures is the sense of being an outsider looking into a completely strange and mysterious world: in some ways, it’s like peering into the future. This is especially true when the societies are trying to transform cutting-edge ideas into new ways of thinking and being. In the essays we read for class, Japan, Korea, and Estonia are all chasing perfection in their own way. The question is, should we follow their example? Are they leading us to a brave new world…or an apocalyptic nightmare?

Choose one of the topics below and discuss why, to you, it comes closest to creating a modern-day utopia. OR, write a paper where you discuss why one of the following is recipe for a dystopia in the making:

• A world where everything is viewed as art, and expensive quality is better than affordable quantity: “Biting into one sliver of the fruit, I had the sense I was tasting in color for the first time” (37).
• A world where technology can erase our human weaknesses and make us better versions of ourselves: “The automation of society seems to feed directly into the longing for perfection; a machine will simply do things better and more efficiently, whether scanning your license plate or annihilating you at a Go tournament” (262).
• A world where everyone is part of a global community, without borders, states, or nations: “nationality is determined not so much by where you live as what you log onto” (158).

The GOAL of this assignment is to have a conversation about what could solve our  society’s problems—or potentially make them worse. Choose only ONE of the topics above and explore it through other writers’ ideas and concerns, responding to them with your own insights or observations we made in class. Make sure to include a NAYSAYER response from other sources (see below).

SOURCES: You must have at least FOUR sources for this paper: TWO must be essays from class (feel free to use one of the quotes I provided), and TWO must be outside articles, books, or websites. We’ll discuss how to do this in class next week. Be sure to QUOTE your sources and integrate them into your paper (don’t simply sprinkle unrelated quotes throughout your paper). Use the sources to help you see more sides of the story, and consider ideas that you may not have considered before. In other words, try to respond to other voices—don’t try to write the entire essay by yourself!

REQUIREMENTS:

• At least 4 pages, double spaced, but you can do more
• At least 4 sources, 2 from our essays, 2 from journals, web, etc.
• Quote sources and integrate them into your essay
• Show a conversation between your ideas and other essays/writers
• DUE Tuesday, October 1^st by 5pm

For Tuesday: Shteyngart, "Thinking Outside the Bots" (pp.259-271)

Consider some of the following for Tuesday's reading and quiz:

* Why did a game of Go cause South Korea to get so interested in AI technology? For them, what did the results of the famous match tell them?

* In South Korea, technology has come to embrace the "internet of things". What is this, and how does it change the reality of South Korean life?

* Why does AI technology offer the promise of perfection--or as someone says in a commercial, "Why should I live like this, being less than perfect?" Do you think this perfection is achievable--or just an illusion?

* According to the author, why do countries like South Korea take so readily to technological innovation? Why don't they mind "Big Brother" in the same way Americans might?

* What are the dangers of perfecting AI technology? Why might a too-intelligent robot be just as dangerous as a completely 'stupid' one?

* One of the scientists in the article predicts in the future, "Everything will be roboticized." Do you feel this author is excited about this prospect? Are we?

* What does he mean by the quote, "The future is already here. It's just not very evenly distributed"? Why is this especially true in South Korea? 

* Why is the image at the end of the essay significant: the woman recording her prayers at the Zen Rock with an I-phone?  

Bosker, "Why Should a Melon Cost as Much as a Car?" (pp.37-42)

Be sure to read this short essay for Thursday, with the normal quiz to follow. Use the questions below as a rough reading guide:

* What is "hashiri," and why is it so historically important to the Japanese?

* What customs do the Japanese have that make fruit such an important commodity? Do we have anything like this in the US (with something other than fruit)?

* One of the people Bosker interviews, Monozumi, claims that "people in Japan are simply more concerned than foreigners with quality" (39). Do you think this is true? Are Americans more interested in cost than quality? 

* How can fruit be like a fine wine? What makes fruit growing an "art"?

* The author says that eating the gourmet strawberry was like "tasting in color for the first time" (37). What do you think she meant by this? Do we often have the opportunity to taste in color here?

* The author writes at the end of the essay that "something that initially seemed nonsensical, even trivial, had altered my definition of beauty" (42). What does she mean by this, and how did a simple melon do this? 

For Thursday: Houston, "Some Kind of Calling" (pp.163-171)

Remember that we'll  have the usual quiz over this essay, with one of the following questions as your short essay response. 

Reading Questions:

* What made her take a gamble on a property in a place she had never seen before that was way outside her price range? Was it something she saw, or was it simply a gamble?

* Related to the above, what made them want to sell it to her? Why her, specifically, a writer without a stable source of income?

* According to this essay, how does age change the way you look at the world? What does she see now in the property that she didn't as a thirty year-old?

* What does she mean when she writes, "age...gently dispels all of our heroic notions" (168)? What "heroic notions" did she have, and what was wrong or misguided about them?

* How did the property allow her to be "still" after a lifetime of roaming? How can a place teach you to do anything, esp. something that you're not used to doing or thinking?

* At the end of the essay, she writes, "How do we become who we are in the world? We ask the world to teach us. But we have to ask with an open heart, with no idea what the answer might be" (171). How do you think you can "ask the world" what to do with your life? And how do you hear the answer? 

Short Paper #1: The Power of Place due NEXT Tuesday

“One of the gifts of age, though, is the way it gently dispels all of our heroic notions. The whole time that I thought I was busy taking care of the ranch, the ranch was busy taking care of me” (Houston 168).

For your first Short Paper, I want you to write about a PLACE that shaped who you are today. Not a person or an activity (though you might reference both), but primarily a place where you started to become who you are today. It could be anything from a school, a church, a field, a car, a job, a room, or just an area of land. Just like Houston does in her essay, I want you to consider how a place can “take care of you,” and be an active agent in influencing your attitude, ideas, and personality.

Though a short paper, I want you to have roughly three parts in this essay: (a) a literal description of the place, the way an outsider would see it—what would I see, for example, the first time I walked into the place? (b) a significant experience that was instrumental in changing your relationship with this place, (c) what you feel you most learned or took away from this place. In other words, what do you most ‘see’ when you think of the place today?

NOTE: You can re-arrange the order of the essay, starting with c, then going to a, then b, if you like. Just make sure your essay has all three parts, even if you spend most of the time on b, for example.

THINGS TO CONSIDER / REQUIREMENTS

• Describe the area using specific details, and don’t just tell us how it looks. What smells or sounds accompany the place in your memory?
• Try to experience the place as an outsider, so you can see things you no longer notice. Then help us see what only you see when you go there.
• Talk about yourself—don’t make this a third-person paper. Otherwise, we won’t understand it.
• Quote from at least ONE of the essays in class to make a comparison between your space and theirs. Even though your work might not be as exciting or interesting as Mt. Rushmore, you can use Anderson’s ideas to help your own.
• Use the Quotation Sandwich when citing sources: INTRODUCE SOURCE + QUOTE & CITATION + RESPONSE. (we’ll discuss this in class)
• At least 3 pages long, though you can do more…

PAPER IS DUE IN-CLASS ON TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10^th. Any papers after class are late and are subject to the late paper policy (see syllabus).