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Film Review: The Creator

For this assignment I revisited a film that came out last year in 2023 that was personally one of my favorites of the year. It stars John David Washington, Denzel Washington’s son, who is a soldier in the future after artificial intelligence has detonated a nuclear bomb in the US. Since then, people have betrayed AI and only the people of a place called New Asia support its existence. Mr. Washingtons character, Joshua, is on an undercover job in New Asia with his pregnant wife who is believed to be the daughter of the mastermind of the AI technology that has caused this international turmoil. The purpose of the undercover mission is to discover where the new weapon they’ve created is at. Later in the movie we find out that the new weapon is in the form of a child, specifically Joshuas and his wife’s child, who is called Alphie. Instead of destroying Alphie, Joshua risks his life and eventually gives it to protect Alphie.

I enjoyed the religious parallels of this movie as Joshuas wife, Maya, is seen as a Virgin Mary character who mothers what the world sees as something destructive but actually possesses the power to save it. Also, the simplicity, but directness and power of the title. AI is displayed in a godly way as being so powerful it controls humans which is a potential reality in our world. I think the real warning of AI is greatly portrayed in this film as it, along with technology and science, can replace the abstract thinking of humans. This of course is a deep internal threat to where the origin of the movie’s plot being the AI dropping a nuclear warhead is something to objectively worry about. For all it takes it one technical mistake or a slight increase of autonomy to a system to create a world of regret. Therefore, I think AI can be used in helpful ways to us, but “should it” is the question of high consequential thinking and even morally difficult to navigate.

WALL-E Film Review

Thoughts

WALL-E is a film set in the future where robots are tasked to take care of the remaining humans left from Earth up on a ship in space and humans killed the Earth due to their polluting the environment.

I have loved this movie since it came out when I was a child. Primarily because of the cute robots but also because of the message it spreads. It is important that we take care of our home, and I think this film really shows how important Earth is to us and how, no matter what, we will always go back to our Mother Earth.

Reactions

This was a very impactful movie that showed the possible future of humans if we keep living the wasteful and selfish life we are living now. If we keep taking advantage of the home we have, we will no longer be free, and we will no longer have a home. This film does show a life that seems full of luxury, but it is purely based on entertainment and that is all. What kind of life would that be worth living if we couldn’t run free and breathe in fresh air and fall in love? The lives these people are living are being controlled by robots, so they stay happy and immobilized so that when the time comes, they can not stop the AI from eventually taking over.

When I first watched this movie, I didn’t understand the whole meaning of it because I was so young. But now that I am older, I can appreciate the message it is giving more, and I can integrate it into my everyday life. I often find myself thinking about waste and how I can better help the planet and be less wasteful, and I think a big part of that came from how I was raised but also because of this movie and how much I have loved it throughout my life as a child and as a young adult.

Reflections

This film really shows how AI can evolve over time and how they may become conscious and aware. WALL-E is a robot that was made to clean up the Earth so humans could eventually come back from space, but WALL-E becomes self-aware and is seen longing to be/see humans and collects things from when they were around, he even pretends to be a human and dances along with an old film he found and finds himself also longing for love as he is in complete solitude because all of the other clean up robots have died, he ends up befriending a cockroach and WALL-E shows physical emotion towards his little friend and even feeds him to keep him alive.

This film shows a possible future where humans can no longer live on Earth and depend on robots to keep them alive and thriving. We need to take better care of the Earth we were given so we do not kill everything good that we have and have to leave due to our selfish actions.

Weekly Summary

By Andrew Poon

Week one

As the first week of DS106 begins, I am introduced to many things I’m unfamiliar with. For starters the use of Bitwareden, I have never heard of this platform before and after setting up my account I’ve learned this platform can be used to store all your passwords. It’s almost like a safe but for my storing passwords for anything. Not only does it serve the purpose of storing your passwords, but it can also generate random and complex safe passwords for your use. I find Bitwarden very useful when it comes to keeping passwords safe and generating passwords. I highly recommend others to sign up for Bitwarden. It’s free to sign up and if you would like you can upgrade to a premium version for a low cost of 10 dollars a year.

Next, I learned how to create my own domain. This was my first time creating my own domain. After creating my own domain, I was amazed how easy it was to set up and how it can be used in diverse ways. I found this super useful as it can be used in different ways such as promoting yourself, a business, or writing blogs like I am right now. I’m excited to see what is in store for using my domain in the future in this class and beyond this class.

Discord is also fairly new to me. I have heard of it but never used it. After joining the class server, I began to familiarize myself with the application and how to use all of its features. I am amazed how much you can do with it. You can have discussion with classmates and other friends, have calls with friends, and even create your own personal server for others to join. I look forward to using discord this semester and potential for other activities outside of the class.

DS106 Goals

As far as goals for this class I want to gain more knowledge about digital storytelling itself as well as the background behind it. I’m curious as to how digital stories came to be and how it is used in our everyday lives. I want to learn how digital storytelling can be applied to my major and other aspects outside of the class. I also want to learn more about the usage of AIs. AIs are being utilized more and more in today’s society. I also would like to get an A in this class. I know this seems like a generic goal but a 4.0 GPA is a goal of mine for the semester. I believe as the class progress there will be more goals that arise.

Reflective Writing: Imposter Syndrome

Imposter syndrome is the internal feeling one has when they constantly doubt themselves, always feel anxious, and have an extreme lack of self confidence. This syndrome can cause some serious mental health effects. It leads to an increased amount of fear, anxiety, depression, and causes burnout. According to research done by The Wall Street Journal, about 82% of people have reported that at some point in their life they have experienced the imposter syndrome. https://www.wsj.com/articles/imposter-syndrome-young-adults-11619819337

I have experienced imposter syndrome, but not to its fullest extent. When it comes to computer science particularly, there are many times where I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing, or not doing it right. I have moments of where I feel like I’m not the smartest and will never be an expert. However, once I get to this point I tend to pause and reflect on all that I have done and take a moment to realize it takes years of skills to become a comp sci expert.

Ethan Urie’s article is very open and true of the IT world today. He discusses how having these emotions and syndrome is completely normal and a part of life. It all depends on your mindset through all of this and being able to push forward through it. He informs the readers, that even the “experts” still have imposter syndrome, but if you can reflect your emotions and adapt the right mindset you can get through it and still be successful. Urie has six tips for his readers to combat imposter syndrome. One of them is to accept imposter syndrome and that it will always be a part of your life. Another tip is to think through all that you can do and all you have done. Having that positive self-talk is important. Another tip to fight this is getting confirmation from a professor or boss. This will allow you to hear your progress and how you are doing through someone else. One of his bigger tips involves planning for your future and establishing goals for what you need to focus on. Overall, I would say all of his tips are effective and helpful. Personally I use the third one often, I like to always think positive and think of all I can do instead of everything I can’t.

Another way to combat imposter syndrome is to try working in group settings more often. This way you can see that you are not the only one struggling, everyone is going through it. Often times it’s easier to process your emotions when there are people around to help explain and talk through with. Lastly, when working with a group, you have that certainty that in the end, the work will get done and you will get thought it.

Reflective Writing 1: Hello World

  1. I started programming junior year of high school. This was when I took my very first computer science class, AP computer Science principles.
  2. My favorite thing about programming is the feeling you get when your program runs without errors and you see it do what it’s supposed to do. It’s the best part after working on code for days.
  3. My least favorite thing is when you make a small error and you read through your entire code multiple times and still can’t see it.