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I'm starting my English dissertation this year and after lurking for a while I feel like there are some people here who will have some decent insight/superior knowledge. I want to do a sci-fi topic and was thinking of drawing parallels between AI/cyborg characterisation and that of slaves in older novels, but I need more similar topics to explore and most importantly book recommendations. Sci-fi books with AI, singularity, future philosophy, cyborgs etc... but not just as a passing vibe - more like an actual character or story-line revolving around them.Just talk to me about what interests you around these topics and aside from it being fun, perhaps it'll help me write these 15000 words... Also any discussion on any of these topics is welcomed because goddamn I am not prepared for this. 
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Jun 11, 2017 17:37
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 14:33 |
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I would advise against doing this. You're an undergrad in the UK, I'm assuming? I'd suggest giving some thought as to whether a dissertation about robots is going to make you more employable and/or elevate your CV above the guy with whom you're competing for a job While you're at it change your degree to something in STEM, it'll make you more employable in the Great Water Wars of the 2020s
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Jun 12, 2017 02:08
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The only free thesis idea I have is that the United States never developed a marxist labor movement akin to Europe's because the free land of the westward frontier operated, functionally, as a massive public wealth handout, until the frontier functionally vanished in the 1890's. By that point, the American labor movement was already roughly forty years behind (comparing the publication of the Communist Manifesto in 1848), and it just never caught up. Go forth, share this wisdom Oh or you could write about how Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time is a response to the Vietnam War and interminable American "police actions" generally, in the same way that Tolkien's works were a response to WW1/WW2 If you want to write about robots I suggest looking up the book that coined the word "robot," then Asimov, etc. For "the singularity" as a topic, look up vernor vinge. There's also that web novella that starts with the fully automated mcdonalds' and then I think starts talking about socialism? And there's a decent automation thread in Debate & Discussion read that Also the last time someone asked me for help with a book recommendation for their homework, they wanted to know about Irish history and I suggested they read Ulysses, so you're getting off light
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Jun 12, 2017 04:00
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chernobyl kinsman posted:I would advise against doing this. You're an undergrad in the UK, I'm assuming? I'd suggest giving some thought as to whether a dissertation about robots is going to make you more employable and/or elevate your CV above the guy with whom you're competing for a job Yeah i mean im literally the least academic person ever and sick to death of Shakespeare so this was as close as I got to philosophical literary content. Ive run it past my tutors and they seem to think its fine but i guess if i think of anything else I'll use that instead lol
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Jun 12, 2017 07:32
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:
Yea that was one of the texts I chose to study last year, I'll take on anything that isnt Hemingway or Shakespeare... seems to be all the education system want to talk about. But yeah thanks for the other suggestions, its a starting point!
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Jun 12, 2017 07:36
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16pcCutlerySet posted:Yeah i mean im literally the least academic person ever why are you pursuing academia then
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Jun 13, 2017 01:42
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Planetarium posted:why are you pursuing academia then he's not, a dissertation is required of undergrads in the UK
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Jun 13, 2017 03:47
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Planetarium posted:why are you pursuing academia then What i mean by that is im dyslexic but managed to get onto an English degree somehow and missed almost a year of uni due to ill health and poo poo so im not that well-placed to start something so massively academic and daunting. But yes also it is required of us.
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Jun 13, 2017 06:19
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my mistake
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Jun 13, 2017 06:46
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:The only free thesis idea I have is that the United States never developed a marxist labor movement akin to Europe's because the free land of the westward frontier operated, functionally, as a massive public wealth handout, until the frontier functionally vanished in the 1890's. By that point, the American labor movement was already roughly forty years behind (comparing the publication of the Communist Manifesto in 1848), and it just never caught up. This is good but the thesis should probably also recognize that the existence of slave labor also changed the way that the American labor movement developed, even in the North. Anyway, I, Robot seems like an obvious place to start for the OP. Be careful to distinguish between authors who have AI/Cyborg characters whose treatments tangentially mirror those of slaves in older novels vs. authors who are deliberately developing the treatment of their AI/Cyborg characters in order to suggest similarities to slaves in older novels.
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Jun 13, 2017 16:26
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Do what I did, analyze how the tropes that distinguish Sci-Fi and other forms of genre from "literature" are wholly arbitrary and that the modern concepts of genre are more about the marketability of the book than the content. I did a deconstruction of the narrative tropes in Blindness by Jose Saramago vs. Day of the Triffids and examined how the same story and content beats were handled differently by the assumptions the reader makes about their own purposes for reading
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Jun 13, 2017 19:16
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This is great, I was questioning the merit of it but actually I feel I could get some decent substance out of this!
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Jun 13, 2017 19:22
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Do what I did, analyze how the tropes that distinguish Sci-Fi and other forms of genre from "literature" are wholly arbitrary and that the modern concepts of genre are more about the marketability of the book than the content. ohhhhh so that's why you always bring this up
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Jun 13, 2017 19:38
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CestMoi posted:ohhhhh so that's why you always bring this up Yeah it was my Senior Thesis so I tend to toot that horn a lot
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Jun 14, 2017 01:16
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Do what I did, analyze how the tropes that distinguish Sci-Fi and other forms of genre from "literature" are wholly arbitrary and that the modern concepts of genre are more about the marketability of the book than the content. The assumption I make when I read Day of the Triffids is that it kicks rear end and is a fun book to read.
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Jun 14, 2017 02:45
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Robot has its roots in Russum's Universal Robots a Czech play that you should look up. I think robot literally means in Czech, but I am not a scholar of the region and you should not cite wikipedia. I am trying to say that this is well trod territory. AI wise I would look up Destination: Void by Frank Herbert. The colonization "plan" in that book goes something like: Equip a ship with a talented crew, stock a boatload of computer upgrade equipment, automated systems that cannot handle the workload, ???, AI, Successful FTL Travel, Colonization. Seems like a good start for examining the roots of the Singularity movement. I didn't even know it had sequels until I looked it up, so can't say anything about them. A look into the Generation Ship subgenre might be interesting. Draw some parallels with contemporary thoughts on WWIII survival.
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Jun 14, 2017 10:29
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habituallyred posted:Robot has its roots in Russum's Universal Robots a Czech play that you should look up. I think robot literally means in Czech, but I am not a scholar of the region and you should not cite wikipedia. I am trying to say that this is well trod territory. Anything by Herbert is generally great. I'll get on that. Sounds great
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Jun 14, 2017 10:33
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habituallyred posted:I think robot literally means in Czech, but I am not a scholar of the region and you should not cite wikipedia. high level academic tips itt
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Jun 14, 2017 13:40
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Mel Mudkiper posted:Yeah it was my Senior Thesis so I tend to toot that horn a lot Please share thank you I'm intrigued
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Jun 14, 2017 15:54
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Nevvy Z posted:Please share thank you I'm intrigued I am not even sure I have it anymore, was nearly a decade ago now. I could give the gist though Mel Mudkiper fucked around with this message at 16:00 on Jun 14, 2017 |
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Jun 14, 2017 15:57
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Mel Mudkiper posted:I am not even sure I have it anymore, was nearly a decade ago now. Please do
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Jun 14, 2017 16:35
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habituallyred posted:Robot has its roots in Russum's Universal Robots a Czech play that you should look up. I think robot literally means in Czech, but I am not a scholar of the region and you should not cite wikipedia. I am trying to say that this is well trod territory. Anyhow, yeah, you pretty much have to start with R.U.R. for a topic like this. Whether it's a good idea is another question, obviously.
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Jun 14, 2017 16:55
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So basically what I did for my thesis was I went through a catalog of Science Fiction anthologies, critiques and compendiums to try to create a working definition of Science Fiction. There was a wide variety of definitions given, but ultimately most of what I found could be effectively summarizes as "Science Fiction is a genre built around the possibilities of scientific discovery and their possible effects on the human condition." This is obviously a very vague definition, but that was kind of the point. I showed how consensus of the nature of Sci-Fi could only be effectively narrowed down to this very vague and over-encompassing term. Because this was a Comparative Lit degree, I had to explicitly draw comparisons between texts of different cultures. So, I used Blindness by Portuguese author Jose Saramago and Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham. This was done because John Wyndham was considered an iconic figure in Science Fiction, and because it shared the same premise as Blindness, a post-apocalypse caused by a wide and sudden epidemic of blindness. So, I mapped out both the narrative arc of both the stories, laid out thematic elements in each story, and looked at conclusions drawn by the author from the situations. Ultimately, I found out that both stories, using solely the measure of content, were essentially identical. There was nothing meaningful in the content of either story to distinguish it from the other. The only meaningful difference was just that one had Killer Plants and one didn't. So at that point I used a bit of Marxism to look at how fiction is both art and commodity. I decided to look at if Sci-Fi and Literature could not be easily disentangled as pieces of art, that perhaps they could be separated by considering them commodities. I traced the history of Sci-Fi to its foundation as a "genre" and traced how it branched off from traditional fiction in terms of both awards and marketing. I also looked at sales demographics and readership surveys about readers of Sci Fi and readers of Literature. In the end, it was found that while in terms of content the boundaries between Sci-Fi and Literature and indeed almost all genres was hopelessly vague and grey, there were clear delineations between the genres when you looked at who consumed them. Thus, I proposed that modern genre was not so much a method of communicating the content of a piece of art as much as it was a capitalist method of marketing fiction to whatever subset of the population they felt would be most likely to consume it. If I rewrote it today, I would probably analyze the works of Richard Powers and also note that many Sci-Fi novels have recently been rebranded as "YA" despite there being no change in content.
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Jun 14, 2017 18:36
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 14:33 |
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chernobyl kinsman posted:I would advise against doing this. You're an undergrad in the UK, I'm assuming? I'd suggest giving some thought as to whether a dissertation about robots is going to make you more employable and/or elevate your CV above the guy with whom you're competing for a job Do UK employers really care about an undergrad thesis topic? Isn't this just an academic requirement rather than a hard component of the degree, like you have to write this kind of dissertation no matter what you're studying? Like no one cares that I took theater to fulfill a cultural studies gen ed requirement for my degree Or is it like if he's studying programming he should write about a programming topic? Or is it just a troll
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Jun 15, 2017 03:49
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