Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Week 14: SF and Satire

The original radio version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy immediately establishes itself as a parody. Arthur Dent, an Earthman who's house is being demolished to make way for a new road, finds out his whole planet is going to be demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass. So, Arthur Dent and his friend hitch a ride across the Galaxy aboard the Vogon ship.

This simple concept in itself makes way for discussion about land appropriation. Should the government even have permission to demolish someone's property? This author challenges this idea by immediately placing it into the perspective of earth being demolished. We would not like it if some alien government said they were going to demolish earth for a better hyperspace bypass, so why would we give ourselves permission to appropriate other people's turf? These rhetorical questions serve to rethink our cultural assumption.

Another absurd concept is the fact that there's a depressed robot named Marvin. The writer makes us think about where we want to take the development of our technology. Do we need them to be so human they feel pain as well? When our robots gain emotion, would we end up treating them like humans?

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