Over My Head in Everyway

I never knew
I never knew that everything was falling through
That everyone I knew was waiting on a cue
To turn and run when all I needed was the truth
But that's how it's got to be
It's coming down to nothing more than apathy
I'd rather run the other way than stay and see
The smoke, and who's still standing when it clears

Everyone knows I'm in
Over my head
Over my head
With eight seconds left in overtime
She's on your mind
She's on your mind

Let's rearrange
I wish you were a stranger; I could disengage
Say that we agree and then never change
Soften a bit until we all just get along
But that's disregard
Find another friend, and you discard
As you lose the argument in a cable car
Hanging above as the canyon comes between

Everyone knows I'm in
Over my head
Over my… Full lyrics on Google Play

Form as a Reflection of Content in Trethewey's "Myth"

Natasha Trethewey penned “Myth” as an elegy to her deceased mother. In her grief, Trethewey turns every element of the poem into an echo chamber for her feelings of despair. The title, punctuation, rhyme scheme, repetition, and even the inclusion of Greek mythology, all serve the same purpose, to intensify the underlying thematic elements of death, loss, and grief. The hallmark of good writing is the ability to transmit feeling/emotion to the reader. Trethewey accomplishes this goal in “Myth” by turning each part of the poem into an amplifier of her emotions.

Trethewey wrote “Myth” in a variant form of the Villanelle. Traditionally, a Villanelle would consist of nineteen lines broken into four stanzas consisting of three line tercets and a final fifth stanza consisting of four lines called a quatrain. The traditional Villanelle has two rhymes that repeat throughout. The repetitive rhyme scheme creates a sense of obsession, dislocation, and despair. Terthewey chose to write this modified Villanelle in order to incorporate a palindrome as another mechanism for magnifying the theme of the poem. In order to accommodate the palindrome, Trethewey employs a clever method of maintaining the repetition of sounds and overall effect of the traditional Villanelle. “Myth” is made up of six stanzas consisting of three line tercets. The “ing” sound repeats in the first and third line of each stanza, and the “llow” sound repeats in the second line of each stanza. The punctuation used in “Myth” is another element of form that Trethewey uses to convey the content (message) of the poem. In the first nine lines of the poem, Terthewey omits terminal stops in a third of the lines. This enjambment of lines creates a sort of rushed, breathless reading of the poem and is a reflection of the mental state the speaker must experience during her dreaming state where she sees her mother. The second nine lines are all terminally stopped giving the impression of a more halting finality to the lines. The use of enjambed and end stopped lines is another tool used by Trethewey to reinforce the message of the poem.

In the fourth line of the poem, the speaker in the poem invokes the name of Erebus, an ancient Greek word for “the dark region of the underworld” (Mays, 637). Erebus invokes the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice because Erebus is the place of darkness that Orpheus returns to when she is lost by Eurydice. Interestingly, Trethewey uses the punctuation of the lines to reflect the journey of Orpheus and Eurydice. As the poem opens, the speaker is talking about sleep. Generally, sleep occurs during darkness, but it is also the place that Orpheus and Eurydice ascend from. The enjambment of the lines in the first three stanzas creates a rushed feeling because there are no periods or commas to tell the reader when to pause. One might imagine this being the sensation experienced by Orpheus and Eurydice as the ascended out of darkness.. As Orpheus descended back into Erebus, and as Eurydice heard her final “farewell,” one may imagine the finality with which Eurydice knew he had lost his love and likewise understand his reluctance to accept such a fate. The terminal stops in lines ten through eighteen reinforcenot only the finality of the speaker’s loss, but also serve as a symbolic representation of Orpheus’ decent into darkness. In this way, Trethewey uses simple punctuation to mimic the rise and fall of Orpheus and Eurydice. In essence, the form of thepoem operates as a mirror (just as the second half is a mirror of the first half) of not only the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, but also the experience of the speaker as she moves from a dreaming to a waking state. In this instance, just as with the choice of a Villanelle and the inclusion of the palindrome, Trethewey has found an unique way to make form and content one.

While there is much to say about the contents of the poem, it is only necessary to point out a few major features of the work. “I was asleep while you were dying” is repeated in the first and the last line. Regardless of the passing of time and regardless of everything the speaker says in between he/she ends up in the same place. One can almost feel the guilt and grief the speaker is experiencing. Each day the speaker must “forsake” (Trethewey, 9) and leave behind her loved one in a “rift, a hollow” (Trethewey, 2,17) that the speaker feels he/she is responsible for. Also, lines 9-10 reach across the rift on the physical paper (the original of the poem has a large gap between the two section that is separated by an asterisk) the poem is printed on. “Again and again” (Trethewey, 9) and “again and again” (Trethewey, 10) cause the speaker to experience the nearly unbearable grief and despair of crossing into the darkness and seeing the lost loved one.

The content of the poem also contains numerous allusions to archetypes that make the story that the speaker is telling universally understood. These archetypes include the unhealable wound (the loss of a loved one), the journey (the speaker’s daily trek into the abyss and her ever increasing knowledge that her loved one is lost forever), the use of darkness (as a reflection of the speaker’s despair). Because these archetypes are universally understood to be a fact of life that most people will experience, the emotions experienced by the speaker are also experienced by the reader.

Additionally, by utilizing these archetypes and associating the speaker’s lost loved one with an ancient Greek myth, the speaker elevates her loved one to the status of myth, hence the title. A phenomenon that is not uncommon. Family members tend to glorify the dead above what they did in life. The use of myth and archetypes draws the reader into the world of the speaker by making his/her experience relatable. However,Orpheus and Eurydice is not the only myth present in the poem. The word “forsaking” (Trethewey, 9,10) is used twice in the poem. It is not difficult to discern the link between this word and the myth of Jesus Christ. As Jesus was dying on the cross, he is said to have yelled out “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (NKJ, Matt. 27:46). Each of these myths and archetypes serve not only to bring the reader and speaker in harmony, but also to tell a story.

In a traditional villanelle, the story is told through a series of refrains, where the reader becomes increasingly aware of the dilemma and some answer to the dilemma is provided in the last quatrain. However, Trethewey use of a non-conventional villanelle and palindrome essentially turn the last nine lines into a sort of resolution to the dilemma presented in the first nine lines, much like the closing quatrain is intended to do in the traditional Villanelle. Trethewey accomplishes this task by making minor changes to the second half of the poem. The main changes occur in the punctuation or terminal stops. “Again and again, this constant forsaking.” (Trethewey, 9) is changed to “Again and again, this constant forsaking:” (Trethewey, 10). Line nine has a full stop period at the end of it, as if the speaker could not possibly endure this pain again; however, when Trethwey rewrote the line she replaced the period with a colon, indicating that there may be something beyond the pain. The order of the lines is also reversed which changes the meaning of each tercet. The third stanza ends with “constant forsaking” because for the speaker there is nothing else. But in the second half of the palindrome, the speaker opens with “constant forsaking” and moves beyond it. Each of the enjambed lines in the first part of the poem receive end stops in the second part as an indication that the speaker is slowly coming to realize death is final.

​Every story, in order to be successful, must create a kinship between the reader and the character(s) in the story. Through the use of archetypes, common myths, haunting diction, and unique form, Natasha Trethewey created more than a bond between reader and speaker, she created a knowing.

Graduation

Last week, I graduated from Bakersfield College. Two years and $12,000 dollars later, I look back on the experience and wonder: was it worth the time, expense, and stress. It is easy to look at the statistics regarding community college graduation rates and feel a sense of accomplishment. According to commonly reported statistics, only 19% of Bakersfield College students graduate and only 7% graduate within a “normal” time period. I graduated in two years (a normal period of time), and I maintained a 3.23 GPA over 80+ units. And it wasn't easy. Most semesters, I took an overload of units that required approval from the counseling department. Over the course of four regular semesters and one summer school semester, my attendance was nearly perfect, and I missed few assignments. But, are grades and graduation really the best barometer of what I learned at Bakersfield College? After all, Professors sometimes give grades that are not deserved, and I sometimes submitted assignments that did not fully reflect my understanding of the material. The most important lesson I learned at Bakersfield College is not reflected in my GPA, and it is certainly more valuable than the $12,000 two years of school cost. I learned a lesson that, if learned earlier in my life, would have been much more valuable than it is today. I learned that despite adversity, despite seemingly insurmountable circumstances, I can actually finish something I start. There were many days I woke up and felt like not going to school, not doing assignments, not breathing. Unless you have experienced depression and suicidal thoughts, there isn't really anyway I can describe to you what they feel like. A lot of people think depression means sadness, but I wasn't sad, I was just completely indifferent. Yet, day after day, I made my way to the Bakersfield College campus. I fought mental battles that would have caused some people to give up. But, after a lifetime of giving up, I knew that this was one task I had to complete. Not because there was some magical pot of gold at the end and not because it would lead to some great job and a wonderful future. I had to complete this task because it was important to me. Over the past week, I have asked myself repeatedly: is there one thing you can point to that you learned at B.C. that is worth the time and money it required to get to graduation? My answer is, yes. But, what I learned can't be found in a textbook, and it didn't come from a lecture. Don't get me wrong, I learned amazing things from the professors at Bakersfield College. One of the first classes I took at B.C. was Professor Paula Park's English class. Professor Parks taught me the value of community, and the fact that as bad as some think they have it in the United States, there are people in much worse circumstances around the world. Dr. Barton opened my eyes to the world of literature that I never knew existed. Under Dr. Barton's tutelage, I learned that reading Poe, Hawthorne, Eliot, and others is about more than what is on the surface of the story. When reading, you have to become a detective to discover the hidden meaning (or lack of meaning). And from Dr. Trujillo, I learned the value of having an offensive instructor. His constant belittling comments and not so subtle jabs gave me renewed motivation whenever I felt like giving up. But the most important and valuable lesson I learned came from the lectures I gave myself. It turns out that I taught myself a vital lesson about commitment, perseverance, and follow through. In high school, I was on the Speech & Debate team. At the top of all of our debate material, we put a quote that was suppose to represent our thinking at the time: if at first you don't succeed, try, try again, if you still fail, give up, no use being a damn fool. There is a certain amount of arrogance in the quote. As if we can just keep trying, quitting and moving on to the next thing. But, eventually we have to find something important enough to us that we keep trying and never quit, and never surrender to doubt or criticism. When we find that something, sometimes, the pay off doesn't come in tangible form. It isn't money in our pockets. It isn't a great job. The pay off is in learning something new about ourselves and the world we live in.

T.S. Eliot's "Preludes"

Imagery in T.S. Eliot's “Preludes”

The great modernist writer T.S. Eliot was a student of the French poets Valery and Baudelaire. As a result of their influence, images from French urban landscapes find their way into Eliot’s poetry. Eliot uses the imagery of these landscapes to convey emotions to his reader. He termed this method of imparting emotions: objective correlative. In A Contemporary Guide to Literary Terms, the term is defined as a method by which a writer “in order to produce a particular emotional effect” incorporates “images, circumstances, and incidents” into their works that correlate to the desired emotional effect they want to produce. The correlation of these devices to the particular emotion is objective because the writer does not contribute his/her emotions or feelings; instead, the writer relies on the universal nature of the “objects, situations, and chain of events” (Barton and Hudson, 139). In “Preludes,” Eliot utilizes specific images to engender feelings of monotony, desperation, loneliness, and despair in the reader.

In the opening stanza, Eliot uses objects and situations, as well as a chain of events to create a sense of quiet desperation in the reader. The setting for the story is a “winter evening” (1) in the city. The imagery of a “winter evening” immediately evokes in the reader a feeling of gloom, but to compound those feelings, Eliot litters the landscape of the city with “grimy scraps,” “withered leaves,” and “broken blinds and chimney-pots” (6-10). By using objects that create an image of decay in the mind of the reader, Eliot imbues the scene with feelings of desperation and loneliness. Also, in this opening stanza Eliot lays the groundwork for the repetition of a chain of events that will reoccur throughout the story in order to emphasize the monotony of the inhabitant’s quotidian existence. This chain of events begins at “Six o’ clock” with the “smell of steaks in passageways,” and concludes with “the lighting of the lamps” (2-13). While the reader may think the smell of steaks is enticing, Eliot compares the smell to a burnt-out cigarette (4). The repetition of the routine has taken the joy out of even the simplest pleasures. With the scene and mood set, Eliot moves on to describe the condition of the inhabitants of this urban landscape.

In the second stanza, Eliot demonstrates the hopelessness of the inhabitants by reducing them to undifferentiated hands and feet. The scene in the second stanza is the same urban landscape as above, yet morning has brought the masses out into the “sawdust-trampled street” (16). The inhabitants of the city are described only in terms of their “muddy feet” and “hands/that are raising dingy shades” (21-22). The reference to the shades draws us back to the feeling of despair evoked in the first stanza by the “broken blinds” (10). Furthermore, Eliot explains that the people live in “furnished rooms” (23), which do not allow for self-expression. Throughout the remainder of the poem the people are described only in terms of body parts that touch the city’s surface. Their individual lives are of no consequence. They are defined by the city they live in and nothing more. The third stanza reinforces the feelings of loneliness and despair by describing an individual alone in a room projecting images of the city onto the ceiling (24-29). Eliot draws us back to the chain of events in the first stanza by describing the light from the street lamps that “crept up between the shutters (31). The continual reference to the objects in the first stanza is a reminder to the reader that the inhabitants are trapped in a never ending cycle that the city dictates. At every turn, the people are met with reminders of the hopelessness of their situation. The seeming delight of the smell of cooking steaks is countered by the fact that they have lost their appeal because they are eaten nightly. The relief that might come from sleep is coupled with the “thousand sordid images/of which your soul was constituted” (28-29). Not even in sleep can the tortured citizens escape the clutches of the gloomy city or their monotonous lives. Eliot never explicitly tells the reader how he/she should feel about the predicament of the people in the city; instead, he relies on repetition and imagery to foster these feelings.

The final stanza draws the reader back to the opening scene by invoking familiar objects in order to reinforce the despair, and loneliness of the city’s occupants. The mention of “six o’clock,” “square fingers stuffing pipes,” “newspapers” is intended to remind the reader that this chain of events is a loop that repeats “infinitely” (51). Here again in the closing stanza the reader is reminded of the lack of humanity in the city when Eliot states:

His soul stretched tight across the skies

            That fade behind a city block,

            Or trampled by insistent feet. (39-41)

The city block and the masses in the streets extinguish any humanity. As a final reminder of the despair and monotony, Eliot employs a simile to draw us full circle “the worlds revolve like ancient women/Gathering fuel in vacant lots” (53-54). This is a reference to the “newspaper from vacant lots” (8) mentioned in the first stanza. In the closing line of his poem, Eliot uses the objects and situations from the first stanza to bring the reader full circle to the beginning of the chain of events. The continual, unbreakable, chain of events highlights all the negative emotions experienced by the inhabitants of the city.

            The greatest writers find a way to draw their audience into the story. More than simply making a character or situation relatable, T.S. Eliot’s use of objects, situations, and events to give rise to particular emotions requires the reader to become emotionally invested. How should one feel about “grimy scraps,” “broken blinds and chimney pots,” and “withered leaves?” (6-8) How should the reader interpret the monotony experienced by the residents of this city? The beauty of Eliot’s writing is that he does not tell the reader how to interpret these images and events; instead, he allows the reader to form his/her own emotions.

Works Cited

Barton, Edwin, and Glenda Hudson. A Contemporary Guide to Literary Terms. 3^rd Ed. Boston: Wadsworth. 2012. Print

Eliot, T.S. “Preludes”

Review: "2001: A Space Odyssey"

Okay... I have to watch a couple movies for English 2. Today is 2001: A Space Odyssey. I thought I would post reviews of each movie, and I will, but I found these reviews of 2001, and since I could not have said it better myself, I am posting them.

2001: A space odyssey is amazing. It is amazing that anyone could ever survive the horror that is this movie. It literally gave me a migraine. I mean I am all for the beautiful cinematography and wonderful imaginitaive directing and all but maybe there should have been more writing involved. I’m pretty sure the script went something like this:
CLOSEUP: giant sperm shaped (see implications later) space ship moves across screen (25mins)
PANORAMA: Even bigger phallic shiped space suit moves across screen (35mins)
PAN LEFT: Tall but very narrow mysterious black object stand still and issues weird chanting sounds, don’t touch it, it’ll scream
VOICEOVER (One of two idiot astronauts): Heavy Breathing (22 mins)
MONTAGE: Multiple shots of Oklahoma and Arizona landscapes with many different colored filters
CLOSE UP: star child (giant embryo planet)
* the sentient being that represents humanity at the dawning of a new universe is an idiot who supposed holding his breath would save him from the vacuum of space – where did he buy his degree?
There was probably a total of seven minutes of dialog in this film, half of which are delivered by a faceless computer.
It is unfortunate that this is the first SF Stanley Kubric film I have seen but I can’t even imagine watching another one without a burning desire to overdose myself on vicodine. If ever you were looking for a wonderfully long torturous, anti-drug advertisement, this is it!

Three hours of my life I will never get back. I love sci-fi and had high hopes for this movie, but to say I was disappointed would be like saying 2000lb bombs make smoke.
This movie is SO DAMN SLOW! I forced myself to watch this “masterpiece” that i had wanted to see for so long, thinking it would end up a new favorite. And it was a piece… of something; every slow, drawn out, endless second of it! You could easily edit this movie down to 5 minutes.
2001: A Space Oddysey should be retitled- 2001: Real-time Space Flight Torture Test Oddysey From Hell, Prozac Edition
Example:
Wanna know how long it takes to exit a space ship for routine ship repair? FOR FU%#ING EVER!!!!!!!!!
Example:
Wanna see the same scene of the moon rotating in the same damn window framed in grey with no edit or cut away for 10 damn minutes with the same damn music playing over and OVER and OVER AGAIN?
CAN I GET AN EDIT?!?!? OR A BULLET?!?!
PLEASE?!?!?!
2001 is aggravating!!!!! I was screaming at the movie to hurry the fu%# up!!!!!!!!!!! Do I need to know (and SEE) that it takes 5 WHOLE MINUTES for a hatch to open up into space? DO I?!?!?! REALLY?!?!?!? AND HOW MANY TIMES DO I NEED TO SEE IT?!?!?!?! WAS ONCE NOT ENOUGH?!?!?!?!
Add in 30 minutes of Dave unplugging/killing HAL (sooooooooo slowly), 25 minutes of astronauts holding there helmets(?) in pain from the annoying alien dog whistle/radio signal with accompanying choir/orchestra music (scene does NOT CHANGE EVER!!!!), a 40 minute trip thru a crayon-colored time-warped hyperspace Dr. Who tunnel with still shots of Dave trying out for Madonna’s “vogue” video (if you like drugs, you might like this part of the movie), and 2 or 3 months of real-time space flight (with elevator music), and you have the DULLEST MOVIE EVER MADE!!!!!
I dont know what was harder to watch, 2001:a space oddysey or an episode of the Teletubbies. I love Bladerunner, even though it is slow at time, its one of my favorite movies. This one sucks badly

Death With Dignity[1]

It happened again today. While I was giving a lecture on symbolism in Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” I could not recall the name of Goodman Brown’s wife. I stood in front of my class and stumbled through the dark corridors of my mind trying to recall a fact that I had discussed hundreds of times. These episodes of memory loss are becoming increasingly frequent, and they affect more than just my ability to teach. My family has felt the brunt of the frustration I feel when I cannot recall simple everyday facts. Despite constant urging from friends and family I have refused to seek medical attention; however, after my experience today, I know I must seek medical advice, so tomorrow I have an appointment with a neurologist.

The results from the various medical tests showed conclusively that I am suffering from a neurological disorder that causes short and long term memory loss, and unpredictable mood swings. The prognosis is not good. Currently, there are no known medical treatments to reverse the effects of the disease ravaging my mind. The doctor offered two courses of treatment, both of which have advantages and disadvantages. The first option is a newly approved experimental serum that would halt the progress of the disease for one to three years, after which I would decline into debilitating dementia in short order. The second options is to undergo a procedure that would upload an exact copy of my brain into a robot, but in the process the brain in my human body would be destroyed. Before deciding which course of treatment is best for me and my family, I have embarked on a research project of epic proportions. I have researched and considered issues, such as will my personal identity survive, how important is my physical body to me, and perhaps most importantly how will my decision effect my family. As a result of my research, I have decided to undergo the destructive upload procedure because it will allow me to die with dignity and subject my family to the least amount of grief.

At first glance, I was against the destructive upload procedure because it would extend my life indefinitely, and that is not what I want. However, in his book Intelligence Unbound, Russell Blackford states that it is possible that “taking part in the uploading procedure would not be a way of obtaining extended life, but actually a high-tech way of committing suicide” ( n.p.). I do not want to continue living in my degraded mental state, and I do not want to burden my family with the responsibility of taking care of me after the effects of the experimental serum wear off. The ideal situation would be to find a method to end my life while providing some consolation to my friends and family. Because it is not acceptable to me to live with these symptoms, the destructive upload procedure provides just such an opportunity. I will be dead, but a version of me will live on in the robot and will assuage my family’s grief to some extent. But, if the robot resembles me in physical appearance and has a brain that is an exact replica of my organic brain, then how is the robot not me? What part of me dies in the upload procedure?

My personal identity is inextricably connected to the physical organic body I occupy. In the uploading process, my organic brain is destroyed; as a result, my organic body dies. Raymond Kurzweil, an acclaimed inventor and futurist, explains this concept by first examining a scenario where an exact copy of a person is created while the person is still alive. In that scenario, even if one assumes that all of person A's memories and thought processes are transferred to person B, one would not assert that they are the same person. Building on this scenario, Kurzweil explains that “if we copy me and then destroy the original, that’s the end of me” (384). Additionally, an integral component of my personal identity is being human. Humans are mortal; they get old and die. They get diseases and die. They are involved in accidents that result in death. They have physical and mental limitations. The robot will not be subject to any of these human limitations. In most respects, the robot will be better than me. It will be stronger, smarter, and potentially immortal. Because the robot would not be susceptible to human limitations, it would not encompass an essential part of my personal identity. However, my family may find solace in the fact that some part of me lives on. The robot could provide my family with new experiences, comfort, and companionship. Because the robot will be stronger, smarter, and immune from human diseases, it will be able to provide economic security, protection, and companionship to my family after my death. Because the robot will not be human, and because being human is a vital component of being me, the robot will not encapsulate enough of my personal identity to be me. While my physical body is a key component of my personal identity, my personality is also a fundamental part of who I am.

            As described above, the upload procedure will strip away a vital component of my personal identity, but if my personality survives and is embodied in the robot, doesn’t that mean that I am still alive just in another body? Kurzweil provides an important insight into the question when he states “We should point out that a person’s personality and skills do not reside only in the brain” (200). The robot will contain an exact copy of my brain, but it will not consist of a precise copy of the rest of my body. As Kurzweil observes “Our nervous system extends throughout the body, and the endocrine (hormonal system has an influence, as well” (200), an exact replica of the brain will not produce the same person because the robot will not contain true versions of my original internal systems. The nervous and hormonal systems throughout my body control how I respond to situations. With that component of my personality missing, the robot will be composed of nothing more than a collection of my memories and experiences, which is not enough of me to claim that I would survive the upload procedure. Just as my human body is a vital part of who I am, my personality is also key to being me. Not only will I lose the physical component of my personal identity, but also I will lose the very essence of self in the destructive upload procedure because my personality will be extinguished. The result will be a facsimile of me, but it will not be me because it will not be composed of any of the important aspects that make me unique. In the upload procedure, my identity will die, but it will be seamless thereby allowing me to cease to exist in the least torturous manner possible while allowing me to experience the final moments of my life without worrying about my family’s future. As with anything in life, assuming the upload procedure will kill me is a gamble. Perhaps, the robot will contain just enough of me that I will survive the upload procedure. I would be trapped in a body that is not mine with an altered personality.

            There is an argument to be made that it is possible that the copy of my brain installed in the computer will create the same mind that is in my human body. However, according to Patrick D. Hopkins in his article “Why Uploading Will Not Work,” personal identity is not a substance that can be moved around. We can not hold personal identity in our hands, and we can not point to a specific place in the brain that my personal identity occupies. Hopkins uses the example of copying a page out of a book. One would not claim that the copy is the same thing as the original, even if it has all the molecular properties of the original. To sum up his argument, Hopkins states “If the criticisms presented here are correct however, uploading may be technically possible but will not accomplish what we want it to accomplish. It will create new minds exactly similar to other minds, but will not save anyone's life” (1-14). Given all the research on the subject, I am confident that I will not survive the destructive uploading process, but instead I will die in a peaceful manner that will leave my family with a reasonable duplicate of me that will meet many of their needs.

            In the end, the question of which course of treatment to undergo was a fairly simple one. Given the life I lead as an educator, it is unacceptable to me to live with the current symptoms. Furthermore, I place a high value on the comfort and well-being of my family. They do not deserve to be subjected to my continued frustration, nor do they deserve to be forced to care for me once the disease progresses. During the destructive upload procedure, everything that is me will die. A new better version of me will be created that will be able to assist my family, and it will allow them to feel that a part of me lives on.

             

Works Cited

Blackford, Russell, and Damien Broderick. Intelligence Unbound: The Future of Uploaded and     Machine Minds. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2014. Web Accessed. 21 Apr. 2014.

Hopkins, Patrick D. “Why Uploading Will Not Work, Or, The Ghosts Haunting Transhumanists.” International Journal of Machine Consciousness 4.1 (2012): 1-14. Web. 21 Apr. 2015.

Kurzweil, Raymond. The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. New York:         Penguin Books, 2005. Print.

---

[1] Thanks to Clint Carpenter, Taylor Faulkenberry, Regina King, and Adrianna for help with this paper.