The Philosophical Optimist

Another Example Essay for my students, composed, as the date would suggest, several years ago.  The basic principle of connection, however, is still valid.  Let this substitute for the essay I never published in January.  I did not publish this then, only because I thought I had posted it already. Brent Oliver Dr. Guilds Film Studies 4 February2011 Of ‘Bots and Bowmen Here is a short note to remind us to keep looking for the patterns, because, it's all connected. I was recently watching my favorite science fiction television series, Dollhouse (the imminent demise of which merely illustrates the principle that by the logic of television and its need to appeal to the masses, bad writing tends to drive out the good), where a character noted that "Rossum," the name of the corporation that runs the Dollhouses, comes from "an old play."  Of course! I said, only then remembering R.U.R.: Rossum's Universal Robots , the play (published 1920, performed 19...

"There are other forms of intelligence on Earth [than ‘people’], Doctor.” —Spock, Star Trek IV I have always been a cognitive pluralist—by prejudice, if not by conviction.   I never saw any reason to insist that mankind alone should possess consciousness to any significant degree.   Part of it has to be due to growing up in a church that, on account of its great respect for the scriptures, always acknowledged the existence of an unseen world of angels and demons, even if our general fear of all things Catholic led us to declare that the age of miracles—including angelic visions and demonic influences and exorcisms—was over.    I have since gotten over that fear, and no doubt one small reason for this was the second contributing factor to my cognitive pluralism: my second home in the world of pure imagination.   From Eternia to Tatooine, from Cybertron to Vulcan, from Asgard to Lothlorien—and yes, even the digital world of Automan —I spent so much time in worlds...