Blog_11 Source 1

The way our brains and memories work have been a very difficult concept to understand, and we will probably never understand all of it. In the article European Journal of Neuroscience; Mar2011, Vol. 33 Issue 6, p1101-1114, 14p, 4 Charts, ways in which memories can be impaired are discussed. A recent breakthrough in this field has led to some more understanding about the way our minds work. The discovery of the de novo hippocampal production of neurons gives us a new actor in the role of memory process. These newborn adult neurons are very important in long-term memory retention, allocentric space representation, and for flexible inferential memory expression. New studies also show that they are responsible for spatiotemporal relationships among many environmental cues for flexible use of acquired information. This basically means that they help use information stored in your brain at appropriate times. All of this leads me to believe after several more years of research, it could be possible to take these newborn neurons, reduce production, and take away one’s ability to retain information, as well as access their memory. It is very scary to think that we know so much about our brains. If a method is developed to alter these neurons, or even stop them from producing, our memories very just might be able to be wiped. I do not know how to access more than the abstract of this article, which I found on the Thompson Library search engine, so if anybody could tell me how that would be great. I would like to read more up on implanting memories into ones brain, which seems a lot less likely than wiping memories.

Blog_10

            I would like to focus on the unethical doings that are practiced inside of the Dollhouse for my Analytical Research Paper. To do these I am going to concentrate most of my research on the type of practice that goes one to manipulate the clients into “Dolls.” The mind and body are two completely different things, and I would like to know if there is any kind of technology out there that can manipulate the mind as they do in the show. I am also going to do a lot of research on the history of tyrants, dictators, and kings in order to provide plenty of real world examples about what motivates people to put others in such situations. If I research the reasons why these people did what they did, I am very sure it will all come down to greed and personal gain. As for the technology itself, I believe it is quite possible to manipulate somebody’s mind, but not to the extent that they do in the show. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say that this kind of technology could be part of our actual future. As for the Doll’s, I still believe that they have souls and are actual people, just with no memory; they still do have hearts.

Work Cited

1.     Julie Koenig, Psychopharmacology; Mar2011, Vol. 214 Issue 2, p437-454, 18

2.     Richard Hoffman, Journal of Ethnopharmacology; Dec2010, Vol. 132 Issue 3, p554-563, 10p

3.     Mel Slater, PLoS ONE; 2010, Vol. 5 Issue 5, p1-9, 9p, 12 Color Photographs, 5 Charts, 2 Graphs

4.     Aaron Stebner, Acta Materialia; Apr2011, Vol. 59 Issue 7, p2841-2849, 9p

5.     Muriel Koehl, European Journal of Neuroscience; Mar2011, Vol. 33 Issue 6, p1101-1114, 14p, 4 Charts

Blog_9 ARP

For my Analytical Research paper, I want to focus on the moral issues of the entire series of “Dollhouse.” There are many things that go on in the show “Dollhouse” that could be considered unethical and against principle morals. The whole idea of the Dollhouse can be closely related to past events in our history including slavery, genocide, and the oppression of less powerful people. The story of the Dollhouse is a rich, underground company who take peoples lives, and sell them for lots of money; making them into super-humans by inserting select personality traits into them. The business is powered by one thing and one thing only, greed. Since the beginning of time people have been enslaved and used, for the profit of some greedy king, or dictator. We obviously see that these are major issues, and the show illustrates these reoccurring problems in a very interesting way. There is a powerful company, who uses animals and even humans for unethical testing of drugs, which I’m sure still happens somewhere in today’s world. They fund the Dollhouse, bribes the new clients with a lot of money, in order to agree to the terms. Ironically, these people sometimes agree because of their own greed, but others have no choice. People will do anything to get one up on each other, and anything for their own personal gain. I am not sure if I want to concentrate on the entire series, because it is such a general topic, but the show has a lot of meaning behind everything that goes on, I would like to watch a few more episodes to see if I can find anything specific that I would like to write about.

Blog_7 Highschool is Hell

“High School is Hell” is quite an interesting article. It’s main point is that as cultures change over time, so does the way in which we deal with fears, and express what is going on in our culture. In “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” metaphors such as vampires and monsters are used to represent actual problems and things that happen in a real high-school environment, obviously in a non-fiction way. Rather than having a show that shows directly what goes on in reality, this science fiction series mixes those actual problems and events with a fantasy story line, creating an entertaining program that demonstrates real problems of typical high school kids, in a subtle way. I think this is a very genius and creative how writers do these types of things, but it seems that there is always a message behind the plot, given that it is a good show. As times change, so does modern culture, and to be able to adapt to these changes and keep up with the demand of entertainment is very impressive. There are so many things to say about high school, and too many possible stories to tell. The writer generalizes the important aspects of life through a high school student, while adding in supposedly interesting science fiction, as a metaphor for the morals expressed in the show. Metaphors are sometimes more real than reality, for in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” Buffy is the slayer and slays all of the vampires, but does so in context of a troubled high school girl with common everyday problems, like the rest of us.

Blog_6 Dollhouse

I watched the third episode in the first season of “Dollhouse,” but it wasn’t as good as the other episodes I have seen. Ecko this time is hired as a backup dancer, and her main job is to protect the lead singer, who is supposedly a target of a hit. The tour group hires a bunch of security guards and goes through a lot to keep the lead singer safe. Another person from the Dollhouse was hired as the lead singer, Rita’s, number one fan, who gets to hang out with her, as well as appear on stage. While this is going on, the Dollhouse is getting worried about exposing themselves to the public; what they are doing is extremely illegal. One private investigator isn’t making a lot of progress, but is determined to bring down the Dollhouse. He knows it exists, but nobody believes him and they think he is wasting his time. The owners of the Dollhouse (I still don’t know any of their names, or what they call themselves) are becoming aware of this investigator. The Boss-lady is extremely worried when she says, “Even a dumb dog can find a bone if it digs enough holes,” or something like that. Later in the episode, before Rita’s big concert, her and Ecko get into a fight, because Echo found out that somebody is trying to kill her onstage and Rita won’t have any of it. She thinks Echo is just trying to move her big moment. So sure enough they get on stage, and there is a sniper up above the audience. Right before he shoots, Ecko runs on stage and tackles Rita out of they way, just missing the shot. Everybody runs and panics out. The sniper got away, and took the Dollhouse girl, Rita’s number one fan, as a hostage. Well getting to the point, Ecko saves Rita’s life as well as the number one fan’s life by acting in a way that was not programmed into her. She acted to save the girls life, and she was only supposed to save Rita’s life, ironically by putting her in loads of danger. The Dollhouse people notice this, and the Boss-lady does not see it as a problem, but a positive part about their products. At the end, the other girl who was in on the job came over to greet her in the dollhouse, and Ecko nodded her off. They both know each other, but know it isn’t safe to act as friends, for that would be noticeable. 

Blog_5 Dollhouse

          I watched the second episode in the first season of Dollhouse, and I have to say it was very interesting. The main character, Ecko, is sold to this some man who wants to take her on an extreme day in the wilderness. Ecko was programmed to be very athletic, and was outdoing the guy in most everything they were doing. They went white water rafting, climbed gigantic rocks, and camped out in the forests. While hunting deer with a hooked up cross-bow, he told Ecko that his father used to pat his shoulder and say “Shoulder to the wheel,” and that he was a firm believer in survival of the fittest. If you can’t hunt down your pray and kill it, then you don’t deserve to eat it, and it deserves to live. If it cannot escape, then it doesn’t deserve to live. This was ironic because after he slept with her, things got intense. He gave her a twenty-minute head start, too run as far as she can, and he was going to hunt her with his bow. I have no clue why anybody in the world is that sick in the head, its disgusting to think about, but makes for an entertaining show. She finds a house in the middle of nowhere, and goes inside for refuge. She drinks a canteen of what she thinks is water, but it is actually some kind of poison that makes her trip out. She ends up surviving because then man who is supposed to be watching over her comes with two guns to save her. They kill the crazy outdoorsman, and finally Ecko goes back to her treatment. There is a private investigator who is getting more and more clues about the dollhouse, and the strange, dangerous things that are happening around Ecko are not helping out with keeping the Dollhouse quiet. The crazy part about this episode is that at the end, she said that she remembered the guy she was watching over her, and well as bits and pieces of other things. She was hallucinating about old memories of herself that were supposedly whipped away, and she is starting to get a feel for what’s going on

Blog_4 Dollhouse S1E1

            The Dollhouse is a place where they wipe away your memories and use you for special jobs, which seems pretty crazy. After watching the first episode of the first season, now I actually understand the concept of the show, and I think it’s a very good show. The main character’s name is Ecko, and the episode started with her having a great time with the man she with who I made out to be her significant other. She willingly goes to her what she thinks is some sort of treatment, and her memory is wiped away. I would like to know what kind of treatment she thinks she is going to receive each time before she goes through with it, because she is never skeptical about it. Ecko wonders off to the room where they admit new people, and witnesses them “working” on a woman, who appears to be in pain. They talk to her like she is a five year old, and everybody else too. Each person in the Dollhouse is extremely spaced out, listening to everything the workers say without questioning. The purpose of this house is to use people’s personalities and put them all together on hard drives, then to upload these super personalities into the people. They then sell these people to do crazy jobs for a lot of money. Some rich guy, whose daughter had been kidnapped, hires Ecko to serve as a special negotiator. The Dollhouse downloaded all of the necessary traits to be the best person for the job into her mind, so she is essentially a puppet. The kidnappers want 10 million dollars, and upon the transaction to return the little girl, she knows that he won’t give the girl back. The kidnappers fled, but Ecko knew where too. The Dollhouse figures that Ecko failed, so she is sent for her treatment.  Surprisingly after the treatment, Ecko remembers everything and is still able to save the girl; which introduces the concept that she may have some sort of ability to retain her memory. Rather she can retain her actual life or just the ones that had recently been loaded into her brain, I don’t know. But I will definitely continue watching this show, quite enjoyable.