NOTE: Tuesday's questions (for TR classes) are BELOW this one. These are for Wednesday (MWF classes) and Thursday (TR classes).
Answer 2 of the following...
1. What happens to Professor Antelle, the man who organized the trip to Soror in the first place? Where does Ulysse find him, and how has he adapted to the strange new world of ‘human’ society? What might this say about our own humanity and relative civilization in the past and future?
2. The
experiment conducted by Cornelius and Helius finally sheds light on the
destruction of human civilization on Soror.
What was it that made humans decline and apes advance? Why did our race “give up” in the face of a
new competitor? What might this say
about Boulle’s ideas about civilization and the human intellect?
3. Why is Ulysse so intent on teaching the other humans to talk and become more "ape-like"? Originally he wanted to be the only one, but something changes in these chapters. What would this prove to him, and what evidence does he have that such evolution is even possible (especially since Zira and the others think it a lost cause)?
4. On page 150 (Ch.30), Ulysse writes, "Machines will always be machines; the most perfected robot, always a robot. But what of living creatures possessing a certain degree of intelligence like apes? And apes, precisely, are endowed with a keen sense of imitation..." What does he mean by this, and ultimately in his mind, what separates artificial intelligence from "human" intelligence? What is our greatest asset over the 'animal' world?
Paper
#4: Travelers from Planet Metaphor
BACKGROUND:
Boulle’s novel, The Planet of the Apes,
uses science fiction as a metaphor, to showcase and satirize many of our
beliefs about science and the modern world.
In our struggle to master the earth and the stars, we often forget about
our own human frailties, and ignore issues of race, poverty, ethics, and
equality. By focusing on another world,
in another time and place, it becomes easier to make connections to our own
world—and the questions that science is beginning to ask, that we have yet to
answer.
THE ASSIGNMENT:
For your final paper, I want you to use
The Planet of the Apes to help you
“read”
a science fiction movie/show as a
metaphor for the modern world. In other
words, how can the ideas, issues, concerns, and predictions of this novel
connect with another work of art (a movie) that is also from “planet
metaphor”? Remember, science fiction is
merely a frame: we need to look inside and see our own reflection staring back
at us. So try to find a movie that is
loosely is loosely about the future, or a possible past, or a different present
that has some elements of science fiction: robots, space, technology, advanced
medicine, clones, aliens, super heroes, apocalypse, and yes, even zombies. How do the characters, ideas, and issues of
this film connect with The Planet of the Apes? What are both works trying to say about our world and our time? What is it trying to warn us about? What is it trying to compare through the
metaphor of a possible future?
Don’t know any science fiction movies?
We actually have several in our library which you can check out. You can also
find many on Netflix, You Tube, Amazon, or for sale cheap at Walmart or
Hastings. Here are some recent/notable
movies to consider if you’re drawing a blank: Avengers, X-Men (any of them),
The Hunger Games, Divergent, Star Trek (any of them), Star Wars, Never Let Me
Go, Wall-E, Blade Runner, Inception, I, Robot, World War Z, I Am
Legend, or even TV shows like The
Walking Dead, Falling Skies, etc.
REQUIREMENTS:
·
At
least 3-4 pages, double spaced
·
A
CONVERSATION between you, Planet of the
Apes, and your film/show: so QUOTE and discuss the connections
·
You
must also reference specific scenes from the movie you use and not simply
summarize the plot; make sure the film is also part of the conversation
·
MLA
citation throughout; introduce quotations; proofread!
· DUE Friday, April 24th
by 5pm
Q 1.
ReplyDeleteAntelle is in a zoo as a “trained animal.” He doesn’t speak at all and he doesn’t even recognize Ulysse when he sees him. Antelle is like some of the older “humans” and sit there asking for food instead of doing a trick for it. This shows that within every human is a “beast” that can make them drop to the level of an animal. Even if it’s through the act of mimicry.
Q4.
Ulysse is realizing that the apes are only acting like the humans where at the time. They haven’t made anything new or come up with anything new. They don’t have a creative mind, only one that mimics what they were taught when they were babies. Unlike humans, they create new things not something new of an old item. We advance through imagination and creating new items not just a copy of an item reworded.
Savannah Lincoln
ReplyDeleteQ1.
Antelle is in the zoo, being entertainment for apes. His intelligence is no more, he does the same things as the humans of Soror. He is now an animal. He gets anxious away from his mate, and throws a fit. In the face of elimination, even the strongest minds can be reverted to animalistic ways.
Q2.
The people's fear and the apes physical strength is what caused the change. The apes have always had the physical ability, all they needed was the intellect and they finally found it. I think Boulle feels like as humans, fear is our biggest weakness. Fear would be the thing to devolve us.
Faith Armstrong
ReplyDelete1. Professor Antelle becomes like an animal. He regresses so much so, that he is just like an animal. He doesn't even remember the people he brought with him, and he hardly has emotion, much like Nova. I think that this may be trying to say that he was trying to conform to the ways of the animals to "fit in" to a degree, but didn't really mean to literally become like an animal, and then he actually became an animal.
4. I think that what he would say gives us our greatest asset over the animal world, is the ability to critically think and solve. A machine is a machine because it cannot critically think. In the event of something being altered from what was originally expected to happen, unless the machine is programmed for the change, it will not be able to correctly function.
Amber Simpson
ReplyDelete1.) Professor Antelle acquires the animal-like qualities that the apes see humans as having. Over time, he lost his humanity and turned into the animal we see apes as today in our world. The human society in Soror is animalistic, and Professor Antelle ended up fitting in, no question. Humanity, today, has come a long way. It went from cavemen to creating and advancing in technology. Over time, species do evolve and hopefully people don’t ever go back to how our ancestors were, or turn animal-like, such as in The Planet of the Apes.
4.) Humans have common sense and a mind that can create new things, such as scenarios, objects, ideas, ect. Animals just have survival instincts. You never see animals doing anything other than living; they are never using their brains for anything other than how they will get food or protect their young. People have the same instincts, but also have the intelligence to think creatively and actually create new things. People come up with new ideas all the time and turn them into something concrete; animals will never be able to do that. Apes are the closest animals to human-like thinking, I’d say, because they have used their hands to stack things and, also, other scenarios, such as peeling a banana.
Ryan Jolly
ReplyDeleteProfessor Antelle completely adapts to life as a human on Soror. He becomes an animal, which Ulysse finds in the zoo. Antelle has completely lost his since of intelligence and has reverted to asking for handouts of food from the apes attending the zoo. This could suggest that within the human race, there is a potential to become like professor Antelle, who because of his surroundings, became like an animal.
Question 4:
Ulysse is seeing for the first time that the apes are merely imitating humans, it appears. The apes have not really found any new inventions or discovered new technology in at least ten thousand years, probably because of the orangutans who are rooted in tradition. What Ulysse is saying here is that do not simply have artificial intelligence, which is mainly based on imitation. Humans use their knowledge to gain more knowledge, unlike the apes of Soror that simply repeat what they have already learned in a more sophisticated manner. This is the difference between real and artificial intelligence.
Bessie-Mei Soh
ReplyDelete1. Ulysse remains an anomaly, an "ape" in human form, while Antelle adapts to the ways of his kind. I almost wish Antelle would have somehow written his own memoir so we can she his journey from "ape" to "human". Antelle had lost the rare intellect that is, seemingly, exclusive to humans on his home planet. While I'm by no means an expert in psychology, his behavior seems reminescent of the defense mechanism known as regression, in which somehow cannot cope with a situation and therefore regresses to an earlier stage of development as a means of comfort and avoidance. Antelle didn't just regress to being a child, but he regressed into being a caveman. After all, that's the easiest way for him to live in his current situation. He can be "happy" this way, and don't we evolve in order for our lifes to be more efficient? Ignorance is bliss, which definately sounds more appealling that the suffering he would continue to carry had he held on to his intellect.
4. As a human, our intellience is seemingly "out of thin air". We have no known mentors in this aspect, as it is something we, as a species, suddenly "invented". These apes, however, developed an artificial intellience via imitation. They are smart creatures, but not in the way humans are... they don't possess the same "layers of consciousness" as we do. However, these apes were at least smart enough to be "programmed" by humans to portray humanity. This is similar to the way A.I. programs are programmed in our world, although hardly to the level of these apes. The more information we input into the A.I., the more it learns, and the more it seems "like" us. For example, a website known as Cleverbot.com lets every visitor communicate with an A.I. Everything thing you say to it adds to its knowledge and ability to converse like a human. You've probably heard that a brain is like a computer, but the computer is created by the brain and that makes all the difference.
Question 1
ReplyDeleteProfessor Antelle became no more than the human animals on the planet Soror. He lost all sense of intelligence. Professor Antelle was found in the zoo acting just as all the zoo humans act, and he even had the same unintelligent eyes, lacking the luster of curiosity and thought. This says that the human mind is easily swayed into its animalistic form.
Question 3
Ulysse comes to realize that he is the only one of his species to truly think and while he was initially proud of that fact he soon becomes fearful that his race might be stuck in their animal like state forever. As he works towards trying to raise humanity out of their current state he begins to see that the humans are capable of change through Nova. She puts forth the effort of learning and begins to gain knowledge despite the fact that Ulysse is the only one to believe this possible.
Priscilla Texter
ReplyDelete1.) You can find Professor Antelle still in the zoo with a state of mind that is completely animalistic. He has not regained anything that he previously knew which is very scary in any sense. You could argue and say that he lost himself when he became an animal. This says that when it becomes a matter of survival, man can revert back to any state and not be able to regain what they had once known or it would be difficult for them to.
3.) I think it become Ulysse passion to teach the humans to talk because there is proof showing that they were once the superior race on planet Soror which causes him much increase of fascination on how people can retreat back into a state of complete solitude. However, this does suggest evolution is possible through the simple means of mimicry. By teaching animals to do the things we do, they could comprehend that well enough to keep things the same and possibly overthrow the human race.
Clarissa Martinez
ReplyDelete1. Professor Antelle becomes an anima in a zoo for the ape’s entertainment. He adapts by becoming completely animal like the rest of the humans in there. This could hint that it is possible for humans to become like animals if they're surrounded by it.
2. What he means by the quote is that apes are intelligent but based off of imitation by the humans intelligence long ago. Everything they do is based off of what they learned from humans along time ago while adding on from there. our greatest asset over the ‘animal’ world is that humans don't have the need to imitate and base thing off of imitation. Humans can come up with original ideas.
Jessica Olivar
ReplyDeleteQ1. Professor Antelle becomes an entertainment for the apes. He is in a zoo and he acts like the humans on Soror, an animal. What it could say about or mental abilities is that no matter how strong minded you are, eventually something could make you crack, or lose yourself.
Q4, The apes are simply imitating what they already know, they have made no advances on Soror. They have artificial intelligence, on the other hand the humans on Soror could have potential to advance on this planet.
Q1. ulysse finds antelle in an exhibit at a zoo much like humans would go to in order to see Apes. Antelle it seems has digresses back into a Neanderthal like the native humans of soror. he is entertainment for the regular ape population in the zoo. i see as a sort of what goes around comes around in that the tables between human and ape have completely turned the apes are humans and the humans are apes. it is a weird cycle.
ReplyDeleteQ2. we do not know with 100% certainty what caused the downfall of the human race, but ulysse seems think that at some point everything was just being mimicked and that the apes could do that. this being said it also infers that the humans around the time of the downfall had reached their knowledgeable capacity and being unable to gain more knowledge reverted back to something more primitive while the apes continued to slowly advance and finally take over. i think our race "gave up" because what they thought had been the proof for humans evolution from apes to what they are now (human), was now becoming as if not more advanced than they were themselves and they did not understand how to cope with this. this could infer that humans or most humans were more like the orangutans than anything because they like the orangutans could not really cope with something so controversial.