Week 9

My essay so far is coming along pretty good. I originally knew that I wanted to do an essay on cybercrimes, but wasn't quite sure what type. I showed Adam a couple of choices and he said that any of those would be fine. I went to the library and started looking up internet crimes, to see what kind of information was available both in the library and online journals. I found lots of information on identity theft, however the language used was technical and hard to understand. It was also quite boring to read through. I decided that if I want to write a good essay I need something that I'm passionate to write about. As an avid viewer of Law and Order: SVU I knew that online child pornography was a real problem. I decided that while a bit of a depressing topic to research about, I would learn a lot about how the internet has become a breeding ground for pedophiles, and what we can do to stop it. Some of what I've researched has disgust me, especially learning that in most countries (Besides America and Australia) there are no laws against possessing child pornography. These countries are using the right of freedom as justification for why they can't punish these people. I knew child pornography was a problem, but I also knew there was a lot of awareness about it in the U.S. However, in most other countries not only is there a lack of awareness but a lack of punishment for offenders by the legal system.

Cyberpunk is a really depressing genre. I understand that the world isn't perfect but to only see the bad in everything must be pretty depressing. It does make you think and give you a different perspective on what will happen in the future, but I think it makes it soooo extreme that its almost ridiculous. I don't agree with the Utopian views of Plato or Sir Thomas Moore, but the Dystopia view in "Brave New World" and "1984" again go to an extreme that I can't see happening. The Utopia and Dystopia views are so far to the extremes of a normal scale for society that both seem only plausible in a philosophical sense, never a practical sense.

Existenz is proving to be a very thought provoking film. Jude Law's experience in existenz shows the flaws on the computer game which separates it from reality. The characters in the game have to answer questions a certain way in order for the game to progress. Characters within the game will idle if they go for a period of time without being spoken too. Basically we see that while the virtual reality world is an amazing experience, it's not without its own bugs and glitches that come with any computer system. The game world seems almost like a continuation of the real world. The guns are the same and that saying "Death to the demoness Allegra Geller" is the same. It's almost if the two worlds have some how merged. I can't wait to see the end of this movie. Hopefully it will kind of sum things up.