SciFiLab Radio Show

Hello World!

Today was the launch of the new 'rebooted' Science Fiction Laboratory Radio Show ( SciFiLab) on GaTech WREK Atlanta 91.1 FM! I was on air for just about 12 seconds (yay me). Everyone was great and the interview with David Benedict from the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company was enlightening - especially since we are in the beginning of getting a radio drama written.

You too can listen in every Thursday night, 7:00pm to 8:00pm to the SciFiLab program Online or using the GaTech App or if you live in the area! You can like us on Facebook or more importantly, FOLLOW SciFiLab on Twitter!

Next week the theme is robots. Oooohhhhhh. I believe R2D2 is going to be discussed and then in the future, the themes will be cyborgs (I've already got my example picked out, Ironman) and zombies.

Most Amazing Essay Written As Part of An Exam

I promised the world, a few posts back, that I would post my Intro to STAC essay when I got it back. Well, I got it back. To give you the idea of the prompt, it's something like this:

"A producer wants to finance a suspense/action/horror film and must choose a concept A or B. Your job is to recommend A or B. Explain why your choice would make a better film. Include a general storyline." I chose A: The world is being overrun by self-propelled, self-directed machines - robots. They are fast, strong and violent. They reproduce by scavenging materials from the world around them and building more versions of themselves."

Here is my essay that is 100% original. DO NOT STEAL IT. Even though, I can totally see why you would want to - because it's awesome...and amazing. 

Think “Aliens” meets “I am Legend” meets “I-Robot.” That’s my pitch for a suspense/action/ terrifying horror film. Robots reproducing by scavenging materials, violently attacking everyday people, going to war against our human armies and eventually taking over the world, because after all, they don’t need sleep and food to keep them alive, only humans do.

            While a non-visual source of terror usually does instill more fear within the audience, we humans still have a great aversion and fear about nonhuman beings taking control over our world. We like to fantasize that aliens would ‘come in peace’ and robots would just be servants. But since the birth of the automaton, robots have been the source of inspiration for suspenseful films, novels and play’s, like Rossum’s Universal Robot’s.

            Although a virus infecting the digital network is really non-visual to the audience, it’s also an abstract image that would need to be represented in some visual way and that just wouldn’t appear as visually frightening in any way that an ultra-strong, vicious, unintelligent ‘mechanical beast’ would appear. This is primarily due to the fact that human fears are related to the unknown and to things that look like us, act like us, but would really prefer to kill off the human race instead of living within our world harmoniously.

            To really give the audience a jolt, a great move for such a film would be to take a rather pessimistic outlook on the situation. Humans love when humans conquer other worldly invaders (think ‘Marvel’s The Avenger’s’) and hate when humans appear to be the inferior race. This is precisely why we have more superhero action films than human’s are the losers films. So, the film would end with the entire human population massacred and heartless, fearless robots living all over Earth. That will surely have the audience leaving the theatre without warm fuzzies, and an intense fear toward beings that mimic some of our more negative qualities, physically and mentally. And it may be thought only subconsciously, but even the ruthless robots that dominate the film do share similarities, mentally, with that of psychologically disturbed human beings.

            By taking a wholly negative outlook at robots multiplying by scavenging, an act humans view as barbaric, and destroying humanity, a suspenseful horror film is born. Nothing is more terrifying and worse than seeing your own kind being destroyed.

Why the GaTech STAC major is cool...

You may be thinking, Georgia Tech? Georgia Institute of Technology? has a what major? You may think GaTech in terms of engineering only: #1 for Industrial and Systems Engineering,  #2 for biomedical engineering, blah blah blah. GaTech is one of the TOP 10 public schools in the country. And they have a STAC major. 

When I went to orientation before my first semester here, a librarian asked me what my major was so she could direct me to the correct library for my major. I said "STAC" and she looked at me like "what?" I said "STAC, you know, science, technology and culture?" and then she gave me a blank stare and said "well good luck at Tech."

Before my academic advising, all 200 transfers were placed into a large auditorium and were asked to cheer for their major. There were loud claps and whistles for anything involving engineering, particularly mechanical and electrical. When it came time to "Science, Technology and Culture," guess who was the only one clapping - me - all alone. Everyone laughed, turned around in their seats to see who this one, single person this was. They laughed, smiled and then I heard (sotto voce) "What's that? Science, technology and culture?" As I left to go to my appointment, I announced to the entire auditorium "The major exists. It exists!"

Anyways, back to my main point. So what is the major? It's exactly what it is. It's an integrative major that combines science (2 years of it), technology (everyone at GaTech takes a CS class) and culture. Basically, on a daily basis, I read, think, write (my own stuff and very few actual assignments except two term papers due at the end of the semester), discuss and then I go read some more. If you don't like reading 100+ pages a day, don't go to GaTech for anything. 

I had a test last week that had three essay questions - you pick one. I chose to write what would make a better suspense/action/horror film: scavenging, vicious, super strong robots (that aren't that bright) or a digital worm making technology completely useless. I chose the robots and I intend to put my essay on this blog for everyone to read it. It's kind of brilliant. I got to use 'warm fuzzies,' yes those two words, in my essay for a class at GaTech....I think I may have taken a huge risk by doing this...