Distant Signals

In the story Distant Signal, a man from space comes down to Hollywood because his people want a show to continue running that has stopped being on the air for quite some time. The man comes down and finds out that the show that his people were interested in was canceled and he tries to tell the director that It should continue airing. He goes there and he fixes everything so that the show can air even though the director was not happy about putting it back on the air. After the man tells the director that his people are interested in the show the director changes his mind about cancelling and continues airing. This knowledge about knowing that someone Is wanting a goal to be perceived affects one’s future because they will continue with that goal and, in this case, will succeed with it.

speech sounds

Speech Sounds is about a futuristic society that has no law enforcement and is like a dystopia. This answers the essential question because the main characters live in a world where they always have to stay alert because danger can be found everywhere they go. They have the knowledge that danger exist everywhere and they are required to defend themselves. This knowledge affects their future because they know how things in their world work and they have the ability to stay safe instead of being killed in the streets.

Topics and Themes

Topics & Themes: Speech Sounds

TOPICS: The topics in Speech Sounds by Octavia Butler are Illness, Isolation, and death.

THEME: The theme that Speech Sounds by Octavia Butler most expresses is loss.

Topics & Themes: Distant Signals

TOPICS: The topics in Distant Signals by Andrew Weiner are success, passion, and revival.

THEME: The theme that Distant Signals by Andrew Weiner most expresses is determination.

Essential Question

Speech Sounds~

The essential question in this story is answered in many ways. The knowledge that the illness has truck the country has affected the future as the inhabitants slowly started to lose their speech capability and their literacy altogether. Also the knowledge that some people have gone mad with jealousy of others that can speak and are hunting down them down has made everyone in this society far more cautious around other people. The essential question is answered by the amount of restraint and caution that people show each other once they gain knowledge that could bring about their demise.

Distant Signals~

The essential question is answered when the "young man" shows his motives for "reviving" a supposedly very bad film. This is not well received with other people who don''t want to invest in something that they are not sure of. Another cause for concern in the story is the man's actor choice of Vance Maccabory. The people know that given his past history of constant binging on the job that he is a very inadequate person to work with. This answers the question by showing that knowledge about people can greatly affect the future in both productivity and emotional ways.

Schrödinger’s Plague

The Schrödinger’s plague is about a group quantum physicist that accidentally releases a virus into the world. The release this virus into the world and they use the theory of Schrödinger’s cat to find out the possibility of humans being affected by the virus. This answers the essential question, the knowledge that they have about quantum physics and the disease that they have released. This gives them the advantage of knowing how to defeat the disease. Another thing that they have that also affects their knowledge is the idea of Schrodinger’s cat. They won’t exactly know how the virus would react to people because it has never been observed when introduced to an environment full of people.

Quotes

1. "We know so little about whole affair-but theres no doubt in my mind we should hang it over to the police." (477) They have little knowledge of the affair going on, Carl thinks they should just hand it over to the police. This will affect the future of the experiment.

2."They've killed Marty and destroyed the lab building to wipe out all traces of the experiment, so that no one will know it ever took place." (484) The people had knowledge about the ex

3. "We have to find the complete list of symptoms- besides headache, sweaty palms, backache, pains behind the eyes." (484) They do not have the knowledge about what the symptoms are, thus affecting whether it will work in the future.

Topics and Themes

One topic is uncertainty and how this affects the human brain when the future is not clear. There is also a general air of fear and suspense amongst the scientists as the virus is released and they don't know if they have it or not. This is where the knowledge about the virus itself can come into the play about their future. One theme is the willingness to give your life for the things you are dedicated to.