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.

Frozen Journey

the Frozen Journey is about a man who is going on a ten year. Victor is switching from consciousness and unconsciousness. He can't tell the difference between the two and all of the information that feeds into his mind starts to confuse him.

The theme of the story is reality and fiction. There is a big difference between the two and when someone gets confused to the point that they can not tell the difference between the two they get hopelessly confused and it affects their minds completely. The reason he can't interpret the memories is because he wasn't there to experience them and he can't seem to understand them unless he is experiencing them.

Quotes

Private War of Private Jacob~

"Crazy old Melford would be down on his hunkers next to you and give you a couple friendly punches and josh around and flash those white teeth until you were about to scream or run but instead you wound up saying: yeah gonna be a good one, Sarge" (301)

This quote shows Jacob's knowledge of Melford's disposition and it also explains Jacobs trepidation in explaining his true feelings about war to Melford.

''Look happy, Jacob' Sergeant Melford was always all smile and bounce before a battle. During a battle too. He smiled at the tanglewire and beamed at his men while they picked their way through"

This shows the relationship between Melford and his soldiers, and how their knowledge of Melford affects their efficiency on the battlefield.

"The stricken men began to stir and few of the most hardly wobbled to their hands and knees . Jacob threw back his head and laughed and laughed"

The knowledge that he will now become just like Melford has given him the strength to be cheerful, and the knowledge to become what he now has to become.

Frozen Journey~

"This is a very neurotic person, the ship realized. I am having an awful lot of trouble finding happy memories. There is too much fear in him and too much guilt. He has buried it all, and yet it is still there, worrying him like a dog worrying a rag."

The ship realizes that Victor has so much negativity stored inside him and now the ship has knowledge about the psyche about this kind of person. With this knowledge, the ship is now effectively able to asses what to do with this kind of person.

"He relaxed but he was terribly frightened. Theoretically, he should have gone under, into the the successful cryonic suspension, then awakened a moment later at his star of destination."

This tells us a lot about Victor and his psyche. This shows that he is initially afraid of everything because of past memories that made him this way.

"The ship understood it. The ship had been carefully monitoring Victor Kemming's brain wave patterns, and the ship knew that something had gone wrong."

This shows that the past knowledge that the ship obtained from previous encounters from this kind of brain waves helps the ship understand humans better.

Private war of Private Jacob

This story is about a military private named Jacob who is in a desert like place fighting off an enemy much like a common war. He and his fellow soldiers fight of the enemy and some of them get injured but the one who seems to not get hit at all is sergeant Melford. Melford doesn’t do anything to fight of the enemy, never gets injured, and he laughs during battle. When Melford is killed during battle his personality gets downloaded into Jacob and he becomes exactly like him.

One of the topics of the story is teamwork. In the story the army all join together in battle and they all fight through the rough terrain and the enemy together and they don’t give up. They all stay together and they know when to do what. An example of this is when they are in the desert. They know what speed and how rough it is but they work together to prevent getting burnt in the heat.

The topic is that people in a higher ranking won’t do as much work as the people in lower ranks. In the story Jacob doesn’t like the fact that Melford doesn’t do much but laugh and yell orders in the battles while the soldiers do all of the work. When Melford gets killed and his ranking gets transferred to Jacob he doesn’t do anything but laugh while his soldiers are wounded. He probably would have done different if he wasn’t promoted.

Essential Question

How does knowledge affect our future?

Frozen Journey

In this book it switches back and forth between conscious and subconscious so it is some what hard to follow. Victor was not able to realize that Martine was arriving to the planet LR4, was his first time in 10 years. This affected his future because he was not able to see his long lost friend.  The knowledge the ship was feeding him made him have no future and lead a fake life.

The Private war of Private Jacobs

In this book private Jacob is using his helmet to help him fight. It gives him knowledge that her otherwise wouldn't have had otherwise. This knowledge helps him fight better thus affecting his future. When his NCO is destroyed, the computer back in the base just upgrades his system to Sergeant status.

Bishop Fitzpatrick

Bishop Fitzpatrick

He is tall, has morbid facial expressions and it is hard to tell what emotion he is feeling. He discusses with the other people whether the pope is a robot or not, and says his opinion about it. In the beginning of the story he is fairly happy but at the end of the story he is crying because he did not want the pope to be elected.

Quote:

"Every era gets the pope they deserve"(1)

Good News from the Vatican

The Story good news from the Vatican is about the election of a new pope and one of the candidates for pope is a robot. One topic of this story is tradition. The three characters in the story discuss a robot achieving the title of pope. Three of the characters in the story oppose the robot becoming pope because it is against the tradition. They believe that the robot shouldn’t be pope because it is something that follows the tradition of being chosen by god.

The main theme of this is that anyone can achieve anything. In the story the six main characters meet in a café and they discuss about the election. Three of them are in favor of the robot and three of them aren’t. The three that are in favor see that the robot would achieve many things that a human could not while the other three say that it is traditional for a human to be elected and for him to be chosen by God. The robot at the end then achieves being pope although he is the first robot to ever get to status as pope.

For the Sake of Grace

“ The yellow line that represented at all times the state of being of his wife, the Khadilha Althea, was definition not where she should have been. It was interrupted at quarter-inch intervals by a small black dot, indicating that all was not well with the Khadilha.” (210). In this part of the story the Khandilh has a disk that tells him about his life and it tells him there will be a problem between him and his wife. This affects his future opinion with his wife because he very well knows she will do something bad to him.

“As the only female Poet on the planet, the Poet Anna-Mary was much alone; as her duties were not arduous, she had much time to brood. And though she was a Poet, she remained only a female, with the female's inferior reasoning powers." (214). This quote is important because it shows that they live in a society where women can’t have a higher authority and no matter what they do they are not important. This can affect the future because since there is a woman who has some superiority more women would be able to achieve the goal of power.

“He sank back in his chair, deaf to the list of the multitude of honors and happenings that would come to pass as a result of this extraordinary thing. Seventh Level! How could such a thing be?” [230]. This part of the story is when Khandilh finds out that his daughter is going to the seventh level of education and he finds it surprising that a woman has achieved such a major goal. This is important because if one minority can struggle to the top them all of the others of that group will do the same. In the example of the women they would be able to have the opportunity to reach level seven since it has been done before.

Essential Question

Good News from the Vatican~

This story almost directly answers the essential question by bringing in the concept of voting. Voting is taking all the past knowledge from a candidate and using that information to affect the future candidates. During the voting process, people in the crowd are debating on which Cardinal to choose to become the next Pope, and the each vote of every Cardinal in Conclave counts.

For The Sake of Grace

Topics and Themes~

One topic in For the Sake of Grace is the discrimination against women in society. The woman to achieve higher education but the government prevents her from becoming smarter than she already is. This leads to the theme of human determination and the need to become more than what we are.

Essential Question

For the sake of Grace

This story describes a young girl striving to be more than her society will let her. This answers the essential question, How does knowledge affect our future, because she knows that she is barred from higher learning. She uses this knowledge and wants to become more then the government will let her when grows up, or in the future. She also has the knowledge of her aunt being condemned for trying to take the poetry exam, which changes how she will approach taking it because she knows the consequences. Her aunt changes her future because the young girl has learned from her mistakes.

Topics and Themes

Topics and Themes

The topics in When I was Miss Dow are Space, Aliens, Investigating, and Romance.

The theme that When I was Miss Dow most expresses is harmony, 2 races trying to get along.

The topics in Over the River and Through the Woods are children,fall, and childhood.

The theme that Over the River and Through the Woods is Growing up.

Quotes

Over The River and Through the Woods~

"'We don't want any trouble' said the boy. 'Papa said we were to be no trouble.' 'He said we should be good' piped Ellen. 'I'm sure you will be' said the woman 'and you are no trouble'"

This quote shows that Forbes and Ellen have gotten past knowledge from "Papa" that affected their interaction with the woman in the future. The woman shows that she has had past interactions with kids like Forbes and Ellen, and in those encounters, they brought her no trouble. This affected the woman's interaction with Forbes and Ellen.

"'But they don't act as if they are lost' she told him. 'They knew they were coming here. They knew they would be here. They told me I was their grandma and they asked after you and they called you Grandpa. And they are so sure. they don't act as if we're strangers. They've been told about us'"

This shows that the woman's interaction with the children was unsettling for her, because in previous interactions with people, they haven't acted so familiar with her. The thought it was suspicious because the children's demeanor didn't match with those that appeared to be lost and confused.

"And it was more than strange, for there were no other Forbeses in the neighborhood except her children and her grandchildren and these two, no matter what they said, were strangers."

The woman used her past knowledge of there being no Forbses in the neighborhood besides themselves to come to the conclusion that the two children being in the neighborhood was suspicious. On top of that, the children showed that they know the neighborhood very well and they didn't appear to be lost.

When I Was Miss Dow~

"'What do you want to X-ray her for? Suppose he finds something is wrong? You'll be afraid to race or breed her, and she won't be replaced. Besides, your interest in her may make him suspicious.' 'Suspicious of what?' I ask, but my Uncle won't say, so I ask him, 'Suppose she is bred and her pups are cripples?'"

The main character shows his past experience in dog genealogy by showing concern over this one dog. In the past, he has had encounters with dogs that have questionable health, so this has given him knowledge to be more cautious with the other dogs, and be more providing and more caring for them.

"I can think of no reply. It's true that the Warden has a right to use me in whatever capacity will serve us all best, as I will use others when I'm a Warden , but he and my Uncle spend half the credits from my job on sulfadiazole, to which they've become addicted."

Past experiences with the Warden justify the future interactions and the reason why it is acceptable to use credits from their job for a drug.

"Yes, yes, I want to say to him; as I was, dedicated and free, turn me back into myself. I never wanted to be anyone else and now I don't know if I am anyone at all."

In the past, the character always had knowledge about being set free. He always imagined what it would be like, but this knowledge didn't prepare him at all for what he was actually going to feel. Because for the first time in his life, he doesn't know what to do.

Essential Question (When i was Miss Dow)

In the story of when I was Miss Dow the essential question was answered when she began to test the dogs for their breeding problems. In the story when dogs were bred some of them would be born with joint problems. When Miss Dow is studying the dogs she discovers how to cure the gene problem when she turns down the lighting in the x-ray room. With this knowledge she was able to affect the way the dogs were bred and the problems of other people as well. In this kind of scenario knowledge like of something like the curing a disease can effect the future because it will have a positive on the future generations. Many accomplishments like this can also change the future because the people in the future would not have to worry about a certain problem and it would improve it.

Essential Question ( Over the River and Through the Woods)

In the story over the river and through the woods, Ellen Forbes gets a visit from her grandchildren from the future. She discovers that the children are from the future when she reads a letter addressed to her grandson. The letter tells her that she dies of cancer in 1904. This is something that can be used to answer one of the essential questions “how knowledge effect our future”. She knew what was going to happen to her in the future and how she was going to die. This gave her the knowledge on her future and this would affect her actions because she would live up to that mentality on when and how she would die and all of her actions in the future would be made to fit those conditions.

The Essential Question

The Handler~

In the Handler, the character named Pete had all the influence over the party in the bar because people have met him before and they know his personality very well. The knowledge that the people had about Pete before the bar scene gave them information that affected future interactions with him.

Alpha Ralpha Boulevard~

The main character's interactions with Virginia and his attitude toward the government tell the readers that he has a lot of experience and past interactions with both. His attitude towards Virginia suggests a warm relationship and past interactions give them knowledge about future interactions. However, past interactions with the government say that he is fearful and he feels that the government is binding him down, resulting in changing attitudes towards the government.

One of Alpha Ralpha Blvd.’s topics is that it is a story about how the a perfect society has been achieved in the future and how humans were able to accomplish many things that were not able to do so in the past. An example would be living for longer than expected and animals who have been transformed into humans.

Another topic is that when utopia has been achieved people could no longer advance and they would have to convert the world back to a dystopian society. Once perfection is achieved perfectly then something must be returned to its original state in order for it to continue progressing. For example in the story the world was almost utopian. No disease and no culture that can interfere with the unification of man but since they couldn’t progress in the world they introduced these things back into the world.

The last topic is that knowing the future will not allow people to change it. They get the sense that the future will never change and they wrap the idea of their future to their real future.

The Theme of the story is that an idea can go so far and that things have to eventually go back to the way that they were originally. They won’t have a way to progress anymore which will make them have to start going back in order for things to continue evolving.

Quotes

The Handler

Quote Number 1

"What I mean, are we alive here or just waiting for the wagon to pick us up?"(48)

He is telling people to clap by saying we have nothing else to do but wait for the wagon. It can also be used as a metaphor to life. Then wagon as death. So will we live life or just wait for death. That is a metaphor that could be used in an essay.

Quote Number 2

"Well hey there, he called. Whats the matter with this party anyway. Lets see some life, some action!" (48)

This a man trying to start a more enthusiastic party. His knowledge of the party being bad will affect the future by making the party better.

Quote Number 3:

"When the big man came in, there was movement in the room like bird dogs pointing.

This shows that people have the knowledge that the man is big, thus he is dangerous. And that knowledge is affecting there future by them knowing to leave so they don't get hurt.

Alpha Ralpha

"We were drunk with happiness in those early years. Everybody was, especially the young people." (49)

This is important because it is the first sentence of the story and tells you that everyone was happy, specifically the young people. When it says 'early years' in infers that, that it is about the past. And the knowledge about people being drunk with happiness will affect the future.

"We saw nothing. The gloom was around us. The wind and the water beat us like fists. Her grown pulled at her like a dog at its worrying master" (72)

This a moment of pure distress. They known that they are in a horrible situation and it will affect there future how much they know. They don't know anything making them extremely vulnerable to attack from anywhere.

" I did not like the feeling; I had never gone more than twenty minutes from my birthplace"(52)

This a place she hadn't been before, it was outside her comfort zone. She does not know what its like to be more than twenty minutes from my birthplace. This will affect her future because she is uncomfortable changing what will happen.

The story The Handler was about a man who uses a puppet to hide his true identity. He uses this puppet to impress other people because they aren’t happy with the way that he is. This is seen in the part of the story when the man gets out of the costume and the people didn’t seem to be happy about it. It was a lie that this man did in order for people to like him.

Another topic of the story is that hiding your identity has a bad effect on the person who is doing so. In the story when person in the puppet came out he completely changed personality. In the puppet he was someone who got along really well with other people while in out of the puppet he was someone who didn’t get along with the people.

The Theme of this story is that lying about you will make people dislike the true person. This is seen in the topics of the story. The first topic when Harry was lying about his identity everyone like the man in the suit, but when he came out everyone wanted him to get back inside.