My group for the final presentation consisted of Vivien, Kerlyne and myself.  During out meeting to decide on what we wanted to discuss and the manner in which it should be carried out, for the most part we were stumped.  During our brainstorming period, we decided it would be best if we could come up with the topics in which our presentation would be based.  Randomness, science vs humanities, Library of Babel, adaptations... Basically we wanted to discuss the major topics that was brought up through the course of this class.

 Anyone who has ever played more than a few video games has probably noticed the hypersexualized female figures that are present in most games. Even as someone who plays videogames once in a while, I cannot help but stare at the unrealistic female bodies every time it bounces (literally) across the screen. These characters have tiny waists, round hips, never ending legs and immense breasts. Initially, these images annoyed me, as it portrays an unrealistic ideal of the female form to a wide male audience. How are women supposed to compare to these scantily clothed computer generated figures? These images provide men with information on what is the ideal female body, and supplies women with a look that they are expected to achieve.

 I chose to take Gender, Information, Science and Technology last semester, mainly for the section labeled Gender. I did not think much about the other words I the class title, and so I was a little surprised when I learned how much Technology we would be using in class. I did not realize how much science and math would be involved in class discussion and functions. I was a bit nervous by the heavy amount of involvement with technology, because I am not especially skilled with it. As the semester progressed, though, I found myself more and more at ease utilizing technology.

For the final presentation, my group of six people all created fake identities with real AIM screen names. These identities were unknown to each other person in the group except the person who created the chatroom and invited everyone into it. We then discussed for about ten to fifteen minutes the topic of sex robots. The reactions to this topic varied from ridiculous to insulted. Some people chose to take on identity who were in full support of sex robots, as well as those who were against the idea of them. We posted the whole discussion onto the class serendip site, and I was not surprised at all when someone asked what the conversation was and what it was doing on the website.

 I view Frankenstein as, among many other possibilities, a tale of the effect that perceived ugliness has on the individual. Victor is rejected by all who lays eyes on him. He is not only hideous, he is repugnant and horrifying. Even Frankenstein's family, his rightful family as the creation of Frankenstein, does not accept him. Individuals who are isolated from society because of their differentness suffer great psychological turmoil because of it. This made me think more contemporarily of individuals who are singled out for physical defects such as cleft lip, dwarfism, down syndrome, and the distress it must cause them.

 Group Presentation

For our presentation my group created a barometer – we made a spectrum outside on the green, with one person standing on one end as ‘agree’ and another on the other end as ‘disagree’, with plenty of room in between. (If anyone has taken any education classes at Bryn Mawr they might be familiar with this exercise). Each of us then proceeded to read out a statement from one section of the class – with the five of us, we were each able to pick one topic. The questions were:

Devanshi: Randomness is an awful thing to teach high school kids. (Darwin)

Hannah: Memes set us aside from the rest of the animal kingdom. (Dennett)

Hope: There are some areas of life that science should not address. (Generosity)