Nick Berger's Blog

The year is 2220. Humanity has, in essence, created immortality. When the body dies, an AI copy of the consciousness can be created and can live on through virtual reality. Some people use this to continue to interact with dead loved ones, and others meet AI versions of their idols. There has been a lot of debate over how legitimate these AI copies are considering they are created by humans. No matter how hard they try, the people who create these do have biases. This is especially true when the family is involved in crafting the AI version of their dead relative; is this a truly authentic version of the person, or an idealized version? How does this affect their legacy? In the end, does it really matter as long as the family is happy? The morality of turning this into an industry would be questioned, but capitalism was abolished after The Millennium War in 2100, so it’s no issue. VR has blown up in popularity after scientists figured out how to simulate the sens

Readings: 76 Movies: 18 Attendance: 13 Future Tense Activity: 2 Total points: 109

 Oh man this is so refreshing. It’s so nice to listen to something so fun and lighthearted in 2020 considering, well, everything. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy combines the imagination and adventure of classic science fiction with the goofy comedy and biting satire of 80s/90s era British sketch comedy like A Bit of Fry and Laurie . I love how Adams mines comedy from exposition, which can be dry and boring. As a matter of fact, Adams weaponizes the dryness of exposition; the way characters say such ridiculous things so matter-of-factly makes up a good amount of the humor. It never gets old because Adams seemingly has a bottomless hat to pull creative and hilarious ideas from. There’s a fun irony to Adams establishing that Earth isn’t special (mostly harmless) while also applying Earthly concepts to his expansive universe. For example, the reason Earth is destroyed is to make way for a byline, just like how Arthur’s house was to be demolished to make way for a byline. Does that m