You might be interested in Aaron's blogpost (http://themadirishmnblog.tumblr.com/) because he talks about the Nature vs. Nurture Debate. Your critique falls in line with the nurture side of Marko and Alana, but it's interesting to look at their nature side too. Although they both had upbringings in opposite sides of a war torn society and were ultimately participants in that war, they both became fugitives, running away from their species together. Their "nature" kept them apart but at the same time, its keeping them together, especially through Hazel.

This is a really interesting way to analyze Marko. His nature and nurture both would have worked together to make him dislike Alana and want to hurt her. Why do you think he was able to look past these differences, despite his genetics and how he was brought up? It would be intriguing to look at an analyze Hazel, especially in later books and how her perspective is influenced by both her nature and nurture. She is a new species, a combination of Marko and Alana so it would be interesting to see how much of an impact that has on her, and how much of an impact her parents' have on her. She grew up in a very open environment that is very anti-war and sees past differences.

I like this statement a lot, especially because the Oankali kept acknowledging that a "flaw" in the human race is their hierarchical nature. I think that without the drugs given to the humans by the Oankali, this flaw really could have stopped the human race from growing, causing extinction. In my opinion, the Oankali were the hierarchical ones as they were always in control. It seemed like the mates would be wherever the Ooloi were if it was in trouble, but the Ooloi was never shown running to the sides of its mates if they were in need. Also in the three-way relationship of the two humans to one Ooloi, it seemed like the Ooloi had power. In Lilith and Joseph's case, Nikanj had impregnated both Lilith and its other mate without Lilith's consent. It was Nikanj's decision to continue the "human race" with Lilith and Joseph, Lilith never asked for a "Human 2.0" baby.

I think more often than not, we misinterpret situations based on how one person behaves or acts and completely disregard the circumstances leading up to it. I realized this when we were trying to sort out the entanglement of all the events and people in the first six chapters of Dawn. When you isolate an event, it may look one way, but when you dissect it and think about what caused that to happen, and what happened as a result of the main event, it is clear that a single snapshot is not enough to explain anything.

I think this is a very interesting point and I definitely see where you are coming from. Hazel's whole existence is a testament to show that it's okay to be a little different. One thing you made me think about was why was it so bad to cross breed with Alana and Marko's species? It seemed like on Sextillion, there were species other that that of The Will's, and obviously nobody there thought that having relations with anyone of those species was an abomination? What makes Alana and Marko's species so special that they can't have anything to do with each other?

I like that you compared and contrasted the Oankali and human viewpoint because when I read the novel, I really only thought of the human side of things. You bring up good points on what they are giving the humans and why they would consider themselves free. I have a hard time relating to them, however, and would still side with the humans and their logic, especially because of the alterations done to the humans without their consent. Trade is a two-way street and just because the Oankali saved the humans, I don't think it's fair for them to solely determine what the price of that trade is.

I think the way that she thinks about death and describes and afterlife kind of parallels the world Lilith lives in. She has been living for much longer than is humanly possible, all thanks to enhancements and technologies provided by the Oankali. In this new world, Lilith does not know anyone or anything about the society, she is, at first, completely isolated from her species, and she is given special abilities that boarder between being a human and being Oankali. In her "afterlife" is she really human? The humans she Awakened did not see her as human. They saw her as a traitor and one of the Oankali.

I think this is a very good question that this book tries to answer. It is scary when you think about it, humans really do have the capability to destroy our entire species. What would happen if we were "saved?" Would humans be used for extraterrestrial experiments, or would we be used like the humans in this book, to create a new species? I think this is an interesting way to think about posthumanism, because it asks the question: what will happen to humans when they're "gone?" Dawn did a good job of answering one possibility to this question, and the answer is a human/oankali hybrid with 5 parents instead of two.

It's interesting that you brought this up, mainly because medicine and technology have made such great advancements in recent years. Now, children who are deaf can hear via cochlear implants, and people whose hearts don't function as normal can lead healthy lives with a pacemaker. Every year, new vaccines are developed to keep us healthier longer. Does getting a cochlear implant, pacemaker or vaccine make us less human? Modern medicine has opened so many doors for our society, and things we take for granted, like cochlear implants, are not always available in third world countries. Does having the ability for modern medical technologies make us more or less human than someone from say a rural tribe in Africa?

I think the whole relationship between Heinrich, the humans and the monkeys is very interesting. He is trying to get in with the humans, gain their trust, and blend into society, and in the end just expose himself as being a product of their creation. Heinrich's character kind of begs the question "what does it mean to be human?" He looked like a human, sounded like a human and acted like a human. It was only when he deconstructed himself that he show he was, in fact, not human and this is a perfect example of posthumanism.

I thought your post entitled "Communication Concepts" was very interesting and very applicable to our modern society. Something I always see when I'm at restaurants, airports, or anywhere really is people glued to their phones. I feel like eventually humans will be chronically hunched over from constantly looking down. Even today, people are straying away from traditional voice-to -voice conversations (via phone) and leaning more towards texting because it's faster and you can say exactly what you want to say. I think your last paragraph was really strong, and I think your post could be really strong if you moved it to be your second paragraph and you expanded on it, still using the examples you used about the airport because I think those were great!

This is captured in so many different instances in Blindsight. I think you could even go as far to connect it to the very end when Theseus was communicating directly with Siri and we found out that Sarasti was never in control of his thoughts. This begs the question, was Sarasti ever conscious? On the outside, he appeared so, but after learning that he was merely a puppet for Theseus, I think you could argue that he was in a perpetual state of unconsciousness, a zombie. I like how you tied your whole post to Descartes and his quote. I think it brought it together and it summed up the point you were trying to get across.

I thought your comparison of Caitlyn Jenner to Siri Keeton was very interesting and thought provoking. I hadn't thought of him as being an outsider in his community, mostly because he was in a community of outsiders. The emotions he felt, however, are consistent with what people who are isolated from our modern world because they are different say they feel. I liked how you compared Siri's emotions to Caitlyn's. It made me think of Siri in a new way. Instead of thinking of him as having an honor not bestowed to everyone, I saw him as someone who may be afraid to entirely embrace his past. He lives in the present to avoid the pain of his family and failed relationships.

I think this is such a good short and sweet summary of Blindsight. It took me the whole book to figure out that this was taking place for the entirety of the novel. It's frustrating how much easier it is to understand the plot after you already know what happened. I like how you added a link to the relating story. I think it brought up a good point. Machines today can do all that a human can plus more. Is there a line that we can start classifying machines as humans or humans as machines?

I liked your post a lot. It made me think back to the scene when Spider was on top of the roof writing about the riots below him. He ended up being the only reporter in the middle of everything and his story went viral. Any person with Internet access has the ability to be Spider in that situation today. Even dumb things can get a lot of "likes" or "favorites" if the audience finds it appealing. Your post also made me think about how things posted online never go away. They may hide for a little bit, but things you don't want resurfacing always find their way up. I think something that would have made your post even better would be discussing how him being a journalist in that society was even necessary if their technology is so advanced.

I enjoyed reading your blog post. I did not think to equate Spider Jerusalem to the Grinch, but somehow, it worked. I would have liked to see how you felt about their two distinct ways of coping with the corruption in their respective societies. I thought you brought up an interesting point about cities. With so many new technologies, ideas and religions introduced to Spider's society, it crumbled into itself and the city was dilapidated and full of corruption. Overall I think your critique was good, but I also did not see anything really pertaining to posthumanism. It would have been interesting to see you pick out the posthumanistic elements of Spider's city.