In the film,  genetically engineered organic robots called replicants are manufactured.  The replicants have a shorter life span so that they do not become masters but always subservient to the manufacturer. There have been designed to be like human to perform menial and dangerous tasks.

There are many parallels in real life in the context of immigration where new comers are sometimes regarded as second class citizens, and once their service is no longer required, they are not welcome any more.  In fact, there is much to learn from the new comers, apart from the diversity it brings, they also introduce different skills and talents and they are as human as anyone else.

A question was posed about being human, in this last series of the film festival, and it certainly gives us something to think about.  What is human in the virtual domain, and when is there a cross over between the virtual and the real? In the Blade Runner, it seems to me the values of humans, are lower than those possessed by the replicants.  The line, “tears in the rain” is apt to describe how we regard the feelings of the replicant  as non-relevant, like tears in the rain.

My first post reflects the core reading on Hand  which started the thought  process  about the different philosophical perspectives in understanding digital cultures. One of that was the Foucalt’s panopticon described in Hand’s (2008) article. It is fascinating way of looking at and understanding the many issues surrounding data privacy, anonymity and virtual identities.

My next post was a screen capture of the wonders of twittorial.  I thought it demonstrated a very effective way to use social media in an educational context.

My third post focused on the construct of the online identity and related issue of ethics discussed by Poster (2006).   There are many questions raised but Poster has presented useful pointers for consideration of how to think about ethical considerations in the digital world.

And the final post was a link to the edcMooc sliderocket presentation on the various work already put together by the participants.  It showed the motivation and drive of some of the edcMoocers and also the strength of collective connections and leadership. I entitled this an elearning Utopia? Reflecting the great potentiality and success of such a course.

Reference:

Hand, Martin, (2008) “Hardware to everyware: Narratives of promise and threat” from Hand, Martin, Making digital cultures : access, interactivity, and authenticity    pp.15-42, Aldershot: Ashgate

Poster, Mark, (2006) “The good, the bad and the virtual” from Poster, Mark, Information please : culture and politics in the age of digital machines    pp.139-160,274-275, Durham, NC ; London: Duke University Press

This news report “Google, Facebook and Twitter may ‘face EU defamation and privacy cases’“surfaces the issues of the digital world, pertaining to how fast rumours and news could spread, and also the anonymity of online users.

On the other hand, there is the debate about enacting sweeping privacy protection for digital data.

Hand (2008) writes that for Robins and Webster ‘the network society is a more transparent society, and a more transparent society is, potentially, a more disciplined society’ (1999: 118).  In the light of the issues raised here of ethics in the virtual domains and the anonymity of online users, the question is whether  transparency should be continued, and if it actually promotes more discipline.

And if we were to use the metaphor of the virtual panopticon in my previous post, are we encouraging neighbours to tell on each other or do we impose a layer of policing from the non-virtual domain?  Where does morals stand for the individual? And which or whose ethics?

Poster argues for a different way to measure or think about ethics in the virtual or Information era, as several factors are fundamentally different from the non-virtual:
1.    the person whom the online user is communicating with is made up of pixels in the screen. It is not permanent as once shut down, it is no longer there but there is a requirement to honour the relationship it holds with others;
2.    the debates that ensue following broadcast of a sex change operation was not about the operation but whether it is ethical to webcast it online, it was the blurring of the line between private and public;
3.    in the new deterritorialiased space there is all sorts of information available from diverse sources which perhaps require a different moral restraint;
4.    and the individual has to process the bits and pieces of disassociated culture and reorganise them or a transvaluation of values emerging from the chaos experienced as part of a process of building the online identity.
5.    Poster believes that there is an act of determinism of the good in the innovation of the Internet.

Reference:

Poster, M (2006) The good, the bad and the virtual, chapter 7 of Information please: culture and politics in the age of digital machines. Duke University Press. pp.139-160.