Free Agent Smith!
Wednesday, June 25th, 2003 04:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robinturnerI've been spending today alternating between two projects. One is checking out courseware. I'm favourably impressed by Moodle and am uploading it to my server at the moment. It seems to fulfill my requirements with regard to features (capacity for uploads, forums, individual accounts etc.) and system (Open Source, works within a Unix user's account, uses a database we have installed). The only negative is that it's based on PHP rather than Perl, and I don't know PHP, but that could be an inducement to learn something about PHP.
The other project is the coursebook for my ENG 101 course based on The Matrix. When I first thought about basing the course around The Matrix, I was worried I might not be able to find enough suitable texts, but in fact the problem is choosing between the plethora of texts available . So far I have four that I've judged being worth including in the book (including being worth the donkey-work of reformatting - I have to replace all the quotation marks and turn HTML endnotes into proper footnotes). There are a couple from the Journal of Film and Religion (one of which, on Gnosticism and Buddhism, is also on the main Warder Bros site, David Chalmers excellent "The Matrix as Metaphysics" (fun stuff about brains in vats, also on the Warner Bros site) and a piece on the Matrix, Baudrillard and terrorism. This reminds me, I need to lay my hand on a copy of Simulations and Simulacra in order to be able to answer the inevitable student questions (I'm pretty hopeless on post modern philosophy). There are plenty of other candidates for Parts I and II of the book (symbolism and philosophical questions, respectively) but it's not so easy to find texts for Part III ("The Matrix and Our World"), which is about social and political issues addressed/exploited by the film - so far I only have the Baudrillard piece. the problem is not that there is nothing out there in cyberspace - there's tons - but most of what gets trawled up by Google takes the form of short (and not always articulate) pieces or comments in forums. Incidentally, if anyone thinks I'm taking The Matrix far too seriously, they should check out Zion Resistance.
I'm also considering some non-Matrix-specific papers, like John Searle's classic "Minds, Brains and Programs", but I'm not sure how much students will be able to take in. Chalmer's piece was written for non-academic philosophers (hence the extensive notes for academic philosophers in the version on his own website) but Searle assumes the reader is familiar with the basic arguments and terminology. Do I really want to spend class time explaining things like "intentionality"?
I'm also considering writing a paper of my own (either for the coursebook or just for fun). I thought it might be amusing to look at the non-human characters in terms of the hypothetical beings put forward by philosophers, such as zombies and wantons. Provisional title: "Free Agent Smith!" (OK, a horrible pun).
The other project is the coursebook for my ENG 101 course based on The Matrix. When I first thought about basing the course around The Matrix, I was worried I might not be able to find enough suitable texts, but in fact the problem is choosing between the plethora of texts available . So far I have four that I've judged being worth including in the book (including being worth the donkey-work of reformatting - I have to replace all the quotation marks and turn HTML endnotes into proper footnotes). There are a couple from the Journal of Film and Religion (one of which, on Gnosticism and Buddhism, is also on the main Warder Bros site, David Chalmers excellent "The Matrix as Metaphysics" (fun stuff about brains in vats, also on the Warner Bros site) and a piece on the Matrix, Baudrillard and terrorism. This reminds me, I need to lay my hand on a copy of Simulations and Simulacra in order to be able to answer the inevitable student questions (I'm pretty hopeless on post modern philosophy). There are plenty of other candidates for Parts I and II of the book (symbolism and philosophical questions, respectively) but it's not so easy to find texts for Part III ("The Matrix and Our World"), which is about social and political issues addressed/exploited by the film - so far I only have the Baudrillard piece. the problem is not that there is nothing out there in cyberspace - there's tons - but most of what gets trawled up by Google takes the form of short (and not always articulate) pieces or comments in forums. Incidentally, if anyone thinks I'm taking The Matrix far too seriously, they should check out Zion Resistance.
I'm also considering some non-Matrix-specific papers, like John Searle's classic "Minds, Brains and Programs", but I'm not sure how much students will be able to take in. Chalmer's piece was written for non-academic philosophers (hence the extensive notes for academic philosophers in the version on his own website) but Searle assumes the reader is familiar with the basic arguments and terminology. Do I really want to spend class time explaining things like "intentionality"?
I'm also considering writing a paper of my own (either for the coursebook or just for fun). I thought it might be amusing to look at the non-human characters in terms of the hypothetical beings put forward by philosophers, such as zombies and wantons. Provisional title: "Free Agent Smith!" (OK, a horrible pun).
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Date: 2003-06-26 07:43 am (UTC)Rodney