Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Toscano, Aaron, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of English

Resources and Daily Activities

  • Dr. Toscano’s Homepage
  • ENGL 2116-083: Introduction to Technical Communication
    • ENGL 2116 sec. 083 Major Assignments (Summer 2020)
      • Final Portfolio Requirements
      • Oral Presentations
    • June 11th: Continue with I, Robot
    • June 15th: Ethics and Perspective Discussion
      • Ethical Dilemmas for Homework
      • Ethical Dilemmas to Ponder
      • Mapping Our Personal Ethics
    • June 16th: More on Ethics
    • June 1st: Effective Documents for Users
    • June 2nd: Final Project and Research Discussion
      • Epistemology and Other Fun Research Ideas
      • Making Résumés and Cover Letters Better
      • Research
    • June 3rd: Technology in a Social Context
    • June 8th: Information Design and Visuals
    • June 9th: Proposals, Marketing, and Rhetoric
    • May 18th: Introduction to the course
    • May 19th: Critical Technological Awareness
    • May 20th: Audience, Purpose, and General Introduction
    • May 21st: Résumé Stuff
      • Making Résumés and Cover Letters More Effective
      • Peter Profit’s Cover Letter
    • May 25th: More Resume Stuff
    • May 26th: Plain Language and Prose Revision
      • Euphemisms
      • Prose Practice for Next Class
      • Prose Revision Assignment
      • Revising Prose: Efficiency, Accuracy, and Good
      • Sentence Clarity
    • May 27th: More on Plain Language
    • May 28th: Review Prose Revision
  • ENGL 4182/5182: Information Design & Digital Publishing
    • August 21st: Introduction to the Course
      • Rhetorical Principles of Information Design
    • August 28th: Introduction to Information Design
      • Prejudice and Rhetoric
      • Robin Williams’s Principles of Design
    • Classmates Webpages (Fall 2017)
    • December 4th: Presentations
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4182/5182 (Fall 2017)
    • November 13th: More on Color
      • Designing with Color
      • Important Images
    • November 20th: Extra-Textual Elements
    • November 27th: Presentation/Portfolio Workshop
    • November 6th: In Living Color
    • October 16th: Type Fever
      • Typography
    • October 23rd: More on Type
    • October 2nd: MIDTERM FUN!!!
    • October 30th: Working with Graphics
      • Beerknurd Calendar 2018
    • September 11th: Talking about Design without Using “Thingy”
      • Theory, theory, practice
    • September 18th: The Whole Document
    • September 25th: Page Design
  • ENGL 4183/5183: Editing with Digital Technologies
    • Efficiency in Writing Reviews
    • February 17th: Verb is the Word!
    • February 24th: Coordination and Subordination
      • A Practical Editing Situation
    • February 3rd: I’m in Love with the Shape of You(r Sentences)
    • January 20th: Introduction to the Course
    • January 27th: Rhetoric, Words, and Composing
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4183/5183 (Spring 2021)
    • March 3rd: Form and Function
  • ENGL 4275: Rhetoric of Technology
    • April 13th: Authorities in Science and Technology
    • April 15th: Articles on Violence in Video Games
    • April 20th: Presentations
    • April 6th: Technology in the home
    • April 8th: Writing Discussion
    • Assignments for ENGL 4275
    • February 10th: Religion of Technology Part 3 of 3
    • February 12th: Is Love a Technology?
    • February 17th: Technology and Gender
    • February 19th: Technology and Expediency
    • February 24th: Semester Review
    • February 3rd: Religion of Technology Part 1 of 3
    • February 5th: Religion of Technology Part 2 of 3
    • January 13th: Technology and Meaning, a Humanist perspective
    • January 15th: Technology and Democracy
    • January 22nd: The Politics of Technology
    • January 27th: Discussion on Writing as Thinking
    • January 29th: Technology and Postmodernism
    • January 8th: Introduction to the Course
    • March 11th: Writing and Other Fun
    • March 16th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 1 of 2
    • March 18th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 2 of 2
    • March 23rd: Inception (2010)
    • March 25th: Writing and Reflecting Discussion
    • March 30th & April 1st: Count Zero
    • March 9th: William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984)
  • ENGL 4750-090 & ENGL 5050-092 Video Games & Culture
    • Assignments for Video Games & Culture
    • August 25th: Introduction to the Course
    • November 10th: Aggression & Addiction
    • November 3rd: Moral Panics and Health Risks
    • October 13th: Narrative, ludology, f(r)iction
    • October 20th: Serious Games
    • October 27: Risky Business?
    • October 6th: Hyperreality
    • September 1st: History of Video Games
    • September 22nd: Video Game Aesthetics
    • September 29th: (sub)Cultures and Video Games
    • September 8th: Defining Video Games and Critical Theory Introduction
      • Marxism for Video Game Analysis
      • Postmodernism for Video Game Analysis
  • ENGL 6166: Rhetorical Theory
    • April 13th: Umberto Eco & Jean Baudrillard
    • April 20th: Moving Forward on Theory
    • April 27th: Last Day of Class
    • April 6th: Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condition
      • What is Postmodernism?
    • February 10th: St. Augustine, On Christian Doctrine [Rhetoric]
      • Oratory and Argument Analysis
    • February 17th: Knoblauch on Magical and Ontological Rhetoric
    • February 24th: Rene Descartes’ Discourse on Method
    • February 3rd: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Books 2 and 3
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 2
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 3
    • January 13th: Introduction to Class
    • January 27th: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Book 1
    • March 16th: Friedrich Nietzsche
    • March 23rd: Mythologies and Meaning of Meaning (part 2)
    • March 30th: Derrida’s (refusal to have) Positions
    • March 9th: Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women
    • Rhetorical Theory Assignments
  • LBST 2212-124, 125, 126, & 127
    • August 21st: Introduction to Class
    • August 23rd: Humanistic Approach to Science Fiction
    • August 26th: Robots and Zombies
    • August 28th: Futurism, an Introduction
    • August 30th: R. A. Lafferty “Slow Tuesday Night” (1965)
    • December 2nd: Technological Augmentation
    • December 4th: Posthumanism
    • November 11th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2)
    • November 13th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2 con’t)
    • November 18th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 1)
      • More Questions than Answers
    • November 1st: Games Reality Plays (part II)
    • November 20th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 2)
    • November 6th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 1)
    • October 14th: More Autonomous Fun
    • October 16th: Autonomous Conclusion
    • October 21st: Sci Fi in the Domestic Sphere
    • October 23rd: Social Aphasia
    • October 25th: Dust in the Wind
    • October 28th: Gender Liminality and Roles
    • October 2nd: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • October 30th: Games Reality Plays (part I)
    • October 9th: Approaching Autonomous
      • Analyzing Prose in Autonomous
    • September 11th: The Time Machine
    • September 16th: The Alien Other
    • September 18th: Post-apocalyptic Worlds
    • September 20th: Dystopian Visions
    • September 23rd: World’s Beyond
    • September 25th: Gender Studies and Science Fiction
    • September 30th: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • September 4th: Science Fiction and Social Breakdown
      • More on Ellison
      • More on Forster
    • September 9th: The Time Machine
  • LBST 2213/HTAS 2100: Science, Technology, and Society
    • December 10th: Violence in Video Games
    • December 15th: Video Games and Violence, a more nuanced view
    • December 1st: COVID-19 facial covering rhetoric
    • December 3rd: COVID-19 Transmission and Pandemics
    • December 8th: 500-word Essay
    • November 10th: Planet of the Apes. (1964) Ch. 27-end
    • November 12th: Frankenstein (1818) Preface-Ch. 8
    • November 17th: Frankenstein (1818) Ch. 9-Ch. 16
    • November 19th: Frankenstein (1818) Ch. 17-Ch. 24
    • November 3rd: Planet of the Apes. (1964) Ch. 1-17
    • November 5th: Planet of the Apes (1964) Ch. 18-26
    • October 13th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 5 and 6
    • October 15th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 7 and Conclusion
    • October 1st: The Golem at Large Introduction & Ch. 1
    • October 22nd: The Time Machine
    • October 29th: H.G. Wells and Adaptations
    • October 6th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology) Ch. 2
    • October 8th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 3 & 4
    • September 10th: Science and Technology, a Humanistic Approach
    • September 15th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 2
    • September 17th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 3 and 4
    • September 22nd: Collins & Pinch Ch. 5 & 6
    • September 24th: Collins & Pinch Ch. 7 & Conclusion
    • September 29th: Test 1
    • September 8th: Introduction to Class
  • New Media: Gender, Culture, Technology (Spring 2021)
    • February 16: Misunderstanding the Internet
    • February 23rd: Our Public Sphere and the Media
    • February 2nd: Introduction to Cultural Studies
    • January 26th: Introduction to New Media
    • Major Assignments for New Media (Spring 2021)
  • Science Fiction in American Culture (Summer I–2020)
    • Assignments for Science Fiction in American Culture
    • Cultural Studies and Science Fiction Films
    • June 10th: Interstellar and Exploration themes
    • June 11th: Bicentennial Man
    • June 15th: I’m Only Human…Or am I?
    • June 16th: Wall-E and Environment
    • June 17th: Wall-E (2008) and Technology
    • June 18th: Interactivity in Video Games
    • June 1st: Firefly (2002) and Myth
    • June 2nd: “Johnny Mnemonic”
    • June 3rd: “New Rose Hotel”
    • June 4th: “Burning Chrome”
    • June 8th: Conformity and Monotony
    • June 9th: Cultural Constructions of Beauty
    • May 18th: Introduction to Class
    • May 19th: American Culture, an Introduction
    • May 20th: The Matrix
    • May 21st: Gender and Science Fiction
    • May 25th: Goals for I, Robot
    • May 26th: Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot
    • May 27th: Hackers and Slackers
    • May 30th: Inception
  • SEACS 2021 Presentation
  • Teaching Portfolio
  • Topics for Analysis
    • American Culture, an Introduction
    • Feminism, An Introduction
    • Frankenstein Part I
    • Frankenstein Part II
    • Futurism Introduction
    • Langdon Winner Summary: The Politics of Technology
    • Marxist Theory (cultural analysis)
    • Oral Presentations
    • Our Public Sphere
    • Postmodernism Introduction
    • Protesting Confederate Place
    • Punctuation Refresher
    • QT, the Existential Robot
    • Religion of Technology Discussion
    • Rhetoric, an Introduction
      • Analyzing the Culture of Technical Writer Ads
      • Rhetoric of Technology
      • Visual Culture
      • Visual Perception
      • Visual Perception, Culture, and Rhetoric
      • Visual Rhetoric
      • Visuals for Technical Communication
      • World War I Propaganda
    • The Great I, Robot Discussion
      • I, Robot Short Essay Topics
    • The Rhetoric of Video Games: A Cultural Perspective
      • Civilization, an Analysis
    • The Sopranos
    • Why Science Fiction?
    • Zombies and Consumption Satire

Contact Me

Office: Fretwell 280F
Phone: 704.687.0613
Email: atoscano@uncc.edu
LBST 2212-124, 125, 126, & 127 » October 9th: Approaching Autonomous

October 9th: Approaching Autonomous

As I’ve stated many times before, there’s no single correct approach to interpret a novel (or any text). Unlike our shorter readings, this novel will require some broader background understanding. Below I have a list of Major Themes from the novel that we will cover over. We should be able to get through them all by next week. Instead of going straight to passages, I’m going to assume you’ve read (or will be finished by next Wednesday, 10/16), so I’ll try to not pull out as many direct quotations and rely on our remembering key parts of the plot. For our purposes, we’ll consider these two time periods:

Jack’s past (2114-2120) and Jack’s present (2144-2145)

What could be the major change in Jack’s worldview from her early 20s to late 40s?

Major Themes

  • Autonomy/Indentured Servitude
  • Academia vs Industry
  • Globalization
  • Capitalism
  • Intellectual Property
  • Politics of Medicine
  • Gender and Sexuality
    • Uncanny Valley: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
    • Check out Erica
    • How about Sophia
    • Faces of monkeys and other primates
  • Maybe some discussion on a specific comic book trope
  • Showing vs Telling in prose

About the Author

Annalee Newitz is an American journalist who has a Ph.D. in English and American Studies from UC Berkeley. Not surprisingly, she writes quite a bit about technology—fiction and nonfiction. Here’s a link to her website (specifically her io9 stuff): Annalee Newitz.

Main Characters

  • Jack (Judith Chen): Our pirate protagonist.
  • Threezed: Former indentured 19-year old who becomes a sidekick (of a kind) to Jack.
  • Eliasz: IPC (Intellectual Property Coalition) agent ruthlessly out to rid the world of pirates.
  • Paladin: Robot IPC agent and Eliasz’s indentured partner.
  • Krish: Runs Free Lab, a lab searching for alternatives to profit-motivated drugs, at the University of Saskatoon, which is most likely modeled after current-day University of Saskatewan.
  • Med (Medea): Autonomous robot physician whose patients are affected by Zacuity.
    Frankie: Paranoid pirate, living in Casablanca, programs/develops her drugs using Adder.
  • Lyle: Former Free Lab activist and Jack’s former lover.
  • Fang: Human Resources robot that works for the African Federation and gives Paladin robot-to-robot advice.
  • Bug: Autonomous mosquito bot historian (PhD from University of British Columbia) at the Aberdeen Centre in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada (south of Vancouver) whose demeanor reminds me of a UNC Charlotte Global and International Areas Studies professor.

Autonomy/Indentured Servitude

Obviously, this is the main theme of the book—what does it mean to be autonomous? Paladin comes out and tells us what “they” think about the “key” to autonomy at the end (I realize there’s more ambiguity with Paladin, but I’ll use “they” as their main pronoun for now). We need to complicate autonomy and critically analyze the text for possible interpretations. The inside jacket cover of my copy asks, “When anything can be owned, how can we be free?” Perhaps we should start there, but I need to provide some cultural studies/sociological discussion first.

Structuration Theory

Mark Fisher claims that “Control only works if you are complicit with it” (22). I like to consider Anthony Giddens theory of structuration when I think of Fisher’s argument. Structuration theory proposes that humans operate under a pre-existing social structure, which controls actions. Citizens abide by and reproduce the overall structure, but this means they consent to the agents of social control that govern them. Consider the following quotations from Giddens:

  • “social structures are both constituted by human agency, and yet at the same time are the very medium of this constitution” (121).
  • “To examine the structuration of a social system is to examine the modes whereby that system, through the application of generative rules and resources is produced and reproduced in social interaction. Social systems, which are systems of social interaction, are not structures, although they necessarily have structures. There is no structure, in human social life, apart from the continuity of processes of structuration.” (Studies in Social and Political Theory 118)

Reflecting and advocating Giddens’s theory, James W. Messerschmidt summarizes that “structure both constrains and enables social action” (p. 77). I’ve mentioned that media reproduce ideology, normalizing it. Well, it was already normalized, but it’s impossible to determine whether or not the media (broadly) developed the ideology first or reflected the ideology. We don’t need to worry about a starting point, however, because we can identify instances where culture mediates rules, norms, repetitive behaviors, etc., we can claim that our actions are not solely individually motivated. We reproduce and justify the social system by operating within it.

Giddens theory hasn’t been debunked and, although there are criticisms of his initial theory, there are many expansions of his theory. Structuration theory is a useful interpretive lens for cultural studies because it allows us to focus on agent and rules. Simply put, our actions create our world; our interactions maintain or recreate the world.* Why do we agents follow rules? Why are there rules? In view of Autonomous, do programmed robots have any agency, or do they just respond to rules (their code—coding, program language)?
*Let’s hold off from discussing actions create our realities or worldviews…we’ll complicate this later.

Questions for Autonomous

  • In what ways do the characters try to break the rules of society (really big Pharma)?
  • What was the conflict for Jack that made her leave academia?
  • How is Threezed the epitome of the agentless citizen even though he has his own blog?
  • What appears to constrain Eliasz’s desires (at first) for Paladin?

Social Construction of Technology vs Technological Determinism

In light of structuration theory, this is a false dichotomy because it doesn’t allow for a spectrum of flexibility. We can point to prevailing ideologies that appear to “demand” a particular technology, but we can’t ignore that individuals and groups use technologies in ways developers did not intend them to be used. It would be a serious contradiction to claim EVERY interpretation of technology must focus on “social construction,” then, claim textual interpretation has a plethora of ways to be interpreted, including reader response. After all, readers interpret the meanings of texts based on their own experiences. While I focus most of my attention on the social construction of technology and also texts, I certainly do not consider these the ONLY ways to interpret technologies and texts. Social construction, however, is a very useful idea to have when beginning to critically analyze texts and technologies and, of course, our texts about technologies—Science Fiction!

  • p.31: “Families would sometimes sell their toddlers to indenture schools, where managers trained them to be submissive just like they were programming a bot. At least bots could earn their way out of ownership after a while, be upgraded, and go fully autonomous. Humans might earn their way out, but there was no autonomy key that could undo a childhood like that.”
  • p. 35: “[Paladin’s] service could last no more than ten years, a period deemed more than enough time to make the Federation’s investment in creating a new life-form worthwhile.”
  • p. 36: “[H]umans should not be owned like bots because nobody paid to make them. Bots, who cost money, required a period of indenture to make their manufacture worthwhile….the vast majority of cities and economic zones had some system of human indenture. And Vegas was where the humans sold themselves.”

Academia vs Industry

Is academia (the academy, the university, the ivory tower, etc.) the real world? As students, we often think about school life as different from “the real world,” which usually means our careers. That is a traditional view of university life, one that makes more sense in the context of a non-commuter school. But even among professors, who make the university their career, we often separate academia from “the real world.” Doing so implies there’s something artificial about this place. Well, this is an artificial place, but very real actors operate within this institution and get real credentials from it. These credentials are a type of currency legitimizing the graduate as a potentially good employee for a job. The thing to remember is that people make up this system and legitimize it: Students enroll, professors teach (and research and serve on damn committees…), staff coordinate bureaucratic needs, administrators do something, and we all interact within this community. Yes, it is very real (and surreal at times).

The novel reproduces the academia-vs-industry “dilemma” mainly through Jack’s and Krish’s paths. Jack becomes disillusioned by the conservatism of academia, but Krish drops his “radical” past and becomes a member of the academy, who runs a lab by securing all that grant money. As I’ve mentioned before, don’t be fooled by the media soundbites claiming universities are full of liberal professors. The University is a gatekeeping institution, entrenched in society like laws, government, religion, etc. You might be able to point to professors with liberal views, but this is a conservative place with change happening slowly.

Questions for Autonomous

  • Why did Jack want to be an academic?
  • What motivated Med to enter academia?
  • What did Bug ask Actin—Bobby Broner’s indentured, disembodied bot—regarding his desire to get his degree? (A very hilarious part, btw)

Next Class

You’ll be in Fretwell 402 on Friday (10/11) with Ms. Rogers for some Autonomous discussions. Please review the notes I have up for next week. They will help understand how meaning is created in the text.

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