This update was written by Nathan, a member of the Dept of Deep Discussions learning community at the London Correctional Institution (LoCI) in London, OH.
The learning community has been reading The Martian Chronicles this semester.
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My experience of OPEEP’s Department of Deep Discussions learning community has been, to say the least, idiosyncratic. I’ve participated in book clubs in here [at London Correctional Institution] before, but this one is markedly different. I’ve undergone a pretty radical transformation in my thinking which enables me to view familiar things in very unfamiliar ways. Needless to say, I’m excited to explore further this new perspective as it brings with it very novel insights. For instance, when I’m participating in the learning community, I can’t help but look at all the humans in the room as computers.
Yes, indeed. As I scan the room of participants, I see different computers. Over there is a Commodore 64 and sitting right next to me is a Tandy. One fellow who is a bit more learned speaks in the robotic voice of an Amiga computer. The professors appear as Pentiums. Just as I begin to experience the vertigo of this uncanny valley, I notice a new pattern forming among the computers. Through various communication heuristics they are linking up into a network, and this emergent organization is allowing for a fecund new species of mutualistic computation. In a sense, our group has become a supercomputer.
These upgrades, though impressive, are not enough to describe the wonderful synergies and architectures being outputted. What is the program that our computer is running? This program is composed of not only thoughtful science fiction novels but the powerful questions that the professors bring to the group. Questions are instructions to computers that motivate them to think, to change, to challenge, and to connect more deeply with the larger network known as society. I am grateful to my fellow computers and the programs others have lovingly crafted for us.