Gradatorium: Grade This

Grade This

Here are the introductory paragraphs and the fourth and sixth body paragraphs from an A paper. We include so much of the full paper here because this student demonstrates adept handling of a “discussion” of the texts, as requested in the assignment below. Rather than focusing primarily on the question at the conclusion of the assignment, this student develops a compelling and complex project that builds, paragraph by paragraph, through to the paper’s conclusion. We strongly recommend that you download and read the entire paper to see this development fully.

The student was asked to write her fifth and final paper on Steven Johnson’s chapter, “Control Artists,” and Susan Blackmore’s chapters, “Strange Creatures” and “The Ultimate Memeplex.” Here is the assignment question:

For this final paper, your project is to write an essay discussing Johnson’s ideas on “emergent systems,” Susan Blackmore’s theory of “memes” and your own response to the question of control asked by Johnson, “Who’s driving here, human or machine?”

Who's in Control?

We often sit and wonder why we do some of the things we do. Speaking from personal experience I know I do. We wonder where we get the idea to react the way we do. Did someone influence us? Were we being told what to do? Did we act out of our own free will? These questions can some how{somehow}* be answered if we take a closer look at emergent systems and control. Steven Johnson in his essay, “Control Artist”, describes the whole idea of emergent systems and his whole theory behind them. No matter where we find ourselves we cannot escape having a set of “directions” telling us things. There is always something telling us how to do things. It is up to humans to take charge and decide how to react to those directions. An emergent system, I think, is the process of combining these sets of “directions” or rules we have with the way we come about doing things and self-organization. Self-organization {is} the way in which every individual has a unique set of rules to follow and come together to form an emergent system. There is no one person in charge of a group; we are self-organized and come together at one common point. Following the theory of emergent systems makes us believe we are in control. Susan Blackmore, unlike Johnson, in her book The Meme Machine does not believe in this idea of combining rules and self-organization. She believes that there is no fundamental core or set of rules, something telling us what to do. According to her, we make up a story and believe there is a core and that we are users of our brains when in reality we are not. The different ideas from both authors will help us determine an answer to our question{:} does user or programmer drive us? In my opinion I think what drives us is our own human/user self.

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puppeteers behind the technology-to the user” (Johnson 174). This means that there is only so much a “puppeteer” or programmer does and then he or she hands over the reigns of control to the user. With the help of the new game designers of this era, new games have developed with this new theory of emergent systems. Eric Zimmerman, a game designer, developed an example of this system by creating a game called Gearheads: “The designer, in other words, controls the micromotives of the player’s actions. But the way those micromotives are exploited- and the macrobehavior that they generate- are out of the designer’s control. They have a life of their own” (Johnson 178). As you see, this clearly shows how an emergent system works in a game. The programmer follows a set of rules, also known as “micromotives” in order to make the game work successfully. A “micromotive” is a need that causes something to act; but once that is done and the game begins the pieces are on his or her own. The “macrobehavior”, or the large personal conduct, which they (the actions) produce is out of the programmer’s control. Each game piece has a set of rules. In the end each piece comes together to form the game, forming an emergent system regardless of their individual rules. The behavior has nothing to do with the programmer. The set of rules have no effect on their behavior. I think we all have a set of “rules”. The rules don’t tell us how to act; but they do form a boundary for us. We decide how to act within this boundary that is already set for us. This is how we have control of our self; by being able to decide on our own.

In some cases we are contradicted by different beliefs or view points. According to Blackmore, the Cartesian Theatre, the belief that somewhere inside our heads there is a core where we make our decisions and initiate actions, does not exist. She believes our experiences are really a story we tell ourselves: “So maybe this is all we are; a center of narrative gravity, a story about a persisting self who does things, feel things and makes decisions; a benign user illusion” (Blackmore 225). She believes we have an illusion that

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we are users of our brain. In reality, we are not capable of controlling ourselves. The belief of a benign user or core contradicts with Johnson’s idea of emergent systems. If there is a core that would mean that we are under control by a machine in a centralized system; we don’t want that, so we tell ourselves stories to think we are in control when we are not. If there was no need for a core, or set of rules{,} then why make one up? Johnson on the other hand, believes that emergent systems only have a small set of rules that cause us to act but in no way or form do emergent systems control us or the way we are. The “rules” do affect us. Both of these ideas have a set of “rules”. Blackmore my{is} suggesting there is no set of rules and then living under that belief the way she wants. Then there is Johnson who believes there is a core that has a boundary set up for us and hands over the control of the self to the user. The way we act is different because the rules are seen differently in both cases. We are in control when we choose to follow the rules and to what extreme to follow them. The fact that we have a set of rules is there; we all have them whether we believe it’s an illusion or the real thing. I think the core acts as the controller and humans have to follow its rules. We have control of how we choose to do things. Change has become a part in this issue. Society has been through a lot of change moving, through the years, from a centralized system to becoming a decentralized system.

The times we live in play a role in the idea of a centralized/decentralized world. With every period of time we live through, change occurs; we change the clothes we wear, the look of our hair, and the model of the cars we drive. Change is something we all go through and can’t stop. By stressing out on all the things going on in society we lose a sense of something. {There is a} A new skill that this generation has created{,} “one that looks almost like patience: they are more tolerant of being out of control, more tolerant of the exploratory phase, where the rules can’t make sense, and where few goals

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have been clearly defined” (Johnson 176-177). I think this generation has brought about rise of emergent systems. We have learned to become independent, without having anyone control {ing} us or telling us the way to act. We are okay, able to handle, with the fact we are not in control. Not everyone sees things this clearly. Our parents would probably not fall under this category. They were raised in a different time and therefore would not relate to this idea of emergent systems. It would be more difficult for them to change the way they act or what they believe. People are still under the belief that because we have a core, this core has to somehow manage our lives, on the inside. This is not what we want, something telling us what to do. We want to be able to express ourselves in our own way. Our parents for example, are used to control. According to Dennett: “One of these drafts come to be the verbal story we tell ourselves, which includes the idea that there is an author of the story, or a user of the brain’s virtual machine{”} (Blackmore 225). We tell ourselves that there is an author, someone that defines what happens to us. The author, he or she, is the one that acts using the virtual machine, we suppose this would be the “rules” or in this case core, as guidance. This takes us back to the idea that because our generation has become so carefree, without a sense of control, we have an emergent system. If an emergent system did not exist, there would be no need to tell ourselves any stories of an author or user. If Blackmore believes in the theory of memes then she has to believe in the idea of an emergent system. She does not realize it but those two theories have a common ground.

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organizing, self-protecting structure that welcomes and protects other memes that are compatible with the group” (Blackmore 231). The memes get together to form a group of their own. They hang around in groups. This group is made of memes that all have something in common. If a meme is not compatible with the group, it will be rejected. Each meme within the group has its own set of directions, which make them different from all the others in the group. The emergent systems method works in a very similar way to the memes. Let’s take the idea of Zimmerman’s game Gearheads: {“}Gearheads is a purebred emergent system: a meshwork of autonomous agents following simple rules and mutually influencing each other’s behavior” (Johnson 179). Each piece within the game is its own toy, or for this purpose you can call it a meme. All the “memes” within this game come and form a group. In this group there is not one piece in charge of the rest. They each have their own ideas and do their own thing: “Each of the toys has a unique set of behaviors of other toys” (Johnson 179). As you can see for yourself, these two systems have a few ideas in common. So why are they so different from each other? One believes we have no control and the other believes we do.

Please note: strikethrough or {italicized and bracketed} type denotes corrections made to this student paper by the basic composition coordinator. These edits have been made in the Gradatorium to demonstrate our commitment to grammatical correctness while acknowledging reasonable expectations in our grading standards. The corrections as indicated would not have altered the final grade of this paper.

OK, so what grade do you think this paper should receive? Take a look at the official grading criteria again. Which criteria best describe this paper? What is it doing well? What could it have done better? Once you’ve made your decision, let’s see what the grade actually earned.

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