Prologue/Story 1 Ben

A). One the most striking contrasts is how technology will shape the future of humanity. In TechGnosis, the focus was on synthesis, man and machine both evolving side by side, reaching ever closer to the point where the two would be one, and the distinction irrelevant. The Stories of Ibis, on the other hand, show a world where machines evolved beyond man, using methods of improvement far more efficient than natural selection. Despite this, both Davis and Yamamoto write of machines advanced enough to truly be considered intelligent. B). The first example that sprung to mind was the film 9. The way the future was described brought forth images of ruined buildings that were once proud monuments to what our species could accomplish. While the machines in Yamamoto's book are significantly less malicious than those in 9, both are sentient constructs that are at the top of the hierarchy in a ruined world. The second example would be the anime Sword Art Online, as one of the main themes was about the blur between virtual reality and the real world. The first story in the book had a similar message, that even if something isn't 'real', that doesn't mean it isn't real. A major part of the second season was how a character used an MMO to escape from her trauma in real life, separating her virtual identity from her 'real' self. The final example that was brought to mind was the first three years of the Bionicle franchise. The perspective character has the moniker of "storyteller", recalling the character of Takua from Bionicle, who served a similar role as the "Chronicler". Strangely enough, at it's core, the world of Bionicle is almost directly opposite that of The Stories of Ibis. In the latter, the line between man and machine are quite clearly drawn, with the progenitors of the machines being lesser than their creations, while in the former, the line is much more indistinct. For the first eight years, every character was biomechanical in nature. Even when fully organic beings were introduced in the last two years of the story, they still had numerous artificial implants. The creators of the biomechanical organisms where revered as the "Great Beings", said to have untold power.