The Martian Chronicles: Cyborgs, Colonies, and Miscommunication

The Martian Chronicles raises a number of questions, not just about contact with extraterrestrials, but sentience, colonization, communication and human nature itself. The cyborgs in the chronicles are able to mimic a human personality almost flawlessly. However, some of them are also self aware that they are machines, such as the wife and children of the crewman, thereby making them independent of their programming. Does this level of consciousness make an entity sentient? Would a cyborg technically be an individual like you or I? If so, would cyborgs have the same rights as a living being? Would it be ethical to force thinking rational beings to do work? If we did, due to their artificial intelligence and mechanical strength, cyborgs would be very difficult to control or fight. It is even difficult to beat an AI opponent In Mario Tennis... imagine what a machine bread for war could do. Although cyborgs could be programmed into submissiveness, this cannot be achieved without compromising their creativity and effectiveness. Eventually enslavement might lead to a violent uprising such as in Battlestar Galactica or Mass Effect. This is especially because we would most likely use machines for nefarious purposes such as war and sexual pleasure; as we do today, though on a limited scale. Based on the fickle and often self destructive nature of humans, we may also be considered more of a liability than an ally.
One of the more loaded vignettes that intrigued me was “Way in the Middle of the Air.” It seems consistent with history that the African Americans would jouney to Mars as most oppressed minorities seem to be the vanguard of colonies. Even with the foundation of American we can see a number of religious and ethnic minorities fleeing to the new world.This tend proceeded even to the turn of the 20th Century, when there was an endless stream of boats carrying oppressed peoples to America. I also enjoyed and commend Bradbury’s commentary on racial discrimination in the South even before the issue became prevalent in American media. One story that I was doubtful about though was the one in which humans return from Mars to Earth in order to aid during a catastrophic atomic war. I feel that most people would not risk their families and personal security to go boldly into an unknown situation. It also seems illogical, though noble, to return to a place where you just fled from to confront the issue you were fleeing. I do believe that some people would return though to aid their fellow humans, but not humanity as a whole. To make a modern day comparison, Jewish people return to Israel, despite its’ dangers, in order to reclaim their heritage and strengthen the Israeli community. I do agree with Bradbury, though, that an object such as a metallic tube might be misconstrued as a weapon to either humans or aliens and lead to violence. In an alien culture a gun shaped object might actually have no meaning or perhaps even a positive one, such as a medicine dispenser. However, an object as innocent as a baseball may be reminiscent of a grenade to another species. This makes inter-species communication extremely delicate and complex.