At the beginning of the book, Rick Deckard and his wife, Iran, wake up and begin a discussion about which mood they are going to “dial” for the day. When Iran awakens, she is very irritable and moody and Rick suggests setting her dial to a different setting to prevent the moodiness and sluggish feelings. The two of them get into an argument about which mood they should be choosing for the day, and if choosing the mood you plan to be in for the day is worth it to them or if it is a waste of time and energy. Iran discusses how one day she was sitting in their home, watching television and a commercial she did not care for came on and she turned the tv off. Sitting in the silence, she began to realize how, since she had just dialed up a mood, she mentally noticed the quiet, but it did not change her feelings and she began to think how unnatural that fact was. She decided that she was going to schedule her mood twice a month to allow her to be upset about this fact.
While I was reading this part of the book, I could not help but imagine what it would be like to control my own moods. While reading the rest of the chapters we had assigned, this question kept buzzing in my head. So, if you could, would want to be able to control your moods and feelings? Why/Why not?
The basis of being able to control your own mood is quite fascinating. In Iran’s case here, she is feeling all sorts of different emotions. She is irritable when she wakes up, which will likely lead to a sluggish day. She then began to think about a commercial that made her upset. When she turned it off, she sat there in quiet, which made her anxious and unnatural. The quiet did not change her feelings like she thought it should’ve. Overall, I think the author, Philip, did an astounding job of explaining the mental process of an android into a simple format. He broke it down the way a human thinks, which all human readers can comprehend.
The ability to control your emotions has its benefits and weaknesses. Those with depression can dial in a happier more hopeful mood. In today’s time that could prevent suicides. However, it also causes the user to no longer be able to express natural emotion. If a tragic event appears on the T.V. and the viewer feels no emotion, then humans have lost their ability to empathize with each other.
Having the ability to control our own emotions as humans is an interesting topic, especially in the time and place the novel is set in. Being able to walk up to a machine and dial it so that it makes you feel a certain emotion makes humanity quite similar to androids. People use this machine everyday to control how they feel which in turn affects what they do. The machine has essentially become a part of them and their everyday life. If I had a choice of whether or not I wanted to control my emotions, I wouldn’t because I believe that experiencing emotions naturally, including all the ups and downs, is what makes us truly human. It’s ironic that in a world obsessed with androids and empathy there exists a machine that blurs the line between humanity and androids.
The ability to “dial” up any emotion you want would be amazing, for a short time. Humans were not wired to always experience the same emotion for a reason; it would get boring. This is why I would not want to be able to dial whatever emotions I wanted to feel. I would rather experience emotions naturally. However as discussed in class we can already do this to an extent. Medications can in a way “dial” up certain emotions.
For me, I would like to be able to control my emotions/ feelings during certain times and not others. If I wake up in an upset mood, I’d love to be able to switch my emotions to make me feel happier and more upbeat or if someone does something to make me angry, I’d love to be able to just throw away the anger. However, I also wouldn’t enjoy doing this. Being able to change your emotions, to me, would mean that more people could possibly be manipulated in today’s society. This could do more harm than good in the long run. While I do see how many benefits it could have, I also see the negatives that would come with it. However, if it ever is made possible, I may have to give it a try.
If I had the choice to control my own mood and feelings, I would but at the same time I wouldn’t. On one hand when it comes to the society being able to control their mood/feelings, I would have to agree with Aaliyah when it comes to the topic of depression. I know of people who have depression and they talk about how it just pops out of nowhere. The mood organ would be a great idea for that particular situation. On the other hand I don’t think it would be a good idea because people will take advantage of it and I don’t like that we would have to force our emotions or feelings, it should just be a natural thing.
I feel like I would definitely try it out just to see how it works but I wouldn’t want it to be the source of my moods. I feel as if it is healthier and more productive to just let your moods happen naturally based on how you’re feeling. If you could just control yourself and be in a happy mood 24/7 you would never experience the sad times that make the happy times that much better.
I think that being able to control your emotions would have many benefits but it could also cause a large amount of problems. I think that being able to put yourself in a good mood instantly would make going through life a lot easier. I think that it would also cause a large amount of problems because people would no longer have to feel and grow. Another problem would be people changing your emotions like Rick did after having an argument with his wife. I think that I wouldn’t want to be able to control my emotions because it would feel as there is a large part of life that I would be missing out on.