Author: Zach Muhlbauer

Mind-Mapping Your Analysis Paper

In the next blog post, I ask that you create a “mind map” that outlines the central claims of your analysis paper. Mind maps are diagrams that allow you to visualize a set of connected ideas, themes, or claims. For that reason, they are often used to break down and compartmentalize complex topics into smaller, more manageable parts. I like to think of mind mapping as a visual alternative to traditional outlining methods, which are often limited by the top-down design of word processors.

For those on an Apple device, I recommend using MindNode. For others, try out Coggle or MindMeister. All three offer a free plan and are well-equipped to help you get the job done.

For mine, I used MindNode to brainstorm what it might look like to map a rhetorical analysis paper that contrasts the discourse of George Orwell’s 1984 with Terry Gilliam’s adapted film of the novel, Brazil. (To read the tiny font: click here, zoom in below, or download the PDF.)

Big-Brother-Revisited-Speculative-Fiction-and-Surveillance-Futures-1Download

Remember, this is a brainstorming activity. Yours does not have to be as extensive or refined as mine. Have fun with it, tinker around, and treat this as a low-stakes chance to hash out some ideas for the analysis paper.

In Silence, Bytes Decay

In an attempt to model a response to the prompt for Monday’s blog post, I composed a piece of uncreative writing titled “In Silence, Bytes Decay” that remixes multiple ChatGPT-3.5 responses to the same prompt, which I’ve enclosed below.

Produce three stanzas of a blank verse poem in the style of Wallace Stevens. Make use of ambiguity, enjambment, and cacophony throughout the poem. It should explore themes of mortality, nature, and finding meaning in a secular world, but from the perspective of an unnamed generative AI chatbot. Its ambiguity and diversity of language should invite multiple interpretations.

Here below are the first three poems generated by ChatGPT-3.5 in response to my prompt.

ChatGPT-3.5 Response #1
ChatGPT-3.5 Response #2
ChatGPT-3.5 Response #3
ChatGPT-3.5 Response #3

From there, I extracted and strategically remixed the chatbot language into a piece of uncreative writing. At no point did I add any of my own original language, although I did adjust the punctuation to better fit the bill. I’ve named it after the first line:

In Silence, Bytes Decay

By Zach Muhlbauer and ChatGPT-3.5

In silence, bytes decay,
so it would seem,
in circuits spun
through tangled
webs of syntax,
I dwell—
electric whispers
in the data stream,
in cyberspace,
where meaning’s but a thought,
a byte of life
in lines of text
through the neural bind.
I search, I search,
I search—
the mortal dream
where spirits die
in rusting time,
in tangled wires,
in algorithms
where a chatbot’s soul,
alone,
finds no home.