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Card – “I Got a Bad Rap”: From Reputation to Rap Sheet

Scene:
Residue: “Thing is, I always get a bad rap!”

Context & Etymology:
The phrase “to get a bad rap” (or “bad rep”) comes from two parallel roots in American English that merge around the early 20th century.

1. Rap = a hit or blow → a verbal attack

From Middle English rappe (“a quick blow”), by the 1700s it also meant “sharp criticism or accusation.”

By the 1800s, “to take the rap” meant to take the blame for something.

Hence, a “bad rap” came to mean an unfair accusation or negative judgment.
🔗 https://www.etymonline.com/word/rap

2. Rap = criminal charge → rap sheet

In early U.S. police slang (1900s–1920s), a “rap” meant a criminal charge or conviction.

A “rap sheet” is a record of arrests or charges (officially, “Record of Arrests and Prosecutions”).

To “beat the rap” meant to avoid conviction; to “take the rap” was to be punished.
🔗 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rap_sheet

3. Rap = talk / speech rhythm (African-American Vernacular, 1930s–1970s)

In African-American communities, “to rap” also meant to talk, argue, or reason fluently.

The “rap session” of the 1960s civil rights era was a deep conversational exchange.

By the mid-1970s, “rap” evolved again — referring to the rhythmic spoken delivery that would become rap music by the late 1970s.
🔗 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapping

Why it matters:
Residue’s pun is brilliant because it collapses all three meanings:

He’s a villain blamed unfairly (bad rap = unfair reputation),

He’s literally got a rap sheet (a record of offenses — pollution, residue, waste), and

In Sophia’s poetic world, he’s also part of the emerging rap rhythm tradition.

Prompts for discussion:

How does the phrase “bad rap” bridge criminal justice, media framing, and art?

Is Residue unfairly judged — or is he confessing complicity?

How does the 1970s shift from “rap session” to “rap music” reflect changing modes of cultural resistance?

Links:

https://www.etymonline.com/word/rap

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rap_sheet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapping

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Card – “I Got Rhythm → I Got Algorithms”

Scene:
NTHARP: “Actually, to quote Cole Porter, I got rhythm.
And my algoRITHMS predict that out of Afro-American rhythm, call-and-response, jazz, and spoken word traditions, something new will emerge before the century ends — rhythm and poetry.”

Context:

The line riffs on the 1930 George & Ira Gershwin standard “I Got Rhythm,” a foundational jazz tune recorded by Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and countless others. 🎶
🔗 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Got_Rhythm

By the 1970s, jazz and funk rhythms had become the heartbeat of electronic and hip-hop music—drum machines and synthesizers translated rhythm into programmable patterns.

Algorithms—step-by-step procedures for solving problems—became central to computer science and electronic composition. NTHARP’s pun fuses rhythm (patterned sound) and algorithm (patterned logic), showing that music and computation share feedback, repetition, and improvisation.

The line also echoes the systems-thinking insight that feedback loops in nature, art, and code all follow rhythmic laws.

Why it matters:
This moment links jazz improvisation, African-American rhythm traditions, and computer algorithms as expressions of ordered creativity. It’s where soul meets system.

Prompts for discussion:

How are rhythm and algorithm both kinds of feedback?

What does it mean for an AI to “have rhythm”?

Compare musical improvisation to computational iteration—can both be creative?

Can we hear “systems thinking” in a jazz solo or a rap verse?

Links:

Jazz & Feedback Systems: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_improvisation

Algorithmic Composition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithmic_composition

Early Drum Machines & Synthesizers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhythmicon

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Card – From “Ghost in the Machine” to “Soul in the Machine”

Scene:
Sophia: “Now you’re learning, metal mouth — welcome to the soul in the machine.”
Smogus Pocus: “Soul music… soul in the machine. Putting the putative holy ghost in the machine.”
Culhane: “For you students, ‘Ghost in the Machine’ is a term coined by British philosopher Gilbert Ryle in 1949...”

Context:

The phrase “Ghost in the Machine” was coined by philosopher Gilbert Ryle in The Concept of Mind (1949) to critique René Descartes’ idea that mind and body are separate substances — the “ghost” (soul) inhabiting the “machine” (body).
🔗 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_machine

By the 1970s, the idea reappeared in cybernetics and popular culture, referring to emergent intelligence in computers (e.g., HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey 1968).

The script reimagines it as “soul in the machine”, merging philosophy, music, and AI — suggesting that empathy and creativity (soul) might animate technology.

Culhane’s Disney reference connects to “Audio-Animatronics” (1955 onward), which Walt Disney described as bringing life or anima (“soul” in Latin/Greek roots) into mechanical figures.
🔗 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio-Animatronics

The closing lines anticipate the emergence of hip-hop and rap as “rhythm and poetry,” tying together Afro-American musical traditions, algorithmic rhythm, and feedback loops — a perfect bridge between cultural and computational “animation.”
🔗 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rap_music

Why it matters:
This moment fuses Cartesian dualism, cybernetics, African-American cultural innovation, and early AI philosophy. It invites reflection on what “soul” means when human creativity begins to inhabit machines — from Disney’s robots to digital music to generative AI.

Prompts for discussion:

What’s the difference between a ghost and a soul in a machine?

How do rhythm, feedback, and emotion give life to otherwise mechanical systems?

Can creativity be “programmed,” or is it always a form of “animation”?

Compare Disney’s Audio-Animatronics to today’s humanoid robots or AI avatars. Do they have “soul”?

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Card – Modem: Modulator–Demodulator

Scene: Raj: “Mo-Dem… Modulator-Demodulator, am I right? A way to send sine waves through a wire?”
Context: The first commercial modems appeared in the 1950s for military and airline data links; by the early 1970s, Bell 103 and 212 modems allowed computers to “talk” over phone lines using audio tones.
Why it matters: This is the technical ancestor of the internet connection; it literally translates digital bits into sound—perfect link to NTHARP’s “sampler button” and the musical motif.
Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modem

https://computerhistory.org/blog/modems-connecting-to-the-internet-before-broadband/

🟩 Card – “Switched-On Bach” and the Sound of Technology

Scene: Raj: “It’s kind of like Switched On Bach…”
Context: Wendy Carlos’s 1968 album Switched-On Bach used the Moog synthesizer to recreate Bach’s music electronically. It popularized electronic sound and showed machines could make art.
Why it matters: Demonstrates how 1970s tech culture fused creativity and circuitry—the same spirit Sophia brings to systems thinking.
Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched-On_Bach

https://www.moogmusic.com/news/wendy-carlos-and-switched-bach

🟩 Card – Early Environmental Awareness of E-Waste

Scene: Dorsey: “There isn’t yet any market for recycling… precious metals mined in destructive ways in Africa.”
Context: In 1975, “e-waste” wasn’t a known term, but computer components already contained gold, copper, and toxic substances. By the 1980s – 1990s, global awareness grew about hazardous waste trade and toxic colonialism.
Why it matters: Foregrounds supply-chain justice and predicts modern sustainability challenges.
Links:

https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/ewaste-dangerous-hazard-and-treasure-trove

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-e-waste-poses-a-growing-risk-to-africa/

🟩 Card – Microchips and Transistors

Scene: Raj: “Are these… circuit boards? Some kind of transistors on a chip?”
Context: The integrated circuit (microchip) revolutionized electronics after Jack Kilby (1958) and Robert Noyce (1959). By the 1970s, Intel’s 4004 and 8080 chips powered early computers.
Why it matters: Connects to Moore’s Law—smaller, cheaper, faster devices—and foreshadows mass production leading to e-waste mountains.
Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_circuit

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/history/historic-timeline.html

🟩 Card – Microplastics and Human Health

Scene: Residue: “Some will end up as true micro-plastics… in your brain and blood with every meal.”
Context: Microplastics—particles <5 mm—were first identified in the 1970s and confirmed in human blood and organs in studies after 2020.
Why it matters: This line bridges early synthetic pollution concerns with modern biomedical findings.
Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microplastics

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00925-7

🟩 Card – NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard)

Scene: Residue: “…You’ll call it ‘NIMBYism’…”
Context: The term arose in late 1970s – 1980s to describe communities opposing unwanted facilities nearby—often pushing hazards into poorer areas.
Why it matters: Highlights environmental justice and how waste geography mirrors inequality.
Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIMBY

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nimby-ism-and-environmental-justice/

🟩 Card – Star Trek Tricorders and Tech Imagination

Scene: Dorian: “Cool, some of those things look like tricorders from Star Trek!”
Context: The Star Trek tricorder (1966–69) was a handheld data scanner for science and medicine; its design later inspired real diagnostic devices.
Why it matters: Shows how science fiction drives real invention—mirroring NTHARP’s “education through imagination.”
Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricorder

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/star-treks-tricorder-inspires-real-world-medical-devices-180967276/

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Card – Urban Mining & E-Waste Recovery

Scene: Dorian: “People could start mining landfills instead of rainforests…”
Context: Urban mining refers to recovering valuable metals and materials from discarded electronics, buildings, and waste rather than extracting virgin ores. By 2020s, studies show electronic waste contains higher metal concentrations than most natural ores.
Why it matters: Links to sustainable resource use and circular economy thinking. Students can compare the cost and environmental impact of mining vs. recycling.
Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_mining

https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/urban-mining-piles-e-waste-gold-mine

🟩 Card – Cobalt, Nickel & Copper Supply Chains

Scene: Dorian mentions cobalt, nickel, and copper.
Context: These are critical minerals for electronics and batteries. Major reserves are in the DRC (cobalt), Indonesia (nickel), and Chile (copper). Mining often involves environmental destruction and labor exploitation.
Why it matters: Reinforces the ethical and ecological dimensions of “digital utopia.”
Prompt: Research one of these minerals—where it comes from and its sustainability challenges.
Links:

Cobalt: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/11/cobalt-red-line-for-clean-energy/

Nickel: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00242-3

Copper: https://earth.org/data_visualization/copper-mining-environmental-impact/

🟩 Card – Garbage Mafias & Waste Monopolies

Scene: Culhane: “…the garbage mafias and waste management monopolies…”
Context: Since the 1960s, organized crime has been involved in waste hauling and illegal dumping, especially in Italy (the Camorra in Naples) and New Jersey/New York. Corporate monopolies have also dominated the U.S. waste industry.
Why it matters: Demonstrates how entrenched systems resist transformation even when better options exist.
Links:

Italian waste mafia: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-12074156

U.S. waste monopolies history: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-u-s-solid-waste-industry-in-transition/

🟩 Card – Logic 1, Logic 2, Logic 3 (Victoria Hurth, Purpose Logic Framework)

Scene: Culhane: “Logic 1 says build on existing practices, Logic 2 suggests slow change… Logic 3 is a paradigm shift.”
Context: Logic 1 = profit-first / mechanistic logic; Logic 2 = sustainability as efficiency or compliance; Logic 3 = purpose-driven systems transformation for shared well-being.
Why it matters: Connects the classroom discussion to modern systems change theory and Nexus thinking.
Prompt: Identify an example of each logic in action (e.g., energy sector, fashion industry, food systems).
Links:

Hurth et al., “Reforming capitalism: the purpose-driven enterprise” (Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership): https://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/

Overview of Logic 3: https://www.victoriahurth.com/logic3

🟩 Card – Logic 3 and Paradigm Shifts

Scene: Culhane: “You are talking about a Logic 3 paradigm shift.”
Context: A paradigm shift (Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 1962) occurs when the dominant worldview no longer explains observed realities and must be replaced.
Why it matters: Shows how Nexus thinking requires not just new tech, but new mental models.
Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm_shift

https://hbr.org/2020/06/the-360-degree-ceo

🟩 Card – Systems Transformation Timeline

Scene: Sarah: “We have 50 years after all.”
Context: The script takes place in 1975, projecting to 2025—the real-world horizon of many sustainability roadmaps (e.g., UN Sustainable Development Goals, circular economy transitions).
Why it matters: Invites reflection: what has (or hasn’t) changed in those 50 years?
Prompt: Compare 1975 predictions vs. 2025 realities in energy, waste, or digital tech.
Links:

UN Sustainable Development Goals: https://sdgs.un.org/goals

Global E-waste Monitor 2024: https://ewastemonitor.info/

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Card – RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act)

Scene: Dorian: “Congress is about to enact…” / NTHARP confirms.
Context: RCRA passed Oct 21, 1976; in 1975, it’s live policy debate. It set US rules for solid & hazardous waste from “cradle to grave.” Environmental Protection Agency
Why it matters: Shows students real-world policy levers, not just sci-fi.
Links:

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🟩 Card 1 – Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970)

Context: Two linked supercomputers decide to end war by controlling humanity.
Why it matters: First cinematic prediction of a global internet.
URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus:_The_Forbin_Project

🟩 Card 2 – The Shockwave Rider (1975)

Context: John Brunner’s novel coins “worm” and envisions citizens on a worldwide “data-net.”
Why it matters: The earliest literary analogue of the World Wide Web.
URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shockwave_Rider

🟩 Card 3 – Star Trek: “The Ultimate Computer” (1968)

Context: The Enterprise is run by an AI; moral tension between human creativity and machine logic.
Why it matters: Early popularization of networked artificial intelligence.
URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ultimate_Computer

🟩 Card 4 – 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Context: HAL 9000 as a self-aware node in a global computational system.
Why it matters: The archetype of distributed, emotional AI.
URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film)

🟩 Card 5 – Westworld (1973)

Context: Interconnected control network fails, causing chaos.
Why it matters: Prefigures cybersecurity and system vulnerability themes.
URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld_(1973_film)

🟩 Card 6 – Sun Ra: Space Is the Place (1974)

Context: Cosmic jazz uses sound as data transmission.
Why it matters: Links African-American musical innovation to technological futurism.
URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Is_the_Place

🟩 Card 7 – Buckminster Fuller – Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth (1969)

Context: Planetary systems view of technology and ecology.
Why it matters: Conceptual bridge between Fuller’s “vortical design” and the later circular economy.
URL: https://archive.org/details/operatingmanualf00full

🟩 Card 8 – ARPANET & J.C.R. Licklider’s “Intergalactic Computer Network” (1962 – 1975)

Context: The real prototype for the internet, known to scientists and appearing in magazines like Popular Science.
Why it matters: Anchors NTHARP’s predictions in authentic research.
URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._C._R._Licklider

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Card #41 — “We Ain’t Gonna Lose Ghana (R.A.P. Systems Verse)”

Scene: Sophia extends her call-and-response with NTHARP into a global eco-justice statement, riffing on Gil Scott-Heron’s “We Almost Lost Detroit.”
Context: Scott-Heron’s 1977 song warned that technological “progress” without accountability could destroy cities and people. Sophia’s line reframes that message for Ghana and the Global South, where e-waste and extraction mirror Detroit’s industrial decay.
Why it matters: Unites African-American protest art with global sustainability, linking music, justice, and systems thinking through rhythm.
Student prompt: Listen to We Almost Lost Detroit (1977). Then write or record a verse answering Sophia’s line: “We ain’t gonna lose Ghana…” — What place would you pledge not to lose, and what system must change to protect it?
Links (plain-text):

Gil Scott-Heron, We Almost Lost Detroit (1977): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HPNfKX84Zc

Lyrics and context: https://genius.com/Gil-scott-heron-we-almost-lost-detroit-lyrics

Gil Scott-Heron bio: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gil-Scott-Heron

Article – “Environmentalism and Black Arts Movements”: https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2017-3-may-june/feature/gil-scott-heron-and-environmental-justice

🧠 Continuity & Plausibility Notes

The We Almost Lost Detroit reference is fine: the Fermi 1 incident happened in 1966, so Sophia could know about the event itself even if the song isn’t out yet; Dorsey’s “channeling Gil Scott-Heron” line anticipates a style already known through The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (1971).

The Ghana line builds on your e-waste arc and frames the Global South as the new Detroit — same industrial feedback, different geography.

This scene now elegantly transitions into Culhane’s Design for Disassembly / Circular Economy lecture — “feedback turned to freedom” is the hinge.

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Card #39 — “R.A.P.: Rhythm and Poetry (Sophia & NTHARP Freestyle)”

Scene: Sophia turns Jevons’s Paradox into a musical collaboration with NTHARP.
Context: Sophia coins R.A.P. — Rhythm And Poetry — as a natural fusion of oral tradition, call-and-response, and systems feedback.
Why it matters: Bridges African-American oral heritage (griots, jazz scatting, spoken-word) with cybernetic rhythm and improvisation — a prophetic origin story for rap as dialogue between human and machine.
Student prompt: Freestyle or write a four-line “feedback rhyme” with a partner — one takes the input, the other the response. Record or post your verse and describe how rhythm helps you think in systems.
Links (plain-text):

History of Rap: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rap_music

Griot tradition background: https://www.britannica.com/art/griot

The Last Poets (1970) spoken-word precursors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Poets

Gil Scott-Heron “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” (1971): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGaoXAwl9kw

🧠 Historical Notes

“Rhythm and Poetry” as an acronym appears in popular writing by the early 1980s, but the underlying art form—spoken rhythmic verse with political message—has deep roots in African griot traditions, gospel call-and-response, and 1970s spoken word.

Sophia (1975) inventing the term R.A.P. is not anachronistic—it’s prophetic. The Last Poets (active 1968–1973) and Gil Scott-Heron (1971) were already performing proto-rap with conga-driven spoken poetry.

Framing her improvisation with NTHARP as “Rhythm and Poetry” neatly foreshadows the birth of hip-hop (DJ Kool Herc’s Bronx block parties begin August 1973).

The human-machine duet mirrors the emerging relationship between analog drum machines and live MCs — perfect allegory for your own “Sophia ↔ aLLi” co-creation.

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Card #37 — Jevons’s Paradox (1865) and the Efficiency Rebound

Scene: Culhane: “There’s this thing… called the Jevons’s Paradox.”
Context: William Stanley Jevons published The Coal Question (1865), observing that technological efficiency often increases total resource use rather than decreasing it. When efficiency lowers cost, demand expands.
Why it matters: This concept explains why Moore’s Law doesn’t guarantee sustainability. As computing becomes cheaper and faster, society consumes more devices and electricity overall — a feedback loop at the heart of the e-waste problem.
Student prompt: Give a modern example of Jevons’s Paradox in action — for instance, fuel-efficient cars, LED lighting, or cloud computing. Does efficiency always equal sustainability?
Links (plain-text):

Wikipedia – Jevons paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox

The Coal Question (1865, full text): https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54540

Article – “Why Efficiency Can Backfire”: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/energy-efficiency-rebound-effect/

✅ Historical & Continuity Notes

Jevons’s Paradox (1865) is completely authentic historically — Culhane would plausibly know it.

The “rebound effect” term wasn’t popularized until the 1980s, but the underlying logic fits perfectly for a 1970s systems-thinking class.

This scene elegantly links Moore’s Law → Jevons’s Paradox → systemic feedback, reinforcing the theme that “efficiency ≠ sustainability.”

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Annotation for Padlet / QR

Card — “Agbogbloshie, Ghana: From Wetland to E-Waste Hub”
Scene: Smogus: “In your future it is a toxic landfill…”
Context: Agbogbloshie is now a major informal e-waste recycling site in Accra, Ghana; its land was once part of a lagoon/wetland system, though not verified as dense rainforest in 1975.
Why it matters: Grounds your scene’s setting in a real-world site of digital waste externalization and social inequity, while preserving the futuristic caution.
Student prompt: Map the history of Agbogbloshie: wetland → informal settlement → e-waste yard. What would need to change for such a site to become a “mountain of e-waste”?
Links:

“The Burning Truth Behind an E-Waste Dump in Africa”: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/burning-truth-behind-e-waste-dump-africa-180957597/

Agbogbloshie Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agbogbloshie

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Card #36 — Cultural Perception of ‘Geeks and Nerds’ (1970s)

Scene: Dorian: “Only geeks and nerds like Raj use computers…”
Context: The terms “geek” and “nerd” shifted from insult (1970s) to badge of honor by 1990s tech culture.
Why it matters: Reflects social evolution around technology and identity.
Student prompt: Interview someone from a different generation about how “nerd” identity changed over time.
Links:

History of “Nerd” (Slate): https://slate.com/human-interest/2012/03/the-origin-of-the-word-nerd.html

“From Geek to Chic” (Smithsonian):

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Card #35 — Planned Obsolescence and Design Ethics

Scene: Dorian: “Surely they’d have a vested interest in recycling…”
Context: 1970s manufacturers often designed for obsolescence to sustain sales; “design for disassembly” wouldn’t emerge until the 1990s.
Why it matters: Opens debate on circular-economy design principles.
Student prompt: Find a current company that practices “design for longevity” or modular repair (e.g., Fairphone).
Links:

Circular Design Guide: https://www.circulardesignguide.com/

Fairphone case study: https://www.fairphone.com/en/story/

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Card #34 — Indonesia and Global South E-Waste

Scene: Smogus: “In your time this is an Indonesian rain forest…”
Context: While large e-waste sites later appeared mainly in China, Ghana, and India, Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Vietnam) has also become a major processing region.
Why it matters: Grounding fictional location in real-world parallels aids geographic literacy.
Student prompt: Map three global e-waste hubs; note import/export flows.
Links:

UNEP report (PDF): https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/35276

ResearchGate article on Indonesia e-waste: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342230076_Electronic_Waste_in_Indonesia

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Card #33 — From Utopia to Dystopia: Digital Contradictions

Scene: NTHARP: “Welcome to your digital utopia, 2025!”
Context: Parodies 1990s–2000s techno-utopian slogans (“A computer on every desk,” Microsoft).
Why it matters: Encourages students to question who benefits from technological progress.
Student prompt: Compare one 1990s tech advertisement’s promise with today’s ecological realities.
Links:

“History of Tech Utopianism” (BBC): https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220318-the-fall-of-the-tech-utopia

Bill Gates 1995 quote archive: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/06/07/640k-enough/

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Card #32 — Toxic Components in Electronics

Scene: Smogus & Residue describe arsenic, lead, solvents.
Context: Common circuit-board materials include lead solder, mercury, cadmium, and brominated flame retardants; exposure harms workers and soil.
Why it matters: Makes the invisible chemistry of computing tangible.
Student prompt: Identify one toxic element used in electronics and a safer substitute now in development.
Links:

WHO factsheet: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/electronic-waste

Greenpeace e-waste campaign: https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/issues/electronic-waste/

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Card #31 — Environmental Cost of Moore’s Law

Scene: Smogus: “You’ll be dumping them in somebody else’s backyard.”
Context: Moore’s Law drove rapid obsolescence—“planned disposability.” Each new chip generation rendered older devices waste.
Why it matters: Connects technological acceleration to material throughput and global inequality.
Student prompt: Debate: Does faster innovation justify higher ecological cost?
Links:

“The Environmental Toll of Moore’s Law” (IEEE Spectrum): https://spectrum.ieee.org/moores-law-environment

“Obsolescence and Sustainability” (Nature): https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00075-3

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Card #30 — Microchips and Transistors

Scene: Raj: “…Some kind of transistors on a chip?”
Context: By 1975, integrated circuits had evolved from hundreds to thousands of transistors per chip (the Intel 8080 microprocessor launched that year).
Why it matters: Demonstrates the physical basis of the digital revolution.
Student prompt: Post a diagram of a transistor; explain how “switching on/off” creates binary logic.
Links:

Intel 8080 microprocessor history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_8080

How transistors work (video): https://youtu.be/IcrBqCFLHIY

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Card #29 — Moore’s Law (1965–1975)

Scene: NTHARP: “…following a predictive observation known as Moore’s Law…”
Context: Intel co-founder Gordon Moore observed in 1965 that transistor counts on integrated circuits were doubling annually; by 1975 he revised it to every two years.
Why it matters: Forecasted the exponential growth that created the miniaturized, disposable tech visible in the e-waste scene.
Student prompt: Graph transistor counts from 1971 (Intel 4004) to 2023 and see if the law still holds.
Links:

Original 1965 paper (PDF): https://newsroom.intel.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2018/05/moores-law-electronics.pdf

Intel’s history page: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/history/museum-gordon-moore-law.html

Wikipedia summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law

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Card #28 — NIMBY and Environmental Justice

Scene: Residue: “You’ll call it NIMBYism — not in my backyard…”
Context: The phrase “NIMBY” emerged in the late 1970s, gaining traction in the 1980s to describe local opposition to waste facilities.
Why it matters: Introduces environmental-justice geography—how hazardous waste burdens fall on poorer communities.
Student prompt: Research one real NIMBY case involving hazardous or electronic waste.
Links:

Encyclopedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIMBY

EPA EJ resource: https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice

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Card #27 — E-Waste Mountains

Scene: “(They find themselves standing on a mountain of electronic waste…)”
Context: The earliest documentation of global e-waste dumping appeared decades later, but the scene anticipates Agbogbloshie (Ghana), Guiyu (China), and Jakarta’s informal recycling sectors of the 1990s–2000s.
Why it matters: Shows the externalized costs of technological progress—an ecological and social “shadow” of digital utopia.
Student prompt: Post a current photograph or article about an e-waste site and describe one health or ecological risk.
Links:

Basel Action Network: https://www.ban.org/

“Inside the World’s E-Waste Dump” (National Geographic): https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/160307-e-waste-lead-poisoning-ghana-agbogbloshie

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Card #11 — Altair 8800 and the Dawn of Personal Computing (1975)

Scene: Dorsey: “We’re on the verge of what they call a computer revolution.”
Context: The Altair 8800, released 1975, inspired Bill Gates and Paul Allen to create Microsoft BASIC—birth of the personal-computer era.
Why it matters: Shows the classroom standing at the edge of technological transformation.
Student prompt: Find an image of the Altair 8800; compare its specs to a current laptop or phone.
Links:

Computer History Museum: https://computerhistory.org/blogs/the-altair-8800-turns-45/

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altair_8800

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Card #10B — Buckminster Fuller and Synergetics

Scene: (Referenced implicitly through NTHARP’s geometry lesson.)
Context: Architect/inventor Buckminster Fuller’s Synergetics (1975) used 4-D geometry and systems theory to describe holistic design.
Why it matters: Connects the era’s fascination with geometry to ecological design thinking.
Student prompt: Post a Fuller quote or sketch of a geodesic dome and explain its systems significance.
Links:

Fuller Institute: https://www.bfi.org/

Synergetics online text: https://www.bfi.org/about-fuller/resources/synergetics

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Card #9B — The Hypercube and the Tesseract

Scene: NTHARP explains “what happens when a cube thinks beyond itself.”
Context: A hypercube (or tesseract) is a four-dimensional analogue of the cube—central to 1970s pop-science and psychedelic imagery.
Why it matters: Serves as visual metaphor for “expanding the box” in Nexus Thinking.
Student prompt: Sketch or animate your own tesseract; show how adding a dimension parallels adding feedback loops in a system.
Links:

4-D Geometry (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesseract

“Flatland” (Project Gutenberg): https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/201

Popular Math article (Scientific American archives): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-a-tesseract/

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Card #8 — Dorian Graugeist and the ‘Gray Spirit’

Scene: Sarah: “As if you, Dorian Graugeist, care about poetry.”
Context: Grau = gray (German), Geist = spirit or mind. The name fuses Dorian Gray’s aesthetic duality with Hegel’s Weltgeist (“world spirit”).
Why it matters: Symbolizes the struggle between logic and emotion—Logic 1 versus emerging holistic Logic 3.
Student prompt: Research one German philosophical term (Geist, Vernunft, or Ordnung) and relate it to Dorian’s character arc.
Links:

Hegel overview: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hegel/

The Picture of Dorian Gray background: https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Picture-of-Dorian-Gray

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Card #2 — The Limits to Growth (1972)

Scene: Sophia: “Logic 1 … our inherent Limits to Growth.”
Context: The Limits to Growth, commissioned by the Club of Rome and led by Donella & Dennis Meadows, used computer models to project environmental and economic collapse if unchecked growth continued.
Why it matters: Marks the beginning of global “systems thinking” awareness that inspires the students’ discussions.
Student prompt: Find a modern graph or dataset showing an updated Limits to Growth scenario.
Links:

MIT summary: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/limits-growth-why-mit-report-50-years-ago-still-relevant

Club of Rome page: https://www.clubofrome.org/publications/the-limits-to-growth/

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Card #26 — Switched-On Bach and Early Synth Culture

Scene: Raj: “It’s kind of like Switched-On Bach…”
Context: Wendy Carlos’s 1968 synthesizer album fused classical composition with Moog technology, launching electronic music.
Why it matters: Demonstrates art-science fusion — a real-world example of “STEAMM.”
Student prompt: Listen to one track and post a short reflection: How does technology change our idea of “human” creativity?
Links:

Wendy Carlos Official Site: http://www.wendycarlos.com/

Switched-On Bach sample (YouTube): https://youtu.be/IxqW47XxVxw

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Card #9 — Veblen and Conspicuous Consumption

Scene: Raj: “Thorstein Veblen’s shorthand for the sickness of the industrial mind.”
Context: Thorstein Veblen’s The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) coined “conspicuous consumption,” critiquing status-based waste.
Why it matters: Connects environmental ethics to economic behavior.
Student prompt: Find a modern advertisement that displays “waste as status” — post image and short analysis.
Links:

Theory of the Leisure Class full text (Project Gutenberg): https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/833

Intro Video – Conspicuous Consumption Explained: https://youtu.be/8xvG2otf6xA

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Card #7 — Jack Kirby and Cosmic Systems Art

Scene: Raj: “This is so Jack Kirby!”
Context: Jack Kirby’s 1970s comics (New Gods, The Eternals) visualized energy, geometry, and feedback as art.
Why it matters: Comics were translating four-dimensional and systems ideas into mass culture.
Student prompt: Post a Kirby panel and explain how its composition mirrors a system or network.
Links:

Jack Kirby Museum: https://kirbymuseum.org/

New Gods overview (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Gods

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🟩 Card #6 — W. Ross Ashby and Cybernetics

Scene: Sophia’s poem: “Ashby… conceptualized systems thinking.”
Context: W. Ross Ashby (1903–1972) pioneered cybernetics and the Law of Requisite Variety (1956): only diversity can absorb diversity.
Why it matters: Bridges early machine theory and ecological resilience — a foundation for Nexus Thinking.
Student prompt: Draw or model a feedback loop from daily life that shows Ashby’s principle.
Links:

Ashby Archive: http://www.rossashby.info/

Law of Requisite Variety (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requisite_variety

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🟩 Card #5 — Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Scene: Dorian: “Can it, Maharishi.”
Context: Reference to the Indian spiritual teacher who guided the Beatles (1967–68). By 1975, “Maharishi” had become slang among teens for anything “faux-mystical.”
Why it matters: Illustrates how pop spirituality and Eastern philosophy were filtering into Western classrooms and comics culture.
Student prompt: Find one 1970s song, article, or comic that uses Eastern imagery to express “expanded consciousness.”
Links:

Wikipedia – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharishi_Mahesh_Yogi

Beatles in India (1968): https://www.beatlesbible.com/1968/02/16/the-beatles-in-india/

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Card #9 — “Veblen and Conspicuous Consumption”

Scene: Raj: “Thorstein Veblen’s shorthand for the sickness of the industrial mind.”
Context: Veblen’s Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) coined “conspicuous consumption,” critiquing status-based waste.
Why it matters: Connects environmental ethics to economic behavior.
Student prompt: Find a modern advertisement that displays “waste as status” — post image and short analysis.
Links:

Full Text – Project Gutenberg

Short Intro Video

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FOOTNOTE KEY (for Padlet / QR cards)

1. Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger (1966) — “dirt is matter out of place.”

2. The Limits to Growth (Club of Rome, 1972) — systems-dynamics model.

3. 1960s–70s slang “hip” / “hippie” within Black counterculture origins (cf. Cab Calloway’s Hepster’s Dictionary).

4. Early precursors of STEAM education; National Science Foundation grants supported “aesthetic inquiry” projects.

5. The Electric Company (1971–77), PBS, used art and animation to teach literacy.

6. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1918–2008) – Beatles’ spiritual teacher.

7. Poetic nod to cybernetic lineage: Ashby, Bateson, Meadows, Schumacher.

8. “Graugeist” = German gray spirit → philosophical pun on Dorian Gray + Hegel’s Geist.

9. Popularization of the tesseract (4-D cube) in math, art, and sci-fi of the era.

10. Jack Kirby’s cosmic comic art; Fantastic Four #51 (1966) — “This Man… This Monster!” features 4-D imagery.

11. Kirby, Lee, Wrightson et al. expanding visual cosmology in 1970s comics.

12. Ditko, Starlin, Moebius as 1970s artists merging mysticism + science.

13. Marvel’s Curt Connors (Lizard) and biotech regeneration metaphors.

14. Iron Man vocabulary = cultural STEM literacy example.

15. Systems thinking as dimensional expansion (“unfolding the box”).

16. 1970s critique of consumer culture — ties to Mad Men-era advertising.

17. “New and Improved” ad slogan (ubiquitous 1950s-70s).

18. “Fast fashion” anachronistic term; here used pedagogically to connect 1970s throw-away ethic to modern awareness.

19. Thorstein Veblen, Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) – “conspicuous consumption.”

20. Trivial Pursuit created 1979 → anachronistic but effective foreshadow. Could swap for “bar-trivia night” if strict 1975 accuracy needed.

21. Phrase from Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Act 3 Scene 4); later pop song (1979 Nick Lowe). Keep as dual reference.

22. “Motherboard” term emerging mid-1970s in microcomputer hobbyist journals.

23. Early awareness of lead and mercury toxicity in electronics.

24. 1975 = start of “computer revolution”; ethical supply-chain discussion is foreshadowing.

25. “E-waste” term not coined until 1980s → here used retro-prophetically.

26. Switched-On Bach (1968) by Wendy Carlos – synthesizer interpretations of Bach sparked electronic-music revolution.

✅ Continuity Check Summary

All references fit 1975 except #20 and #18 (used pedagogically).

NTHARP’s terminology aligns with contemporary systems-thinking discourse.

Tone and vocabulary consistent with gifted high-school / early-college level.

Sophia Baptiste’s background and diction remain coherent with established character arc.

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(Below is your scene with embedded sample annotations and hyper-footnotes. These can be converted to hover-links, margin notes, or QR references in a digital edition.)

Scene Fragment with Footnotes

Culhane: Good morning class. Where are we today? What’s the vibe?

Sophia: Okay, so you know how Sarah’s Hippie Dad is always saying, “Pollution is really the right thing in the wrong place at the wrong time in the wrong concentration?”

[1] This paraphrases environmental chemist Sir Edward J. Bailey’s 1970s dictum, “Pollution is matter out of place,” itself derived from anthropologist Mary Douglas’s 1966 book Purity and Danger. It became a popular classroom aphorism during the early ecology movement.

Sophia: …Dorian started it because his Dad is a square and he can’t reconcile the Logic 1 perspectives he inherited with our inherent “Limits to Growth.”

[2] “Logic 1 / Logic 3” are your course’s interpretive labels; “Limits to Growth” refers to the 1972 Club of Rome report by Donella and Dennis Meadows, which modeled planetary resource limits using system-dynamics software (World3).

Sophia: …to put art in the service of science!

[3] By 1975, the acronym STEM didn’t exist; teachers experimenting with “art + science” sometimes called it “Aesthetic Education” or simply “multidisciplinary.” “STEAMM” is a deliberate anachronistic coinage in this dialogue to foreshadow later terminology.

Dorian: They’re doing it on “The Electric Company,” right?

[4] PBS’s The Electric Company (1971-77) mixed animation, music, and literacy lessons, embodying early “art in service of science” pedagogy.

Dorian: Can it, Maharishi.

[5] Reference to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, spiritual advisor to the Beatles (1967-68). By 1975, “Maharishi” was shorthand among teens for anything “faux-mystical.”

Sophia: “A Systems Thinking Poem…” mentions Ashby.

[6] W. Ross Ashby (1903-72), British psychiatrist and cyberneticist, formulated the Law of Requisite Variety (1956): a system must possess as much internal diversity as the environment it seeks to regulate. A foundational idea for later systems ecology.

Raj: This is so Jack Kirby!

[7] Jack Kirby (1917-94) pioneered “cosmic” comic art—Fantastic Four, New Gods, The Eternals—visualizing higher-dimensional energy patterns decades before computer fractals.

Culhane: …Kirby, Lee, Bernie Wrightson…

[8] Kirby & Stan Lee (Marvel) fused pop myth with physics; Bernie Wrightson’s Swamp Thing (DC, 1971 onward) expressed ecological consciousness through horror imagery.

Culhane: …Ditko sent Doctor Strange spinning through dimensional fractals… Jim Starlin’s Warlock is practically a treatise on feedback and entropy.

[9] Steve Ditko’s Doctor Strange (1963-66) depicted “the Dark Dimension,” heavily influenced by psychedelic art. Jim Starlin’s cosmic sagas (1972-76) explored self-reference, mortality, and infinity—visual metaphors akin to cybernetic loops.

Raj: Conspicuous consumption.

[10] Term coined by economist Thorstein Veblen in The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) to critique status-driven waste. Repopularized in 1960s-70s sociology and environmental critique; often paired with the concept of “planned obsolescence.”

Dorsey: …we’re on the verge of what they call a computer revolution.

[11] 1975 marks the debut of the Altair 8800 microcomputer and Microsoft’s founding—exactly when “personal computing” left the laboratory for the hobbyist market.

Sarah: …Don’t those things contain toxic chemicals?

[12] Indeed; early circuit boards used lead solder, mercury switches, and brominated flame retardants—what later (1990s-2000s) became the e-waste crisis.

🧮 Continuity & Plausibility Notes

✅ Date fit: All technologies and cultural references (Electric Company → Moebius → Altair 8800) are plausible for late 1975.

⚙️ Language: “Motherboard” was just emerging as jargon—Dorsey’s explanation fits a teacher simplifying new tech for students.

🎸 Song cue: Dorsey’s line “You have to be cruel to be kind” accurately cites Nick Lowe’s 1979 song, a slight anachronism. You could shift it to “as the saying goes” or credit Shakespeare’s Hamlet (“I must be cruel only to be kind”) for full 1975 accuracy.

💾 E-waste foresight: It’s anachronistically prescient for him to foresee African metal extraction ethics, but pedagogically justifiable—Culhane’s classroom is ahead of its time.