In Piercy’s novel Riva steals (“liberates”) information because she believes that  “Information shouldn’t be a commodity” (193). How has the reverse idea of information as a commodity shaped the way things work in the multi domes?

In Piercy’s He, She, and It there are references to the Y-S ideal, and of the Y-S dome having very patriarchal laws in place to govern their society. How does the Y-S idea of a perfect society compare to our ideal society? How are they different?

In Winner’s “Are Humans Obsolete?” he talks about how science and the creation of new technology “benefited some groups more than others and left working people in the dust” (pg 26). He also comments that if the “wider populace knew what the intellectuals and entrepreneurs had in store for them” they would prefer to be given a closer look at the predicted outcomes and ways to be more involved in the said outcomes. If the wider populace in Oryx and Crake had known about the sterilization effect of BlyssPluss, how might that have changed the story as a whole? Do you think that people would still have used it, despite the sterilization and risk of human extinction, due to the other benefits?

In Chapter 2 of Hayles’ book she talks briefly about the idea of language as a code (in a word processor), as a close relationship between the physical form of the printed words and the ideas that they invoke. How does Atwood’s use of language and word choice help to transmit her ideas, making the story and characters more relevant to us as readers?