Humanities
Technology and Happiness
Joe Rioux
Will Space Travel Stop Human Extinction?
Earth will eventually cause all living things to go extinct, whether humans go with the rest of the world depends on if humans can reach interstellar travel. At the current rate of technology growth, humans will not reach space for 200+ years, and doomsday could happen anytime. This asks the question: “Will humans go extinct on earth?”
The time at which humans will go extinct cannot be proven fact until it happens. Professor Frank Fenner states that humanity will suffer the same fate of those on Easter Island. He states that humans have pushed climate change to a point of no return and that almost nothing can be done. He relates the people on easter island, and how they cut down all of their trees which then led to starvation, to how humans are polluting the atmosphere.
Technology growth has followed Moore’s Law neatly, until recently. Moore’s Law states that technological capabilities will double every two years, this was true until recently when technological growth has been slowing down. It is predicted that technological growth will slow until it reaches a stagnant point. This means that if the space technology at that point isn’t good enough then it won't be until humanity finds a way to make more advanced technology.
It has also been said by J. Richard Gott that if humans existence were a chart of four sections that the present day is somewhere in the 2nd or 3rd section. He predicts that the earliest day humanity can end is 7100 AD and the latest is 7800000 AD. This prediction started by basing a book on the Copernican Principle. The Copernican Principle states that human existence in very ordinary and that they are not special.
Space travel and exploration are extremely limited due to its ever decreasing budget, and technology capabilities. It is predicted that humans will not reach interstellar travel for 200 years. If more funding is not put into the space program humans will stay on earth, and perish along with it. Every year NASA’s budget gets lower and lower, and it will eventually cost more than they are provided.
None of this data is concrete, as it is all prediction based on real data. No one can really know when humans will go extinct. It would seem that with the two death times given that humans will either make it into space or that we are stuck on earth. Weather humans get into space depends on the money going into the several space programs out there. Elon Musk and SpaceX are pushing further and further into space with them recently launching the most powerful rocket ever made. Humans are adaptive and will try almost anything to prevent their extinction.
Word Count: 453
Mongo, Mike. “Will Humans Achieve Interstellar Travel?” Quora, 16 July 2016, www.quora.com/Will-humans-achieve-interstellar-travel.
arXiv, Emerging Technology from the. “Interstellar Travel Not Possible Before 2200AD, Suggests Study.” MIT Technology Review, MIT Technology Review, 22 Oct. 2012, www.technologyreview.com/s/422320/interstellar-travel-not-possible-before-2200ad-suggests-study/.
Ingraham, Christopher. “Analysis | We Have a Pretty Good Idea of When Humans Will Go Extinct.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 6 Oct. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/10/06/we-have-a-pretty-good-idea-of-when-humans-will-go-extinct/?utm_term=.47753e07dab3.
Reville, William. “How Long Will the Human Species Survive on Earth?” The Irish Times, 8 Dec. 2016, www.irishtimes.com/news/science/how-long-will-the-human-species-survive-on-earth-1.2885564.
Martin, Sean. “Humanity Will Go EXTINCT in 100 Years, as Prominent Scientist Warns 'IT'S TOO LATE'.” Express.co.uk, Express.co.uk, 1 Apr. 2017, www.express.co.uk/news/science/785903/Humanity-EXTINCT-TOO-LATE-frank-fenner.
To Kill A Mockingbird Reflection
In the socratic seminar that took place on 1/11/2018 many topics were discussed, they ranged from racial bias to gender stereotypes. A topic that was discussed in detail was the idea of bias and how it is ever present, no matter what race, gender, or religion. Another topic discussed was the ever present stereotypes for race and gender, the fact that if you see someone of another gender or race there will be immediate judgements on who they are just because of their race or gender. This seminar also touched on the expectations of the of men and women, that women need to be ladylike and that men need to be tough. The book “To Kill a Mockingbird” brought up all these topics in a more subtle way than it how my peers and I spoke about it.
The idea from the book I found most interesting was the race divide of the county of Maycomb during the great depression. In one of the chapters Scout, the protagonist, goes with her african american cook to a primarily black church and is immediately questioned why she is there because she is white. Another example is when Aunt Alexandra is off put by Calpurnia because she is black. The biggest example is when Tom Robinson, who is a black man being accused of rape by a white girl, he is convicted, even though it is proved that he is innocent.
Going into this socratic seminar I felt I was extremely prepared, I had finished the book recently so it was still on my mind, I had studied the book extensively, but the seminar did not go the way I thought it would. I expected the seminar to talk about the book, not stray extremely far from it, when we would be back on the book someone would bring us away from it. I didn’t write annotations as I was confident in my memory, but with only loose ties back to the book, I had to have page specific evidence to make a valid point, and I did not. I was prepared for something that didn’t happen.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a critique on the south during the great depression, it goes over many serious themes and ideas, the book is regarded as one of the best examples of american literature. I believe that this book is one of the best examples of showing a bad side of history without being biased, this book gives the perspective of a young girl growing up in a world where other people are treated like less than they are because of their race. This book is important because it shows issues that are still prevalent today in a way that isnt forcing the reader to understand.
How Social Media has Affected
People and how they are Socialized
Social media is a new epidemic that has taken the world by storm with its addictive qualities of being able know where your friends are at all times, taking pictures of food, and being able to talk to old friends. Social media was first brought to life in 1997 and now 20 years old. It has affected a generation, but in what ways?
Social media by definition is “websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.” In the modern day finding someone has never been easier, this is thanks to social media, 81 percent of all americans have a social media account of some sort, 261,711,000 people have a social media account, and this is just the united states. $23.68 billion is paid by advertisers every year on just social media. Social media is huge, and has affected so much in the modern day.
One group of people affected by social media are the younger side of the population as they have been grown around the technology that allows them to access things like social media. With this access many kids younger than 12 have a social media account. Some social media sites have “likes” or “followers” which can set up a construct of, the more followers you have, the better person you are. This construct has led to kids doing outlandish things to get more followers or likes.
Another group of people that use social media are those that use it to be social, instead of physically telling someone that they about their lunch they will post about it. They could know how someone's day was without ever speaking to the person. This has been theorized not to bring people together, but to push them apart.
Social media has been around for 20 years as of 2017 and has changed the world. People in a different country can see what your doing just by having a social media account. You could also anonymously bully and make fun of whoever you want. Social media has its ups and downs but one thing is certain, it's not going away.
Mask
The mask I created is a mask physically, and figuratively. A mask can be worn to hide the person under the mask, masks can be physical or mental. A physical mask is usually made of wood or some other non-transparent material, they are used to hide someone's identity. A mental mask is used to hide someone's emotions and thoughts.
My mask is both a physical mask and a representation of a mental mask. The tired eyes of my mask represent the effort of a mental mask tiring out the wearer. The cracks represents the mask wearing out the more the mask is used. The shadow at the edge of the face represents the real person bleeding through the mask. The fake smile represents the mask hiding the wearer's true emotions.
