Group Project Reflection

Well so far the group project has been a fair amount of work coupled with the work required of my other classes, but the material is interesting thankfully enough, so it has not necessarily been as draining as it could be. My partner unfortunately has suffered a loss in the family, and has understandably been trying his best to cope with that, and even more so understandably has not been able to afford much to the project, but despite his situation has still shown full willingness to help, and for that I am thankful enough considering the tough place the guy is in I can not say I would show the same interest in finishing the work as he has tried to maintain. This being the case I have been more than grateful even for that so in response I have no problems with doing the bulk of the work, and having him just share the presentation. Throughout the majority my life has been witness to being in group effort situations I can not say that I have had many that show an effort to be a contributor even in the best of situations, so in my current group partner’s situation it is refreshing to see someone willing to make an effort even in such a bad way.

The project itself has been interesting as I have said before, so doing research on it has been an enjoyable process thus far. My topic has been concerning whether or not science and religion seek the same answers to the questions that they are posed, and the more I see of the topic the more obvious that it seems to me that they do not seek the same answers, and yet they do all at once. Where religion seeks to put divinity behind an occurrence science seeks to come up with a testable solution with proof, or even to disprove something. I don’t think there is anything wrong with searching for proof of divine existence, but I do however feel that stamping divine meaning to anything that has not been proven otherwise is putting false hopes in dangerous places. I feel that it is important to have faith, but it is also important to not have blind faith, and try to account for the unaccountable with no real backing whatsoever.

Faith and science have both been dangerous things throughout the history of man, and both of these same ideas have been the cause of nearly every war we have had. How they relate to each other is both intertwined, and estranged, and the nature of the relationship between the two constantly changes depending on the needs of them. An example is how science suits the church when it backs it’s ideas, and when the church holds the majority of political power science that conflicts with it’s teachings is in a dangerous position. Inversely science pushes the boundaries on what can be considered moral practices, and must be constantly maintained by the people in charge to make sure it stays within acceptable practices. That in  itself can vary immensely as such an example of reasoning would be the research done performed by the Nazi regime; the research was deemed acceptable by it’s creators whom happened to be in power at the time, but now it is considered horrible and atrocious what occurred at their hands not only by the people in power, but the common opinion of the public as well.

Ecological Footprint

Well today was the day we finished up our assignment on keeping track of our resource usage throughout the last week, and I must say that the general usages listed to calculate with seemed pretty steep for what I would consider normal; an example would be that computers use about 750 watts per hour. I used to get sucked in to the whole buy the best components you possibly can and put it together yourself thing with computers, and although they do have large power supplies that are rated at well over 750 watts an hour for maximum usage the key word to look at here is maximum usage. I don’t think there is a pc out there that all of the components in it run at maximum frequency constantly outside of those being used to render digital animation films like shrek and whatnot. That being said everything else seemed to be a pretty clear indicator that we are definitely consumers. The amount of trash in a week was pretty scary especially considering if you look at your own usage, and try to put that same number on even half the world’s populace. It makes you wonder where the hell all the trash goes! I know there is a lot of energy put in to deciding how to sustain ourselves for very much longer considering the wasteful rate that we live, but if as much energy was put in to this problem as we put out in garbage per year for even just one large country we would be in pretty good shape.

Reading Response to What is Ethics?

I don’t think there is one way to look at how to solve ethical situations, and I am glad that there are many perspectives developed for dealing with ethical situations because by knowing each way of looking at a problem it helps one to better understand how and why someone else may feel different about an issue than another does, and this empathetic way of being able to grasp a situation I think will always solve problems in the best way possible because I have always felt that a situation is best resolved after looking at it from as many ways as possible because that is what is required to fully grasp any situation is a great perspective.

Reading Response to the Digital Divide Reading

Upon reading this article it is clear how important the community role plays to the advancement of our species. Universities and marketplaces and other cultural focal points were where the diversity of knowledge and culture inspired new ideas and traditions and knowledge, but as we have grown in numbers and spread far enough to be out of reach from everyone as a whole there are certain reaches of ideas and knowledge that certain groups of people cannot reach from other groups of people far enough away, but with the connectivity that the internet gives us it allows knowledge and information to be shared from all walks of life becoming an extremely important potential tool for learning as pointed out I feel in the digital divide article. I also agree that since this is the direction that the world seems to be taking in terms of how we share our knowledge and connect as a community it is important that people have access to it so that it does not potentially force people to be in the dark over important information. I do also agree that even though the potential for learning that such a tool as the internet creates does not make the learning automatically happen, but I do think that with any tool that has been devised for the advancement of a civilization that the potential it has when used properly cannot be ignored; it is the same as when the rifle was invented. People did not have to use them over swords, but the potential that the advanced form of tool offer was not ignored the same as that the tool for communication that the internet serves as cannot be ignored as an advanced form with higher potential compared to methods used in the past.

Reading Response to Groupthink

After reading it I can think of so many examples I could argue that this has occured in, yet before reading this I would have told you that if one smart guy can do a lot of good then a group of smart guys can do even more good. Guess that is why they say that theory and practice are two totally different things… Seems like especially in cases where hard decisions that have far reaching consequences are made such as political agendas a lot of different types of pressure come down on people making it hard to think. I was told recently that it happens pretty often where members of congress will have the paper work with the info pertaining to legislature being voted on will get dropped on their desk only a few hours before the matter is being voted on, so they have to do their best to even absorb all of the info from several sources at once. Spots like that, as well as being in groups of people of high degrees of importance make how and what you say seem to be more and more difficult. I can’t really say I’m jealous of those guys. In my case though I can’t let something slip past discussion in group situations like that because if a decision is made without everything mulled over it grinds at my conscience. I’m not a big philosophy guy, but I do have a little bit in me, and letting myself be a part of group decision making without making the effort to present my case fully is not part of the little philosophy I do have in me.

Class Activity on 2/23/09

I feel it is somewhat ironic that humans being social creatures more often than not seem to display notable difficulty solving a problem when the element of individualism is removed; the activity in class was a word problem using fictitious units of measurements, and each member of the group had a part of the solution. One thing I noticed is that there has to be a general consensus of motivation to have the problem solved in order for the cooperation necessary to be present. By not having the information accessible to you, yet knowing it is there is what seemed to be the hardest. It is much easier to resolve something yourself, but through another person let alone a group of people that aren’t that close to you is much more of an obstacle. That being said it is much more of an accomplishment to work something thorugh with a group of minds than to have been able to do things the easy way.

Class Discussion 2/02/09

We talked about the ordeals that surgeons have undergone due to changes in the techniques used by their field via new technologies; I have to agree with a few in the class on the fact that it is rough for professionals in a certain technique to have to throw away everything they have learned in order to start anew because of completely new tools for the profession, but I also feel that the medical field is one of change, and one going in to the field should be very aware of the potential for change, and should keep a very open mind to new technologies and medicines. I know it is easier said than done but surgery is not the only skill that is changed according to the tools and methods available; it is the same with software and hardware development, and numerous other fields. Science as a whole is constantly willing to tear up research notebooks upon learning that everything they knew no longer applies, and they have to go about everything in a different way. It is how evolution occurs. I think this is a strong point for anyone to remember for their field be it blue collar work scientific research or business practice. The idea of change and adaptation applies to many aspects in life.

Reading Response to The Curious Researcher Chapter One

I think this article makes a good point in that in order to be successful in any research project you have to first have some sort of driving force pushing you, and curiousity is the best one by all means. Not only is that going to be the best way to push you in to finding out all of the facts on a subject, but the ‘working knowledge’ the article refers to is not easily attained without some sort of depth to your research. Of course that has always been the case in my past; any research paper that was on a topic that held my interest I always did much better on versus a subject that bored me to tears…

Reading Response to Kunzru – You Are a Cyborg

I feel that in a way you can argue that we as humans have cybernetic traits to us due to our interactions and consciousness being extended throughout the use of technology, but I think that getting to philisophical about what can be considered a cyborg sort of makes us lose sight of what it really means to be a hybrid. Having technology in our shoes that is geared towards comfort and ease of movement is helpful, and does give us a bit of edge as humans through the use of technology, but the complex design of our body and mind have in no way been altered, and therefore I can not say that using a device such as this makes us a cyborg in example. Humans are creatures with an ability to design and use tools for our survival. If you are going to make that as a case for having cybernetic traits then you could say cavemen were cyborgs philisophically just because they used clubs they shaped with rocks and what not. Tehnology is not constrained to just electronical devices rather it is a word used to define a device or application devised by an organic in general. You could speak about ship building technology of the 1500’s but that does not mean in any way that there was any sort of circuitry involved. That being said, and also added to the way this article looks at medicines, and how it uses them as an example to also point out our cybernetic traits is getting a little far fetched as well. Pills foods or whatever is consumed by us if it is not something that replaces a part of our physical being with technology in itself then it is not cybernetics. Mind or body altering drugs or foods may have a chemical effect on our body, but just because something came from a lab that can alter our bodies does not mean that you can’t go out in to the woods and find something to eat that will either kill you or make you high or extremely ill, or some nasty combination of those things. 

Even the process of growing new organs for our own to be replaced with is not cybernetic. If our skin was ripped off and we have new skin grown for us if it was not synthesized by us it is not cybernetic. Using DNA already established by nature to grow a copy of skin for you is nothing more than knowing a little bit about what is already a natural process. Yes there may be a lot of hard core technology involved simply because we do not have organic factories that are dna hard coded to perform these tasks that we desire such as growing out kidneys for a specific species and blood type, but that does not mean that the addition of the part to us makes  us a machine hybrid in any way.

Reading Response to Cyborg Manifesto

After reading this article I would like to point out that the author of thie article seems to be confused on what the definition of a cyborg is; the cyborg is constantly spoken of throughout the article as if it were completely machine, and was more of an A.I. construct than a human that had been integrated with technology. However lively a machine may seem it does not remove it’s definition of a machine even if it has sentience from an advanced artificial intelligence; it is not a cyborg if it is not a human machine hybrid. Instead the author seems to point out how machines that are a part of society today show qualities of an organism themselves rather than actually being a machine organism hybrid, and it is also stated in the article that the capabilities of machines in the present do not contain themselves within former definitions of what a machine is due simply to the fact that they are capable of more and more.