today in class we talked about whether Captain Pike is better off in captivity of the aliens or in his wheelchair. The conclusion was that he is better off in the 'wheelchair' because he would be able to keep his thoughts to himself.

But when he was in captivity, even though they could read most of his mind, he was still able to fight back and communicate verbally with whomever he chose to. However in his current state, his ability to communicate in any way is severely limited, which must be frustrating for him. In this situation, he probably wishes someone could read his mind. Personally, I think that he is better off in captivity because it seems that one of the defining traits of humans is interaction.

what do you think is better, wheelchair or confinement, explain?

A sci-fi movie came out a while back entitled The Island. It has been a while since I have seen it and my recollection is a bit sketchy, but the movie brings up interesting topics that tie in very much with this class. For those that have not seen it, here is a very brief synopsis of the plot. The movie takes place on a futuristic earth where society is obsessed with achieving immortality. In order to do this, every person has a clone of himself/herself made, and this society of clones is placed on the island - hence the movie title. When something detrimental occurs to a "real" person's body or organs, the damaged parts are removed and replaced by the corresponding parts from the clone, thus killing the clone so the "real" person can have longevity. In order to control the society of clones on the island, religion is introduced. The religion makes the clones very submissive. Before a clone is killed for its organs or body parts, a prayer is said for the clone, and the clone thinks that it is going to "heaven".

So this movie addresses many important issues, the biggest being where science draws the line on morality. What is moral and what is not? Although they may be clones, are they still not human? While society's intentions for immortality may be genuinely good, (I can't think of anyone who would not want to live longer.) is it still necessary? There can be a lot of bad in this idea too. For instance, what would happen if a man like Hitler achieved immortality?

Where does morality come from? Most people base their morality on what is good for themselves or society as a whole. If an idea seems beneficial, then it seems moral as well. It only becomes immoral when excessive avarice fuels an individual to the point where said individual encroaches on the liberties of others. Morality also depends on the circumstances at hand. For instance, it is not immoral to steal food if one is suffering from starvation. Ultimately, it seems as if morality is nothing more than what is allowed "acceptable" within society. For instance, it was not moral for a woman to wear shorts in the 1600s. Now, it is the fad, and nobody thinks it is necessarily immoral, although it would have been back then. Morality is nothing more than complying with the social norm.

An Idea can change your life

Recently I went to a competition, I forget the name, but then whats in a name. The point being it was a contest celebrating new inventions originating from the youth of today. The ideas I got to witness were probably the best I have ever seen, right out of some sci-fi novel. There were inventions pertaining to the energy crisis, medical improvements agriculture, domestic necessities and surprisingly even honey cultivation. I was completely spell-bound the entire three hours. I realised then what we needed was ideas like these, inventions that would solve the immediate problems of the world and not gizmos that made human life easier, cause in the past couple of years there has been a noticeable change in the way people work and operate. They lay more emphasis on comfort and easiness( I feel a little hypocritical here, but I have the freedom of expression so why not). Not that it is a bad thing, but our above change in lifestyle has caused some real damage to the ecosystem, mainly ecosystem degradation etc.

My point being that such ideas such as flying cars and android robots helping in our houses can take the back seat for a while and we need to pay a lot more attention to pressing issues such as nature. One invention that really made me say "genius" was an energy production system which used the wind pressure created by passing cars on freeways in substantial electrical energy, therefore less pressure on thermal power plants = less carbon emission and less use of natural resources. Another invention pertained to sustainable agriculture. An applicable drip tape with fertilizer and manure in its very fibres. Life-tape it was called if I remember. The no pressure syringe was also a marvelous invention. Put in the vaccine and the thing works with minimal human caused errors (this invention does make human work easier but then it saves more lives so it doesnt fit into the category of wasteful inventions I just condoned). The best part about these ideas were that they weren't ideas, they were solid working models so you would probably see them being used in the immediate future. I was inspired seeing these inventors who were no older than me. They will be the heroes of tomorrow and I am proud to be one of the first to witness their inventions first-hand.

Citation - Blog post title is a copyright of the Aditya Birla Group.

The Present Future

I have been an avid fan of popular science for the past 4 years now, having first picked up the journal(or should I call it a magazine) during my high school years and the first thing I noticed was the fantastic and exciting future that it presented.

Flying cars, the hadron collider, cyborgs etc and now as I look back these things don't seem to be futuristic anymore. A couple of months after I read about the cyborg robots, the first humanoid robot Honda Asimo came into existence, the case of the first human cyborg kevin Warwick also came to my attention during that time, The CERN Collider also started up in 2009, flying cars don't seem to be so far away either.

This all brings into question as to where is this future leading to. Man seems to have no bounds to both imagination and determination in terms of pushing the boundaries. I keep wondering what would the world of tomorrow look like, the world inhabited by our descendants, would it be like the stories I read in Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, which to me seemed surreal then, but now so very achievable. A thought to ponder.