Tag: Future

Have Humans Become Gods?

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Have humans become gods?

Over the course of 200,000 years, Homo Sapiens have managed to disintegrate every other Sapien including Neanderthals who lived on the Earth 20 million years, but does anyone weep for the Neanderthal?

New technologies and discoveries have been opened to humanity, allowing mass agriculture to large machines that run off of electricity. We harvest electricity from intricate devices that we’ve developed to harness the world and even the sun. This is all considered human progress, but where could the next frontier be?

Last year a new technology has allowed us to push forward humanity further than ever before, to the extent of even seeming science fiction.

That new Technology is called Crispr.

Photo Credit: www.21stcentech.com

Crispr, simply explained, is a DNA archive saved in each cell that is more easily programmable due to its powerful protein Cas-9 which edits DNA. Before the discovery of Crispr, genetic engineering required years to perform and very deep pockets. Now it’s 99% cheaper and only takes a few weeks in an ordinary lab.

Soon new generations of Crispr will be innovated and gene modifying will become even cheaper allowing people in ordinary labs to genetically enhance anything. So sooner or later it will have an effect on everyone. For instance genetically modified food already exists but now it’ll be far easier to create new strains of crops larger and more resistant to drought. Starvation will become less of a problem even in developing countries whom get their hands on these new strains of wheat or rice.

Entire new menus will be created over the next few decades including new tastes and healthy food just as delicious as ice cream. Mutating animals through selective breeding has been ongoing for thousands of years, far before agriculture. Attempting to change their DNA has been attempted for the last fifty years but now it’s cheaper and easier to do.

This genetic door that has been opened will help the fight against diseases or defects as we develop genes in mosquitoes to deny and attack malaria or create white blood cells that are more efficient in killing cancer cells. Yet with all the shining promise,  there’s a much more controversial side to this, such as genetically modifying humans.

Many believe that Darwinism has died and Idiocracy will rule the earth, however this isn’t as true as perceived. Already we have selective breeding of sorts where doctors may scan pregnant women and show that their children has down syndrome or other youth disorders. Many women decide to terminate the pregnancy. Research in Britain has shown a 30% dip in down syndrome cases. This is slowly eradicating the gene to extinction.

This genetic engineering may allow parents options to choose how their children look and how intelligent they are. Letting human course run its natural path will no longer will occur as modified humans are born and inevitably pass on their genes in the population. Then there is cloning, where in sixty years it may be possible to have an army of genetically modified super soldiers. This not only hits the heart and minds of science fiction lovers, but now is truly a controversy that humanity will be debating for the rest of its existence.

Blurred lines on what is morally right and wrong haunt the idea of genetic engineering, especially in the polarized U.S. However, no matter what laws are set, humans will start adopting body modifications with or without governmental permission. Allowing a disconnect between the government and genetic research can be hazardous for everyone. So keeping a keen eye on this research may be the only road to take.

This door which humanities shoved their foot into no longer can shut. Just as inventing nuclear weapons, you can’t simply delete it. People may think “okay, let’s ban human genetic modification and cloning- it’s too dangerous.”

That’s easy to believe, but look at in another perspective. Why would you impede human progress? Let’s say with mass production in one hundred years you’ll be able to buy super sight for an easy sale of 100 dollars(no inflation). There are now no diseases and the average human life expectancies triples; people may now even look younger as scientists fight against the side effects of aging. The average human has an IQ of 135 due to wide-spread designer babies and personal preference mutation.

With genetic engineering, mankind pushes the boundaries of nature. Humans may truly create species and bring back dead ones such as the wooly mammoth. Life is truly limitless in the hands of scientists for the very first time. Humanity does gods work for him, so what’s to say we’re not gods ourselves?

Everyday, humans will have mods to themselves, anything they want or can imagine. While some will always resist this practically necessary change, slowly and over generations everyone in future existence will be changed. So, an interesting question to ask oneself is in five hundred years, will anyone weep for the ‘traditional’ Homo Sapien?

South Park is the Future

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South Park is possibly the single most offensive and insensitive show on Earth. The show also has a knack of predicting the future.

Picture Credit: “www.hulu.com”

South Park was created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and revolves around four boys – Eric Cartman, Kenny McCormick, Stan Marsh, and Kyle Broflovski as they embark on numerous bizarre adventures in a small town in Colorado. The animated comedy satirizes and portrays sensitive topics in the most crude manner possible.

Somehow during the story making process the producers of the show manage to predict the future.

In episode two of the twelfth season (aired March 19, 2008) the boys are involved in the sacrifice of Britney Spears in order to better the corn harvest. The episode chooses Britney Spears’ downward spiral for its entire story. At the end, once they have killed Britney there is a broadcast that determines the next target. The target presented was a then 15 year old Miley Cyrus. How we wish South Park did not predict this one.

Picture Credit: “vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net”

In episode one of the sixth season (aired March 6 2002). Jared is giving a speech about how eating Subway has helped him lose weight. The four boys go to talk to him and convince him to tell the truth that Subway doesn’t help him lose weight, that he has aides that help him stay in shape. Jared announces that he has aides but the townspeople mistook it for the disease AIDS. Obviously they did not take this news well and Jared lost his job. He then comes up with idea that will regain his popularity, he creates the “Aides for Everyone” campaign and announces he wants to give every kid aides. The townspeople again mistake him for wanting to transmit the STI to their children.

This is no coincidence or luck, South Park can predict the future people.

Part 5

whynotstayin

The world could feel it, Act III of Humanity coming to a close. A fresh piece of paper poised and ready to go into the typewriter if Act IV of Humanity were to commence. In that moment all of the surviving humans all around the world, somehow all of them were listening waiting; their path had led them here. Their future rested in the sounds of a few keyboard clicks.

The boy closed his eyes, blocking out the swirling depths of the girl’s eyes, the inevitability of time. The boy was struck by how satirical it was that after the humans had put the world through the wringer, dragged it to hell and back, God or something else, had left the earth in the hands of one innocent and naïve human.

He opened his eyes at long last and looked into the warm and luminescent gold eyes of the girl; perhaps I am the messiah, the boy thought, but if I am the messiah then she, she is my prophet. His fingers hovered above the keyboard and he finally began to type,

<command> terminate existence </command>

His fingers where shaking uncontrollably as he typed the last symbol, he could smell the salty air drift into the cave on a slow and melodious evening breeze. Once he pressed enter the world would be just this simple breeze.

But all of a sudden his heart clenched, he curled his hand into a tight fist: but don’t all the people still alive deserve to live? Don’t they deserve to feel this sea breeze as well, he thought. A selfish need to live had reared its ugly head in him. The girl just looked at him, the fire in her eyes just warm coals, the ice in her eyes just a cool pond, the cosmos and history had swirled to a stop, waiting at this moment: you know I cannot make this decision for you. I have done for you what I can.

The world held its breath as the boy’s hand slid to the enter button and when the world could hold its breath no longer he whispered: God you are one cruel creature.

After:

Night fell on what was left of humanity for the last time that night; the next morning not one human soul stirred. The tawny eyed prophet sat at the front of the cave leaning against the entrance her feet sitting in the water, next to her the young and unlikely messiah; both sat there, life snuffed out of them the two most important people in the human chapter of history. Side by side casually leaning against rock staring into the wide and endless ocean, as if only resting in the middle of a teenage-angst-filled-adventure.

Photo Credit: http://www.shutterstock.com/

Huh, I guess I am on cruel creature.

Dirty Feet Blues

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I want to live a life with permanently dirty feet.

The assertion that one is obligated to be confined in shoes, at a job, where you sit in the same spot, and do the same thing everyday.

When I was younger I would play for hours on end without shoes on my feet.

I’d like to think of my dirty feet as an accomplishment. You’ve connected with the earth for so long that is has had time to change you.

The wicked cycle of an endless suburbia is keeping our feet much too clean. The same thing every single day.

Switch it up, take those damn shoes off — forget about your work emails for half an hour and take a minute to be alone.

Uninterrupted, just you and the earth. Breath it in. Feel the dewy grass tickle to spaces between your toes. Feel the rough asphalt grind away at your skin.

I would like to live a life with permanent dirty feet. In this technological age, people are seeming to forget that they’re washable.

You can get as dirty as you want because you can be cleaned. You can wash away the silt from your socks but you can’t replace the feeling of truly connecting with the earth.

Stop checking Twitter and take a look around. See the life that you’re missing out on being glued to the screen of your phone and go get dirty.

You’re too busy Instagraming at the tops of mountains for the likes rather than the memories and sense of accomplishment.

 

Whether you hold this true to yourself or not — this time we’re living in feels so artificial.

So, disconnect from the screen and go connect with what’s green.

Part 2

whynotstayin

Not for even one second did the boy break eye contact with the girl until he collapsed in front of the praying people. The girl carefully lowered her glare to the wound that was slowly growing on the boy’s front; without disturbing the rest of the group she carefully picked up the feather-light boy and brought him to an empty building.

She left shortly after, only to return with singed medical supplies. She quickly and deftly removed the tooth from the long gash, and then with a large amount of rubbing alcohol cleansed his grimy wound.

The boys eyes stayed closed the entire time; she spared a quick glance at his face before starting to stitch him closed, he was awake she knew but she also knew that he would not show any sign of it. Once the stitching was done she left the boy in the ruins of the building, to come out on his own terms, but she took the tooth with her.

She held the tooth in her left hand and strange weight settled in her stomach. For some reason she knew what this meant, but at the time she was unsure; eventually she would know what to do, more specifically in one days’ time. Minutes later the boy came out of the building and sat himself next to her. The last crowd on earth stared at the two of them from afar.

The girl started the conversation: I’m not sure who you are, where you came from, why you’re here; but I can tell you this you’re not on earth anymore, no, I’d like to personally welcome you to Tartarus. He looked down, at his hands: yes, I know. Her head whipped toward him her hair flying into her face: then why do I see hope in your eyes? He looks away from the searing stare of the girl: redemption? Redemption, is that a joke? He sighed through his nose: no.

Then what is it? She snaps. The world’s screwed up enough as it is without some cracked up looney with a superhero complex trying to tell anyone left that it gets better. Honestly I don’t know why I’m here, alright? It’s the only civilization for countries and I was about to die of blood loss. She stared at him for a long time, the weight in her stomach growing: rest for the night. She sighed: there’s – there’s something important that I would like to show you tomorrow.

When the boy found her in the morning she was turning the tooth around in her hand, as if comforting herself. What was it you wanted to show me? Follow me, she stood up quickly. Her short figure moving more gracefully and quickly than the boy’s ever would. They traveled in silence for the entire journey out of the city.

The tear and dust stained people disappearing into minuscule figures behind them; at the edge of the city the girl looked back to see the people who survived, only those too afraid to live left to live out the rest of earth’s days, she shook her head. She turned back toward the road: this is going to be a long walk, try not to tear your stitches. She turned off the road and began trudging into the woods that were at a steady decline toward the south bay.

Would you mind telling me what this is about? She stopped abruptly causing him to run into her back. The forest had been one of the few places not damaged in the waves of radiation; for some unexplained reason it had remained immutable, unchanging. The thick green was almost suffocating, the damp moss-y-ness in the air sickening.

Never has a new person ever wander into this city of dead; never have we seen anyone dragging hope like a heavy flag behind them. Is it coincidence that three days after the human race got down on its knees to pray for their savior, to pray for hope, a wayward traveler with hope alight in his eyes shows up on the door step of the one city that holds what’s left of God’s will? He stumbles back from her, lightning dancing through his brain: you don’t think I’m the messiah do you? She looks down and swallows: We still have four miles, let’s continue moving.

Photo Credit: http://www.tate.org.uk/ Painting By: J. M. W. Turner

When they reached the south bay the girl smoothly dragged a decrepit kayak from under a dense covering of foliage. She calmly lowered herself into the back, ready to push off from shore but he, the unlikely savior, was cemented to the higher, dry sand. The girls tawny eyes were cast downward, unwilling to meet his pale green ones: messiah or not, the last of the humans the rest of the world needs a savior right now and I – it all comes down to you, are you getting in the kayak or not?

In that moment something unknown spurred the boy on, he unceremoniously dropped himself into the front of the kayak and took the paddle and handed it to the girl. As they pushed off the boy let a question tumble from his mouth: why aren’t you the savior? The girl continued to paddle, with all the force of two people: I have my reasons. There was a pause: It’s…a story for another time.

SAT SCORES OH NO

mushuoo
Photo Credit:http://hyperionlearning.me/

After years of mentally preparing myself to endure the most mentally draining four-hours of my high school career, I have just completed taking a second SAT test.

I have so many thoughts about this tedious task that every high school student in the United States is required to do.

I think it is ridiculous that a standardized test score can determine a student’s future. A good student with a high GPA and a lot of extra curricular activities can get an average score solely because they might not be the best test taker, but that one test score has a large weight on which colleges accept them.

I do not fully understand why standardized tests have become a way of determining students academic careers for such a long time, or why they have become of such a high priority. Although most colleges look at students holistically, California State schools consider students purely on GPA and standardized test scores.

However, I understand the reasoning behind standardized testing; giving students a chance to show the general academic knowledge they have accumulated in high school.

But why does a test have to be the only thing that proves a student has gained knowledge? Why is it that the pressure to get a high-test score can consume a student’s conscience for months so that they focus all of their time studying for one generalized, tricky test?

I know, because it consumed me.

Part 1

whynotstayin

It was not long after the nuclear wipe out took place, a monumental event known as The Great Purge. All that was left were just scraps of the human race, the vagabonds, the cowards, the rats from the very darkest corners of grime.

How ironic, only the people too afraid to live were the last one’s left on the earth. The meek shall inherit the earth – it was foretold eons ago, well it seems that prophecy had finally come to pass, and the world had gone to spiraling out of control for it.

In the days before Act III of Humanity came to pass, the people left to breathe in the ashes of their loved ones sank to their knees.

Religion had long since faded from the lips of those whose God was so seemingly absent; it had turned into a simple words used to describe The Great Purge. But even so, with lungs clouded with ash, the people looked to hazy orange skies, with blood-shot eyes and veins bulging painfully from beneath sickly and wan skin.

They looked up at the unmerciful smog and smoke-filled sky as oil slicked tears fell from shattered souls, the meek prayed for the absent, so-called, messiah.

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The last of humankind had gathered in small groups of tired and hopeless people, scattered throughout the world; but, the only ones that matter were gathered in the center of what had once been called the city of the future.

It was on that day, one day till night officially fell, that a scruffy teenager barely sixteen dragged himself through the streets of the burnt city.

He had the eyes of days past; clear and pale green; offsetting, in a face caked with death and heartache; hopeful and optimistic, set into the face of someone forced to grow up to quickly.

He had the tooth of a long starved animal buried in his abdomen and he was quickly running out of blood to spare.

The surviving meek where huddled at the very tip of the city near the, now poison, ocean; as the boy stumbled down the road toward them, his eyes met with the eyes of a girl standing at the front of all the survivors.

The girl stared at the boy who was slowly making his way toward her. She was short with even shorter hair, it was cut into a choppy bob that fell midway down her neck. She was distinctly Asian in heritage, Singapore, this city had once been Singapore.

She was pale, powdery, with dark jet black hair and they eyes of a bird of prey. Her eyes though, that is what truly set her apart from the rest of the meek.

They were tawny and gold like a lion, rimmed in a thick layer of dark lashes. Although warm in color, her eyes had the cold, impersonal, precision of a microscope, they were like ice and fire in one person.

She did not strike one, outright as meek, but what had grouped her in with the cowards and vagrants was not that she was cowardly, but she had never tried to live.

Reunited at Last

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There once was a little Korean girl living in an orphanage and an American soldier who was stationed in South Korea.

This soldier fell in love with this little girl and decided that she was meant to be a part of his family back home.

The little girl excited to start a new life didn’t understand that she would be leaving her home and her three older siblings for a new life.

Photo Credit: https://upload.wikimedia.org/

The little girl returned back to the United States with the solider, ready to meet her new family. She became the fifth member of this new family, leaving her past behind.

She wasn’t necessarily welcomed with open arms to her new family. Her new mother was unsure about the adoption and her new brother and sister also adopted, acted as if she was the only adopted one due to her ethnicity.

As she got older, her childhood memorize faded and she made new ones. Over the years she became incredibly close with her new father. When she was nine he passed away, leaving her alone with her mother and two siblings.

The girl, not so little anymore, grew up into an amazing young woman. She graduated college, danced professionally, got a good job, married and eventually had two daughters of her own.

Photo Credit: http://img4.wikia.nocookie.ne

Years had passed since her second daughter had been born when she received a letter in the mail from Holt Adoption Agency. This letter was from the agency that was responsible for her adoption, saying that her Korean family was looking for her.

A month later she flew to Korea to meet her family.

It is now 2015 and her family is visiting her in America for the second time.

Car Chaos

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This week, I stumbled across yet another technological advancement while reading news articles.

Since September 2014, Google has released roughly 50 self-driving cars out and about on the streets of California. These futuristic Lexus’ and Audi’s have been roaming the streets in hopes to prove that they are safe to drive themselves.

So far, there have been only 11 accidents that were minor and included no injuries.

“Not once was the self-driving car the cause of the accident,” said Google’s Chris Urmson.

In my opinion, although self-driving cars sound kind of cool, they also sound terrifying. What if we know something is wrong with our car, but we cannot control it because the car is in control of itself?

However, Google makes some very strong points as to why their cars are safer than human driven cars: robots do not get tired, they are not emotional, they are over-cautious rather than fearless, and these cars can see things human’s cannot always see.

Is this an unrealistic plan with too many issues involved? Or what our future will be like?

Photo Credit: extremetech.com

If I was President

kennyroo
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Photo Credit to: http://uanews.org/

The world would be a better place if I were President.

I’m well aware I’d be a little bit over my head with some topics, but let me tell you what I would change right off the bat.

Let’s talk foreign affairs. Let’s talk Women’s rights.

How about we make sure that fewer kids go to bed hungry every night, in our own country.

When you’re on a plane, an educational video comes on the screen before you take off.

The video tells the passenger to put on their own oxygen mask before helping their child – or anyone else, if the plane was to go down.

The same standard should be held to certain aspects of foreign affairs.

Women’s rights? Where do I begin? There needs to be more women elected into higher positions so we have both genders represented on Capital Hill.

If I was President, I would make sure I practice what I preach.

So, watch out election of 2033, because I have some big plans.