LIB 200 Critical Thinking Blog Assignment #8

My thoughts on science and humanities have expanded since the start of this course. This class was very interesting and the content was unexpected (a very pleasant surprise). I do see both science and the humanities differently now. I see how they can combine to make amazing things, and how if there is lack of  humanism in science the path can get very dark and bumpy. I still am more of a humanities person but I do see the positive things science and technologies bring to improve/advance our society.

I am very optimistic about the future, I just believe that regulations have to be put in place in order to enforce the ethical codes we have set in society. If they are not put in place it would be a little scary thinking out what further damage man can do to the ecosystem in the name of science and technology.

 I thouroghly enjoyed all of the readings including the two books. Einsteins Dreams was filled with brilliant observation and wondorous imagination. Mary Shellys Frankenstein warns mankind not to attempt to think that it is so supreme that it has the capabilities of emulating nature in creation. Just because you are capable of doing something does not mean that it is right for you to do it.

Looking forward to see what interesting new innovations come along together in both thought and science.

LIB 200 Critical Thinking Blog Assignment #7

We have learned about quite a few scientist who have contributed amazing discoveries to the world in this class. Some are world renowned like Albert Einstein, and J. Robert Oppenheimer. Others are not so well known because of their gender or race like Rosalind Franklin and Percy Julian; but nevertheless have made amazing discoveries in science. They are all truly inspiring because of their genius, I chose Percy Julian because his was a special case. He was making astondable scientific discoveries during his time as a scientist, he was also an African American man in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement.

Percy Julian was a chemist; also the first person to use plants for medicinal cures and household products. He was an African American man living in the south during one of the most dangerous times to be one. As a child he came across a horrible discovery that he would never forget; he went for a walk in the woods looking for plants one day and came across a young African American boy hanging from a tree.

Percy Julian was able to attend college but not able to recieve his Ph.d in America because of his race. He had to travel over seas to Geneva to finish his studies. When he returned home he began to work for Glidden and made many new discoveries (mainly household products) derived from soybeans. He had his own lab and worked diligintly and patiently until he got the results he was looking for.

His greatest discovery was the discovery of cortisone, which is derived from you guessed it soybeans! Cortisone relieved arthritic pain and made it possible for those suffering from arthritis to walk again. At the same he and his family were getting death threats as well as hate crimes commited against them. This was all happening because he decided to move his family and buy a home in an afluent neighborhood; which just so happened to be a caucasian only neighborhood.

Percy Julian managed to overcome all of these obstacles and managed to become one of the great chemist of our times. He became a mentor to young African Americans, and told them that yes even as a man of color it is possible to accomplish success.

Percy Julian being able to accomplish so much while facing so much adversity is an inspiration to me. It just further proves to me that anything is possible once you truly believe that you can accomplish it, even when walls are placed firm in front of you.

LIB 200 Critical Thinking Blog Assignment #6

My research paper topic is research prompt #2--New York World's Fair Vs. global warming.

I will show evidence of how the New York Worlds Fair, specifically the Futurama exhibt, is partially to blame for global warming .

I used multiple sources I found by clicking on the research wiki.

1) Leinberger, Christopher B. The Option of Urbanism: Investing in a New American Dream. Washington, DC: Island, 2008. Print..
-- It's a book that perfectly describes how Futurama sold Americans a dream, the benefits, the consequences, and the big question...what do we do know?

2)Kleniewski, Nancy. Cities, Change and Conflict: A Political Economy 
---This book shows how the governement helped promote Futuramas vision of suburbia by making it easier to obtain homes.

This topic is very interesting to me, in particular because I'm taking an Urban Sociolgy class this semester and we have discussed the topic of the building of suburbia and urban areas.

LIB 200 Critical Thinking Blog #5


Mid-Term Practice

Prompt#1--"The"Vision"of"the"Future"in"the"NewYork"World’s"Fair"of"1939:"Utopia"vs."Reality"

• The New York World's Fair took place between 1939-1940, the most popular exibit was the Futurama exibit.
• Futuram was huge in size, and showed people then what cities would look like in the near future of 1960. Not only were cities depicted in small scale models but so where the towns that lay on the out skirts.
• Everything was lush and green, and saw suburbia as there pathway to clean living, and homeownership.
• There were massive highways leading to and from the city, the world was at the palm of your hands; only if you had car to get you around.
• Government supported these "superhighways" to be built.
• A massive migration to the suburbs began to take root.
• Towns started to change, the city became were people worked and the suburbs is where they lived.
• Overcunsumption began to take hold growing more and more as the decades went forward.
• Fossil fuels began to become high in demand, which meant more toxic fumes to be released into the ozone layer.
• Ford partially to blame, the promoted the building of superhighways and the use of cars.
• Now we have to figure to erase decades and decades of the American dream Futurama was selling.

LIB 200 Critical Thinking Blog Assignment #4

In films such as the Terminator and The Matrix robots have taken over and now rule the future ; a future were  man is a slave. Their intelligence is of the strong AI capacity which  make them have a feeling of conscious awareness which is simply evoked by a computer.This robot interprutation

is the same one depicted in Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

The conter-arguement is Ray Kurzweil's book The Singularity is  Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. He believes that robotics will surpass human intelligence and assist human achievement. He os totally at ease with thhis idea because he believes they will not do us any harm.

Most  of the robots depicted in the movies are of the Philip Dick kind, they are almost identical to humans in every way and want to cause us harm.

Robots are not as scary to people in real life (though the ones in the you tube videos shown in class were a littl creepy). Many of them have become humanized, and are actually quite cute. Society welcomes robotics because it makes their life easier and sometimes it is more cost effecient (if you own a business) than hiring a human.  

My point of veiw is that yes robotics can be  amazing (look at the robots that travel into space, pretty awesome) but we should also be cautious as to how intelligent we makes this technology. I am not sure if it is because I have seen too many sci-fi movies in which robots take over or if it is because of my creative imagination but I do believe the question of robots  in society will start to get tricker as technology advances.

LIB 200 Critical Thinking Blog Assignment #3

I was finding it really hard to narrow a topic down for my research paper. There were many topics that were of intrest to me. Here they are:

Research paper idea #2--The vision of a car-driven future of suburbia in the New York The Worlds Fair (1939-1940) vs. the problem of global warming.

Also from #2 ---The promise of human cloning (stem cell research?) vs. potential problems (from bio-ethicists, etc.)


Research paper idea #5---Historical research on a Scientist and (a controversy).
There were so many options for this idea. A few I would have considered were Galileo Galiliei, Albert Einstein, and Jane Goodall.


Research paper idea #6---Portraying Robots (or Human Clones) in Film.
This one was also of great ineterst to me not only because of the intriguing topic but also because I was a fan of Terminator, Battlestart Galactica, The Matrix, and Stephen Spielburgs AI.


I narowed it down to two topics, ideas #2 and #6. Very difficult to choose, for one is sci-fi and the other was at onetime just a vision (which dare I say sci-fi as well?) before it was actually put into place.

LIB 200 Critical Thinking Blog Assignment  #2

 One of my favorite television shows of all time is Lost on ABC. Honestly I am not much a television watcher but this show pulled me in. It is actually pretty complicated to describe briefly but I'll give it a shot. A plane headed to Los Angeles from Australia crashes onto a mysterious island, somehow everybody who survives is linked to one another in some way. Later on it gets more complicated because then physics gets involved as well as metaphysics. There are elements depicting good and evil as well as philosphical concepts.

It was a very intriguing show, I enjoyed it very much and was very sad to see it end. When I would watch it it always left me in a state of "awe", and wonderment. It was like a complicated puzzle you were trying to put together with some pieces that almost fit and others that do not even look like they are part of a puzzle at all.

Watching the show did not make me feel threatened by this area of science at all, in fact it made me curious sbout it; I wanted to learn more! Never have I felt so challenged (intellectually) by a show on televison, ABC at that!