Blog post #8

Before I took this cluster, I really didnt pay much mind to cloning and androids because I felt like the possibility of those things happening being very slim but after extensive reading. I now realize that it will play a huge role in the future sooner than we think and to a much bigger and important aspect of human morals. Cloning would have to be accepted and people would have to learn that clones are independently minded people and its just genes being cloned, not their minds so the thoughts would always be different. Androids and computers will be able to process the same brain power of all the humans in the world put together in 40 years or less, meaning to tasks being easier and faster to do. We can make robots to build sound structures in places prone to earthquakes while still keeping prices low enough so that it actually benefits people. Cloning would lead to medical advancements and possibly eliminating world hunger and and extinction of some animals. I also learned how to integrate sources and quotes effectively in my works so that it leads to most convincing essay and powerful phrases. I overcame the difficulty of finding books and sources from outside places and finding better sources than just those found on google.

Blog post #7

Caryl Churchill's play A Number depicts how nurture plays a roll in how people end up being. This is done with a clone and showing how he ends up being different from the original simply by the way he was raised. Bernard 1, the original, had a very sad childhood because his father didn't pay much attention to him and never was there for him when he was needed. However for Bernard 2, he did the complete opposite and showered him affected and appealed to his every need. This shows how even though genetic clones can be raised by the same person and still end up being different, leading to human identity being more unique even if it were to be compared to that of your clone. Churchill does this by showing Micheal Black and Bernard 2, the clones of Bernard 1, each having different paths and success stories. Churchill sides with nurture along with nature lead to human identity and not just one's genes. So this leads to human cloning not being as skeptical as once thought to be because even thought a person can have 21 different clones, none of them are ever going to end being the same exact person unless they both grew up under the exact same conditions and experiences, which face it will never truly happen unless its an experiment and even then the way the clones process that wont be the same as the original.

Final Draft planning

Im still missing some sources and I need to work on my citations even though I dont know how to cite with an authors list which is 5+ people long. Another thing I need to work on is introducing and using the film effectively because right now it seems like the weakest part in my essay. For one of my sources I would use a chapter from my textbook used in psychology to describe the evolutionary psychology aspect of attraction.

Blog assignment #6

“The first half of the twenty-first century will be characterized by three overlapping revolutions—in Genetics, Nanotechnology, and Robotics” ( Kurzweil 115). This quote explains how the future of the century is going to be revolved around, first we will try to understand genetics to the best of our ability and then include nanotechnology to help us do further improvements and then finally robots that will mimic humans as realistically as possible. This shows how AI will soon be equal or quite possibly more potent that humans and might even out think them. “While each revolution will solve the problems from earlier transformations, it will also introduce new perils” (Kurzweil 116). This shows how even will improvements, there will be new problems and one of the new problems with strong AI is that they will be smarter than us at one point but he then continues to state ways that we can control it and not lead it to our destruction.

A movie clip that shows this is Wall-E, a robot that is sent back to Earth after it was deemed unlivable because of its pollution levels. Wall-E tries to find life so that humans can return, while he had no one controlling him, he stuck to his task and even managed to find plant growing again. This shows how robots can benefit humans immensely in tasks that most humans cant accomplish and not risk any real loss. This is only part of what Kurzweil talked about and robots will only get better than Wall-E.

Blog assignment #5

Im optimistic about the future of robots and computers because even now at this stage of their development they have made our lives so much easier and it will continue to be like this. All robots and computer don’t act independently, instead they only preform tasks that they are told or made to do so any thoughts of them getting out of hand is pretty outrageous. Even then there will be ways to control them or to even prevent this such as with firewalls, anti-virus and such forth. As for computers being able to think like a human, it  won’t be possible because humans have random and very creative thoughts that would be very hard to be duplicated and improved by a computer, any other tasks can be exceled by a computer but that’s only if they are shown how to and I doubt they will learn it on their own because its not like they will have a mind of their own rather just be a super brain waiting to be used by a mind of a human. I doubt thought that in 30 years a super computer capable of all the thinking power of the entire world population will happen, it would take a large amount of testing and finding everything because everyday there are more improvements of things so there will have to be constant feeding of information and that will take up large amounts of memory and space, so 50 years seems more reasonable to say that it will be available to everyone in their homes.

my eng 103 research plan #1

I need to find a book source, this weekend I plan on going to the library to find one that is rich in information about my topic. The topic of the book itself however might be hard to find specifically because it would be generalized against specialized like the one I want to find.

Sample Research paper thoughts

After reading the sample research paper, I now have a clearer idea of how to lead with my topic. Also the formatting of the essay seems to more coherent with a paragraphs for quotes because originally I was going to try to add two sources into one paragraph but that might make it seem confusing and not work as well if they were independent. Another thing was how to lead from source to source.

Blog 4 Midterm practice

I agree with topic two because with Olivia Judson and “the Selfless gene” cooperation amongst a group is better than altruism for a family member. However the underlying purpose is to get something back later in the future according to Dawkins in “the selfish gene”. This is ultimately needed for the survival of your genes thanks to others. There have been countless stories where a breed of animal takes on the responsibility for another kind of animal or of the same kind but not even related. This is also true for humans in where you see the godparent or a close friend taking responsibility for the kid, as shown in the movie “Life as we know it” with Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel. In this movie they are both friends and godparents of the daughter of a friend and after her parents pass away, they are left to raise her and willing do so as a way to return the favor for past actions and debts. Dawkins explains how any altruism to strangers is really just being kind a courteous because there aren’t many risks people would take for strangers unless the pay off is worth it. Instead people try to help family only and even then there is a limit to far off the family tree to go. First cousins possibly being as far as possible before altruism becomes being kind again only for the fact that they are family. Altruism only truly takes place if there are grave dangers possible or large consequences either wise it wouldn’t be such a big thing to worry about. Altruism would be taking place all the time then if it weren’t there weren’t risks.

Sharing a Research Source

I have a movie from Nova that deeply illustrates the thought processes that going into choosing a mate. Its more than simply saying you like the person but there are various things that the mind picks up on and uses to decide who the best person to partner up is. It also allows me to bring in other sources and ultimately tie everything back up together.

Blog post #3

Olivia Judson and "The Selfless Gene" seemed to be more optimistic about altruism and goes about describing about how its good for the the community if it took place because it would lead them to taking care of each other and not making everything a big fight to see who's better. On the other hand Dawkins and "The Selfish Gene:" was more pessimistic about altruism and saying that it doesn't really benefit anyone because it isn't altruism unless its for someone your related to or else it would simply be kindness and in the end you would only do it for hopes that the favor is returned. Altruism challenged Darwin's idea of evolution as altruism was more powerful because it would lead to immediate action of genes being passed on or not while with survival of the fittest it would take time for the gene to kick in and be used either wise it would be pointless and lead to the gene fading away and eventually stop existing. While both agreed that altruism required sacrifice, they disagreed on the time it should be used. Judson was more pro community and cooperation, Dawkins was more pro family and everything being gene based.

My Thesis Statement

Mating is the result of several factors taken into consideration. The result of your choices and needs result in the partner you end up with. This is shown in "The Selfish Gene" in the way that we factor in our genes over others.

Research paper focus

I thought about focusing into a deep topic in my research paper instead of generalizing it. Mating and the deeper thought process that goes into picking our mates. I need to look for a book, possibly The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawson.

Essay #2

The first topic seems to be more interesting and actually involves more of survival of the fittest and other ideas of darwin that we think of. Another reason is because altruism is displayed in many ways that we don't think of. While saving others and doing something for our kids seems to be the same in motive, being good, but in reality there is various different reasons for why they will never be the same.

Freewrite about Research Paper

The topic im choosing for my research paper on topic #3 Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life. I can focus on various aspects like why people make certain decisions over others like what they think is right or wrong, why they pick certain people to date over others, and how people and their everyday routines are a result of their thinking methods. Another thing I could include is how most people with the creation of the internet and how they have been affected by it and its relation to cognitive science and how does the mind think certain ways over others.

Freewrite 9/19

The essay for Eng101, I decided to pick the second topic as it's easier in my opinion because we use technology everyday so we see the pros and cons better making it easier to write about. Also the quotes in Carr's essay are better since they are more direct and express ideas in a more coherent way. I do agree with the thesis statement because now if something isn't on the internet than we don't bother going into a deeper search. Before the library was a very popular thing because that basically had all the information we needed in a convenient place. However now with the with the creation of Google, we simply search up what we want and skim the article for what we want, and that takes away from the entire learning process because the information is being fed to us, rather than us looking for it our own and in the long run learning more than what we originally wanted.

Blog Assignment #1

At LaGuardia im studying Liberal Arts. I plan on staying here for my core classes and then eventually going to a 4 year college and receiving a degree in what I plan on being which i'm not sure on yet. I seem to think more like a psychologist, main reason being that I enjoy understanding why people think certain ways and the reason why they feel certain ways on certain ideas. I believe that scientists and humanists can talk to each other to help each other understand ideas more deeply and see things for a different aspect. I don't think that many people in the U.S are "scientific", they just accept things for how they occur and don't try to find the deeper meanings in things such as life, they are more focused in money and trying to be above others with first understanding what makes them different from others. In the cluster I hope to learn how psychologists and philosophers differ on views but yet share the same ideology on things. As for a little bit more about myself, my background is mexican and I enjoy playing handball. I was also captain of the handball team of my high school, Aviation High School. I'm a very open person and once I start talking i don't shut up but in certain situations i'm quieter than a fly on the wall.