Reverse Revelation

In this class we have spent most of our time discussing Darwin and the implications of his actions and publishing on society. Whether right or wrong in the the context of the class, it is clear that there is a biased opinion throughout the course of anything that contradicts evolution. However, this class is not the only place where that holds true. The same thing can be said of our modern society. This has inspired me to do something similar to Darwin's actions of discovering evolution based on observation. Just as Darwin sat and observed the world and came to that revelation of evolution, I plan to talk about what revelation I have come to from sitting in our class and from observing the world around me.

To start out simply, I'd like to discuss the things that are necessary for evolution to take place. But first let's start with a definition of evolution from Merriam-Webster;

"the historical development of a biological group (as a race or species) : phylogeny b : a theory that the various types of animals and plants have their origin in other preexisting types and that the distinguishable differences are due to modifications in successive generations; also : the process described by this theory."

This leaves me asking the question 'what is needed for evolution', or to go one step back, 'what is needed for a species to survive'? The main three essentials are food, sleep and sex. Food to nourish us and to power our bodies with energy, sleep to rest and to allow our bodies to recover and repair, and last sex for the purpose of perpetuating the species. In order to survive, all we need is to prefect these skills, so why are we the curious organisms that we see today? If we follow the rules of evolution, I would say rabbits are the winners: they are able to breed fast, eat food and sleep efficiently to allow for the perpetuation of the species, which, according to evolution, is all that is the purpose of any creature.

This moves on to our next topic of discussion: what humans have that is not necessary in evolution. The first of these is certain emotions or feelings. Granted, having a sense of fear is definitely something that could have helped us to acquire food in the past, but what about embarrassment, specifically blushing. There is no reason for this emotion; it has no place in helping us in any of the three categories of food, sex and sleep, which begs the question of why do we feel it and why does the blood rush to our face what advantage does this give us? This alone provides a huge gap in what Darwin had to say, and leads me to a revelation.

Humans don't exists for the purpose of perpetuation of the species. Clearly there is something more to our existence. This is tribute to the fact that humans have an intelligence unmatched by anything else on the planet, but we also have something much much more important; the desire to improve self and society. Most humans have the desire to better themselves and to improve things and the quality of life around them. No other known life-forms show these same characteristics on scale that we do. That alone makes us unique to anything else on this planet, and much of the purpose of evolution.

In conclusion, our current existence surpasses anything that evolution intended for us to be in all areas, from thought to physical ability. We have built buildings, bridges, and monuments unlike anything else known in the universe. We have learned to fly and to break our physical limits of being grounded to the point where exploring other worlds beyond our own. Nothing can stop us; we are indeed are something more than a pile of chemicals and cells. We are the human race, whose reach knows no bounds, and if what evolution says is wholly true I feel I'd be in cave somewhere right now defecating myself.

Citation:

National Academy of the Sciences. "Frequently Asked Questions about Evolution and the Nature of Science." in Darwin 3^rd ed . Phillip Apple man, ed. New York: W.W.Norton, 2001.

Darwin, Charles. "Selections from Darwin's Work." pp 67-254 in Darwin.3^rd ed. Phillip Appleman, ed. New York: W.WNorton, 2001

Paley, William. "Natural Theology." in Darwin. 3^rd ed. Phillip Appleman, ed. New York: W.WNorton, 2001

"evolution." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009.
Merriam-Webster Online. 30 November 2009

"Blushing 'biggest gap in evolutionary theory'". telegraph.co.uk. 11/30/09 .

"Evolution: An Unscientific Faith." Web. 30 Nov 2009. .

Alchemy: A Dangerous Science

Alchemy is known today as the beginning of chemistry as we know it, as well as creating the first real advancement. The science of alchemy had two goals. The first was to take any common element (iron, copper, lead, iron, etc...) and transmute them into gold. This was known as the Philosopher's Stone and was well sought after by many chemists in many different countries and continents (though mainly Europe and Asia). The idea of having a nearly limitless amount of gold was too good to pass up for most who heard about it and readily dove into the science of Alchemy. The other main goal of Alchemy was to create what is known as an “elixir of life” which would grand the drinker eternal life. Going by the Emerald Tablet, which gave instructions to create both the stone and the elixir. Even though all attempts were failures, Alchemy still contributed to various scientific fields.

Paracelsus (or Philip von Hohenheim) made many large advances in the medical field, all of which can easily be construed as alchemy because they deal with chemical imbalances. He believed that people needed to balance their body (a microcosm) with their surroundings in nature the macrocosm), and that most physical illnesses could be cured through chemical means. He is also considered the father of toxicity, in that he theorized that poisonous substances are so only when taken in correct amounts, and that any and all substances can be dangerous if overused (i.e. overdosing).

Viral Marketing and Alternate Realities- Changing the Way We Play?

Viral marketing is defined as "any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence". For example, if anyone can has ever owned a hotmail email account, especially in the late nineties, at the bottom at every message you sent out there was a little signature that advertised hotmail by stating "Get your free e-mail address today at hotmail.com". Viral Marketing has three very simple goals in mind. The marketing campaign must be low-cost/very cost effective, successfully advertises the product, and adds to a possible fan base/stick out among the rest of the competition.

Financially speaking, you can't go wrong with a viral marketing campaign, especially when the use of the internet is involved. According to Gaebler.com, the average 30-second television commercial costs approximately $350,000.00. Why spend that kind of money when you could buy a domain for $20, host it on the company's server, hire two to three web designers and developers, a few writers and create a possible cash prize for much, much less? The only cons to this plan are a possible lower recognition rate compared to placing your promotion on, say TBS. In the past three to four years, multiple companies have used the viral marketing approach from Doritos to Sun Microsystems to Guinness.

From this idea, a new form of media emerged. Viral media is taking the internet by storm with the newly dubbed Alternate Reality Games. Alternate Reality Games is a form of viral media that can (but it not limited to) promote a product or cause through social networking. For example, in a trailer for the Bungie Studios game Halo 2, at the last second a website flashed at the bottom of the screen in very small text giving a website, www.ilovebees.com. At first glance, the website looked like a site created in the mid-90's about this woman's bee farm. Right after that conclusion was given, however, the site began to change before your eyes. Pictures would blur, random images would pop up and the real story began. The story told of an AI from the future who was using the website as a sort of distress signal and in fear of her messages being intercepted by "the enemy". Players created websites, fan pages, wikipedia articles and social networking means to spread the word about this game. Why just advertise though normal means when you could spend less money and create an experience fans will remember for the rest of their lives? It ensures a fan base and is fun and smart at the same time.

At the same time, however, Alternate Reality Games can be used to promote awareness of certain causes. For example, Dr. Jane McGonigal who is highly revered in the art of viral media, created a project titled World Without Oil. WWO gave players a situation which stated "What if we ran out of oil in the world? Better yet, what would happen if we ran out tomorrow?" The response was phenomenal. Players created videos, comics, blogs and documentaries about the subject. They were only asked to not play a fictional character they create, but play themselves and be themselves. Last year, the British Red Cross created an Alternate Reality Game titled Traces of Hope which was created to show off their family-tracking system, used to track relatives of war-torn families.

Critics of the internet, and the younger generation, like to state that the internet is only isolating people. What I'm proposing is that while that very may very well be, Alternate Reality Games are also bringing people together whether the game is for fun or product or cause. In 2008, Dr. McGonigal, along with McDonalds and the Olympic Committee created The Lost Ring, the first ARG that was played on almost every continent (minus Antarctica) and brought players together from across the globe to compete in games to gain the title of world record holder, just like the olympics were created for.

Viral media is growing exponentially by the year and it makes me wonder if it will become the new norm of media. Videos are posted at the bottom.

Sources:

"Alternate Reality Game." Web. .

“Viral Marketing.” Web. .

Wilson, Ralph, . "The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing." Viral Marketing Today (2005): n. pag. Web. 26 Sep 2009. principles.htm>.

"Year Zero Case Study." 42Entertainment.com. 08 January 2008. 42Entertainment, Web. 26 Sep 2009.

"Red Cross Launches Cutting-Edge Family Search Game." Reuters (2008): 7. Web. 26 Sep 2009.

"How Much Do Television Ads Cost?." Web.

Genetic Prefection

"What if you could have genetic perfection? Would you change who you are, if you could?"This quote from Repo: The Genetic Opera is also a moral dilemma that, chances are, our society will be asking ourselves in the next five to fifty years. This idea begs many questions, the answers of which can be confusing, frightening, and possibly recursive. Should we allow scientists to abnormally extend life? Or what about forced evolution; should or should we not be able to control our own genetic destination? Lastly – and easily the most frightening – should we allow genetic or surgical procedures as a possible fashion statement? With these implications on the horizon, we may just see a revolution in genetics similar to the technological revolution of the eighties.

Before we begin, let us discover what gene therapy is and how it works in a general sense. According to the Human Genome Project, gene therapy is "a technique for correcting defective genes responsible for disease development." When it comes to performing this technique there are several approaches. To quote the project;

A normal gene may be inserted into a nonspecific location within the genome to replace a nonfunctional gene,

An abnormal gene could be swapped for a normal gene through homologous recombination,

The abnormal gene could be repaired through selective reverse mutation, which returns the gene to its normal function,

The regulation (the degree to which a gene is turned on or off) of a particular gene could be altered

Now that we have a basic understanding, let's move on the issues at hand.

Most prominently, gene therapy is advertised to be the cure all of diseases, such as genetic disorders as well as cancer and many others. Recently there have been breakthrough in the cure for AIDS and leukemia using gene therapy. However, one of the side effects of this would be increasing the maximum age level of almost everyone. Wouldn't it be nice to live forever, and be able to tell your great great grand children about life in the late nineties? Well with advent of gene therapy, this may be a possibility. However there's a down side to this; what happens when the population continues to grow and no one is dying. If this is the case there may be a potential crisis on our hands, anywhere from housing to food shortages. Our only solutions would be space colonization or self population control .

Another concern that could be brought about with the advent of gene therapy and the genetic revolution could be forced human evolution. What if you could adjust you genes so that you are specifically good at something? For instance, adjusting your eyes to see at night. Or altering vocal chords to produce a nicer singing voice. These are just the beginnings of things that could be possible if we manipulate our own genes to suit our environment. Right now many scientists believe that humans have stopped evolving,]. If this is true, than in the future in order for our species to continue to survive, this may become a necessity. But when will we know if we have gone too far?

The last, and the by far the most terrifying in my opinion, would have to be gene therapy as a cosmetic procedure. While this may be a quite a way off, seeing as gene therapy is not perfected, but imagine what would happen in our society culturally and physically. Say you were born with brown eyes and wanted blue. Well for a small fee and quick injections it could be yours. Along these lines are the potential for things that humans aren't suppose to have; anything from third arms, to having horns as a fashion statement. This is a very scary use of gene therapy.

In conclusion, gene therapy has much to offer us as a society, and as the human race as a whole. With the advent of curing disease we will be able to virtually eliminate death caused by anything from common ailments to complex disorders . With control of our genes we will be able to continue humanities evolutionary track as we see fit. Finally, we will have complete control over the way or bodies look and behave. So I will leave you with this quote;

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, con a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

-Robert A. Heinlein.

Citations:

· DeNoon, Daniel. "'Major Advance' in HIV Gene Therapy." WebMD - Better information. Better health.. 16 Feb. 2009. 24 Sep. 2009 <http://www.webmd.com/hiv-aids/news/20090216/hiv-gene-therapy-major-advance>.

"Gene Therapy." Oak Ridge National Laboratory. 11 June 2009. 24 Sep. 2009 <http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/medicine/genetherapy.shtml#whatis>.

"Human Evolution." A Relationship Between Evolution, Genetics, Morality, Ethics, Psychology, Education, and Culture. 24 Sep. 2009 <http://www.onelife.com/evolve/manev.html>.

Michael, Michael. "Gene therapy has promise, pitfalls for society - Science." The Johns Hopkins News-Letter. 6 Nov. 2009. 24 Sep. 2009 <http://media.www.jhunewsletter.com/media/storage/paper932/news/2006/11/09/Science/Gene-Therapy.Has.Promise.Pitfalls.For.Society-2453688.shtml>.

"Promising Gene Therapy Could Rejuvenate Aging Brain Networks." Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology. 2 May 2000. 24 Sep. 2009 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/05/000501081815.htm>.

Weiss, Rick. "washingtonpost.com: Scienc

e on the Ethical Frontier." washingtonpost.com - nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines. 12 Oct. 1997. 24 Sep. 2009 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/science/ethical/cosmetic.htm>.

Mom wasn't Exactly right about video games

I'm sure many of us can remember our mom's and dad's telling us that playing those video games wasn't good for us.They would say we should do something constructive or go outside and play, since video games are rotting your brains. Well a recent study has found that one game in particular seems to have the opposite effect. According to Chris Kohler's post at wired.com

"Investigators at the Mind Research Network in New Mexico [found] ... Playing Tetris actually gives you more brain to work with." In other words, they describe the brain developing two things upon consistent play; greater efficiency and thicker cortexes - in other words a growing brain. However, there was no indication in the on the effects of the games addictive sound track.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2009-09/01/tetris-can-alter-the-structure-of-your-brain.aspx