Last Thoughts

I have seen these advertisements before and finally got the urge to look them up and I have to say I love it. I think these two commercials are good examples that the human race can head to a better future as long as we keep our curiosity and respect for the world and everything on it. These have some aesthetics but are mostly cultural and scientific. These are the new Discovery commercials, I love the World (Boom de yada)

http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/discovery-promos-the-world-is-just-awesome.html

http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/musical-mashes-boom-de-yada.html

The De-Evolution of Man

The De-Evolution of Man

In the dawn of mankind, humans had to live like animals in comparison with modern society. The people had two simple goals: to stay alive and to procreate. If an individual could not meet these goals then he or she would die. In this fashion, the humans that lived on had traits and abilities that would reach the two goals and those characteristics would be passed on to the next generation. It is from these traits that the human race as strived and fought to survive over the millennia. Some of these characteristics that have passed through the generations can be seen today like how humans pick mates. Proof of this natural selection of mankind can be found in the human body in vestigial organs, such as the appendix and the tailbone. The appendix was used to digest plant matter in earlier humans and the tailbone is a remnant of previous ancestors that had tails. In general, traits and parts that were less beneficial to the survival of the individual were replaced and gradually decayed so that only valuable genes would survive. This is, however, until the dawn of the modern age of technology, when the strongest were not the only ones who would survive.

The drive of science has always been curiosity and with that motivation many discoveries have been made. The drive of technology is to take those discoveries and make them useful to society. From suits of armor for protection to automobiles and planes for faster travel to the internet for connecting with other people all around the world, technology would lead to innovations that would be used to expand the capabilities of people. However, like the less useful traits of the ancestors, the ability to complete tacks without the use of these innovations has been slowly decaying. Nicholas Carr has also noticed this trend in his article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid.” In the article, Carr writes about his realization that the over-usage of Google and skimming articles online was starting to hinder his ability to read for extended lengths of time. Carr then goes on to describe how other individuals had discovered this as well such as Bruce Friedman who was quoted saying “I can’t read War and Peace anymore,” “I’ve lost the ability to do that.” (Nicholas Carr). This trend that Carr found and brought into the light cannot even be considered something to pass through genes to the next generation. However, this is a great example of how the traits would decay as more useful ones would replace them. Carr might struggle with reading a long book, but he has access to Google and instant information on the internet.

As with Carr’s article, not all traits that decay are useless ones, just less advantageous than others that will be passed on. This is what many science fiction stories try to warn the public, because once a trait has decayed to a certain point, it would be very difficult to reacquire it. The perfect example for this is the Philip K. Dick story, “Pay for the Printer”. In this story the population has become reliant on an alien race known as Biltongs that can make perfect copies of anything that only last for a short while. When the Biltongs become extinct, the humans have to try and relearn all the skills of building and making that were lost with the ease of copying items (Dick 239). Even tasks that had been learned by the first humans to survive like finding food, making clothing and lighting a fire had been lost with the over use of the aliens. This is the fear society expects, to become so reliant on something that humans will lose their own abilities and if that tool would ever be taken away, humans would be helpless to survive.

Dick wrote another story called “Strange Eden” where adventurers find a strange planet full of plants and animals that seemed like paradise. One of the crew members decides to walk around and explore the surface and winds up meeting an alien that is so evolved she became an immortal. Brent the crew member is given the choice to stay with her and go through a rapid evolution or to leave. Brent goes with human instinct and stays with her. The captain of the ship encounters the alien who tells him to leave the planet without Brent, who has evolved into a lion like creature (Dick 111). In this story Dick wonders if the next evolution of man will actually be a step backwards. The progression of mankind has steadily been decreasing with the reliance on technology and if people keep losing their abilities to survive without reliance and the technology was ever taken away, that society will resort back to primitive ways.

In both of these ideas, the human race is not heading in a positive direction. To either become toddlers that can survive without support of someone or something or devolve back into the animal kingdom. It is not only science fiction that is portraying this fear. In the last few years, two movies have come out that really portray this warning to the audience. The first movie is Wall-E where the background is that the Earth became inhabitable and humans fled into space where they were pampered into obese sloths. The other movie is Idiocracy where in the year 2505 the entire population of Earth has become idiots due to their reliance on technology and a theory of lesser intelligent people having many more kids than more intelligent people. In Idiocracy the planet is filled with trash and simple problems like plants not growing because they are being watered with Gatorade are beyond the population. In both movies, the hero does their best to help the populace start a better life, either by returning to Earth or by having a competent leader.

Works Cited

Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" The Atlantic. 2007. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google

Dick, Philip K. "Pay for the Printer." pp 239-252 in The Philip K. Dick Reader, New York: Citadel Press. 1987

Dick, Philip K. "Strange Eden." pp 111-122 in The Philip K. Dick Reader, New York: Citadel Press. 1987

Idiocracy. Dir. Mike Judge. Perf. Luke Wilson and Dax Shepard. 20th Century Fox, 2006. YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Garibaldi1967, 12 Dec. 2007. Web. 28 Nov. 2009. .

Wall-E. Dir. Andrew Stanton. Perf. Jeff Garlin and Sigourney Weaver. Pixar Animation Studios, 2008. YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Johnpasma, 5 Nov. 2008. Web. 28 Nov. 2009. .

The Doomsday Machine

Back in 1983, President Regan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative, later known as Star Wars. This project was a basic missile defense system that Regan wanted to use as a deterrent against nuclear war and was willing to share the technology with the Cold War nemesis, Russia. However, when the Russians heard about this project, they took it to mean something completely different. The Russians figured that the satellites would not be able to destroy a large barrage of missiles. So the scenario they worked out was slightly different than what Regan was trying to get across. The Russians thought that the US would fire its missiles and destroy most of Russia, and since it was now crippled, Russia would only be able to fire a few, which the satellites would be able to destroy. So the Russians take this defensive announcement to be one of intent and decide that they need to put Perimeter into action.

The Russians had build a large underground bunker deep enough below their soil that it would survive any nuclear attack and a bunch of hardened silos that contained missiles. Whenever a crisis would arise, the leaders of the Soviets would turn Perimeter on and wait. With Perimeter on, a program would run continuously, checking the surface for signs of nuclear attack such as radiation, air pressure and seismic activity. The system has four safeguards, four proposition statements. Such as if it was turned on, then it would begin monitoring the surface status, if the surface seems like it was hit with a nuclear missile then check the lines of communication with the Soviet war room. If communications was down then it would assume that the Soviet General Staff was taken out in one of the attacks. If there was no other signs of attack it and the lines were still up to the war room, it would assume the staff was handling the situation and shut down. With lines of communication dead to the war room, Perimeter would give launch clearance to the person manning the bunker at the time. The person in the bunker would then have final say over launching retaliation missiles.

If the person in the bunker decided to launch, a batch of command missiles would fire first. Once in the air, these missiles would take control of the rest of the process and radio down launch codes to all remaining Russian missiles, which includes every missile in ground silos and even on every sub the Russians had. With this command, every Russian nuclear missile would head straight to the US and finish the war in a single strike, leaving both nations crippled or even dead.

The US had a similar program in effect but instead of underground, their bunker was in the sky. During the Cold War, there was at least one E-4B in the sky every single second. The E-4B is a converted 747 that was made into a flying command base so called Airborne Command Post. There were only 4 made and in a time of crisis, the president and department heads would go up in an E-4 and continue to give commands, even if Washington was destroyed. The following is a clip from the news back in 2007 about during 9/11 a plane was seen over the white house and how it looks strikingly similar to an E-4B and some more facts about the E-4B.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMK5bmdAEHc&NR=1

However, the difference between the US method and the Russian method is that the US told everyone that they had a flying base in case there was a missile strike so their could be retaliation. Again, this is a move to deter aggression. So why would the Russians keep this project for "zombie retaliation" a secret? The most likely idea is that it was not meant to be a deterrent for other nations but themselves. With this program, all the government had to do was turn it on and if they were destroyed, Perimeter would ensure that so would their enemies. With the low resolution radar the Russians had, even a flock of birds could be mistaken for enemy warheads. To make sure that missiles were not accidentally fired first from Russia, they used Perimeter as an assurance of equal destruction. Coincidentally, even the US was nervous about unknowingly launching the first missile so they required every nuclear missile to be locked with numerical codes (Like in WarGames). However, this didn't really work since Strategic Air Command was ticked about this call and simply set all missile codes to a string of zeros.

Even in recent years after the Cold War the Russians still have been secretive about Project Dead Hand (technical name Perimeter). This clip from two years ago can give us a feel for how things might not have changed as much as we would like to believe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tDxiPLyrpU

Ironically, around the time that this was going on in 2007 a song and music video was released that seems to acknowledge this issue and I leave you with How Far We've Come.

http://www.mtv.com/videos/matchbox-twenty/172325/how-far-weve-come.jhtml

Works Cited

Diaz, Jesus. "How a Soviet Doomsday Master Missile Looks and Works - Perimeter - Gizmodo." Gizmodo, the Gadget Guide. 25 Sept. 2009. Web. 27 Sept. 2009. .

"How Far We've Come | Matchbox Twenty | Music Video | MTV." New Music Videos, Reality TV Shows, Celebrity News, Top Stories | MTV. 4 Sept. 2007. Web. 27 Sept. 2009. .

Thompson, Nicholas. "Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday Machine." Wired News. 21 Sept. 2009. Web. 27 Sept. 2009. .

"YouTube - Doomsday Plane - the Mystery 9/11 Plane." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 13 Sept. 2007. Web. 27 Sept. 2009. .

"YouTube - New Cold War Conflict with Russia?" YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 15 Oct. 2007. Web. 27 Sept. 2009. .

The Doctor is IN

Ok so while my favorite Si Fi series is Incarnations of Immortality, my favorite TV show is Dr Who, specifically with the Tenth Doctor, David Tennant (went as him for Halloween last year). Some background information on the Doctor is that he is a Timelord and the last of his kind. He never ages and travels through time and space and whenever he is about to die, he can regenerate and simply take on a new body.
Here is a clip from one of the episodes.



In this clip you will see three forces fighting against each other. There are the humans, the Daleks, the ones that look like pepper and salt shakers, and the Cybermen who are the ones in the metal suits. So the Daleks are the reason that the Doctor is the last of the Timelords. The Daleks are little squid/jellyfish like beings who found out about the Timelords and build suits to help combat them. They were able to wipe out all of the Timelords except for the Doctor and he is in fact the only Timelord to actually kill Daleks through their suits. Now the Cybermen are the Daleks of the human world. An inventor was getting old and dying so devised a way to keep his brain alive and live forever in a metal suit, like a human upgrade. He started forcing people to do this and amassed an army of Cybermen.
In both cases of the Daleks and Cybermen, there is a corruption and perversion of technology, using it as only a means to conquer and EXTERMINATE. In fact, the Daleks have very common goals to the Nazi party. The Daleks travel the universe and will exterminate anything that is deemed lesser than themselves so that only the superior Daleks will remain in existence.
Now for a optional video, I give you, Chameleon Circuit with Exterminate, Regenerate.