Stem-well's

In Thursday’s class we watched a clip from the TED website about the Economy, stem-cells, and what Santa does when it’s not winter time. I haven’t given stem-cells much thought, partly because it wierds me out, and that I wasn’t really sure if it was legal In the United States to do such research. I should have figured that it was though, because the US really has that “what if someone else gets it before we do” mentality. We had it during the atomic bomb, and we sure as hell aren’t going to let Europe have stem-people before we do. Near the end of the TED talk, the presenter was talking about how we are gaining all of this mechanical knowledge and showed the clip of the robot dog the army has been working on to carry supplies, and tied it into how scientists are learning to take stem-cells and replicate organs and pieces of the human body. WHAT! That absolutely blows my mind. Imagine going into your grocery store and when it comes time to check out, your being helped by a robot disguised as a human, with human like organs and exterior, but a programmed brain. Thousands of jobs could be lost to these stem-people because they would never get tired, most likely never make mistakes and could be programmed to always be amiable.
But what would happen when one of these robots committed suicide? Or if a robot put in a request for vacation? Is that when we would know they have reached human status. That was a question posed in class, and I think would be one of the ultimate deciding factors for when a robot is no longer a robot.

Technobabble

While reading A Postmodern Fable I came across this quote, “in the future. Reality will be changed; making, knowing, and know-how will be changed.” I’ve heard from countless people who are older, and usually wiser than I am, “Change is the only constant”, from my professors, elders, and even my own grandma. Reflecting on that statement I try and imagine what It must have been like in my grandmas time before technology changed everything. Life without; computers, internet, cell phones, tamagachi . Not to bash technology, because I love watching episodes of my Its always sunny in Philidelphia and being able to check the forecast as the next human, but rather to question where the side routes of technology are taking us and our morals. Technology as we know it today was non-existent during grandmas time; her highest form of technology was the radio, where the most controversial programming was Western broadcasts and radio hosts slurping down glasses of gin while playing black music. The internet must seem like some huge un-navigatable force for the WWII cohort. Being able to look up information and receive media about anything and everything on the earth is truly one of the most influential inventions of the 20th century. What would our leisure time look like without internet; people wouldn’t sit as idle at their computer screens as they do now and move more into recreation and self actualization.
With the rate technology is advancing it’s plausible for me to be able live to a ripe old age of 120 years old, if I remember to take all my nutrient and age-deferment pills. Another old fogey chalking up another tally on the population scale taking resources and space. How much space is left? What does the 21st century hold in store? What will be the hallmarks of technology and their effects pertaining to the human race, and other species? “Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell” - Edward Abbey. If you look at the effect of humans on the earth through the timeline of cavemen to civilized man, it closely resembles the same continuum as a disease, a virus. Starting out slowly, by learning to adapt and grasp the environment we inhabit, to being able to thrive and reproduce exponentially. How will this virus of mankind end? It starts out with us harnessing the earth to grow crops and build houses, and with each new technological advancement, the disease spreads to a new height, allowing humans to reach a new level of consumption. A prime example that shows how big a role technology plays in increased consumption is the Combine. Used to harvest the golden heartlands of middle America, Combines allow billions of more bushels to be reaped than the 19th century sickle. It’s a constant arms and technology race to be bigger, badder and more well equipped than your rival country. It makes perfect sense that we are building faster and more efficient machines to compete with the growing population. When are we not going to be able to keep up our technology with the demands we put on the Earth. The planet can only support so much life. Once we plateau will we have to take a Postmodern Fable approach and start building spaceships to evacuate to prepare for our stars inevitable return to dust?

Top search poem

Heres a poem from the latest hot trends via feb 09 according to Google.
Title: Ranch Room

Gilliland ranch
Super Adventure Club
Momofuku your Helen Thomas