Sophie’s World – 2

     In the novel Sophie's World there is a chapter entitled "Two Cultures",  the chapter discuses the culture background of two major types of religions, Indo-European and Semitic.  Within this chapter there is a section entitled Jesus, of course this section talks about really just Jesus but it raises so me interesting points.  Such as the fact that Jesus was executed for appealing to peoples sens of reason in trying to have them change their ways and adopt unconditional love.  That didn't go to well for him.  But this seems to almost be a trend throughout history, just like the cyclical belief in some Indo-European religions, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. tried to advocate unconditional love through peace and he was assassinated, the same thing happened to Gandhi when he tried to advocate equality.  Out apparent trend seems to be that someone stands up for what is peaceful, fair, just, or equal and is smothered, sometimes most brutally that others.  This battle between change and stability has circled around this controversial trend for most of recorded history, yet nothing has changed.  It seems so strange that a call of peace and equality is so often retaliated upon by violence and oppression.  But, it all seems to come back to that central idea against change and for change.  Unfortunately it seems some people, in my opinion, want only drastic change (or see things only in black and white where you can only have the drastic options) and others seem to want no change at all, which is absurd because if life doesn't change nothing can ever get better and the rest of the world will leave up behind.

Connections - 2

     Recently my science fiction class  finished the movie Gattaca,  it is an interesting movie and even though it wouldn't make my top choices (or even get recommended to a friend) it had a good message.  Gattaca portrays a world where genetic engineering is not only common, it is the norm, in fact the world has slipped so far into the treacherous and unknown waters of this field that when a person is born without genetic engineering they are considered "in-valid".  This and the combination of ethics make for an interesting topic.
     Genetic engineering, scientists are making progress in this field of research and its very controversial; on one hand you have the fact that it cant not only make lives better but can save lives before they ever need saving, on the other hand, the afflictions that may soon be cured have been the inspiration for many athletes, scientists, and politicians to accomplish great things.  Genetic engineering could be a great accomplishment for our society, possibly curing many diseases and much more.  But controlling how a baby matures and develops in life not only seem like cheating in a way but also remove the incentive for that person to try their hardest to succeed because everything would be easier for them to start off with.  Controlling fate, while i know this may make me seem old fashioned or "stuck in my ways", seems like it can too easily be transformed into controlling evolution and undermining natural things, to me being unethical.

Source Code

Spoiler Alert

Is the ending a new "movie reality" (for lack of a better term)?  Why or why not?  Is it possible that Stevens' determination somehow merged the alternate universe with the movie's original reality? 

     Through out the movie Source Code Captain Colter Stevens is sent back and forth through the source code many times.  In between these missions of varying success, we learn that the source code allows a person (Capt. Stevens) to relive the last eight minutes of someone else’s life (Sean Fentress).  We are also led to believe that the source code is like a video game, with amazing graphics of course.  The Source Code seems to be a computer program where you can have an infinite amount of detail in the last eight minutes of a person’s life, places they had not been and may never have been are clear as day, and only when you try to get out of the source code or try to change your “ending”, you will inevitably either die or the source code will break down.  The fact that Capt. Stevens is still alive as Sean Fentress after the source code is terminated (the end of eight minutes) and after his body and mind are taken off of life support and his body dies his new reality as a teacher continues, and possibly his consciousness is transferred to this alternate timeline.  If the source code were just a video game, with the greatest possible incentive for not dying you could possibly have (besides a metric ton of cash), Stevens would have been “terminated” with his body and the source code.  Now, if we look at what happens when Dr. Rutledge tries to explain the source code, he tries to avoid describing it in any real detail and tries to push it aside as “quantum mechanics” almost as if he more discovered it rather than invented it.  Because the source code is used so many times it very well could have made a new time stream through quantum mechanics, or there could be a me right now that actually got this in before class started, we may never really know.  But there seems to be a different time stream at the end of the film.  Captain Stevens “determinism”, that seemed mostly forced on him by our friendly neighborhood secret time reassignment bureau, may have caused enough turbulence in our time stream to make it branch off into an alternate reality. 

It seems that the source code is not so much time reassignment, so much as it is time stream manipulation.

Sophie’s World – 1

Origins~

In the book Sophie’s World, by Jostein Gaarder, the Philosopher posed several simple questions in his letters to Sophie.  One of these questions was "where did the world come from?".


Where did the world come from?  Well we know it didn't just come from nothing, Physics and Chemistry (and just about every other thing related to math and science) tell us that through laws of conservation of mass and energy.  So something must have created the universe; well, maybe it was an almighty power?  But then who created the almighty power?  An almighty power couldn't create itself before its own existence, that's just illogical.  


So something created the universe, and if the universe was created by some powerful event or being then something must have caused or created that too.  So the only logical thing to believe is that ergo something must have always have existed and the universe means everything that exists throughout space so therefore the universe has always existed.  If something has always existed and everything is caused by something, than the very first thing must have been set in motion by something that it created. This means that something either in history, in the future, or possibly a mad scientist or a star exploding right now created the entire universe that we live in at this very moment.  So, just imagine the implication of time travel, accidentally undo the creation of the universe,   but that's just a tangent.


So after musing all of this information and more, one has to believe that something created everything which in turn created that same something that created everything.


There is also the idea of a central "Big Bang", if the universe was shot out from one central point during the "Big Bang" the through basic Physics knowledge one can assume that the gravity of the rest of the universe would pull everything back to the center of everything.  This constant force of gravity pulling everything inwards would eventually wear down the force of the "Big Bang" and reverse the direction of the universe.  Could the point which all of the stars, planets, and life forms implode on a central location bee then end of the universe, and more important to us all, humanity?  


NO! This is because at the time this finally happens humanity will either be extinct due to being pulled into stars and other planets over time or we will have evolved into massless energy that floats around, in which case we might possibly be able to then experience the end of everything as we may eventually know it.  If this ever ends up happening could the universe destroy itself? 


Nope, otherwise our math and physics is utterly pointless and we are back to square one on discovering the universe.  But would the collapse of the universe be enough to rip through time and create the next "Big Bang"?  Well I guess we might never know but if some sentient space goo reads this in the distant future, I mean no disrespect, it would be much appreciated if they came to visit and brought pictures, or possibly a higher form of optical portrayal, and let us view our final Forth of July fireworks show...

Connections - 1

Today is September 11th 2011, the tenth anniversary of the plane crash that took out the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, as well as United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed in a Pennsylvanian field with an unknown critical destination.

Forgiveness is an interesting philosophy.  While forgiveness is a two way street, you need only do your part to forgive or be forgiven, after that it is on the other's shoulders.  Many religions talk about forgiveness, Jesus Christ  is often quoted in the bible in saying that a person can not achieve happiness, or heaven, unless they are forgiven of their sins, and forgive others of sins done unto themselves.  In the Bible, Matthew 18:23-35, we learn the parable of the unforgiving servant (you can go here: http://www.bcbsr.com/survey/pbl14.html for reference), in this parable we learn that God forgives everyone of all their sins but, if you do not forgive others who ask for forgiveness you will go to Hell until your debt (sin) has been paid for in full.  Now while this may not be entirely serious word for word as it is a parable, like a story to show you how to behave, it still has an important message: forgive others or you will be tortured by your hate and be forced to live a pitiful life.  In Buddhism Buddha  is quoted as saying that "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned", stating that hatred only hurts the one harboring resentment.  The Qur'an states "The reward of the evil is the evil thereof, but whosoever forgives and makes amends, his reward is upon Allah" (Qur'an 42:40) these three examples from three different religions show that forgiveness is an important foundation to life, important enough that if you aren't religious you still have to recognize that forgiveness of others is important enough to have made it into the foundations of faith based ideas and has lasted for thousands of years making it more of a moral basis than a religious law.


With this out of the way I can now get to want i intended to discuss.  I went to my church today thinking there would be a silent memorial service for the victims of the 9/11 attack, instead I got a face full of philosophy.  During the sermon my pastor discussed several spiritual things that had happened and were in some way connected to the attack on the World Trade Center, such as the two ton Ground Zero Cross (more about that and the story behind it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Center_cross).  After a while and a couple of tangents we returned to today's gospel (or main reading from the bible) which happened to be the parable of the unforgiving servant.  My pastor asked the congregation this difficult, surprising, and philosophical question:

We are asked by God to forgive anyone who has committed a sin against us, but does that mean that we have to forgive terrorists?

Forgiving a terrorist...
Has anyone ever really forgiven a terrorist?  Well, why would you?  Terrorists are people who commit unspeakable acts against our loved ones, our friends, our countrymen, and our fellow human beings.  Wouldn't forgiving a terrorist let them win?

No, a terrorist can only win if they can instill terror and cause a shift in their enemy, in this case the West and America, towards the terrorists view, in a way to be either submissive or to cause the terrorists cause to strengthen.  Well, i that case, we have already lost; haven't we?  We strengthened their cause by terrorizing people we suspected to be terrorists and were not we only enforced the view that our country is, as the Afghans used to call us, the greater Satan.

But there's always the the second wave.
We still can purge our selves of our hatred,  as many of the ancient religious philosophers charged us to.  We may not be able to forgive a terrorists' cause but maybe we can start by forgiving those we blame.  Some people blame Islam, Islam has extremists just like Christianity and Judaism, as well as Atheists.  The only difference is that the fringe group Al Qaeda managed to make a huge impact; while the most recent Christian extremists were snuffed out before they managed to detonate a dirty nuke at a policeman's funeral, trying to kill hundreds of service men and women.  Islam and Christianity cannot be put to blame, neither can the Middle East or other areas, nor people descendant from any particular area.

To forgive we needn't open our arms to the next suicide bomber or freely let terrorists have control of a plane.  We only need to let go of our hatred for those who hate America, because holding a hot coal as a weapon only hurts those who hold onto it.  We should continue to protect ourselves from another attack, but our efforts should not be fueled by hatred for those who despise us, but we should fuel our efforts with hope that no one else will have to suffer anymore tragedy from the hatred of another person.

Who Am I?

Simon Trask        9/11/11

Who am I?  I am a 16 year old human being; going to Groves High School and taking a rigorous course set, including 3 APs and a course in Philosophy and Science Fiction.  I am a very aggressive person when it comes to getting things done, hence the slightly less enjoyable course load.  I pride myself in striving for the better outcome in manual labor and academic work.  I am the second youngest out of six, though my two older brothers and sisters are all half-brother and half-sisters.  I enjoy tinkering and problem solving, which makes my desired college major engineering.  In my sophomore and junior year I was on the wrestling team, my junior year season was cut short by a tragic season ending injury that would have still sidelined me into my senior year if I had continued.

I have always enjoyed Philosophy, even if my own attempts usually end up in a Philosophical argument.  The idea of thinking differently and mussing over the few questions that life inevitably comes back to (such as, ‘who am I?’, ‘where did the world come from?’, and ‘what is reality?’) has intrigued me for some time, I often wonder how to justify an answer to these questions and if it will ever even be possible to do so.

The political system around which our Country revolves has been misguided.  There has been a series of poor choices made by our representatives and leaders that have caused a serious down turn in not only the American society, but also in a large amount of peoples’ trust in the government.  With the rapid succession of wars there hasn’t been much time for peaceful rejuvenation of our American society.  The ridiculous frequency of filibusters and the support of corporate agenda and priority over the American populous have caused our very representative that we elect in good faith, to look like incompetent children who have too much power to responsibly deal with.

Religion has benefits and repercussions; often religion offers a good basis for moral beliefs and can be a cause for peace, at other moments religion can be a cause for hatred, prejudice, and even genocide.  Religion can be good; it can give people hope and joy as well as a special connection.  But there is unfortunately also a lack of acceptance towards change and tolerance of differing beliefs.  This unfortunate rejection has cause fringe extremists to commit mass genocide and horrific acts of terrorism; this shows that religion has an immense power to create enormous destruction, devastation, and demise of everything that we hold dear.  Therefore religion can only be helpful and beneficial if acceptance is an openly supported foundation of every decision.

Education has taken hit after hit and really has grown into a stunted, malformed, repressed, pitiful thing compared to where learning should be.  There are students across the country who are denied a proper education due to the fact that they either struggle to cope with the form of teaching available or proper support is withheld due to the less fortunate area in which they reside.  In order to get an exceptional education some students in some parts of New York City are force to travel very far to private schools or special public schools that give a great education to the few that they can manage to teach, leaving hundreds (in some cases more than one thousand) with nowhere to go except poorly supported public schools where the worst students force rules to be made that restrict everyone else’s growth and expansion. 

Education really does need reform; education should give the lowest scoring an exceptional education and the geniuses something that is more exceptional than an education that we can dream of right now.  Unfortunately everything needs reform, whether it is sweeping up a few crumbs or rebuilding the entire house.

The Japanese proverb “案ずるより産むが易し” (Anzuru yori umu ga yasashi) is an old saying used to inspire and teach those who are unwise in Japan; the proverb translates to something that used to be an American motto, remember: “attempt is sometimes easier than expected”