Well, "First Blog" or "Post 1" might be a more fitting title for this... But I am truly a fan of Miyamoto Musashi's work, therefore I named this blog based off of one of his quotes: "One should never step with just one foot." I also figure that, since today I attended a Graduate School Fair, learned some topics in Biotechnology that I would really like to pursue, and have registration for my 4th semester of college at 7:00 in the morning tomorrow, I figured it's about time that I think about the future, and what better way to do so then write a blog. This blog will be a looking back on all the things that have inspired my decisions, all the movies I have watched and found really interesting, events, and other fun ideas.
My friend, Andy (Same name as me, but taller) recommended a documentary to me called "Transcendent Man" talking about Ray Kurzweil, the "Heir to Edison" and his wondrous perspectives on the future. This documentary was really interesting talking about uses for Biotechnology that I thought were possible but not necessarily in the way he described them. He mentioned eternal life, and I thought back to this summer when me and my friend Dean were pondering the use of sea urchins as an example of eternal youth. I also learned how cancerous cells worked in my Introductory Biology class and started thinking about how urchins do it, if they make telomorase, or if they have some other way of prolonging their existence to beyond 200 years. Though, this also factors in the question of "Should this be done?"
The Documentary talked about people rebutting that the best way to create global war is to delve into "eternal life" This is paraphrased, but it rings true, if the rich have access to modifications such as this or remote implants or nano machines that increase their intelligence or immune system, then the poor will die off and he who has the best modifications shall be king and our whole social structure will be thrown off. Also it wouldn't be something good to live forever, you see those around you slowly wither and die because they aren't as lucky as you.
He also mentioned that technology is exponentially growing, think of the first super computers... think of your cellphone. it's literally 100,000,000 times smaller and 100,000,000,000 times more computing power. He used some huge figures, and described that soon we will have reached a singularity, or positive feedback loop where technology is at a maximum, but the maximum is continually expanding as knowledge grows. It's a weird concept, but kind of scary to think about at the same time.
He also talked of AI growing to a point of self awareness. This was related by many people to "Terminator" which is kind of true, I liken it to The Matrix where we becomes slaves to a greater intellect. "Much like ants or cockroaches are flicked and squished because we find ourselves superior in intellect these 'new gods' will think of us as disposable and not give a damn about our demise." This was a morbidly true thought. Enough pessimism. Watch the documentary, it's great, but watch it with an open mind, his information is great and he seems like a hopelessly zealous preacher at times, and similar to Nostradamus with his predictions, but it's well worth it, and it's on Netflix instant stream. I will likely put full comments on it when I actively watch it again sometime, so... keep in touch for my opinions and whatnot...?
I guess the point of a blog is to develop a style and way to convey information? I have no idea, but I guess this next section is about my experiences at the Graduate School Fair that our school had. I learned that not many schools nearby offer biotechnology as a concentration, but one school, Suffolk University, offered a science management course, so I talked to the recruiter asking "what exactly this is" and they said that, "managing a laboratory is potentially in your future, and we teach how to manage a successful laboratory through business and administrative courses along with science courses. This got me excited, the prospect of being like Robert Oppenheimer, one of the people of history whom I enjoy hearing about. He was a great laboratory manager and helped the United States develop the Atomic Bomb, with his quote that I personally like, "scientific developments are motivated not by what is necessary, but by what is possible."And this is possible, so why not prepare if it happens. The field that Ray Kerzweil talked about (not to bring up the big bad omnipotent one again) is GNR (Genetics, Nanotechnology and Robotics), which interests me and influenced me to take the Robotics course when it's next available. That is the course I'm most looking forward to I think, but there are bound to be more courses offered that will spark and prepare me for my interests.
While looking through the course book, I stumbled on a "possible concentration" in the Interdisciplinary Studies section: Science Writing. This seemed boring, but some of the courses like "Technical Writing" and "Bibliography and research styles" seemed useful for writing lab reports, there was also a course "Science in History" taught by one of my new favorite professors, Dr. William Montgomery. I am seriously contemplating taking these courses in the neer future, but tomorrow is the registration for classes, and tonight is Dungeons and Dragons, so i guess that's all... this probably isn't the most interesting blog yet, so I'll just include a picture or two...
I see people acting like this all the time... the more you hit it, the faster it will come... In all honesty, my girlfriend seems to believe this is true, for her sake I hope it is... for the elevator's sake I hope it isn't true and everyone learns it.
With regards to literature, I have been reading a series of Lite Novels, or japanese light-reading books, usually in a series. These have been translated into english, but I hope to be able to read them in japanese one day. The current series I have been reading is called in english, The familiar of Zero. It is actually really gripping and I laugh and cry at the well-written and well translated work. The best part about a lite novel is that there is about one image per chapter, but other then that, it has great imagry in the text. I found out that this series got turned into an anime and I dislike the anime. It has gone too far too fast in too many places, and one of the major plots has been redirected, ruining the severity of a great war. I have not finished the series nor the anime, but so far they seem to have diverged towards a more slice-of-life like anime and a serious, dark and grim novel.
With my Japanese studies, I have gotten up to the past tense, dates, and the calendar. I figured that, since I have gotten most of the hirigana firmly under my belt, I could begin reading some manga, but it is quite difficult. There is a lot of Kanji, but luckily there is what is called furigana, or hirigana written above the kanji for pronounciation. I, however still do not know what many of these words mean and feel like I am reading Go Dog! Go! Again... Maybe I'll find that book and try to rememebr how I was able to read again. I also have Little Tengu, Little Darumaka as a probably easier source of comprehension. I am also in the process of gettin Naruto, which might be an easier read and Death Note is suposed to be really easy as far as Shounen (Males aged around 10 and younger) manga goes.
