Using Google in the quest not to be evil

Looking back at our course readings, I have decided to use wikipedia through Google to better understand who our authors were or are.

1. Peter Bowler is a “historian of biology” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_J._Bowler).

2. Paul Boyer is a “U.S. cultural and intellectual historian”(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_S._Boyer).

3. Edward J. Larson is an American historian and legal scholar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_J._Larson).

4. Mary Shelley “was a British Novelist” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Shelley).  If she did not travel or have intellectual discussions would be have Frankenstein?

5. H.G. Wells “was an English author” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.G._Wells).  If Wells had not broken his leg would he have never become a writer or discover the joys of reading?

6. Thomas Kuhn “was an American intellectual” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Kuhn).  Did his father being an industrial engineer inspire him to pursue physics?

7. William Gibson “is an American Canadian Writer” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_gibson).  Reading the Wikipedia entry on him suggests to me where he got his inspiration for writing on drugs.  The page mentions that he was part of the counterculture  and saw drug use when he went to Canada to avoid the draft.  Yet other people have these same influences and do not create the same work of fiction.  Why is this so?  Would I have read more into the work of Neuromancer if I had read the Wikipedia entry first?

If one uses the internet to obtain a brief synopsis of the authors is this necessarily a bad thing?  You might want to research them, read their works, read other people’s opinions of them, travel to places they went to and if they are still alive interview them for their thoughts.  The problem is that you only get to see a small portion of their lives and their works.  But I believe that a small portion is a good starting point for research.  A starting point is not a bad thing.  It should not be the only thing.

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Maybe I like being a drone or maybe I’m the Queen Bee

I understand that Jaron Lanier really wants to emphasize that human intelligence is greater than artificial intelligence and that we should shine because of our intellectualism.

Wikipedia is popular because you have the power to create your own definitions for things.  You don’t have to work for the encyclopedia company anymore to write content but you can add things that interest you about other people.  I’m thinking that there is someone out there who liked the fact that Jaron directed a film.  You could be defined as a film director by directing one film.  They didn’t say he was the greatest director of all time but something about that tidbit of information was important to them.  They wanted to share it to the world.  Granted that is not the only thing he has done in his life.  But the same could be true when you watch the news or read the newspaper.  Someone else determines what is important for the day and that is the news that we receive.  So does that make us all drones in a beehive?  We accept the news presented to us and work on daily tasks?

Is the Queen of the hive the one that directs the drones?  Would that be the creator of Wikipedia?  It could be the creator of the content.

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Why….

“Why..should the student of physics, for example, read the works of Newton, Faraday, Einstein, or Schrodinger; when everything he needs to know about these works is recapitulated in a far briefer, more precise, and more systematic form in a number of up-to-date textbooks?” (Kuhn 165)

This question I ask myself when required to read text that is long-winded.  I do like my sources to be concise.  I want the Graphic Novel version neatly wrapped up in five pages or less with illustrations and written in simplistic verse.

I think again about this question and then realize that everyone gets something different out of the text that they read.  Because we all think differently, it may lead to a Paradigm shift.  Someone thinking outside of the box can come up with new ideas or solutions to problems.

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Neuromancer and Biotechnology

Neuromancer is a world of “eternal youth” and biological engineering.  Imagine if you could specify what reflexes you needed.  Everyone could be Ninja Assassins or look like their favorite animal.

I find the character of Molly fascinating.  She has mirrored eyes to prevent anyone from really seeing her soul (eyes being the window to the soul) and scalpel razor blades that shoot out her finger nails.  A convenient weapon if she loses the weapons she usually carries with her.  A last chance for hand to hand combat, an advantage against an opponent.  Her mirrored eyes give her the advantage of seeing in the dark.  She always knows what time it is.  We aren’t sure how she was able to get the money to do the modifications until halfway through the book.  

Case gets a new pancreas, new blood and a new chance at life.

Armitage gets reconstructive surgery.

Lupus Yonderboy gets eye modifications to catch the light like a cat. 

Tessier-Ashpool had cryogenics so that they can be frozen and extend their life time.  Ashpool the father is over 200 years old.

All you need is money and connections and you can change how you look and forever extend you existence.

I’m not certain that we really need to live forever though.  Wouldn’t we get bored with longevity?

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Tissue Regeneration

I was watching Dr. Oz discuss Tissue Regeneration.   Reading Neuromancer and the discussion of replacing organs made me think of the episode.

Oprah’s link is below:

http://www.oprah.com/health/Dr-Oz-Goes-Inside-a-Tissue-Regeneration-Lab-Video

Wake Forest Institute for Regeneration is doing this.  The link is below:

http://www.wfubmc.edu/wfirm/

They mention that the science is something out of science fiction.  I think that the science fiction encourages people to think outside of the box and assists them in developing new technology.  There is a need for organ donors, many organs are rejected but if organs contain your DNA they match and eliminates the long wait of approaching death.

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Drug use in Neuromancer

Neuromancer describes an environment that has been polluted and densely packed with people.  Like any urban environment it has its share of crime, drugs, prostitution and death.  

One worry that I find is the growing concern of drug addiction.  There is pill popping, injections and a patch that you can absorb the drug through the skin. 

 Case is addicted to drugs and the book explores not only the physical addiction but the psychological addiction.  I kept wondering why he was looking for a way to do drugs when his body would not metabolize them.  He spends a great deal of time trying to find a drug to metabolize, watching others do drugs or doing drugs himself.  

The character of Riviera needs his drugs in order to function and receives a daily allotment as part of his employment deal.    It is this need that contributes to his downfall, easy to poison him because he takes the drugs daily. 

Molly uses painkillers in order to push her body to continue working even though it is injured and needs rest.  I’m not certain of her addiction since she is in and out of pain through most of the book. 

Worries and concerns of the 1980’s should include the 1970’s.  Neuromancer was published  in 1984.   We were still in the Cold War era and there was still discussion about the U.S. in Vietnam.  The late 80’s had the anti-drug commercials.  So there was a public awareness of the drug addiction problem.  Heroin had a surge during the Vietnam war due to easy access to areas of the world that produce it.

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Capsule Hotel

 

I was wondering when the first Capsule Hotel was invented.  This was before my experience in the Navy sleeping in Coffin Racks.  Below is the Wikipedia page on Capsule Hotels.  They are still in use.

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Moulage Kits

The facinating aspect of working in a museum environment was the ability to go through a collection of stuff and try to determine use of equipment and conditions of artifacts. 

 One piece of equipment that I saw was a Moulage Kit that prepared Military Medical Personnel to treat soldiers who had been exposed to Radiological Warfare.  It had pieces that could be worn to simulate burns and various stages of exposure.  All of this training flows down into the civilian aspect of society.  Looking at state of the art equipment from 1950 and comparing it with modern equipment makes portions of the collection outdated.  The need for training in case of an emergency has stayed with us throughout time.

I like being properly prepared in case of emergency but I’m just not sure that I feel comfortable trusting my well being to those in “authority”.

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Apathy

It seems that the American public suffered from apathy in Boyer’s Book.  I’m not sure where they were expected to go.  It seems kind of pointless to get into a rage or to break down in tears because science invented a “Weapon of Mass Destruction” that could end life as they knew it.

Harvey W. Zorbaugh states “how long would men cling to the long-range values and goals around which… we have built our civilization?  Living with so drastically uncertain a future must profoundly change man’s psychological and social outlook-cause men to live for the present rather than the future, for himself rather than the community” (Boyer 281).

Really?  Seriously does this have to change our psychological and social outlook?

People still go about their daily lives but apparently there was mass hysteria.  Hiding under one’s desk will not protect you from the bomb.

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t think about it but it really doesn’t change our lives drastically.  We eat, sleep, work, play, have children and continue on with our lives.  Things are not bleak because there may be a threat at any moment.

I’m finding it hard to believe that everyone went through their lives in a state of Apathy because of this.

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Minute Man Missile National Historic Park

While working for the National Park Service, I had the opportunity to have training sessions with the Historian for a new National Park site in South Dakota, Minute Man Missile National Historic Site.   It was quite unusual for me to picture a destination to visit as an old missile silo somewhere in the middle of nowhere in South Dakota.  Part of our training program was a final project/presentation.  Her presentation was an oral history/interview with an old Air Force guy whose fingers were one of the ones on the “button”.  Trying to imagine working in a cold, dark and drab place for years at a time with many pages of Standard Operating Plans in place, I wondered how the site would engage the public.   

There were glimpses of the Cold War era in our training program.  One museum catalog center that I worked with was affectionately known as the “Bomb Shelter” and I had to make a conscious effort not to include that title in my resume.  But it was a shelter specifically in case of a Nuclear threat.

Our class also toured a fallout shelter at another National Park that was  home to a Rockefeller.  Tiny compact spaces, food stuffs, bunks and other supplies were thrust under the earth beneath the buildings.

Reading through By The Bomb’s Early Light,  I notice the mix of public perception of science.  Science is interesting, exciting, marketable and has the ability to save the human race.  But there is also a darker side of fear, cover ups and the need for control.  

Bob hope joking “Will you be my little Geranium, until we are both blown up by uranium” (Boyer 21), show the inevitable dark humor that comes with trying to understand the impact that this had on society.

There is a lot of psychological stress involved with a weapon that could destroy entire cities at a moment’s notice.

I think that there has been enough time for us to be comfortable with the concept so that we are no longer hiding under our desks in classrooms.

The link to Minute Man Missile is below: 

http://www.nps.gov/mimi/index.htm

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