Monday, December 30, 2019

Cyborgs Are They Human Essay - 1996 Words

Cyborgs are a very common recurring motif within science fiction works such as books, movies, television, and so on. We see these cyborgs everywhere in this genre, but we only somewhat grasp the concept of humanity within cyborgs. A cyborg is an organism that consists of both artificial and natural components hence the full name â€Å"cybernetic organism.† For clarification, when I speak about cyborgs, I am referring to the organisms or beings that are artificially created rather than humans with cybernetic modifications. One key trait in cyborgs is their uncanny ability to replicate the thought processes and emotions of human being even though they aren’t human. My argument is that cyborgs, (more specifically the ones created artificially†¦show more content†¦From a Christian perspective, I believe our moral conscience is one way God speaks to us and keeps us from going astray. Cyborgs may appear to have a conscience too, but their conscience is a false o ne. It is more like a series of protocols that are followed rather than a true conscience, due to the nature of their construction. They appear to follow a strict set of commands laid out for them by whoever programmed the protocol, which makes the cyborg’s â€Å"conscience† not their own. This leads me to the most important distinction between humans and cyborgs, according to a Christian perspective: the soul. Humans are created by God in his image as described in the account of Creation in Genesis. This means that we are eternal, in some aspect, even after death. This eternal aspect I speak of is the soul which only can be freely given by God himself; man cannot imbue a soul onto their own creation, which is where cyborgs come in. Since cyborgs are created by man, who is unable to create ex nihilo (â€Å"out of nothing†) like God can. Man cannot imbue, let alone create souls. This is one fact we should keep in mind when exploring some popular movies where the central plot devices consist of cyborgs and their ability to resemble human behavior. The first movie I will mention is the movie Blade Runner starring Harrison Ford as the main character. In this movie, the Replicants (the given name of the cyborgs created by the fictionalShow MoreRelatedEssay about The Future of Cyborgs744 Words   |  3 PagesThe Future of Cyborgs Terminator and Bladerunner, portrayed cyborgs or cybernetic organisms as creatures of destruction. Are they really as horrible as the movies make them out to be? They can be more useful than perceived; it is necessary to first perfect the technology involved in creating and operating them. In this paper, I will describe how these cyborgs work and how they are portrayed in the movies. 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The reading â€Å"A Cyborg Manifesto† by Donna Haraway points out that we are cyborgs. There is no difference between human and machine and this boundary has been breached. Cyborgs are a hybrid of machine and organism. They often appear in the science fiction.Read MoreEssay about Cyborgs: a Twisted Double Standard1654 Words   |  7 Pagesfuture, as Chislenko suggests. While people have been playing with the images of cyborg future of their bodies, they have overlooked the ongoing process of functional cyborgization they were already taking part in. And this functional cyborgization is on a global scale. Every person on the planet is in someway reliant on technology to perform their daily, necessary functions, from showering to eating. Being a cyborg isnt all bad though: You become more efficient, more capable, and physically superiorRead More Haraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto Essay1097 Words   |  5 PagesDonna J. Haraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto Haraway’s provocative proposal of envisioning the cyborg as a myth of political identity embodies the search for a code of displacement of the hierarchical dualisms of naturalized identities (CM, 175), and thus for the breakdown of the logic of phallogocentrism and of the unity of the Western idealized self. Haraway defines the cyborg as a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature ofRead MoreSocial Media And Its Effects On Society1266 Words   |  6 Pageshrough social media many people can connect and come together. It is a form of communication that humans have become adapted to. A popular type of social media is Facebook. Facebook not only gives the ability to find old friends, but new ones as well. It creates a whole new image of a person, regardless if it is true. It allows all races and genders to express their true selves through posts of images and texts, including women. 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Sunday, December 22, 2019

Civilization and Its Discontents, by Sigmeund Freud Essay...

â€Å"Civilization and Its Discontents† is a book written by Sigmund Freud in 1929 (originally titled â€Å"Das Unbehagen in der Kultur† or The Uneasiness in Culture.) This is considered to be one of Freud’s most important and widely read works. In this book, Freud explains his perspective by enumerating what he sees as fundamental tensions between civilization and the individual. He asserts that this tension stems from the individual’s quest for freedom and non-conformity and civilization’s quest for uniformity and instinctual repression. Most of humankind’s primitive instincts are clearly destructive to the health and well-being of a human community (such as the desire to kill.) As a direct result, civilization creates laws designed to prohibit†¦show more content†¦Freud theorizes that this oceanic feeling is a regression into an earlier state of consciousness before the ego had differentiated itself from the world of objects. Freu d also theorizes that the religious oceanic feeling arises from â€Å"the infants helplessness and the longing for the father† and â€Å"imagine[s] that the oceanic feeling became connected with religion later on.† In other words, the oceanic feeling is not a genuine religious experience, though people experience it that way. Throughout the rest of the book, Freud addresses the conflict between civilization and the individual. He starts with the fundamental paradox of civilization: we created civilization as a tool to protect ourselves from unhappiness; however it is our largest source of unhappiness. He also points out that contemporary technological advances have been a mixed blessing for human happiness. He also asks what the purpose of civilization is if it is not to satisfy the pleasure principal. He later concedes that civilization has to make compromises of happiness to fulfill its primary goal of bringing people into peaceful relationships with each other, by m aking them subject to a higher, communal authority. Freud included a cornucopia of various themes in this book. The first of these is the recurring theme of the primal father and his psychological heritage. This is one of Freud’s most controversial cultural speculations. Freud proposes that human societies were

Saturday, December 14, 2019

Why the Maglev (Magnetic Levitation) Train Free Essays

Levitating Trains The Maglev trains â€Å"A train is a connected series of rail vehicles propelled along a track to transport cargo or passengers. † -Wikipedia Trains now days are most commonly used for the transport of passengers across long distances, they are fast enough to reach a constant speed between 65 km/h to around 120km/h, although the record speed of a conventional train is of 575 km/h, held by the French TGV. It needed some modifications (shorter and higher voltage) and had passengers in it. We will write a custom essay sample on Why the Maglev (Magnetic Levitation) Train or any similar topic only for you Order Now Although, the record for non-conventional train is held by the JR-Maglev, a Japanese experimental train reaching the 581km/h without passengers (precaution) on a Magnetic-Levitation track. Answering how a train works is a very hard question, assuming we are talking about locomotives; they all have a generator behind the crews cab about half the size of a Volkswagen Beetle that powers the train with electricity by spinning, but the electrical output requires a lot of energy, that’s why there is a huge and powerful diesel engine that provides this power. Ignoring what the possible price of putting down a rail could be, I am going to calculate the price of having to get wheels and how long they last. A single axle 2 wheels costs $33, on the average commercial train there is about 636 wheels, so there is 318 axles, which adds up to total of $10,494 . There isn’t an exact schedule on how often they change train wheels, it all depends on the rail and how much braking the train does, for example, if it’s a very curvy â€Å"road†, more braking is applied and the more the wheels get wasted, and eventually, this slows down the entire vehicle. Regular trains also suffer from bumps and weather can play a difference in the performance of the train, the fact that the train is connected to the rail and to the floor deteriorates the materials and can make a huge sound, and if it’s a train that goes by a big town, there might be noise complaints. Since friction seems to be the root of all problems, why not remove it? Friction is a natural force that occurs when an object or more encounter moving over each other or two objects rubbing against each other. How can a train overcome this? If only it could levitate†¦ well, needless to say, as I have mentioned a few paragraphs back, there is such a train, one that levitates with magnetism, the Maglev train, which by the name might sound Russian, but the mastermind behind it is Alfred Zehden (German), although he gave it a name in English: Maglev (MAGnetic LEVitation). The train levitates with electromagnetic (the interaction of electric currents with magnetic fields) C-shaped arms, with the top part of the arms connected to the train and the inside part holding the magnets, so the rail is situated in the space within the C. Since friction was the factor that was creating the problem, now that there is a clear (15mm) space between the rail and the train â€Å"wheels† there is no friction involved, so now the train speeds up faster to its average speed of 430km/h and it also slows down easier without any sound, and it goes unaffected by non-extreme weather, if the town has a power there is no problem because it has its own generator and also let’s not forget it is super cool because it is a LEVITATING TRAIN! Another feature it has is that regular locomotives can only run at a minimum speed of about 30km/h, with electromagnets there is no such problem, the train can cruise around at whatever it’s chosen speed is. The price of a regular (and might I add, boring) locomotive is around $2,300,000 with an added $35,000 for fuel and repairs, whereas the maglev has a more expensive staring price of 1. 2 billion, although it is expected for the price to fall to 1,800,000 in the next 30 years. In the long run and in this case a very long run because trains are one of the vehicles that last the longest, the maglev is more profitable than regular locomotives Cultural: As far as I am aware, culturally there shouldn’t be any problem with the maglev unless there is some cult out there that I’m not aware of that hate electromagnetism. Political: If anything, on the long run the government profit from this investment, considering it’s the fastest commercial train in the world, it gets a lot of attention. On the other hand, only 4 countries have patented the idea and of those only 2 (Aichi, Japan and Shanghai, China) have constructed the rains and 2 other under construction in Seoul, South Korea and a second one in China, which leads to think that other governments are afraid of bringing these ideas to their country and then end up being an absolute failure. Environmental: The maglev train actually does benefit the environment since there is less friction and therefore less fuel is used, and also less resources to replace train and rail parts since they won’t deteriorate because there is no friction involved. Social: Everyone is going to want to ride the super cool levitating train because it’s a SUPER COOL LEVITATING TRAIN! In conclusion, I think I have stated my point very clearly and we have solved the friction problem thanks to our friend electromagnetism. -August Paloluoma P. S please ignore Social, I still don’t know why I wrote that down†¦ Bibliography: URL: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Maglev#Technology Title: Maglev Latest date modified (LDM): 3 November 2012 at 18:01. URL: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Shanghai_Maglev_Train Title: Shanghai Maglev train LDM: 31 October 2012 at 14:51. URL: http://science. howstuffworks. com/transport/engines/maglev-train. htm Title: How the Maglev train works LDM: 26 January 2012 How to cite Why the Maglev (Magnetic Levitation) Train, Essay examples

Friday, December 6, 2019

Motion Picture Marketing free essay sample

Product life cycle, manufacture distribution, marketing mix, executive decision-making, chains independent theaters, promotion, marketing planning. Marketing activities are a critical part of a companys strategic plan. A company may have an outstanding product, but if it is unable to communicate that to the market, it is not likely to be successful. While the common interpretation of marketing is advertising, additional components, including the product itself, pricing strategy and distribution, are also a critical part of the marketing mix. When developing a marketing plan, companies must take into account their target market and the best way to reach that market as well as the characteristics that will make the product appeal to the market. This is a difficult activity for companies engaged in traditional manufacturing, but such companies generally have similar target markets across their product lines. The motion picture industry is unique in that each new