I find the cause of some of our countries major issues quite depressing and perplexing. Women are losing rights because of religion. People are labeled terrorists because of religion. People are being banned from America because of religion. Six million people were killed in the holocaust because of religion. The Middle East is a pretty big mess because of religion. People cannot get married to those of the same sex because of religion. People (The LGBTQ community) are hated and disrespected because of religion. People blow themselves up because of religion. And yet, it is stuck as a huge part of life. It is truly and utterly heartbreaking.

I found Hank’s journey through Arthurian England as an analogy for how people go through the world. Like the Romans said “Veni, vidi, vici” he went, he saw, he became the boss, tried to takedown the church, then killed twenty- five thousand english knights with electric fences and gatling guns. No matter where people go they never seem to want it to stay the same as before they journeyed there, they always want to leave a mark, so make a change. They cause the natural to become unnatural just as Hank turned sixth century England into the industrial revolution that occurred 1300 years later. He could not sit be and enjoy a world he would have never been able to experience otherwise, he had to create advertising for the knights without a purpose, training schools for a navy that didn’t exist and altogether destroy the flow of time that existed without him. Imagine the incredible story that Twain could have told if people were beings of intrigue, adventure and had the ability to let the time move without them leading it. It could have been a fantastic adventure about a guy stuck in the constantly changing and advancing world of the industrial revolution who gets brought back to King Arthur’s time and just goes along with the world. He might save some pigs who happen to have crowns from evil pig farmers, he could be a peasant in the street who bows as the king walks by, or he could have even been mind controlled by the church to preach their values to the others of the time. Too bad he just could not let time continue as intended.

The comparison between a human’s brain and a computer is only created by over thinking and giving meaning, or connection to items that should not have either. The idea that we have compared our brains to the latest and greatest invention of each time period is due to our utter and complete disbelief in how incredible our brains are. If the comparison to a computer is a certain number of steps after the comparison to a telegraph means we never really believed our incredible, enlightened, gift-from-god brain was even in the same universe as a machine it created that could only send symbolic messages, so why is a computer even incredible enough to be considered? We would have to rethink our greatest and most important species in existence if what controlled and guided us was only on par with the capabilities of a telegraph, so as soon as something better was invented we saved our egos a little by instead comparing our brains to the next thing and the next. I cannot be sure about the other seven some odd billion people on the planet and however many there are elsewhere, but I do not understand what my brain is, what its capabilities are, or even if mine is different than some else’s. My best guess is that I am not alone as there are plenty of movies and television shows based on debunked rumors about what our brains do and what they are able to do. Furthermore, I do not believe the limit to our brains’ abilities have been seen yet even with the genius ten year olds graduating college, so who is to say that even something eighteen steps past a computer will even be able to hold a candle to a brain. Computer experts could say that they have the same parts, or function similarly, or even an AI that acts like any other human is similar; however, brains are what created the ideas for everything that exists unnaturally in our world, any dream anyone has ever had, any crazy, abstract and terrifying thought that has ever been had and no computer, piece of machinery, or human-created invention can ever be made to have the same unlimited, world changing and foolish potential that a brain does.