Author: Jamie DeWitt

This weeks class we had a really interesting discussion on robotics and whether or not our we are ready as a nation and the world to have robots. In my opinion, we will never be ready for robotics because we there is a line that has to be drawn that we cannot cross. Not forever, but until we as a society can correct our own problems, how can we bring in what almost is a whole new “race”. I do not think we can control where robots go and the exact impact they will have. For example, the invention of telephones was created to allow people from far distances to communicate with one another. However, from that stemmed cellphones which my generation revolves our lives around. So much so, that our communication skills face to face with humans has declined. If one day, all cellphones and telephones were destroyed, our generation most likely could not survive. We do not have the skills to communicate with people we rely on, and our whole world system is created off of the telephone. If robots were created, they would be able to do our tasks and jobs for us. Our entire society could change and now be based off of robots. What if one day, all of the robots were destroyed. All the generations who no longer had robots to do work for them would not be able to complete every day tasks. Our society would be sent back decades. People would have to re-learn how to do tasks and have to perform work on their own. This is why I do not believe that robots should be created.

In this week’s class, we talked a lot about the Red Badge of Courage as well as the ideas of ethics. There were many things The Red Badge of Courage illustrated at war that made me think about the similarities of war today. To start, in the beginning of the novel, Henry joins the war because he feels as though being a solider would bring him honor. His motivation to join the war and his expectations were very different than the brutal reality that he soon experienced. Henry did not realize the pure extent of blood and death that war encompassed. This is in some ways similar to today and our perceptions of war. In today’s society, people who are not in the military do not fully understand what it is like to be fighting and living in a combat zone. War is almost some gory whimsical land that people can only imagine what it is like. Now with video games like Call of Duty, people are desensitized to the brutality of war because they feel like they know what it is like based off what they see in the game. To some people, war is just like the game of Call of Duty. However, people in the military or those who live in war zones realize the realities of war just like Henry did.

We also went in depth about the basics of ethics and the different forms or theories of it. In my ethics class, we also learn about different ethical theories, how to apply ethics, and ways to analyze scenarios that have moral dilemmas. However, one topic that truly intrigues me is the topic of cultural relativism. It made me realize that there is a large amount of different cultures around the world that all value different things. There are laws that are based off these cultures and religions that are unalike to the others. In this sense, there is no universal ethics or moral guidelines that everyone follows or must follow. In this regard, one cannot judge another cultures morals or guides to ethics. Maybe this is why there is still so much turmoil and violence between countries and cultures. Cultural Relativism makes it almost impossible to establish universal ethical and moral guidelines and therefore there is always an excuse to have violence.

This weeks class and what has been going on in our society has really made me think about leadership and power. Hank Morgan in the novel somehow was able to gain power over the people of the 6^th century in which he changed everything they once knew. Hank was able to use technology and his knowledge to gain control over a large group and get them to do what he asked of them. This idea is something I may look to explore in my paper, in which I want to analyze how a person or group gains power and controls others. While our bodies are motors, there is always something that controls the motor. We like to think that we ourselves control our own bodies and minds, but when it comes down to it, who is determining what fuel we put into our motors? How often are we “allowed” to refuel our motors and why do we allow a person or group to change the way our motors run.

Another discussion we had during that class that sparked my thoughts was the discussion on the different “technologies” introduced to the 6^th century people and how it affected them. What if Hank introduced technologies that are taken advantage of in todays society, but introduced them in a more effective, nature friendly, and non-violent way. For example, when he created the school and education system, it should have been open to everyone and anyone to actually learn and should not have been kept hidden. If everyone had the opportunity to learn and if Hank taught positive topics, maybe the education inequality we see today would not have been born. Another example was the creation of the factory. The 6^th century people already had the community aspect in that they all only had their community to help each other survive. If that mental aspect was what drove factories, worker estrangement may not have been born. If the people working in the factories were able to make things that are useful and meaningful to them, and were something they needed then the factory work would be seen as less painful. Factories allow for people to specialize in the making of a certain aspect of a good in order to create a whole good. Reinforcing the ideas of community to help the greater good could have made the outcome of the story a more positive one. What prevented a good outcome was the way Hank used his power over the people and how he ran their motors. Instead of running the peoples motors to benefit the entire community, Hank used his power to manipulate the people. He let the power he had get to him and ended up killing many people. Today, we see similarities to Hanks power when we look at big corporations and factories who are abusing the human motor and running workers into the ground.

Jamie DeWitt

Journal #2

After watching that film on The White City, I realized how crazy it is that in the 1800’s people were capable of building a city so marvelous and spectacular. This is because we are so technologically advanced today that we constantly think about anything that happened before the 1980’s as ancient and lacking marvel. People from all around the world came in peace to experience other cultures and learn about different ways of life. This is something that I do not think would ever be able to happen today because nations no longer get along as well as we used to. While the US likes to think of itself as a peace keeper, we have developed enemies. The closest thing we have to a world’s fair now is the Olympics, which even then is not even close to the extremeness of the World’s Fair in Chicago.  Another thing that surprised me is that the White City has never been a priority in any history class or curriculum. Why do our education institutions not teach us about the great success the White City had? It was so architecturally sound and gigantic that it shrinks any other building in comparison. In my opinion, the white city was one of the biggest architectural and cultural accomplishments the US has ever had, and the world has ever seen.

Another thing that we discussed this week is the idea of our bodies being a motor, or running like motors. In my political economy class we learned about the history of the work day and how in the early ages people were only able to work from dawn to dusk because of no electricity, and many had a lot of leisure time. As companies began to form and people started to work more, leisure time slowly decreased. With the development of electricity and light, factories and offices now could run before sunrise and after sunset. Our bodies motors began ticking longer and longer. However, the biggest change was the development of the clock because it allowed for businesses to keep their workers for a maximum amount of hours to get the most work out of them. The clock made our bodies work on over time, causing them to become more tired and overworked. Our culture now changed from one of leisure to one of work. This we learned is called a paradime shift, in which something we know changes drastically which effects the way we live or see things. Now our lifestyles changed because we have less time for chores, family, sports etc because we must work more and more in order to compete with other workers.

Overall, we have realized now that as time goes on, our work drive only grows more and more. I wonder if our bodies will ever reach a point of destruction from the constant lack of sleep and over work. Where can the line be drawn where we as a society can regain leisure time and strengthen the bonds we have within our families and communities. Would shortening work hours strengthen communities and help provide more peace? Only time would tell.

In our class discussions this week we were challenged to think deeply on how our world has changed, and the means through which it has changed. For example, we discussed largely on technology and its impacts on society as a whole in how it got us to where we are today. My generation is so used to our cell phones, laptops, iPad, and other devices that we sometimes forget that there was once life before all of these devices. When having to think of a time period to go back in time and experience, I realized that I am unsure if I would be as “well-off” as others in that time period if I experienced it through all the knowledge I have today. For example, If I went back to the 1920’s, there would be no cell phones, no MacBook’s, not a lot of television, and no Netflix. So much of what I am used to every day was never a thing in the 1920’s. I live in such a technologically advanced society now in which our lives revolve around our devices that I do not think myself or anyone for that matter could thrive if thrown into an environment that did not use those devices. It is scary but exciting to think what the future holds in terms of more technological advances that will be made when we already have come so far.

This week we also began to read a book titled A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court by Mark Twain. The story of the Yankee is exactly like the activity in which we had to go back in time. The Yankee went back to the time of King Arthur in which he was himself, a northern man dressed in his clothes from his time period. While reading the first few chapters of the book I realized that the characters all were startled by each other’s appearances because they were different than the norm that they felt was socially acceptable. The Yankee was startled when seeing naked children who had no clothing and the children were startled by the Yankees clothing. This made me realize that we immediately judge a person by their outward appearance. As times have changed, so has fashion and even the human bodies appearance in its entirety. Our bodies have evolved and so has our fashion sense. The interesting thing about this is our sense of fashion or what we wear automatically depicts the type of person we are, where we come from, what period of time we come from, and much more. First judgements are based on appearance and clothing, and often times we as human beings will flock towards the people who dress most like us because we figure that they are most like us. Regardless of technological advances such as cell phones that have changed the way our society works, I realized that the biggest changes of all is what we determine is socially acceptable to look like and dress during a certain time. For example, when women began exchanging their aprons in for work suits, that changed society completely. The idea of the working mom and not just the housewife has been a growing phenomenon that started with women feeling the need to throw out the apron and to become professionals. It is striking to me how much clothing and appearances has influenced the changes that we see in society, and I look forward to keeping that in mind as we continue on this semester.