Armageddon Science

The book about how Armageddon could occur was interesting because I was surprised the author broke the science down into such specific topics. I was surprised by this because I don’t believe Armageddon would occur from one specific weapon. Yes a nuclear bomb could cause mass destruction in specific areas but they would not cause the end of the world. If the internet and our utilities went down, the world would panic and would have to change drastically but the world would not end. It would take the combination of several weapons to take out the world. I also don’t believe humans would actually be ok with using so many weapons of mass destruction that the world would be destroyed. Humans would stop those actions in an attempt to save themselves once it got to a certain point. If you take a look around your local area you will see groups who try to help others, such as: food banks, the Boys and Girls Club, UNICEF, and other groups. If groups like that exist and are going strong, I don’t believe humans would allow Armageddon to happen.

There are times when weapons should be used, such as in war, there are instances when these weapons should be the absolute last resort. Some of these weapons started as positive improvements meant to help humanity. For example, dynamite was originally meant to help humanity stay safe but was later turned into something destructive. I agree with Clegg that this is a Pandora’s Box and we need to be careful what we do with all of this.

After reading this book, what do you think is the most plausible way for the world to end?

While I talked about this earlier in my post, I don’t believe there is one weapon that could cause the end of the world. If there was one weapon that could end the world, terrorists would have found a way to use it. I believe it would take several weapons used at the same time or within a very short amount of time to truly end the world. If biological weapons were released at the same time the internet and utilities were down, the world could end because there would be no way to save those who were infected and no one would know it was coming because there would be no warning from the news or the internet. I believe a combination of weapons would be the only way to plausibly end the world.

Celebrity

Using this book in class could be an interesting experience depending on the age of the students you might be teaching. It might be difficult to have younger students such as 6 or 7^th graders but if you used the book with older students like 8^th grade or high school could be a great addition to a social studies class. When students try to be like certain celebrities such as “The Situation” from Jersey Shore, it is a bad idea because students then believe they should be rude and treat women poorly. If they idolize an athlete, they may like how that athlete plays but they need to understand they shouldn’t idolize what that athlete does in their private life. This book can be used to teach students that the people we learn about in history classes were often celebrities in their own time and you must recognize that while learning about them. For modern day celebrities it is important for students to see the impact activities can have in both positive and negative ways. One way to do this is to assign students different celebrities where they can research the positives and negatives their celebrity has done. Some celebrities use their fame for good and others do not. If students see this, they can see how much celebrities affect them on a day to day basis.

As a result of the industry, can we ignore celebrity?

I don’t believe we can ignore celebrity. Celebrity runs over into what we eat, what clothes we wear, what television we watch, what music we listen to, and more. With so many parts of our lives being influenced, I believe it is impossible to get away from celebrity completely. While we must teach our kids there are positives and negatives to celebrity, it is important to realize that almost all our students are going to be impacted by it in some way or another. Teachers can try to stay away from it but we need to realize our students are going to be impacted by it.

What Technology Wants

This book was very interesting as someone who grew up with technology. It’s difficult to think of life without technology when the definition of technology is relative. Technology could be defined as almost anything made or thought of by humans or another machine. A hammer or screwdriver could be seen as technology, not just a computer or the internet. Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, argued “The system does not and cannot exist to satisfy human needs. Instead, it is human behavior that has to be modified to fit the needs of the system. (pg. 198)” He believed technology is no longer controlled by humans and instead humans are being controlled by technology. This is why he moved to a shack with no electricity, water, or a toilet. Kelly’s term the technium incorporates all technology and how it interacts with humans and the biological world. He tries to say the technological world and the biological world are similar. The technium seems to incorporate everything since almost anything could be considered technology.

What is the technium? Do we have power over it? Does it have power over us?

The technium incorporates everything made by a mind, whether that means a human mind or a technological mind. I believe it has power over us but we have power over it too. We have power over it because we can pull the plug if we ever needed to. However technology controls us because almost anything could be seen as technology depending on your definition. We will always need tools such as a hammer or screw driver. We could unplug from television and the internet but given our current society this would be incredibly difficult. E-mail is one of the most popular forms of communication so not having it would make jobs and daily life difficult. The same is true with a cell phone. People expect to be able to get in touch with others quickly and not having a cell phone would make this nearly impossible. Therefore I believe there is a mutual control.