Blog #7: The Allegory of The Cave through History

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Blog #6: Free will and destiny in Oedipus

Free will or Destiny ?


      Some people do not believe that the Gods have the power to choose your destiny. That each decision you make today shape your tomorrow. Yet i do believe there are somethings we do not have control over death for example no matter how much we try to avoid and run from it we are still going to die. Just like death their are others things in life that are just destine to happen to us. I believe certain events that happened in Oedipus life were destine to happen, one event was even prophesied before he was even born.
    King Laius fancied and sexually took advantage of Pelops young son which caused a Pelops to place a curse upon King Laius and Queen Jocasta.  One of the Gods of ancient Greece named Oracle tells King Laius and Queen Jocasta the prophecy that the child the him and Jocasta will have will murder him and marry Jocasta. Not only the child marry his mother he will also have children with her.
   Knowing the prophecy when Oedipus was born he was giving to the shepherd to be killed. The shepherd couldn't do this to an innocent baby so he gave him to another shepherd. That shepherd would then give Oedipus to the King and Queen of Corinth because they could not have children of their own. Oedipus grew up believe that the King and Queen of Corinth were his real parents so when he heard the prophecy himself he ran away from home. Oedipus like many people thought he could have ran away from his destiny.
   When Oedipus was on the road on his way to the Gods he had bumped into this old man who always ran him over. Oedipus and the man got into an altercation that had ended in the death of the old guy. The old guy turned out to be Oedipus. While Oedipus was "running" away from his destiny had actually made the first part of the prophecy true. Then Oedipus had solved the Spinx riddle and lifted the curse off thebes and its civilians. The people of thebes were so over-joyed they made him King and awarded him with a wife Jocasta. Second part of the prophecy came true still while Oedipus was "running" away from his destiny.
   The people of thebes were so over-joyed they had not investigated King Laius death which upset the Gods. Oedipus in order to please the Gods started an investigation not knowing the murderer was him. He calls for Teirsias but gets angry at Teirsias because he thinks Teirsias is blaming him for the death of King Laius(which he is because Oedipus is the killer). Starting at line 550 Teirsias is telling Oedipus how the murderer of Laius will be another part of Oedipus life he had no control over .....

Blag #5:Final draft

`Jessica Valdez

ENG 101-0768          

Dr. Luke Vaseileiou

Essay #1

             Are genetically engineered “superior” humans what are best for our future? 

        Imagine living in a world where they will be two types of humankind the “God-children” and the genetically engineered.  Where your age of death and all illness you will suffer from will be told to your parents at birth. How smart you’ll be and the jobs you’ll qualify for will be determined by your genes. Well that’s just how our future world is portrayed in the sci-fi thriller Gattaca. In Gattaca from the time you are born your future was already known and they were no way for you to change it. Job interviews would consist of blood or urine samples to see if you were “Valid” or “In-Valid”. They did not care about how smart you were or how much that was your passion if you didn't genetically qualify you would not get the Job. This future does not discriminate against gender or race there discrimination was simply genetic. The “In-Valid” will be seen in that society as “the other”. As seen many times before in history when a group views another group as “the other” there is going to be conflict some have even led to war.                              

           “Though well-equipped, we know not who we are or where we are going.”- The Man on the Moon by George J. Annas this quote from the article is explaining that even though we can be well equipped we still might not know where were going, how life is going to turn out. In the movie Gattaca Eugene the real Jerome Morrow was genetically engineered yet never won a gold medal and ended up in a wheelchair. Vincent on the other hand was not genetically engineered yet he never gave up on his dream of one day being able to be able to fly to outer space. Vincent

Valdez 2

was the underclass of humans only good for menial jobs so for his dream to come true it seemed almost impossible. Sounds like something heard before right maybe in history or something told to you. In history you have seen something like this cause major issues that even had led to war. It also causes issue in the man make him feel like he's not enough have him constantly trying to prove him and others wrong.

           Christopher Columbus had reached the 'new' world with the goal to convert 'savages' in to Christians. In Columbus eyes the Indians were 'the other' and he and his people were the superior. This is why their encounter resulted in their merciless subjugation and genocidal destruction. Another perfect example Hitler and his Nazis army they believed they were the 'superior' human. Jews, Gypsies, and Slavs to the Nazi were 'inferior' people that they felt needed to be eliminated. These so-called useless eaters were snatched out their homes and forced to live in concentration camps where they would be treated as lab rats. This had led to WWII and the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the most important human document to this date. Both these events centuries apart all started with an idea that one was superior from another. That all humans were better off being a certain way if not they shouldn't be allowed to exist well at least co-exist with their type. Can you imagine a world full of Christians trying to kill you if you do not convert or if Nazis ruled world? I'm nowhere near being German or a Christian so me and people like me would not survive. This is not no different than having genetically engineered 'superior' humans if you’re not genetically engineered you won't survive. 

        Most of us want our children to have better lives than the ones we had. Having the power to be able to make that happen to be able to make your child smarter, stronger, happier or longer-

Valdez 3

lived seems perfect but it’s not. “But in pursing this objective we lose the perspective”-pg234 The Man on the Moon by George J. Annas we are so busy chasing perfect humans that we forget

what aiming for perfection can do to our society. We forget the issues it has caused in the past that can again occur in the future. George J. Annas makes another good point in his article “an earth-sized human zoo in which every man, women, and child has all the “smart genes” that’s what we’re going to be. Even if well-equipped were humans we still won’t know what to do with ourselves. Not only would our “God-children” suffer from genetic discrimination the genetically engineered humans who do not meet up to the standard of  perfection will suffer too .We would have to build international criminal court to help channel and control our new found powers and to protect basic human rights. They will be an oppressor and an oppressed.

       “Humans must inform science; science cannot inform (or define) humanity”-pg234.  Let’s go back to the movie Gattaca now how Eugene the Valid human didn't really amount to what his genetically engineered profile said he could, but Vincent on the other hand the In-Valid surpassed his profile. He flew into outer space and saved his genetically engineered brother’s life twice, he cheated the whole system. He proved a flaw which rises questions, how many other mistakes have been made? Something like this might cause the ‘inferior’ people rebel against the “superior” humans. That all along they the non-genetically engineered had been living in this world that stopped them from doing what they wanted to do because they weren't genetically engineered. Since they weren't genetically engineered they did not qualify no matter how hard they worked.  There can be no such thing as a perfect human because nothing is for sure including science. There is one thing that is for sure though that when one group is viewing another group as sub-human there’s going to conflict.

     Valdez 4

Works Cited

Schneider, Susan. Science fiction and philosophy: from time travel to superintelligence. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Print.

Blog #4: Essay #1 complete draft

Do we really want what we seem to want? Is genetically engineered 'superior' humans what's best for our future

     Imagine living in a world where our future will not depend on the stars as they say. Where God is not our only creator because in this world children can be genetically engineered to be the better human that they can be as possible. Where they will be two types of humankind the “God children” and the genetically engineered. Where your age of death and all illness you will suffer from will be told to your parents at birth. How smart you’ll be and the jobs you’ll qualify for will be determined by your genes. Where our whole future will depend upon on our genes. Well that’s just how our future world is portrayed in the sci-fi thriller Gattaca. In Gattaca from the time you are born your future was already known and they were no way for you to change it. Job interviews would consist of blood or urine samples to see if you were “Valid” or “In-Valid”. They did not care about how smart you were or how much that was your passion if you didn’t genetically qualify you would not get the Job. This future does not discriminate against gender or race there discrimination was simply genetic. The “In-Valid” will be seen in that society as “the other”. As seen many times before in history when a group views another group as “the other” there is going to be conflict some have even led to war. Since in the Gattaca there were so obsessed with pursing this objective of a perfect society with perfectly genetically engineered man, women, and children they lost the perspective that they system might be flawed.        
      In the movie Gattaca they show how flawed this system can be. Not only are the “God children” restricted from being able to accomplish certain things in life but, the standard for the genetically engineered are set too high because their all built to be able to achieve greatness their all expected to achieve it. “Though well-equipped, we know not who we are or where we are going.”- The Man on the Moon by George J. Annas this quote from the article is explaining that even though we can be well equipped we still might not know where were going, how life is going to turn out. In the movie Gattaca Eugene the real Jerome Morrow was genetically engineered yet never won a gold medal and ended up in a wheelchair. Vincent on the other hand was not genetically engineered yet he never gave up on his dream of one day being able to be able to fly to outer space. Vincent was the underclass of humans only good for menial jobs so for his dream to come true it seemed almost impossible. Sounds like something heard before right maybe in history or something told to you. In history you seen something like this cause major issues that even had led to war. It also causes issue in the man make him feel like he's not enough have him constantly trying to prove him and others wrong. 
      Christopher Columbus had reached the 'new' world with the goal 'savages' in to Christians. In Columbus eyes the Indians were 'the other' and him and his people the superior. Reason why their encounter resulted in their merciless subjugation and genocidal destruction. Another perfect example Hitler and his Nazis army they believed they were the 'superior' human. Jews, Gypsies, and Slavs to the Nazi were 'inferior' people that they felt needed to be eliminated. These so-called useless eaters were snatched out their homes and forced to live in concentration camps where they would be treated as lab rats. This had led to WWII and the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the most important human document to this date. Both these events centuries apart all started with an idea that one was superior from another. That all humans were better off being a certain way if not they shouldn't be allowed to exist well at least co-exist with their type. Can you imagine a world full of Christians trying to kill you if you do not convert or if Nazis ruled world? I'm nowhere near being German or a christian so me and people like me would not survive. This is not no different than having genetically engineered 'superior' humans if your not genetically engineered you won't survive. 
      Most of us want our children to have better lives than we did i know. Having the power to be able to make that happen to be able to make your child smarter,stronger,happier or longer-lived seems perfect but its not. "But in pursing this objective we lose the perspective"-pg234 The Man on the Moon by George J. Annas we are so busy chasing perfect humans that we forget what aiming for 'perfection' can do to our society. We forget the issues it has caused in the past that can again occur in the future. George J. Annas makes another good point in his article "an earth-sized human zoo in which every man, women, and child has all the "smart genes" that's what were going to be. Even if well equipped were humans we still won't know what to do with ourselves. Not only that we would have to build international criminal court to help channel and control our new found powers and to protect basic human rights. They will be an oppressor and an oppressed.
       Lets go back to the movie Gattaca now how Eugene the Valid human didn't really amount to what his genetically engineered profile said he could, but Vincent on the other hand the In-Valid surpassed his profile. He did not only just fly to outer space and save a genetically engineered male life twice he cheated the whole system. He proved a flaw which rises questions on many other mistakes have been made and something like this might cause the 'inferior' people rebel against the 'superior'. They can be no such thing as a perfect human because nothing is for sure including science. There is one thing that is for sure though that when one group is being another group as sub-human there's going to be serious issues. 
     

Blog #3: Essay 1 early draft

Jessica Valdez 
ENG 101-0768
Dr. Luke Vasileiou
Essay#1 

   Do we really want what we seem to want? Is genetically engineered 'superior' humans what's best for our future

     Imagine living in a world where our future will not depend on the stars as they say. Where God is not our only creator because in this world children can be genetically engineered to be the better human that they can be as possible. Where they will be two types of humankind the “God children” and the genetically engineered. Where your age of death and all illness you will suffer from will be told to your parents at birth. How smart you’ll be and the jobs you’ll qualify for will be determined by your genes. Where our whole future will depend upon on our genes. Well that’s just how our future world is portrayed in the sci-fi thriller Gattaca. In Gattaca from the time you are born your future was already known and they were no way for you to change it. Job interviews would consist of blood or urine samples to see if you were “Valid” or “In-Valid”. They did not care about how smart you were or how much that was your passion if you didn’t genetically qualify you would not get the Job. This future does not discriminate against gender or race there discrimination was simply genetic. The “In-Valid” will be seen in that society as “the other”. As seen many times before in history when a group views another group as “the other” there is going to be conflict some have even led to war. Since in the Gattaca there were so obsessed with pursing this objective of a perfect society with perfectly genetically engineered man, women, and children they lost the perspective that they system might be flawed.        
      In the movie Gattaca they show how flawed this system can be. Not only are the “God children” restricted from being able to accomplish certain things in life but, the standard for the genetically engineered are set too high because their all built to be able to achieve greatness their all expected to achieve it. “Though well-equipped, we know not who we are or where we are going.”- The Man on the Moon by George J. Annas this q uote from the article is explaining that even though we can be well equipped we still might not know where were going, how life is going to turn out. In the movie Gattaca Eugene the real Jerome Morrow was genetically engineered yet never won a gold medal and ended up in a wheelchair. Vincent on the other hand was not genetically engineered yet he never gave up on his dream of one day being able to be able to fly to outer space. Vincent was the underclass of humans only good for menial jobs so for his dream to come true it seemed almost impossible. Sounds like something heard before right maybe in history or something told to you. In history you seen something like this cause major issues that even had led to war. It also causes issue in the man make him feel like he's not enough have him constantly trying to prove him and others wrong.