CA Blogging Assignment 8

I think my English academic skills, such as researching, reading, writing and discussion have over all improved through this term. Among them, I feel like my reading skill has most improved by reading lots of materials in ELP Reader and the book "Radical Evolution". Through those readings I learned so many new and interesting ideas, some of which have changed my perspective completely. Now I do not really hesitate to read long articles or books written in English. I hope that I can use these skill efficiently in my later academic university life.

CA Blogging Assignment 7

"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."

- Albert Einstein, letter to a friend, 1917

I think that this term means that technology progress can cause human beings, who are naturally evil, their own extinction without even noticing as if it were an unstoppable disease. He implies that technology can be a tool that eventually kills humans themselves.

As many of us know, Albert Einstein is one of the most famous scientists as well as the most passionate pacifism. His big success in science field had a huge impact on our lives both in good and bad ways and I think he wrote this letter to a friend of his with a regret of what he had done even though he was proud of his success at the same time.

 

Since human beings are naturally evil as it says in Radical Evolution, we want everything to be faster, easier, more useful and convenient even though it probably is fast, easy, useful and convenient enough. We may get to a point some time where it is so hard to advance technology but we would never stop wishing to have more and trying to fulfill our desire.

Blogging Assignment 6

Question: What does the term "the law of unintended consequences" mean to you?


I think that "the law of unintended consequences" can be applied to the situation where one does something with a purpose but the result comes in a way the one did not expected. It does not matter whether the result may be good or bad. For example, in order to save starving babies in Africa, one NGO group in other country had a fund-raising campaign and sent dry milk to the babies' mothers. Though the babies became sick and some of them even died  because there were no clean water and the mothers had to use filthy water for milk, witch situation was completely opposite from the situation the NGO group had hoped for.

Blogging Assignment 5

In my essay 2, I would like to write about robots that are used in medical fields in Japan, especially in nursing care service. At first I was against robots because, as I read the required readings in ELP Reader and the book "Radical Revolution", I somehow had negative images for them and I was even scared when I think of an idea that someday humans might lose control and robots take over our world. Though it is so obvious that Japan will be lack in workforce in the near future while the number of elderly people will keep going up. Even today, there is an urgent need for people who can take care of the aged. Then I came to think that medical-care robots is the key to solve this     problem and improve the situation.

Therefore my thesis statement for essay 2 is that the invention of nursing-care robots should be accelerated and they should be put in practical use as soon as possible in order to cover the lack of workforce which is well expected to happen in the near future, lighten the workload of care workers and give safer and more accurate treatment to patients.
    

CA Blogging Assignment 4

Question: How do you feel about the "enhanced" students described on pages 7 to 8 of chapter 1 of Radical Evolution?


I felt very unpleasant and even scared for the "enhanced" students because they are so un-human like to me. I believe that one of the characteristics of human nature is that we are imperfect in many ways. We have things that we are good at and not good at. We do not have total recall. We feel pain. We sometimes have difficulties telling people what we are thinking or how we are feeling and we sometimes misunderstand people. These imperfections make us more human-like and dealing with these difficulties is to live a life. Though these "Enhanced" are too perfect and I do not even feel like they are humans.   

CA Blogging Assignment 3

Question: Humans have always tried to modify the environment outside themselves to improve their lives. Now, the modifications are being done inside humans. How will this change human nature?


Many scientists' curiosity never stops and they study fields that are once thought to be impossible to achieve. If the current studying, such as studying for human genes and cloning, continues and goes even deeper and if that technology is actually applied to human beings, it would change human nature into more machine-like. People might become able to change or operate their characteristics or looks and that there might be less differences among people. Also there would be some people who think human's life is much less important than it is believed today if we become able to cure ourselves in much easier ways without pain. 

CA Blogging Assignment 2

My revised thesis statement for essay 1 is  "The Japanese Government should not only open its door for immigrants but also set stricter rules for them, in order to supply the lack of workforce in the near future in Japan, improve the current situation of illegal foreign residents and raise Japanese people’s awareness of globalization."

The first supporting point is that Japan will be lack in workforce and that the government should open its door for immigrants. There are a drastic decline in the birthrates in Japan and an increasing of elderly people. If the current situation continues and the Japanese government does not do anything for this, the young would not be able to support the elderly people.

The second supporting point is that The Japanese government should set stricter rules for immigrants. Currently, there is a number of illegal foreign resistance in Japan and it is getting a bigger problem. If the Japanese government does not set stricter rules for immigrants when it opens its door, a huge number of people would come to Japan at a time, which would confuse the situation.


The third supporting point is that Japanese people’s awareness of  globalization needs to be raised. Even though the Japan is now so globalized and there are many foreign people living in Japan, there are still some people who mistakenly believe that Japan is mono-racial country, which is causing some people to have negative image for foreigners, especially people from China and Korea. These misunderstanding and attitude should be changed so that there would be less discrimination or negative images toward those Asian people and they would  feel comfortable to live in Japan.