FINAL BLOG POST!

I Consider this semester the stepping stone to my future. Just like how a child will never forget the day he/she learns to ride a bike and/or who taught it to him/her, I will not forget FALL 2010 session1. I have taken so much from this course and the professors were all kind and helpful to make this experience a lot easier. This class ended up not being as hard as I thought it would be. Eng 103 was different and a bit difficult yet manageable. The way Professor Dragan helped each student out each milestone to the final paper, it has become easier to learn the material to writing a successful research paper. Something i would have done differently is the way i consumed time wiht each milestone. In the begining of the class i did not know how important each assignment was for the end result. IT WAS VERY IMPORTANT, I'm glad I did not slack off with my tasks, if that were the case I would probably would not be writing this blog...  Professor Dragan's feedback for each milestone was the best part of each assignment his suggestions and many corrections on each of my paperhad allowed me to make it more efficient each time. Also, the databases you have provided was very useful too, I know i will carry on with using these databases for further papers Thank you Professor Dragan!

Critical Thinking Blog 5

After my study in this course of Brains, Minds, and Consciousness I have learned many great things about cloning, robotics, and advanced technology. But my feeling about all three things remains the same, I am against human cloning and cordial on the use of cloning for other things and about robotics I’m starting to accept that they are become much more advanced and useful to our society nowadays but my thought that they won’t ever have the same consciousness as humans has not changed. David Gelernter states that "Here is an unfortunate truth: today's mainstream ideas about humans and artifical intelligence thought lead nowhere" (202). I agree with Gelernter because like I mentioned earlier  there is no way that robots can gain consciousness like humans have, humans are structured in such diversity, nothing can mimic us exactly, close maybe but not one hundred percent successfully. The main debate about human cloning is that it will destroy our uniqueness and identity. Many fictional stories that discuss  human cloning has opened our eyes to the possibilities of downfalls we will face if this act is allowed through the works of  Churchill's A Number and Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. The best part about this cluster was that all the other courses has correspondingly been related to one another’s cirrculum, this fact has allowed me and other students stay well attached and interested. Thanks a well organized and caring English professor, a generous and caring psych professor and a professor who mastered philosophy I was able to soak in the most knowledge from this cluster  more than my first cluster experience. Challenges to learn the importance in the basic course this semester has allowed to me to take each milestone successfully, thus far. I want to thank Professor Dragan, Professor Brown, and Professor Beaty for all working together to make this semester a successful term!

Critical Thinking Blog #4

Just like me, who disagrees with the practice of human cloning, Churchill’s play called The Number shows the perils to human cloning that will clearly show the possible outcomes to ‘cloning gone wrong’. This play shows the conflicts that can come along with human cloning. In the play a father, Salter, clones his son Bernard for many different reasons. But instead of just having one clone of Bernard there ends up being about 20 clones of him. In the play Salter stated "But I didn't know that wasn’t part of the deal. They were meant to make one of you not a whole number, they stole that, we'll deal with, and it’s something for lawyers. But you're what I wanted, you're the one" (Churchill 158). Salter basically addresses his concerns about the multiplicity of clones. He did not originally want so many clones of his son but was pleased with the outcome. Bernard’s clone (B2) is outraged that he’s a clone.  Bernard #2 states "I'm just a copy. I'm not the real one" (Churchill 158). You can see here that B2 does not like the fact that he is just a copy of Salter’s first son. This is the kinds of downfall cloning creates. The author writes, “Because they’re copies, copies? they’re not, copies of you which some mad scientist has illegally, how do you know that? , I don’t but, what if someone else is the one, the first one, the real on (Churchill 148)”. This play shows the complexities of the cloning. Salter’s unjust reason for this act led to unwant tragic that left him with less than what he began with. Churchill’s play addresses the importance between nature and nurture. One question that The Number makes us question is whether or not cloning is a just representation of humanity? Another question is what’s greater in importance, Nature or Nurture?   The moral of the story gives an instance of a probable act that one may foresee and the most probable outcome one can expect.