The Dream of Perfection

 By Jasmin Arceo; 

*student of Professor Dianne Siriban*

As I opened my eyes, I see my normal rough textured dirty white ceiling. I’ve had 9 hours of sleep but then I woke up feeling restless. I stood up and looked at the calendar hanging on the wall. It’s May 23, 2027 and its 9:00! Yeahp, I’m late for my work. I work as an event organizer and I am currently organizing an 18^th birthday party for a very fashionable girl who called and hired me months ago. My meeting with her is at 9:30am, wish I could make it. I’m all settled up and I’m gonna hit the roads. After stepping out the elevator, I saw the humanoid guard robot opening the main door for me. Geez, now I’m entering again the robot world. In our time, people don’t work anymore. All the robots do their work. All the robots are perfectly made to make their work very successful. Everything was perfect. I even work with robotic event organizers. Lots of people push me to stop working since it’s not needed anymore because of the perfectly programmed robots. For most people, they do the same thing over and over again each day.

            During years ago, it was the start of the spreading of humanoid robots. People are very excited to see them work but then, in just one blink, I’d wake up seeing robots sweeping the floor outside, driving a taxi, getting the orders of the people in the restaurant and nursing the old people. There was this one night when I went out with my friends at a club. They told us different stories about these robots. My friend, Gina, looked at us with her dazzling eyes telling about what she discovered about these robots. When she was walking at the streets of her hometown, she is feeling alone wondering where her true soul mate is. She was very sick of feeling alone and “even the nights were worse!”, she told us. She looked at the lovers at the street kissing each other which made her feel really bad of being alone. Then she walked inside a bar, looking for love. While she was sipping her margarita, one sexy guy was looking at her from afar. Because of the strobe lights and party atmosphere in the bar, she can’t see him clearer. The guy walked towards her. She looked at the guy from his firmly fixed hair, white skinned cheeks, leather jacket wrapping his muscular body, black pants and boots. She immediately fixed her super short dress and her sexy hair then sipped again in her margarita. The guy looked at her in the eye and started to talk to her. After meeting this guy, Gina fell in love with him even if that night at the club, she already knew that this hot guy is a humanoid robot. Now she is really proud in telling us that she has a robot boyfriend. She told us how happy she became each day and how contented and satisfied she was with this robot. All my other friends were laughing and were very proud of her. But I got myself thinking and asking on what’s happening in the world. Why does my friend have to fall in love with a robot? Doesn’t she know that he was unreal? But all I hear from her is that, everything was magical, everything was perfect. Then my friend, Chris, interrupted and told us about his story with robots. He started with the part about his sister’s son died when he was just little. After some time, at their dinner table, their dad suggested her to get a robot child to make her feel happy again. At first, Chris’ sister thought it was not right to replace her own son with a robot. But then she had thought of it then decided to get one. Until right now, he’s sister wasn’t regretting on what she has done. Because she told Chris that everything was perfect. Chris told us it was perfect. After that night, hearing all my friends saying the word, “Perfect.”, I just suddenly felt like I’m sick of it anymore. I’m scared that the robots may be the only ones working.  

            Going back to reality, everything is all about robots. I go inside a restaurant to eat lunch with a robot assisting me then taking my orders, and then I’d see from the other table someone dating a robot. Everything was perfect, people don’t have to work. People are all just sitting down, doing things which they want to do and doesn’t have any responsibility to think of. You step out of your messy room in the morning then going back home really clean without an effort of cleaning it. People are so lazy. I wish that I never wished perfection in life. I don’t want my life to be perfect, I want to put back the times before when there are no robots and all humans are working. People make mistakes, and no one is perfect. I’m so sick of perfection.

            Suddenly, I saw nothing then found myself opening my oeyes once more. Looking at my rough ceiling and realized that it was only just a dream. I learned something from my dream or more like a nightmare. I learned that perfection isn’t the key of paradise and happiness. Perfect world or world full of robots makes the people lazy, makes them feel too much fulfilled that they don’t want to act on something anymore. I don’t want to be lazy anymore and I want to work. I want to have a normal life. I don’t want to be stuck in a nightmare.

The Memory of the World by Halo Calvino

Is it a good or a weak SciFi?

For the first time I read the short story, "The Memory of the World", I thought it was a weak Science Fiction. I thought that the story was only about two people talking about their company and about the issue between the narrator and the guy he was talking to. 

But when I read the story once more, I was actually amazed and surprised about the contents in it. Maybe, the first time I read it, I wasn't reading through the lines. I find the story very interesting because it is full of ideas. 

I wasn' really sure on how these persons could save the memories of the people in a disc. But somehow, if you'd think about it, nowadays there are lots of small gadgets which contain loads of memory. And it is not impossible that someday, all the memories of a person could be stored in one small disc. :)

I really liked the part about "Lies". The story told so much about Lies and explained it thoroughly. Because of this, the reader could really relate and understand the feeling the narrator is experiencing during his situation. These are the words which struck me while I read.. 

"Lies exclude truth only superficially. You know very well that lies can be as revealing as the truth.."

"Lies are the only real information we can communicate. This is why I have not shied away from a moderate use of lies whenever they could simplify the message rather than complicating it."

Because of these things, I really think that the short story, "The Memory of the World", is a good SciFi. :)

My Robot Kuya

What kind of robot would I want? I want to have a big brother. :)Since I already have a big sister, I want to know what it's like to have a cool robot kuya. 

I don't want to have a super perfect kuya. 

I want the robot to be like a normal person. One of things which I want him to inherit is to have emotions and feelings. 

I want it to be normal, I want him to have mood swings so there will be a time when we'll get in to a fight just like a typical big brother. I want him to be playful and fun to be with and a kuya who will protect me from anything. 

Even if I want a not so perfect brother, I want to let him have a perfect love for a younger sister, for me. Despite the times which we would be fighting, the love for a sibling wouldn't still be erased. 

So basically, I want a super cool and not so perfect big brother robot who will have an endless love for me as his younger sister.

For next question...

In the creation and production of humanoid robots, where do you think science should draw the line at? Should there be a limit at all? Justify your opinion.

Just like what I wanted my big brother to be, I think I would want the humanoid robots to be not too perfect. I want them to act like humans in such a way that things they do are not always perfect. 

They can do some things perfectly but because of practice. Everything should start from nothing and then in time, turns to something almost perfect. I want them to earn their skills on something to make them feel more real and like a person. :)

Like I'm the only girl in the world. ;)

What am I gonna do during my very own post-apocalypse?? O.o

First, what I would want everyone to rebuild (everyone pertains to the survivors) is shelter which provides their own physiological needs. ;)

Let's say for example they will make their own houses by being resourceful, finding things which they could make their houses with. 

Before the survivors make their houses, they will consider if they are near to water and near to any places where they could plant or find sources for food.

Next, I want the survivors to rebuild places for agriculture and fishing where they could get their food. 

 

Also, it serves as the work for the survivors so that they can have food continuously.

So for the first two, they already have shelter and sources for food. Lastly....

I want the survivors to rebuild a small hospital or a clinic. 

In this part, after building it, they will have to search and find for medicines to provide when some of the people would be ill. 

I think these things could be very useful as a start from an apocalypse. :) And soon, they will have to develop more. But with these three buildings, they could live a simple life but very productively. :)

My Apocalypse

Apocalypse a.k.a. End of the World

How I want the "ending of my world" would be like..

I remember one Science Fiction movie entitled as, "Knowing".

In the movie, the point is that the aliens came to our planet and gave a call to every children on earth. The aliens or ETs knew about the end of the world, so what they did was in the end, they got all the children and earth to save them from the catastrophe which ended the world. They did this because they told them that these children will start a new generation after the end of the world. then on the part that the end of the world is near, the heat of the sun gets hotter and more intense until the sun came really close the earth and burned everything. 

 

I want my Apocalypse just like what happened in the movie.

the heat of the sun burned the earth. But for me, the best part of the movie was before the sun burned the earth, the whole family got together hugged each other and were really close to each other. It shows that until the end of the world, they would want to spend it with the one they love..

So that's how I wanted my world to end..

End it with my family before the heat of the sun strikes us. :)

Mutation, Cause of Radiation

 Mutation of sea creatures because of radiation in the sea in Japan

If radioactive material from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant—disabled by the March11 Japan earthquake and tsunami—continues to enter the ocean, marine life could be threatened.

In the past week, seawater samples taken near the nuclear power plant, on Japan's eastern coast, have shown elevated levels of radioactive isotopes, including cesium 137 and iodine 131, according to the New York Times.

All life on Earth and in the oceans lives with exposure to natural levels of ionizing radiation—high-frequency radiation with enough energy to change DNA. Most such genetic damage heals, but the addition of human-made radiation can make it harder for the body to repair broken genes.

Radiation concentrations in the Japanese seawater samples have fluctuated in past days, but on Wednesday the amount of iodine spiked to 3,355 times the legal limit for seawater, Japanese nuclear safety officials told the Associated Press.

That level is the highest so far—and an indication that more radiation is entering the ocean, though how is still unknown, the agency reported. Cesium was also found to be 20 times its safety limit on March 28, according to the Times.

*Reblogged

Because of these radiation, it can cause into Mutation.

Once in seawater, radiation can hurt ocean animals in several ways—by killing them outright, creating "bizarre mutations" in their offspring, or passing radioactive material up the food chain, according to Joseph Rachlin, director of Lehman College's Laboratory for Marine and Estuarine Research in New York City.

Because of genetics, some sea creatures may survive but with abnormalities. It's possible that levels of radioactive contamination near the Fukushima nuclear reactors could increase and cause some harm to local marine life. Marine organisms' eggs and larvae are highly sensitive to radiation, since radioactive atoms can replace other atoms in their bodies, resulting in radiation exposure that could alter their DNA.

The radiation can also be moved and spread because of the food chain. It can be easily adapted or a creature could easily get it through food chain. They will get these radiation if they eat some sea plants and small radioactive fishes or animals. 

Our Life Dreams, the Utopia.

"Melancholy and utopia are heads and tails of the same coin."

GUNTER GRASS, "On Stasis in Progress," From the Diary of a Snail

  What is UTOPIA??

 

A Paradise?

or...

our imaginations? :)

Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt to create an ideal society, and fictional societies portrayed in literature. It has spawned other concepts, most prominently dystopia.

However, there are problems which are related to Utopia. One of these problems is poor education.. 

Education is one of the most important thing in our life. It is like in a chain reaction. 

When there is poor education,  it may also cause other kinds of problems like high birth rate and low income then malnutrition. 

A possible solution to this problem!

These problems could be avoided if we start to let people learn about family planning. Let them realize the things which they will have to consider before planning to start a family. They should know that education is very important and every human deserves a good education. 

But because of the unplanned start of family, their children grow with poor education. 

We could have the Utopia which we all wanted if we just work out with these problems. 

Although we all believe that being perfect is not real, 
but there's nothing to worry about in trying to reach for Perfectness. :)