LIB 200 Critical thinking blog Assignment #7

LIB 200 Assignment #7: Oppenheimer life and career

J. Robert Oppenheimer was one of the lead scientist working on the Atomic bomb in the 1930's.  His career even during his stint on the project was riddled with political mistrust, chiefly due to the fact that Oppenheimer had close relations to the communist party. It's noted his biography that Oppenheimer grew up a wealthy, New Yorker, and got to travel extensively across Europe earning himself a top class education and eventually, as so greatly worded in the PBS.org biography, "Began making his mark in quantum theory" (PBS 437)

According to the PBS report Oppenheimer joined the Atomic bomb project in 1941, it also notes that he admitted to having ties to the communist party in the past, that information would haunt Oppenheimer for the rest of his life, during work on the team of scientist were under constant watch, the movie presented in class stated that their phones calls and conversations were monitored even the project itself was held in a remote location all done in the name of public safety and total secrecy a line which is often confused even against today's information superhighway.  

Later his career after the bomb had been dropped on the two Japanese cities, Oppenheimer past came more into question, after seeing what his creation could do he joined several boards and commissions to prevent further use of the bomb and stop weapons like it from being developed. Several government agencies used his questionable past to quite his voice on the matter. More notably in a 1954 New York Times article the topic is Oppenheimer's  suspension from the A.E.C. his security file was under review by the groups security board (449).

Overall Oppenheimer career was driven by ambition and a strong penchant for knowledge. He pushed and worked tirelessly to realize his dream of creating the worlds first nuclear bomb and only came to regret his role after lives had been lost. Oppenheimer is seen today as a scientist who helped commit a crime against humanity in creating the A-bomb but can he be blamed for his own scientific ambition, did he indeed take his quest for knowledge beyond ethical bounds, yes, yes he did.

Assignment #2

Popular science and society

Cosmos is a wonderful show; it does leave one feeling small, a tiny fragment of a much greater and wholly unknown universe.  I believe the the show does argues for science in a humanistic way they explain complex things in ways that even  child could understand. I believe the producers and writers understand that appealing to much to the purely scientific crowd would alienate the common FOX network viewer.  The show is an excellent platform to teach people can learn from the comfort of their home home and the graphics are highly impressive.  All people at their core are interested in science, who wouldn't want to know how the world works, as they say "knowledge is power" but in the US a shocking amount of people claim the text of their religion to be the end of be all of creation and happenings in the universe; I believe the bulk of these people are the ones that even bother filling out/ signing up for these "[many polls and studies]".

Technology is a wondrous thing, it grows faster than any human being can contain, in my short lifetime all sorts of mind boggling inventions have come and gone, not to mention patents for things that can't even be built yet. The problem is that people are using this technology with open eyes, there is a great cost to technology that many turn a blind eye too especially the people who jobs it is to sell it.

Assignment #1

Humanism/science

Humanism and Science are often regarded as two different ways of thought, On paper they are separated in education, professional careers, and even culture tends to set the two apart but in practice they are synonymous with each other.  A compilation of some of the worlds most popular fictions are based heavily in reality; Science fiction like the cult classic movie BladeRunner and Aldous Huxley's novel A Brave New World, meld scientific reasoning with an active imagination to produce stories that work upon human emotion as well as expectation. I find myself being more towards the humanism side of the spectrum, Imaganitation and creativity are what all scientific theories are based upon.

Along with studing at LAGCC I am also a comic book writer, my only comic to date is a 3 issue series called Straw-man about a young samurai turned ronin who became a courier for high stakes goods in post feudal Japan.  The story itself is not based on any one particular tale but being my first venture into published fiction I decided to base the fiction on a very real time and place. When a story seems likely to come true or is based on something that has already happened the stakes seem higher for the protagonist because the problems are easy to relate too.  My ultimate goal is to create a work of science fiction that may not accurately describe our own future but will accurately elaborate and comment on the apprehension and expectations some have for that future in the 21st. 

So on the whole I am a Humanist aspiring to be more Scientific in my view of reality, every thing is art but all art has meaning and the the measure of a true artist is the ability to convey their message and capture the thoughts of others, for better or for worse.