Rule 63

         Science major: could actually accept every episode even if I disagreed with it because they backed (most) of their ideas up with evidence. So this means I’m free-writing! For this, it was tricky to choose either a different galaxy or a parallel universe to write about since they are similar in a few ways. A galaxy, in general, is like where there are altogether different life forms but a parallel universe is where there are still humans and such. But a parallel universe can have loads of differences such as magic. Also, in a parallel universe, not everyone is different. When I think about parallel universes, most of the people that I would be exposed to would be no different because in a parallel universe, only a few things differ from our own one.

            I’m going to basically talk about a parallel universe where I, and a perhaps 25% of the overall world population, have been affected by Rule 63. Rule 63 is the Gender-Bending rule, where males become females and females become males. I sometimes wonder how different my life would be if I were the opposite sex. If I were the opposite sex, I don’t really think my personality would be that different. My parents would still be the same sex as they are here, and so would my brother. So much of personality comes from outside influences that were not put upon me by my parents and sibling. I think, as the opposite sex, I still would have taken dance classes from the age of 5 and would continue to dance even in college. My opposite sex self would still have been as energetic as I was when I was in preschool. It was that teacher who recommended my Dance Studio to my mom due to that amount of energy (and the fact that I danced around all the time). As the opposite gender, I feel like my sexual orientation wouldn’t change either because I have such a strong dislike for my own sex (though I don’t want to change it in this world!), and that has nothing to do with any one person’s influence, it was a fact that I realized early own from observing the world around me (which again would still be 75% the same in this universe). I could go on and on, since I’ve given this weird idea a lot of thought over the past few years, but I won’t since I’m already over 400 words.

Life Without Life

To be quite honest I had issues with almost all of these episodes.  But the main one was Living in the Universe.  I think the idea that life is too precious to have all of our "eggs in one basket" by only having life on Earth is kind of jaded.  Life is precious but we love the life we live mostly because of the planet we live on.  Our planet is beautiful.  We walk outside with no space suits on, we enjoy nature, plants, animals, and the environment our planet provides.  Mars is the planet that resembles Earth the most but even then the environment for the "space pioneers" is harsh.  Mars has no ozone layer exposing the planet to extremely high radiation, razor thin air, and freezing temperatures.  To withstand this there needs to be a bio dome for people to maintain life on Mars.  The problem with that is Bio domes have been tested on earth and problems came about that had to be fixed by injecting fresh air into the dome; On Mars that solution would not be possible so everything has to be perfect in the set up.  The people who choose to live on Mars have to live knowing that there's a constant threat of starvation if they are unable to grow their food in growth chambers and if they don't properly take care of the plants which provides them with oxygen.  When they got outside in their space suits there are chances of micro meteor showers which would puncture a suit and lead to a painful death.  To me this doesn't sound like life.  Yes there are people there but what they are doing is not life.  It would be torture to not breath fresh air, walk outside with no suit on, and to be confined to a tight space. 

Reality

After watching the episode colonizing space I thought it would be a really interesting and awesome thing for us to be able to do decades from now. There were so many things that needed to happen and for them to go right. But after thinking about it more and more I really don’t think that it is quite possible to happen. One of the biggest things that I saw being a struggle of converting the atmosphere in mars to be able to allow for humans to live on. In theory there idea of just polluting the air should work. But there are many unknowns for us given that it is another planet. What if this causes the mars to react in a completely different way? Also this is something that people will highly not like us polluting on purpose just so that we are able to move somewhere else. People are saying why we should go to another planet and then ruin that one.  Another issue would just be getting things up there and the amount of time that it takes to get there. When earth is the closest to the moon it is still a six month travel. For this to be a feasible thing to me I believe that this time needs to be cut down significantly. Due to the fact that it will take many trips for us to be able to get anything significant in size to mars, because the rockets can only hold a certain amount of weight therefore limiting the amount of stuff per trip. 

Bubbles in Beer

The episode of The Universe that I selected was “God and the Universe.”  In this episode, scientists discuss the universe and the search for God.  They come to the conclusion that there is no Divine Creator.  There is a scientific or mathematical reason behind the creation of the Universe, Earth, and all life that inhabits our planet including human beings.  We are simply the result of stars exploding.  The scientists claim that human beings are thinking, feeling, conscious beings because of the Law of Statistics and the way matter grouped together.  The scientists likened human beings to bubbles in a mug of beer.

I am not a brilliant physicist.  I am a simple human being.  But, I am more than a clump of matter.  I don’t believe that our human ability to think, feel emotion, make choices, communicate with high level language, laugh and cry is the result of some random force of nature.  I believe that we as human beings have a soul and each of us is a unique creation created by God and deserving of respect.  We are more than bubbles in a mug of beer.

I find the theories of the scientists to be sad.  It seems that in their quest to answer the eternal questions of why we are here and who created us, they rely solely on what they can prove scientifically.  In their view, our short life spans are all that there is.  We exist and then we don’t.  The episode ends with the scientific theory of Multiple Universes.  This theory can’t be tested or proven but they believe it.  I wonder, then, why they have such a hard time believing in God? 

No Place Like Home

For me it is very difficult to imagine living anywhere else but Earth.  Especially when every planet we know of can't sustain any kind of life, this is a deal breaker for me.  I live in Pennsylvania where I have a hard enough time dealing with a bad winter, having to put layers of clothes on just to go outside.  On Mars I'd have to put on a full space suit just to survive on the dusty red planet. One issue that I don't think they addressed in the video that I wondered about.  Everyone that lived on Mars would be in a self sustaining environment that is dome shaped and the air inside the dome would be circulating, would illness be even more of a problem? I feel that if someone or a group of people were to become ill that the chances of contamination to the rest of the population would likely happen. There are so many endless reasons why I feel that living on Mars just can't happen.  I truly believe that our best option is to take care of the planet we live on now. It is much easier to try an better our lives here on Earth then creating a whole new life on a different planet where the dangers are endless.  It is amazing however that scientist really thing it can be an option some day to go to Mars and live.  With that kind of thinking an the technology we have to be able to create a livable environment somewhere else we could defiantly us that kind of thinking to solve many of our issues here. Like pollution, overpopulation, loss of natural resources, etc.  Earth is home to so many different species I couldn't imagine living in a world without everything thing we are lucky to have here. 

Mars is a Bad Idea

My blog from last week kind of answered the blog this week. To me, space is a scary thing. I do not really understand why we would want to try to create life on a different planet. There is a reason why people are not already living on other planets and trying to create life on other planets is just asking for trouble. Just think of all the problems that could come about. We say in Sex in Space that reproduction is a HUGE problem. The mice they used to test reproduction in space had many defects. Not only were the offspring messed up, but the mice that were reproducing were messed up and had problems when they got back to Earth. If humans go to space and begin living and reproducing on another planet, we are going to encounter so many problems. Some problems we might not be able to handle.If the offspring born in space all have mutations, it is just going to be passed down from generation to generation. I personally think trying to live on Mars is a waste of money. I understand why we would want to use resources from Mars, but are the problems that could potentially arise from living there going to outweigh the new resources?

Take It Or Leave It...

Traveling to other planets has always been a mystery to me. I could never understand why people always need more than what they have. It seems a little ridiculous to think that we aren’t satisfied destroying one planet; that now we are going to change another just for our own selfish reasons. The human population is over abundant as is and spreading to a new planet would only make that worse. How does anyone think that it will be a good idea to place people on two different planets when the world is so out of control already? I think that it would be great to travel to outer space and explore what the universe has to offer. But on the other hand I wouldn’t want to destroy any of the magnificent creations. The universe is something in my opinion that can’t be captured or tamed. It is the whole to life as we know it and needs to keep the mysteries of wonder. That’s why I disagree with colonizing on Mars. Even though it would be a great experience and we can learn a lot, I don’t think that it’s necessary. Think of all the things that can be fixed or helped here in our own backyard on Earth. Everyone sees that the world could be better but we don’t all try and save it. Instead we make plans to ditch the old and start new. The problem is what happens when this planet goes down too. Where would we all go then?