Book Review: Scatter, Adapt, and Remember

Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction by Annalee Newitz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Our primitive ancestors’ survival extincts served them well, Newitz theorizes, as they dispersed from Africa and wandered across the continents, possibly intermingling and intermarrying with our fellow hominids the Neanderthals and Denisovans. Love and cooperation may very well have saved Homo sapiens from extinction—and not our ability to use symbolic logic alone, although it played a crucial role. By scattering far and wide, adapting to the local climate changes and environments, and remembering to share their stories and adaptive technology with their offspring, our ancient human ancestors insured we’d still be here today.

But what happens if another mass extinction event occurs? Remember the dinosaurs? What if we’re hit by a burst of gamma radiation from a hypernova or a megavolcano erupts spewing particulates high into the atmosphere, blocking out our sunlight? How will we survive as a species then? Newitz interviews top scientists about the cities of tomorrow and where they’ll be located (probably underground), and how we could change genetically in order to survive on Mars or Titan. More good news—research into these far reaching fields will yield discoveries we’ll be able to use now, such as the space elevator and fuels derived from blue-green algae. All in all, our odds of surviving the apocalypse have never been better.

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Book Review: You Are Now Less Dumb

You Are Now Less Dumb: How to Conquer Mob Mentality, How to Buy Happiness, and All the Other Ways to Outsmart Yourself by David McRaney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I do indeed feel "less dumb" after reading David McRaney's You Are Now Less Dumb. As a psych major, I've always enjoyed learning about behavioral studies and other observations of the human mind. The great thing is that You Are Now Less Dumb is written on a level everyone can enjoy while exploring the fascinating world of psychology.

Probably the most fascinating part for me was actually becoming part of a "mob mentality" moment this past week after I finished reading the book. It is amazing how people on the Internet will use the anonymity it gives to act out in mean-spirited ways against others without fear of reprisal, believing that everyone in the group feels the same way and thus justifying their not-so-nice actions. If people really knew how others were thinking, would they join in the crowds that gather around suicidal people on bridges and start shouting, "Jump! Jump, why don't you?" Perhaps not.

And I've learned my lesson--never try to convince an online friend to switch his/her political viewpoint. Even if you post photos of bare, unadorned facts you are only making your friends' beliefs that much stronger because of the inborn need humans have to defend whatever it is we spend lots of time on. (You don't waste your time on "dumb things", right?) So, I'll no longer try to convince certain folks that allowing the elderly, disabled, and children to starve or go without health care isn't in our country's best interest, because to those who disagree with me on this topic it always will be. (One wonders what would happen to their attitude if their loved ones ever became part of the starving crowd.)

Yes, the world would definitely become a happier place if more read You Are Now Less Dumb and became... well, less dumb!

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Movie Review: Modern Times

 

Read more about the film at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Times_%28film%29

It always amazes me how the more things change, the more things remain the same. Usually for the worse, too. Catching a showing of Charlie Chaplin's classic film Modern Times this past week on AMC doubly emphasized this point to me. 

I had seen the film many years before in a film studies class and remembered the great slapstick moments in the factory gear wheels and the hysterical miming antics of Chaplin's Little Tramp character working as a singing waiter and playing "football" with a roast duck. What really struck me this time about the narrative was how "modern" Modern Times still is. Eighty years on and the US still has large numbers of unemployed workers, union busting, street violence, and children and adults going hungry and homeless... Chaplin wrote this story during the Great Depression, yet it easily could have been written within the past year. Modern Times is both timeless and touching.

Watching Modern Times made me pause and wonder: Have I "time warped" back to the 1930s? Or did Chaplin time travel to the early twenty-first century and back again before he penned his masterpiece? Either way, the film stands the test of time and continues to point out how little the heart of American society has changed since the film's 1936 premiere. The rich demand more and more and will throw a starving street urchin in jail for stealing a loaf of bread. Workers are to be manipulated and exploited and then cast aside all in the name of profits. The authorities exact heavy violence against striking workers who only want to call attention to their plight. I think we can all see the parallels between Chaplin's story and today's headlines.

History repeats itself if we do not learn from it. Modern Times really should become required viewing for all. Perhaps only then will we stop the cycle of poverty, income disparity, hunger and frustration felt by those struggling to survive day-to-day. The Little Tramp will do us all a good deed if we will only watch and learn from his antics.

Do People Really Matter?

It's been a tough year for a lot of us. We're unemployed, underemployed, without health care, without health insurance and without hope. We're treated as if we don't exist by those in power. Corporations and the mega-rich seem to always get their way. It does make one wonder:


Do people really matter?

By "people" I mean human beings. The reason I ask this is because of an intriguing statement I heard on a radio program this evening. I stopped to listen to it since the show's host said this gentleman had the answers as to why so many of us who are constantly applying to jobs and desperately looking for work can't seem to connect with employers. It's not that employers don't have jobs--this individual assured us they most certainly do. And then the expert stated the reason why more of us don't get hired is this:


"No one qualified applies for the jobs."


Huh? There are millions looking for work. Surely some of these people have some job skills, right?

The expert then gave the example of a corporation that recently needed to hire an engineer--pretty much an entry level position. 25,000 applications were submitted for that one opening. That's the population of many small cities. And guess what? No one qualified applied for the job according to the corporation. Not a one. What are the odds of that happening?


In fact, there were probably many qualified individuals who applied for the position, since the self-same corporation had downsized  recently and had eliminated similar positions. A few  ex-workers probably re-applied to work at their old firm, right? Why were there no "qualified applicants"?

Answer: the computer that scanned the 25,000 applications told the corporate big-wigs that there were no qualified applicants.

Obviously, those that have the power to hire are more apt to believe a machine than their own senses. Because if those corporate types had kept on the human beings who staffed their human resources (as opposed to computer resources) department, the bosses would have been given a large number of qualified applicants to consider for the engineer opening.


But in the end, the big-wigs decided they didn't need human beings to help make hiring decisions. Computers could make these decisions just as well, if not faster. After all, human beings expect to be paid a wage and they might want such horrendous things as medical and dental insurance and sick leave. Can't have that, can we?

So, do people really matter? I guess not--at least not until computers start demanding days off with pay and health insurance.