While writing my last essay, some of the choices I made as far as how I constructed and pieced together my essay was main points and ideas. The things I thought most important and relevant to the text, that would help a person who maybe has never read the writing before, better understand it. I used the pieces in both “The Human Factor,” and “The Cat’s Cradle,” that stuck out most to me as interesting, or worth writing about and explaining. For example, in “The Human Factor,” when described that the long work schedules affected the studies and concentrations of the working and their quality of work, I thought that by showing the statistics to just how many people really are affected by careless errors, really helped prove the point.
As far as the peer-editing experience goes, everyone obviously has their own personal opinion on whether or not they like it or not, or prefer it. I, however, am one of the fewer, most likely, that doesn’t exactly love it. I perfectly understand and see how other classmates opinions on their work can help get a wider range of thoughts of their writings and help improve it. However, I’ve just always been a person who only cares about the one person’s opinion that actually matters. Maybe that’s just me. I kind of also just think it’s a way, whether we think so or see it at the time, for everyone to secretly form dislikes for one another because of a certain comment made on their work. I’m not someone who would take something like that personally, but I know a lot of people are like that out there. Like I said, I know so many people love that and it helps them piece their writings together better, and most the time it helps me too, I’m just saying. ☺
Monday, February 16, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Part 1, the rough draft, Blog #3
Vincente takes on a much more serious way of explaining his outlooks on technology in the past, and today. While expressing his opinions, he uses very specific detailed examples and situations that show how concerned he is about how deeply technology affects just about everything around us. When Vicente talks about the amount of hours that medical workers work, he compares it to the amount of lives lost due to careless choices or decisions due to the lack of hours of sleep. He argues that those lives could have been saved if the workers were more alert because of more sleep, leading them to make smarter choices. He showed the statistics that for those human error lives lost, equaled to over an “estimated between 44,000 and 98,000 possible preventable deaths”(Vincente, 19). “It kills more people than AIDS (16,516), breast cancer (42,297), and even traffic accidents (43,458)”(Vincente, 19).
While describing a device that could allow humans to check the oil in their car without having to even step foot outside their vehicle, Vincente explains that after each specific, detailed instruction you’d have to follow in order to do so, it would just be easier and less time consuming in the end, to get out and do it normally. His point in that was showing that technology, in most ways, becomes so complex, that all these things it can supposedly make things easier for us, in turn, does just the opposite. It most likely would be harder for one to remember all the buttons to push and the steps to take for one simple gauge to show you your oil line that it would to simply open your hood and pull out the oil stick just as its been done for year, therefore, making it easy to remember. All those buttons and procedures would often lead to frustration in not being able to remember anyhow, making it that most people would just do it that simple way.
One other thing that Vincente describes about technology is commercial aviation. How often do you hear people say: “no, I can’t go there because I’m afraid of riding in vehicles.” Not very often right? Contrasting that, how often do you hear people say: “I’m afraid of flying.” Pretty often right? But why is that? Vincente proves in his writing that obviously one of the leading causes of death in today’s society is traffic accidents, as statistics show above. Not airplane traffic accidents either, car accidents. Yet so many people are afraid or even refuse to fly. Believe it or not, many people would choose to drive a trip across the country in vehicle, taking hours upon hours upon hours, rather than a 2 or 3 hour plan trip. Not only increasing the amount of hours being traveled, but also the risk of an accident occurring. Vincente proves this in his article by saying: “There are usually over 10 million commercial aviation takeoffs and landings each year in the United States, yet the accident rate is typically less than one in a million. For instance, from 1984 to 1996, there was an average of nine fatal accidents per year, leading to an average of 204 deaths” (Vincente, 25).
Vonnegut’s interpretation isn’t entirely different in his book “The Cat’s Cradle,” however, since it’s a story, he just state several facts and statistics to support them. Instead Vonnegut tells a story about a substance called ice-nine created by Dr. Hoenikker, “father” of the atom bomb. Ice-nine, the substance very few know anything about, is something that has the power to destroy the world, and all mankind if not aware what they are dealing with. It is a substance so small that it can fit under a finger nail, yet has the impact to freeze all things that include moisture, to solid ice. Dr. Hoenikker, as we assume, created such a thing with no intentions of destroying anything. However, Hoenikker died, leaving the ice-nine to his children who, unfortunately used the substance to selfishly improve the quality of their own lives, or so they thought at the time. Once the ice-nine is released causing all things, as Dr. Hoenikker had suspected, to be destroyed, we as readers of the story, were left with such questions like these: “ If Dr. Hoenikker knew all the consequences of ice-nine, then why did he still create it?” “If ice-nine could have improved, rather than destroyed, what factors would have made the difference?” “Hadn’t Dr. Hoenikker known enough about his own discovery to know that it was harmful to humans?” (therefore he then wouldn’t have died from it) My opinion is that obviously Dr. Hoenikker had no intensions on dying when he did. I believe that he had no intentions of anything happening the way it did with the discovery he had mad.
While describing a device that could allow humans to check the oil in their car without having to even step foot outside their vehicle, Vincente explains that after each specific, detailed instruction you’d have to follow in order to do so, it would just be easier and less time consuming in the end, to get out and do it normally. His point in that was showing that technology, in most ways, becomes so complex, that all these things it can supposedly make things easier for us, in turn, does just the opposite. It most likely would be harder for one to remember all the buttons to push and the steps to take for one simple gauge to show you your oil line that it would to simply open your hood and pull out the oil stick just as its been done for year, therefore, making it easy to remember. All those buttons and procedures would often lead to frustration in not being able to remember anyhow, making it that most people would just do it that simple way.
One other thing that Vincente describes about technology is commercial aviation. How often do you hear people say: “no, I can’t go there because I’m afraid of riding in vehicles.” Not very often right? Contrasting that, how often do you hear people say: “I’m afraid of flying.” Pretty often right? But why is that? Vincente proves in his writing that obviously one of the leading causes of death in today’s society is traffic accidents, as statistics show above. Not airplane traffic accidents either, car accidents. Yet so many people are afraid or even refuse to fly. Believe it or not, many people would choose to drive a trip across the country in vehicle, taking hours upon hours upon hours, rather than a 2 or 3 hour plan trip. Not only increasing the amount of hours being traveled, but also the risk of an accident occurring. Vincente proves this in his article by saying: “There are usually over 10 million commercial aviation takeoffs and landings each year in the United States, yet the accident rate is typically less than one in a million. For instance, from 1984 to 1996, there was an average of nine fatal accidents per year, leading to an average of 204 deaths” (Vincente, 25).
Vonnegut’s interpretation isn’t entirely different in his book “The Cat’s Cradle,” however, since it’s a story, he just state several facts and statistics to support them. Instead Vonnegut tells a story about a substance called ice-nine created by Dr. Hoenikker, “father” of the atom bomb. Ice-nine, the substance very few know anything about, is something that has the power to destroy the world, and all mankind if not aware what they are dealing with. It is a substance so small that it can fit under a finger nail, yet has the impact to freeze all things that include moisture, to solid ice. Dr. Hoenikker, as we assume, created such a thing with no intentions of destroying anything. However, Hoenikker died, leaving the ice-nine to his children who, unfortunately used the substance to selfishly improve the quality of their own lives, or so they thought at the time. Once the ice-nine is released causing all things, as Dr. Hoenikker had suspected, to be destroyed, we as readers of the story, were left with such questions like these: “ If Dr. Hoenikker knew all the consequences of ice-nine, then why did he still create it?” “If ice-nine could have improved, rather than destroyed, what factors would have made the difference?” “Hadn’t Dr. Hoenikker known enough about his own discovery to know that it was harmful to humans?” (therefore he then wouldn’t have died from it) My opinion is that obviously Dr. Hoenikker had no intensions on dying when he did. I believe that he had no intentions of anything happening the way it did with the discovery he had mad.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Blog #2
“When a man becomes a writer, I think he takes on a sacred obligation to produce beauty and enlightenment and comfort at top speed” (Vonnegut, 231).
Since this book, starts and is intended at first to be based upon the writer of this book, to write another book on the topic that the entire book revolves around, the writer, and writing itself, obviously plays a big role.
“taking on a sacred obligation,” to me implies that one takes on the responsibility of explaining in detail, something of great importance. The main character in this story goes through a great deal of troublesome adventure to finish what he had started with the curiosity of the ice-nine, which he then felt obligated to discover the information he had been seeking.
When one writes, they have certain expectations to fulfill to a reader. When a writer begins a topic, giving the suspense throughout the piece, that the mystery will be revealed, they must successfully do so in finishing what they started, so to speak. Not only though, are these the only expectations, nobody wants to read a article, short story, or novel, that has no entertaining or “enlightening” aspects in it, which is where “producing beauty and enlightenment” comes into play.
Does anyone want to watch a movie that doesn’t get to the actual theme of the story until the movie is 45 minutes in? Not usually. Same goes with a book or writing. “Producing a writing at top speed,” rather than dragging on pointless information in a reading will lose a reader’s interest.
“Any many can call time out, but no man can say how long the time out will be”(Vonnegut,248).
What if Dr. Hoenikker hadn’t died? Had he had a great intension for the invention he had made? The outcome of the story could had been nowhere even in the back of Dr. Hoenikker’s mind. Obviously he had known what his invention of ice-nine was capable of, but could that be why he had not yet done anything with it? Why would someone create such a substance that had no intensions of improving something or affecting something, or quite possibly the whole world, in a positive manner? We can only assume that from the outcome of the story that Dr. Hoenikker knew what his ice-nine would one day do, but since the man was so brilliant in everything he did or created, one can only believe that he had other intensions.
Mentioned, were some positive things that ice-nine¬ could do was help the military move easier in that they could do so on solid surfaces, rather than having to trudge through the mud, but while doing so would not only make those muddy surfaces solid, but everything that had moisture, solid as well, leaving everything to die. Maybe Dr. Hoenikker wasn’t finished with his started experiment and died before he got the chance to show what his finished, improved, non-destroying product would be……. We will never know.
Q: If ice-nine could have improved, rather than have destroyed, what factors would have made the difference?
Q: Hadn’t Dr. Hoenikker known enough about his own discovery to know that it was harmful to humans?
Q: What could have been his positive intensions to producing ice-nine?
Since this book, starts and is intended at first to be based upon the writer of this book, to write another book on the topic that the entire book revolves around, the writer, and writing itself, obviously plays a big role.
“taking on a sacred obligation,” to me implies that one takes on the responsibility of explaining in detail, something of great importance. The main character in this story goes through a great deal of troublesome adventure to finish what he had started with the curiosity of the ice-nine, which he then felt obligated to discover the information he had been seeking.
When one writes, they have certain expectations to fulfill to a reader. When a writer begins a topic, giving the suspense throughout the piece, that the mystery will be revealed, they must successfully do so in finishing what they started, so to speak. Not only though, are these the only expectations, nobody wants to read a article, short story, or novel, that has no entertaining or “enlightening” aspects in it, which is where “producing beauty and enlightenment” comes into play.
Does anyone want to watch a movie that doesn’t get to the actual theme of the story until the movie is 45 minutes in? Not usually. Same goes with a book or writing. “Producing a writing at top speed,” rather than dragging on pointless information in a reading will lose a reader’s interest.
“Any many can call time out, but no man can say how long the time out will be”(Vonnegut,248).
What if Dr. Hoenikker hadn’t died? Had he had a great intension for the invention he had made? The outcome of the story could had been nowhere even in the back of Dr. Hoenikker’s mind. Obviously he had known what his invention of ice-nine was capable of, but could that be why he had not yet done anything with it? Why would someone create such a substance that had no intensions of improving something or affecting something, or quite possibly the whole world, in a positive manner? We can only assume that from the outcome of the story that Dr. Hoenikker knew what his ice-nine would one day do, but since the man was so brilliant in everything he did or created, one can only believe that he had other intensions.
Mentioned, were some positive things that ice-nine¬ could do was help the military move easier in that they could do so on solid surfaces, rather than having to trudge through the mud, but while doing so would not only make those muddy surfaces solid, but everything that had moisture, solid as well, leaving everything to die. Maybe Dr. Hoenikker wasn’t finished with his started experiment and died before he got the chance to show what his finished, improved, non-destroying product would be……. We will never know.
Q: If ice-nine could have improved, rather than have destroyed, what factors would have made the difference?
Q: Hadn’t Dr. Hoenikker known enough about his own discovery to know that it was harmful to humans?
Q: What could have been his positive intensions to producing ice-nine?
Monday, February 2, 2009
Blog #1
While first reading The Human Factor by Kim Vicente and up to page 149 in Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, I thought the two pieces had not a single thing in common. Although the two pieces of literature take on two completely different approaches, one being telling a story, and the other stating facts, they bring up some very similar points and beliefs.
Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, is a story describing a boy named Jonah’s adventure to get the inside story of a man named Dr. Hoenikker, the “father” of the atom bomb, in order to write his own book on the issue. Jonah starts by writing to the children of Dr. Hoenikker in which the youngest son, Newton first responds. Newton was only 6 at the time of when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima therefore unable to remember much of the information Jonah was looking for. What Jonah’s main concerns were, were knowing the experience that the family remembers from the time it happened, and what Dr. Hoenikker himself was doing at the time. After the death of Dr. Hoenikker, it is discovered that he had made a substance called ice-nine which was said to be small enough to fit under a finger nail, yet had a big enough effect to turn all and any type of body of water into rock-hard solid material. After later meeting the children of Dr Hoenikker, Jonah believes that each of them had a piece of this so called ice-nine and he was bound to figure out for his own curiosity if they did, while in the mean time gathering more information from them regarding the bombing of Hiroshima.
The Human Factor, on the other hand, was a piece of literature describing all the different things and ways of living technology has led us to today. The piece explained several things from work schedules, to how the article began with the blowing up of a nuclear machine. All points went back to how the human plays a big part in the performance of both machines, and humans themselves. The article stated that the performance pilots or flight attendants for example, if they don’t get a reasonable amount of sleep, would not be as well as if they had. They now make sure that pilots especially are required to fly no more than a certain amount of hours a week leaving them plenty of off time to receive a good nights sleep. If a pilot were to perform under their expected performance, they would obviously be putting the lives of everyone on the aircraft at danger. Therefore its not the performance of the plane itself that would be putting lives at danger, but the person operating the aircraft.
As the two pieces explain the different tasks that technology can help perform, The Human Factor seems to lead more toward how technology has affected situations negatively, whereas The Cat’s Cradle has so far shown not only the negative perspective, but a way in which ice-nine can have also a positive influence as well.
Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, is a story describing a boy named Jonah’s adventure to get the inside story of a man named Dr. Hoenikker, the “father” of the atom bomb, in order to write his own book on the issue. Jonah starts by writing to the children of Dr. Hoenikker in which the youngest son, Newton first responds. Newton was only 6 at the time of when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima therefore unable to remember much of the information Jonah was looking for. What Jonah’s main concerns were, were knowing the experience that the family remembers from the time it happened, and what Dr. Hoenikker himself was doing at the time. After the death of Dr. Hoenikker, it is discovered that he had made a substance called ice-nine which was said to be small enough to fit under a finger nail, yet had a big enough effect to turn all and any type of body of water into rock-hard solid material. After later meeting the children of Dr Hoenikker, Jonah believes that each of them had a piece of this so called ice-nine and he was bound to figure out for his own curiosity if they did, while in the mean time gathering more information from them regarding the bombing of Hiroshima.
The Human Factor, on the other hand, was a piece of literature describing all the different things and ways of living technology has led us to today. The piece explained several things from work schedules, to how the article began with the blowing up of a nuclear machine. All points went back to how the human plays a big part in the performance of both machines, and humans themselves. The article stated that the performance pilots or flight attendants for example, if they don’t get a reasonable amount of sleep, would not be as well as if they had. They now make sure that pilots especially are required to fly no more than a certain amount of hours a week leaving them plenty of off time to receive a good nights sleep. If a pilot were to perform under their expected performance, they would obviously be putting the lives of everyone on the aircraft at danger. Therefore its not the performance of the plane itself that would be putting lives at danger, but the person operating the aircraft.
As the two pieces explain the different tasks that technology can help perform, The Human Factor seems to lead more toward how technology has affected situations negatively, whereas The Cat’s Cradle has so far shown not only the negative perspective, but a way in which ice-nine can have also a positive influence as well.
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