Three Things I’m doing to Ensure Success and Three Things That are Hindering It

Three things hindering my success are my less than perfect prioritization skills, temper, and time management. Three things I’m doing to ensure my success are going to school, pursuing multiple business ventures, and reflecting on my faults and improving on them.

Prioritization is important to organize what tasks you must complete first and what you can afford to not complete should you not have the time or means to complete a task. I feel at times I didn’t complete something when it should have had a greater priority over certain things in which I did complete. My temper gets in the way of solving problems at times. Everyone gets angry and that is understandable, but the longer you remain angry the more clouded your mind is when trying to resolve the issue which angered you in the first place. Time management is important, because it allows you to complete the most tasks with your time. Time lost can never be regained.

Attending Miami-Dade College is ensuring my success, because it is providing me with tools I will be able to use to better myself. I learn from the teachers lessons, I get paid from the military, and eventually I will have a degree. My pursuit of multiple business ventures ensures my success by diversifying my means of income and diversifying my opportunity at great success. Reflecting on my faults and improving on them is probably the greatest thing I am doing to ensure my success. Everyone makes mistakes and I will make mistakes too, but not learning from your mistakes is throwing away opportunities to better your self.

Reader Response

My primary source for my research paper was http://www.HowStuffWorks.com, specifically the article on 3-D Printing. The article was written by Stephanie Crawford and was well put together. HowStuffWorks.com does a good job of organizing all the information on any given subject and providing it to the reader in an easy to understand format.

The article on 3-D Printing was broken down into multiple sections covering the history, the process of 3-D printing, economical effects of 3-D printing, and technological value within 3-D printing. I directly quoted from the article multiple times and found information in the article which I could not have found elsewhere.

3-D Printers

3-D printing technology and it’s evolution will change the way innovators can create a product. Hiring a compony to create prototypes for a product you design, will take more time and money then if you had your own 3-D printer to create your own prototypes on the spot. Cutting out the middle man in pro type production will dramatically decrease the time it takes to bring new products to life.

As 3-D printing technology continues to develop, the cost and efficiency of the 3-D printers will enhance. Before long, 3-D printers will reach a point where they can act as a personal factory, creating whatever products you need them to create. This mini-factory would be revolutionary for small business’.

TED Talksapaloozafestival

Technology is pushing us into the future, faster than we would have expected in the past. Since the beginning of human existence, man has created tools to aid his survival. The ultimate form of survival would not include death. I believe humans will evolve to a level of immortality. Sexual intercourse will be for pleasure alone. Our population will be controlled in relation to our universal exploration and colony expansions. Disease will no longer be a threat to us. We will be able to create beings to work for us by completely synthesizing DNA structures. We will evolve to the level of God’s. This is what I believe ,if of course we do not kill ourselves first.

The TED talks with Ray Kurzweil on the accelerating power of technology and the one with Nick Bostrom on our biggest problems were appealing to me. Ray Kurzwel provided great data to support his findings of exponential growth within technological advancements. Considering technological advancements make every aspect of life more efficient, and humans adopt and evolve technologies at an exponential rate, it would be considered likely that we will reach a point of immortality. A great example of the exponential growth with technologies is the growth within information technologies. Information technologies double their capacities, price performance, and bandwidth as examples every year. Doubling performance in a year opposed to the decades it took to make significant advancements with the radio. These advancements we make with information technology get carried over to evolve our biological aspects. The average life expectancy of humans has been rising at an exponential rate as well.

Death was the first major problem mentioned by Nick Bostrom when he brought up what he thought was our biggest problems. The second largest problem and the problem which I consider to be the only possible downfall to our immortality is existential risk. Our technological advancements are pushing us above the risks of life, but if by chance on of those risks annihilates our entire species prior to us reaching the level of technological advancement we need, then we will obviously never reach that level. If we can survive together past all of the existential risks, we will inevitably reach the point of immortality.

Kevin Kelly spoke on how technology evolves. I didn’t agree with much of what he had to say. He spoke a lot about the characteristics of life, and how technologies are developed and are made more specialized over time, adopted certain attributes over others, similar to Darwin’s theory of evolution. I understand his points, but I did not agree with his reference to technology being a form of life within itself. My rebuttal would be that technology is not an entity within itself, but an extension of humanity. New technologies will always be a part of the evolution of humanity until human technologies reach a point of consciousness and are able to make decisions with judgement based on the best interest of themselves. Once a piece of technology were able to reach that point, I believe it would be considered likely that the single piece of technology is now a life form within itself. Who wants to live forever?

FEED: Part 4

Part 4 of Feed wraps up the story of Titus and Violet by leaving the reader in the abyss of the unknown. You don’t know how Titius’ life goes on. It doesn’t matter though. My favorite line from the book is “There’s an ancient saying in Japan, that life is like walking from one side of infinite darkness to an other, on a bridge of dreams. They say that were all crossing the bridge of dreams together. That there’s nothing more than that. Just us on the bridge of dreams.” I think that quote is accurate to life and the message in the book.

Life is filled with the unknown. Throughout the story it structured systems which rule the world. Corporations predict your spending habits and the “unknown” is the corporate enemy. Violet’s father tells Titus to stop his clapping, because he hates rhythms. A rhythm is basically a system with predicted out comes based on the tempo. I feel this line feeds into the idea that her Dad is different then the rest of the people who fall in line like sheep. It is ironic that it is Violet’s unusual product interests which prevent investors from wishing to invest in her well being. Titus’ actions and words push me away from his character, but overall made me enjoy the story more. I felt that by the end of the story, his relationship with Violet was more genuine. Sad story, but very realistic as to how many people learn about life the hard way.

Wall-E Feedback

Wall-E showed the viewer one possible reality for the future of humanity. As the human race took its toll on earth, it was decided that a vacation from the planet would allow the corporate global power Buy N Large time to clean and restore the planet to habitable living conditions. The planet’s restoration was a failure. Earth, now a wasteland, is home to the protagonist of the story Wall-E. Wall-E is a product of Buy N Large, he is a robot left on Earth to condense and organize trash. Although a robot being sexless Wall-E could be considered to be portraying the role of a male. He has developed human like personality traits and even displays a romantic attraction to a robot named Eve. Wall-E and Eve travel through space to bring the news to humans that Earth is once again life sustaining. The human vacation ship is a breeding ground for lethargy. The history of the ship’s captains shows an increasingly obese human. The population hovers around on their chairs with little intent to accomplish anything meaningful. Auto attempts to hide the information of Earth’s habitable environment from the captain and the human population. It is revealed that Auto was just following orders. In the end Wall-E, Eve, and the humans succeed in overpowering Auto, taking control of the ship, and returning to Earth. The question arises whether or not technology is good or bad for the human race. This question is arbitrary provided an understanding that technology is an extension of the human race and not an entity within itself.

Technology is developed through the needs of society. As society evolves, the needs of society focus on certain aspects of technology while allowing other aspects to die. Awareness groups and activists warn of the harms that some technologies bring, these warnings can be seen as pieces to the process of natural selection and the evolution of humanity. Although entertaining, the film is fictional. It is possible for the human race to become so dependent on technology that they lose all their individual physical and mental capabilities, but it doesn’t mean it will happen. Natural selection will guide humanity in the correct direction. If a robotic apocalypse should destroy humanity, then it is evolution which failed.

Feed: Part 2

This part of the book revealed more on how the feed affects each person’s mind. I first want to refer to the part when Loga was telling them what was going on in their favorite show, Oh? Wow! Thing! Titus mentioned how it looked like she was looking off into an other world while she was watching her feed. It is interesting that he is mentioning that now, because if he has had the feed for so long, you may think that he would not consider that worth mentioning, but because he gets lost in his own feed he doesn’t ever really focus on other people’s eyes. Later in this part he also mentioned how Violet was looking directly at him and that was unique.

Titus also mentions in this section, “It was all da da da, this big educational thing, da da da, your child will have the advantage, encyclopedias at their fingertips, closer than their fingertips, etc. That’s one of the great things about the feed – that you can be supersmart without ever working. Everyone is supersmart now.” I disagree with this statement to a certain degree. Albert Einstein once said, “[I do not] carry such information in my mind since it is readily available in books. …The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think.” So with this thought process, although the feed allows the units to retrieve information much faster, it doesn’t necessarily make them smarter.

Letter to JC

I’m writing to you Jiancarlo, because you’re great. You are focused on your goals and nothing will get in your way of achieving them. You are currently enrolled in college and taking a great step towards success.

This world is made up of two types of people, losers and people like you, Jiancarlo. I hope to work hard to some day achieve the level of greatness which you certainly will achieve. I wish you luck on your journey, but I feel we shouldn’t speak anymore… you’re too good for me.

Blog 1 – Discipline of Study

Richard Forester provides an insight to the inward discipline of study. The value of the discipline of study and how one can enhance that discipline within his or her own life are main focuses of the reading. To begin, an appreciation of experience in relation to knowledge is necessary for true understanding of any subject. To move forward one must always demand to know the logical reasoning for any action.
“Experience is the only way we can interpret and relate to what we read. We read a book on tragedy with different eyes when we have walked through the valley of the shadow ourselves. Experience that has been understood and reflected upon informs and enlightens our study” (Forester 68) This quote reminds me of one particular scene from a movie called Good Will Hunting. As a psychologist provides therapy to a patient who is a young genius, he attempts to explain the difference between his knowledge and the patient’s knowledge. The psychologist says, “Michelangelo? You know a lot about him; life’s work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientation. The whole works, right? I bet you can’t tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling; seeing that. If I ask you about women, you’ll probably give me a syllabus of your personal favorites. You may have even been laid a few times. But you can’t tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy. You’re a tough kid. I ask you about war, you’d probably throw Shakespeare at me, right? ‘Once more into the breach, dear friends.’ But you’ve never been near one. You’ve never held your best friend’s head in your lap and watch him gasp his last breath lookin’ to you for help. If I asked you about love, you’d probably quote me a sonnet, but you’ve never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable. Known someone that could level you with her eyes. Feelin’ like God put an angel on Earth just for you, who could rescue you from the depths of hell, and you wouldn’t know what it’s like to be her angel, to have that love for her be there forever; through anything, through cancer; and you wouldn’t know about sleepin’ sittin’ up in a hospital room for two months, holding her hand, because the doctors could see in your eyes that the terms ‘visiting hours’ don’t apply to you. You don’t know about real loss, ’cause that only occurs when you love something more than you love yourself. I doubt you’ve ever dared to love anybody that much.” This scene helps demonstrate the vast differences between reading about something and understanding something through experience. “Learn to ask questions” (Forester 75) is a quote which simplifies the discipline of study. One should inquire about the logical reasoning behind anything and everything. When teachings are taken without a doubt or a question, then should there be a logical fault within the teaching, it would never be known. There are plenty of people who do not practice the discipline of study, these people follow illogical teachings blindly down the path of empty lessons and wasted time.