Advice for a future student

ENG 103 reasearch paper isnt as bad as it seems, as we go through the milestones, they really do help. doing the milestones, helps you plan out and get your thoughts together. if we just had to do the research paper without having milestones at first, it would be a complete mess. Everyone should take advatage of the milestones, and also getting corrected on it, so you will know what to correct for your final paper. What i now know is to put my thoughts together, and ideas together, so later it wouldnt have to be jumbled up. Using sources such as Gale Reference and LexisNexis help a lot in find information related to your research paper. there you can find research articles, scholarly articles, any type of info related to your topic, which helps your essay better.  what i wouldve done differently is take advantage of the research links, becuase now i finally it REALLY useful, and i know i can use these links for future papers. im glad to have had this class for it helped me to find various sources for my paper and to write better.

Blog Assignment #7

The text i've chosen is A Number by Caryl Churchill. this imaginative text embodies conflicts and the complexities of an issue. In this play, Salter has to deal with the problems that come up with the fact that he cloned his son. Things go wrong, and bad things happen where one of the clones gets killed. In my opinion this play is a great example of why cloning is unethical and isnt moral at all. So many problems can arise that you wouldnt expect. The clones might want their rights as a human, even though they derived from someone else. The clones might want to live their life normally, while the person who created them, probably wants them for a different reason. Clones might fight against you to keep their life. As for the originial B1, he didnt seem to appreciate it either, they wont feel unique anymore becuase theres probably a million copies of him somewhere else living a separate life. Also the orginial might hate the fact that his life probably sucks while his clone might be happy. This might lead to one killing the other, which does occur in this play. In the end B1 kills B2, and Salter doesnt reallly feel anything because he still feels like he has his son (even though he said he favored b2 more).  Science can learn from storytelling, becuase even though the story might not be real , it might have real ideas and real problems that might occur.

Blog Assignment #6

"Aritifical intelligence at human levels will necessarily greatly exceed human intelligence for several reasons." (Kurzweil 138).  I think this means that eventually robots and the whole idea of it, will take over everything humans are doing right now. Human intelligence wont even matter anymore now that you have all kinds of new technology. This shows the idea that robots and machines will in fact have strong AI or consciousness.

My Eng 103 Research Plan #1

Thesis Statement:  Based on several sources, I will argue that the film Memento's portrayal of anterograde amnesia is accurate in its depiction of symptoms, but it exaggerates some aspects of this condition in order to create a more exciting story of solving a crime.

I need to find a newspaper article on the topic of anterograde amnesia. I'll be using the LexisNexis to find more articles. there are so many different  articles. sometimes its hard to decide which one best fits into the topic of which i am using. the thing i find hard is once i  find something that  relates to my topic ,it isnt as perfect. most of the things i find can be hard to include into my research paper because it would totally go off topic.

Blog Assignment #5

       I would be more of a pessimistic person about robotics. I feel as if they are increasing, then there are more chances that they will 'take' over this world!!! People are going to start losing jobs because robots will be used instead!!! its gonna be real bad if people get kicked out of certain things due to new technology. I agree with Gelernter where he says that computers are growing more powerful over time. These possiblities are frightening. As Gelernter says "No computer will be able to think like a man unless it can free associate", i agree with that because i feel as if humans now have an advantage when it comes to using our minds and brains for our thoughts. I am more of a humantiies person. Due to that i dont like the idea of robots, because i feel as if science is coming up with all kinds of things with technology, so what is our purpose in this world as humans? If robots are getting created, then why are WE here?

Sample Research Paper Thoughts

     In my own research paper, i'd like to include more quote sandwiches. After giving an example of a quote, i find it helpful to explain the quote, that way i can understand it better. Describing it, gives me an idea of what the author is trying to say. What i learned about this research paper is to use way  more detail. Also after i use a quote, i should be able to explain what the quote is about and how it relates to what im talking about. i learneed that when im writing this research paper i really shouldnt say "i" as much as i always do. Instead i should be using third person.

Sharing A Research Source

"When memory draws a blank." The Irish Times n.d.: 5. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 24 October 2011.

            This article describes the various types of amnesia and what parts bring certain memories back while others are forgotten. It explains how you develop anterograde amnesia and how you may forget things that just only recently happened.

Blog #4-Midterm Practice

             I agree that the Internet is damaging our attention spans and reading habits. instead of looking for books in the library, and reading to find out information on something, we all rely on the internet. the internet seems to give us all of the information we need. the internet makes it way easier to find information on a topic than to look up a book and read to learn about something. Although we may think that the interest is way more easier for access and to find more info about something, i think its having a negative effect on us as well. As Nicholas Carr says "The deep reading that used to come natuarally has become a struggle". that is true because now we dont read through pages and pages of information to find what we're looking for. We just get the main information from the internet, using that as our source. it messes with our minds as well, now we just get used to taking in information the way the internet gives us. "I now have almost totally lose the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print".

My Thesis Statement

The film Memento is accurate in its portrayal of anterograde amnesia. Memento protrates how anterograde can amnesia effect a persons life. This film highlights some symptoms of this illness, main one being forgetfulness. This film shows the struggles Leonard goes through to try to remember what occurred after his accident. I will explore some ideas in what happens to people diagnosed with anterograde amnesia. 

BLOG # 3

                  I think Richard Dawkins was being more pessimistic about find altruism in humans. I think he seems more pessimistic because while comparing both passages, you can see the positive things Olivia says as for Dawkins, he just simply says its all from DNA. He doesn't really show examples of altruism. Olivia in her passage uses animals and humans as examples. She uses the example of a bee using self-sacrifice to defend a hive for others. She says "Extreme altruists, by definiton leave no descendants;They're too busy helping others" (Judsun 94). The evolutionary perspective  Judson challenges my understanding of human behavior. It makes me understand how animals help others, even if it means self-sacrifice. It shows how and why people, animals help there close friends and families. I also have a more clear understand to how altruism relates to DNA, and natural selection and gives clear definitions of altruism and the selfish gene. Although Dawkins' passage makes me a little uncomfortable about my understand about why we act the way we do. His lack of examples with humans/animals, doesnt help me understand the concept of altruism. Olivia's passage, even using animals, helped me realize something about altruism i never knew before. The tone in which Dawkin's passage is written makes it harder to understand because he throws in some uninteresting facts that doesnt really grab the readers attention.

Milestone #1-Topic Write-Up

I'll be using Research Paper Idea #4-Portraying Human Minds in Film. In my paper i'm interested in learning more about delusional disorder. I hope to learn a lot more than what i already know about this order. I hope in watching this film it will help me see how people can react when they have this disorder. By choosing this area for the topic, I hope to learn why people see things that aren't real, to be real. In this film, "Lars and the Real Girl", a man has delusional disorder where he's practically in love with a doll. He sees her as someone real, but everything about her is everything about him. If he describes her as being anti-social, that would mean he, himself is anti-social. I'm really interested to find out what makes these people think this way and why they act this way.

Blog Assignment #2-Quote Practive For Essay #1

The author states, "She believes that if some parts of the brain are faulty or defective, others are highly developed" (Sacks 16). In this quote, we see how Temple Grandin knows for a fact that despite having autism where she is denied a few things, she still has highly developed parts.

Temple Grandin suspects that the positive aspects of her autism, go with the negative ones.(Sacks 12). In this example we can see that Grandin is aware there are negative things that come with autism but also positive. Such as the fact that she puts everything into visual images where she finds it easier to connect and understand.

-The aspects of Temple Grandin's life or mind these quotes help to explain is the fact that she knows that even though there are things shes deprived from, there are still other things in which us normal people dont have. We dont normally visualize everything to understand something. Visualizing helps Grandin figure out complex questions in which solving it normally would be impossible for her. Temple Grandin knows this is a way in which she can connect with people and animals.These quotes will help prove my thesis by showing that you do not need emotions to connect with humand or animals, you can find another way to connect with them. In Temple's case, she pictures herself as the cattle in order to get a better view and clearer understanding.

Research Paper Topic Freewrite

 The research topic idea im interested in purusing for my research paper is Research Paper Idea #4-Portraying Human Minds in Film. A lot of films where people have extraordinary minds and sometimes mental illnesses. Soem examples of movies where characters have illnesses are, Enduring Love which is about Obsessive love/stalking and A Beautiful Mind which is about paranoid schizophrenia.

ENG 101 Assignment #1 Brainstorming

          Temple Grandin's story had me more interested, so I'll be using the prompt on Temple Grandins story. I think i will be agreeing  with the quote that "Human beings do not really need emotions to connect with other human beings or animals or to behave morally with a sense of right or wrong." Grandin's story helps prove this quote. She didn't really need emotions to connect with humans or animals. Instead she just imagined herself as an animal and in that way she could understand how they felt when they were about to be slaughtered.

Blog Assignment #1- Introduce Yourself/ Are you a Science or Humanities Person?

                     It's officially been a week of experience as a college student here at LaGuardia. I guess I'll say I will be learning about Brains,Minds & Consciousness. I'm extremely satisfied to be placed in this cluster for the fact that I am certain I want to learn everything that has to do with this these particular topics in my future. Goals? Everyone has them. Before summer i actually wished to study Police Studies. I'm not sure if I want to become a police officer anymore. During the summer my sister made me read a Philosophy textbook she had. After reading that, i became very interested in Philosophy.
                I'd say I'm more of a humanities person. Reason for that? I can't really explain. I just don't really like the idea of a scientist figuring out everything using tools and stuff. What attracts me to the way a humanities person is the way they can think deeply and try to find answers instead of relying on tools to figure out things for them. According to Plato as said in the text 'The Philosophers Way' by John Chaffee, 'Most people do not experience genuine reality: Instead, they are restricted to seeing images created by others, designed to shape their minds and manipulate their thinking. In many cases, people passively accept the information they are given.' That's what i dont like, even though something might be proven true through science, it's better in my opinion to actually be thinking about it first and rousing questions. Bertrand Russel says something that I agree with. "As soon as definite knowledge concerning any subject becomes possible, this subject ceases to be called philosophy, and becomes a separate science". I feel like thats what science is. Something where you can answer right away because it's already been proven(definite knowledge)...I'd rather spend time doing some deep thinking :).
               Most people in the U.S. are scientific today. Most people rely on science to get the answer to their question. Everything to them should be scientifically proven, so that way they'll be satisfied. Where did the curiosity go?  If I heard something was scientifically proven I would still be curious as to why something is the way it is. From this cluster, I hope i can figure out what i want to do for my future, what i would like to learn. I'm hoping from this cluster I learn more new and exciting things like I had this summer.