Time Travel: Only to the Future

I personally believe that time travelling is possible, however travelling back to the past is impossible. No facts or live application is done for this statement. However as for travelling forward in time, it may be possible. To move or travel forward in time, one must accelerate closely to the speed of light as Professor Brian Cox said “as you get close to that speed, time slows down, but only for you, according to Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity.” “If you go fast, your clock runs slow relative to people who are still. As you approach the speed of light, your clock runs so slow you could come back 10,000 years in the future," said Professor Cox.
               With the video we watched, and the fact that time moves slower as you go higher from the ground or away from the earth, one can travel time faster than those who are below because of this. The consequence of time travelling is that you can’t go back, as far as I believe and from the given facts. The only thing you did was to see what will happen in the past and you just have to live with it.

I do not believe in travelling back into the past because it has too many things yet to be explained or it couldn’t be explained. If one may alter the past, many events in history and existences would be altered to the present time. It may also possible that the time traveler wouldn’t exist anymore in the present time if he altered the past. Many consequences would come back to mind if one may alter the future and the past, even one tiny event. It may lead to major disturbances and alterations to the present time – If one could time travel back and forth through time. 

The Rhetoric of Cancer

Living alongside cancer. This is something that, I personally, have never heard anyone say. Especially someone with cancer himself. When talking about cancer, we usually use the words "battle", "fight", "survive", etc. These terms give us the idea that cancer is something we should be against, but this podcast from BBC says otherwise. It was mentioned that how can you fight something that is a part of your body? He had a point. Since cancer cells are, technically, pat of us, it would be really hard to be against it. Andrew Graystone compared cancer to other parts of the body. You can't "fight" something if it's a part of you.

Andrew Graystone tackled cancer in a very different way in the podcast. He shared his search for a better language to describe it. Maybe he did this because he felt like he needed something more accurate for him to refer to cancer. He asked different specialists and how they perceived cancer. In the end, I think his point was that we needed to be open to the other side of seeing cancer. Just because something is not doing us any good, doesn't mean we should always act aggressively or negatively.

This was a very enlightening and interesting podcast to listen to. I found it enlightening because we can always learn something new just by listening to someone tell their experiences. This made me realize that to some people, cancer is not totally a bad thing. It opened me to a whole new side of cancer and it made me see it in a new light. I found it interesting because I don't usually hear things like this and I actually found it enjoyable. It made me realize that overcoming something doesn't always mean that you should fight it, sometimes we first need to accept it and just have a positive outlook no matter what happens.

The Fight

The Fight

(A poem as a reaction for the podcast "The Rhetoric of Cancer")

Some people are chosen

To fight a battle within themselves

Most of them are unprepared

Most of them are afraid

A lot of them are in pain

A lot of them do everything to win

Win a battle that only they can fight

But what if it is not a battle

It is not a fight to win

There is no enemy within

Only a part of you that’s confused

That through help

Will become better

That through help

Will be better

This sickness

May not get better

Just by words, just by perspective

But the you who ‘struggles’

The you who ‘fights’

May just get better

By words, by perspective.

Maybe It Is Possible

Time Travel

Time is gold. This is probably one of the most cliché mottos in life. I have heard this line since grade school, and up until now I still hear this statement. What makes time so precious that they even compared it to gold? When I was young, I didn't know yet the answer to this question. But as I've aged, I came to realize the answer. Time is as precious as gold because it is a scarce resource. The amount of time is fixed. Its amount cannot be increased nor decreased. However, the thing about time that makes it so precious is that once it spent, it can never be retrieved or taken back.

This must be the reason why some human beings are obsessed about time travel, especially travelling back to the past. The reason? What else but correcting past mistakes. I admit that in this case, even I would want to travel back to the past just to correct a mistake. It makes me curious how things will be right now if I just didn’t make that mistake. Would things be better? Would things still be the same? These questions are the reasons why people are eager to develop a technology that permits time travel.

Time travelling has always been just possible in movies or any science fiction piece. However, after watching the video, I realized that there are scientists who are working very hard to make time travelling possible and it seemed that they are nearing their goal. They think differently and have their own theories about time. Oddly, as they explained their theories in the film, what they were saying made sense. This gives me hope that maybe, just maybe, time travelling will already be possible to us humans in the near future.

Sabrina Romasoc, 2011-14690

Language and Perspective

Language truly affects how we live in this world; how different events and happenings influence our way of thinking. From the podcast “The Rhetoric of Cancer”, we have witnessed and listened to how different people can have various ways in dealing with this disease. From battling against it to living alongside of it.

Edward Sapir and Benjamin Wholf might be right in their writings of how language affects (determines) our thoughts. How we deal with the experiences in our lives is influenced by the words we learn and use. And how these life episodes affect our own thoughts and usage of language. Andrew Graystone, after being diagnosed with cancer, observed that the language commonly employed with this disease revolves on the concept of military warfare and battles. The usual metaphors used to talk about this are related to the war between good and evil – light angels and dark angels. He said that these metaphors might have come about because of the culture people have lived in. Because of the different wars we have faced throughout the history of our world, we associated cancer as the enemy of our body and we have to fight against it. In addition, we have given cancer the title as our greatest and reigning conqueror – we created our own “Bogeyman.”

Because of this thought, most people with cancer seem to always think that they have to either lose or win in this battle against their “Bogeyman”. But there are few others, like Graystone, who are adamant not to make their own body a battleground. Professor Michael Overduin of School of Cancer Sciences at Birmingham University has a wonderful view of the collectiveness of the body – accept these rogue cells as part of who you are for they are yours as well. He said that when he hears the word “cancer”, he does not think of a war between the good cells and bad cells. Rather, he visions a troubled part of the body that needs the help of the whole. When you look at it in this way, it’s how you can accept and live alongside your “Bogeyman”.

How we perceive things, how we understand words, and how we use language influences our actions in dealing with the things around us. We might start a battle against cancer if we think of it as a foreign enemy, but we can also start a new relationship with it as an unwanted visitor that needs our help.  Thus, we can say that how we use language to talk about cancer is as important as understanding what we are dealing with in our lives.

Time Enough At Last: Last Man Up

If I were going to write an adaptation of “Time Enough At Last,” I would still want to retain the moral of the episode.  It pictures a string of hope despite solitude and loneliness.

Who? The protagonist of the story is a boy born with a very weak respiratory system that he needed to literally live inside a ball for the rest of his life. This ball is a recent invention of his father who desperately sought for a cure for his son’s incapability. It carried the responsibility of providing him a controlled environment which is safe and suitable for him. It is equipped with a portable oxygen tank and all the other stuff he would need to survive. It is the 21^st century and technology is a big part of the people’s existence.

Sandy grew while suffering from the discrimination of others. He never got the chance to make friends nor to even start a conversation with anyone other than his parents. He is trapped not just in a ball, but in a world full of harsh people, unable to accept his peculiarity. But one day, an unexpected crisis has changed everything about Sandy’s life. That was the day he started believing in what he couldn’t before.

The whole place was ravaged by the deadliest plague. Everyone was infected and soon they all died. Sandy, being the only one living in the most protected environment, was the only survivor. He dreaded that day, and the fact that he felt, for a moment, the comfort he never felt before. He felt lucky that though he had suffered a lot, there he was, totally fine while all else was gone. But as if that wasn’t enough for him to be grateful, he didn’t wish for any of those to happen. Alone inside the ball he called home, he mourned for his family’s loss.

Bon Voyage!

A 1902 French silent film would become a classic that would definitely be written on history books after some time. When people had different beliefs and views of the universe, “Trip to the Moon” had certainly captured its audience and became internationally popular. If I were there when it was first filmed, I’m pretty sure I’d end up dumbstruck and in awe, wondering how they’ve come up with such magic. I could have believed the credibility of everything in the film—the space capsule fired out into space by a huge cannon, sleeping on the moon, a goddess sitting on a crescent moon, Selenites inhabiting the extraterrestrial world.

Lighting, audio, transitions and such wouldn’t be an issue. What would probably be stuck into my mind are the plot and how Georges Melies  interpreted what the universe was like. It would obviously be a product of hard work and patience. After watching the 17 minute film, it would be more than enough to satisfy my curiosity. There would be not much anticipation before I see it other than it being awesome, and sure it is.

 The film might have gone beyond what we now think is rather impossible, but we can never tell. It just goes to show how people have been indulged into finding answers about the universe, trying to unravel the truth behind the unknown. Up until now, when technology has improved from nothing, we have been struggling for more. A little more imaginative view won’t hurt.