Author: William (Page 1 of 3)

As a Student one of the most important questions you must ask yourself is what type of learner you are. Personally, through my time as a college student  I have learned that I’m a mixture of kinesthetic and visual learning, which in short means I learn the best through example and direct practice. Which complements my major very well . As an engineering student I often find no shortage of opportunities to learn in my most preferred style of education giving me a strong sense of confidence that I chose the right career path. However, with the good comes the bad, I’ve learned that it seems that I’m very rigid on how I absorb knowledge as well. Due to the coronavirus outbreak and the subsequent move to machine learning my effective learning has taken a big hit. Ironically it seems the engineering isn’t good at computer leaning, A fact that is no doubt noticed by my colleagues and department.

Though the hardships my education and my GPA will face this semester is somewhat overwhelming, in a way I’ve come out with something in the end. That being the education I did manage to get and a new fondness of my major studies. It may have come at some point because it will always be worth trying. For those efforts I’ve come out with knowledge on types of writings like bibliographies and brilliant minds such as Noem Chomsky through research done for said bibliography. As well as interesting challenges I can partake in like the lipogram. To me a class should give you the tools to do the subject yourself. All this can come quite handy in my future endeavors in writing those I don’t have much need for such things in my engineering reports. It could very much come in hadingy if I were to write informative responses to those outside my field. Additionally it is always good to have such knowledge even when you don’t use it yourself it would always be passed on or used in identifying said tricks in the writhing or others. Improvement while not always explosive, it may be incremental but should always be sought out. It is how we move forward as a person.

Covid-19 or Coronavirus has truly shaken everything up, it seems everyone had their normal everyday life affected. Nobody was spared such a drastic and sudden shift in norms, not even I, an introvert that goes out very little and feels no need to have my existence validated by others(my cynical way of saying I have no need for regular social interaction) was drastically affected by this circumstance. I mean I was built for this right? All I need is food, water and the internet to sustain myself. However, when everything goes wrong for society, nobody is spread. From family falling ill to online learning it goes to show the world doesn’t stop even now. 

An impotent question I have been asking myself since the pandemic started is who will be after the pandemic. There’s no doubt that I will in fact see the day where the pandemic is over, a fact that was never in doubt but who will this experience change me as not just as a person but as a student. As an engineering student, in person lab and manual construction with tools is a necessary part of my education. So having distance learning certainly hurts that aspect of my education. However on that same note I’ve noticed that even professors have been suffering as well due to the online distance learning. For some professors it seems that without the confirmation of actually physically seeing you students it breeds these feelings of disassociation and loneliness. As I’ve noticed some have even grown complacent in their situation, I would go as far as to say some seem depressed. But what more can i expect as it feels like the career you’ve chosen in place in radically new position that you are no longer satisfied with, as your only reperceive that being you students and co-workers has been taken from you. And those very students grief stricken by the and stuck in a malaise of uncaring, bubble of stress just perpetuates this feeling of isolation. It’s just an uninspiring situation but, we endure anyways. But we must go on for these experiences we gain for our hardships that make us stronger for the trials we will face ahead in our life, professor and student alike. Because in the end where are all students till the day we die. I can only hope that my efforts are not in vain but it’s always worth trying in my eyes, even if failure is a certainty. 

Those who would call themselves wise might say that “we are cursed to live through interesting times”, a trite and insufferable statement to make themselves seem wise or proficient. But they are ultimately correct that we would live on the cusp of a great change again for better and for worse. I believe they were experiencing a metaphorical powder keg and when it explodes it’s up to us to see who we want to be after the dust settles.

Ethics is a difficult thing to quantify, it’s a philosophical question that can be defined but has no true meaning as it’s liable to change from person to person. Simply put it’s the reflection of how society thinks the world should look/act. A set of “rules” born from and overarching view points. So what happens when a society is overseen by two viewpoints that are absolutely opposed to each other, those being Science and Religion. But also how would they attempt to suppress each other using ethics for what they see as a contradiction to those beliefs?

Within our society the scientific part has always been considered a step down from the religious part in terms of power. This is almost certainly due to how much humanity as a whole relied on religion for comfort and counsel as it was the sole ethical force in our lives. But when the scientific world started blooming yielding leaders that rule through logic and data instead of faith, undermining the church. During the climate change debate it seems the the biggest decision makers have been leaving bible quotes and faith speeches. However Scientific groups that are devoted to the research of such things have come to a consensus such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA even going as far to even create a direct site link for this sighting Naomi Oreskes, a seasoned climate scientist. Naomi Oreskes is an expert on the subject, writing several books and even working with NASA to further her research. In an article on Bill Moyers site he uses Dr.Naomi’s data to corroborate how he sees the politicisation of the topic of climate change. Bill Moryer being a political journalist who served under the LBJ administration. Musically in his article he wrote how the repulican party had unify under a sort of faith before fact mentality was in the past they did not. Painting startling pictures of hypocrisy in a place where there really shouldn’t be.

For an even more controversial example of Religion and Science buting heads was during the stem cell debate. This debate was particularly polarizing to people due to the sensitive details of the matter. For a very basic explanation of the research at hand, scientists found a particular type of cell that humans produce that has the potential to increase the regenerative properties of people. This cell was called the stem cell however, it seems that adults had very few of these cells within their bodys but infants cells have large quantities of these making them prime candidates for research. This is where the controversy is rotten, now in reality the way to get subject were either through baby that died though miss carage or abortion. Unfortunately that’s two things that those shrike a nerve to the more religious of us. Word quickly spread of doctors ripping babies from the womb and doing research on the live barley fetus. A lie that was born from either ignorance or intentional malus but damaging nonetheless.

However, though I am firmly on the side of Scientists and scientific research I am not unaware of the fears people feel toward an unregulated group as potentially dangerous as science. After all, we have been groomed from a young age on this subject. Our media suffers from no shortage of mad scientists and while yes there are some who would undoubtedly be a serious concern.

P.S. Quotation links have purposefully no been added yet.