Sanitarium

Ahhh…Life, could be easier. –Some guy from a long time ago

There must be an easier way. –Steve Jobs

Throughout time these phrases have been heard many millions of times.  Finally people decided to do something about it.  Charles Babbage, in 1837, invented the first computer…kind of.  Of course it was kind of hard to use, seeing as it was massive in size, and everything had to be done from command lines (no mouses).  This eventually lead to other people getting ideas on how to make something that was supposed to make life easier, easier to use.  Douglas Engelbart invented the mouse in 1964.  That made many things easier.  Programs could be selected without typing a whole bunch of code…yay!  I can’t imagine using a computer for hrs without a mouse.

In this essay, I’m not just talking about computers making life easier, but technology in general.  Many people define technology as something that makes it easier to do stuff.  For example, ancient warfare consisted of swords and shields, notice there were no long ranged weapons mentioned.  When the bow and arrow was invented, it took warfare to a whole new level.  So many more people died, from archers behind the walls, or in the midst of the opposing army.  After this, the crossbow was invented.  All it did was extend the range of the arrow, adding power to the release of the arrow.  It may not have made life easier for those that it killed, but for the archers, they did not have to use as much power, yet they killed more people.

Another, not so gruesome example is the microwave.  The microwave provides fast, easy heating of food.  Before people had to put it in the regular oven and wait like forever…they used wood burning stoves, which took long.  With a microwave, you put in the food, and push three buttons, and in how much ever time you put it in for, the food is ready to eat, it may not be good, but that is a different totally off topic story.  Of course, before someone can use a microwave, there must be some sort of electricity.  Electricity could also be considered technology, cause, well it did make life easier…instead of spending hundreds a year on candles, we spend less than hundreds on bulbs, which last longer, and are not as much of fire hazards.  Plus, without electricity, there would be no computers either.

To end, I’ll provide a personal anecdote, I remember in elementary school, whenever we had to write stories, or BSRs, we used pen and paper… every time, I screwed up in the middle or wanted to add something, I had to start over, because my teacher did want arrows all over the place.

Technology makes life easier…This i Believe!

Word Count (in body):436

Total Count: 484

This Quran guides to the best path, and brings good news to the believers who lead a righteous life, that they have deserved a great recompense.  -17.9

          I am a Muslim, and many people have the misconception that we as Muslims do not believe in the diveness of Christianity, and Judaism.  This is not correct.  We do not believe that Jesus was the son of God, but only a Messenger of God.  We believe that his fatherless birth was the first miracle of Jesus.  Just the same Moses had his share of miracles.  One of them was that he spoke directly to God from the burning bush.  The prophet Muhammad P.B.U.H said to the Jews, “We believe in Allah and what was revealed to us and what was revealed to you.”   

        As Muslims we do not belittle any other religions, and we do not disbelieve in the messengers of the Christians or Jews.  We believe that both Moses, and Jesus are messengers of God, and they brought the same message as the Muhammad P.B.U.H.  After the prophet P.B.U.H died, during the caliphate of Umar RAW, there was a Hadith that stated, “The entire Bible can be summed up in one sentence of the Qur’an, Chapter 4 Ayat 52.”  The Qur’an says, “And We have sent down to you (O Muhammad) the Book (this Qur’an) in truth, confirming the Scripture that came before it and Muhayminan (trustworthy in highness and a witness) over it (old Scriptures)…5.48”  This is proof that the religions of Christianity and Judaism, are both divine religions.  In the beginning of the prophet hood of Muhammad,  he [Muhammad] went to his wife’s uncle, who was a devout Christian, who told him that Jesus told them, or gave the prophecy of another Messenger from Allah Almighty.  Another instance of Muslims getting along better with the Christians then the Pagans of Arabia, is when the Muslims in Makkah were being persecuted by the Quraish leaders of Makkah, so they were given consent by the Prophet to migrate to Abyssinia (Ethiopia), the land of the Christian King Najash.  When the Muslims reached there, the Quraish had sent their people to get them back, but when one of the Muslims read from the chapter Mary from the Qur’an, and Najash realized the how much the two religions have in common, he let them stay in his kingdom for as long as they wished.  He said to the Pagans, “And not for a mountain of gold would I give these people to you” 

        One day there was an instance when the Prophet saw Umar RAW reading a page of the Torah, and the Prophet became upset and said to him “ Do you have doubts about what I taught you, O son of Al- Khattab?  By the One who has my soul in His hand, I brought to you clear and pure, and if my brother Musa were alive, he would have no choice but to follow me.”   This just goes to show that Moses and Muhammad brought the same message, and that if they lived at the same time, they would be spreading the same message. 

        We are not that different…This i Believe.

Word Count in Body:501

Total: 545     

Perfection…will man ever reach such a level of living?  Or is that a level for God alone?  Everyday man is not content with himself, always trying to be better, will man ever be the best, or only get better?  For many millions of years, man has been trying to create man…whether it be machine, or in Victor Frankenstein’s case, man himself.  In all 4 stories, The Birthmark, The Monkey’s Paw, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and Frankenstein, man tries to do what God does.  In The Birthmark, Aylmer wished to remove the small flaw in his wife’s appearance, her mole, in The Rime, the Mariner kills one of God’s creatures, and in Frankenstein Victor creates life!

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Frankenstein are both tales of life and death. In Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein is playing a role similar to that of a god.  He creates life, “So much has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein—more, far more, will I achieve; treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.”  On the contrary, in Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the Mariner takes the life of the Albatross, “I shot the Albatross.”  After Victor creates the monster, he becomes afraid, and runs away.  That in itself shows imperfection.  In perfection, man would fear nothing.  The creature is left on its own, knowing nothing of the world, therefore doing what it must to survive.  Because of this Victor’s entire family is killed, first William, then Justine is executed as the murderer, then Elizabeth is killed, the grief kills Alphonse (his father), and finally the stress ends up killing Victor himself.  Similarly, after the Mariner kills the Albatross, bad fortune befalls the Mariner.  His entire crew is killed; he becomes stranded, and is unable to die.  By these examples, each author is trying to show that man neither has the right to create or take away life.  Man’s role in nature is to do as God has willed him to do.  These are also good examples of man being imperfect, in that perfection would have lead them to better consequences rather than miserable lives.

Compared to The Birthmark, there are multiple similarities in the characteristics of the two scientists.  They both show massive amounts of hubris throughout the stories.  Neither listening to anyone else, nor caring that the consequences of their actions are have dire affects on their families’ lives.  In Frankenstein, Victor lost his entire family, and Aylmer lost his wife due to his perception that he was perfect, therefore she needed to be perfect.  Their arrogance allows them to believe that they are perfect, and know all.  “Doubt not my powers.” –Aylmer (The Birthmark).

Another similarity is that neither scientist, nor the Mariner knew what their actions would cause.  They looked only at the immediate rewards.  The Mariner did not think that killing the Albatross would cause any misfortune, but rather good fortune.  Victor thought that by creating life, he would become a renowned and great scientist, but he did not know that his creature would destroy his entire family, and slowly, kill him.  Similarly, Aylmer did not know that by trying to remove the “hateful mark” he would end up killing his wife.  These are such consequences of actions that are not to be done by man.

Another similarity in the two stories is much gender bias.  In the Birthmark, Aylmer looks at his wife, Georgiana as an experiment to see if he can get rid of her “hateful mark” because his hubris lead him to perceive her as his which needed to be perfect.  In The Rime, there was no gender bias due to the fact that there were no women.  But this still showed that men are still weak and imperfect.  In Frankenstein the gender bias was when Elizabeth was given as a gift to Victor, “until death, was to be [his] only.”  Also, when Felix rescued the Turk’s life from execution in France, his [Felix] reward was the man’s daughter in marriage.  This shows that women were thought of as possessions to be given by their fathers to any man that wanted her.  In today’s world there are still many cultures which require that the father give the daughter their consent to marry a certain person.  Also, it wasn’t until a few decades ago that that even women couldn’t vote. 

As mentioned above, The Rime did not have any gender bias, Coleridge’s purpose was to point out that man’s eagerness to be always right, and their perception that what they do is right, is the flaw.  The Mariner thought that by killing the beast, good fortune would befall them, “I had killed the bird that brought the fog and mist.”  Followed by “T was sad as sad could be:” everything went haywire.  Coleridge is just going to show that because of man’s undoubted belief in themselves they would be willing to do something to jeopardize the lives of not only themselves, but also anyone around them.  Another difference that The Rime has from both The Birthmark and Frankenstein is that the other two stories are about creating, or perfecting life, whereas The Rime is about destroying it.  The Mariner’s consequences are that he is cursed to live alone on the open sea with a massive beast [The Albatross] around his neck, “The Albatross about my neck was hung.”

The greed of man to be perfect is one of the many flaws of man.  As these stories go to show, that to be perfect man will do nearly anything, whether it be to kill one’s own wife to find something out, create a monster that will nearly destroy man to prove to people that one is great, or if it be killing an animal because one doesn’t like it.  All of these are actions only God is permitted to take.  Perfection is not to be attained by man, but only by God.  This could be because man does not know what the future holds, therefore will only look to see an immediate reward.