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A plague sweeps through America, killing three fourths of the population. No cure! World Wide Terror!
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Look In the sky! Is it a plane? NO! It’s a UFO!

~zip zap BOOM~

*explosion*

… and were all dead.

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As sick as it may sound, it seems, we are extremely entertained by the idea of worldwide destruction. Movies, books, and even on the news you can find a plethora of stories about the end of the world. To date, we have thought of it all; zombies, natural disasters, illness, meteors, aliens, nuclear or chemical war. Personally, if we are talking about science fiction, I prefer to read about zombies. Something about nuclear destruction and natural disasters seems too real for me. But I suppose that’s part of what people enjoy about apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic scenarios. They can ask themselves “What if this was to actually happen?” And we all do it- we as humans are a curious race. According to one of those online questionnaire survey quiz things I apparently have a 71% chance to survive a zombie apocalypse. Movies like The Last Man on Earth, The Day After Tomorrow, and just about any zombie movie you can find all depict there terrible and seemingly hopeless situations that man somehow manages to overcome. But is it really all just fiction? And if not, will man somehow miraculously survive just like a happy ending we expect from a Hollywood movie?

What if I were to say that several apocalyptic scenarios have already happened? Does anyone remember how dinosaurs became extinct? For millions of years dinosaurs roamed this planet. Then, some 65 million years ago, a huge meteor rock thing fell out of the sky. As the story goes, the meteor impacted the earth creating a 110 mile wide crater in the Yucatan, creating enough ask and debris to block out the sun. This subsequently killed the plants, thus killing the plant eating dinosaurs, thus killing the dinosaurs that eat the plant eaters. Unfortunately, no human was there to live and tell the story. So who knows what actually happened.

If we want to talk facts however, what about the bubonic plague? Or perhaps the Spanish flu? The bubonic plague, around the year 1350, killed 50-60 percent of Europe’s population, thus earning its name The Black Death. IT lingered around until the 1600’s until better medicine was invented. The Spanish flu came about in the early 1900s. In 1918 the disease infected a third of Earth's population. Doing the math, I figure that’s about 500 million people.

Still not recent enough to keep you interested? What if I were to tell you the world could end in just three years from now? This is perhaps the biggest hype since Y2k. According to several prophesies and the media, the worlds going to end- AGAIN! I do not want you to think I am mocking the idea that we might all die… I just don’t appreciate writing in a morbid tone. It doesn’t suit me :)

Most people today are familiar with the prophesy about 2012… I believe the actual end of the world date is said to be either October 28, 2012 or December 21, 2012. In fact their even making a movie about it. Fun times… The worlds about to end so let’s all go to the theater and eat popcorn…

What makes the prophecy about 2012 so intriguing, is that unlike most apocalyptic theories, this has a lot of supporting historical and scientific evidence. Different ancient cultures all around the world seem to have the same idea about this date in time- Something big and something bad something catastrophically destructive. The most popular of these prophesies comes from the Mayans and their long count calendar.

Now keep in mind the ancient astronaut theory from my last blog. The mains built great pyramids and found great knowledge in a short about of time. They were so knowledgeable in fact that they were able to scientifically predict the future using the sun moon and stars. Their calendar goes on for over two thousand years and then stops… on December 21st 2012, and at the end of their calendar destruction is depicted.

To date, Science even backs up their theories of worldwide destruction by saying there is some sort of mass in space… rather a rift or a cloud of some sort of energy that is slowly but surely heading in our direction. And when out earth eventually enters this cloud, something about the magnetic fields of out earth will go crazy and the earth poles will shift creating world wide chaos with hurricanes earthquakes tsunamis, drastic climate change, and even something about Japan being completely underwater.

My major problem with this theory is that yes chaos might be coming but who says it’s the end? Who is to that that the Mayans decided to stop their calendar because they thought they had done enough? Perhaps the Mayans were like…

Mayan Steve: Hey bob I’m getting hungry

Mayan Bob: I know Steve but we have to keep working on the long count calendar

Mayan Steve: Bob… don’t you think two thousand years into the future is long enough?

Mayan Bob: *sighs* I guess your right Steve... We can always finish later…

-they go get lunch-

...and then the Spanish kill all the Mayans before
they can continue the calendar
~cut scene~

All in all… I figure, if the world’s going to end then it’s going to end. If humans are meant to live through it, then they will do was they always have done – procreate and make some more people. Perhaps it may not be nearly as entertaining as Hollywood or science fiction novels like to depict, but until it does happen, I believe apocalyptic scenarios will always be a “must have” not only in science fiction but also in our media. It seems there will always be another prophesy…. There will always be another Y2k craze…. Well... unless the time actually comes I guess

In fear of this blog entry becoming more morbid,
This is me, signing out

PS. Below you will find a video of a documentary on 2012 as well as a trailer for the 2012 movie…


*note* this is only part one... there are two more parts that you can find on youtube :)

Aliens

Mankind has always looked to the heavens and pondered their own existence as well as the sheer mystery of our creation. As our technology advances we create things we have only dreamed of in science fiction. What is it that separates us from all of earth’s creatures? Unlike all other beings that dwell on this planet, some believe that we in fact the alien race. As we look to the sky, some are waiting for the giant insect “people” to come and devour and enslave our race. Then again, are these “aliens” peace-loving creatures who will save us from being war mongers or ourselves thus enlightening us to a new harmonious state of being? What if they have been here the whole time; visiting ancient societies, sharing their knowledge of the cosmos, building the pyramids? What if they are here with us now as our rulers and bosses and Teachers? We will explore these questions for the remainder of my blog. So hold tight and don’t let your imagination get the best of you.
A starship cruises through the galaxy faster than the speed of light, being pursued by the evil Gorganaughts, a.k.a the Gorgans. This lone starship is the last of its kind, and the Gorgan’s mission is to exterminate every race in its universe. The starship captain, whose name has been lost in the folds of time, knows his tiny ship won’t hold out forever at these mind boggling speeds, so he devises a plan of action. And he knows once the Gorgan ship gets a lock on his vessel, all will be dissipated in one photon ray! The captain has put to death two of his best crewmates, one a male and the other female. He has bottled their essence into a capsule and says a prayer to some symbolic deity you and I will never know. The time is at hand; the captain sees his goal ahead and readies his capsule. “But we’re too far to make our mark,” screams the more passionate crew members. But the captain, like stone, carries on. Suddenly Alarms sound and chaos erupts. The Gorgans have a lock! “We’re not close eno………” Words cut short by a photon explosion. The little ship, with the last of its kind, is now a ball of fire and evaporating particles. The Gorgans roar in laughter and speed away. But what’s this? Out of the debris, a self powered capsule, carrying the essence of a species, races towards the only living planet in this solar system. That planet will come to be known as Earth and that species to be known as humans.

--------------------------- or -------------------------

Maybe we’ve been here all along. It’s the insects who are the impostors. They are everywhere. Strategically placed around the earth so when the mother ship arrives with the giant race of Mantis like Man-devouring bugs, all the ants and bees will be in position for the attack. Perhaps this explains all the bees disappearing… How can Man mobilize a defense against such an onslaught? The bugs are everywhere, and now that their master race has come to earth all humans will be devoured.

Aliens have been thought of since as long as anyone can remember. It seems as time has gone on, the mental picture of what an alien is has changed as well. At first aliens were slimy bug eyed creatures. Aliens then became insect men or lizard people. Slowly, our concept of aliens has evolved so that an alien would look just like you or me because they now have the capability to disguise themselves…
Some believe aliens exists, some do not. Some believe in UFOs, some believe they are all lies. In my opinion the most fascinating of alien beliefs is the fact that they have visited earth before and the proof is all around us. The ancient astronaut theory holds that when man was in the Stone Age, they were not so ingenuitive. Aliens then came down from the skies. These primitive people could not truly understand what was happening, some believed them to be gods. These “gods” then shared the knowledge of everything with them. Giving them insight on how to build the pyramids of Egypt, gave insight on how to predict the future with the Mayan calendar, helped build stone hedge and the figures found at Easter island. Eventually these gods or aliens left. And all we have left as proof are the massive structures than man could not have possibly known how to create in that time. The same type buildings were being built all over the world during the same time; in Egypt, South America, and Mexico. The pyramid of Giza was built in 20 years…. This is still not even possible to do today with all our new technology…
I am not an alien enthusiast but I do not deny the idea that there might be something out there. I do not hold anything said about aliens to date as truth. I think the further you look into it the more questions you will think of… Either way the more I talk about aliens the more I will have to explain… IF you want to look into it your selves I found a history channel documentary that I found decently interesting. This is the first part of the documentary, the rest can be found via the related videos link once the video has ended.

this is me... signing out :)

Space/Time Travel

Space and time travel are definitely no strangers to science fiction. Although, in this day and age, we are now experiencing space travel first hand, time travel is still accounted as fantasy. One of the major arguments against time travel is the “grandfather paradox”. This idea asks what exactly would happen if you went back in time a killed your grandfather or prevented him from having any children. Would you still exist?


Amazingly so, with recent research, time travel (at least into the future) has been proven to be very possible – in theory. According to Einstein’s theory of Relativity, space and time exists together in four combined dimensions. The picture below is an example of one plane of existence in space.” This includes three dimensions. This would look like on a graph as the axis’ “x”, “y”, and “z”.



Time however adds a fourth dimension. Four dimensions are difficult to imagine. Understanding the concepts of Space/time travel can be very confusing. I myself am rathe mind boggeld over the subject. Since the purpose of this blog to to explain these topics to you, the reader. And since I, myself, even with research, cannot seem to put it all into the write words, I will refer to the professionals. Here is an excerpt from another website that I feel describes it quite accurately and simple enough to understand.


“Physicists usually suggest you think of spacetime as a rubber sheet stretched out flat. If there are no large masses around, the sheet stays flat, and so any object placed on it will move around in straight lines. But a large mass, such as the Sun, makes a dip in the sheet because it actually warps spacetime. Now any other object with smaller mass, like our Earth, moving about in spacetime rolls into the dip as it comes past the Sun. It appears 'attracted' to the large mass. This effect of warping spacetime is what gives rise to gravity.
The Universe is full of heavy objects exerting gravitational effects and the net result is that spacetime is not flat at all but curved. Everything, including light, has to follow curved paths in spacetime. We know Einstein was right about this because astronomers can sometimes see distant stars that ought to be masked by nearer objects such as the Sun. Instead of travelling in straight lines and hence being blocked, the light from the stars bends round the obstruction.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/exploration/timetravel/index.shtml



David Tenant, playing Doctor Who, also explains the existence of time and space in a less cohesive manner.



Let’s take a step backwards at regress to 1905. In 1905, Einstein discovered that time and space exists cohesively. His theory became known as the theory of special relativity. In 1915, Einstein announces his theory of gravity, better known as the general theory of relativity. In this theory, Einstein explains how matter can effect time and space through gravity. Both theories suggest that for anything traveling at or beyond the speed of light, time moves or passes at a slower speed/rate.

“Let us consider a simple example with numbers. A sprinter runs 100 metres in exactly ten seconds, according to the reliable and highly accurate timekeeping of the judges. Had he, however, carried his own very accurate stopwatch along with him, then, due to time slowing down very slightly for him, his watch would show a time of 9.999999999995 seconds. Of course, this is so close to ten seconds that we would never know the difference. However, scientists routinely need to measure times with this sort of accuracy. The difference between the runner’s and the judges’ watches is just five picoseconds; it is such a small time difference because the athlete is moving so much slower than light.”


http://www.scienceinschool.org/2009/issue11/timetravel

Robots, Artifical Intelligence, and Andriods. Oh my!

Robots have not only been an integral part of science fiction science for as long as I can recall. In fact, according to this site, the oldest real life robot was from the late 1800’s. In just about any media that depicts the future you will find some sort of representation of a robot. Technically speaking, there are three different types of robots. The first would be just regular machines. These machines are technological devices that perform a specified task. Today, this type of robot is the most common. The second type of robot is called an android. A robot is an android when it takes the shape of a humanoid form. The third type of robot would be considered to be artificial intelligence, or AI. These robots are classified by their ability to learn and demonstrate knowledge. In 2001, the movie Artificial Intelligence: AI by Steven Spielberg depicted a story about an android boy who also had artificial intelligence. Another example of robots in science fiction media would be R2-D2 and C3-P0 from Star Wars. (Both robots are considered A1 however only c3p0 can be considered an android)

Robots in science fiction have been portrayed in both a positive and negative light. In some cases, robots benefit the human race by provided a new and easier way of life; A life where machines do all mundane tasks, such as cleaning a house, or recycling metal. In other cases, it is robots that are to blame for the downfall and destruction of all human life. Newer movies such as The Matrix and I Robot are both good example of robots bring about destruction and chaos to man. This darker light is more often shed on robots, when it comes to science fiction novels or movies. My personal guess at the reason for this is that it leaves room for a more entertaining story plot. Take, for example, the movies in The Matrix series and the movie I-Robot. They are both good example of how robots can bring about destruction and chaos to mankind.

Humans have held a fear of robots for some time now; I imagine ever since they were first created. Originally, the most common fear of robotics is that robots would one day replace man in the workplace. This has proven more than possible in history with the industrial revolution in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries. (This was about the time of the oldest recorded robot on the internet) AS time has progress, so has the human imagination. Fears of unemployment have heightened to robots eventually taking over and replace the human race all together. This idea is supported by the fact that even though we might not know the full capacity of a human brain, it is a popularly accepted idea that a computer can be made to be much more intelligent than any human being. Lucky for us, technological advancements and research in the AI field has yet to show us any such results!Below I have listed some links to videos hosted on youtube.com showing just a couple of robots that man has already invented. The future is now!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHJJQ0zNNOM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wiw-jbjnyzc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLGk9Q49y7k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkvpEfAPXn4

“I visualize a time when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans, and I'm rooting for the machines.”

CLAUDE SHANNON, The Mathematical Theory of Communication