The Future of Human Evolution!

In all three stories, Oryx and Crake, Frankenstein and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, there seems to be a fascination with creating beings far superior than humans. As we read the books, it appears that the beings created were some evolutionary process. First it is this super strong creature but who is hideous beyond imagination that people faint at sight. Second is the weirdly handsome but with there’s something ugly about him and evil alter-ego of a good man. Finally, we have the Crakers. They are beautiful, benevolent and completely innocent and oblivious from the outside world. The Crakers seem to be the final stage of this advancement. This leads me to question, will we humans evolve some more? And I don't mean personality wise, I mean physically. Throughout our historical development, our bodies were modified to adapt to the environment and lifestyles. Yet, these things are constantly changing! The climate shifts, new advancements in technology and medicine, etc… Even now we have to adapt to our food since most of them are genetically modified and the ingredients contain some chemicals or hormones.  Of course the Crakers seemed to be starting from scratch. They do not know what medicine or evolution is! They eat plants, roots and berries, basically what nature can offer. But they were created with such strong immune systems so that they don’t get any of the past illnesses and diseases. According to National Geographic article, there are a few predictions for human evolution. One of them states that humans will take “charge of their evolution and transcending their biological limitations via technology….Transhumanism raises a spectacular array of possibilities, from supersoldiers and new breeds of athletes to immortal beings who, having had their brains scanned atom by atom, transfer their minds to computers.” Sounds familiar? Crake’s project was immortality. Perhaps Margaret Atwood is close to the truth. Maybe we are still evolving, but is it for the better? 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/11/091124-origin-of-species-150-darwin-human-evolution.html

Evil Matter

In the book Oryx and Crake, I found many interesting themes, where violence struck out to me. In today's society, violence is present in almost all of the world. In addition, Crake applied cruelty in many scenarios. Atwood shows how Crake treated the Crakers to transform them into immortal beings. His point of view towards immortality was that: a human who does not fear death, would be considered immortal. In which Crake taught the Crakers very insufficient knowledge. [They would question what money defines] In that sense, Atwood shows, indirectly, cruelty. Secondly, how many young adolescents know the result of the slug experiment. "Ever put salt on a slug?" Crake asked when describing his mother's death to Snowman. Jimmy was unaware of the result behind this matter. Crake was cruel since childhood, where he would apply new experiments on animals, to witness them suffer.


*Definition of the word "Cruel":

1. Disposed to inflict pain or suffering.

2. Causing suffering; painful.

3. Causing or inflicting pain without pity

**Definition of the word "Cruelty":

1. The quality or condition of being cruel.

2. Something, such as a cruel act or remark, that causes pain or suffering. 

In my opinion, Margaret Atwood presents the theme of violence/cruelty in the novel of Oryx and Crake to show the readers how immune tomorrow's society may be be towards this issue. 




References
* http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cruel
**http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cruelty

Avatar

Last week, my brother bought the movie Avatar. He was always telling me that it's the best movie of all the time and it's a crime that I didn't watched it yet. So, in one of my free time we watched it. Even thought the movie was 2 hours and half, it was really interesting to see similar points to Oryx and Crake written by Margaret Atwood. Avatar who is directed by James Cameron (who also did Titanic) tells the story of man called Jake Sully, a paraplegic former marine who is assisting with a group of people from The RDA Corporation mines the discover of a new world called Pandora. The RDA Corporation mines wants to destroy this paradice to build a valuable mine that will generate billions of dollars. To explore Pandora, humans can't go there, so scientists use avatar (blue creature) operated by genetically matched humans. Jake goes to Pandora as an avatar to explore this unknown world. After bonding with the nation, he realized that these people love their world and destroy it will be a mistake. Jake felt that betrayed them will be terrible because they take him as a member of their nation now. He battles with the RDA Corporation mines to protect the nation and he succeeded at the end.
In Oryx and Crake, Crake created a society by improving human's immortality, removing any sexual feelings, etc. He wanted to created an ideal community better than the world he was living in like James Cameron did with the movie Avatar. We see in the book that Jimmy takes care of the Crakers after the death of Oryx and Crake and he really protect them from all the craziness they were around. In the same kind of way, Jake did with the people of Pandora were attack by the RDA Corporation mines.
Overall, I really liked the movie. I never thought that I would've like the movie because it's a science-fiction movie. I guess my brother was right for his one.

Metro 2033, Russian apocalyptic novel

The topic of the end of the world as we know it is a very popular one and has been adressed in a lot of literature works.
I have a book that my husband has purchased, it is called Metro 2033.

You can consider it a speculative fiction because it takes place in the future, after a global, planet-wide nuclear war. After the nuclear missiles have detonated the only people who managed to survive in Moscow were the ones that were in the metro at that moment, because metro was built with the idea of being a bomb-shelter in mind as well.

The story is told from the face of a teenage boy, who barely remembers the sky, who spent his entire life underground.
This novel talks a lot about animal mutants and people who are left after the conflict, who have to deal with the new circumstances.

From the first pages of this book, this boy and inhabitants of the metro are filled with terror towards the "black men" that are coming out of the tunnels from one of the metro ends, who are walking silently, without any fear towards people shooting them, who are only capable of producing horrible wailing.

At the end of the book, just when the plans of destroying the nest of these black men are set in motion and cannot be stopped, the boy get a telepathic contact from these "black men". He realizes that they are simply new breed of humans, capable of withstanding radiation and fighting off mutant animals and plants. These new men have simply tried to make contact with the metro inhabitants without any intentions for harm. Unfortunately he realizes this too late and he watches the nest exploding and burning to the ground.

I believe there are a lot of similarities that can be found between this novel and Oryx and Crake.

I really suggest to read this one.

The Future is Not So Friendly

I realize this is a late entry, I have to admit I completely forgot about the second blog entries, but I figured it was better late than never.

I guess that my topic is what you could call a hybrid of the two types of entries that we were given to choose from. It is a comparison between Oryx and Crake and a story idea by my older sister. My sister has been writing short fiction for as long as I can remember, and I've always loved reading her work. A few years ago, when the first Hunger Games book came out she was instantly obsessed, and she decided that she wanted to tackle the world of terrifying, but realistic ideas about the future. She finally showed me her detailed outline a few months ago, and I instantly made some connections to Oryx and Crake.

The main idea of her story is that as a society we have finally wasted too many of our resources, and spent too much of our money. The environment is suffering, every inch of space is covered in industrialized cities. The economy is a wreck, everything is too expensive for anyone but the extremely wealthy, which causes a major division between the classes. Classes themselves have been reduced to either very wealthy or very poor. Eventually, inspired by the already existing underground train systems like the metro, an underground society is formed. Metro tracks are extended and become the main roads, stores, restaurants and, obviously, dwellings are constructed and the poor are forced to move underground as inhabitants of this new "world". The underground world is designed to be an imitation of the above ground world, but there are things missing, like nature for example.

All goes fairly well until a disease begins to form from mold and bacteria found below ground. My sister told me that for right now she does not have all the details planned out for this disease like how it spreads, how contagious it is, etc. What she has decided is that this forces the above ground dwellers to block off all access to the underground cities, locking them in a huge quarantine of sorts.

The story's main character is a young female, who is born several generations after the quarantine is enforced. At this point in time, nobody below ground has ever been above ground. The main character works at sleazy barely-in-business bar. She is obsessed with the above ground world, because stories of it have been passed down through relatives. The only real way for anyone to leave the underground world is to be bought by a wealthy aboveground dweller. They are essentially sold into slavery, similar to the children in Oryx's country. The people below ground are unaware of this, however.

So when the main character is bought, she doesn't understand the circumstances under which she is being let into the aboveground world. She is bought as a high end prostitute, which can also be related to Oryx in a manner of speaking. She is shocked by the realization that the world she has dreamed of for so long does not meet any of her expectations and it has just as many problems as the world she so badly wanted to escape.

Eventually this girl escapes her "owner", but she is terrified of everyone she meets. She ends up meeting a man who has been spending his life trying to get below ground to try and help some of the people down there. They create a plan to get past the high security systems and through the sealed off entrances. When they put the plan into action however, they are found out and the man is shot.

This is a pretty long blog entry in my opinion so I'll finish by saying that the main connection is the theme of a (much) less-than-perfect future. The environmental issues are also quite similar as are the division of classes (compounds, pleeblands).

Is That Our Future?

There are two main times in Margret Atwood's novel Oryx and Crake. There is the time before the virus spreads, where the world is very advanced and high tech. It's sorta sci-fi in a way with all the compounds and how life is almost perfect and any problems can be solved with a bit of science. This is of course the rich upper class side if the story. Atwood describes these super high tech advanced laboratory where almost everything is being modified and heightened. After this huge virus spreads and kills all of humanity as Jimmy knows it. The world goes to it's very basics. Nothing is high tech and everything is very animalistic. Things are almost like how it use to be back in the cave man period. Snowman has to hunt for his food and takes shelter in pretty much what he can take shelter in. It's kind of funny how the story goes backwards in time and everything that man has work so hard to build simply doesn't matter anymore. Their world goes from looking like where our future is heading with all the technology to how earth use to be. Very simple and basic. It kinda makes you wonder if this is a prediction that Atwood is making to our future. I mean everything she mentions in the story is here now in present day. The only thing is that everything is over exaggerated and blown out of proportion to our eyes now. But as times are going, Jimmy's world of super advanced life isn't really that far away. We already have all sorts of genetically modified animals that can glow and after research for my presentation. I have learned that technically we CAN have real pigoons living right now if we wanted to. They are very close to making lab grown meat and after recent economic times, the gap between the rich and the poor is growing.( pleeblands and the compounds) Since the books ends with the end of humanity.....is this going to be our future? I mean people are predicting the end of the world with the 2012 thing. Does this have any significance to what we just read? Does Margret Atwood's predictions in the story a reality?

Designing Babies

In Atwood’s book Oryx and Crake, one of the main themes is human genetics. Crake is the leader of a research looking for new ways to improve the human body. Crake created a pill called BlyssPluss. This pill was created to protect humans from any sexually transmitted disease, to prolong youth, to provide an unlimited supply of libido and sexual prowess in order to block testosterone which would create feelings of jealousy and violence; and the last feature of the pill is that it works as a birth-control pill. The last characteristic was made in order to control the population growth which is also a problem in our society. But the main project of Crake was the creation of perfect beings, the Crakers. He wanted to create beings that would be perfect, with no diseases, almost no feelings in order to avoid violence, or racism; he also wanted to create beings that would not need to eat a lot of food because, in the book as in the real life, people’s demands and use of resources is exceeding what we can produce.

In recent years, like in the book, scientists have been looking for a way to create perfect human beings. in the article attached we can see that scientist will, very soon, achieve their goal; they have started making some tests on animals, but there is still work to do. There are also ethical issues that are being discussed. Scientists argue that the benefits of their findings would be the creation of people without certain diseases, but the people against, argue that perfect people would create new types of racism. I think that the book might help to understand what could be consequences of creating perfect humans, such as, losing the real meaning of life which is to enjoy life even if there are some defects.

://articles.cnn.com/2008-10-30/tech/designer.babies_1_designer-babies-perfect-child-genetic-screening?_s=PM:TECH

Bioterrorism

Last week I watched the movie Resident Evil and it made me think of Oryx and Crake. The movie “Resident Evil” depicts the theme of Bioterrorism such that the entire movie is about infected persons killing non-infecting persons. In the movie, a pharmaceutical company called Umbrella invents a sort of deadly virus. This special virus has the ability to transform a normal individual into a zombie and which causes a huge epidemic. Now the way this relates to Oryx and Crake is really obvious, Crake spreads out a virus that causes huge epidemic and destroys the entire human race. Bioterrorism in today’s world is not seen as something really threatening among normal citizens, but as a matter of fact, the governments have a whole different vision on it. In our actual society, with all this tension and intolerance among the nations, we are actually in a great risk of being a victim of bioterrorism.  Many governments have initiated protocols to follow in case of such an attack. I think that scientists should perhaps work on finding better solutions for such treats instead of passing their time in cloning and genetically engineering genes which does not really help during a viral epidemic. Another possible solution would be to raise awareness among the people. The social network could play an important role in this case. If the government health organizations in each country take critical measures in creating awareness among the citizens, it could be the first step towards achieving the goals. Now, what do you guys think of a better solution against this severe issue?

Apparently Life's a GAME

Recently at a LA night club the rapper Game dumped a $1400 bottle of champagne and said "You know what I call that? Feeding the roaches. Good thing, too ... because carrying an open container in public is a ticketable offense in L.A." You ask how is this related to the novel Oryx and Crake, well there is no crazy connection except for the development of a two class society. I am a huge fan of The Game and I think his antics are kind of amusing, but I feel this connects because there are not many people who can spend that kind of money so there is definitely a case of two class society. Also it connects because he defying government, corporations and the social norm, but i think the ticketable offense comment was a subliminal shot at the police based on the rappers history of being in gangs. But i felt this ties in because of Atwood's concern about the 2 class society and this does not help the cause. But an argument could be made that Game is an activist who is "sticking it to the man" by making a public scene and insulting the police force. But however you look at it you can not escape the fact there is definitely an issue of a two class society.


http://m.tmz.com/article_head.ftl?id=http://www.tmz.com/2012/04/17/the-game-ace-of-spades-champagne/ here is the link

Dark Side of the World

The world is a big place. It is filled with many mysteries and wonders, but darkness lurks here as well. People do things to each other, they use others for their personal gain, they wage wars on each other, they abuse others, and some would do just about anything for money. It is sad but true to know that child trafficking exists on our planet.

In Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, many contemporary subjects are integrated within the story line, whether it be genetically modified animals or made up diseases created to make a profit. A main issue is the one of child trafficking. Oryx’s history is one filled with misery and slavery, from a young age, this girl, living in poor conditions, was sold and forced to perform acts that were horrid, for money. Recall that Oryx was brought to Jack after uncle En died, and she was forced to participate in porn movies. This situation reminded me of a movie that came out in 2008 called Slumdog Millionaire. In this movie, the main character, Jamal, retells a series of events that occurred during his life, one of those events was when he was taken by a man. Jamal’s job: get money from tourists. He would go out day after day and beg for money from people visiting the country. This does not only happen in fiction. All over the world this type of child slavery exists. The boys are forced to become beggars, and the girls are forced to become prostitutes.

Oryx’s situation is similar to so many other stories out there, since child trafficking exists all over the world. In the following story, Sreypov Chan, a young girl, was sold to a brothel when she was 7 years old. For many years she was forced to engage in sexual acts and if she didn’t meet her quota she would be tortured and punished. We can see the similarities with Oryx’s story here. Both girls were sold by their mothers to strangers at a very young age, and both were forced to engage in sexual acts with men. To read further about Sreypov Chan’s story visit this link: http://www.marieclaire.com/world-reports/news/diary-escaped-sex-slave

          If you are interested to read or listen to more stories like this one, click the link below: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/27098993/ns/today-today_news/t/teen-recounts-horror-abduction-sex-slavery/

To conclude, our world is a big place. As previously mentioned, the book Oryx and Crake discusses a number of issues happening today. Child trafficking can be found everywhere and it is sad to see that helpless children become slaves and are forced to do tasks in order to satisfy whoever owns them. Our planet is a big place, but does it have to be one filled with darkness?

Will We Become Invincible?

      It seems that after completing the novel Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood brings along a central theme that gets brought up numerous times throughout the story, that of immortality; humanity's quest to extend human life. Just like Crake and many other intellectuals in that society dedicate their lives to finding new pills or new ways of extending or even diminishing life, a simple question remains within the palms of our society

; do we have the capabilities to maybe accomplish in medicine, immortality? 

      In today's society, famous English author and theoretician in genetics, Aubrey de Grey, has been praised as the leading brain in the extension of human life. Aubrey de Grey is also a co-founder of the famous Methuselah Foundation which focus's on the methods of extending lifespan. Since this foundation is meant to motivate scientists all around the world to quicken research in maybe achieving immortality one day with a top prize estimated to be around 4 million $.

            However, would this actually be a good idea? Will the investments of private corporations make actually turn out positive for the survival of humanity? Or will we be exploited and used for profit just like in Oryx and Crake? Whatever happens our generation will be able to experience it first hand and there will be an interesting response to this whole situation.

            Atwood’s perspective about immortality is very interestingly portrayed through the character Jimmy and in todays society, technology and medicine are only advancing and only time will tell if we will reach a point of immortality in our lives.