Do we master technology?

Does technology master us?

How do we use technology in our daily lifes? Is it important? Have we somehow felt addicted to technology, to a certain extent? Do we depend on it?

Think about the way our grand-parents used to live. Of course, technology didn't have the preeminence it has today. Think about the positive and negative aspects of technology. Technology should liberate us from unwanted tasks. Is it so? Julio Cortazar, an Argentinian writer, wrote a short text about a watch that was intended to be a gift. But he concluded the man was the present for the watch.

Do you consider yourself as a digital native?

Which are the digital utilities you use most? Why?

Which utilities would you use most as an English teacher?
Have a look at this, if you want, and choose one of the sites.

By the way, did you know...?

Is the exploration of the universe necessary?

Universeb

40 years ago, Man landed on the moon. It was a dream come true. At that time, it was posible due to the "Star Wars" between the USSR and the USA. Nowadays, China is planning another trip to the moon. And Mars? when is a human beeing going to land on Mars? Do you think exploring the Universe should be a priority? Why? Do you think we can afford Space exploration? Of course, science-fiction has already built many Castles and Kingdoms in other Galaxies. Can you think about one or two? Which one do you prefer, and why? And what about extra-terrestrial life? Is there someone out there?

What can we do for our planet?

Technology and Ecology


Technology and Ecology. Does technology always mean progress?

Is our planet truly in danger?

What can we do for our planet? What should be done?



This is the text that goes with the trailer of HOME, a free movie directed by Yann-Arthus Bertrand. What do you think about it? Do you agree? Do you think we have to worry about the future of our planet?

In 200,000 years on Earth, humanity has upset the balance of the planet, established by nearly four billion years of evolution. The price to pay is high, but it's too late to be a pessimist: humanity has barely ten years to reverse the trend, become aware of the full extent of its spoliation of the Earth's riches and change its patterns of consumption.



An Inconvenient Truth. Trailer.



Here you have a controversial proposal. Do you agree? Why? Why not? Can you think of another way of changing what is beeing done to Nature?

Can machines think as we do?

LIKE TEARS IN THE RAIN. The most famous scene from Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott, adapted from Phillip K. Dick's novel Do androids dream of electric sheep?




2001, A Space Odyssey. Trailer.




Which is the difference between the ways machines and human beeings think, in Isaac Asimov's opinion?

In which way do you think we should anticipate the future in order to avoid the negative aspects future changes can bring?

Can man be a little god? Genetics and Ethics

Some visionary writers -science-fiction writers- anticipated our debate on Science and Ethics. Let's have a look at their works in order to consider the limits scientists have to face and respect.



Frankenstein creates his monster.



Trailer.



This is the first ten minutes of the 1996 drama, The Island of Dr. Moreau. It was originally written as a novel by Victorian novelist and thinker H.G. Wells and is about a mad doctor who alters animals through vivisection to resemble humans.

The military industrial complex

Eisenhower warns the Americans about the military industrial complex.

Try to understand Eisenhower's warning message. It was his farewell address to the Nation. Pay special attention to the end of part one and the first half of the second. Why does Eisenhower worry about liberties? Where does the threat for those liberties come from?




In President and General Dwight David Eisenhower 's farewell Address to the Nation he warned Americans about the persistant threat to liberties by the "military industrial complex". This was the first known use of that expression.



Eisenhower on the use of the nuclear bomb:

here you have a letter Ike wrote to his brother concerning the use of the Atomic Bomb in Japan.


letter to his brother Edgar, November 8, 1954

"I voiced to him (Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson) my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the (atomic)bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives."


-------




WHY?

Why do the babies starve
When there's enough food to feed the world?
Why when there're so many of us
Are there people still alone?

Why are the missiles called peace keepers
When they're aimed to kill?
Why is a woman still not safe
When she's in her home?

Love is hate
War is peace
No is yes
And we're all free

But somebody's gonna have to answer
The time is coming soon

Amidst all these questions and contradictions
There're some who seek the truth

But somebody's gonna have to answer
The time is coming soon
When the blind remove their blinders
And the speechless speak the truth


Tracy Chapman

Hurricane Hits England

English has many different accents. We can even think of Englishes. Here we have an example of a poem read by Grace Nichols, a poet from the Caribbean who lives in Britain. Listen to the poem read by the author herself and try to understand what the Hurricane in England represents for her.




Poem: Hurricane Hits England
Written and performed by: Grace Nichols
Animation by: Jake Robinson

© Grace Nichols Media 2004


It took a hurricane, to bring her closer
To the landscape
Half the night she lay awake,
The howling ship of the wind
Its gathering rage,
Like some dark ancestral spectre,
Fearful and reassuring:

Talk to me Huracan
Talk to me Oya
Talk to me Shango
And Hattie,
My sweeping, back-home cousin.

Tell me why you visit.
An English coast?
What is the meaning
Of old tongues
Reaping havoc
In new places?

The blinding illumination,
Even as you short-
Circuit us
Into further darkness?

What is the meaning of trees
Falling heavy as whales
Their crusted roots
Their cratered graves?

O Why is my heart unchained?

Tropical Oya of the Weather,
I am aligning myself to you,
I am following the movement of your winds,
I am riding the mystery of your storm.

Ah, sweet mystery;
Come to break the frozen lake in me,
Shaking the foundations of the very trees within me,
come to let me know that the earth is the earth is the earth.