The existence of mankind is a wicked blessing with the full capability to uphold good intentions, but human nature drives us to do otherwise, going beyond moral constraints into the depths of corrupt curiosity. The idea can be more crisply summarized in the words of Bill Bryson “It’s an unnerving thought that we may be the living universe’s supreme achievement and its worst nightmare simultaneously.” Bryson obviously sees the aptitude of the human race but still acknowledges the flaws that make people much less than perfect. One thing that sets humans apart from animals is their ability to think. The creation of nuclear weapons is a product of human intellect and is an example of its ability. But the accomplishment has lead to the fear of nuclear war, which would be the end of mankind and possibly Earth itself. Another example is communist dictator, Adolf Hitler. Hitler is a political figure that came into power after the fall of Germany. He promised Germans the complete reconstruction of the country to its prior reign. Hitler became too power hungry and it eventually led to his fall. Also, the development of various types of drugs (predominantly meant for good) has caused both relief and infliction in the world.
A wonderful aspect of humans is the ability to adapt, think, and perform in various circumstances and conditions. The human brain contains so much potential that 90% of it cannot even be accessed by people and yet the 10% invents, innovates, and operates at an immense scale. Yet in some circumstances and conditions this ability can be fatal. For example, during World War II the United States began the Manhattan project that sought to create a bomb that would be extremely damaging to the enemy, Japan. They succeeded in creating a nuclear bomb. This was a pivotal moment in history. The aftermath of the bombing was so appalling that the effects are still seen today. After further research and experimentation, scientists have been able to create atomic bombs that have the potential to wipe out the entire Earth at least twice. This could indeed be the universe’s “worst nightmare”.
Adolf Hitler came into the lime light as a man with a totally reputable objective and the antidote for poverty in Germany after the war. Hitler actually seemed to be living up to his word as he rebuilt the country and so Germans gave his more and more power.
Adolf Hitler, easily one of the most influential people to have ever walked on the Earth. His rise to power also one of the most oppurtunistic seized to date. How did he achieve such a powerful control over Germany and its people? Through what you could call a series of unfortunate events.
We make choices every day, from waking to sleeping our day is composed of choices and the results of these choices. These choices help to shape us to who we are and want to be. But, these results may not be foreseen and may be adverse or favorable depending on the situation. Topics and events in our history ranging from the literacy of common man to unnecessary gun violence were a result of un-foreseen consequences. Our world’s history has been shaped by these consequences forming the world to where we are today.
When reading or watching works of science fiction, it’s easy to cheer for the humans. In many cases, it’s us as a race against the alien creatures or some sort of technology that’s turned evil. Just think of “Alien,” “The Matrix,” and “Ender’s Game.” Work like this gives us as humans hope in ourselves, and makes us imagine that the people in our world can band together to conquer anything if we put our minds to it. But what happens when the humans aren’t the ones being attacked? Both Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Word for World is Forest” and Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” have heavy themes hinting that humans aren’t as perfect as we sometimes like to think. In fact, both works point out that humans themselves are sometimes the monsters.
In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley tries to convey the belief that every invention or improvement for the “betterment” of mankind is only an instrument for his ultimate destruction. “We are,” he said, “on the horns of an ethical dilemma and to find the middle way will require all out intelligence and all out good will.” This goes for all fields of life, medical, technical, social, etc. Not only in the book, but also in real life, one can see that this belief is evidently true.
He applies his findings to examples throughout history and makes the point that we do not learn from our mistakes. Wright claims that “as cultures grow more elaborate, and technologies more powerful, they themselves may become ponderous specializations – vulnerable and, in extreme cases, deadly.” Humanity progresses too fast and ends up doing more damage than good. In the Stone Age humans went from killing 2 mammoths to 200, we went from the arrow to the bullet in a number of decades. These advancements are called “progress traps”, and inevitably threaten our whole species with extinction. Humanity has reached a point where we must slow down our advancements and look at what is really necessary. All of these advancements are bringing up more problems than they are solving. We have to start reversing our current problems, and prepare for the future. We are coming to a point of no return from the consequences to our actions and as Wright says “if we fail – if we blow up or degrade the biosphere so it can no longer sustain us – nature will merely shrug and conclude that letting apes run the laboratory was fun for a while but in the end a bad
Human beings are prideful creatures, and we have good reason to be. We have subdued a planet, changed the course of rivers, watered deserts, written poetry to make angels cry, and wrapped the world in a network of electric impulses and digital displays. We have created and killed not one but many gods. We can make a cloud rain by shooting heavy metal into it, and we can create a lake by pouring concrete in a canyon and damming a river. Most days, it seems that we human beings have everything under control and that if we miss wild nature, well, we can grow it in our gardens. (We can even genetically engineer the plants and animals.) Every so often, however, the universe spins out of our control. Forest fires rage. The earth quakes. Chaos descends like a great modern Zeus hurling thunderbolts and reminding us that nature is not ours to manipulate. In a great universe shaped by raw power and force, human beings are only small, easily crushed, organic structures. We need the reminder. Chaos and destruction are nature’s great gift to human kind because the realization of our frailty and insignificance leads to enlightenment. We learn something about ourselves, how we are here, where we want to go, and what we have to say about it.
Everyone has heard the expression "curiosity killed the cat." That is to say, the search for new wisdom can often have unpleasant consequences; a child curious about the kitchen stove is bound to get burned. This is exactly what Kurt Vonnegut demonstrates in Cat's Cradle with the example of ice-nine, which is developed by the fictional creator of the atom bomb, Felix Hoenikker. It is symbolic of the atom bomb in that it has the power to end human life. Hoenikker is obviously an exceedingly smart man; however, it can be inferred from his inventions that he does not always consider the negative consequences of his new discoveries. He is merely on a quest for further knowledge, not a quest to better our society. The game of cat's cradle, which Hoenikker was playing on the day of Hiroshima, can be understood to represent both the naîve, infantile nature of Hoenikker as well as the great destruction caused by his invention. Vonnegut counters the scientific aspects of the novel with the bizarre religion of Bokononism. Overall, Cat's Cradle is used by Vonnegut to point out the flaws in modern society. Through the analogous ice-nine, Vonnegut shows that humankind's search for knowledge is prone to end up in destruction.
Few things are more powerful than the human mind or human intelligence. This ability to think, learn and process complex thoughts has been the driving force that has allowed for the immense growth of human culture and society, without which it is doubtful we would have ever had the capacity to evolve from our basic animal existence. As fantastic as this quality may be, our intellectual growth has not always spawned ideas that produce sound and safe results. Victor Frankenstein, although a fictitious character, provides a superb example of the vast potentiality of human intelligence and the morbid destruction that it can create. For very real examples, one need only read the headlines of the newspaper to find a multitude of malicious and perverse atrocities that occur each day due to the human mind and "intelligence" gone haywire. This is why, in light of today, with technology gaining greater and greater power, we mu...
The human mind is the greatest aesthetic of human accomplishment ,but it is also the greatest downfall of mankind because the existence of fear dictates what humans are will and will not
Up to 1938 Hitler achieved many things previously thought unachievable that soon after the war. He was regarded by many at that time as one of the great men of Germany. This opinion is later abandoned by most following World War II.
Adolf Hitler, said to be one of the most evil political leaders who ever lived, killed a total of six million people just because they were Jewish. Also he killed millions more just because they were not German even though Hitler was one of the most evil political leaders who ever lived; he was also one of the most impressive leaders who have ever lived. Hitler was one of the most powerful leaders in the world, because he changed Germany in ways others couldn’t and still can’t do till this day. Also Adolf Hitler was one of the best public speakers, he had a big influence on his followers, and he expanded Germany. With those points Adolf Hitler became one of the best leaders and he took over a regime single handedly.
Adolf Hitler started as a mere soldier fighting for Germany (even though he was Austrian) in World War I. Hitler was blinded by a mustard gas attack in the war, and he heard of the German surrender from his hospital bed. He was infuriated by the "weakness" of the German government, so he planned a coup to overthrow them and take power of the country. He was unsuccessful however, as he was caught and thrown in prison for his actions. Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison, but was only in prison for eight months due to his "good behavior". Hitler had spent histime in jail writing a book called "Mien Kumpf", or "My Struggle" in Enlgish. The book was an autobiography/library of all his political ideas. Because of this book, HItler became well known throughout the world, and was loved by the people of Germany. He was so well known that he was TIME Magazine's man of the year in 1939. While he may have been a maniac, he was also an excellent speaker. Eventually Hitler became second in command of the German Government, where he passed a law which got rid of the position above him. When the leader of Germany died, Chancellor Adolf Hitler became the supreme dictator of Germany. HItler began passing the begggini...
Hitler was a very smart man, he was able to bring Germany out of a great depression in one year. He was able to manipulate and brainwash many people into doing his bidding as well as hiding the Holocaust from the rest of the world The holocaust was a very sad time Hitler killed 11 million people, more than half were Jew's the rest were gypsies, mentally diseased, gay and handicap people. He would come up with unique ways to kill them before all the gas chambers. He would just line up the older Jews in front of holes or mass graves in the ground after having shot them, they would sometimes cover them.
A quote from Frankenstein that really encapsulated this idea is "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." - Victor. This quote beautifully shows that Victor wants to advance science and do things no one has ever seen. The theme of this is altogether noble and inspires people to do bigger and better things. However like all good things it can be taken too far and mutated into something evil and wrong. I think as a community we need to stop, take a step back and think about how and where we advance science and technology to. Science is an amazing thing and millions of people are saved from disease, illness and injury with the advancements we have made. We need to continue research and development for things like this. There is a very fine line we ride when dealing with science. On one side we have the miraculous, genius, and life saving things we can do with science. The other side is pain, suffering, mutilation, mind control. Things no living thing should have t0 endure, and things that will harm our lives and our communities. We still have time to correct our trajectory towards self destruction if we make changes now. Something must be done now and we need to talk about this issue more. Frankenstein did a wonderful job highlighting this problem and it has only become more relevant to our lives as we advance as
...him, because he was making Germany a great nation. Then, out of his hatred for the Jews, he began World War two which almost completely ended Germany’s economy and nation. Hitler, unlike a lot of others, was poisoned from a very young age, but he suppressed it until came to power and then struck.