Cite your work and write/answer all the questions (13 discussion question) according to their instructions. Use the source for each writing if I pointed it out. Please no short answer. Thank you! I

Book used for these questions: Desert Solitaire: A Season in the

Wilderness and Albe By Abbey, Edward

Cite your work and write/answer all the questions according to their instructions. Use the source for each writing if I pointed it out. Please no short answer. Thank you!

Discussion 1

Why is wilderness valuable in our modern world? Remember, throughout most of human history we have tried to destroy wilderness, to escape it, not preserve it.

Use this book for quote and citation: Desert Solitaire: A Season in the

Wilderness and Albe By Abbey, Edward

Discussion 2

But could Abbey be right?  What negative role does he see technology playing when it comes to experiencing nature?   What do you think of Abbey's plan?

Use this book for quote and citation: Desert Solitaire: A Season in the

Wilderness and Albe By Abbey, Edward

Discussion 3

Describe a situation in which you felt particularly close to nature. How important was the absence of technology in creating the experience? Was it necessary to be alone? Was there any particular technology (technology, broadly construed, is any material means used to make life better; this includes clothing, cooking utensils, tents, paper and pen, cars, etc.) that was needed or helped the experience? 

Discussion 4

What made your close to nature experience possible? Was it the complete absence of technology (I doubt it!)? Or was it the absence of noisy technology? Was it the presence of something in particular? 

Discussion 5

Technology has supposedly brought us countless labor-saving devices. Here are a few--the wash machine, the vacuum cleaner, central heating, every kind of mechanized farm equipment, in fact, every kind of machinery imaginable that performs a task once done by manual labor. Yet we are as busy as ever, probably as stressed as ever. Apparently we work much harder than hunters and gatherer's did. They led lives of true leisure compared to ours. How can we make sense of the puzzle that despite all the labor-saving devices technology has brought us, we are busier than ever?  Your answer should be informed by the reading that gives this discussion its title.⬇️

The book for this is The Original Affluent Society by Marshal Sahlins pages 5-40.

Discussion 6

While some people in class might be willing to at least entertain the thought of trading places with some of the hunters and gatherers we read about, I take it no one would want to trade with a woman in colonial America as described in the attached reading.  Yet clearly colonial women had much more technology at their disposal than stone-age hunters and gatherers (spun clothing, cooking utensils, weapons, farm tools, log homes, etc.).  Why didn't this increase in technology lead to an easier, more comfortable life? (Your answer should show that you have read the attached article.)

The book for this is (the attached article) Technology and Life for Women in Colonial America pages 47-66

Discussion 7

Should "therapeutic cloning" be pursued?  There have been several claims to have already successfully cloned human beings, but to date no such claim has been independently verified.  

Should reproductive cloning of humans be pursued?

Readings on Cloning (all but "d" are web links): you can use these for references and quotes please cite your work.
a)  cloning fact sheet, put out by the National Humane Genome Research Institute
b)  Wikipedia Article on Human Cloning 
c)  AAAS Policy Brief on Human Cloning 
d)  Ethics of Cloning Report (AMA), under the files tab
e)  Reports of successful human cloning by Clonaid  

Discussion 8

If we had the technology to make a Penfield Mood Organ, would you use one?(Read the excerpt from the novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? in the reading tab before attempting to answer this question)What currently functions like a mood organ in your life?  Is there any relevant difference between it and the device described in the passage from the book?

This is the link about the reading:⬇️ cite your work

https://files.cercomp.ufg.br/weby/up/410/o/Phillip_K._Dick_-_Do_Androids_Dream_of_Electric_Sheep_c%C3%B3pia.pdf

Discussion 9

This week we are discussing, amongst other things, the moral dilemmas raised by cloning.  These are issues are ancestors never faced, because the technology wasn't yet available.  What other examples can you come up with of new moral dilemmas created by advancing technology? The medical field is full of such technologies, and feel free to list, these, but please try to come up with other examples as well.

Discussion 10

Please for this question use this book: Brave New World

By Huxley, Aldous. Edition : 46

Questions to ponder: In what ways have you been conditioned by society?  Is your conditioning any less, or just less scientific?  Are you really any freer than the citizens of BNW?  Could your sense of freedom be an illusion?

Discussion 11

Please for this question use this book: Brave New World

By Huxley, Aldous. Edition : 46

But might BNW (Brave New World) be preferable to our world?  What's so bad about always being happy?  What's so bad about not having any wars or social strife? Clearly the savage is horrified by the brave new world.  But why?  If we could perfect our conditioning methods to engineer a society in which everyone was happy, would you be willing to live in it?  Why or why not?

Discussion 12

Imagine you could have lived your life any time in the past (or future), in any culture you know about.  From a technological standpoint, when and where would you have liked to live, and why? 

Tips:

To get around these unattractive social aspects, let's say you can pick your class, race, and gender for purposes of this thought experiment in deciding when in history technology seemed most appealing.  The only constraints are, you can't imagine yourself among the wealthy elite, or part of the ruling aristocracy. And you can NOT pick the present. 

Discussion 13

Please write 2- 3 paragraphs in this discussion

In many ways, technology has dramatically changed what it is to live a human life.  Genetically, we are no different than the our hunting and gathering ancestors.  Yet our lives are incomparably different.  In this discussion question, I invite you to ruminate on how one particular piece of technology has changed human existence.  Think wildly and creatively.  It's OK to overstate things.  Here's an example: 

Life before electric lights (don’t use this as example).