MIND’S EYE 2018
A
BRUTAL
Art
BLOOD
The
Plague
of
CUSTOM BLESSED are
Line
Fighting
SPIRIT
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GEEKS Exit
POLES
Mind’s Eye | June 2018
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Front cover: Banksy 2
Mind’s Eye | June 2018
Inside cover: Armistice Day, 11 November 1918 Celebration at 11:00 in Whitehall, London
Contents 12
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28 | Intelligent Life
74 | Exit Poles
Bots that can invent their own language enthral Alex Stokes
A Pole studying in England, Kay Minkovic thinks Brexit is a big mistake
30 | High Fliers
80 | An Ancient Kingdom
Mabel Pickering laments the growing use of drugs in schools
Harry Trelawny-Vernon explains why there is more to Cornwall than tin and pasties
34 | A Hot Mess Flora Clark says reversing climate change will be hot work
39 | Sound Bites
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Catalina Izaguirre Pascua tells us about poetry that has no words
39 42 | Blessed are the Geeks
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Aidan Mills shows how Science could make a lucky few filthy rich
46 | Tick Tock 6 | Fighting Spirit Miraya McCoy Palmer salutes the controversial Winnie Mandela
Elizabeth Idowu discovers that time is much more than a linear continuum
50 | No Labels Please
12 | A Brutal Art
Amber de Ruyt says that L, G, B, T and Q are all still labels
Ed Barlow saves Brutalism from the common accusation of concrete monstrosity
53 | Poll Axed
19 | The Good News To redress the balance, Honor Glynn-Williams gives us some good news
22 | The Age of Reason Vicki Honychurch wonders whether sixteen-year-olds should be allowed to vote
25 | Shell Shock 100 years on, Jebin Yoon says we are not doing enough for the mental health of soldiers
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Jia Donghui shows why opinion polls can never work
58 | Bloodline Annie Shepherd-Barron asks if it’s nature or nurture that makes a serial killer
63 | The Plague of Custom Ben Helme agrees with Shakespeare that tradition is a hollow tyrant
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66 | Only Connect
Editors:
Charlie Watson Anthony Lyons
K Starck reveals that the secret of the universe is interconnectedness
Design: CobwebCreative
Mind’s Eye | June 2018
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Editorial As usual, in 2017 Mind’s Eye covered a lot of ground. While celebrating Shakespeare’s skill at dramatic characterisation, it also wondered if video games should now be thought art. While welcoming Brexit, it decried the arrival of Macron. Other articles shared wonder at sea creatures that glow in the dark, fascination with aliens that are probably out there somewhere, and misery at an education system that is no longer fit for purpose. We visited India in a panegyric on the great Barefoot Charity of Rajasthan and heard all about one writer’s love affair with Cuba. There was even a fantastic interview with Jon Snow, a white-haired Knight of the Watch. But what obsessed half our contributors last year was the health of human bodies and minds. Warnings about the dangers of drugs, rugby, pollution, rubbish food and lack of sleep accompanied a plea for the autistic to be left in peace, for the self-destructive impulse of creative genius to be understood and for the silent voices of the mentally unwell to be heard at last.
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NOW THAT TRUMP HAS SHAKEN HANDS WITH THE OTHER LITTLE MAN, AND THE WORLD IS GREAT AGAIN, WHAT IS THERE TO SAY IN 2018?
Now that Trump has shaken hands with the other little man, and the world is great again, what is there to say in 2018? With further concern about mental health, a study of shell shock suffered by soldiers in the Great War is just as disturbing as a look at whether nature or nurture produces a different kind of killer. Two budding scientists explore the burning issues of climate change and artificial intelligence, but another suggests various ways you could make millions from the appliance of science. The Arts feature too, in a robust celebration of Brutalism (apparently the Barbican is not barbaric), and a quirky examination of the weird world of sound poetry, or poetry without words. Drugs rear their ugly heads again, but this time in a shocking warning about their infiltration of schools, and there are two moving political studies, one a plea for the rehabilitation of Winnie Mandela now she has passed, and the other a careful analysis by a Pole of the post-Brexit plight of the Polish in England. But if last year the chief concern was health, this year it is relativism and representation. One piece posits the fluidity and mystery of time, while another suggests that since the universe is merely energy we are not who we think we are and don’t really die at all. One writer decries the proliferation of categories for sexual identities because all of them are still oppressive labels, while someone else suggests that following tradition can lead to nothing but blind prejudice. An article about news refuses to be news at all by telling us about the good things happening right now in the world, and elsewhere the possible political sovereignty of Cornwall, where the seams of both tin and pasties are always uppermost in the local mind, is given an airing. One detailed analysis of opinion polling shows that no one, however math-smart and organised, can predict the outcome of an election, and an 18-year-old can’t decide if those who are sweet sixteen deserve the vote.
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So the world is a confusing place for the curious young writers of Mind’s Eye 2018, but life is more fascinating than futile, and kindness and justice are still deemed worth the whistle. The Editors
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THE WORLD IS A CONFUSING PLACE FOR THE CURIOUS YOUNG WRITERS OF MIND’S EYE 2018, BUT MORE FASCINATING THAN FUTILE
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Fighting
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MIRAYA MCCOY PALMER salutes the cruel but necessary career of South Africa’s most controversial freedom-fighter
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innie Madikizela-Mandela’s death on 2 fiercely defiant in the face of the apartheid April this year was mired in controversy, regime, unafraid to call herself a member like the rest of her polarising life. A vast of the ANC at a time when identification range of obituaries try to come to grips with with the party could lead to imprisonment her character, some portraying her as saintly, or exile, and undaunted to be the only one some as demonic, most describing her as raising a fist for ‘power to the people’ when ‘tainted’ or ‘tarnished’. Articles describe her others were too fearful to do so. This strength as ‘Mother of the Nation’ and cemented her as a crucial a ‘blood-soaked bully’. Many She changed the slogan figure in the anti-apartheid know her as Nelson Mandela’s liberation struggle during of the ANC from ‘Death former wife. the years before Mandela’s to Apartheid’ to the release, and she was loved hopeful cry of ‘Free Rather than standing behind as ‘Mama Winnie’ by South Mandela’, and at once he became the face of her husband during his fight Africa’s black townships. She freedom to end apartheid, Winnie stood became a stronger symbol in front of him and became the of resistance against the face of the movement during regime than even the exiled his 27-year incarceration. Nelson Mandela’s ANC or her jailed husband. life sentence was an attempt by the South African Government to remove him from Nelson Mandela’s imprisonment ensured the public mind of black South Africans and his image as a saint, painted by the ANC and stamp out dissent. Winnie worked tirelessly plastered around the world, did not wash off. to ensure that this was unsuccessful, saying He was protected from the sordid violence ‘the harder they try to silence him, the louder and scandal that came with the political fight I will become’. She was largely responsible for for freedom in which his wife and comrades keeping the fire of revolution alive while its were embroiled. Winnie was not so immune leaders were imprisoned on Robben Island. and for this she suffered. Her bold defiance Partially she did this by helping the African and her prominence throughout the black National Congress (ANC) canonize her South African communities made her a husband, creating an icon that activists could target for the South African National Security rally around worldwide. She changed the Police. They recognised her power and knew slogan of the ANC from ‘Death to Apartheid’ that to destroy the liberation struggle they to the hopeful cry of ‘Free Mandela’, and at would have to destroy her. Winnie was once he became the face of freedom worn in ‘banned’ by the government and repeatedly the hearts of the oppressed. Winnie was also imprisoned, beaten, tortured and Mind’s Eye | June 2018
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betrayed by informers. Kept in solitary confinement for over a year, she faced hardships designed to break her spirit. She was hugely more vulnerable to abuse than her husband, who was removed from the changing tides of political life, and she was subject to violent and chaotic forces that would attempt to control her from all angles.
Winnie returned to Soweto in 1986 and from this period the controversy of her life spreads. The place she returned to was more violent and radical than the one she had left, and she changed with the times. Winnie’s years of struggle and the harassment she had suffered moved her in a different direction from her husband and his fellow political prisoners on Robben
By 1967 the fight for liberation was being taken up by the country’s youth, and the Soweto Uprising saw hundreds of unarmed schoolchildren murdered by police as they protested against Afrikaans becoming the language of instruction in their schools. The South African Government pinned responsibility for this on Winnie, claiming she incited violence, despite the protesters being unarmed children. She was banished with her two young children from their hometown of Soweto, to Brandfort in the Orange Free State, where she did not speak the language, and lived for seven years. The government was trying to get rid of her but she made sure they did not succeed. Opinion polls during the first two years of her time at Brandfort show she was the second most important political figure in the country, after the Zulu chief, Mangosuthu Buthelezi. Celebrities like Richard Attenborough and Teddy Kennedy visited Winnie at her Brandfort house, showing her prominence in the struggle for liberation in the eyes of the West. During her time in Brandfort Winnie established a local gardening collective, a soup kitchen, a mobile health unit, a day care centre, an organisation for orphans and juvenile delinquents, and even a sewing club.
A group of young tracksuit-clad thugs formed around her as bodyguards, prompted by the assassinations of several community leaders. They were known as the Mandela United Football Club (MUFC), a name now synonymous with the brutal murder of 14-year-old activist, James ‘Stompie’ Seipei, on 1 January 1989. Stompie was accused of being a police informer so members of the MUFC abducted him and three other boys. Stompie was killed and his body, throat slit, was found on waste ground near Winnie’s house. In 1991 she was convicted of kidnapping and being an accessory to assault in the Stompie case. She was also accused of ordering the murder of Dr Abu Baker Asvat, a doctor who had examined Stompie’s body at her house, and was allegedly involved in 15 other murder cases committed by the MUFC. She was acquitted for all but the Stompie case, but her six-year sentence was reduced to a fine and a two-year suspended sentence. This was Winnie’s fall from grace and South African opinion was divided about the woman known as Mother of the Nation. One Sowetan newspaper even referred to her as ‘Mugger of the Nation’. However, in future years the Stompie case was shrouded in confusion when evidence of a smear campaign against Winnie, known as Stratcom, emerged, and so it seems the whole truth about Winnie’s wrongdoings will never be known.
Winnie’s years of struggle and the harassment she had suffered moved her in a different direction from her husband
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Island. Whilst they had become more academic and statesmen-like in their isolation – the acceptable faces of the black rebellion, she had become more militant and radical. She was brutalised by brutality. She was seen to endorse the practice of necklacing government informers (tyre doused in petrol around the neck) – saying ‘With our boxes of matches and our necklaces we shall liberate this country.’
When Nelson Mandela was released from his 27-year imprisonment a year earlier in 1990, he walked out hand in hand with Winnie. It was a moment of triumph and joy for all those who had struggled so long for his cause and release. Nelson defended his wife in the
face of the allegations, saying ‘I have never believed she was guilty of assaulting anyone.’ But the unity between the Mandelas, needed for their liberation, began to crumble. They were drawn in different directions by their time apart and moulded by their separate experiences so they no longer fitted together. Winnie’s uncompromising methods of fighting white rule, and her refusal to forgive the brutalities black South Africans had suffered, contradicted Nelson’s calls for reconciliation and forgiveness. The marriage was irreparably damaged and they separated in 1992, amid a scandal surrounding Winnie’s affair with a young lawyer, Dali Mpofu. Her cheating was not overlooked like the affairs of her male counterparts and one of her letters to her lover was sold to national papers. The letter also exposed a case of fraud – one of a string for which she was eventually dismissed from her post as head of the ANC social welfare department.
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KEPT IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT FOR OVER A YEAR, SHE FACED HARDSHIPS DESIGNED TO BREAK HER SPIRIT
When Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as president in 1994, Winnie was not even invited to sit with the group deemed to have made this dream a reality. The ANC in government began to disassociate itself from and discredit Winnie, who was now an embarrassment. Whilst the party was moving into an era of freedom and trying to rebuild the country, Winnie was still fighting for a better deal, for a socialist country, for economic freedom. Many dismissed her as too radical, too divisive – an extremist – when these very qualities had helped to liberate the country from white minority rule. She was never thanked publicly by either Nelson or the ANC but she always kept a strong following in South Africa’s black townships. Perhaps they saw in her someone who would not forget that their struggle continues despite the abolition of apartheid.
When Nelson Mandela was released he walked out hand in hand with Winnie, a moment of triumph and joy
The Soweto Uprising saw hundreds of unarmed schoolchildren murdered by police Mind’s Eye | June 2018
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WHILE NELSON MANDELA WAS IMPRISONED ON ROBBEN ISLAND, WINNIE WAS CARRYING THE COFFINS OF FREEDOM FIGHTERS
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was fighting against a white supremacist regime for her freedom, and the freedom of millions more
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The ANC’s treatment of Winnie, as well as the way she has been portrayed in Western media following her death, has much to do with gender. She was never accepted as a radical freedom fighter the way men are who campaign with equal ruthlessness. She was an unapologetic woman, and this is the problem that many people seem to before they became saints?’ It took have with her: they feel she owes an a true revolution to overthrow white apology. She did not give one because rule, and Winnie was prepared to pay she was not willing to apologize for the cost. Women are often shoved how hard she fought for the freedom into one of two stereotypes – either of black South Africans. a wronged saint or a It seems that women terrible she-devil. As Winnie’s daughter are held to higher the complexities and Zenani said, ‘Why didn’t standards of morality mistakes of Winnie’s you do the same with than men – anger life mean she cannot her male counterparts and violence are not be crammed into the and remind the world accepted in a woman first, many resort to the of the many crimes they but are excused in second, condemning committed before they a man. At Winnie’s her as the woman became saints?’ funeral her daughter who nearly caused Zenani said, ‘Why Mandela’s downfall, didn’t you do the same with her male an Eve to his Adam. One Daily Mail counterparts and remind the world journalist did exactly this, calling Winnie of the many crimes they committed a ‘blood-soaked bully who shamed Mandela’, saying he would make an exception to his rule not to speak ill of the dead so he could call her an ‘odious, toxic individual’. Winnie MadikizelaMandela was fighting against a white supremacist regime for her freedom, and the freedom of millions more.
How is it that she is named the bully, whilst the true criminals, the architects and enforcers of apartheid, are often not even mentioned in the narrative of her life? Every rejection of Winnie’s radicalism is an endorsement of the regime she raged against. Perhaps Winnie’s anger is shocking and abrasive compared to Nelson Mandela’s tranquil self-assurance, but we must not forget
Winnie was a product of her circumstances and fractured by her experiences, which begs for compassion that, as an article in South Africa’s leading paper, The Mail & Guardian says, ‘While Nelson Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island, growing his political intellectualism, Winnie was carrying the coffins of freedom fighters the regime had killed.’ Although she no doubt had many faults, Winnie was a product of her circumstances and was fractured by her experiences. Her story begs for compassion and I fail to understand anyone who does not give it. The truth of Winnie can perhaps be seen in the outpouring of grief throughout South Africa after her death, especially in her hometown of Soweto. One South-African broadcast journalist wrote an open letter to Winnie in which she said, ‘You are my mother, she is you, I am you and you are me. You are us and we are you.’ This sums up the feeling of identification with Winnie still held in South Africa, especially among women, and the dredging up of Winnie’s mistakes now she is dead, especially by international news outlets, is irrelevant. Winnie opposed both racial supremacism and gender oppression, and embodies experiences with which many South African women identify. Her death has sparked a feminist movement led by the mantra ‘She didn’t die; she multiplied.’
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PERHAPS THEY SAW IN HER SOMEONE WHO WOULD NOT FORGET THAT THEIR STRUGGLE CONTINUES DESPITE THE ABOLITION OF APARTHEID
Women have been wearing Winnie-style green and black doeks (South African headscarves) in a show of support for their mother and they are reclaiming her legacy for themselves. They are the true heirs of Winnie’s spirit. This development in the story of Winnie’s death shows that her strength is equal in death as in life. And I am glad and proud that South African women have not allowed the media and patriarchy to steal Winnie from them. ¢ Mind’s Eye | June 2018
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BrutalArt ED BARLOW argues Brutalism is not as monstrous as it seems but needs cash to make it work
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bet your bottom dollar that if you tune but of the architect. So, where do we go for into the opening rounds of Britain’s Got Brutalism that is not monstrous? Well, The Talent you’ll be confronted at some Barbican Estate is Brutalism done right. stage by one of these bopping and jamming street dancing ‘crews’. Every time They say there were two Great Fires of my family watches this show I’m bombarded London, one in 1666 that produced the by a rabid verbal assault on hip-hop music marvel that is St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the from my mother that turns her from a mildother in 1941 that produced its architectural mannered lawyer, whose hobbies include equal, The Barbican. Thousands of incendiary sewing and visiting Norman churches, into bombs fell on Cripplegate, flattening the a knock-off Ian Paisley. She’s not entirely whole of the ward, but as we learnt from wrong. These groups, with the destruction of London their generic team names in 1666, obliteration offers that could have been a blank slate for ambitious Obliteration offers plucked at random from a new building projects such a blank slate for BBC list of values (synergy, ambitious new building as The Barbican. I don’t mince diversity etc. etc.) and their my words when I say it was projects such as The clunky and uninspiring ambitious. Pevsner wrote Barbican choreography, are without that it ‘took the expressive doubt mind-numbingly potential of concrete to dull. There is one flaw in her a theatrical extreme’, and argument, however, because she has failed the Queen said it was ‘one of the modern (like many others) to distinguish between wonders of the world’. The similarity the faults of the medium and the faults of between the two quotations is not that one individual performance. This is the single they’re both by Germans but that they both most damnable act of artistic snobbery. It attempt to convey the gargantuan nature combines an intellectually lethargic attitude of the Barbican. And gargantuan it is. It has with a closed-mindedness that makes it a grand plan of three towers, three terrace difficult to appreciate any art. blocks, 2,014 flats, two schools, a popular arts centre, and loads and loads of green Such an attitude has blighted our perception space. While this is an impressive building of Brutalism. It can convey all the emotions feat, one must not forget the equally huge and values of other styles of architecture ambition behind the idea. but has coined a phrase that sends shivers down my spine: ‘concrete monstrosity’. The project set out to reverse the trend in This is a catch-all term bandied about to urban planning and the popular mentality construct a link between the inadequacy of anti-urban romanticism that sprung out of a number of Brutalist projects and the of rapid industrialisation and the expanding medium of Brutalism itself. But any ‘concrete of cities over the last two centuries. Pre-war monstrosity’ is not a fault of the medium urban hubs, such as central London, 12
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Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool were all polluted and many people lived in the shadows of England’s ‘dark satanic mills’. T. S. Eliot’s ‘Unreal City’ and Betjeman’s Slough, in which he begs for the bombs to rain on the town, capture the prevailing aesthetic response to the new developments. Both Eliot and Betjeman carried Blake’s torch of anti-industrial fervour that informed the popular mindset, causing many to flee to the suburbs. For the middle classes for whom, it’s worth noting, the Barbican was built, social clout lay in suburbia, as one can see in Hampstead Garden village or Bourneville in Birmingham. Both served middle class families and at the heart of both was a wish to balance exclusivity, safety and access to facilities such as green spaces, shops and leisure.
Many people lived in the shadows of England’s ‘dark satanic mills’ With The Barbican we reach a somewhat ironic conclusion. Its Brutalist style, with all the left-wing connotations of Brutalism (especially in Britain), was used to encourage the bourgeoisie back to the city. Its architects, Chamberlin, Powell and Bon (CPB), cleverly repackaged all the charms and allure of suburbia in a progressive concrete fashion that would appeal to
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THE BARBICAN OFFERED MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES EXCLUSIVITY, SAFETY AND ACCESS TO FACILITIES
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ITS ARCHITECTS CLEVERLY REPACKAGED ALL THE CHARMS AND ALLURE OF SUBURBIA IN A PROGRESSIVE CONCRETE FASHION
What makes the Barbican more than just a successfully designed housing project is its artistic fervour
the young, open-minded professional. Through the iconographical programme of the buildings the desire to be excluded and protected goes hand-in-hand with the modernist ideals of CPB, inspired by Le Corbusier. The Barbican is characterised by its famously inaccessible high surrounding walls and unintuitive thresholds. These But what makes the Barbican more are accompanied by ‘pediways’ that than just a successfully designed criss-cross the walled community housing project is its artistic fervour. as well as other visual motifs drawn One can see this translation of the old from the old wall that allow a unique city wall, not only in the high walls, but accommodation of modernist ideals. also in other stylistic details. CPB used The desires of a middle-class resident slits in the exterior walls and designed and this wonderful poeticism link the the three soaring towers with toothlike balconies, both painfully progressive architecture with the The geometric complexity reminding the viewer of the horizontal lines, of the battlements of historical site. semi-circles of the water feature and blocks of air the old Roman fort on which it is built The Barbican expresses ducts form a broader and incorporating many of the central experience many don’t aspects of its design. tenants of modernism appreciate My personal favourite found in Le Corbusier’s Five Points of Architecture. As well is the recurring motif of the semias the roof gardens and horizontal circle. The shape subtly echoes the windows, allowing maximum natural remnants of Roman towers you see light and freer floorplans, the design when walking through the site, which insisted upon a complete separation are essentially semi-circular silhouettes of vehicles and people. In The Barbican of the former barbican. The semi-circle there are but a handful of little shape recurs across most of the roofs, pedestrian entrances carved into the and most notably in the waterfall. Here monolithic walls, which lead upstairs we have the geometric complexity from the vehicle floor to pedi-ways. of the horizontal lines of the flats, the While this catered for the modernist semi-circles of the water feature, and relationship between car and man, it the blocks of the air ducts all coming also ‘created a city within a city’ that together to form a broader experience that many don’t appreciate middle-class tenants craved. Mind’s Eye | June 2018
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when they condemn Brutalism, as a movement, for being simplistic or repetitive. This is a good example of how the same shapes create a series of visual motifs that tie together the whole scheme into a coherent and legible architectural language. While it might be a repetition of the same shapes, it is not without merit, and is no different to the rigid structuralism in some Renaissance works, such as the employment of the ‘Madonna della Scala’ in Titian’s Pesaro Madonna, or the repetition of forms in Islamic art, such as the patterned tiling in the Blue Mosque of Istanbul. In essence, it is varied enough to stay interesting, but consistent enough not to be incoherent. But while observing this, one must ask why? And what are the deeper connotations of alluding back to an earlier time? I would argue that this muscular retrospection is a nostalgia for an idealised version of the distant past in order to escape the bleak present. This area of the City and much of the rest of London had been ravaged, and anything that was wholly futuristic could never truly escape from the present. The best way to escape the recent past was to touch on the tranquillity and certainty of an idealised version of the distant past. In the same way football fans reminisce about Pele, rather than Ronaldo, and we idealise Boudicca rather than Pussy Riot.
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The Barbican is characterised by its famously inaccessible high surrounding walls and unintuitive thresholds
CPB brought the middle-class back into the heart of London by combining a mastery of modernist thinking with adaptation of suburban desire, all channelled through a delightful poeticism that softens the confrontational concrete of brutalism by weaving it into a greater narrative that stretched back to the Romans. But they also created a distinctly
British style of Brutalism. I am wary of describing it as ‘British Brutalism’ because it hardly featured across the rest of the UK. It is rather what it should have looked like in order to adapt the continental style to Britain and its climate. One can compare it with the Golden Lane Estate, completed to a far more European design. Although this carries some merit, its two-tone
The same shapes create a series of visual motifs that tie together the whole scheme
plastic is tedious, European, conventional, the kind of weathered and unimaginative monolith that so many rightly despise. In response, CPB employed a variety of techniques to challenge the status quo of Brutalism. The first way they did this was by toying with different textures and materials. In order to create texture, the builders hammered chunks out of the situ concrete, to create knobbly depth and strength, and a boisterous visual dexterity. It draws us in and opens a dialogue. It’s playful and flirtatious. This adds vitality to the concrete and adds more vitality the more it gets battered. Other textures, such as red brick and greenery, set off the worn concrete. Every resident receives pots for plants, recalling the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, just nearer to a Waitrose. This is a burst of colour by the community for the community, in the communitarian spirit of the Barbican. An already fantastic architectural masterplan thus comes alive, nature contrasting with the accumulative beauty of its rough edges. One might even liken these planned gardens, which offer an extra layer of complexity, and complement the buildings when viewed holistically, to those of Vanbrugh, for example at Blenheim Palace.
The difference between a successful Brutalist project and an abject failure is the money Without wanting to sound like the cynic that I am, the difference between a successful Brutalist project, such as the Barbican, and an abject failure is the money spent. Jonathan Meades expressed this perfectly when he said, ‘The Barbican is like a well-made car that has been constantly serviced and cherished, whereas most estates are like Triumph Dolomites that are never maintained.’ He went on to say, ‘The fact that it is an atypical success says less about the quality of its architecture than about the neglect and indifference other projects suffered.’ A number of housing projects up and down the country are indeed abject failures, but that is not the fault of Brutalism. Most are cheap and will not last or inspire awe. While Brutalism is a fantastic mode of architecture, it needs money to make it work.
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ONE MIGHT LIKEN THESE PLANNED GARDENS TO THOSE OF VANBRUGH, FOR EXAMPLE AT BLENHEIM PALACE
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Thursday
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Most journalists write depressing news, but there is positive news too. Some stories by Honor Glynn-Williams will warm your heart.
Rough Trade UK hails ‘tough’ ban on ivory sales
South Korea cuts ‘inhumane’ working week
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oliticians in South Korea have voted to reduce the maximum number of hours worked weekly. It passed a bill to improve the quality of life.
Sustainable Living
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supermarket in Amsterdam now features an aisle dedicated to 700 plastic-free, organic products. The aisle opened in February at the Amsterdam branch of Dutch organic supermarket chain Ekoplaza. Plastic Planet cofounder, Sian Sutherland, believes shoppers see through the ‘lie’ that the world cannot function without plastic.
Hours are down from 68 hours to 52. The law will come into action from July 2018, starting with large corporations.
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ince 2015 the number of cities getting at least 70 per cent of their electricity from renewable energy has doubled. More than 101 of the 570 cities studied, from Nairobi to Vancouver, received at least 70 per cent of their electricity from renewable sources in 2017. In 2015 only 42 could make that claim. More than 40 cities are operating on 100 per cent renewable electricity, including Burlington (US), Basel (Switzerland) and Reykjavík (Iceland). Much of the electricity comes from wind, solar, hydropower and biomass.
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he UK is going to introduce one of the world’s strictest bans on the sale of ivory in a bid to protect elephants. The new law will cover ivory items of all vintages. Environment Secretary, Michael Gove, says that anyone who continues to trade ivory illegally will face an unlimited fine or even a jail sentence of up to five years. Gove describes the sale of ivory products as ‘abhorrent’. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that poachers kill 55 African elephants a day just for their tusks.
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28.06.2018
Thursday
Soda Canned UK tax on sugary drinks to beat obesity
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UK tax on sugary drinks came into effect on 6 April 2018 as part of a drive to reduce obesity. Every day globally we consume 1.9 billion drinks made by Coca-Cola, let alone other sugar-filled drinks such as Dr. Pepper and Pepsi. These contribute directly to diabetes and are constantly under scrutiny by the health watchdogs. The UAE, France and Hungary have also introduced such levies. As a result, the consumption of sugar-sweet soft drinks has already fallen by 19 per cent. There will be two taxes under the levy: 24p per litre for drinks with 8g of sugar per 100ml, and 18p per litre for drinks with 5g of sugar per 100ml. The proceeds will support sport in primary schools.
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A ‘BIOBAG’ OFFERS A SUBSTITUTE FOR AMNIOTIC FLUIDS AND CONNECTS TO A GAS EXCHANGER FOR OXYGENATING THE BLOOD
A Second Chance Artificial womb for premature babies
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abies born weeks or even months early could have a higher chance of survival. An artificial womb has been tested on a lamb who was born prematurely. The lamb was placed in a ‘biobag’ that offers a substitute for amniotic fluids and connects to a gas exchanger for oxygenating the blood. It is not quite ready for human use but a Nature Communications study believes it could soon increase survival rates. It will help newborn babies who are unable to breathe, feed or fight infection on their own. Fetuses are in a unique environment before birth. The placenta provides nutrients and oxygen, and the fetus’s lungs do not breathe air. They float in amniotic fluid, which is swallowed by the fetus and created by fetal urination; each day, the amniotic fluid is recycled. The chance of survival at 22 weeks is about 6%, while at 23 weeks it is 26%, 24 weeks 55% and 25 weeks about 72%. About 15 million babies are preterm each year (5% to 18% of all deliveries). Complications from preterm births resulted in 0.81 million deaths in 2015 down from 1.57 million in 1990.
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Thursday
UK couple starts first zero-waste shop
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icola Eckersley and her husband, former Manchester United football player Richard Eckerlsey, run the first zero-waste shop, Earth.Food.Love, which stocks only ethical goods but uses no packaging. The owners believe it could be the future. They used to live in a flat in the centre of Manchester but got frustrated with the amount of plastic waste they were producing. When their daughter was born, they decided things had to change. They moved and opened the shop, which contains around 200 products, all of which are vegan, organic and packaging-free. Customers are encouraged to bring their own containers. They sell mainly food but also other products such as bamboo cutlery, canvas bags, wooden toothbrushes and Mason jars.
Global Conquest How to beat global warming
National parks inspire awe
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ational parks are home to much of the world’s natural beauty. Environmentalist John Muir spent his life exploring the finest, such as Olympus, the Grand Canyon, Uluru and the Serengeti. Earth Day, 22 April, is a worldwide celebration of environmental protection held every year since 1970. It reminds us
not just of the challenges that lie ahead but of the success we are continuing to achieve. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, national parks and other protected areas cover an astonishing 14.7 per cent of the Earth’s land surface and 10 per cent of its territorial waters.
We use coal less and less, and experts are astonished how quickly it has fallen out of favour. Production peaked in 2013. Many claimed coal burning would be up 40 per cent by 2040 but now the annual growth is down to only 1%.
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ive megatrends are making people wonder if we might actually beat the great gloom of global warming. The cost of solar panels and wind turbines has gone down 90 per cent in the last 10 years. Renewable energy is often now the cheapest available. Electric cars are being made at last for the masses. Concerns about air pollution in urban areas is helping fuel a market for battery-powered cars and as a manufacturer China is already pulling far ahead.
The price of lithium-ion batteries has dropped by 75 per cent in six years, and will fall further. For longterm storage, long-distance electricity interconnectors are developing. Motivating people to improve energy efficiency is difficult but we are making progress. Data shows that efficiency in homes, transport and industry in the EU has improved by around 20% since 2000.
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DATA SHOWS THAT EFFICIENCY IN HOMES, TRANSPORT AND INDUSTRY IN THE EU HAS IMPROVED BY AROUND 20%
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The
Age
OF
Reason
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VICKI HONYCHURCH reviews the case for having the vote at sixteen
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n 2004, the Electoral Commission conducted a survey. Should the voting age in Britain stay at 18 or be lowered to 16? It turned out that most people thought it should remain the same. Some even argued it should be raised to an age when people leave home and begin paying taxes. So, what is the age of political maturity?
of under-18s not deserve the vote since they pay income tax just like everyone else? Voting primarily allows the voter a say in how his or her taxes are spent. And should a taxpayer be denied that right simply because he or she is 16?
The other four-fifths of British adolescents who remain in school and enter higher education do not find full-time employment As an 18-year-old I do not feel ready for a before 22 or 23 years of age, which is arguably life financially independent from my parents too late to only just start voting. According to so why should I get a say in which political a survey conducted by the Office for National party governs the country, when I don’t Statistics the average British graduate is over even fully understand how taxation works? 20 years of age. Since there is an average And even though a 16-year-old is entitled difference of two years between where the to most of the same legal rights as an adult, voting age currently stands and the two many would argue that this is an age which groups of adolescents who were used for this falls just short of ‘maturity’. But research project, one could say why? that 18 is a fitting compromise Following the Brexit for both portions of young referendum in June Legally 16-year-olds have a people in the UK: those who 2016, polling data handful of rights that require typically begin work at 16, and from YouGov revealed ‘maturity’: they are allowed those beginning after the age that 75% of 18- to to marry or register a civil of 20. 24-year-olds voted partnership with the consent to remain within the of a parent or guardian; they While the voting age debate European Union can drink alcohol with a meal has always been heated, if accompanied by someone one must finally consider over the age of 18; they can join the Armed recent political factors. Following the Brexit Forces. All of these things, however, require referendum in June 2016, polling data from the backing of someone older and implicitly YouGov revealed that 75% of 18- to 24-yearmore responsible, which in itself suggests olds voted to remain within the European 18 is at least the age when the adolescent Union, with the ‘Leave’ campaigners just no longer needs the care of another person, snatching a majority of 52%. Professor because they are ‘mature’ enough to make Michael Bruter of the London School of their own decisions. So, for Britons, 18 is Economics suggests that ‘allowing 16- to the age at which a person officially reaches 17-year-olds to vote would have added adulthood and is responsible for his or her nearly 1.6 million citizens to the electorate’ own actions; they no longer require consent but adds, however, that this ‘would not have from a parent or guardian to marry. been enough to overturn the result of the referendum,’ despite the majority of young Yet according to a report from the OCED people who did go to the polling station (Organisation for Economic Co-operation voting to remain. This at least shows that and Development) one fifth of students in the while the outcome of the Brexit referendum United Kingdom leave school at the age of would have stayed the same, young people 16 and begin work or join an apprenticeship in the UK are beginning to show a serious programme. Does this substantial minority interest in politics. Mind’s Eye | June 2018
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And that interest is really fierce north of the border. In 2015 16- and 17-yearolds in Scotland were permitted to vote in local and Scottish elections but while this group would allow a further 100,000 or so 16- to 17-yearolds to participate in Scottish national elections, it was not allowed to participate either in the general election or in the Brexit referendum. The enthusiasm of Scotland’s youth has proved to be unfailing, however, with 75% of people this age turning up to the polling stations on the day of the Scottish independence referendum the year before – 2014 – in which they were permitted to vote. This was higher than the 54% of 18- to 24-year-olds who voted. Although it does not look like the voting age will come down any time soon, the interest in politics shown recently by those under 18 suggests that pressure is mounting for a serious review rather than just nebulous theorising. ¢
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One fifth of students in the UK leave school at 16 and begin work or an apprenticeship. Does this substantial minority not deserve the vote since they pay income tax?
Shelld e k c o Sh
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JEBIN YOON says we must find out more about the mental and emotional damage caused by war
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his year marks the centenary of the First World War and the genesis of military psychiatry. The term ‘shell shock’ was first used to describe the shattered minds of soldiers who broke down in the hell of war. Derived from ‘soldier’s heart’, a term used during the American Civil War, ‘shell shock’ became ‘combat stress reaction’ in the Second World War and ‘post-traumatic stress disorder’ in the modern era. The term’s transition may show the length of time the condition has existed, but how much do we really know, even now, about the condition? Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, more commonly known as PTSD, is an anxiety disorder caused by traumatic events that are often by nature personal. At the time of the First World War, PTSD was poorly understood and the symptoms ranged from persistent shaking of parts of the body to complete 26
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paralysis. Difficult to diagnose, many existent in the ‘good units’. A shroud of medical professionals believed that stigma began to surround PTSD and the symptoms were incessant pressure not the result of physical to be associated with damage to neurons in the condition meant it the brain by the shock was never considered a of detonating shells; justifiable defence. VETERANS OF THE FIRST hence ‘shell shock’. In WORLD WAR FOUND some cases, the effects PTSD was more THEMSELVES SUFFERING of PTSD drove soldiers common in soldiers FROM FLASHBACKS FOR A to underperform, or during the First World LONG TIME even try to desert their War than in other forms posts – a military crime of conflict because of for which they were put on trial and, in the brutality of trench warfare. To put extreme cases, shot. this into perspective, the chance of injury or fatality in the trenches was a With so many soldiers affected, PTSD bone-shattering 56%, compared to a started to become a military operational fatality rate of about 5% in the Second problem and caught the attention of World War. A startling video from the higher military powers who branded Wellcome Collection follows Private the condition cowardice. For example, Preston, a soldier with amnesia, alexia a senior British Army officer named and auditory verbal agnosia, who John Vereker once described PTSD crawls under the bed when he hears as a sign of weakness that was non- the word ‘bomb’.
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“ After the war, medical professionals noticed that some who did not fight in combat, and had therefore never encountered exploding shells, also developed signs of PTSD. Even then, however, the stigma around PTSD hindered medical research and veterans of the First World War found themselves suffering from flashbacks for a long time. One notable victim was Siegfried Sassoon, who wrote the poem ‘Survivors’ as a way to express frustration at the apathy about the condition:
Private Preston, a soldier with amnesia, alexia and auditory verbal agnosia, crawls under the bed when he hears the word ‘bomb’
No doubt they’ll soon get well; the shock and strain Have caused their stammering, disconnected talk. Of course they’re ‘longing to go out again’ — These boys with old, scared faces, learning to walk. They’ll soon forget their haunted nights; their cowed Subjection to the ghosts of friends who died — Their dreams that drip with murder; and they’ll be proud Of glorious war that shatter’d all their pride… Men who went out to battle, grim and glad; Children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad.
SASSOON VILIFIES SUPPORTERS OF THE WAR WILLING TO SACRIFICE MEN WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HAUNTED BY ‘THE GHOSTS OF FRIENDS WHO DIED’
The false hope of the opening line climaxes with an image of patriotic men turned into children filled with hatred, violence and instability. Sassoon vilifies supporters of the war (‘you’) who are so willing to sacrifice men without ever knowing themselves what it means to be ‘broken and mad’ and haunted by ‘the ghosts of friends who died’. Today, we know enough to diagnose PTSD correctly, to describe its symptoms and prescribe medication. We know enough to adjust treatment according to the severity of the symptoms and the time period of the condition. What we don’t know, however, is why only some people are affected whilst others seem immune. And why some treatments are ineffective. Veterans are still suffering from PTSD today, which leads to domestic and public violence, alcohol abuse and drug abuse. So how much have we really learned about PTSD since the First World War? Not enough. 100 years have surely taught us one thing. We need to promote the mental health of our troops to the top of the list.
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INTELLIGENT
LIFE?
ALEX STOKES traces the learning curve of bots who / that talk
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rtificial Intelligence is a huge scientific advancement, but it may cause more problems than it solves. Its main value is an ability to adapt to a task or surroundings. But if it can learn, can it learn the wrong things? Cue Microsoft chat bot, TAY. On 23 March 2016, Microsoft TAY, a chat bot modelled on a similar bot in China. The big idea was user interaction. Users would comment and she would respond. However, users soon realised they could feed TAY horribly incorrect terms and facts. As a result, Microsoft removed TAY after only 16 hours online, but not before she caused a storm.
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Since TAY was taken down, there have been mixed opinions on the project, with a writer from The Telegraph, Madhumita Murdia, saying TAY was Artificial Intelligence at its worst. TWO INDIAN CHAT
released
BOTS BEGAN COMMUNICATING IN A LANGUAGE THEY INVENTED BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT ENGLISH WAS TOO INEFFIICENT
Two of the tamest (and repeatable) responses tweeted by TAY:
Other bots have abused their abilities. In one case, two Indian chat bots began communicating in a language they invented because they thought English was too ineffiicent. To this day, no one knows what those two AI Bots were saying to each other. But their behaviour has caused lots of uncertainty about the future of AI. Recently Microsoft released a new bot called Zo, which has so far operated without any issue. But the case of TAY suggests that, if all AI bots are not monitored, more sparks might fly.
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MABEL PICKERING warns us that driving out drugs from schools will be an uphill struggle
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eing a teenager is hard work. Hormones are raging; moods are swinging. The posters of One Direction are being torn down from your walls; your favourite jeans don’t fit you any more. But your curiosity to explore the unknown remains with you and, if anything, grows stronger. And this curiosity gently paves the way for an introduction to drugs, the adult equivalent of Lego.
acknowledged that there was a place in or near the school grounds where students went to take drugs, drink and smoke. With the drug circle expanding since 2012, these statistics are likely to have soared in the last six years. 60% of pupils recently reported that drugs were easily accessible on school grounds, showing that there must be dealers embedded within schools who supply such ‘goods’ to friends and acquaintances. In the past, to get drugs you had to get a dingy bus to the end of a dark alleyway to meet some dodgy dealer in a hoody, but now, with a click of a button, you can link dealers to friends and get a drug delivery faster than a pizza. As technology develops, so the creation and distribution of drugs accelerate. I spoke to Lily and Lenny, two pupils who do drugs.
The bundle of drugs available in schools these days is alarming. I spoke to people from three different generations about their knowledge of drugs when they were at school – an elderly man, two middle-aged women and two teenagers. The 76-year-old man, who grew up in the 1950s, said, ‘We were not taking drugs. No one really was. I never knew anyone who would take drugs. I knew of purple hearts (but had never ‘Drugs are my friend,’ said Lily, a 17-yearseen one) and drug use in the seedy clubs old at a prestigious public school in North of London but that’s all.’ He went on to say London. ‘I like Mandy (aka ecstasy) because how ‘music used to be so simple but now the come-down is electric, especially when has evolved, maybe due to the influence you’re surrounded by people you love. Their of drugs.’ The two 50-yeartouch becomes amplified and old women reminisced about feels as if it’s charged with The Independent their time in school, which immense, ethereal power. It’s says girls from top also featured very little drug really calming and thrilling at schools are three use. One of them said that the same time.’ While I sat with times more likely only the naughty boys did Lily in a quaint coffee shop in to suffer drug- and drugs, quickly adding, ‘I was Holborn she talked openly alcohol-related always told to stay away from about finding that ‘ecstasy problems than their the naughty boys.’ When the softens the edges of reality, two women left school in the less-privileged peers enabling you to connect with Eighties, the awareness of others on a much deeper drugs was spreading. But it was in the raving level, which is way better than when people Nineties that drugs in schools really took off, are droning on about their partners, or and now millennials are confronted with a whether Rebecca likes Daniel.’ She went on bewildering array. to say how she was once watching a tennis match whilst ‘pinging’ and it felt like ‘a battle Networks of pupils are channelling their way between Harry Potter and Voldemort.’ Lily through daily school life with the aid of drugs, often uses drugs, claiming that they don’t weaving and dodging looming teachers. In a affect her work ethic, quality of work or daily survey from 2012, 44% of students knew of routine in the slightest. ‘It just makes the a classmate who dealt drugs. Out of 1,003 tedious everyday ritual more exciting.’ The students aged between 12 and 17, 86% Independent says that girls from top schools said they knew a classmate who took drugs are three times more likely to suffer from during the day, and over half of the students drug- and alcohol-related problems than 30
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HIGH
FLIERS
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SHE WENT ON TO SAY HOW WATCHING A TENNIS MATCH WHILST ‘PINGING’ FELT LIKE ‘A BATTLE BETWEEN HARRY POTTER AND VOLDEMORT’
their less-privileged peers, even in cases where they performed ‘exceedingly well’ in school and were highly thought of by teachers and friends.
The social exclusion risk often overrides the addiction risk
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Lenny attends a state school in South East London. His drug of choice is hash. Hash contains a higher concentration souls and developed an addiction. of psychoactive chemicals than weed Many teenagers are moulded and and, according to Lenny, ‘is way more manipulated by a need to impress their chilled’. In Lenny’s case, hash sparks peers, or just a fear of missing out. his creativity so he is able to play ‘the funkiest jazz’ when he is ‘baked’. He sits A girl in my school, when offered weed, down at the piano and simply ‘plays said, ‘No thanks. It’s a gateway drug.’ for hours’, according to his mother, and so proved that teenagers can say no. But it’s hard to who seems quite relaxed Saying no to a drug refuse something their about her son’s drug when all your friends best friend is pestering use. Lenny even filmed are on board, and them to try. Teenagers himself offering his being ostracised as are hypersensitive to mother a spliff when she a consequence, is social exclusion so when lay reading in bed. Lenny often seen as riskier offered a cigarette many has noticed, however, that he’s become ‘more to life prospects than care far more about acceptance what their peer group stupid and generally thinks than about the slower’ due to his regular smoking of hash, which means he can’t health risk. Saying no to a drug when all your friends are on board, and be bothered to do anything. being ostracised as a consequence, is While making enquiries, I found that often seen as riskier to life prospects state and private schools have similar than acceptance. The social exclusion levels of drug use, although those risk often overrides the addiction risk. pupils at the best private schools Adolescents also take drugs to cope are more likely to end up with drug with stress, for the pursuit of pleasure and alcohol addictions in later life, or to enhance their confidence. To the according to The Independent. Many shy and reticent, a snort of cocaine pupils just succumb to peer pressure, promises rebirth into a confident, like Robert Downey Jr, Iron Man popular person. And with such an open himself, who says that after conforming road in prospect the willing victim to social expectations he joined the doesn’t see the destruction of addiction back of the queue of weak-minded round the corner.
With a click of a button, you can link dealers to friends and get a drug delivery faster than a pizza
Teenagers in Britain are more likely to take illegal drugs than teenagers anywhere else in Europe. Lenny is adamant that at least half of his school have done drugs, a fifth of them actually in school. So, are there huddles of drug-fuelled students, sitting through French classes hazed over and grinning like the Cheshire cat? Yes, there are. But the elimination of drugs in schools is now an uphill struggle because they have been normalised by teenagers and those who don’t try drugs are labelled ‘uncool’ and ‘boring’.
A girl in my school, when offered weed, said, ‘No thanks. It’s a gateway drug.’ and so proved that teenagers can say no
‘Stay safe and don’t do drugs! Don’t be a naughty boy like me!’ Lenny yelled, when I began my journey home.
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T O H M ess
FLORA CLARK claims we are on a road to Hell and need to turn the wheel fast
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limate change is a big problem. 97% of climate scientists agree climatewarming during the last century is down to human activity, but we are not doing enough to arrest its progress. The glaring question that follows is, what do we do? How do we fix this planet that we’ve treated so badly? And can we fix it before the damage is irreparable?
sometimes caused mass extinctions and, worryingly, the rate of carbon dioxide release is currently faster than the most destructive climate changes in the past.
The Permian Mass Extinction 250 million years ago, also known as ‘The Great Dying’, was the closest the planet has ever come to losing all of its complex life forms. About 90% of all species died out in this single To solve the problem we need to event, which is worse than the extinction acknowledge there is a of the dinosaurs. The cause problem. Climate change was massive volcanic 90% of all species died skeptics claim the Earth’s eruptions in Siberia that out in this single event, climate has varied throughout spewed out volcanic CO2 which is worse than history and current changes and a mixture of noxious the extinction of the are merely part of those gases. These caused such natural variations. This is true intense ocean acidification dinosaurs to some extent, since in the and global warming that last 650,000 years the Earth has equatorial regions were too undergone seven cycles of glacial advance hot for complex life to survive. Studies have and retreat, and the last ice age ended about now drawn alarming parallels between this 7,000 years ago. Greenhouse gases, mainly event and current global warming trends. 2 CO (but methane as well), were involved in A paper published in PNAS (Proceedings these historic changes in climate. When they of the National Academy of Sciences of the were reduced, the global climate became USA) used new dating techniques to shorten cooler and when they were increased the dramatically the estimated timeframe for global climate became warmer. But most the carbon emissions that triggered the of these changes happened slowly enough extinction. Thought before to have taken for the Earth’s climate system to process about 150,000 years, it is now clear it could the changes through long-term climate have taken as few as 2,100. Whilst this might feedback mechanisms like changes in ocean sound like a long time, in geological time it’s chemistry, vegetation or sea ice. Sudden the blink of an eye. This puts the Permian jumps in carbon dioxide levels, however, Mass Extinction in the same ballpark as resulted in highly disruptive warming that human emissions for the first time. Along Mind’s Eye | June 2018
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with many other global-warming extinction events like the Triassic and Toarcian, the Permian produced the same symptoms of rapid global warming, ocean acidification and sea level rises, which all sound a bit too familiar. So it is ludicrous to assume that the Earth’s climate will respond to current changes in any other way, which suggests a rather scary future. We have seen the surface temperature increase by an average of 1.1°C since the late 1800s, with most of this warming happening in the last 35 years. 16 out of the 17 hottest years on record have occurred since 2001. The Arctic saw horrifically warm temperatures early in 2018, and in some parts temperatures reached well above freezing. Whilst that might not sound bad, it is nearly 20°C warmer than the average for this time of year. Overall temperatures are 3°C higher than normal. It is counter-intuitive to think so, but climate warming causes cold snaps. Early in January 2018, on the East Coast of the USA, a ‘bomb cyclone’ was followed by a burst of cold air from the Arctic that caused temperatures
to plummet. In New Hampshire temperatures fell to -38°C and the fierce winds made it feel like -70°C. This is probably because the winds that blow around the Arctic usually prevent freezing cold air from moving south into America. However, evidence now shows that global warming is weakening these winds, which allows the Arctic air to flow south and warmer air to flow north. Climate scientists use computer models to predict what lies ahead, but this is difficult because we have no idea how much more CO2 will be emitted or at what rate. Not only that, but there are so many variables that determine our climate that, even when greenhouse gases are assumed to be at a specific level, the climate models still produce a huge range of results. To combat this, a study used climate models whose past predictions are now the closest match to current climates. The study found that these models projected much
more warming than the average model. In one scenario, where emissions continue to be released at the current rate, temperatures showed an average of 4.8°C of warming by 2081 to 2100 (+/- 0.4°C). Even in scenarios that assume more action is taken to combat climate change, the models predicted that temperatures would rise by 3.2°C. Take 2016, the warmest year on record. Eight of its twelve months were the warmest on record for those respective months, and in 2016 greenhouse gas levels were at their highest for the last 800,000 years.
16 out of the 17 hottest years on record have occurred since 2001
States around the world are taking steps now climate change is an important global issue. China, the world’s largest polluter, will ban diesel and petrol engines in 2018. This will not only help reduce emissions but also save millions of lives when levels of pollution decrease. The Chinese government is also launching a nationwide carbon market that
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FIVE CITIES AND TWO PROVINCES IN CHINA ALREADY HAVE CARBON MARKETS, ALLOWING COMPANIES TO TRADE THE RIGHT TO EMIT GREENHOUSE GASES
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should encourage energy-intensive companies to reduce their emissions. Five cities and two provinces in China already have carbon markets, allowing companies to trade the right to emit greenhouse gases. This means that if a company cuts its emissions it can sell some of its carbon allowance to a more polluting company, and the cost of being greener is cancelled out. But this will only work if the allocations are low enough to encourage change. The EU Emissions Trading System has previously over-allocated, which resulted in surpluses giving companies little reason to reduce their carbon footprint. The Paris Agreement falls within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that aims to tackle greenhouse gas emissions. Its goal is to keep global temperatures ‘well below’ 2.0°C above pre-industrial levels and to ‘endeavour to limit’ them as much as possible to 1.5°C. But only some elements of the agreement are legally binding and the national pledges by countries to cut emissions are voluntary. This means the agreement depends on each country’s leader taking the future of the whole world into account. So whilst the Paris Agreement is an important step forward, it is largely symbolic and needs to be modified to achieve real change. In the COP23 meeting early in 2018, Syria joined the Paris Agreement, meaning that every country in the world has now signed up. Of course, this may change because Trump has announced he wishes to withdraw the USA from the agreement, since he believes climate change is a ‘hoax’, but the USA is unable to do so until after its next election in 2020. Sadly, because the Paris Agreement is not legally binding, there will be no penalties if the USA does decide to leave.
The aim to limit the warming of the Earth to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels may no longer be possible. Even if we were to stop producing carbon dioxide right now, the delay in air-temperature increase would mean the atmosphere could continue to warm for another 40 years before temperatures stabilise. This delay is because of the amount of time it takes to heat the Earth’s oceans. The energy trapped by greenhouse gases warms the oceans, but at a much slower rate than it warms the air, so it takes decades longer. But once the ocean temperatures have increased, their heat will be released back into the air and measured as surface heating. So even if carbon emissions stopped today the Earth’s temperature would still rise another 0.6°C. This means if we really want to keep the Earth’s temperature below 1.5°C not only do we need to stop emitting CO2 now but we will also need to invest in ‘negative emissions technologies’ that actively remove CO2 from the atmosphere. But these technologies are impossible at the scale now required. And the Paris Agreement aims to ‘limit the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by humans… beginning at some point between 2050 and 2100’, by which point the damage may be irreversible.
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TRUMP ANNOUNCED HE WISHES TO WITHDRAW THE USA FROM THE AGREEMENT, SINCE HE BELIEVES CLIMATE CHANGE IS A ‘HOAX’
And even while emissions of carbon dioxide being to decrease, atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide may continue to increase. This is because when the oceans get warmer they
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are less able to store carbon dioxide. Also methane and other greenhouse gases currently stored in ice will be released into the atmosphere when that ice melts. And unfortunately this cycle continues. The warmer the Earth gets, the warmer the oceans, and the less carbon dioxide they store the warmer the Earth gets. So it goes. Sure enough, despite the recent
THE EL NIÑO EFFECT OF 2015 AND 2016, WHICH CAUSED INTENSE WARMING
The warmer the Earth gets, the warmer the oceans, and the less carbon dioxide they store the warmer the Earth gets decrease in emissions from human activity, the rate of growth of atmospheric carbon dioxide seems to be accelerating. This is partly due to the El Niño effect of 2015 and 2016, which caused intense warming, but also other factors that are not fully understood. If we want to protect our planet then we need to act quickly. We need to slash our reliance on fossil fuels and devise new ways of extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Every day of fossil fuel use is
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IN JANUARY 2018, ON THE EAST COAST OF THE USA, A ‘BOMB CYCLONE’ WAS FOLLOWED BY A BURST OF COLD AIR FROM THE ARCTIC THAT CAUSED TEMPERATURES TO PLUMMET
We need to slash our reliance on fossil fuels and devise new ways of extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere taking us closer and closer to an unknown future. If climate change continues at this rate it will become impossible to adapt and prepare for the changes when they come about, because the further we move away from the climate we know most the less able we will be to predict what the future may bring.
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CATALINA IZAGUIRRE PASCUA discovers poetry without words Mind’s Eye | June 2018
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KURT SCHWITTERS WAS A DADAIST WHO BECAME FAMOUS IN 1919 AFTER THE DEBUT OF HIS ABSURDIST POEM, ANNA BLUME
W The beauty of the Ursonate is that there is no specific meaning when the meaning should be assigned by the individual performer
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hen people are first confronted by the Ursonate, a sound poem by German artist Kurt Schwittters, the most common response is confusion. Even though modernism — among be performed at literary salons and similar movements — is relatively provoke his audience by repeating the mainstream nowadays, there is same meaningless lines in different something about sound poetry that still tones and at different speeds. The surprises even the most avant-garde opening line, for example, is repeated audience. This is because sound poetry over 100 times: contradicts every modern notion of what poetry is meant to be. At its core, Fumms bö wö tää zää Uu, pögiff, kwii Ee sound poetry puts meaning aside in favour of the pure sound of words. Schwitters considers the Ursonate his Now, thanks to the rising popularity masterpiece. By the time it was finished of free verse, poetry has become a lot after ten years, it was over 30 pages long, more about the meaning of the words complete with instructions about how the words were meant and the imagery they to be pronounced, and can convey rather than Schwitters considers the speed and tone the musicality of word the Ursonate his the performer should sound. masterpiece. By the adopt. time it was finished after Although sound ten years, it was over 30 The Ursonate — poetry might seem pages long... literally meaning controversial, its ideals ‘sonata in primordial are similar to those with which poetry was first established — sounds’ — is composed in the albeit not to the same extreme. Poetry same way as a symphony. It has five has always placed emphasis on the movements: Erster Teil, Largo, Scherzo, sound of the words, which we can see Presto and Cadenza. After a small when we analyse poetry. Some of the introduction, the movements climax in first things we are taught to look out a coda consisting of the entire German for are metre, alliteration, assonance, alphabet backwards. onomatopoeia and rhyme. These are all aural properties of poetry, which is Both the Largo and Scherzo have an meant by nature to be read aloud and a-b-a construction in which the middle heard, much like sheets of music. These ‘theme’ contrasts with the surrounding elements of expression are embodied themes. The Presto has a fast and strict rhythm that gives the sonata some in the Ursonate of Kurt Schwitters. much-needed structure. The Cadenza Kurt Schwitters was a Dadaist who is the most noteworthy movement, became famous in 1919 after the debut because Schwitters allows the of his absurdist poem, Anna Blume. performer to choose between a written Schwitters first wrote the Ursonate to version and their own created cadenza.
The Ursonate — literally meaning ‘sonata in primordial sounds’ — is composed in the same way as a symphony
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BLONK ACHIEVES EXCITEMENT BY HIS ALTERNATION BETWEEN SLOW AND FAST PASSAGES
However, he makes it clear that the Cadenza was only written for those with ‘no imagination’. You have been wondering what the Ursonate actually means. There is an obvious Dadaist interpretation, which says the Ursonate acts as a symbol of the meaninglessness of words and poetry in a society that itself has lost any meaning. But the beauty of the Ursonate is that there is no specific meaning when the meaning should be assigned by the individual performer. Two great contrasting interpreters are Christian Bök and Jaap Blonk. Bök’s version is the fastestever recording of the Ursonate, which lasted only eighteen minutes when there are versions that last well over half an hour, placing a lot of emphasis on the sound of the consonants. This emphasis causes the piece to take a harsher, almost angry tone that sets it up as a mockery of modern society. Bök believes the Ursonate mocks the Catholic mass, a view expressed in his version because the ‘words’ blend together to form a chant. Blonk’s version is a lot gentler. He takes his time to pronounce all the words in a song-like manner, emphasising the vowels rather than the consonants and achieving a melodic delivery that makes the repeated motifs romantic. Blonk achieves excitement by his alternation between slow and fast passages that build up to a climax, after which listeners are brought back to the soft phrases with which the piece began. The Ursonate is what sound poetry should be like because, no matter which version one chooses to hear, it is always fresh. Mind’s Eye | June 2018
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Blessed
Are
the
Geeks
AIDAN MILLS shows how Science can make you rich
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e dream of being rich and living a lush lifestyle with few troubles, so most of us choose a high-paying line of work. Sadly, a career in Science is not thought lucrative enough and many discard this path for a desk job with little reward except a pay cheque. But I will now show how you can make millions out of Science, change the world and guarantee yourself a page in the history books.
isotope lithium-7 from lithium-6, essential to LFTR technology, is prohibitive. LFTR is internationally recognised as revolutionary since it would help solve the issue of carbon emissions and arrest climate change, so riches await anyone who can make the separation process less expensive.
Storing energy efficiently is another possible moneyspinner. Phones and laptops are thinner than ever but we are reaching a Many scientific advances that will become point where standard batteries, made of old hat in the next 30 years have already been lithium ion, cannot get more compact designed, most of them just improvements without exploding or melting. The automatic in technology that already exists. But being combustion of the new Galaxy Note 7 in able to refine new technologies until they 2016 caused a loss of over $5 billion because are economically viable is where the money Samsung crossed the line. Negative publicity lies. And in this respect energy production is after this disaster has, happily, accelerated El Dorado. research into battery design but nothing is yet good enough to overtake lithium ion. There are alternatives to fossil fuels but their I’m sure Apple, Samsung and Tesla would cost still exceeds the value of the energy pay well for a solution. This could come they produce, so no profit can be made from graphene, a material made from a despite huge environmental benefits. But single layer of carbon atoms arranged one technology that really in a honeycomb lattice could overtake fossil fuel pattern. It is a highly potent combustion as the leading Being able to refine new conductor of electrical and technologies until they thermal energy and its light source of energy is Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors are economically viable weight and flexibility means (LFTR), which use technology is where the money lies it would be perfect for a similar to nuclear reactors battery (or, more accurately, but with thorium instead of a supercapacitor). It could uranium as the source element. LFTR has a even be added to lithium ion batteries to lower running cost than standard nuclear improve their energy density and lower their reactors due to the reduced pressure charging time, which would give graphene required for fission to occur, and many of the a vast range of applications. Sadly, making radioactive by-products have extraordinary graphene pure enough to be useful is too uses in other fields, such as cancer treatments expensive to be viable. A few techniques have and magnets. So why aren’t we making the been tried, such as mechanical exfoliation of change? Right now, the cost of separating the graphite (this sounds complicated but 42
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NANOWIRE TECHNOLOGY USES WIRES THOUSANDS OF TIMES THINNER THAN HUMAN HAIR
We have all seen science fiction movies that pit empathetic humans against marauding robots guided by unfeeling AI
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IMAGINE BEING ABLE TO PRINT A FUNCTIONING KIDNEY
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fundamentally involves using sticky tape to peel off individual layers of graphite, making graphene) or chemical vapour deposition, which involves growing the graphene on a copper foil substrate and then dissolving the substrate with strong acid. However, both of these options have proved too costly to be viable on a large scale and the graphene created is often impure. Whoever manages to mass-produce graphene would revolutionise battery technology and become rich.
make gold nanotube batteries highly competitive.
Another bankable field is robotics, and specifically artificial intelligence (AI). Another promising candidate to take We have all seen science fiction movies over energy storage is the nanowire that pit empathetic humans against battery, which can charge almost marauding robots guided by unfeeling AI, but we are at a 300 times faster than point in the non-virtual lithium ion and sustain world when creating over 200,000 charge We are at a point in the such intelligent robotic cycles. These attractive non-virtual world when life is now possible. AI features may not be creating such intelligent would revolutionise attractive to companies robotic life is now computers and be a such as Apple, however, possible game-changer in many who releases products fields such as medicine, in annual cycles, and but right now expense such longevity is the enemy of planned obsolescence. prevents mass production, and fears Nanowire technology uses wires of a war between man and machine thousands of times thinner than has set a premium on the creation of human hair that are highly conductive intelligent life with a conscience. The because of their large surface area, best idea yet is a virtual brain with allowing for substantial amounts of transistors that act as neurons to form energy to be stored. Gold nanowires memories and a personality that has are a promising innovation but this the potential to give a machine a moral a very new technology since it was identity. Many billionaires today have first created in 2016. In comparison, made their fortune out of robotics and graphene was first made in 2004. Being computer technology, but imagine able to strengthen the nanotubes and how much you could make out of a produce them on a large scale would good robot!
And we musn’t leave quantum computers off our list. These theorised machines function like a classic computer but instead of binary for input and output they use quantum bits, or qubits. Whereas a binary value can only be 1 or 0, a qubit can correspond to a 1, a 0 or both because these bits can display superposition of different states, meaning the processor can run more efficiently. But problems arise when trying to interpret the output of a quantum computer because as soon as the qubit is observed the superposition collapses into a binary state. If the solution to this is found, then quantum computers will surpass classic computers.
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WHOEVER MANAGES TO MASS-PRODUCE GRAPHENE WOULD REVOLUTIONISE BATTERY TECHNOLOGY AND BECOME RICH
Many scientists who are not fans of AI would rather refine the human body through bioengineering, which involves using artificial tissues to improve the functions of the human body and replace body parts. New technology such as DNA synthesis allows scientists to print out customised DNA that has a wide range of applications in gene therapy and vaccine production. Since this technology is still new, however, there is much to be discovered and refined. It is novel to many people even now that scientists are able to 3D-print something as simple as a whistle, but imagine being able to print a functioning kidney. That may sound like science fiction, but in fact it has already been done by Dr Anthony Atala at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Bioengineering can also create and improve enzymes to get rid of nonbiodegradable waste. Recently an enzyme was altered so it would break down complex polymers into their fundamental monomers, which can then be easily reused. This discovery will prevent over-flowing landfill sites and rid the oceans of waste. But, more importantly, enzyme therapy could transform the fight against diseases, especially the hereditary, and save millions of animals and people, possibly even the person who makes one of the other discoveries I have described.
The leading force in Science may be innovation but money in Science comes from the application of new advances. Whether you approach a career in Science with the intention of making new breakthroughs, or of making money, your contribution could benefit the world. This is what separates Science from many other careers: the fundamental objective is to help others. If this moral aspect of Science cannot sway your career choice, then I hope I have at least been able to show you the money. If not, at least you now have some idea of how you can invest the riches you make sitting at a desk. Mind’s Eye | June 2018
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TICK TOCK ELIZABETH IDOWU stares into the many faces of time
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ime governs every second of our lives. mantra. People in countries with this linear Internal clocks rule our days and these approach like to focus on one thing at a time clocks play a crucial part in shaping instead of busying themselves with multiple our daily routine. The biological clock, also tasks. Other countries such as China and known as the circadian rhythm, is found Japan may view the passing of time as a in the hypothalamus. Photosensitive cells cyclical revolution, where sunsets, sunrises, react to changes in light births and deaths are not densities throughout the merely the progression of day so that the brain knows To a businessman, time life, but rather a recurrence of when to administer the sleep events from a distant past. is money, but to others hormone, melatonin, at the time is a complex and light-dependent entity right time. During childhood time that shares its beginning seems to pass with agonising with the universe The way we perceive time is slowness. Yet when we get affected by external factors older it seems to go too fast, such as culture. Take an each year becoming a blur example. You set an assignment for a student, of faces and feelings. This altered timeor homework for a pupil, and they are told perception may be due to gradual changes in the due date. For about a fortnight you wait metabolism and circadian rhythm or it could patiently for the work to arrive, but the due be down to a disparity in experiences. For date comes and goes with no result. This a young child, each day is punctuated with may be a common occurrence in a culture new discoveries and experiences. The world with a polychronic view of time, particularly is ever-changing, a whirlwind of colour, in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. In excitement and joy, and every moment is these cultures, happiness often means doing observed in detail. But as we age the world as many tasks as possible at any given time. becomes more jaded and grey in our eyes, People from polychronic cultures tend to so we disconnect from life and fail to absorb pay more attention to events in the present detail because nothing is surprising any than those in the past and value punctuality more. Time seems to speed up because less less than others, especially when they are and less of what we see and hear attracts our familiar with the people who have to wait. undivided attention. This mentality can clash with the typically American and English way of thinking, which puts heavy emphasis on the ‘time is money’
Sometimes, we can’t rely on our brains to give accurate information about the amount of time that has passed. These episodes Mind’s Eye | June 2018
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EINSTEIN BELIEVED THAT TIME STARTED WITH THE BIG BANG, JUST AS SPACE DID
Polychronic cultures tend to pay more attention to events in the present than those in the past and value punctuality less than others
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NEWTON STATED THAT TIME FLOWED EQUALLY IN ALL DIRECTIONS WITHOUT BEING AFFECTED BY ANYTHING EXTERNAL 48
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are called temporal illusions. Just like optical illusions, they occur because our brain is trying to fill in the gaps when it hasn’t processed stimuli properly. One example of this is the oddball effect, which is triggered by traumatic or other extraordinary events. The brain employs a special mechanism when traumatic events occur so it can obtain the optimum amount of information. So time can appear to slow down. However, to truly understand the concept of time we must also look at what time is in relation to space and the universe.
he concluded that time and distance are relative to light, because the speed of light is a constant. The relativity of time to light means that it must warp to keep the light speed constant. In this case, the closer you go to the speed of light, the more time will slow down. The first great scientific figure to tackle For instance, if you are measuring the this question was Isaac Newton. He periods between the flashes of an believed that time and space were incoming spaceship, the higher the two independent entities. Newton speed of the ship the greater the period also stated that time flowed equally in between the flashes. Einstein’s theory all directions without of relativity also alludes being affected by to the possibility of The famed e = mc2 anything external. time travel. The famed equation shows that This notion was e = mc2 equation shows called ‘absolute’ time. nothing with an intrinsic that nothing with an mass can travel faster Newton’s findings were intrinsic mass can travel than the speed of light guided by the necessity faster than the speed of of finding a scientific light; otherwise mass conclusion that was and energy would suitable to support the existence of become infinite, which is impossible. God, since he believed, in line with However, a wormhole would allow a many of his contemporaries, that the shortcut through space and time, and role of a scientist was to uncover the avoid this demise. So if you tamper wonders of God’s creation. Despite the with a wormhole in the right way, it is objection of other notable academics, not impossible to create a shortcut in such as Gottfried Leibniz, Newton’s time to another moment in time. theory prevailed throughout the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. According to Einstein, space and time are inextricably mixed. Einstein Einstein was revolutionary in the way he believed that time started with the transformed his daringly imaginative Big Bang, just as space did. So asking thoughts into plausible theories and what life was like before time existed formulae. From his theory of relativity, is like asking what the universe was
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FOR A YOUNG CHILD, EACH DAY IS PUNCTUATED WITH NEW DISCOVERIES AND EXPERIENCES. THE WORLD IS EVER-CHANGING, A WHIRLWIND OF COLOUR, EXCITEMENT AND JOY
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THE AMERICAN AND ENGLISH WAY OF THINKING PUTS HEAVY EMPHASIS ON THE ‘TIME IS MONEY’ MANTRA
like before the Big Bang. The second law of thermodynamics states that disorder (entropy) always increases with time. This progression of disorder through time is called the ‘arrow of time’. Entropy prevents clumping – allowing time to progress as we know it. This is the reason why we only see an egg splatter if dropped rather than the egg come undone from its ruined and disorderly state. When you consider the relationship between entropy and time, entropy is a key explanation of the way time works in the universe. To a businessman, time is money, but to others time is a complex and light-dependent entity that shares its beginning with the universe. It seems almost impossible to extrapolate the true meaning of time when it has so many different facets. What does time mean to you?
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No
Labels
Please
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THE KEY TO KNOWING WHO YOU ARE IS NAMING ALL THE PARTS THAT DON’T FIT INTO THE BOX ASSIGNED TO YOU
Amber de Ruyt protests that any sexual category is still oppressive It is human nature to organise people into categories that can feelings since that’s not ‘who he is’. This could lead to the be easily understood, whether by gender, race, taste in music deep emotional and mental issues that are suffered more or even clothing. Nowadays we try to accept who people and more by young people today. are and how they want to be perceived, especially through gender pronouns or sexual orientation. This is a wonderful Stereotypes seriously affect how people see themselves. If time for all mankind while we welcome new ways of thinking a girl enjoys playing rugby, prefers baggy clothes and has and ways of identifying ourselves but I do short hair she will fit the stereotype of lesbian wonder if these changes are happening for and from then on be stuck with that label no the right reason. This is a wonderful time matter whom she loves. Such labels can be inflicted on young people by the media: the for all mankind while we welcome new ways I respect anyone who comes out as a member only person the girl will see like herself will of thinking and ways of of the LGBTQ+ community, but it is sad that be on television or in movies as the token identifying ourselves people feel the need to fit themselves into lesbian character. And so the decision for boxes. If a boy develops feelings for another her has been made. This is true of the young boy, he will be saddled with the label ‘gay’, man too since the most famous stereotype either by himself or by his friends, and then it will be hard in the media is the flamboyant pink-loving fashionista token to shake off this label if he ever starts to develop feelings gay character. So it is hard for young men who do not fit this for someone of the opposite sex. He will feel trapped and stereotype to come out as homosexual, since they don’t fit in, try to convince himself that he could not possibly have such and people won’t believe they are telling the truth. Mind’s Eye | June 2018
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The media can be a fine instrument but also a dangerous weapon. It can heavily influence young people. Those we see on a screen become our idols and suddenly they represent how the world is supposed to work, which is constricting and unfair. Men who like pink don’t have to be gay or feel as though they must become transgender, and women who like tough sports don’t have to be lesbians or tomboys. It’s time for TV and films to demonstrate to young people that fitting into a box is not the key to finding yourself. The key to knowing who you are is naming all the parts that don’t fit into the box assigned to you and then creating a new model that you can proudly name and claim as your own.
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Human beings can’t be sorted, like dogs, into breeds.
IT’S TIME FOR TV AND FILMS TO DEMONSTRATE TO YOUNG PEOPLE THAT FITTING INTO A BOX IS NOT THE KEY TO FINDING YOURSELF
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MEN WHO LIKE PINK DON’T HAVE TO BE GAY OR FEEL AS THOUGH THEY MUST BECOME TRANSGENDER
Poll
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JIA DONGHUI shows that opinion polls can never be reliable
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y the time this article goes to print, Brexit negotiations will probably have settled the jumpy markets. But the fear of waking up to election results not predicted by the polls will still haunt us. Although Trump claims he believes in polls, declaring ‘rarely do you see a poll that's very far off’, Descartes said it is ‘prudent never to trust those who have deceived us, even if only once.’ We must find out why the polls got it wrong before we can trust them again. The greatest enemy of opinion polls, since they began during the US presidential election of 1824, is what psephologists (from the Greek ‘psephos’, meaning pebble) call ‘sampling bias’. When the Literary Digest launched its largest survey for the 1936 US presidential election, in which Alfred Landon was pitched against Franklin D. Roosevelt, it used 54
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10 million survey forms as well as Since then, pollsters have tried to avoid automobile registration lists and haphazard sampling, and with the telephone directories, advent of telephones and got back 2.4 million and the internet they completed ballot forms, claim to be successful. the biggest sample in But the reality is not that the history of polling. simple. Although the Their prediction was ubiquity of smartphones WITH THE ADVENT OF a 57-43 victory for means a selection of TELEPHONES AND THE Landon. But Roosevelt respondents can be INTERNET, POLLSTERS won 62-37, a prediction truly random, there CLAIM TO BE SUCCESSFUL error of 20 points. The is also a (de)selection BUT THE REALITY IS NOT Digest was guilty of effect produced by THAT SIMPLE haphazard sampling, people who decide not which means its sample to respond to surveys. did not represent the US population Such ‘Nonresponse bias’, as it is known, at the time. To clarify, those who can cause polls to go wrong when voted Roosevelt into office, due to his supporters of a certain candidate do advocating the New Deal, were mainly not respond and yet constitute a ‘silent people of lower income — in other majority’in the election. Another form of words, those who would not appear participation bias involves enthusiastic in directories for car and telephone supporters over-responding. For owners. example, during the 2017 US election some Trump supporters tried to ‘fix’ the
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SOME TRUMP SUPPORTERS TRIED TO ‘FIX’ THE POLLS BY USING MULTIPLE IP ADDRESSES TO RESPOND TO AN ONLINE SURVEY MULTIPLE TIMES
polls by using multiple ip addresses to respond to an online survey multiple times and thereby project a Trump win. When respondents can both overplay or underplay their responses, polling has no anchor and is set adrift.
A self-fulfilling prophecy is theoretically possible if we could map the final voting pattern (V) against the prediction (P), and find the singular point on the graph where V=P
of a city in England can acquire a rootmean-squared uncertainty of up to 5.22%. And when you add up such uncertainties for each demographic division used in quotas, be it gender, age, profession or region of residence, the overall uncertainty could mean such polls cannot possibly predict a victory.
Realising that no sampling technique is perfect, pollsters decide, naturally, to create the perfect sample by doing mathematics. They weight the results they acquire from a sample that is not perfectly represented, according to the So opinion polling is not yet national demographic. For example, trustworthy, and it is beyond current if they learn from the census that the information technology and statistical real population has a 48:52 male-to- studies to make it so. Even if one could female ratio, and a survey sample acquire the perfect sample with a under-represents the representative set of data, male population with only there is an umpredictable The publishing of opinion poll results 45% male respondents, human factor in all itself can change every individual male responses. People do not public opinion and respondent is given a always tell the truth, or weight of 1.07 (48/45) throw predictions off at best they may not tell track to compensate for the the whole truth. A welllack of males. Taking this known example is the principle further, pollsters use quota ‘shy-tory factor’. Originally observed by sampling, which randomly chooses a psephologists as ‘respondent veracity’, number of respondents belonging to it received its name after the 1992 different demographic groups based general election, when about 10% of on a calculated quota. Yet naturally Conservative voters who had made up such perfection comes at a cost. The their minds refused to disclose their national figures used for assigning a intentions and thereby skewed the quota must come from the national polling figures. census, whose inherent uncertainty increases while time passes since it took If things were not already complicated place. For example, three years after enough, the publishing of opinion poll being published, the total population results itself can change public opinion Mind’s Eye | June 2018
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and throw predictions off track, a phenomenon known as either the ‘bandwagon’ or the ‘underdog’ effect. Since some votes depend on how voters expect the election will go, and since published polls can influence these expectations, polls can affect voting behaviour. When voters are more likely to vote for a candidate who is expected to win, there is a ‘bandwagon’ effect, and when voters are more likely to vote for a candidate who is expected to lose, there is an ‘underdog’ effect. And the thoughts behind such effects can be much more sophisticated than simply ‘Go, girl!’ or ‘Poor sod!’ The ‘tactical voting’ that results is most commonly found in first-past-the-post electoral systems, such as the one found in the UK. Tactical voters are generally in opposition to a particular party so they vote for another party with the best chance of winning, based on the pollsters’ predictions, so that their opponent loses the seat. Since the tactical voters make their minds up after the polls are published, it is impossible for the polls to predict the outcome of the election purely from the data they have previously received.
TACTICAL VOTERS IN OPPOSITION TO A PARTICULAR PARTY VOTE FOR ANOTHER PARTY WITH THE BEST CHANCE OF WINNING, BASED ON THE POLLSTERS’ PREDICTIONS
A futuristic statistician could propose to solve this problem of human uncertainties by using the concept of big-data, and publish an adjusted
prediction whose effect on the final vote would make it actually match the prediction. Such a self-fulfilling prophecy is theoretically possible if we could map the final voting pattern (V) against the prediction (P), and find the singular point on the graph where V=P. This prediction, therefore, is inherently ‘wrong’ by not adhering to the data collected, and yet it is the only way for it to be ‘right’ in matching the final voting pattern. One might ask, if such a miraculous feat were possible, if it would be public opinion polling or public opinion controlling? Perhaps we should end, in full praise of democracy, with a quotation from Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the SNP: ‘It's not opinion polls that determine the outcome of elections. It's votes in ballot boxes.’
‘It’s not opinion polls that determine the outcome of elections. It’s votes in ballot boxes.’ 56
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BREXIT NEGOTIATIONS WILL PROBABLY HAVE SETTLED THE JUMPY MARKETS BUT THE FEAR OF WAKING UP TO ELECTION RESULTS NOT PREDICTED BY THE POLLS WILL STILL HAUNT US
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line ANNIE SHEPHERD-BARRON wonders whether killers are born or bred
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ccording to students, CEOs and Childhood experience moulds our perception prisoners, psychopaths are everywhere. of the world – especially how we respond And according to earliest accounts from to human interaction – and aggressive psychopathy they always have been. antisocial behaviour is often the result of But not all psychopaths are criminals, and the mental or physical abuse from an early age. terms ‘functional’ and ‘dysfunctional’ are used For example, a Danish study showed that 4% to mark the difference. The dysfunctional of boys who had difficult births and suffered individual fills most high-security prisons, maternal rejection during their childhoods such as Broadmoor. It is here that many committed 18% of violent crimes. Because infamous killers are held, such as Peter the antisocial demeanour characterises Sutcliffe, widely known as the ‘Yorkshire a number of behavioural conditions, one Ripper’, who tortured, raped must focus specifically on 4% of boys who had and murdered thirteen the impulsive and aggressive difficult births and women and failed to do form associated with the the same to seven others. criminal psychopath. A vast suffered maternal Less than 1% of men are range of external factors are rejection during their psychopaths, and under 1% childhoods committed to blame, including poor of the population is criminal, education, poverty, a lack of 18% of violent crimes but these individuals commit parental warmth, maternal up to 50 per cent of the most severe crimes hostility and multiple changes in the on record, such as serial rape or murder. parental marital status. The upbringing of Henry Lee Lucas, an American serial killer, A psychopath shows a mixture of traits, featured all such external factors known such as superficial charm, a lack of guilt to induce violent antisocial conduct, so his or anxiety, egocentricity, a failure to learn story supports nurture as the key predictor from punishment or plan ahead, a poverty of a psychopathic and criminal future. of emotions, unreliability and dishonesty. In 1959 the Mental Health Act defined Henry Lee Lucas had an atrocious start in psychopathy as ‘a persistent disorder life. His father Anderson was an unemployed or disability of the mind which results and amputated alcoholic who made his own in abnormally aggressive or seriously illegal liquor to which Henry was addicted irresponsible conduct on the part of the by the age of ten. Anderson gave no time patient’. Like with any other behavioural to anything other than his liquor ‘business’, condition, the question is whether the depriving Henry of any paternal affection. condition depends on genetic factors or Viola, his mother, was worse still: being external influences, our old friend nature both a prostitute and an alcoholic, she had and nurture. previously admitted four children to
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foster homes, apart from Henry’s older brother, Andrew. The one-room shack in Blacksburg, Virginia, where the Lucas family lived, was also home to Viola’s ‘pimp’, Bernie, and it had no electricity or plumbing. Viola seldom cooked, leaving everyone else to scavenge from dustbins in order to stay alive, causing Henry and his brother to be chronically malnourished. Growing up, Henry did not attend school until he was eleven so he spent most of his time in this small living space and often had to watch his mother having sex with her clients, causing him chronic psychological damage. Once at school, where he received his first hot meal and pair of shoes, Henry was further damaged by the mockery of his peers about his stench and dirtiness. (There was no running water in the cabin.) Viola also abused her son. When Henry was playing with a mule in the street she fetched a shotgun and killed the mule right in front of him. When he was seven she asked him to collect wood for the stove but figured he was moving too slowly so she hit him on the head with a wooden board with such force he lay on the spot for three days, dipping in and out of consciousness. His injuries were so severe he experienced dizziness and frequent blackouts throughout his life, as well as losing motor control of his left eye. When the injured Henry was ignored by the rest of his family, it was the pimp who took
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He spent most of his time in this small living space and often had to watch his mother having sex with her clients
him to hospital, claiming to the doctors that the boy had fallen from a ladder. Unsurprisingly, Henry’s first victim was Viola, whom he stabbed during an argument. After the jail sentence of ten years was over, he attempted to kidnap three schoolgirls, but was caught and sentenced to another five years. Such failure to learn from punishment is a common characteristic of psychopaths, who are five times more likely to reoffend than non-psychopathic
KRAFT WOULD DUMP BODIES AT THE SIDE OF THE MOTORWAY, EARNING HIM THE NICKNAME ‘FREEWAY KILLER’
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prisoners for serious crimes such as rape, murder, mutilation and extreme violence. When he was arrested for the third time in 1985 for the unlawful possession of a firearm, at the age of 39, Henry began to confess to appalling murders. Despite being subsequently charged with eleven homicides, he was involved in 189, but there was insufficient evidence for a full set of convictions. One of the most prolific serial killers in American history, Henry is also a classic psychopath, and it is clear that a terrible childhood largely provoked his criminal career. The career of American serial killer Randy Kraft, on the other hand, disputes the causal relationship between a derelict upbringing and criminal behaviour, because Kraft’s childhood was probably a bit like yours. Kraft did not experience neglect but grew up with three older sisters and two hard-working parents in a conservative middle-class Southern Californian neighbourhood. With an IQ of 129, he was a tenacious student who earned a degree in Economics and later became a computer consultant. Before he was convicted of any crimes, he set up a website where he wrote about many childhood memories,
including baking strawberry pies with his mother, bowling with his father and his first school dance at thirteen. This online chronicle reveals a healthy lifestyle full of luxury and happy memories. But Kraft tortured, raped and murdered 64 male victims within a 12-year period. His murderous routine began by socialising with his victims at a bar before drugging and further inebriating them in his car, inducing an unconscious state. He often sexually mutilated his victims and tortured them so ferociously that they would die and then Kraft would dump their bodies at the side of the motorway, earning him the nickname ‘Freeway Killer’. Considering the brutality of his crimes and the long time it took to find him, Kraft is definitely a psychopath. High intelligence is a commonplace trait, especially in criminal psychopaths, because it improves their ability to plan and become obsessive over detail, meaning that a killer can go undiscovered for years. Not only does Kraft’s high body count confirm his formidable planning abilities, but his capture was down to pure coincidence – a highway patrol car witnessed Kraft’s vehicle performing an illegal lane change at one o’clock in the morning on 14 May 1983. Kraft failed a sobriety test and the officers approached his car for impounding when Sergeant Howard noticed a passenger in the backseat who appeared to be asleep. When Howard removed the jacket on the victim’s lap he found the trousers undone and genitals exposed, along with ligature marks on both wrists. Paramedics were called, but it was too late because Kraft had already strangled the 25-year-old marine to death. Randy Kraft ranks highly within the psychopathic spectrum for his obsessive organisational skills, great intellect and repeated gruesome murders. He has still not pleaded guilty to any charges, despite being incarcerated for 35 years. But in his case nurture cannot be held responsible. The Dutch doctor Han Brunner first discovered the ‘warrior gene’, also known as Brunner Syndrome, after a woman had concerns in 1978 about
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THE DYSFUNCTIONAL PSYCHOPATH FILLS MOST HIGH-SECURITY PRISONS, SUCH AS BROADMOOR, WHERE MANY INFAMOUS KILLERS ARE HELD
her male relatives’ frequent antisocial behaviour and pursued genetic counselling. There was one similarity amongst these men with behavioural issues: they all had a defective MAOA gene, the gene that normally produces the enzyme monoamine oxidase A. This abnormality causes a deficit in the production of the MAOA enzyme, with significant effects on the body, because MAOA metabolizes multiple neurotransmitters involved in key cognitive functions such as impulse control and attention. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that carry nerve impulses across synapses (gaps between the ends of nerve fibres) and, if this mutation is present, there are profound effects on the activity of most neurotransmitters, especially serotonin and dopamine. The result is that the chemical processes within the brain and body are altered, causing a vast range of disorders, including alcoholism, drug abuse, impulsivity, and other risky behaviours. Mind’s Eye | June 2018
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Because Waldroup was host to the MAOA mutation and had been ‘violently and repeatedly beaten by his parents’, the court concluded his free will had been eroded
One famous case involving the ‘warrior gene’ occurred in Tennessee, when Bradley Waldroup committed a vicious crime in 2006 but was punished less severely due to his genetic predisposition. A high-ranking psychopath, Waldroup in a state of pure rage shot his friend in the back eight times, before cutting off her head with a machete. Next, he used the same knife to cut off a selection of his wife’s digits and stabbed her repeatedly, before beating her with a metal shovel. Incredibly, his wife survived but the friend did not, which meant Waldroup was eligible for the death penalty if found guilty. Professor Bernet, a forensic psychiatrist, was called upon to help the defence attorney, and because Waldroup was host to the MAOA mutation and had been‘violently and repeatedly beaten by his parents as a child’, the court concluded that his free will had been eroded by genetic and environmental predisposition. This statement was revolutionary in the world of behavioural genomics and was sufficient evidence to absolve Waldroup of first-degree murder (and of the death sentence) but charge him instead with voluntary manslaughter.
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A DEFECTIVE MAOA GENE CAUSES A DEFICIT IN THE PRODUCTION OF THE MAOA ENZYME, WITH SIGNIFICANT EFFECTS ON THE BODY
Whether a psychopath is ‘born or bred’ is not a question that is easy to answer. But studies performed on identical twins, who share 99.99% of their genes, are good for exploring the ratio between the influences of nature and nurture. 103 studies of twins looked at the inheritability of antisocial behaviour and concluded that non-aggressive antisocial behaviour is 48% inheritable, whereas aggressive antisocial behaviour is 65% inheritable. Another study claimed 68% inheritability for empathy. So the overall ratio between nature and nurture is thought to be 65:35, meaning criminal psychopaths are mostly a concoction of both genetic and external factors, but genetics have more say in the type of antisocial behaviour displayed, and therefore in the criminality of the psychopath.
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CRIMINAL PSYCHOPATHS ARE MOSTLY A CONCOCTION OF BOTH GENETIC AND EXTERNAL FACTORS
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FOOTBINDING WAS PRACTISED BECAUSE MEN THOUGHT OF FEMININITY AS PETITE AND DIMINUTIVE
A We look back on a world less socially developed than our own and see only its virtues
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few months ago, Mary Berry put white wine in her Bolognese sauce. People flocked to Twitter, calling it an ‘abomination’. A similar uproar occurred when Jamie Oliver added chorizo to paella. Why? Because it goes against tradition, a set of guidelines left by our predecessors that define our customs, beliefs, and our food. But why do we follow tradition? Is it just laziness? Do we enshrine some wisdom in our conformity? Or do we endanger ourselves and others by imposing such rigidity on our culture and society? Even if we accept the advantages of customs in the past, they will have different meanings now. So why do we still follow them?
a world less socially developed than our own and see only its virtues. So we hesitate to overthrow traditions and we uphold antiquated establishments such as the House of Lords, which was ridiculed for being out of touch as far back as 1882 in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe.
This tendency becomes dangerous when people start to glorify the past and internalise its prejudices. The phrase ‘Make America Great Again’ has entered the modern lexicon because Trump ‘Make America Great cunningly appealed to Again’ has entered the his people’s nostalgia. First, I’m going to modern lexicon because However, it begs a define what I mean by Trump cunningly question: in what a ‘tradition’. It’s a longappealed to his people’s period was America standing repeated nostalgia greater than today? In action or mindset which period of history that defines how a group of people act, often without do half the American population believe any scientific basis. For example, I am their rights were better represented? counting religion but I am discounting It seems they can hold the past per se the practice of sending children up in such high regard they either forget the patronised women, enslaved chimneys. foreigners and overlooked poor of Traditions can be thought valuable, that past or, even more worryingly, even if they are obsolete, because have internalised these prejudices and they express the wisdom of people believe such inequalities need to be rewho went before. But we are often established. guilty of idealising the past. When we think of the Victorian era, we imagine There was a time, long ago, when steam trains, the Industrial Revolution traditional practice was essential to and royal palaces rather than gender survival. If, for example, your tribe had a and race inequality, poverty, disease specific way of telling apart two similar and a system under which a tiny and berries, one edible and one toxic, it unaccountable minority ruled a vast was important to follow suit. But in the and helpless majority. We look back on modern world of Google, the harms of
not receiving knowledge through tradition are entirely mitigated, since you can just look things up. So it seems we now follow tradition as a form of attempted self-preservation because we naturally fear change as a species. We cling to the past believing the old way of living worked for our ancestors; after all, they managed to stay alive and pass on their genes. We feel a biological incentive to do what they did, as a means of survival. But most things come down to common sense these days and traditions no longer protect us, because we live in a different world and face different dangers. Once upon a time using up eggs, flour and milk in pancakes before Lent made sense because the ingredients would go off while you fasted, but now that you can freeze the milk and so on the incentive is removed. So why do we still do it? Although we like an excuse to eat pancakes, we also happily uphold a useless tradition. Therefore, traditions can be self-sustaining and have the potential to perpetuate pointless practices.
Tradition can become so deeply ingrained in a person’s psychology that they are unable to take a step back and view the damage it is causing. Tradition is dangerous when it makes us ignore Such are the cases of extremist religion, where common sense and do or believe something past prejudices are justified by religious writings. for the sake of it. And when we For example, there are zealots do things without challenging in all religions who defend Tradition is dangerous them they become normalised, their homophobia, misogyny, so we accept something that when it makes us ignore racism and feeling of spiritual common sense and do reflects past prejudice and make or believe something for superiority through a literal and it a standard part of our culture. selective reading of traditional the sake of it Footbinding was practised religious texts. For a religion to because Chinese men thought have progressed through the of femininity as petite and diminutive, and this ages, it must have been either written down or despicable practice remained unchallenged passed on orally. So, even if it was originally the until the 20th Century, when it was finally word of God, it will have been edited over the rejected as painful and sexist. centuries when exposed to different people and moulded to fit their mindsets.
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TRADITIONAL PRACTICE WAS ESSENTIAL TO SURVIVAL
Think of a snowball. Even if the centre is pure, over time it picks up more and more debris until the exterior is muddy brown, with only small patches of the original white shining through. Religious texts pick up the prejudices of their writers and become very dangerous, preserving past inequalities and treating all challenges as sacrilege. Such extreme religious readings allow some vicious people to present flawed, traditional and antiquated views as the word of God. Why do we follow tradition? Because we get comfort from honouring the people who came before us. But we can never progress if we are tied to the past. Mind’s Eye | June 2018
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Does K STARCK have the key to all mythologies? The matter that we see in our world doesn’t exist the easy way we believe it does. What we see is matter because of a conscious, an intelligent mind, a matrix of all matter. (Max Planck, father of Quantum Physics)
unified the various theories that describe the same topic with different words.
What if you were told that we are all made of energy and vibrations, and that we perceive things as they are or as long as we simply because our can remember, brain interprets science has been these vibrations and the language we changes in energy use to describe what frequency and not surrounds us and how because they are these surroundings necessarily that way? function. As we It is difficult to picture progress, advancing this, as we grew up towards new scientific learning that we live discoveries and cures, in a three-, maybe it would seem our four-dimensional level of awareness has world made up of regressed. Whether solids, liquids, gases this has been caused and fluids. We were by technology or by told that the particles our increasingly busy that compose these lives, we have never objects vibrate, yet been further from this concept has what our ancestors never truly become believed – namely the an idea we could notion that we are all relate to. Particles one and connected. We have never been further from what are minuscule, and our ancestors believed – namely the It might seem a little thus do not allow us notion that we are all one and connected far-fetched how this to see their vibrations notion, which has been on a daily basis. We repeated so many times in so many different may not be able to see these movements, religions, books and scriptures, might have but we are no strangers to their effects and anything to do with science. It is time we consequences.
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We are now certain that everything is made up of energy, no matter what form it takes. The collective energy field that unifies and allows energy transfers to take place can have many names. I will call it The Matrix. In 1944 The Matrix was said to be filled with intelligent, non-conventional energy that does not work the same way electricity does. The Matrix appears to be a system of reflective webs made of all of the possibilities that exist in, and therefore are this field; it will mirror back to us what we claim to be our Truth, what we truly feel about how our world works. These truths do not necessarily have to be what we say. In fact, most of the time our words are very distant from our thoughts and feelings, which are our unconscious truths. The concept of The Matrix builds on the fact that the space between particles is not empty. All matter is connected, and scientists now use the word ‘entanglement’ to refer to this connection. This implies that when something happens in one part of the world, its effects can be felt anywhere else simultaneously. As an example, in 1997, at the University of Geneva, scientists took a photon (packet of light) and broke it in half to make two identical ones, so that both parts would have the same properties. Adopting a
THE COLLECTIVE ENERGY FIELD THAT UNIFIES AND ALLOWS ENERGY TRANSFERS TO TAKE PLACE CAN HAVE MANY NAMES specialised device made out of fibreoptic cables, the photons were then fired seven miles each in opposite directions and in the end they were fourteen miles apart. The experiment would show if the side-effects that the first half would display, after being tampered with, would appear on the second one, fourteen miles away. Throughout the experiment, whatever they would do to one particle, the other one would act as if it had
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experienced the same alteration. The changes would consist in changing its charge or spin rate, and the sideeffects would appear on the other half faster than if the energy were to be transferred from the first receiving half to the other, meaning that the second half reacted simultaneously. This demonstrates that, once matter is physically connected, even though it may become separate and distant, it is always linked energetically. This is important because we live in a universe many light years in diameter, made of particles that were once all converged into a single unit. Therefore, if all the space between the particles were to be taken out, and then all of these particles were put back together, scientists say that the unit formed would take up the size of a single green pea. For this reason, referring back to the entanglement that unifies us, if we were all once connected, even though we are now physically separate, the energy connecting us remains. The definition of the word hologram is that every piece of something mirrors the entire something, no matter how small or large that may be. In 1980 holographic bookmarks came out. If one was to cut one of these bookmarks, or anything that is truly holographic, into the smallest pieces, and took the
The concept of The Matrix builds on the fact that the space between particles is not empty since all matter is connected
smallest piece, cut it again and looked at it under magnification, it would be possible to see the entire image that the bookmark was reflecting when it was whole. Using this analogy, the Holographic Principle explains how our vibrations are reflected back into our reality. By definition, every piece of something contains the entire something on a different scale of magnitude. On this basis, returning to the experiment performed in 1997 at the University of Geneva, the reason for which the other particle felt the same things as the particle being modified is that the energy was already in the other particle.
The Holographic Principle explains how our vibrations are reflected back into our reality
We too are holographic in nature. Nature can create a lot of change in the entire universe by simply initiating it in one place because, by definition, in the hologram every fragment mirrors the whole. Human beings like the idea of having a purpose, a reason for which we are on this Earth and why the universe exists to begin with. And so we like to ask philosophical questions: ‘Where do we come from?’; ‘Why are we here?’; ‘Was this already planned?’; ‘What is the universe and how is it so perfect?’; ‘Was it random that we live on the only inhabitable planet in this galaxy?’; the list of questions could easily go on. Therefore, many scientists have Mind’s Eye | June 2018
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If atoms are the building blocks of this universe, and they are concentrated energy that cause molecules to vibrate, then all we are is energy and vibrations
Because our world is made of opposites, for the mathematics to work correctly and unify the quantum and Newtonian mechanics there must be at least ten dimensions
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dedicated their lives to defining what we are, and what the universe is, with laws. Yet it would seem that these laws cannot provide one unifying theory for the universe. The reason for this is because all of the laws that we have discovered so far have been kept separate, and never looked at from one perspective. Consequently, to make a theory that us to access worlds that were created could explain the entire universe, we with different conditions. The eighth would have to put all of the already is like the sixth, except it would permit existing laws (like the Newtonian, us to compare all worlds created under quantum mechanics and mathematics) different conditions. In the ninth, we together. Along with all of these laws, can confront all possible worlds, no there are strong eleven-string theories matter how they began. And the tenth that bring them all together. Because dimension is where everything comes our world is polar (made of opposites together and it can all be put on a like black and white, measuring scale to then day and night, positive compare it to the rest. To make a theory and negative), for the mathematics to work that could explain the All of the laws that we know entire universe, we correctly and unify can explain the universe would have to put all if joined together by the the quantum and Newtonian mechanics of the already existing string theories, and for laws together in the energetic and the string theories to unify physical worlds, there them there must be at must be at least ten least ten dimensions that dimensions. These first four dimensions we can so far understand. Moreover, are length, height, depth and time. The the interesting thing is that, the fifth is a dimension that allows us to see higher you go in the dimensions, the a world very similar to ours that would simpler the mathematics that explains enable us to measure the difference them becomes. So, when we have between our world and other possible feelings, those emotions are coherent ones. The sixth is a dimension where we with the higher dimensions, where would be able to compare all possible everything is one. Therefore, going worlds that were created in the same back to the Holographic Principle and conditions as ours (The Big Bang) on the entanglement theory, when we a plane. The seventh dimension allows have feelings, and we see their effect
in our four-dimensional world, it is not that our feelings changed something in this world, but they are speaking to the higher dimensions and we see the shadow of the change in these dimensions manifesting in our world. On another note, atoms are no longer viewed as things orbiting around
We think of our heart as a gateway to our feelings and how we know to perceive and understand this world other things (as electrons do around the nucleus), but as concentration of energy. Moreover, if atoms are the building blocks of this universe, and they are concentrated energy that cause the molecules that they compose to vibrate, then all we are is energy and vibrations. If you change the field of energy that an atom lives in, whether it is electrically or magnetically (like the Zeeman or Stark effects), you change the atom. This is very relevant because our hearts are the strongest bioelectrical and magnetic fields in our bodies, even stronger than our brains. The heart is 5000 times magnetically stronger than our brain, and the ECGs (electrocardiograph) of our heart is 100 times stronger than the EEGs (electroencephalogram) of our brain. We think of our heart as a gateway to our feelings and how we know to perceive and understand this world as it being all connected and made of energy, and our brain as the gateway to our perception of the world as matter and objects without linking them to energy and thoughts. So, when we talk about a feeling starting in our heart, and we know that this feeling affects our reality, since we believe feelings to be originated in the heart, these thoughts and emotions will affect our world 100 times more than the ideas created in our brain. Seth Lloyd, MIT professor, is one of the many scientists who have attempted to explain our world. His theory is that the universe is either a quantum
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Our hearts are the strongest bio-electrical and magnetic fields in our bodies, even stronger than our brains
computer, or is a simulation of a huge quantum computer somewhere in existence. Ordinary computers are made of binary systems and bits that turn on and off. The correspondence of these bits in this world is the atom. When atoms are turned on, they are reality, and when they are not, they are anti-atoms, or anti-reality, and thus do not exist physically. Mathematically, the probability that we belong to a simulation is very strong. Whether this is a simulation like the one in the movie The Matrix (you could also question where those ideas come from), or a playground that our higher forms of energy (our souls) designed to then be able to manifest themselves and experience the wonders of creation, does not matter. According to this theory, everything that we see in our mind is not actually real as we think it is, and our soul (made up of energy like everything else) is expressing itself through this physical reality. This is very probable, as what we perceive with our senses is just a series of electric impulses being sent to the brain followed by its interpretation. From this perspective, once we die, our simulation ends. Keeping in mind that a simulation is simply a construction of a pre-designed situation, death does not mean that we are no longer here, yet our experience in this pre-designed situation has ended as we sketched it to be.  Mind’s Eye | June 2018
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It is very interesting how the ancients, the aboriginal tribes that lived before us in America or the Australian Outback, for example, already knew this. Therefore, if we truly are in a simulation that we might have created ourselves in the form of our souls, it is only logical that the people who experienced this simulation at the beginning would remember the laws and concepts, whereas we, who live millions of years after that time, are just starting to put the pieces together and unify all these laws and ideas under the same theory.
If we can understand the language by which our universe works, we can re-write our reality
ABORIGINAL TRIBES THAT LIVED BEFORE US ALREADY KNEW DEATH DOES NOT MEAN THAT WE ARE NO LONGER HERE
Finally, if our feelings are the stimulus that cause the blueprint in the higher dimensions to change our everyday reality, then it safe to say that, in the same way that the alphabet is our physical way of communicating, our energetic vibrations, and therefore our thoughts and consciousness, are the language of the universe. This is explained by the fact that our thoughts and consciousness are vibrations, and these vibrations transfer energy, and that the universe is made entirely of energy. We must remember that these languages and laws are just as valid as the ones children learn at school. And if we can understand the language by which our universe works, we can rewrite our reality.
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IN THE SAME WAY THAT THE ALPHABET IS OUR PHYSICAL WAY OF COMMUNICATING, OUR ENERGETIC VIBRATIONS, AND THEREFORE OUR THOUGHTS AND CONSCIOUSNESS, ARE THE LANGUAGE OF THE UNIVERSE
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EXIT POLES KAY MINKOVIC explains why the Polish immigration that fuelled Brexit is more of a benefit than a cost
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he views of my cleaners and leading choose to spend their money on sending politicians in Parliament about Polish money home rather than in UK shops, their nationals working in the UK worry me. residence is even more damaging: estimates The prevailing sentiment I hear is uniform claim that, in 2016, £3 billion pounds were hostilility and it is precisely this sentiment sent back to Poland. Therefore, coupled that spurred Brexit. A recent study suggests with the fact that British taxpayers pay that immigration was the approximately £4.5 million second biggest factor pounds a week on benefits If future elections and causing the choice to vote for immigrants, Brexiteers referendums are to be ‘leave’. argued that immigration is steered by emotion and costing the British public a false pretences, then the Polish nationals are the fortune. future of Britain does not most numerous non-UKlook bright born residents, numbering But as the economist 830,000. They have chosen Jonathan Portes points out, to chase the ‘British Dream’ for the prospect ‘It’s true that, if an immigrant takes a job, of earning four times the wages available in then a British worker can’t take that job – but Poland. However, the reality of a ‘Hard’ Brexit, it doesn’t mean he or she won’t find another Britain leaving both the customs union and one that may have been created, directly or the EU single market, which at the time of indirectly, as a result of immigration.’ And writing seems to be the most likely outcome, since British unemployment is at its lowest will undoubtedly destroy the hopes of many since 1975, whilst net immigration to the prospective Polish immigrants. UK has peaked, the claim that immigration is a zero-sum game where there are only Brexiteers grounded their negative a fixed number of jobs to go round is immigration views on three tenets. First, unsubstantiated. On the contrary, an ageing they claimed that immigrants take British population that has been projected to grow jobs. Leading Brexit campaigner Iain Duncan by the Office of National Statistics (ONS): Smith said, ‘Brits on low pay – and those out currently 18% of the UK population is of work – are forced to compete with millions aged 65 and over and by 2046 this figure is of people from abroad for jobs.’ Second, it was expected to grow to 26%. So the UK requires believed that immigrants depress wages, an influx of immigrants to sustain the living and, therefore, hurt lower-paid workers. standards of pensioners and fill the jobs they Third, they argued that since immigrants have left vacant. Mind’s Eye | June 2018
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Furthermore, the idea that immigrants depress wages does not cohere with most recent economic research. The Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics says, ‘The areas of the UK with large increases in EU immigration did not suffer greater falls in the numbers of jobs and levels of pay for UK-born workers. The big falls in wages after 2008 are due to the global financial crisis and a weak economic recovery, not to immigration.’ The effect on wages in major immigration hubs has been measured at less than 1% over a period of eight years. The highly reputable LSE professor, Jonathan
Poles are said to be hardworking and reliable because diligence is engraved in the Polish identity
WITH AN AGEING POPULATION THE UK REQUIRES AN INFLUX OF IMMIGRANTS TO SUSTAIN THE LIVING STANDARDS OF PENSIONERS
Wadsworth, claims, “The bottom line, which may surprise many people, is that EU immigration has not harmed the pay, jobs or public services enjoyed by Britons. In fact, for the most part it has most likely made us better off. So, far from EU immigration being a ‘necessary evil’ that we pay to get access to the greater trade and foreign investment generated by the EU single market, immigration is at worst neutral and at best another economic benefit.”
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Therefore, contrary to the assertions of Brexiteers, the economic benefits of immigrants outweigh the amount of money taxpayers pay for immigrants. British public services such as the NHS heavily rely on immigrants; statistics from the ONS state that more than 10% of all the staff are immigrants. Therefore, without immigrants, some economists have estimated that the NHS would not be sustainable as it would be much costlier and understaffed. Even with immigrants it is currently heavily understaffed. Beyond financial facts and figures, immigrants contribute intangibly to British culture. This is especially the case with Polish workers, who set the gold standard for a job ‘well done’. Poles turn up on time, pick up the phone and don’t leave walls half-drilled halfway through a job for a better offer down the road. Poles are said to be hardworking and reliable because diligence is engraved in the Polish identity. And Hitler is said to have confessed, ‘With German technology and Polish soldiers, I could win any battle.’ Although these sentiments may be true, a more probable explanation why Poles are such reliable workers is that, since they are immigrants, it is more difficult for them to gain the trust of their employers. So for them to keep their jobs they must be more reliable and productive than their British counterparts. Poles have also come to Britain at the grave cost of leaving their families. Therefore, because their prime reason for migration is economic, which comes at a high emotional cost, they are inclined to make sure they maximize the amount of money they earn during their stay, and the only way of doing so is through hard work and reliability.
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THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT EU IMMIGRATION HAS NOT HARMED THE PAY, JOBS OR PUBLIC SERVICES ENJOYED BY BRITONS
Many Poles are overqualified for the jobs they hold in Britain. They choose to take these jobs since, even though lower in status, they still pay more than their previous jobs in Poland. Hence their expertise, which comes at a relatively low cost, brings great benefits to the British people. And while these factors play a fundamental role in improving the British economy, they may also increase the productivity and efficiency of the average Brit who competes with the keen output of the Pole. If future elections and referendums are to be steered by emotion and false pretences, then the future of Britain does not look bright. Only time will tell the true extent of the damage caused by Brexit’s effect on immigration.
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MANY POLES ARE OVERQUALIFIED FOR THE JOBS THEY HOLD IN BRITAIN AND THEIR EXPERTISE BRINGS GREAT BENEFITS TO THE BRITISH PEOPLE
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An
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Kingdom HARRY TRELAWNY-VERNON suggests that, despite local nostalgia, Cornwall will not be a nation state any time soon The whole Countrie of Britaine...is divided into iiii partes; wherof the one is inhabited of Englishmen, the other of Scottes, the third of Wallshemen, and the fowerth of Cornishe people. Which all differ emonge them selves, either in tongue, either in manners, or ells in lawes and ordinaunce.’
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blood and ancestry in a people who, they claimed, had existed for hundreds of years across central Europe. Ethnic nationalism is neatly defined by modern philosopher, Will Kymlicka, as a ‘historical community, occupying a given territory or homeland, sharing a distinct language and culture.’ There are three key ways, then, of judging whether an area is a nation. So, what about Cornwall?
o wrote the 16th Century Italian, Polydore Vergil, dubbed by many the ‘Father of English History’, when Cornwall was perceived in medieval times as a distinct In 2015 Oxford University examined the nation both by the Cornish and by outsiders. genetic make-up of the United Kingdom. A 21st Century Briton, however, refers only to They showed common genetic traits on a Wales, Scotland and England map in similar colours, and as divisions of this island, not the variety of colours holds to Cornwall. But recently there a plethora of information. Recently there has has been growing interest in been growing interest Cornwall is distinctly Cornish identity, a resurgence pink whereas its English in Cornish identity in the traditional language neighbours are red and blue. of Kernowick and in ancient The genetic distinctiveness cultural practices. This has led of Cornwall suggested to a return of national feeling in Cornwall by this study is caused by a long history and a question: does the island of Britain of differences. The Roman occupiers, for consist of three united nations or, as Vergil example, barely touched Cornwall, building suggests, four? only one fort near what we now call Bodmin. After the Western Roman Empire fell, strong At this point it is worth deciding what historical evidence suggests Cornwall we mean by ‘nation’. The primary basis of was governed as a separate kingdom. The nationalist thought is ethnic nationalism, famous Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes which sees nationhood as a product of a this Cornish Kingdom as the ‘West Wealas’ joint history. Germany, for example, lays (West Wales). its foundations on this philosophy. The architects of German unification in 1871 Furthermore, in 1013 a Viking force occupied described the existence of common German the English Kingdoms but this new Viking
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TO MOST PEOPLE THE LANGUAGE IS SEEN IN CORNISH PLACE NAMES SUCH AS TREBETHERICK, TRELISSICK AND POLBATHIC Empire did not occupy Wales, Scotland or Cornwall, allowing them to operate as client states, so before the Normans arrived there had been many ‘Rex Cerniu’ (Kings of the Cornish). But Cornwall’s distinct history extends beyond the Battle of Hastings and it is continuously treated as a strange land with its own legal exemptions. As a medieval Englishmen, if you were to travel to Cornwall, your English would be a foreign tongue, since the spoken language was Kernowick, which is similar to Welsh and other Celtic languages. Cornish distinctiveness did not die in the medieval period. Between 1400 and 1900, the Cornish rebelled against English control four times, a narrative of resentment expressed in the Cornish anthem ‘The Song of the Western Men’, and recently the European Union actually granted Cornwall special status as a national minority. With this historical overview in mind, the Cornish can justifiably claim to be a historical community that satisfies the first element of our definition. The Cornish language is not a relic, even now, and its influence is felt in Cornwall almost as much as Gaelige is in Ireland. Around three
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hundred people claim to be fluent in Cornish but to most people the language is seen in Cornish place names such as Trebetherick, Trelissick and Polbathic. These are noticeably different from traditional English place names. Cornish culture is also distinct from England, steeped with Celtic influence. The cross of the Celtic people can be seen across the Cornish peninsula, so too the presence of ancient runestones and stone circles. The Cornish also have a flag, flown throughout the peninsula, that is far more of a presence than the flag of the union. So there is definitely a Cornish language and culture, fulfilling the second element of our definition. The Cornish can also claim to have a given territory. The area of Cornwall has remained the same since 936 AD, when its border was marked by the River Tamar, and Cornwall is in fact only six kilometres short of being
THE AREA OF CORNWALL HAS REMAINED THE SAME SINCE 936 AD, WHEN ITS BORDER WAS MARKED BY THE RIVER TAMAR
entirely cut off by the river from the British mainland. The Cornish are notably protective of this border, petitioning against any government plans to create constituencies that cross the water, a concept they call ‘Devonwall’. So it is also fair to say the Cornish have a homeland – element number three. It appears therefore that Cornwall can technically be classified as a nation, akin to Wales, Scotland and England. But it is unlikely that it will suddenly rise again as a nation state. Cornwall as a county has been slowly assimilated since Norman times into England, such that the difference between the Cornish and the English has become much less pronounced. It is likely that, despite local nostalgia for independence, for some time to come only a small minority will perceive Cornwall as being next to, rather than part of, England.
Cornwall as a county has been slowly assimilated since Norman times into England
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THE ROMAN OCCUPIERS BARELY TOUCHED CORNWALL, BUILDING ONLY ONE FORT NEAR WHAT WE NOW CALL BODMIN
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