Franco Romรกn Yachay Tech November 10, 2016
Dear Reader,
My name is Franco Roman, in this reflection letter I talk about my best essays, my best works in level 6 and how these works helped me to improve my English languages skills in the English Program of Yachay Tech. My portafolio has four essays and research paper that I realized in this semester, with my actual knowledge I believe that I can continue with my studies in English. In this semester I had improved a lot in different aspects and it is through to practice and by the different works. For example, I believe that improve my organization, the time to do some homework, work in group, my listening, writing and my speaking. In my writing I improved grammar, structure of essay, increased my vocabulary with my written works and I made less mistakes. For example, in the Argumentative Essay I put a lot of information, however I made a mistakes in the organization and the way to summarize the information, but in the next Essays I try to improve content and organization with the comments of my teacher. With all essays and outlines to my essays I learned to have better organization and for all essays I had to increase my vocabulary because had a lot of word that I do not know the meaning, other example is how I work in my introductions like hooks, because I believe that I can attract the attention with a lot of questions like in response Essay, however I think that can
improve with more important information. I believe that I will continue improving the writing with more practice and reading a lot of books of articles to I have more technical vocabulary. In the listening I improve because I had to see a lot of videos to know about theme or to use the video like source for some works. For example, I see videos to understand better and to put like source a video in my research paper, I saw videos when I was searching a theme for my interpretation. In the research paper I used a video in the part of opposing view point because I believed that the information was so good and I had to understand the idea of the video, all videos helped in my speaking because I was learning and listening right pronunciation, for this the presentation about essays helped a lot too. I think that I can improve my skills to listen English better with more conferences in English, all these could help in next years. I improved my abilities to work in group and my organization because I have to work in class with different classmates and the interpretation was in group (essay and presentation). In organization I improved because I learned to do outlines like a way to do more easily when I write some documents. Also, the organization is one of the most important things because, I do the homework with a little bit of time more than before. In my essay I believed that I improved because in many essays I had less mistakes in this parts. I believe that I can improve a lot if I see more examples of how people make their essays, and in the organization I will improve with I do homework with more time. Thank you for your time spend in read my portafolio, I hope that you enjoy to read this. Sincerely,
Franco Romรกn
Way to Good Human Enhancement Franco Jeanpierre Romรกn Barragรกn Yachay Tech
Way to Good Human Enhancement Should the humans modify part of their DNA? Are we prepared to change the DNA with all its consequences? If you could, would you change your DNA or the DNA of your children? According to Andy Miah (2016), author of the article “The Ethics of Human Enhancement,” “humans have always sought to improve themselves” (Miah, 2016, paragraph 3). There are many ways to improve but not all are defined as good or bad. A clear example is bioengineering, because people could use this to improve their skills or eliminate diseases. In the article The Ethics of Human Enhancement, the author doesn’t explain the examples like good or so bad for human enhancement and ethical consequences, but I think that human enhancement is good because it allow us to improve our environment and all surround us but people need rules for this. The major changes throughout history helped humanity. Why not now? To understand how the great discoveries have affected humanity is essential because we can understand how people react to these big changes. In history, humans had discovered many things that have had a big impact, for example fire, the wheel or chemistry. Definitely these discoveries are very good for society but not everyone has seen it as a tool for improvement for humanity and have tried to use it for their convenience. For example, Chemistry can be used for disinfectants or vaccines, but also has been used for negative purposes such as creation of the atomic bomb or water pollution. Drugs are not the right way. All people want to improve themselves, but some people take shortcuts to achieve their purpose faster. Miah (2016, para 4, 6) says that to use drugs like steroids are not right because people can take advantage for time but probably they have health problems, also victory would lose the sense because it was not made by themselves, it would be like a mountain climber use a helicopter to climb a mountain, it would not value.
Bioengineering is a possible solution to problems such as malformations of babies or hereditary diseases. With Bioengineering people could modify their DNA and thus to achieve goals faster without apparent damages in health. For example people could change their appearance. Changes in DNA will be very useful as these can eliminate congenital diseases and with this increasing the time and quality of life. (Miah, 2016, paragraph 1, 8). But is it ethically right? Doubts with Bioengineering. A lot of people are disagree with use of bioengineering in themselves because this would be like people creating people like God. However, would is it close the door of the future? Should people let their legacy for a better health? Throughout the human history had had a lot of discoveries and this had generated different opinions but to the end people accepted all these. Also, people never had been a real obstacle because scientist continue creating things that generate ethical problems. A society that thinks in welfare of other persons. I think that if the people wants to have success in human enhancement, changes in DNA, the people must be more equitable and people should think about other people and improve their self-esteem, also think this may be a discovery that improves the quality of life. Different ways of enhancement are possible. People can improve with ways that do not affect their health. For example if a person want to be better or want to their child is better, this person could learn better eating habits, to exercise or educated (Miah, 2016, paragraph 2). Before that I read the article I do not sure about the use of bioengineering or changes in DNA because I was thinking in ethical issues like if it was right or wrong. But after of read the article I think that it is good and the society should exploit this discover for good
things. This discover could cure a lot of person and change their appearance, all depend of people. I think that in human enhancement is very important to analyze and differentiate bad and good parts of these. Scientist always will create new ways to improve, therefore people must to be informed. I feel very good knowing that scientific information is shared so that everyone can analyze it and is also very good to know that these scientific advances can improve the life of people. This text is convincing about human enhancement not really by the examples or facts that it show because I think that should have more examples that show possible consequences or how people improve their life, it is convincing because introduce the argument with a background that show a general thoughts of people, they always try to improve themselves and show other ways like drugs and compare with these and obviously bioengineering will be better. In conclusion I think that human enhancement is good because this show us that we have desire to improve and want to be better, for this reason, people should investigate more and resolve all doubts because we talk about human life but without forgetting the original purpose or that is intended to be an improvement in the quality of life. Also I think that if people want to improve, they should choose the way of effort because they will feel that they reached it with their own means and will have a greater value, also they do not forget to put their health before success. And I believe that a good enhancement is possible with rules and managing from governments around the world that think about their health first. Finally, I think that is very important analyze these ways of improvement because they invite us to check our quality of life, help us to increase critical thinking and inform us about new technology and try that people accept these easier watching good points of these.
References Miah, A. (2016, September 8). The ethics of human enhancement. MIT Technology Review. Retrieved from, https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602342/the-ethics-of-human-enhancement/
Franco Romån L6-011 JAVENS P. 1/3 What is the meaning of smartness? Do you think that you are a smart people? Do you believe that technology will make you smart? In the last years technological things had increased around the world. It is possible with research of scientists. The scientists have been creating things that help us and simplify daily process. For this reason, there are cellphones, internet, computers or other things that try to help us. However, they do not think about the consequences that it could bring us, for example, if you use a camera and take pictures, you can lose details and decrease your attention. Thus, you can decrease your memory and capacity of paying attention. (Roberts, 2015, p. 5) or you can decrease your curiosity about anything (Coopersmith, 2016). I believe that smartness does not have a direct relation with memory, but smartness is the capacity to solve any problems. For this, I think that technology has a negative effect on our minds and technology decreases our capacity to solve problems. Creativity or memory. What is the real problem? An experiment completed in Fairfield University in 2003 showed that photographers remembered fewer details than a person that only saw a picture. (Roberts, 2015, p. 5). It shows us that memory is not the same as smartness because not all people that take a picture are dumb, probably they were focused in taking pictures and not in seeing the picture. It shows that technology distracts us. The creativity is so important because if a person reads a lot of books but this person can’t solve a problem, the knowledge is lost. The most important are the different ways that you can think to solve a problem.
Franco Román L6-011 JAVENS P. 2/3 Lack of interest affect our capacity to solve problems. For example, “the smartphone in your hand enables you to record a video, edit it and send it around the world.”(Coopersmith, 2016, p. 2). The scientist had achieved simplify a lot all daily process, but it affect our interest in to know how occur some process. The lack of interest could decrease people focused in specific things and this decreased development in many fields. And the lack of knowledge would achieve dumb people. Technology can help to focus in a specific thing, but is it good? For example, “One reason the United States won World War II was that draft boards kept some trained workers, engineers and scientists working on the home front instead of sending them to fight.” (Coopersmith, 2016, p. 8). Maybe to have people focused in specific thing is good, but the most important is to have people in all fields. People with specific and general knowledge is necessary to join many fields and get better results. In conclusion, technology has a negative effect in all people because it doesn’t allow that people can focus in a thing and they don’t do a good work. Also, the meaning of smartness could be interpreted of different ways depend of point of view. I think that technology should have limits to achieve better results.
Franco Romån L6-011 JAVENS P. 3/3 References Coopersmith, J. (2016). Is technology making us dumber or smarter? Yes. Texas: A&M University. Retrieved from, http://theconversation.com/is-technology-making-us-dumber-or-smarter-yes58124 Roberts, G. (2015). Google Effect: is technology making us stupid? Forrester’s Digital Transformation Report. Retrieved from, http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadget-and-tech/features/google-effectis-technology-making-us-stupid-10391564.html
Feelings Behind a Poem Franco Jeanpierre Román Barragán Jéssica Pamela Ñauñay Chicaiza Yachay Tech University
Feelings Behind a Poem “Poetry is plucking at the heartstrings, and making music with them.” -Dennis Gabor Have you ever read a poem that leaves you thinking? Do you believe that a poem could approach any kind of theme? According to Oxford Dictionary a poem is “a piece of writing in which the expression of feelings and ideas is given intensity by particular attention to diction (sometimes involving rhyme), rhythm, and imagery” (2016). Since the 3rd century until nowadays, there have been great poets who have marked the history of literature. For example, William Shakespeare with his famous poem “Sonnet XVII”, Oscar Wilde with “A vision”, and others. On this occasion, it is going to analyze a poem titled “The Human Abstract” by William Blake. BBC news stated he was born in London in 1757. In 1782 he married Catharine, who encouraged his in the world of poetry. At that time politics was chaotic and contradictory, and all these concerns are reflected in his poetic work (2014). “The Human Abstract” is part of the collection “Songs of Experience” published in 1794. This poem represents duality of life because it makes a contrasts between opposite things. Some examples about duality which we can find in our daily life are: good and evil, male and female, happy and sad, war and peace. These things are opposite, but at the same time one could not exist if the other does not exit either. First of all, the poem shows that the author think everything has its opposite, but at the same, they complement each other. For example, in the first stanza of the poem the author said “Pity would be no more, If we did not make somebody Poor: And Mercy no more could be, If all were as happy as we;” (Blake, 1794). This stanza shows that each cause has a consequence and everything has a reason to be. For example, in the case of
sadness. Sadness is only the absence of happiness and it is necessary that sadness exists for people to learn to appreciate those little moments of happiness. Another example in the poem about opposing things is the first verse of the second stanza which says “And mutual fear brings peace� (Blake, 1794). The author refers to the chaos that a society could have if people were not afraid of the laws that the government applies. The purpose of these laws is to bring peace to society. The author with this verse tries to get rid of the anguish he had when he saw that the society in which he is living was going through chaos. Finally, with the quotes of the poem, it is evident that in order for there to be harmony and nature is kept in balance, it is necessary that there are opposite things. Second, the symbolism behind animals and plants to show not only human being can be part of duality of life, it is always present in everything. In this poem there are a lot of words that have other meanings beyond conventional. Also, the poem is related with duality because it shows that animals and plants with different characteristics are part of same concept. Animals and plants form a single set and these two are necessary to understand the concept of duality. In animals there are caterpillar, fly, raven. All these have a metaphoric meaning. For example, caterpillar volition to improve and get changes. Fly could be interpreted like someone who is alert or that wait an opportunity, someone who is not trustworthy. Raven represents evil, darkness, death or bad omens. In plants there are tree, root, ground, sea, earth, and fruit. All these have a more explicit meaning. For example, tree refers to in what holds the precept or basis. Root represents ancestor or when something has settled on a site. Ground is like a basis where begin thoughts. Nest represents home, the place where all begin to live. Earth and sea represent all the planet. Third, the personification of nature showing links between human and the environment in which they lives. The duality is shown because in the poem it mixes objects with human characteristics or feelings and it achieve to give a meaning that is
easier to understand. Therefore, it demonstrates how duality is necessary to complement an idea. There are many phrases that mix humans with environment like “And waters the ground with tears” (Blake, 1794). The representation show how the ground interacts with tears. In this case these are like water necessary to grow, but have sad connotation. Also, this shows that despite of bad conditions always there is something capable of adapting or growing in it. Other example is the phrase “Then Humility takes its root Underneath his foot” (Blake, 1794). It shows the humility as corporeal thing because link with plants in form of roots. This phrase has relation with the previous one, and gives a message that despite of situation we are humble, perhaps as a quality or an imposition. The fourth stanza shows as two animals are interested in anything. Despite that have different natures they are affected by knowing something until the point of forgetting their differences, because curiosity is a phenomenon that goes beyond our resistance. Finally, the fifth stanza shows that often evil is involved in sweet layer to try cheat in this case how sweet fruit. Also, this says how a raven gets inside or hides in the tree like the raven felt the evil. In conclusion, this poem is about the duality of life. Although, there are opposites things in nature and they coexist to create a necessary balance for the development of life. In the poem there are specific symbolisms showing not only human beings are linked to this duality, but also the elements of nature such as plants and animals. In addition, the poem through the personification of the elements of nature, shows the direct connection that exists between the human being and nature. This is also a type of duality. Finally, if people broke the natural balance of things, life as we know it until now would be over. For this reason, people should not destroy the environment in which they are.
Bibliography BBC
History.
(2014).
History
Figures.
Retrieved
from:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/blake_william.shtml Elinzano, M. (2015). The 34 greatest poets of all time. Desert News. Retrieved from: http://www.deseretnews.com/top/3133/0/The-34-greatest-poets-of-all-time.html English Oxford Dictionaries. (2016). Definition of poem in English. Retrieved from: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/poem
Reasons to Support Effective Human Enhancement Franco Jeanpierre Romรกn Yachay Tech
Abstract Human enhancement is necessary for society to develop better, although some types of human enhancement have been seen like bad or so polemic as the use of bioengineering to change DNA or develop organs or the use of medicines that allow us to be better. These types of enhancement should be better analyzed to have possibilities of application. The correct use of these technologies can be of help to us and even increase our quality and quantity of life, if it is added elements like a correct education that allows us to complement an optimum physical and mental enhancement. Keywords: Human enhancement, DNA, bioengineering, medicines.
Reasons to Support Effective Human Enhancement Should humans try enhancement? One way of enhancement is modify your DNA. If you could, would you change your DNA or the DNA of your children? For example, “68% of Americans say they would be “very” or “somewhat” worried about using gene editing on healthy babies to reduce the infants’ risk of serious diseases or medical conditions”( Masci, 2016, p. 12 ). Why do people think that way? I believe that the majority of people have fear to try new things and they have not fear of changes in DNA. Society had tried to improve itself, for many reasons. But there is not only one way to achieve human enhancement. There are many ways to improve and many good ways and others and with different consequences, like education, practice sports, to eat healthy food, use of medicines or to use of bioengineering. (Miah, 2016). As there are different consequences or side effects, people see some as more debatable. Clear examples of these are bioengineering and the use of drugs for human enhancement. For example, bioengineering had achieved a lot of things like create artificial organs or change your genes for others (with best skills or with specific characters), (Miah, 2016). Use of drugs is debatable because it can be used to cure diseases or to improve your skills. I believe that people should understand, accept, and support research into debatable ways of human enhancements because they will ultimately lead to improvement in our quality of life. There are many reasons to support human enhancement and not all people are in opposition of all ways of human enhancement, thus here some important points. Bioengineering could be a key to change for human enhancement. For a long time, bioengineering has been seen as taboo, for many reasons. There are many examples that show good things about bioengineering. One example of how bioengineering can help us is the use of a device in the hypothalamus that improve our memory. The idea is to change short term memory for a long term memory. This device has already been tested on
animals obtaining good results and it has been tested in humans in initial steps. (Kyle, 2016) This fact has already been tested and apparently it has not negative effects. This device could achieve to eliminate diseases like Alzheimer. Other example is the use of method CRISPR-Cas9 “(short for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) to edit the DNA in adult cells with an eye toward creating breakthrough medical treatments. But CRISPR also can be used to edit embryos, where changes to the genome will subsequently spiral out into all of a person’s cells and be passed on to his or her offspring.�(Masci, 2016, p.2). This method is innovative and is greatly simplifying the process of change in DNA. This method has already been tested on many occasions, for example a human has already been treated, and a human with metastatic lung cancer was treated. Doctors removed a little part of his DNA, with the DNA removed they make tests and they modify a part of DNA that provoke that carcinogenic cells can increase, they eliminated this part of DNA and put new parts (modifying DNA) to inhibit the increasing of these cells and that treat to fight with cancer until it is eliminated, so far the patient has progressed favorably and is expected to be successful. (Abas, 2016). If scientist can modify DNA or create artificial organs, it improve quality of life and improve next generations of humans. Other important way of human enhancement that is so debatable is the use of medicines that could be seen like drugs in human body. Use of medicines to improve human conditions could be a fundamental step that allow to change conditions and eliminate diseases in the future. If somebody will talk about use of medicines it should make a classification. First, some people are against the use of dietary supplements, but these are very productive and have surely gone through several standards which allows them to be over-the-counter in many cases. Besides these have many benefits as they complement our food with some nutrients that are difficult to
consume and are very necessary as “multivitamins, calcium and vitamins B, C and D. Calcium supports bone health, and vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium. Vitamins C and E are antioxidants—molecules that prevent cell damage and help to maintain health.”(Newsinhealth, 2013, p. 9). This is another form of human improvement as it could help us to be healthier and reduce the proliferation of diseases. Second, people need to differentiate between drugs like steroids and drugs like pills for specific health problem both provoke human enhancement. However, there are cases that be a mixture of both, for example a drug (modafinil or Provigil) that is approved to a specific health problem like fatigue caused by narcolepsy (Greely, et al., 2008), and however this drug can be used to keep people awake in extreme situations, but without abuse of this drugs. Like this case there are many that besides helping in a problem sick and healthy people are helped to improve their abilities, for example “The drugs most commonly used for cognitive enhancement at present are stimulants, namely Ritalin (methyphenidate) and Adderall (mixed amphetamine salts), and are prescribed mainly for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).” (Greely, et al., 2008). Better conditions and eliminate diseases through medicines is good and is part of human enhancement, for example there are medicines that help us more healthy or take all nutrients, and not all medicines for enhancement are drugs. Medicine like supplements are necessary because they help us to have better health. Other important point about human enhancement is education, however it is not so debatable because the most of people are in favor of education. But, really does people make something for education? Education is the basis to a good human enhancement. Education is very important for human improvement since it allows us to develop better in our environment and better understand what happens, because not all the improvement is in the physical part but also
in the mental part as discussed above. Therefore a greater degree of education allows us to discern better and even think about whether to perform other forms of improvement. A clear example of how education can change our lives is that of the Asian tigers, they in the seventies but they changed their economy and based it on education and are now world powers. (Chandra, 2014, p. 10).For all this we can be sure that a correct education is one of the most relevant aspects. Are people doing good things if people abuse of animals to make investigation to human enhancement? Many research is currently being done to improve our human condition to make us feel better. The problem that animals use in these investigations is the mistreatment they receive and it is also a danger to our minds how we treat living beings in a very inhuman way. According to the video called “It's time to question bioengineering� people should maintain a contrary position and resist about changes in DNA, because these are bad because they seek personal benefits and provoke harm and dehumanizing society. The author argues that the technology had advanced to the point of being able to manipulate animals to allow us to give them special characteristics to our benefit. For example, bigger fish, hybridize species such as a mixture between animals, for example zorse that is a mixture between a zebra and horse or ligre that is mixture between lion and tiger, it has also been possible to modify animals to they produce some materials, for example some goats had been modified to produce antithrombin. (Wolpe, 2010). I believe that despite this we must defend the use of these technologies in the improvement. The author gives us clear examples of some uses that have been given to genetic manipulation, but not all of this is for the direct benefit of society. For example with hybridizations has been reborn to animals that were almost extinct as the ligre. (Wolpe, 2010). Also the changes in the DNA have helped us to improve the productivity and with
this to increase the amount of food available for the whole world. With the modification in the animals for the production of certain substances it is possible to reduce the industrialization of certain processes and therefore the pollution in the planet. All this must be taken in a framework of respect and good treatment without overexploiting the animals, giving them a good conditions. Also, the other point of view is that the scientist don’t treat a person like animals (with this I do not want to say that they deserve a differential treatment, humans would be submitting to the same experiments but you should have a little more care), also in the video we can see a lot of genetic changes and it show that it was successful and it open minds about the uses that we can give. In conclusion, elements such as bioengineering, use of medicines or to have an effective education that could support human improvement and these conditions are useful to more than those already known, such as having good nutrition or do exercise. Should be taken into account as it can improve the current conditions of life and those of future generations because for example, if person has a health problem and the person want an organ, it can replace with artificial organs and if person have a hereditary disease, you could change your genes or genes of your children and prevent problems in the future. Society always seeks to solve its problems and for this we must accept new ways that allow this. To achieve an effective human improvement we must deal with aspects such as the use of medicine or genetic modification with caution since it would be very easy to go from an improvement to an abuse of these. Human Enhancement is a possible support to improve society, a point of view that depends of each person. Some people say that it is right and others say that is wrong. The real challenge is to try to change the old mentality that we have and open the way to technology that allows us to have a better quality of life and if it is possible to increase it too.
Reference Page Abas, M. (2016). CRISPR method of gene editing used on a human cancer patient for the first time. Retrieved from, http://www.themanitoban.com/2016/11/crispr-method-of-gene-editing-used-on-ahuman-cancer-patient-for-the-first-time/29975/ Chandra, S. (2014). Developing Education and Human Resources in East Asian Knowledge-based Economies. Ritsumeikan International Affairs Vol.12, pp.39–60. Greely, H., Sahakian, B., Harris, J., Kessler R., Gazzaniga, M., Campbell, P. & Farah, M. (2008). Towards responsible use of cognitive enhancing drugs by the healthy. Nature, 456, 702-705. doi: 10.1038/456702a Kyle, S. (2016). Scientists are developing brain prosthesis to enhance human memory. TheTechNews. Retrieved from, http://thetechnews.com/2016/12/04/scientists-are-developing-brain-prosthesis-toenhance-human-memory/ Masci, D. (2016). Human Enhancement. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. Retrieved 20 October 20 2016, from http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/07/26/human-enhancement-the-scientific-and-ethicaldimensions-of-striving-for-perfection/ Masci, D. (2016). Many Americans are wary of using gene editing for human enhancement. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from, http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/08/26/many-americans-are-wary-of-usinggene-editing-for-human-enhancement/
Miah, A. (2016). The Ethics of Human Enhancement. MIT Technology Review. Retrieved from, https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602342/the-ethics-of-human-enhancement/ Newsinhealth. (2013). Should You Take Dietary Supplements? - NIH News in Health. Retrieved from, https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/aug2013/feature1 Wolpe, P. (2010). It's time to question bio-engineering. Ted.com. Retrieved 11 November, from https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_root_wolpe_it_s_time_to_question_bio_engineering?la nguage=en