Future Reaction

         Being swallowed by a cryogenic containment capsule set for a thousand years then coughed up in world where your friends (if you have any) and family have all turned to dust or ashes must be terrifying. But not for our young hero Fry. Ladies and gentlemen, the first episode of Futurama by Matt Groening, whose head was seen in the head museum in the episode. Did you see it? Now that’s first-rate American humor. Anyway I have some points to discuss so I’ll just get on with it.

           Wait! Before that, I have to answer the guide questions! Here we go. The series predicts a great advance in science and technology. It shows us a future world where most of the things we thought were scientifically impossible as of the current moment exists. Even time travel existed in that world, but time travel with the use of cryogenics. In that world, there probably is a time machine, but in the first episode the only method disclosed was through the icy capsule which accidentally caught Fry. The time travel was also only forward into the future, with no method of reversing the time push.

          Numero uno! Cryogenic containment is a wonderful idea but I seem to get a bad feel about it. I am not really knowledgeable when it comes to recent discoveries and breakthroughs in the field of cryogenics, but I think this still isn’t possible for humans. And of course, experimenting on humans is taboo, thanks to the ethical code of the scientific community. But of course, someone, somewhere may already have experimented with storing people in icy graves, I mean storages, and obviously the results wouldn’t be published. We can’t disregard the possibility of that after all. Anyway, if they manage to turn people into blocks of ice at temperatures hovering just above, really just a little above absolute zero and not deal any damage to the body, we may be able to do it. You know, since by the second law of thermodynamics, all things go into entropy, and in our version, we turn into dust. But if there is no or an insignificant amount of energy present in the system, the flow into entropy would be disrupted, therefore retaining the form of the object or being for as long as the temperature is held constant. Well that’s just my theory on how they would probably do it. It’s difficult trying to trust third-rate writers like me on this, but if you’re convinced by the explanation, you’re welcome to do so. Anyway since we’re on this topic, if you have time, watch “Forever Young” by Mel Gibson, I think. He’s a soldier that got frozen in a cryogenic chamber and he was accidentally freed by some kids playing in the worn-out facility where he was in. Must-watch, I guess, so I won’t spoil it too much.

        How would you feel if you were forced to be in a line of work that you don’t really like? Living every day would probably suck and the masses would probably strive to build a true communist community. Anyway, one of the things we’ve seen in the first episode of Futurama was the machine that determined a person’s occupation, based on god knows what. It probably chooses the job where you’d be most efficient at by, again, god knows what criteria it is. Looking at our current society which is strongly and comfortably seated in the house of our lord Capitalism, *scoffs*, it would seem to be a good idea to create that sort of machine in order to increase efficiency in order to have more and more and more of everything. It doesn’t care about concept of true happiness. It only makes people serve under it and bring it more of everything by brainwashing people into thinking that by having more of the things they want, they will be happy. Which we all know is a whole load of smelly bolus. Greed is the primary value. Okay enough with the socio-economic analysis thingy. There’s also this anime called Psycho Pass. In that anime’s world, people’s potentials and aptitudes are measured by a colossal mainframe supercomputer, then it sends them off into their designated niches according to the results of the supercomputer’s analysis. A person’s possible occupation is not limited to only one though. If a person’s skills and potentials line up with one or more departments, then a person can choose which one he or she prefers, though there is always an optimum selection, according to the algorithm that supercomputer is using. Sometimes though there people who are labeled as good-for-nothings by the supercomputer. Quite harsh isn’t it? If a supercomputer like this were to exist in contemporary society and the people were forced to obey without question, chaos would ensue. Definitely. Technologies like that should probably be created but only as a guide, not as a definite path that a person should follow. We shouldn’t dictate the wills and the hearts of people. If someone should do so, they should be labeled as corrupted demons. Maybe I’m being too judgmental, but it is common sense right? Unless, of course, you’re a sociopath.

          With all things said and done, the aforementioned technologies might actually be realized in the future. Science and technology has been shifting its focus time and again, so there will be a time when the need would rise for these technologies, and therefore they would be invented. Though probably not how we would imagine it. With science, things are usually easier said than done, since well, there’s a cost attached to the doing part. But hey, who knows? The future might probably look like the one presented in Futurama. I don’t prefer having aliens as colleagues though. Not being racist here, just individual differences considered. But again, who knows, they may be walking among us, as we speak…

John Paul N. Ada

2010-46567