Brain Power of Cog? Cog’s brain equivalent to 64 Mac Two in parallel architecture. Cog has a tiny brain. As of 2003, all development of the project had ceased. Some Philosophical Considerations: Symbol grounding problem is related to the problem of how words (symbols) get their meanings, and hence to the problem of what meaning itself really is. Symbols not grounded in the real world. This same issue applies philosophically to our own language. What is the genuine existential sense of Chicago for a young child, for an adult who has never visited, for resident of Chicago? Response: Real World. Would nothing matter to Cog? Who is to say that Cog would not some day feel pain or pleasure if it has mirror feedbacks and response that mimic other forms of more simple ‘life’. If Cog is conscious, we would need to believe it about its internal states. Gums, Germs, and Steel To approach Guns, Germs, and Steel properly, we need to first look at the question that drove the author to undertake such a project. In 1972 while in New Guinea studying bird evolution, Diamond happened to meet with a local politician named Yali. This man raised the question of why there is such discrepancy in the wealth and technological advancements between the various societies of the world. Of course, this question brings up some controversial issues, such as racial and ethnic differences. Some people have in the past explained the difference in achievement by assuming that European, Asian, and North
Many geographers have attempted creating a unified theory explaining why cultures advance much more readily than others. Very few have actually reached mainstream society and even fewer seem reasonable. However, Jared Diamond shines where most do not. His book, Guns, Germs, and Steel, proposes an idea that has long been established called environmental determinism. Most view environmental determinism as a racist theory attributing a peoples’ intelligence only to their oppressive climates and geographical barriers. Diamond instead has created a theory that applies environmental determinism to only a peoples’ technology—not the people themselves. This has given researchers valuable tools that allow them to explain why some nations have
Jared Diamond discusses the reasons why geographical and environmental factors lead to a more rapid progression of certain civilizations throughout history. The book Guns, Germs and Steel portrays an argument that due to some societies’ access to an area witch contains sufficient amounts of wildlife and climates that are easily inhabitable, these societies developed into more advanced ways of living much easier and also earlier than societies who lacked these geographical attributes. These beneficial geographical attributes promoted the growth of technological improvements in weapons, religion, and farming.
Howard, T.G. (2010). Why Race and Culture Matter in Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap in
According to page 103, “The people of areas with a head start on food production thereby gained a head start on the path leading towards guns, germs and steel.”
Moreover, that gap is steadily growing. In addition, the rankings are worse among people of color who are still largely educated in segregated and ill-equipped school systems. With regards to reading, the United States fares better—primarily because of focused efforts on building literacy and improving teacher preparation in reading for comprehension and learning styles.
There are many reasons for educational underachievement and it has been said that ethnicity is one of these key factors. It has been found that Indian and Asian pupils are of higher educational achievement than White, African-Caribbean, and Black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi pupils.
Diamond argues that civilization arose from regions that were susceptible the domestication of both plants and large mammals to plow fields. This combination vastly increased food production, which in turn supported larger populations. From there, it's the standard political economy story about the positive feedback loop of prosperity and social complexity favoring the evolution of more complex forms of social organization, specialization, increased technical innovation, etc. This is the Guns and Steel part of the story.
For instance, eighty-one percent of Asian Americans, and seventy-one percent of Caucasian Americans have access to advanced courses such as algebra, biology, and chemistry; compared to fifty-seven percent of African Americans (USDE_OCR,
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, by Jared Diamond, attempts to explain why history progressed differently for people from various geographical regions. Diamond introduces his book by pointing out that history followed different courses for different people because of differences among peoples’ environments, not because of biological differences among people themselves. Through his convincing explanation for how civilizations were created and evolved throughout the course of history, he argues that environmental factors gave some societies advantages over others, allowing them to conquer the disadvantaged societies. While I agree with Diamond’s argument that the orientation of continental axis, availability of potential
The “gap” as referred to in the title, is the distribution of the scores on achievement tests that differ between black and white students in the United States. The purpose of this study was to record the degree of the gap in achievement scores, decide how much of the racial gap is due to social-class, how the gap differed in the 30-year period, and how that which is credited to the social-class has changed over the years.
I first read Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel in the Fall 2003 based on a recommendation from a friend. Many chapters of the book are truly fascinating, but I had criticisms of the book back then and hold even more now. Chief among these is the preponderance of analysis devoted to Papua New Guinea, as opposed to, say, an explanation of the greatly disparate levels of wealth and development among Eurasian nations. I will therefore attempt to confine this review on the "meat and potatoes" of his book: the dramatic Spanish conquest of the Incas; the impact of continental geography on food production; and finally, the origins of the Eurasian development of guns, germs, and steel. In terms of structure, I will first summarize the
Very often bright students don not consider their academic abilities high, because comparing not individually, but as a group in whole. That’s why very often there is a stereotype that Blacks are poorer educated than Whites. There are several reasons for that. First of all the root of such difference lies in constant racial segregation of African Americans from the rest of the population, which led to obvious differences in education. Historically, African American students never had the same educational opportunities as White students and, therefore, started out at a different place altogether. African Americans began with a system that banned their participation altogether and that later provided limited access, but only as a matter of law, not as a commonly accepted practice. Although, presently, legal restrictions on access to schooling and higher education have been lifted, the remnants of racism still exist at the very core of the schooling
Movies are complex and intricate pieces of art. Most viewers only are concerned with the story and plot of the movie, completely overlooking the nuances of the set and camera angles. So much thought and work goes into making a movie that goes unnoticed for the most part. Camera angles and distance, sound, lighting, and editing all add as much, if not more, to the story as the plot itself does. Sound is one of the most obvious elements of a movie, in X-Men: Days of Future Past, nearly every second the movie emits some kind of sound.
Although Animal Farm does not have any heroic characters, in the story there is a death of a supporting character. The death of a supporting character neither glorifies nor diminishes the supporting character to anything more or less significant. All characters, whether they are the major characters or even a minor, supporting character, they all do not have a complete story. There are no completely round characters in literature. Characters die; characters exist, simply for the sake of the plot, not so that the reader would know the life story of each and every character.
Through my lifetime, I have not had extensive exposure to the idea of a being with disabilities, which may or may not have changed my stance on this subject. This being true, I am approaching this assignment with a very scientific view, occasionally dealing with ethics, and with what the whole of society. In recent years, the use of biotechnology to alter human DNA has gathered heat and controversy due to the creation of procedures and systems such as TALENS, CRISPR, and In-Vitro Fertilization, which I will reference within this essay. Biotechnology should not be used to alter human DNA because gene therapy is unsafe, unethical, changes genetic diversity, and there is no way of stopping the churning of gears in the scientific mind once it craves