Author: Jeremy

Realest in the game
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First Draft of Literacy Narrative

Growing up reading wasn’t always my thing, but I wasn’t necessarily bad at it either. In fact, when I first started to learn how to read, I was one of the best in my class if not the best. I don’t mean to brag but it is just weird to think that at one point I was pretty invested in reading and would eventually lose my drive for it. I don’t even remember how it happened to be completely honest. All I know was I lost interest in what I was reading at the time and almost gave up on the whole thing as a whole. 

In pre-K I had always enjoyed reading Dr. Suess and books of that sort. As I went up in grades, I was always able to find a book series that I liked. Some of these were Geronimo Stilton and Captain Underpants. I guess I liked these because they were fictional, and the characters would do things that I couldn’t, so I saw it as an escape from the real world. But eventually this enjoyment would come to an end. Fourth grade was where I first started to stop enjoying my reading. I would fill my reading log in and just skim the pages or read the back so I could have a general understand of what the book was about. Even though my teacher never really checked up on me to see if I was doing the readings or not my reading level didn’t decline. I got away with not doing the work and moved on to the next year.  

Once I got to the fifth grade, I really didn’t like reading at all. This wasn’t because I couldn’t read or anything of that sort. It was because the books I was required to read started to have less and less pictures in them. For me personally I took this as some more work to do. I liked the pictures because they helped me envision what was going on in the story. It helped with my imagination and believing that some things in the story might actually be possible. That wasn’t the only reason why I chose not to read though. I did get lazy and decide that I only wanted to read books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and ridiculous books like that. My teacher eventually banned us from counting those books to our reading hours. By then I had almost given up completely. It eventually got to the point where I wouldn’t read books and just lied and said I did. I was in need of some big help if I was to ever like reading again. 

My teacher eventually caught on so one day she sat me down and asked me what things interested me. I don’t really remember what I said I did and didn’t like but she told me stay where I was and returned a few minutes later with a book in her hand. This book was titled the Lightning Thief. I still remembered when I first saw the book. I was confused because I thought the cover looked boring and I didn’t want to read it at all. This was a series about a boy who was a demi-god and had to return Zeus’s thunderbolt back to Mount Olympus in order to save the world. I ended up falling in love with the series and I was so happy I had found it. I think it was because I felt like I could personally relate to the character since he was from New York City just like me.  

If I’m being honest, my opinion on reading itself didn’t change. But I knew that if I found a book that I liked or a character I could relate to then I wouldn’t mind reading at all. I learned to be more open when reading and not give up on a book after the first 10 pages. Of course, there would occasionally be a book that I didn’t like but I’m glad my teacher sat me down that day and showed me how to appreciate reading again.

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Literacy Narrative Sketch 3

By the time I got to high school I didn’t really read much at all. Readings would get assigned and I would just let the book collect dust or just read the SparkNotes to get by in the class. Once I reached my senior year, I was able to choose my English class. I noticed that there was a class with the title Sports Heroes. This class immediately called my name. Sports was always something I could relate to and I figured that if I took this class then I would be able to understand the characters situations and relate to them. The class was also with one of my favorite teachers so that was a bonus. I ended up doing the best I had ever done in English. I never missed a reading assignment, I got 100’s on all the reading quizzes and I even got an A on the final paper. This taught me many things. First, I knew that I was capable of doing all the work in any English class and that I needed to take this mindset into my future classes. It also reminded me that if I were to find something that I liked reading then I would be successful. I am glad I took that class because from then on, I tried to put that same effort in all my classes, and it helped me a ton.

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Literacy Narrative Sketch 2

Once I got to the fifth grade, I really didn’t like reading at all. This wasn’t because I couldn’t read or anything of that sort. It was because the books I was required to read started to have less and less pictures in them. For me personally I took this as some more work to do. I liked the pictures because they helped me envision what was going on in the story. It eventually got to the point where I wouldn’t read books and just lied and said I did. My teacher eventually caught on so one day she sat me down and asked me what I liked. I don’t really remember what I said I didn’t like but she eventually came back with The Lightning Thief.  I still remembered when I first saw the book. I was confused because I thought the cover looked boring and I didn’t want to read it at all. This was a series about a boy who was a demi-god and had to return Zeus’s thunderbolt back to Mount Olympus in order to save the world. I ended up falling in love with the series and I was so happy I had found it. I think it was because I felt like I could personally relate to the character since he was from New York City just like me. From then on, my opinion on reading itself didn’t change. But I knew that if I found a book that I liked then I wouldn’t mind reading at all. 

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Angela Davis Talk

When I heard Angela Davis was coming to campus, I knew she’d bring many of her beliefs and opinions with her. I was excited to see where she would take her talk and what specific ideas she would mention throughout. She mentioned a lot of the history during the early to mid 1900’s and the struggles that she as well as countless other had to endure. She also did not fail to mention about how Dr. Martin Luther King gave a speech on our campus many years ago. I wish that I attended UNE during that time because who knows the things he talked about and the stories he shared that day of his personal trials and tribulations. Angela did not fail to mention the positive ways in which our country has moved forward since the segregation period. She talked about how our country currently has more women in congress than ever before and how she personally saw this change happen over her lifetime. Angela went even more in depth on Women’s rights and when talking she said some quotes that interested me. One was “we shouldn’t say black lives matter, we should say all lives matter.” Personally, I know many that wouldn’t agree with this quote. This is because they feel that minorities, Blacks and Hispanics in particular, are targeted and not put into the same situations for success as others receive. While I don’t disagree with what Angela said I do believe that sometimes it is harder to be successful in my shoes than it is for some of my other friends. Another thing Angela mentioned was that people who go to prison become more violent when in prison. I once read somewhere that it costs more to keep an individual in prison than to send a youngin to school. I think we should shift our focus from all about keeping the country “safe” to educating our young citizens. The more educated we are as a people to more we can continue to walk in the right direction. I am thankful that I got to witness such a great speech and I hope we can continue to bring individual such as Angela Davis back on campus. 

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Literacy Narrative Sketch 1

I don’t remember not being able to read I just know I learned how to read when I was three years old. My grandmother told me a story about how I used to turn on the computer in the house and read things off the screen. I was really just going on to play games but I would read words like loading and occasionally some of the dialogue that characters used in the game that I was playing. It used to amaze her from what I have been told. Even though I don’t recall that specific memory I do remember some of the process I went through in learning how to read. My teachers Ms. White and Ms. Williams taught me how to read. I remember when I was in Pre K we would all sit on the carpet and read a book as a class. Some of these books I can still recall the names of like Miss Wishy Washy or The cat in the hat. We would also put up flash cards of words, colors, numbers and other things to help with our vocabulary. Another thing I remember using is a phonics book. I enjoyed doing activities I this book because I felt like I was learning which I clearly was. Sometimes I wish I could go back to those days because I felt like I picked up on things a lot faster than my classmates did. This memory is important to me because I was able to improve myself in a certain category and I even received a reward for being the best male reader in my class at the end of the year. I made my mother proud which is something I still strive to do till this day and that is probably the earliest recollection I have of it.

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Final Habits Essay

Jeremy Diaz 

Eric Drown 

English 122 

November 28, 2018 

English 122 

Coming from high school I believed every paper needed to have an introduction, three body paragraphs and a conclusion. I also thought it needed a formal introduction that would lead its way into the main thesis which would be stated at the end of the introduction. These were the things my teachers in high school had taught me, so it was what I began to start my first paper with. Entering my first class of English I was a little nervous. I thought that I would have to increase the vocabulary in my papers and write a lot more than I did in high school. I eventually learned when reading Habits of the Creative Mind that I would have to “unlearn old habits” and instead just write. The reason why I had to unlearn these habits was because they hindered my ability to get my opinions across as well as begin to learn more when reading and writing. By cutting these habits out I began to feel freer when writing. I also learned that summary of an article or story is a good thing to integrate into papers. It provides the reader with more background and helps with allowing them to form their own opinion.  

Habits of the Creative Mind also taught me about note taking. Habits states “you will begin to write about stuff you don’t know about” (23) when note taking while reading. At first, I didn’t understand how this would help me, but I did it anyway. I eventually realized that because I was taking notes, I was processing the information I was reading and translating it onto paper. Because of this I didn’t have to go back and dig through an article for quotes and it was much more efficient when writing my paper.  

In Habits of the Creative Mind it mentioned working on 7 habits. “The best writing develops from the exercise of habits of the mind that include curiosity, creativity, attentiveness, openness to new ideas, persistence, flexibility and reflectiveness” (1). I found myself using all of these throughout the semester within the different projects and essays I’ve written. My curiosity has grown when exploring new topics. I’ve learned that there are no boundaries to where I can go in order to get my questions answered or formulate a new question. My creativity when writing has always been pretty good, but I’ve recently been adding a lot of personal experience into my paper which was something I wasn’t allowed to do in high school, and this has allowed me to be more creative with my papers. Being attentive is another skill I found I needed to be successful. When writing papers is when I found this skill most useful. I wrote in one of my let’s write entries “I found working on the paper easier when I would turn off my phone and just work for 20 minutes.” When doing this I felt like I was being very productive and the material I was producing was better. Due to this I was able to edit my papers better during the drafting process because I was focused on issues that I wanted to change and comments left by my classmates. In this class we have read many articles, and this has allowed me to improve my openness to new ideas. I was introduced to so many different points of view that if I didn’t expand my openness my paper would suffer. Though I have gotten a little lazy at times over the term I have also learned to be persistent with my work. I know that if I push myself and stay motivated while trying the best I can then my product will result in something good. My flexibility was also improved in this course. I’ve always had to write about books I’ve read in class when I was in high school. In this course I was able to explore other topics that I liked and some I’ve never read about. This made the class a lot more fun and helped with my learning experience. Lastly, I have truly learned to reflect on my own work and find ways to improve so I am never content with where my work is currently at. There is always room to improve and things to work on.  

When going through a couple of my journal entries from throughout the term I can see how I have progressed over the semester. I can see how in the beginning of school year I looked at things one way. When working on prompts I had a lot of similar responses to things. I also learned to give my opinion on some of the prompts. I found myself saying things like “I hated working on formulating a question.” I also said “the first essay was more enjoyable” when talking about expanding on a question.  I can see how my work and ideas have progressed over the term and didn’t realize this until now. While I have come this far there is still more room to grow. 

PART 2 

When writing the Pollan and Singer essay the biggest thing I struggled with was establishing points of view. When Pollan would introduce a new opinion like Descartes I would think that he was the one arguing that point. Through writing lab and working with Meghan I was able to establish who was saying what and clean it up to the best of my ability. I really enjoyed writing this paper because it allowed me to read someone else’s body of work, watch them formulate their own opinion on the subject and then find my own opinion as well. Another thing that was challenging about writing this paper was not closing off an argument even if it sounded ridiculous. Peter Singer argued “eating animals was immoral.” Though I found this argument was laughable I knew I had to read it and try to understand it in order to produce the best essay and formulate a proper final opinion on the topic.  

When writing to a question I struggled specifically finding what question I wanted to write to at first. I originally had put one question and then when writing began to answer another. In a way this was good because the original question I wrote sparked my idea to see if there was a way to convince people to change their eating habits since the fast food restaurants won’t change what they put in the food. I formulated a strong opinion against fast food restaurants by trying to see if there was any way they would change their menus. Upon realizing that they wouldn’t I knew that we must boycott these restaurants for the safety of our health. I learned that I need to use they say/I say in order to get a variety of vocabulary. They say/I say emphasizes this when talking about signal verbs. “Try to avoid bland formulas like she says or they believe.”(39). They say/ I say contained a lot of templates with information like this that I wish I used more. One of these templates are titled “Templates for introducing quotes” (47) which is a template I used a few times and wish to use more in the future. If I used these more often, I knew my writing would have been increased.  

My least favorite essay to write was the creative reading. Even though I found the research part very interesting once I started writing I found it difficult to stay focused on one topic. I was writing about the Unabomber and eventually worked my way to robots that can run and jump just like humans. Eventually, I was able to connect everything and say that if robots were to take control of themselves the Unabomber’s efforts would be justified by the robot’s actions if they were to create chaos. Another thing I struggled to integrate into my essay was quotes from the different articles I went through.  

My largest areas of growth in this course was being more comfortable with writing. I was so used to structured writing that I wasn’t able to use the skills I acquired during the course. One of the skills that I got really good at was annotating. I used to just underline things that I thought was important and that was it. This semester I learned that I needed to write my opinions on things I used that I read in the margins because every time I would go back to the article then I could incorporate my thoughts into the essay. This allowed me to improve my writing because when I used my own feelings, I felt more interested into the writing I was doing. 

My smallest area of growth was probably trying to write a good question or thesis statement. Even though I was able to produce a decent essay most of the time I still think that I trouble to find exactly what I want to write about. I saw it specifically when I was writing the essay about fast food when I was trying to choose a question to write to. One point I will be answering to the fast food chain owners and then at another point I would be talking to the costumers eating there. I realize that maybe I should plan out my essay and pull evidence from what I’m going to use in order to have everything organized. 

The new ideas I was introduced to was critiquing own and others work. In the rubric it says that a good critic “suggests different evidence for use” and “assessing the accuracy of a writer’s statement.” These were things that I was never to exposed to in high school when peer editing. Usually I would just check for grammar and formatting errors for the most part. Now
I know how I can help my peers to the fullest and give the good feedback as well. 

 

PART 3 

I learned a lot more about writing in general this semester. I used to hate writing because I felt like my work wasn’t up to par with the teacher’s standards. I also wasn’t receiving the right feedback in high school that I was given in this course. Not only did I get feedback from my classmates, but I also received daily comments from the teacher and writing lab instructor. These comments guided me in the right direction whenever I had to write a paper and allowed me to produce some of my best work. What I learned about myself this term is that when I am focused on my work, I produce work that’s just as good as anyone’s. But when I’m not focused my work is bad and it seems rushed when being read. I also learned that in order to be successful in the future I must take all the keys I acquired this semester with me into my next class. I remember when I was writing a paper and I started the introduction off with a topic sentence instead of just flowing into what I was reading and formulating a question. I read the comment Eric left on my first draft and worked through this problem with Meghan in writing lab so my paper would sound more natural. Some more things I personally feel I could work on is my work ethic, integrating more quotes and always relating back to the original text. My work ethic has always been just trying to get by and get decent grades. I noticed that when I really lock in and try my best then my work begins to stand out. I’m hoping that next semester in my new English class I will be able to not get lazy and give my full effort. I also want to work on integrating more quotes when writing my papers. This is because when I write my paper, I tend to recall examples or things people said in an article or a book, but I won’t quote it. I feel like I were to look back at the annotations I took on these articles I could not only include more quotes but place them in the right spaces so that they fit in the essay better. The last thing I really hope to get better at is relating back to the text. When writing a paper, I find myself going on a journey from point A to point B. There isn’t a problem with this I just feel like it would be better if I was relating back to the text continuously so the reader would know why I was there. I think two of the things I do best that the Engaged Learner Rubric mentions are “preparing for class consistently” and “seeking and accepting constructive feedback and criticism.” I’ve had my work ready for pretty much every class except for the week my laptop had broken. I think it’s important to be prepared for class so that way you can ask the questions you want and get the help you need. This leads into seeking and accepting constructive feedback. When you are prepared you will get feedback on your work and in order to improve you have to be willing to accept it and learn from it.

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part 3 of habits essay due 11/3/2018

I learned a lot more about writing in general this semester. I used to hate writing because I felt like my work wasn’t up to par with the teacher’s standards. I also wasn’t receiving the right feedback in high school that I was given in this course. Not only did I get feedback from my classmates, but I also received daily comments from the teacher and writing lab instructor. These comments guided me in the right direction whenever I had to write a paper and allowed me to produce some of my best work. What I learned about myself this term is that when I am focused on my work, I produce work that’s just as good as anyone’s. But when I’m not focused my work is bad and it seems rushed when being read. I also learned that in order to be successful in the future I must take all the keys I acquired this semester with me into my next class. I remember when I was writing a paper and I started the introduction off with a topic sentence instead of just flowing into what I was reading and formulating a question. I read the comment Eric left on my first draft and worked through this problem with Meghan in writing lab so my paper would sound more natural. Some more things I personally feel I could work on is my work ethic, integrating more quotes and always relating back to the original text. My work ethic has always been just trying to get by and get decent grades. I noticed that when I really lock in and try my best then my work begins to stand out. I’m hoping that next semester in my new English class I will be able to not get lazy and give my full effort. I also want to work on integrating more quotes when writing my papers. This is because when I write my paper, I tend to recall examples or things people said in an article or a book, but I won’t quote it. I feel like I were to look back at the annotations I took on these articles I could not only include more quotes but place them in the right spaces so that they fit in the essay better. The last thing I really hope to get better at is relating back to the text. When writing a paper, I find myself going on a journey from point A to point B. There isn’t a problem with this I just feel like it would be better if I was relating back to the text continuously so the reader would know why I was there. I think two of the things I do best that the Engaged Learner Rubric mentions are “preparing for class consistently” and “seeking and accepting constructive feedback and criticism.” I’ve had my work ready for pretty much every class except for the week my laptop had broken. I think it’s important to be prepared for class so that way you can ask the questions you want and get the help you need. This leads into seeking and accepting constructive feedback. When you are prepared you will get feedback on your work and in order to improve you have to be willing to accept it and learn from it.

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essay hw due 11/30/2018

When writing the Pollan and Singer essay the biggest thing I struggled with was establishing points of view. When Pollan would introduce a new opinion like Descartes I would think that he was the one arguing that point. Through writing lab and working with Meghan I was able to establish who was saying what and clean it up to the best of my ability. I really enjoyed writing this paper because it allowed me to read someone else’s body of work, watch them formulate their own opinion on the subject and then find my own opinion as well. Another thing that was challenging about writing this paper was not closing off an argument even if it sounded ridiculous. Peter Singer argued “eating animals was immoral.” Though I found this argument was laughable I knew I had to read it and try to understand it in order to produce the best essay and formulate a proper final opinion on the topic.  

When writing to a question I struggled specifically finding what question I wanted to write to at first. I originally had put one question and then when writing began to answer another. In a way this was good because the original question I wrote sparked my idea to see if there was a way to convince people to change their eating habits since the fast food restaurants won’t change what they put in the food. I formulated a strong opinion against fast food restaurants by trying to see if there was any way they would change their menus. Upon realizing that they wouldn’t I knew that we must boycott these restaurants for the safety of our health. I learned that I need to use they say/I say in order to get a variety of vocabulary.  

My least favorite essay to write was the creative reading. Even though I found the research part very interesting once I started writing I found it difficult to stay focused on one topic. I was writing about the Unabomber and eventually worked my way to robots that can run and jump just like humans. Eventually, I was able to connect everything and say that if robots were to take control of themselves the Unabomber’s efforts would be justified by the robot’s actions if they were to create chaos. Another thing I struggled to integrate into my essay was quotes from the different articles I went through.  

My largest areas of growth in this course was being more comfortable with writing. I was so used to structured writing that I wasn’t able to use the skills I acquired during the course. One of the skills that I got really good at was annotating. I used to just underline things that I thought was important and that was it. This semester I learned that I needed to write my opinions on things I used that I read in the margins because every time I would go back to the article then I could incorporate my thoughts into the essay. This allowed me to improve my writing because when I used my own feelings, I felt more interested into the writing I was doing. 

My smallest area of growth was probably trying to write a good question or thesis statement. Even though I was able to produce a decent essay most of the time I still think that I trouble to find exactly what I want to write about. I saw it specifically when I was writing the essay about fast food when I was trying to choose a question to write to. One point I will be answering to the fast food chain owners and then at another point I would be talking to the costumers eating there. I realize that maybe I should plan out my essay and pull evidence from what I’m going to use in order to have everything organized. 

The new ideas I was introduced to was critiquing own and others work. In the rubric it says that a good critic “suggests different evidence for use” and “assessing the accuracy of a writer’s statement.” These were things that I was never to exposed to in high school when peer editing. Usually I would just check for grammar and formatting errors for the most part. Now
I know how I can help my peers to the fullest and give the good feedback as well.

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Essay prompt for 11/28/2018

Jeremy Diaz 

Eric Drown 

English 122 

November 28, 2018 

English 122 

Coming from high school I believed every paper needed to have an introduction, three body paragraphs and a conclusion. I also thought it needed a formal introduction that would lead its way into the main thesis which would be stated at the end of the introduction. These were the things my teachers in high school had taught me, so it was what I began to start my first paper with. Entering my first class of English I was a little nervous. I thought that I would have to increase the vocabulary in my papers and write a lot more than I did in high school. I eventually learned when reading Habits of the Creative Mind that I would have to “unlearn old habits” and instead just write. The reason why I had to unlearn these habits was because they hindered my ability to get my opinions across as well as begin to learn more when reading and writing. By cutting these habits out I began to feel freer when writing. I also learned that summary of an article or story is a good thing to integrate into papers. It provides the reader with more background and helps with allowing them to form their own opinion.  

Habits of the Creative Mind also taught me about note taking. Habits states “you will begin to write about stuff you don’t know about” (23) when note taking while reading. At first, I didn’t understand how this would help me, but I did it anyway. I eventually realized that because I was taking notes, I was processing the information I was reading and translating it onto paper. Because of this I didn’t have to go back and dig through an article for quotes and it was much more efficient when writing my paper.  

In Habits of the Creative Mind it mentioned working on 7 habits. “The best writing develops from the exercise of habits of the mind that include curiosity, creativity, attractiveness, openness to new ideas, persistence, flexibility and reflectiveness” (1). I found myself using all of these throughout the semester within the different projects and essays I’ve written. My curiosity has grown when exploring new topics. I’ve learned that there are no boundaries to where I can go in order to get my questions answered or formulate a new question. My creativity when writing has always been pretty good, but I’ve recently been adding a lot of personal experience into my paper which was something I wasn’t allowed to do in high school, and this has allowed me to be more creative with my papers. I’ve learned that a paper can contain all the components necessary and still be incomplete because topics are messy and all over the place. By keeping everything in the right order the paper is more attractive when reading. In this class we have read many articles, and this has allowed me to improve my openness to new ideas. I was introduced to so many different points of view that if I didn’t expand my openness my paper would suffer. Though I have gotten a little lazy at times over the term I have also learned to be persistent with my work. I know that if I push myself and stay motivated while trying the best I can then my product will result in something good. My flexibility was also improved in this course. I’ve always had to write about books I’ve read in class when I was in high school. In this course I was able to explore other topics that I liked and some I’ve never read about. This made the class a lot more fun and helped with my learning experience. Lastly, I have truly learned to reflect on my own work and find ways to improve so I am never content with where my work is currently at. There is always room to improve and things to work on.  

When going through a couple of my journal entries from throughout the term I can see how I have progressed over the semester. I can see how in the beginning of school year I looked at things one way. When working on prompts I had a lot of similar responses to things. I also learned to give my opinion on some of the prompts. I found myself saying things like “I hated working on formulating a question.” I also said “the first essay was more enjoyable” when talking about expanding on a question.  I can see how my work and ideas have progressed over the term and didn’t realize this until now. While I have come this far there is still more room to grow.

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Final Draft due 11/19

Jeremy Diaz 

Eric Drown 

English 122 

Eric Drown 

Unabomber Essay 

The article “The Unabomber Was Right” is an article I began reading in class. This article goes in depth on the occurrence of bombings committed by Ted Kaczynski and the purpose for his bombings. What I came across when reading this article was that Ted, who is currently in jail, believes technology is hurting society and that we must destroy it for the betterment of humanity. He specifically argues when technology is on the decline “we must pounce on it and kill it before it rises again.” Ted never liked technology and because of this he decided to move into a cabin in the woods away from all technology where he could embrace nature. Eventually, industrial society was moving close to his cabin and he decided he would change where he was living to a river that he enjoyed visiting. It was a two-day hike and when he arrived instead of seeing the body of water, he adored so much he was confronted with a huge road in its place. This made Ted fed up and he made it his mission to get his beliefs out into the world. This is when he began his bombings which ended in the deaths of three individuals and the injuries of many others during their occurrence. He only would agree to stop if someone were to publish a 35,000-word manifesto he had written and get his view points out there so he could possibly convince the world of his views. Unfortunately for Ted, this would be his downfall because his brother recognized his handwriting and gave him into authorities, but he was still able to get his message out there. After reading I began to wonder what his manifesto contained.  

I soon learned that Ted Kaczynski’s manifesto argued against the use of technology in modern civilization and because of that he indeed wanted to rid the world of technology. Ted also mentioned that there was no way to reform these societies so instead we must destroy them completely and start new. When hearing these claims that Kaczynski was making my mind wondered to another place. I tried to envision a society in the future without technology. I asked the question is it even possible to have a society without any technology? At this point I thought the answer was no but upon further research I came to the conclusion that if one were able to come up with a strong argument to convince people the technology was bad or harmful to us then they would be able to gain a following to start moving towards their goal. But what exactly could somebody do in order to reach this point? Well the answer was Robots. People fear that one day artificial intelligence may take over our country and there is nothing that we will be able to do about it at that point. 

So, if robots do take over the world then technically Ted would have been right in his argument and therefore, he could justify his actions. But how close are we really to a society where robots will take over our nation and imprison us or make us work for them. I did some research on some new robots being developed by the Boston Dynamics company and the robots they have so far are incredible. Some of the robots can jump and run while others are water proof and can run on any type of terrain. If anything were to take over, these robots seem like they would fit the job if they keep developing the way they are. There is also a robot in Russia by the name of FEDOR that can shoot guns. Aside from shooting guns it can endure some rigorous workouts like doing a lot of pushups to other physical challenges. One of the craziest abilities this robot has is the fact that it can drive a car. This robot has so many progressions already and more are to come. 

What I take from this research is a lot of optimism for the robots being developed with a little skepticism. Though I want to see how much these robots can accomplish at the same time I fear that if they learn too much, they may begin to build more of themselves and start up their own army. I know this may sound silly now, but this is also what Ted feared in a way. He feared technology would take over and it already has. Children everywhere are playing with phones and tablets before they even sit down in a classroom. If this isn’t a sign for a little change then I don’t know what will be. 

But now were back to the question at hand. Can we really rid the world of technology at all? I believe not. I feel that we are too dependent on all the innovations and advances society has made over the years and if we were to regress backwards all people would do is complain about how they want to be watching tv or on a phone. Also, taking away technology would also mean taking away heat to keep our houses warm. This is because before factories people didn’t have a heater in their house to keep them warm that the gas company would come fill every time it was empty. Imagine having to get firewood to keep warm after not doing it your whole life. People wouldn’t want to do that regardless of what they’d have to sacrifice. People are lazy and in fact if they could get a robot to do the work for them, they’d take it in a heartbeat. So maybe Ted’s manifesto will be the warning that nobody listened to and should’ve because it was a warning of what was to come. Or maybe Ted is just some crazy old guy who just over thought technology and what I had to offer to us. Either way we won’t know until the future. 

So now I conclude that it really isn’t possible to rid the world of technology. For those asking why it’s simple. The world is one big computer with a bunch of smaller systems running inside of it. We have turned our planet into a place where new technology is developed every day and people want to keep pushing the limits more and more. We have an iPhone that unlocks every time you look at the screen because it can recognize your face. At the end of the day people are to intrigued and comfortable with technology to just let it go. Sadly, for Ted he won’t ever see his dream accomplished. The new question is will it be for the better or for the worse? 

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