Gotta Catch Them All

This post is dedicated to my friend, Jeff, who is a Pokémon master.

I remember in like 1998, when Pokémon was the cool thing to play, collect, and talk about on the playground. I recall when kids during recess would battle hardcore with their cards and trade them with other students. These were the great times as a child.

But what if Pokémon was a realistic universe somewhere else, in which when you were born you were given the task of becoming a Pokémon master in traveling the world and collecting every kind of Pokémon. How cool would that be in which we could battle one another with the Pokémon we collect. Although this may seem like animal cruelty, what if it was like Yu-gi-oh and the animals were graphics or cards. This idea yet very unrealistic, could be a possibility in the future. I mean in which we can collect cards and through the cards battle with the monsters we collect, through a virtual reality.

Pokémon although not as common now a days compared to other games, is still an expanding phenomenon. Last year in spring 2009 the makers of Pokémon released the new Platinum version in which there was an upgrade in graphics, and sold nearly a million copies in two days! Therefore it is still a popular idea and game that expands a players ability in puzzle solving and reasoning.

So my question I leave you is, could you be a Pokémon master and spend your whole life traveling around the world, catching them all?

Surrogate robots?

So I just saw the new movie, “Surrogates” and all I have to say is that I hope we do not live our lives like that in the future. For those of you that have not seen it, basically the plot is that we live our idealistic lives through surrogates (basically robots). Our minds control their actions and we can take on an identity that we see as our supreme way of being. It is just mind blowing to see that this could be a possibility someday, especially with all the technological advances made as of now.
Personally, I feel that it is a wrong concept that through robots we are able to take on different identities. Were we not made to be unique on our own ways? Like I know there are things about me that I would love to change, but that doesn’t mean if I could that I would. I like feeling real things, like sand between my feet, and experiencing feelings of joy. Not all the time I enjoy feeling certain emotions, but that is what we as humans are supposed to be like. I'm not saying that human as a species have a protocol on how each and every person should live their lives. But don’t you agree?
So my thoughts are, what are the pros and cons if we did live through robots? Depending on the person there are probably mixed reviews. Here I think there are more cons than pros so I made a list:
1) What if we used robots in wars, would wars ever end?
2) If people take on other identities are they rejecting a gift the creator gave to them ?
3) How could we know the difference between if someone is truly who their robot shows? (An example in the movie was that a 40 year old man had a robot to represent himself as a 20 year old female)
4) Would we be able to reproduce? If we live through our robots, how will we continue humanity?
5) How will our future generation learn true emotions or events? How will they attain real memories, and not the actions they felt their robot take part of. For them it will be like looking through a telescope and seeing something that you can never feel.

I have to say, go see this movie and it truly will have an impact on you. If you liked the movie wall-e, this is something you will also enjoy, because it truly makes one think, what if we lived our lives through surrogates?

Agent Claus

What if Santa is a CIA agent for the 364 days he isn’t in a red suit, ever think of that? Like today I was talking with my friend about how we used to think what awesome things Santa is capable of . This man can fit through tiny chimneys and like stop time to go around the world in an entire night. He would be a perfect secret agent! People may see him as a charming old man, but that’s his facade, so he can protect us from bad guys and use his powers! He is like a superhero, so he must definitely be qualified for the CIA right? I mean what tests do you have to pass in order to be an agent, know many languages (hello he is an international icon, of course he knows like every language!), move quietly without anyone noticing ( he does that at over a billion houses on Christmas!), and handle a gun or some sort of weapon (I think Santa knows how to do this, I mean he lives at the North Pole right? Don’t they have wild rabid polar bears or seals; he has to use one to protect the remarkable Mrs.).

Hey

Well since I am a communications major, I think this will be a good way to start communicating my ideas. If you know me, I have a wild thought process and while some people think of one thing A and how it leads to another thing B, I always think of the most random C, D, and E suggestions. Although some people just tell to shut up and tell me I’m crazy, I think I am a creative individual. I always think of the “what ifs” . While some individuals may see me as simple minded at first, I am not. I always change my mind but when I am focused on something, I go for it 110%. This is something I am focused on, and I hope to share my creative thinking with you all and when I mean you all, I hopefully anticipate that people will read this.