Salvacion, Miguel Karlo D.
2011-01508
Reaction about the Social Climbers and Food for
Thought
It has been
known for a fact that the closest intellectual beings to humans are the
monkeys. I have watched many documentaries before about monkey behaviour. The
social climbers added further knowledge about how lifestyles of monkeys can be
so relative to human habits. After all, monkeys are the closest argument to the
theory of evolution.
The title
social climber is more like of a metaphor for humans and monkeys alike. Within
our society, being labelled as a social climber has a negative connotation
among peers. If we define what a social climber is, it is someone who wants to
belong or to be accepted in a group and have a status or higher social
standing. In my opinion this is kind of a natural thing among people because no
one wants to be an outcast. This is also true for monkeys. I was amazed that
even with monkeys, a hierarchy or a social system also exists. Not only that,
it somewhat mirrors what humans would do just to be accepted in a group.
Another
amazing thing is like humans, apes can utilize simple tools like rocks and
other things in their surroundings to help in their daily living. This can be
seen when Capuchins used tree branches to crack clam shells for food. This is
like what our first ancestors tried to do, looking for things to help them in
their quest for searching resources to feed their basic needs. When I was
watching the documentary, I was thinking if I were a monkey and I observed
other Capuchins cracking the clam shells, I can definitely say that is an easy
task. But the narrator explained that older Capuchins are most likely experts
in cracking clam shells. I realize that apes have no concept of experience, how
can they be experts. But that’s the point of adaptation you can be better at
things just like humans.
Different
kinds of primates are like different tribes of humans. Some don’t get along too
well, others are indifferent to each other, and the rest can be allies. We saw
in the documentary that allied monkeys protect each other by having an alarm
system when danger is near. Just like allied tribes, they watch each other’s
back for possible danger. The monkeys that don’t get along too well are the
ones who compete for dominance. This can be observed when monkeys like the
Chimpanzees eat or kill other monkeys to show domination.
In the human
context, just like our primate relatives, we show dominance by conquering other
nations, building advanced infrastructure, and flourishing in our resources. In
the documentary food for thought, I realized that humans constantly look for
ways to evolve and adapt. From simple cultivation of land to advancing simple
tools to machines, towns became cities and from then on a civilization was
born. With these two documentaries, it explains a lot about if humans were to
have a beginning this can be originated to the life of monkeys. The theory of
evolution is still a big mystery but if we were to look at in a different
perspective, we really are advanced and super smart monkeys.
Reaction about “A Beautiful Mind”
The film was
very familiar to me because I am an economics major and in my economics
classes, the professors always mention the surname Nash and of course the Game
Theory. They also suggested watching “A Beautiful Mind” before but it was just
my first time watching the film in the STS class.
I have always known John Nash as one of
the greatest contributors to the field of economics. The Game Theory is so
brilliant that it explains the mechanics on how to choose the winning strategy.
The Nash equilibrium gives us not only the explanation to situations but also a
lesson about life. Personally, that is the greatest thing that John Nash taught
us, that pursuing personal interest is not the best way to go.
The title of the film for me meant two
things. The mind is beautiful in a sense that it can achieve a very high
intellectual level and also the mind is beautiful because it gives us something
that we lack. In the case of Nash, his mind gave him an alternate reality to
help himself feel good about himself. It his mind’s way to adapt to his
weakness. We can never fully understand it but it is still beautiful because it
gave us an explanation how our minds really work.
I always thought that John Nash was the
usual genius. I never thought that he was mentally ill. It must have been very
hard to make a great contribution with such hindrance and difficulty. This is
another great achievement for him. I think it is really difficult graduating
from college without any social circle. It is a great mystery that the mind was
able to make up for this lack of relationship from other people. It is
dangerous but Nash was able to use it to his advantage. Although at the latter
part of the film, his sickness was dominating him that it nearly costs him his
life, family, and self. But apparently, he was able to pick himself up and not
let the sickness take over.
When I took up Psych 101, I was always
confused about Schizophrenia, Multiple Personality Disorder, and the Bipolar
Disorder. It was a very simple illustration in the film what happens to
schizophrenic people. We can never fully understand the way they live but I
think the best way to help these people is to provide them the cause of their
sickness. I think these people developed these sicknesses beforehand because
they lack something and theirs mind make up for these losses.
The story of John Nash is a classic case
of too much of anything is bad. John Nash was so smart that it became a bad
thing for the people around him. It wasn’t his fault but at some point in time
I think he realized that somehow he should stop stressing himself in his
obsession and take a look at things in another perspective.
Reaction about “Cinema of the Subconscious”
It is always
a mystery to me why we always dream and what it means in our lives. During my
Psych 101 class, they explained the process of the brain when we are sleeping.
But there is no definite explanation about our dreams. Personally, I think
dreams are the brain’s way to refresh us of our memories, thoughts, and
aspirations. It is the way the brain explains to us what our thoughts can mean
in a very interesting way.
Sometimes I
have thought that my dreams are more interesting than what is happening in my
real life. Maybe this can be explained by lucid dreaming. I want to control my
dreams the way what I want to happen it to the real world. But it is a mystery
that even in lucid dreaming there are unexpected things that still happen. It
is unexpected because I never thought of those scenarios.
The
documentary explained some of the mysteries of dreaming, but I was kind of
waiting for the topic of precognition or Déjà vu. From personal experience, I
had dreamt of scenarios that really happened in real life and the scenario was
exactly how I dreamt it. I have always thought that the brain has the capacity
of precognition or seeing a glimpse of the future. I was also kind of hoping
that the documentary would explain the process of dreaming of the blind people.
I have always wondered how blind people can dream if they don’t have an idea of
what things look like.
The
documentary also tried to explain sleep paralysis. I never experienced it
before; they said it was so scary because you can’t move. In the Filipino
context especially in the provinces, they said that if sleep paralysis occurs
there is some kind of extra-terrestrial or paranormal activity that is
happening to you. Being a man of science I don’t usually believe in that kind
of stuff, the documentary helped in explaining why and how sleep paralysis
occurs. I was hoping that the documentary explained a lot more of nightmares.
I’ve always thought that nightmares were just bad dreams, but it is a mystery
that somehow nightmares can make a person die in his sleep.
In the
documentary, there was a lady that shared one of her dreams and she said that
she was looking at herself in the dream. Old folks used to tell me that when
you see yourself in a dream it means that it can be a near death experience or
it was bad luck. Basically the documentary explained some basic questions about
dreaming and they really did well explaining it. But it would be very
interesting if they explained astral projection. The documentary also gave
explanations about dreams, but I always questioned how they came up with
explanations to dreams.
Summing it
up, the process of dreaming is the boundary of where science can only explain.
After the dreaming the process and you wake up in an alternate universe the
realist point of view takes part. Every dream is subject to your own
interpretation. Maybe sometimes having good dreams is a way the brain help us
in recovering from stress in the real world.
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