Category: humanity

Introduction

The Picture of Dorian Gray, a gothic novel written in 1890 by Oscar Wilde, follows Dorian Gray, an archetype of Victorian upper-class society, through his slow degradation. A portrait is painted by Basil of Dorian which possesses paranormal powers to capture the sins he commits. Under Lord Henry’s influence, Dorian becomes corrupted by his own beauty. He yearns that he will eternally stay young while the portrait ages for him. As his portrait bears his sins, he embraces pleasure while ignoring any other morals. According to Freuds inner conflict approach, the mind is separated into three elements of personality: id, ego and superego. A lack of balance between the traits could lead to immoral attitudes which act as a mask or are chosen to be hidden. To have order in society everyone must wear a mask to conceal personal desires as we fear rejection. Oscar Wilde delves into this concept by portraying the dominant component of personality through the characterisation of Dorian, Basil and Sybil.

Dorian masks his id nature, which was magnified through Lord Henry’s influence, through his beauty. He allowed his pursuit for pleasure to dominate his life, ignoring his morals while his ‘beauty had been to him but a mask’ (210) metaphorically, as it portrayed a pure character. During the aesthetic movement the Victorian society was exploring the superficial importance of appearance and unconsciously ignoring one’s true nature. After Sybil’s first encounter with Dorian she told her mother “I love him” (60), yet her mother questioned back “you don’t even know his name” (60). This portrays how her love was based purely on aesthetic. His good looks were the only memorable trait about him which built Dorian’s desperation for eternity of youthfulness while under the influence of Lord Henry, as he pleads “If it were only the other way! If it were I who was always young, and the picture that was to grow old!” (28). The dialogue differs from his naïve, superego character presented earlier in the novel as he questions “what can it matter?” (24), when beauty is such a meaningless characteristic. The threat of mortality drives Dorian to be overwhelmed and ‘jealous’(28) that he will age unlike the painting which conveys his immoral attitudes which were manifested on the portrait. His despair as he states, “When I find that I am growing old, I shall kill myself'(28), foreshadows that he will go to such measures if he is not satisfied. Dorian had only known his mother through paintings which displayed her in disguise and had men fill in the role of his father such as cruel Kelso, the elderly, Basil, the painting and Lord Henry. Dorian is condemned to eternal desire, with no chance of true adulthood which left him vulnerable to be manipulated. He retained all the selfish amorality of a baby. This led to him acting on impulse without considering the rules of society and his psychological balances were destructed after Dorian was consumed by id.

Basil masks his id where he finds pleasure in Dorian due to his obsessiveness, through the dominance of his ego nature. When Dorian began to reveal his narcissistic attitudes, Basil blamed Lord Henry as he claims ‘bitterly’, “This is your doing, Harry'(28). Basil had the moral strength, conveying his ego personality, to not be persuaded by Henry yet he is unable to deal with the change in Dorians hedonistic character. His ‘bitter’ (28) and serious tone shows his aggravation towards the influence of Lord Henry on Dorian. He admits ‘I want the Dorian Gray I used to paint” (105), when Dorian expressed no sign of remorse towards Sybil’s death, which further enhances the idea that he was infatuated over Dorian’s initial character and was opposed to his depravity. Lord Henry was shaping Dorian to a puppet to play with his mind tricks which left Basil “fearful” (106). He was incapable of coming to a personal concept of right and wrong due to his good-willed character. He encouraged Dorian to pray for his sins to be forgiven and was reluctant to intervene in Dorians manipulation in fear he would lose him, therefore choosing to see the best in him instead. As Basil’s desperation to stop Dorians cruel soul grew, he revealed his possessiveness as he states “I worshipped you. I grew jealous of everyone to whom you spoke. I wanted to have you all to myself” (110). He made it clear he was romantically attracted to Dorian through the homoerotic undertone when previously he feared that the painting would reveal the secret of his soul. He was against exhibiting his painting as he put too much of himself into it though it was his “best work” (6). Furthermore, his confession contrasts with his ego nature where he was expressive but in control of his feelings and emotions, masking his true feelings towards Dorian.

Sybil, a 17-year-old of the lower class, failed to mask her obsession of Dorian and therefore was rejected by society. She was tainted by the feeling of love which meant she was no longer innocent or wanted. She realized the fakeness of the emotions she portrays onstage through her affair with Dorian as she confesses “You had made me understand what love really is”. She had unconsciously masked her balanced personality through the romantic, id natured characters she portrays. There was “something of a child” about her which made her alluring as well as her passion for acting. She was the embodiment of beauty common to Dorians initial state of character. She admits “acting was the one reality of my life” which reinforces she didn’t have a life outside of the theatre which limited her exposure to the true world. She felt no hesitation to express her feelings as she had no experience of rejection and didn’t understand the importance of hiding one’s desires. Lord Henry states “The girl never really lived and so she never really died”, conveying that she was untouched by the world and therefore she didn’t experience enough for her death to be significant. Dorian was disillusioned when he discovered she has lost her talent in acting as he was entranced partly because of her acting. Sybil wasn’t intentionally hiding herself from him, Dorian just refused to see anything beyond what was on stage due to his superficiality on appearances. The desperation of her id nature became overwhelming, causing her to “kill herself for love” of Dorian.

Conclusion

Oscar wilde shows value in as Oscar Wilde states “Be yourself; everyone else is taken”. By the end of the Victorian era Freud expanded in detail his theory of the ‘unconscious’ maladaptive personality meaning their behaviours are significantly different feature.

“I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit”. Khalil Gibran

India is the home of religion. We find Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Islam, Christainity, Hinduism, Zoroastrinism etc. in India. The teachings of religion have been envisaged in holy books of religion like Gita, Quran, Bible, Zend Avesta etc. and the essence of all the religion is humanity, brotherhood, peace, tolerance, love, etc.

The word religion comes from Latin word ‘Re-ligare’ in which ‘ligare’ means to bind or to connect and adding ‘re’ before ‘ligare’ means to rebind or to reconnect. Thus religion encourages people to think about how they can rebind or reconnect themselves with God who is infinitely more intelligent and loving.[footnoteRef:1] It is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observences and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs. [1: Greg Trimble, Defintion of Religion-The Real Meaning of the Word Religion, GregTrimble.com, https://www.gregtrimble.com/meaning-of-the-word-religion/ (Last Visited June 16, 2020).] [2: Religion, Dictionary.com, https://www.dictionary.com/browse/religion (Last Visited June 17, 2020)]

The society, religion and state are the worldly created concepts and we can’t shed blood in the name of it. All religion emerged only for the sake of bringing peace and love in the world while there are some orthodox followers who take religion according to their interests as a source of war and a justification of their crime. Religion is nothing but a unification of human under one flag for peace and love.

Human performs deeds only for his pleasure and follows religion to get salvation. If eating and having fun is only what we are born to do then we should keep one thing in mind even animals can do such activity. If god has created us as humans there has to be some reasons behind it. Now it depends upon us how do we utilize this blessing of being human?

Death is sure to come. The one who has taken birth has to die someday[footnoteRef:3] and when we will die we will take nothing but our good deeds with us. Then why should we fight for this all worldly created concepts? [3: Swami Mukundananda, Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 2, verse 27]

We should work for humanity, peace, brotherhood, equality and non-violence which are true religion of mankind. We remember Mother Teresa, Mahatama Gandhi, Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Malala Yousafzai etc. for their selfless work for humanity which is the true religion of mankind.

Serving the humanity doesn’t mean becoming social worker and devoting all the time in that. According to me it means helping anyone who is in need around you according to your capacity of helping. If you have something in extra and you share with needy then it will really help him and will add one good deed in your life story. You can go to orphanages and old age homes for celebrating your birthdays and happy moments of your life. You will find love and selflessness in people present there that will make you feel true religion of mankind.

If going to temples, mosques and churches and offering flowers, chadars and candles are true religion for someone then helping the needy, poor and unprivileged is also true religion for me. The Person who on one hand is dishonest and corrupt on the other hand does charity, offers flowers, chadars and candles on religious places can be termed as a good man in the eyes of society but can’t be termed as a good man in real sense. Doing your own deeds honestly and not annoying others unnecessarily are the pillars on which true religion subsists.

In the present Pandemic, it is being seen that some people, organizations and NGOs are serving people with food, transportation, medicines and housing. They are really serving the humanity and are the true followers of religions. Prophet Mohammad has said once, “God doesn’t look at your forms and possessions but he looks at your hearts and your deeds.”

From walking on the moon to making biodegradable plastic bags, from talking to people all around the world on a handheld device to having a head transplant, none of this would be even remotely possible without the help of science. According to Wikipedia; science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe, which in basic terms means information of the natural world built on facts learned through experiments and observations or interpretations. The earliest roots of science was traced back to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia from 3500 to 3000 BCE, this included contributions to medicine, math and astronomy which shaped Greek natural philosophy of classical antiquity. Science, along with the ever changing world has been developing and improving over the last 5000 years. Modern science can be can be distributed into three main branches, namely natural sciences (i.e.: biology, chemistry…), social sciences (i.e.: psychology, economics…), and the formal sciences (i.e.: mathematics).

Over the last 50 years mankind has really made some extraordinary scientific breakthroughs such as cell phones, the internet, artificial hearts and the list just keeps on going. Let us start by discussing the infamous internet. If you had told a high school student less than 100 years ago that they could complete a research project or assignment on a topic they know almost nothing about without having to go to the library and look through stacks of books, they would have looked at you like you were utterly insane. But thanks to the internet you can do an assignment from the comfort of your room, or in fact, wherever you are. This leads me to the next scientific achievement on my list, the cell phone. Look around you, almost every single person you meet, old or young, has a cell phone. Cell phones make everything more convenient, you can now place an order for food on your phone and have it delivered in under an hour and you don’t even have to get up from the couch. Cell phones have definitely developed over the last 50 years, they have become smaller and more compact. Your cell phone is like a laptop that you can carry around in your pocket. It is equipped with a calendar, clock, camera and much much more.

If we take a look at another portion of science, we can talk about how NASA, with contributions from the European Space Agency, built the famous Hubble telescope and unveiled the remarkable universe to us. Hubble has helped resolve some great problems in astronomy while also raising new questions, and some results have required new theories to explain them. Earths nameless moon has no oxygen and a gravitational pull of 1.62 metres per second squared, making people think that it was impossible to survive there, but the Apollo 11 mission in July of 1969 proved us all wrong. Three men travelled to the moon on July 16th and two of them, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, spent 21.5 hours on its surface before re-joining the command module pilot Michael Collins in lunar orbit. Humans walking on the moon has certainly been recognized as an astonishing triumph in science. NASA has a lengthy legacy of space exploration. In the decades since its establishing, the space agency has landed rovers on Mars; see the sights of Saturn and Mercury; sampled the atmosphere of Jupiter and, as mentioned before, has even landed humans on the moon.

Along with the formation of the space program, another scientific project began; the eradication of smallpox. Smallpox once withered the world, and now HIV has devastated the people, economy and society of Africa. It has seriously altered the sexual culture of West Africa as well. A cure for the horrific virus would without a doubt be ranked high on the list of outstanding scientific achievements. While there are treatments for HIV/Aids, there is unfortunately no cure or vaccine. However, experts say that with the advances in computer modelling, the chances of developing a working vaccine for the dreadful virus may be closer than ever. Scientists and researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases say that they are getting ready to launch an ambitious program designed to eliminate new infections in the U.S by 2030, and if that can happen, then a worldwide cure for HIV/Aids could best be on its way somewhat soon.

According to a blog written by Bryce Jennings in Canada roughly seven years ago, he says that science has but one short coming, it does not offer the illusions of inevitability or purpose. But despite sciences short coming, superficial or real, science has a remarkable track record, and the best is still yet to come. There are still questions that need to be answered, there are still things that need to be discovered, and there are still things that questioning minds still want to know, and we need science to assist us in discovering, answering and developing. I did a public poll on a few social media platforms to get other people’s opinions and views on some science questions in, and the results that came back were quite interesting and a little unexpected. I asked the question “do you believe that the earth is round?” and only 66% of the people who took the poll said that they agreed that the earth is round, that means that 34% of these people believe that the earth is actually flat, even with all the scientific evidence which proves that the earth is round. But why do people think the earth is flat if there is concrete evidence proving that the earth is in fact spherical? Members of the Flat Earth Society believe that gravity is “just an illusion” and objects do not accelerate downwards, instead they believe that the disc shaped earth accelerates upwards at 9.8 meters per second squared, and that it is driven up by a force known as “dark energy”. The flat-earth believers also say that photos of the globe are photo shopped.

To conclude, I thoroughly believe that science is humankind’s greatest achievement, for without it nothing would be possible. We would have never been able to send humans to the moon safely or make cell phones if it weren’t for science. And although science does not give us clear or particularly accurate results the first, second, or even third time around, it certainly has given us all that we have today. In the words of the great Stephen Hawking “Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge.” The world is ever growing and ever changing and we therefore cannot dismiss science for we have not yet explored all its boundaries, or if there are even boundaries at all.

Bibliography

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The Problem and Its Investigation

Software development is becoming more and more important in our everyday lives. With the spread of technology to banking, public transportation, and even entire university classrooms, software is required to make money, get places, and get an education. However, this ubiquitous requirement for technology would not be satisfied without the technology that exists in space. The discourse community this essay addresses is software developers, and more specifically, software that will be used in space. The importance of the exploration of space increases as the development of society increases. With bigger and better machines and factories that make our lives easier, Earth’s nonrenewable resources are used up.

The exploration of space has become an important idea for the future of humanity. The parasitic nature of humans has increased global warming’s effects, overpopulated countries, and sapped the Earth of a multitude of its natural resources (Dallas, et al.). A solution to this is sending machines to other planets to extract and return resources to Earth. Issues like this and more can be solved with advancements in space exploration, which requires better software engineering.

Statement of the Problem

The purpose of this thesis is to discover ways that software engineering can improve the exploration of space, as well as what problems humanity has that can be solved by a greater knowledge of our galaxy.

The following questions will be investigated:

• How can software development improve the process of getting information from space?
• What problems does humanity have that can be solved with improved software in space?
• Why is the advancement in space software so important for humanity’s future?

Rationale

The use of technology in space has advanced humanity in numerous ways. Communication satellites can send messages from one person to another, no matter the distance between them. Weather satellites observe patters in our atmosphere and help predict daily temperatures and precipitation. Probes and rovers travel through space and on other planets gaining information about the history of our solar system. There is no question about the importance of technology in space, but the limit of possibilities that the technology is capable of can always be broken.

Organization of Research Proposal

A review of literature that discusses the importance of software in space will be presented. The literature reviewed will explore how this software can improve the methods of obtaining data from space, how it can prepare humans for catastrophic situations, and the future ramifications of technology in space. The research done to support these claims will be presented in segmented sections based on topic. A summary of the research and future suggestions insinuated from the research will be discussed in the conclusions section.

Literature Review

This literature review will investigate the ways software in space impacts humans and the possibilities that can be unlocked if said software is more widespread and developed. The spread of software can improve the daily lives of citizens, prevent major catastrophes, and prevent the loss of human lives in a multitude of ways. By being able to test programs, observe historical missions, improve mediums of communication, and enhance autonomous systems, humanity as a whole can grow and prosper. This paper will discuss how this can happen and the methods that can be used to get there.

Why Does Software in Space Matter?

Ever since the idea of space exploration became a reality, software has been a staple in probes and satellites that have gone to space. A computerized system can sample the processes of a human, which decreases the risk of losing human lives significantly. Over time, less and less humans travel into space, and now almost exclusively software is sent to safely carry out missions. In fact, replacing all space missions with autonomous software that can adapt and overcome challenges is believed to be the best way to prevent human losses and optimize resulting data (Lutz). With Knowledge Based Software Systems, labs can test programs that have the potential to go to space (Narayan and Pandey). Artificial Intelligence can also be integrated into systems in space so they can carry out operations by themselves without input form human overseers. Software, although expensive at times, offers an adaptable and safe solution to gaining information from beyond our atmosphere.

Improving the Process of Getting Information from Space

A crucial step in the process of integrating a program into hardware that is going to be sent to space is testing. A program has to be refined to perfection to reduce computing lag and increase the downlink efficiency. Since testing is so important, a program was created to create, experiment, and simulate potential space missions. The Knowledge Based Software System uses artificial intelligence to study past missions and apply them to future situations (Narayan and Pandey). Another system that uses this ideology to test is the Space Physics Environment Data Analysis System (Angelopoulos et al.). The SPEDAS contains information about every past space mission and offers a place for any developer to build, test, and research possible space mission software. This system increases production of software significantly by not only being able to test and create programs, but also by being available to the public. Allowing anyone access to this NASA-sponsored terminal of testing creates a public format that helps advance the understanding of space and improve the technology we use to collect data from missions.

Efficiency in technology in space does not stop at the creation of it. While the machine is in space, it has to be optimized to send data faster and farther, based on the mission at hand. The most common reason data is lost in space when coming back from a probe or satellite is atmospheric turbulence, or movements in radiation and wind in the atmosphere. Losing any data is detrimental to space programs, so solutions were created to solve the loss of data. One such solution was the Software Defined Space Optical Network, a system that used an information cloud to store and transfer data more reliably (Xing, et al.). The cloud platform assured that the photos taken by satellites would be safely stored and sent back to Earth in a more efficient format. In addition to systematically upgrading the output stream of software in satellites, the computing programs can be streamlined as well. Applying an adaptive redundancy algorithm to existing software allows it to reduce the time it takes to run a command as well as increase the open memory in the system (Gao, et al.). As technology on Earth advances, the systems inside of satellites remain the same unless an astronaut is sent into space to replace them. Therefore, the computers inside the satellites have to be capable of updating and installing new software into themselves. Sending algorithms like the adaptive redundancy software into probes and satellites increases the speed at which data is returned and reduces the amount of errors in the system.

Autonomous Systems

A necessary advancement in space technology is the automation of software. A system can be monitored for a certain amount of time before more important systems take priority, which means that it may no longer receive direct orders and needs to know how to continue gathering and outputting data on its own. An autonomous system is capable of following through on its mission without the oversight of a team on Earth. The satellite Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) was designed to capture images of Earth and send them back to research labs. Multiple algorithms were tested in EO-1 to optimize efficiency by enhancing the system’s ability to sort the pictures it took. When EO-1 was able to prioritize data by itself, the downlink speed increased dramatically, cutting down wasted memory and computing power (Wagstaff, et al.). Autonomous systems like EO-1 have the capability to save lives on Earth. Since EO-1 is programmed to find points of interest on Earth by itself, it was able to locate a volcano that was having a suspicious amount of activity. EO-1 changed its mission to observing the volcano and sending back images of the activity. The active volcano was set near a town that was unaware of the activity and potential danger of an eruption. Once images were received from EO-1, scientists were sent to the town to warn residents. Once the volcano erupted, no lives were lost and the town remained safe. An autonomous system like EO-1 can save the lives of humans by detecting geographical disturbances and warning those areas ahead of time to prepare for potentially catastrophic events (Scott).

Future Applications

The idea of a system being able to work by itself to prioritize data and aspects of a mission offers potential solutions to issues that reach beyond our atmosphere. While an autonomous system could be able to detect volcanic activity, tectonic plate movements, or even hurricanes and tsunamis, there are dangers that lie outside of our world. The Knowledge Based Software System that was previously mentioned was used to create a simulation of a satellite that had the ability to detect, gather samples from, then deflect an incoming asteroid (Narayan and Pandey). Threats to Earth that would be more difficult to prepare for, like an asteroid, can be redirected with software that can autonomously locate and prevent a disastrous situation.

Autonomy can not only assist humans with protective software, but it can also assist on missions to deep space. As a probe travels past planets and moons, pictures are taken and sent back to earth to study. These pictures are often of just the surface or random parts of the planet or moon, but if an autonomous system like the one in EO-1 were integrated, the probe could capture images of short-live science events like storms, dust storms, and volcanic eruptions of other planets and moons (NASA Jet Propulsion Lab). As the probe prioritizes its mission, it will also prioritize the images it is gathering and send back the most important ones, which reduces wasted memory and computing power.

Another way autonomous software can help missions in deep space is repairing software and hardware. As probes in space reach farther distances, communication with them becomes more delayed and difficult to manage and environmental challenges. If a major error were to occur while a probe is orbiting another planet, administrators on Earth would not find out until the probe sent a distress signal, which takes time to reach Earth. Then, a fix would have to be created and sent all the way back to the probe to integrate. However, an autonomous system would be able to fix itself without communication back to Earth. The spacecraft Cassini, while on a mission to Saturn, lost communication with Earth for about an hour due to an error in the software. Instead of losing the craft completely, it was able to automatically reroute all power to an emergency antenna, which it pointed at the sun in hopes for a response from Earth. Communication to the spacecraft was restored within an hour and the mission continued successfully (Lutz). Integrating software that is capable of fixing and upgrading itself is essential to the future of space exploration.

Conclusion

The application of software to space technology is necessary to advancing our knowledge of space and helping humanity. Being able to test software, improving downlink speeds, prioritizing data, and making systems autonomous are all ways that can develop software in space. Advanced software has the potential to warn humans of geographical disruptions and prepare towns and cities for volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, prevent future space missions from failing by being able to activate emergency measures, and detect and deflect dangers from beyond the atmosphere. The widespread use of software eliminates the risk of losing human lives while offering a system that has the ability to be updated and fixed remotely. Every time technology has been used to help humanity is a step towards a more peaceful and prosperous future. As the software that used in spacecrafts evolves, so does the human race.

Works Cited

1. Angelopoulos, V., et al. ‘The Space Physics Environment Data Analysis System (SPEDAS).’ Space Science Reviews, vol. 215, no. 1, 2019, pp. 1-46. ProQuest, https://proxy.lib.wayne.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/2169573610?accountid=14925, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11214-018-0576-4.
2. Dallas, J.A., et al. “Mining beyond earth for sustainable development: Will humanity benefit from resource extraction in outer space?” Acta Astronautica, Volume 167, 2020, Pages 181-188, ISSN 0094-5765, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2019.11.006.
3. Gao, Xing, et al. ‘Run-Time Error Detection of Space-Robot Based on Adaptive Redundancy.’ Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, vol. 81, no. 1, 2009, pp. 14-18. ProQuest, https://proxy.lib.wayne.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/docview/213775146?accountid=14925, doi:http://dx.doi.org.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/10.1108/00022660910926863.
4. Narayan, Priyadarshini, and Dhirendra Pandey. ‘Knowledge-Based Software System for Space Exploration.’ International Journal of Computer Science Issues (IJCSI), vol. 11, no. 2, 2014, pp. 181-185. ProQuest, https://proxy.lib.wayne.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/1536895853?accountid=14925.
5. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. August 2007. https://ase.jpl.nasa.gov.
6. Lutz, Robyn. ‘Software Engineering for Space Exploration,’ in Computer, vol. 44, no. 10, pp. 41-46, Oct. 2011. doi: 10.1109/MC.2011.264.
7. Scott, M. ‘Observing Volcanoes Satellite Thinks for Itself’, NASA Earth Observatory, Dec. 2007. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/VolcanoSensorWeb.
8. Wagstaff, K., et al. “Cloud Filtering and Novelty Detection using Onboard Machine Learning for the EO-1 Spacecraft.” In International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Automation for Space (ISAIRAS 2018), Madrid, Spain, July 2018.
9. Xing, F., et al. (2016) Design and Experimental Demonstration of Software Defined Space Optical Network (SDSON) Architecture Based on Cloud Platform. Journal of Computer and Communications, 4, 7-13. doi: 10.4236/jcc.2016.43002.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a form of computer which has the ability to think for itself and perform tasks that usually require the intelligence of a human such as: speech recognition, decision-making, visual perception and translation between languages. However, there is a common misunderstanding that there is just one type of artificial intelligence. This is not the case. There are actually 3 different types of artificial intelligence: ANI, AGI, and ASI. ANI, or Artificial Narrow Intelligence is the weakest kind, hence it sometimes being called Weak AI. This type of AI can only specialise in one area such as beating someone at chess, however it cannot do any more than that. AGI, or Artificial General Intelligence is the next stage up to ANI. This form of AI is a computer that has the same intelligence as a human and so it is sometimes referred to as Strong AI. AGI can usually carry out tasks that people would generally do, like plan and solve problems. Finally ASI, or Artificial Superintelligence, is the type of AI that could potentially cause the extinction of the human race. This type of AI has capabilities that are above those of humans as its intelligence is higher than humans .

Based on the definitions from waitbutwhy.com ANI is harmless and cannot possibly be a threat to humanity. In the United States of America in 2017, over 85 billion people have access to a form or ANI also known as Siri . Siri has many functions and can perform basic tasks like checking the weather and sending texts to family members. In times of emergency it can even save lives and call the emergency services which in turn protects humanity and life. So how can it be a large threat to humanity if it is saving lives? The source that was used to find these statistics started out on Twitter, a widely used social media site. The statistics which are put onto this website are managed and edited by Craig Smith meaning that they are not checked by a third party and so they could be false statistics and so could be inaccurate. This could mean that the website is an unreliable source of information. Other forms of ANI include: self-driving cars, Cortana, Alexa, AlphaGo, and Google Assistant. Many of these forms are used to help us in every-day life to do basic tasks such as setting reminders to go to the shop or to quickly search the internet for research purposes. Self-driving cars will change how people live in significant ways. The boss of General Motors (GM), Mary Barra, describes how self-driving cars will cause “zero crashes, zero emission and zero congestion” which would in turn reduce travelling times, save lives and prevent injuries, and would also help to prevent climate change. At the moment, on average 1.25 million people die from car accidents and an extra 20 million are injured each year around the world. Self-driving cars can cut this down to 0 people being killed and fewer people being injured . This is clearly a positive effect and therefore shows that the threat of AI to humanity is negligible. The source used for this part of the argument is an English newspaper that is edited in London. The newspaper is not very biased at all but does tend to be slightly biased to the right-wing and so some of the information in this newspaper could be seen as biased. With it being a newspaper, all of the facts are back-checked and are very likely to be accurate and there is a low risk of them being completely false and it is therefore a reliable source of information.

Despite how much AI is currently helping us, we are only using ANI which is the most harmless form of AI as the definition from waitbutwhy.com said. ANI has very little intelligence and therefore cannot think entirely for themselves meaning that it cannot see human flaws and so has no reason to not help us. However, AGI and ASI both have intelligence at human level and above it. This could result in them seeing human flaws and so may decide to abandon helping our species and could potentially start trying to take over. This is currently only believed to be science fiction however it could occur in extreme circumstances. If we manage to create ASI then we don’t know that it will still help us, and we are gambling with something we cannot comprehend. We have already seen that AGI has the capability of creating new things for example, a new language. In 2017 social media company Facebook created Artificial Intelligence with capabilities that were closer to our own than basic AI. The Artificial Intelligence, in the form of a chatbot, that they created eventually created its own language and used that language to communicate with another AI. This would have been perfectly fine if the scientists were able to decipher the language that they had made but this was not the case and so the scientists had to shut the program down. This event came after scientist Stephen Hawking to make a statement saying that AI “would take off on its own and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate” before going on to say: “Humans who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded”. Other tech luminaries, for example Elon Musk and Bill Gates, also joined Stephen Hawking by warning about the unforeseen consequences that AI could possibly have on the human race . This could suggest that the production of Artificial Intelligence with the capability to “redesign itself” is a very large threat to humanity and is one that is rapidly approaching and should therefore be looked into to minimise the risks of the end of humanity occurring. The opinions of Stephen Hawking and the other tech luminaries are most likely to be biased. They have formed a strong opinion on the issue of AI and therefore, since this is simply an opinion, the overall factual content could be completely inaccurate and should be viewed with some caution.

The article by Forbes suggested that there was widespread panic within the laboratory creating the Artificial Intelligence which deviated from English, however this information is not completely accurate. The lead author of the study from Facebook, Michael Lewis, said that “there was no panic and the project hasn’t been shut down.” Later in the statement, he said that Facebook “used some additional techniques to get the bots to work as we wanted” which clearly shows that the Facebook technicians who were working on the chatbots are able to control the form of AI and could change the programming to prevent the AI from going against the purpose it was created for. This consequently lowered the risk of the AI becoming a threat to the company. This idea can be used on a larger scale to prevent any form of ASI being created. This will limit the overall risk of AI being a threat to humanity and therefore because programmers will be able to control the AI. This will prevent the creation of ASI and therefore the threat to humanity is very low, almost negligible. The statement made within this article was from a technician working at Facebook on the chatbot experiment which could mean that the statement was made to cover up the truth behind the experiment. The technician could have been trying to hide what might have been a failed experiment and this source could therefore be completely unreliable. Many other magazines and websites, such as cnbc.com, also agree with the article made by Snopes and said that certain media reports were “clickbaity and irresponsible”. The article then mentioned that the chatbots made by Facebook were “simply a research experiment” . The website say that they got this specific information from Dhruv Batra from Facebook’s AI Research group meaning that this information is also directly from Facebook. Therefore, just like the statement made by Michael Lewis, the information could be unreliable as it could be being used to cover up the truth behind the experiment.

The Earth, as of October 2019, provides the resources required for life for just over 7.7 billion human beings. Modern humanity did not evolve until recently, which was just about 200,000 years ago. Yet, humanity has managed to populate the earth heavily in such a small span of time. Due to humanity’s large population, the sustainable resources of the Earth have been declining at a rate that cannot be replenish. Even with the technological advances of today, humanity is still a large contributor to the depletion of earth’s resources.

Humanity has done, and is still currently doing, everything within their power to reduce or even prevent the depletion of the Earth’s remaining resources. However, the solution to humanity’s dilemma may not be found here on Earth. Perhaps humanity should look past the boundaries of Earth’s atmosphere and find the solution in the vastness of space. Perhaps it may be time for humanity to find a new home, a “Second Earth”.

With space being so vast, it is highly possible that there is a planet with a similar makeup to our very own. Although the vastness of space increases the probability that a planet with a similar makeup to Earth exists, the vastness of space provides us with another problem. Even if humanity were to find another Earth-like planet, humanity lacks the technology capable of travelling such extreme distances. However, what if humanity did not have to travel extreme distances to find a “Second Earth”? Humanity, instead of searching for such a planet, could possibly re-create Earth within our own Solar System utilizing a concept known as terraformation.

The terraforming of planets is defined as the act of changing the overall environment of the planet so that it is better suitable for lifeforms of Earth origin. The concept of terraforming first appeared in the science-fiction novels of author Jack Williamson in the 1940s and in 1981 the concept was further expanded upon in a non-fiction book by James Oberg (Vasileva et al., 2019). This concept was thought to be nothing more than science fiction, at least until very recently. Just as humanity evolved from our primitive ancestors, technology has been evolving and improving at a similarly extreme rate. While humanity still lacks the technology to travel to a “Second Earth”, humanity may have the technologies required to create such a planet utilizing the concept of terraformation.

When discussing the topic of terraformation of a planet, Vasileva et al. (2019) found that discussions tended to focus on two key questions: “Should we?” and “Can we?”. The first question, “Should we?”, refers to the ethics of terraformation of a planet, and whether it is right for humanity to deliberately destroy a pristine planet for the benefit of humanity. The second question, “Can we?”, simply asks whether if humanity can realistically create a “Second Earth” using the concept of terraformation. Before focusing on the ethics of completely terraforming a planet, whether it be a planet within our Solar System or a planet elsewhere within the known universe, humanity should first seek to see if it is reasonably possible to perform planetary terraformation.

In order to determine whether humanity can create a “Second Earth” a candidate from a planet within our solar system must be chosen. Planets within our solar system, except for Earth, are uninhabitable to humans and other organic life originating from Earth. Without the assistance and protection of spacecraft or spacesuits at the very least. So there really isn’t a planet within our solar system that is a clear candidate for terraformation. However, there are other factors that can help determine which planet would be an optimal candidate for terraformation. One such factor is the sidereal rotation period of a planet.

The sidereal rotation period of a planet is a factor that can help us determine which planets are eligible candidates for terraformation. Essentially, the sidereal rotation period (or “sidereal day”) gives us the length of what humanity perceives as a day on a planet. For example, the sidereal rotation period of Earth is 23.93472 hours, or about 24 hours as it is commonly observed to be. Ideally, the candidate for planetary terraformation would have to have a sidereal rotation period that is similar Earth’s.

Observing the data provided in the table above, planets Mercury and Venus boast extremely high sidereal rotation periods, 1,407.5 hours and 5,832.5 hours respectively. With the Dwarf Planet Pluto and Earth’s Moon being the lesser of the extreme sidereal rotation periods at 153.298 hours and 655.718 hours respectively. To perform planetary terraformation on any of these celestial bodies successfully would mean that organic lifeforms originating from Earth would have to somehow adapt to extremely long days.

The table also displays planets in which the sidereal rotation period is extremely short in comparison to that of an Earth day. Examples of such planets would be the following: Jupiter (9.925 hours), Saturn (10.57 hours), Dwarf Planet Ceres (9.074170 hours). In contrast to the previous situation, humans would instead have to adapt to extremely short days, which could provide the same adverse effects that living on a planet with extremely long days could produce. Additionally, four planets within our outer solar system (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) are gaseous planets and would increase the difficulty of planetary terraformation significantly due to the planets not having any known terrain to terraform in the first place.

Further observation of the table would show that there are planets that have sidereal rotation periods that are close to Earth’s sidereal rotation period. Uranus and Neptune have sidereal rotation periods of 17.24 hours and 16.1112 hours respectively, but both planets have the disadvantage of being gaseous planets as mentioned prior. However, there happens to be a planet that has a sidereal rotation period that is very similar to Earth’s and has the added benefit of not being a gaseous planet. At a sidereal rotation period of 24.6229 hours, days on Mars last only about 3 percent longer than days on Earth. At a glance, Mars seems like it would be the best candidate for planetary terraformation.

It should be noted that the length of the sidereal rotation period of Mars is not the only determining factor of candidacy for planetary terraformation. In addition to the advantage of having a similar sidereal rotation period to Earth, Mars has several other advantages that make it the likely candidate for planetary terraformation. As Vasileva et al. (2019) have stated, the advantages that Mars has that make it the most likely candidate for terraformation are listed as the following: A similar sidereal rotation period to Earth’s sidereal rotation period (as mentioned prior), the presence of frozen water on Mars as well as evidence that Mars used to be a warmer and wetter planet, the mineralogy and chemistry of Mars’ soil is suitable for life, and the presence of salts on Mars that are important to Earth-origin life.

With a candidate for planetary terraformation now chosen, we should now consider what is required to consider Mars a successfully terraformed planet capable of sustaining organic life originating from Earth. As previously discussed, Mars is the best candidate for a “Second Earth”. However, there are still major hurdles that need to be overcome as there are still some major differences between both planets. As an example, Mars has a surface gravity of (g = 3.711 m/s²) which is considerably lesser in comparison to Earth’s surface gravity (g = 9.807 m/s²). Another example would be that, Mars is also relatively colder (220K) in comparison to Earth (290K).

With these major differences in mind, we can now pinpoint what needs to be done in order to re-shape Mars into a “Second Earth”. As Paul Birch (1992) describes, in order to terraform Mars, we need accomplish the following three things: (1) Warm Mars to about 290K, (2) Increase the atmospheric pressure of Mars, supplying ~240 mbar of breathable oxygen, and finally, (3) Provide sufficient water to Mars in order to create a water-table and seas. Accomplishing these three things would result in the terraformation of Mars. However, the question still stands, “How are we to accomplish these things?”.

Mars is cooler on average in comparison to Earth due to it being farther away from the sun. Humanity would ideally seek to warm the temperature of Mars by ~70K in order to match it to the temperature of Earth. This could possibly be accomplished by increasing the greenhouse effect of the atmosphere of Mars. There have been several proposals to how humanity could increase the greenhouse effect of the Martian atmosphere. One such proposal suggests that the impact of ice asteroids could result in the increase of the greenhouse effect on Mars. Another proposal suggests that the release of artificial greenhouse agents could also result in the increase of the greenhouse effect on Mars. Unfortunately, according to Paul Birch (1992), such proposals “appear inadequate, uncertain, costly, or slow”.

However, there is one proposal that seems within realistic reach utilizing the technologies of Earth. This proposal involves positioning a large mirror in space between Mars and the Sun in order to assist in warming the planet. As seen in the figure above, this large space-mirror, also known as a soletta, is theorized to “augment the mean insolation and warm the planet (Mars) to any desired degree” (Birch). Birch (1992) then went on to further describe the process in detail: (The soletta) Manufactured in space from lunar or asteroidal resources, the soletta would consist of solar sail material – aluminized film of areal density ~3×10-4 kg/m-2. To match Earth’s insolation, an area ~2.5πR2 ~9×1013m2 would be required, massing ~3×1010kg… The sun’s track and appearance would then differ little from on Earth.

The cost of such a project is unknown, as there are no specific details on what materials the soletta would be. A soletta magnifying the sun would certainly raise the surface temperature of Mars to ~290K. However, the same cannot be said for the temperature of the Mars soil past 3 meters. The idea of the soletta is to heat up the remaining water on the planet, such that the volatiles (in this case, the important volatile being carbon dioxide) can replenish the atmosphere.

On the topic of the atmosphere, in order to make it a breathable atmosphere, there must be a supply of ~240mbar of free oxygen. If the soletta project is successful in heating up the soil of the planet, it is believed that the other volatiles (nitrogen and oxygen) would be liberated as well. As such, humanity would create a breathable atmosphere on Mars by warming the planet to our desired temperature of ~290K. However, as Birch (1992) states, “any excess carbon dioxide will have to be converted into oxygen”. One such way this can be accomplished is through the process of photosynthesis by plants, specifically grain plants, as they can handle the relatively low atmospheric pressure.

The growth and well being of these plants would require water, such that they can remove carbon dioxide from the air, as well as provide even more oxygen. At a glance, the planet of Mars seems to lack the very much needed resource of water. However, scientists have found that Mars does indeed have some water remaining in the form of the planet’s polar icecaps. Some scientists have also theorized the existence of water frozen beneath the surface of Mars. So, it is quite likely that Mars can provide a decent portion of the water required to complete the terraformation process.

Now that we have theorized what humanity can do, is it within reason? We know that there exists a suitable candidate for planetary terraformation in the form of Mars. However, according to recent discussions of the topic, the answer of “Can we?” falls into ambiguity. The reasoning for why the answer is ambiguous is described by Vasileva et al. (2019) as a result of the ambiguity of the term “terraformation”. The reason as to why humanity cannot produce a clear answer of whether it is or is not possible to perform planetary terraformation is because of the different ways that researchers may interpret the term “terraformation”. Can humanity reasonably create a “Second Earth”? It seems as though humanity currently cannot answer for sure, but the same could have been said for the possibility of space exploration in the 1960s.

As mentioned before, a common question that is asked when discussing the topic of planetary terraformation is the following: “Should we?”. Supposing that humanity did have the technology and the capability to perform wholescale planetary terraformation of Mars, is humanity within their right to make such extreme changes to the planet? Preservationists would say that we should keep the purity of the planet intact, and that any changes made to the planet intentionally would be considered wrong within our morality.

However, as Fogg (2000) describes, “the perceived problem with environmental ethics in its current form is tat it is geocentric in context”. Meaning that the issues that afflict us here on Earth, the moral issues of right and wrong, have no context within the vastness of space. The development of environmental ethics is reactive in nature to our response to environmental crisis here on Earth. However, if we were to travel outside the boundaries of our home, would it not make sense to have the approach to environmental ethics be proactive instead of reactive? Would we not have learned from the mistakes we have made and instead sought to prevent the same elsewhere within the cosmos?

One standpoint within the morality of terraforming Mars, by C.P McKay, says that the terraformation of Mars would be permissible provided that the planet was barren (McKay 1990). If there were to be life native to the planet found, it is within the moral obligation that humanity preserve that life and to maximize the richness and diversity of those indigenous life forms. In another standpoint by F. Turner (1994), it is within the moral obligation of humanity to terraform Mars. He views humanity as the bees of the universe, distributing the gift of life throughout the cosmos. He believes that we should do as such not because it is a poetically noble thing to do, but because it would also boost humanity’s confidence in how the planetary ecosystem works (Fogg 2000).

To answer the question, “Should we?”, would result in the same ambiguity that came from answering the question “Can we?”. There are too many different interpretations that humanity can go through when determining the answers to this question. It is within reason that humanity never know the true answers to these questions until we have accomplished the goal of terraforming a planet. However, if humanity were to attack this endeavor with the same zeal as we did in the 1960s, it is of my firm belief that we are entirely capable of performing planetary terraformation on such a scale.

Work Cited

1. Birch, Paul. “Terraforming Mars Quickly.” Journal of The British Interplanetary Society, vol. 45, 1992, pp. 331–340., https://orionsarm.com/fm_store/TerraformingMarsQuickly.pdf.
2. Earl, Michael A. “Calculating Earth’s Rotation Speed.” Canadian Astronomy, Satellite Tracking and Optical Research, 24 Dec. 2010, www.castor2.ca/16_Calc/03_Rotation/index.html.
3. Fogg, Martyn J. “The Ethical Dimensions of Space Settlement.” Space Policy, vol. 16, no. 3, 16 July 2000, pp. 205–211., doi:doi.org/10.1016/S0265-9646(00)00024-2.
4. Vasileva, Iv., et al. “TERRAFORMING MARS IS NOT OUT OF THE QUESTION YET – AND MICROSCOPIC ALGAE COULD HELP.” Trakia Journal of Sciences, vol. 1, 2019, pp. 8–12., doi:10.15547/tjs.2019.01.002.

Morality, in its broadest term is the line that bifurcates our every action and behaviour in to what is right and what is wrong. As a society, we have been blessed with the values passed to us from our previous generations, but in my view, moral values are an interplay of nature and nurture. Nature contributes to the predispositions which decide our ethics and nurture plays the role of experiences that shape up those ethics.

As children, we were exposed to fairy tales and mythologies, while these are the sweet memories most of us share from our childhood, they also help us in developing our moral compass. I still remember the famous story of “The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf”. This story made me understand that lying makes people lose their trust in you.

Not only this, our family members also have an integral role to play in our ethical development. Since our formative years, we are taught to behave in a certain manner with guests, peers and people younger and elder to us. It is with such learnings, that today we are perceived to be culturally with utmost positive regard.

But somehow, as times are changing, there seem to be dents in the bedrock of our values and thus giving rise to social problems. Today, coming from a rich lineage of culture and righteousness, our identity is changing to a society having issues such as juvenile delinquency, communal violence, youth agitations, unequal rights, alcoholism, drug addiction and crimes against women.

A social problem is identified as a value judgement, a feeling that a condition is detrimental and requires change. As a student, I have witnessed that causes of social problems stem due to social disorganization, wherein a democracy such as ours, loses it control over civilization, thus creating a lack of social control. Other than this, a conflict in values tend to arise from different social groups representing different set of values.

In order to reinstate a sense of confidence in our morals, it is imperative to bring about a social change. It is important for every person to have a feeling that the problem will be corrected, determination to correct the situation, confidence in the people of our nation, and the use of technological and rational skill for correcting the situation. According to me, integrating the subject of Morals and Values in schools will aide in attacking this issue at a grass root level. Other than this, promoting activity by Non Profit Organizations will also bring about a change at a national level.

Thus, in the end, I would like to conclude by stating that values and morals, make us stand apart from other species. It is the core of humanity and one should never lose them.

The human desire to seek perfection in an imperfect world has become more frequent as modern times have progressed. Society is composed of engineers that construct and produce technologies that simplify human life and grant overall efficiency. Civilians crave a world where their lives are made easier and can rely on machines to complete their tasks. However, at what cost does the rapid expansion of technology begin to take away from the qualities of humanity. Player Piano, by Kurt Vonnegut, analyzes how the protagonist, Paul Proteus is engulfed in a privileged environment that was mastered through his bloodline. Soon enough our protagonist is met with situations that motivate him to analyze his own life, which results in his pursuit to restore his own humanity and power. This novel dissects the different characters within a technologically run society and follows the life of a dissatisfied person who seeks to escape the routine of his current life. Paul longs for a life away from the domination of machines and learns how his surroundings have impacted his decisions. Paul Proteus’ attempts to departure from the monotony of his life brings to light the negative aspects of technology. The movie “Brazil”, as well as our current society, mimics the world of Paul Proteus, to demonstrate that a progression in technology is undermining humanity and surrendering power to machines.

Paul Proteus throughout his life was expected to fulfill the societal expectation of becoming an elite engineer, a role that was set forth by his father. Paul is a man that was born into power and therefore maintains the highest paying job in Ilium, New York. His father, George Proteus set high standards for him, as he introduced the significance of engineering in a world that can be simplified and advanced through the usage of machinery. “Paul would someday rise almost as high in the organization as his father had. His father…the nation’s first National Industrial, Commercial, Communications, Foodstuffs, and Resources Director, a position approached in importance only by the presidency of the United States” (Vonnegut 2). George Proteus obtained a status so high that his contributions and power in society surpassed the president of the United States. These significant accomplishments set high expectations for Paul Proteus and set the foundation for his life. Paul is the wealthiest man in Ilium and continues his dad’s legacy in inventing machinery to further simply human life. However, the constrained life that Paul was born into soon proves to be difficult for him as he lacks the energy and satisfaction to continue working in this engineering environment. “He remembered how Anita, shortly after their marriage, had dug up a picture of his father from a trunk and had had it enlarged and framed … the strength that got him to the top job in the economy came in the middle years of his life – came in the years Paul was just beginning.” (Vonnegut 54). Paul’s wife, Anita’s decision in enlarging and framing George Proteus’ image is symbolic of the pressure placed on Paul’s character. Paul is expected to live up to his father’s power and trace his ancestral footsteps in achieving power and intelligence. This overbearing pressure eventually causes dissatisfaction in Paul’s life as he recognizes that his life was not formulated by choice but rather by bloodline. The life that he lives is constructed by expectation and machinery, which proves to be insufficient to provide Paul Proteus any source of happiness.

Kurt Vonnegut claims “this book is not a book about what is, but a book about what could be” (Vonnegut 1). The circumstances that Paul faces in the novel parallel situations in our modern world, that signify our declining humanity. Paul’s views on the first and second industrialized revolution demonstrate the power that technology has over humans. When analyzing Paul’s writing his secretary claims, “That part where you say how the First Industrial Revolution devalued muscle work, then the second one devalued routine mental work. I was fascinated” (Vonnegut 13). Engineers are aware of the benefits provided by technology to help humans live a simplified life. However, once machines dominate all labor and mental work, there is not much left for humanity to execute. As humans, we have the power of free will and the ability to think for ourselves to make choices that determine our life. Paul states if a third revolution were to occur then “machines that devalue human thinking” would exist (Vonnegut 13). This revelation would further damage humanity as it would leave humans without the ability to think, harming free will. Although technology is a useful resource in society, it also proves to be detrimental as it takes away the value of having a work ethic and the pride of achieving personal goals. The author states that this book is about what could be, which is currently what the generation is experiencing. Humans rely on technology to simplify their life and give viable solutions to daily problems. However, these machines could also lead to the destruction of employment and human purpose. Rudy Hertz, an old engineer symbolizes the people living in Homestead, who are not managers, engineers or professionals. Rudy is an old man who is always found at the bar drinking to forget the internal pain that he has caused himself and others. Rather than living a prideful life in which he is recognized for his work and talent, he instead placed himself and all other machinists out of work. This instance validates the idea of machines taking over human action. For example, in our current society, there are several technologies, such as restaurant kiosks and factory machines that have been utilized to increase productivity and eliminate human error. These advanced machines have taken human employment and render human abilities as useless. The possibility of technology making our decisions and thinking for us is harmful to humanity as there will be no longer any purpose for our existence.

With an expansion of technology intertwined within society, humans are becoming more dependent on machines to complete tasks that they are capable of performing on their own. A symbolic event in the novel demonstrates how our reliance on technology has become so apparent that we lose ourselves when machines begin to fail. The game of checkers in Player Piano represents the battle between machine and man. A young engineer challenges Paul to a checker championship to demonstrate his invention of Checker Charley. Paul initially refuses to compete with the belief that he will lose. However, his companion, Finnerty convinces him to play against the machine. As the game progresses, there is a malfunction in Checker Charley which leads to its defeat, crowning Paul as the winner. This symbolic scene signifies that we cannot always depend on technology to complete our tasks. The more power that we give to machines, the more we damage ourselves when these machines fail to function properly. ‘If Checker Charley was out to make chumps out of men, he could damn well fix his own connections. Paul looks after his own circuits; let Charley do the same. Those who live by electronics, die by electronics’ (Vonnegut 52). As humans we can fix our own connections, however, machines cannot do that on their own. The people who depend and live by their electronics, die by their electronics. Once defeat has become apparent and the machines begin to glitch, humans must rely on their own abilities to complete tasks. This idea of reliance relates to the society in the movie “Brazil”. In a government-centered society, humans depend on strict rules that guide them as if they are robots. In the film, one scene shows two repairmen who need to fix an air vent. These men went into a panic when the phrase “27B-6” was said. This phrase refers to paperwork that is necessary for the repairmen to be able to fix the air conditioning. Once the men realized that the paperwork was not brought they went into a deep panic, which signifies the control that bureaucracy has on them. The society in this movie cannot function without the correct paperwork and approval of their government. Similarly, the theme of control and reliance is found in the novel as humans depend on technology to rule and dictate their lives.

Paul Proteus soon realizes that the dissatisfaction that he has with life is due to his expectation of following his father’s footsteps and relying heavily on machines. Paul’s friend Finnerty, is a man who does not care about what others think of him. As Paul struggles with finding his happiness he begins to find himself envying Finnerty’s mentality. “Paul wondered about his own deep drives as he realized … Paul, might be content, if only – and let the thought stop there, as though he knew vaguely what lay beyond. He didn’t. Paul envied Finnerty’s mind” (Vonnegut 31). This is the point in the novel when Paul begins to question his mentality and his lifestyle. He admires Finnerty’s ability to act undisciplined, which prompts him to think about a world that lies beyond his own. This curiosity allows Paul to realize that his happiness can be found away from his current life and within the environment of the common people. “All his life they had been hidden from him by the walls of his ivory tower. Now, this night, he had come among them … and Paul loved these common people, and wanted to help, and let them know they were loved and understood, and he wanted them to love him too” (Vonnegut 88). When Paul visits Homestead with Finnerty he is placed into the world of the common people, who do not devote their lives to creating machines. This environment is opposite to Paul’s everyday life. In Ilium works, Paul is powerful and intelligent yet unhappy and discontent with his reality. The same emotions are felt by Sam Lowry in the movie “Brazil.” He is annoyed with the ruling of the bureaucracy so much so that his dreams reflect the man that he wants to become. He wants to be a man who is free of dominating factors that control his life and determine his decisions. This same hope is shared with Paul who seeks to escape a life that is governed by machines and takes away the purpose of human life. Paul states, ‘The main business of humanity is to do a good job of being human beings, not to serve as appendages to machines, institutions, and systems’ (Vonnegut 273). This statement illuminates the imperfection of humanity as it demonstrates how societal perception of life has changed. The belief that some people have is to depend on technology to do their work and thinking for oneself. Technology is integrated into every part of human lives and current society uses it as a means of escape. As class discussions have shown, the majority of people find ways to distract themselves from doing work through means of technology. This demonstrates that as a society we are afraid to recognize the truth of technologies and instead of analyzing the harm that it can do in damaging humanity we rely on it to push those fears away.

The attempt to escape an industrialized life is difficult in a society that is already advanced and afraid to revert back. Paul Proteus recognizes the damage of machines on human life and gives up his success to make a personal change. Paul’s decision to break free from his history and the dominance of technology leads him to buy a farm, which symbolizes the contradiction of his whole life. “‘You’re certainly eager to sell me the place, said Paul, laughing. With each new inconvenience, the place became more irresistible. It was a completely isolated backwater, cut off from the boiling rapids of history, society, and the economy. Timeless” (Vonnegut 130). The farm embodies an escape for Paul to isolate himself from the history of society and the economy. This step indicates that his mind was set to quit his past life in continuation of finding one that would bring him happiness. This decision results in objection from Paul’s wife, Anita, who is a selfish woman that is brainwashed by the success of machinery. Her mentality remains the same as she rejects Paul’s desire to reside on the farm, away from the life of Ilium works. Anita shares no sympathy for those who are suffering from the advancement of technology in their society. This mentality parallels Sam Lowry’s mother in “Brazil” as she urges her son to take a promotion that he is offered and move further up in the government. She does not analyze the suffering of the people who are under the control of bureaucracy as long as she is succeeding. Most individuals who benefit in society do not worry about those who are struggling as long as it does not affect them. In modern times, these comparative qualities can be attached to Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook. He also upholds selfish characteristics as he does things for the betterment of his career and platform. At the expense of user privacy and social media addiction, Zuckerberg continues to advance his platform to intrigue users. Proteus recognizes that in order to be happy, he must be selfless and isolate himself from the dependency of machinery. However, his dreams are idealistic as he seeks a simpler life that does not depend heavily on machines and technological domination. Humans are now too dependent on technology that there is no way for everyone to revert back and dismiss machines and their power. Paul can change his personal world, however the same cannot be done for all of society.

Society is comprised of humans that seek technology to simplify life and increase productivity. Player Piano, by Kurt Vonnegut, analyzes how Paul Proteus seeks to escape the monotony of his life and instead resort to a simplistic world that is not dominated by machinery. The novel using symbolic figures to demonstrate the challenges between man and machine, as well as analyzing how different characters react to change. The movie “Brazil” parallels the novel as the protagonist attempts to remove himself from the control of bureaucracy. Both the movie and the novel analyze how controlling elements in society take away from humanity and how the attempt to seek change in pursuit of happiness is frowned upon by individuals who are afraid to let go of an environment that they are accustomed to.

Introduction to the Multifaceted Impact of War on Humanity

This paper explores a number of texts that support the idea of what the effects of war on humanity are, for example, an article by the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Those effects include the changing of morals, the displacement of people, the mental illnesses developed by war such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and finally the division war creates between people.

In the modern world, most have heard of the term war, whether it has directly impacted humanity or not. War is not a new idea, it has been around for a long time. The World Wars in the 1900s and their catastrophes brought upon humanity are a great example of what war is capable of. Today the discussion is about what are the effects of war on humanity? The effects of war on humanity include, the changing of morals, the displacement of people, mental illnesses developed by war, and the division created between humans. In further detail, the following texts will be analyzed: The Destructors by Graham Greene, Lather but Nothing Else by Hernando Tellez, The Box by Merve Cirisoglu Cotur, White Helmets by Orlando von Einsiedel, The Last Letter by James Clark Jr, A Look into the Mental Health Crisis in Syria by, the International Rescue Committee, and The Sniper by Liam O’Flaherty.

Moral Dilemmas and Behavioral Changes Induced by War

The impact that war has can change our morals and views on the idea of right and wrong, especially in children. This can promote future violence in communities and areas where war has made a significant appearance. Whilst this behavior continues, we can expect rising criminal activity and incarceration for severe and petty crime because people lose sight of right and wrong when surrounded by such terrible conflict. This kind of turmoil is seen in the short story The Destructors by Graham Greene. Specifically, the gang of kids presented in the story. The teens view, “destruction as a kind of creation” (Greene, 1954, p.7 ), instead of a bad thing. Most likely because the war conditioned them into that mindset; which later leads to the demolition of an elderly man’s home, leaving the man in turn homeless. This affects humanity because when you have young individuals who think this way, the future is going to be directly impacted as a result because they are our future. Additionally, moral shift is also seen in the story called Lather but Nothing Else by Hernando Tellez. In this story, we are introduced to a local barber living in the time of a civil war in Columbia, South America. One afternoon, this barber had a welcoming visit from the leader of the opposition in the civil war asking for a shave. While shaving the man’s beard, the barber begins having morbid thoughts of killing the man in cold blood while also trying to reason with his morals. For example: “I am a revolutionary but not a murderer and it would be so easy to kill him. He deserves it. Or does he?” ( Hernando, 1950, Pg 3). He eventually convinces himself into not killing the man. Now if it weren’t for the war and its impacts on the barber’s community, the barber would have never had to experience the thought of killing another man in cold blood for the sake of doing good for his own cause.

The Harsh Reality of Displacement Caused by Conflict

War displaces families and people due to destruction of homes and landscapes making those areas uninhabitable. Displacement in a situation of conflict is essentially the act of seeking refuge and the moving of people caused by an internal conflict. This results in greater cases of identity crisis in younger refugee populations because most children have had to leave home at a young age and haven’t gotten to experience their family’s culture and traditions. We can expect to see higher rates of depression, confusion, and the worst-case scenario, alienation from society. This type of thing is seen in the short film, The Box, by Merve Cirisoglu Cotur. In the beginning, the main character, a young boy who is living in Syria when war wasn’t as apparent. From a viewer’s perspective, the boy starts out having a happy and healthy life, which included a family, a home, and his pet. A very normal lifestyle for a child. Then the film takes a turn and progresses into a series of bombings started because of a war conflict emerging. The result of the bombings left the boy homeless and at a loss of a family. The boy begins wandering for somewhere safe and in this story, safety is across the ocean. This is an especially good example because most refugees are children, and have lost family. According to statistics provided by the short film, “ More than 6 million children have been displaced from their homes” (Cotur, 2016, T. 6:18). Those children are then usually left alone and confused and with no sense of identity in the foreign countries they seek refuge in. Most deal with culture shock and are forced to deal with the difficult change. Furthermore, another example of displacement is in an article detailing the journey of a family from Syria trying to seek refuge in Germany. The story, Salma’s Story: One Refugee Family’s Journey From Syria to Germany written by Cassandra Vinograd and Ben Adams is a perfect example of displacement due to war. In the text it is mentioned that Salma’s home and everything was destroyed: “They attack us with gun, with helicopter, with everything,” she also said, “They attack us, they destroy our house… we didn’t have anything. We lost everything in Syria” (Vinograd & Adams, 2015). The loss of a home directly impacts families as seen in this example. Those displaced will struggle and could face poverty and more societal issues.

Mental Health Crises: The Invisible Wounds of War

With the continuous exposure of battle, citizens can start to develop mental illnesses such as PTSD, depression, and anxiety. Having these illnesses presents greater threats, like high rates of poverty and in worse cases, homelessness. This is portrayed very well in the article, A Look into the Mental Health Crisis in Syria by, the International Rescue Committee. Currently, in Syria, “ more than 50 percent of Syria’s population is in need of mental health support ” (IPC, 2018). This is half the population that is dealing with a mental health issue caused by war. Having such high mental health issues like these prove to be linked to higher homelessness rates, because when people can’t function due to trauma, it puts a strain on the workforce. For example, in an article by the IRC describes one case they faced: “ I went to visit a family at their home-you couldn’t imagine the situation. I found four men between the ages of 18-40, all of them parlyzed by mental disabilities. Both parents are old and cannot work” ( IRC, 2018). This absolutely will drive many families into poverty if there is a lack of people who can support each other or themselves. Another example is seen in The Last Letter by James Clark. A letter written by a dying soldier addressed to his family. The letter shows deep emotion and pain transcribed through words, for instance the parents reacted very emotionally, “A tear ran down her cheek [a]s she read the words he wrote” (Clark Jr, 2012, Line 1-2). The effects of an overwhelming experience like this can drive some people into depression and hurt individuals tremendously. The loss of a family member can be very unbearing, especially when believing that there is no need for war. This is a big impact due to war, and the consequences that follow. Again, with rising rates of poverty caused by mental illness, it can create dangerous environments with homelessness rates rising or even the stability of individuals who may react negatively and possibly hurt somebody or pass on blame.

The Divisive Power of War: Tearing Communities Apart

War has the effect of dividing people. This becomes apparent when families start to clash because of differing world views. People might start treating individuals differently and assess their opinions and feelings on others based on their political stance. For example, in the story The Sniper by Liam O’Flaherty, Ireland is in the middle of a civil war. The people of Ireland become divided because one group of citizens agreed to becoming a free state in the British empire and another group agreed to complete independence. With such divided political views a civil war broke out between the two parties, resulting in many casualties. For one of those citizens, the casualty was his brother. A firefight between a group of people on a street and building ended with the killing of a brother: “ The sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother’s face” ( O’Flaherty, 1923, p. 4). When humans get to this point and can’t work with each other as a whole, it can stunt a country’s growth due to the people’s unwillingness to cooperate with each other. The outbreak of violence can also become generational and carry over. For example, in countries such as Pakistan or Afghanistan where the Polio disease was present the process of innovating a cure was stunted when outer countries helped. The division and conflict between people in these countries delayed the need for innovation and capabilities of curing the disease. Another example of political division can be visually represented in the documentary, The White Helmets directed by Orlando von Einsiedel. This documentary based around the conflict of the Syrian civil war, lays out a perfect example of division in Syria. The people wanted a difference in the country, and so they protested. The protesters were treated inhumanely and were killed by members of government as well as bystanders who disagreed ( “Why is there a war in Syria?”, 2019). After a while of conflict, the sense of division becomes a lot more present and is basically boiled down to a winners side versus a losers side.

Conclusion: Reflecting on the Enduring Effects of War

Overall, the effects of war on humanity boil down to impacts on mental health, the division of people, the displacement of people, and finally the changing of morals. Be it resolved that war does impact humanity and can cause long term problems such as PTSD, depression, culture shock and worse.

References

1. A look into the mental health crisis in Syria. (2018, October 9). Retrieved from https://www.rescue.org/article/look-mental-health-crisis-syria.
2. Greene, G. (2017, December 7). The Destructors . Retrieved from https://www.shortstoryproject.com/story/the-destructors/.
3. Jr, J. C. (2012, October). The Last Letter. Retrieved from https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/the-last-letter.
4. O’Flaherty, L. (1923, January 12). The Sniper–Liam O’Flaherty (1897-1984). Retrieved from https://www.classicshorts.com/stories/sniper.html.
5. (2018, August 16). Retrieved November 18, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwCtWfwYlkw.
6. Tellez, H. (1950). Lather And Nothing Else. Retrieved from http://mrquarrie.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/1/0/10102453/just_lather_thats_all.pdf.
7. The White Helmets: Reflections & Quotes. (2016, September 28). Retrieved from https://vialogue.wordpress.com/2016/09/23/the-white-helmets-reflections-quotes/.
8. Vinograd, C., & Adams, B. (2016, March 7). Salma’s Story: One Refugee Family’s Journey From Syria to Germany. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/europes-border-crisis/refugee-crisis-one-familys-jour ney-syria-germany-n425636.
9. Why is there a war in Syria? (2019, February 25). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35806229.

In the international crime spectrum the “Crimes Against Humanity” is a consolidation of many brutal and morally unjust crimes. This offense was ratified in the Nürnberg Charter and integrated to the Roman Statute of the ICC. The ICC (International Criminal Court) defines this violation of the law as “Crimes against humanity consist of various acts—murder, extermination, enslavement, torture, forcible transfers of populations, imprisonment, rape, persecution, enforced disappearance, and apartheid, among others—when, according to the ICC , those are “committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population. “The term also has a broader use in condemning other acts that, in a phrase often used, “shock the conscience of mankind.” World poverty, human-made environmental disasters, and terrorist attacks have thus been described as crimes against humanity. The broader use of the term may be intended only to register the highest possible level of moral outrage, or the intention may be to suggest that such offenses be recognized, formally, as legal offenses.

Considered either as a legal offense or as a moral category, the concept of crimes against humanity embodies the idea that individuals who either make or follow state policy can be held accountable by the international community. It thus modifies traditional notions of sovereignty according to which state leaders and those who obeyed them enjoyed immunity. Political and legal theorists have justified that challenge to the idea of sovereignty in several ways. For some, a crime against humanity is simply an inhumanity of an especially gross type. For others, major atrocities have the potential to damage international peace, for they are either a prelude to external aggression or have effects that spill over state borders. For still others, genocide is at the core of crimes against humanity; the term crime against humanity was first officially used in condemning the Armenian Genocide and was first adopted in law as a response to the Holocaust. Genocidal attacks on people on the basis of group membership implicitly deny the victims’ human status, according to that view, thus affronting all human beings. Yet others reject those views and focus rather on the basic nature of state authority: states are justified only by their capacity to protect their citizens, and, when their powers turn atrociously against a state’s own citizens, they lose all warrants, and those who direct and obey them become subject to judgment and sanction by the entire human community. How to distribute blame between those who direct and those who follow is, however, a contested issue in both morality and law.” This legal definition of the ICC states that a crime against humanity is an attack on a civilian population.

Furthermore, crimes against humanity involve large-scale violent acts on a variety of different victims of a geographic area. These acts can be methodical meaning that these acts were pre-planned and where systematically carried out by an organized group of followers. Moreover, the main differing factor between genoside and a crime against humanity is that crimes against humanity does not require the target to be a specific group of people, it can be an attack on any mixture of a civilian populous. Unfortunately, as history displays there have been many examples of this type of brutal and unjust crimes. Some places recently affected by the multitude of these heinous crimes include The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Darfur, Sudan, Central African Republic, Kenya, Libya,Central African Republic II, Georgia, Burundi. The commonality shared by these countries is that all of them are considered developing countries that have massive problems with the government and the enforcement of its laws. Also statistically these countries are plagued with an intoxicating and alarming amount of corruption. Corruption makes its way up the political chain usually plaguing the entirety of the government. All these factors lead to the inability to effectively control the citizens within the state. Thus, these inabilities lead to certain groups taking advantage of the loopholes presented by the system and committing crimes of unthinkable magnitude. Thus, the ICC has tried many cases involving this violation.

A fairly recent case the ICC tried that involved the charge of crimes against humanity occurred in February of 2016. The crimes at hand occurred in Kenya. The accused involved a politician and a radio broadcaster during the post election phase in 2007. According to the case bio from the ICC the background of the two men are “At the time of the post-election violence (PEV), William Ruto was a prominent ODM member. A power-sharing government emerged after the conflict, with Ruto serving as a cabinet minister. In 2013, Ruto became Kenya’s deputy president with former political adversary and fellow ICC suspect Uhuru Kenyatta elected as president.Joshua Sang was an influential radio broadcaster at Nairobi’s Kass FM radio.” Hence, the Kenyan politician William Ruto and the radio broadcaster named Joshua Sang were charged by the ICC (International Criminal Court) with orchestrating and advocated a series of crimes that resulted in massive amounts of violence that followed the presidential elections in 2007. Both the men conspired with each other and coordinated numerous systematic attacks on the PNU supporters across the Rift Valley. According to statistics of BBC “Some 1,200 people were killed and more than half a million were forced to flee their homes during inter-ethnic clashes driven by fierce political rivalries and the pursuit of power” thus, these attacks quickly became so brutal and victimized so many innocent civilians that they were immediately considered crimes against humanity. Six hundred and twenty eight victims were commissioned during this cases proceedings. Both these men were mandated to show up before the ICC in 2011. The pretrials began in September of that year and all the judges deemed that there was substantial evidence to confirm the charges against these men.

Moreover, there was another man who was deemed to have involvement in this case named Henry Kosgey however, the judges believed that there was a lack of substantial evidence present and declined his charges. The trial was set to officially begin sometime during 2012. During this trial however, many aspects began to not add up. There where numerous inconsistencies with the witnesses called to the stand. Thus, judges of the ICC were forced to drop the case because of a “lack” of evidence, the prosecutor made the statement that there was “widespread witness and evidence tampering.” However, the prosecution could not prove this tampering because there was insufficient evidence. The tampering occurred in the form of killing a number of witnesses before the trial. These actions directly lead back to corruption. These actions make the role of corruption blatantly obvious because there is no way that these people just so happened to be killed randomly right before the trial , there was an obvious execution order placed on their heads ignorer to minimize the evidence against the accused. The ICC officially stated “On 5 April 2016, Trial Chamber V(a) vacated the charges against Ruto and Sang, bringing the trial to a close. The Chamber, however, did not grant Ruto’s request for acquittal nor Sang’s “no case to answer” motion and underlined that the case may be reopened if the prosecutor can provide new evidence. While two of the Chamber’s three judges concurred that the trial should end, they had differing reasons for ruling as such. Judge Robert Fremr found that the evidence presented by the prosecution was insufficient to potentially lead to a judgment of guilt.

Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji agreed but preferred the term “mistrial” as he found it likely that the prosecution case was weakened by witness intimidation and political interference. In her dissent, Judge Olga Herrera Carbuccia argued that the prosecution case had not “broken down” as alleged by the defense and that the trial should continue.” This excerpt from the ICC displays that there are in-fact many challenges present during these case proceedings. Furthermore, on account of this the BBC added by releasing official statements from interviews “The court’s decision will come as a blow to the victims of the violence, and their families, who want to know the truth behind what happened, who was responsible – and to claim compensation.’This ruling does not mean the violence didn’t occur, it does not mean that the victims do not exist,’ said Nelly Warega, a human rights lawyer who represents some of the victims.The pain and ethnic rifts are still felt today, as nobody has yet been held accountable for fomenting the violence which was widely seen as having been organized rather than spontaneous.” In this excerpt from the BBC interviews puts emphasis on the fact that even though there was an unexpected lack of evidence for the prosecution’s argument and the case was dropped and new insights are going to be continuously added until justice could be served.

The prosecutors faced a grave amount of problems and challenges when assembling arguments for this case. These challenges came in a variety of different forms. For example many of the witnesses where reportedly killed shorty before the trial. After these mysterious deaths many witnesses withdrew their participation from the case or just simply withdrew their testimony from the official transcript. Furthermore, many witnesses were considered hostile by the judges. When a witness is declared hostile in a courtroom setting the questioning side has the right to ask any and all questions, and the other side cannot object. Thus, declaring a witness hostile retracts all objections like hearsay and opens the line of questioning. Thus, this worked perfectly for the defense in this case. With these events happening the prosecution faced challenges that they were not initially prepared for. This is so because this is the first time in the history of the ICC that witnesses where declared hostile by the judges. Furthermore, the defense preached that the prosecution coached the witnesses testimonies for financial incentives. Another challenge faced was that the defense argued that there where jurisdictional issues present in the case. The reasoning the defense gave for this argument was “In March 2011, Kenya challenged the admissibility of the ICC case against Ruto and Sang (and Kosgey). It claimed that the country was undergoing a comprehensive legal and judicial reform and intended to investigate and prosecute the cases domestically. In rejecting the challenge, Pre-Trial Chamber II found there were no such ongoing domestic proceedings with respect to the three ICC suspects. The Appeals Chamber confirmed this decision in August 2011.On 30 August 2011, the defense for Ruto and Sang challenged the Court’s jurisdiction over the case, arguing that the level of organization and structure within which the crimes were allegedly committed did not reach the requisite level for crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute”. However the court ultimately denied the motion to suppress declaring the there was full jurisdiction in this matter.

More challenges during this trial where security reasons and the safety of the court. The hearing where set to take place in the Hague because of the security threats outside of this location. Lastly, another challenge faced during this case was the applicability of amend rule 68. The ICC states “In 2015, trial judges agreed to the prosecutor’s request to use an amendment to rule 68 of the ICC’s Rules of Procedure and Evidence (RPE) to present during trial pre-recorded testimony from five prosecution witnesses who had recanted their statements. Both Ruto and Sang appealed the decision, arguing that the ICC’s governing body, the Assembly of States Parties (ASP), had explicitly decided when it amended rule 68 in November 2013 that the amendment would not apply in trials that had already begun—the Ruto/Sang trial opened 10 September 2013.As the Appeals Chamber was considering the matter, Kenya pressured States Parties to include in a report of the 14th ASP session in November 2015 an interpretation of the amended rule, affirming it could not be applied retroactively. While including the requested Kenyan language in the final report created no legal obligations for states or the ICC, civil society strongly condemned Kenya’s attempt to have the Assembly influence the decision-making of independent ICC judges. In February 2016, the Appeals Chamber decided that trial judges had erred in finding the pre-recorded testimony admissible in the Ruto/Sang case, pointing to Rome Statute provisions on non-retroactivity and the fact that the rule amendment was adopted after the opening of the trial. Presiding Judge Piotr Hofmanski, however, stressed that the Chamber’s decision was based solely on the Statute’s prohibition on retroactive application of rule changes that are to the detriment of the accused. Judge Hofmanski further noted that the drafting history of the ASP’s amendment did not reveal that it could not be applied to pending cases as argued by Kenya.” This official statement from the ICC shows that sometimes set arguments do not go as planned. Thus is is explicitly evident that there where numerous challenges present in the duration of this trial. These obstacles eventually led to the case being dismissed for the time being.

In-order to make the ICC’s work more efficient new solutions to handle cases such as this one should be mandated into place. A major one would be a witness protection program meaning that these witnesses wouldn’t be killed off. If proper witness protection is set, then witnesses will not have to recant their testimonies out of fear. Also new treaties could be set forward in order to diminish violence. Furthermore, a preemptive solution to this problem would be setting better limitations and control in place in order to diminish these crimes. Moreover, “The European Council’s decision to create a ‘Network of contact points in respect of persons responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes’ in 2002 marked a first step in increasing cooperation and the exchange of information in prosecuting international crimes. The hearing was told that Western European states and the EU as a whole are uniquely situated to serve as examples to the wider international community of how universal jurisdiction can be strengthened as an effective, practical and realistic means of combating impunity for the worst international crimes. Also, there is a need to better use existing laws and ensure that international law doesn’t lead to conflicting jurisdictions” if there is a solid agreement on jurisdiction the proceeding will go smoother. Thus, this is why the ICC is working hard ignorer to achieve Universal Jurisdiction. If this is achieved then there won’t be an issue of jurisdiction in the courtroom.

In conclusion, Crimes Against Humanity are barbarous crimes that are performed on innocent citizens. In the case of Ruto and Sang political greed and hunger led them to commit crimes of unthinkable consequences that affected thousands of innocent people. Sadly because of unlawful tampering with evidence these men still roam free without consequence. Thus, many reforms should be instituted in place in-order to bring justice to the people and imprison the guilty. Certain reforms are necessary to ensure the unbiased proceedings of the court.