Last Ramble

So for the last blog assignement I get to talk about absolutely anything, as such I will start rambling a bit about one of my interests, namely history!
One of the most fun ways to think about and discuss history lies in the question "what if". For example, what if the Germans beat the Soviets in World War 2? Or what if Columbus never managed to get to the "new world"?

Those two examples, with some variations, might be some of the most famous "what ifs" discussed in recent times, which in part probably has to do with the US dominance in world politics (i.e both these "what if" scenarios would likely have had a great effect on the US).

However, there are plenty "what ifs" that most people don't really know about that would very likely have had an absolutely enormous impact on the entire world.  For example, what if the Chinese empire administration during the 15th century had been able and willing to keep funding science and research, such as the famous sea voyages of Admiral Zheng He. Would they have been able to find and colonize the Americas? Would they have had superior weapons and technology to dominate the world much in the same way that Europe did later? There's no answer to these questions but there are factors and reasons explained by these things that didn't happen that can help us understand why the world is as it is today.

There are plenty more of these "what if" scenarios that could have made the world turn in a completely different direction; what if the Ottoman turks failed in their conquest of the Balkans? Would we have had a World War without the powderkeg that was the Balkans back then? What event would have taken it's place?

What if there were horses, pigs and cows in the Americas before the Europeans got there? Would the old Incan and Aztec empires have been more resistant to the "old world" plagues that brought them down?
For anyone wondering why horses, pigs and cows (domesticated animals) would've made such a difference, they've essentially allowed humans to live in large cities and communities wherein diseases have spread between animals and humans, think of the modern day bird or pig flu and you'll get the idea. For a better and more comprehensive explanation of why this would be of major importance I'd recommend you to watch this youtube clip.
 
There are thousands of these "what if" scenarios and they are a large part of what makes history enjoyable to study and read about for me!
 

ENGAT2 First assignement

My thoughts on what will happen in:

i) 5 years
I honestly don't think much will have time to change in the world in the coming five years, but some current events will have evolved though; the United States will have a new president, the conflict in Syria will hopefully have sputtered out and the Ukraine/Russian conflict cooled down (with Russia likely keeping the crimean penninsula). Being very pessimistic, I also think that it is likely that some sort of terror attack will happen in a major european city.
In terms of technology and science I don't think any revolutionary will happen; some sort of new mobile network will be released (6g?) and implemented here in Sweden – and we will also likely see something like ten new different versions of the iPhone. There might be a new medical catastrophe (like the recent zika-virus outbreak or the ebola outbreak a while ago) and the medical field will have to adapt. On top of that there will be more focus on the growing problem of anti-biotic resistant bacteria.
Another topic that will continue to receive a lot of attention is of course the ever-growing problem of the environment – however I remain a pessimist and don’t think there will be any good news here.

ii) 6-60 years

The middle-east will continue to be in upheaval for a long time with likely revolutions or civil wars occurring anywhere in the troubled region, but with some luck things might tether out – but there is also a chance that the chaos spreads, most likely then to more regions of Africa. In short, the middle-east will continue to be a political hotbed for the coming 50 years or so.

Hopefully a global network for cellphones and internet will be developed, making the world even more interconnected. There might also be some new innovations in the energy field, giving more of world cheap and readily available electricity which will probably help reduce the inequality in the world.

On the topic of inequality I think the world will become much more equal in terms of money and opportunity at least, new technological advances will benefit larger and larger parts of the world and make life easier for the masses.  

So I’ve read the book ”My Early Life” by Winston S. Churchill. And yes, that’s the famous British prime minister, he choose to use the “S” (which is short for his middle name Spencer) in his name as not to get confused with the American writer Winston Churchill who was active at the same time. The two had a very interesting letter conversation where they discussed the matter, in which you can read the really symbolic wit of the famous prime minister (you can find the letter he wrote here¹, the American Churchills response is equally witty).

In the book Churchill writes about his own experiences growing up, and you can almost hear his characteristic voice when you’re reading. It’s really interesting getting to know about his upbringing and early career as most people only know of his accomplishments during the Second World War, and for those accomplishments he is perhaps correctly recognized as “the man of the twentieth century”, as some acclaim him. Since most people know him only as one of the great leaders during the Second World War most of his accomplishments are somewhat forgotten, and perhaps that is why he is remembered in such a good way. Looking back at some of his political views and actions (which he doesn’t really go into in the book) as a person from the twenty-first century it might seem like he was actually a cruel or sinister man, however one must remember that he is certainly a product of his time – and the actions that we remember him by certainly are worthy of making him famous. But for example, during the great famine in the Bengal region of India (1943-1944) Churchill stated to the Secretary of State for India “I hate Indians”, "They are a beastly people with a beastly religion" and he declared that the famine was their own fault for "breeding like rabbits”².Hardly the words that made him an icon, and few probably know that he said them. 
During the First World War, when he was First Lord of the Admiralty, he sent thousands to their deaths needlessly, which of course wasn’t uncommon during those times but the ideas he pushed for tended to end badly, most notably in the Gallipoli campaign³ (Gallipoli is a peninsula close to Istanbul) which eventually made him lose his post and he became politically ostracized for some time. On top of what we today would call his barbaric tendencies he was by all sources a raging alcoholic who drank obscene amounts daily.

To summarize, he was a witty and brilliant leader who also was very human with many faults, but he probably will, and should, be remembered as one the great leaders of time.

(Give the book a read if you want to learn more of Churchill the human, and not the character!)

References

1.       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill_as_writer#Confusion_with_the_American_novelist_of_the_same_name)

2.       http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2031992,00.html

3.       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallipoli_Campaign

For this assignment we were asked to watch the TED talks "Are droids taking our jobs" and "Life in the Digital now" and then try to type down our thoughts and feelings about one of the presentations.
So after watching both I decided on trying to get some of my thoughts about the first one written down in this blog.
First of all, I have to say that I think this will probably be a political problem in the future, if it isn't already. The thing with political problems is that they are subject to opinion, and everyone got their own. Right away I suspect a sort of a conservative view that will argue that droids, robots or machines "stealing" our jobs will have a huge negative impact on the world at large and to counteract this group there will be a progressive camp that will argue that the machines will take humanity into a new era, a utopian like place where we will have time to do other things that Andrew argued for.
With all that being said, I for one still have no real opinion about this matter as I find to hard to predict what will happen - and I don't think that anyone can get close what reality will actually make of the future, sort of how the people of the 19th centuary predicted how life would be for us,

Even with that being said, I'd still like to finish using the same quote as Andrew McAfee did

"I, for one, welcome our new computer overlords."

Thoughts and reflections on the first assignement

This post will tackle the first blog assignment for my English class at Karlstad university.

We were asked to read and reflect on the article 'From relationships and revolutions: seven ways Facebook has changed the world' which can be summarized as an attempt to describe how the broad masses, companies and large groups are using the instrument in the world today as well as what impact Facebook has had on the world.
However the article doesn't delve into the meaning of what Facebook has changed for the individual, which is what I would argue have had the greatest impact on our lives. Sure enough the way companies market they products or how political entities push their agenda through facebook is a massive change in how we consume media, to draw a parallel from the past, facebook, (and internet), is to TV what the TV was to the radio some decades ago. But the way we interact with people is probably what has changed more than anything, and it will possibly change even more as long as internet, Facebook and similiar things keep on gaining popularity and accessibility.
Of course Facebook is just a small contributing factor in the grand scheme of things but in the age where Internet is still truly on a rise Facebook will prosper.

/PB