Creative Persuits

The best thing in life is cyborg implants. Imagine waking up in the morning with the strength of ten pterodactyls, the knowledge of all Wikipedia sites and eyes of an octopus. With robotic implants it would be easy to do tasks that normal humans would find almost impossible. Having a cyborg implants in the brain one could access the entire knowledge of all the computer data bases in the world. Thousands of zettabytes of information could be accessed with a single thought. A cyborg implant could even be used to calculate the information and win at games like Jeopardy, similar to the supercomputer named Watson. Cyborg implants one could break the world record for speed walking while simultaneously writing a thesis for a doctorate for physics. Instead of having to spend years researching an interest or hobby one could be spend time doing what they enjoy. Life would be a totally different experience. Imagine waking up at 7 to a pre-programmed alarm inside your head. Instantly know how to make a five course breakfast flawlessly while checking Facebook. Turn on the TV without needing to find the secretive remote. Sprint ten kilometres to work without breaking a sweat, life without limits. Just don’t forget to recharge your battery. Excel at work while playing Farmville in your head. Once the cyborg implants have been activated no one would ever want to turn them off again. It would be life without challenge, but no one would want to go back to being a plain, normal human. Seeing the power of the implants everyone would covet to be a cyborg, war might break out for the power of these abilities, no one would be safe. War would never end till either everyone has the power or no one does. But then again sometimes things are best left undiscovered.

Walk A Paragraph

            My leg felt like it was frozen. Every morning was like this, a battle to just get out of bed. I guess that is just the side effect of getting old but it doesn't make it any easier. Today is important, every couple of days a group of us retirees meet for coffee. I guess one could say that this was the most important event of the week for me, few times I get out. My leg is like a chain. It forces me to stay at home most of the time making it a struggle to get out. I have been lonely since my wife passed on, empty void in my life. Living in a small apartment doesn't help, never liked to cook and clean. I suppose that's why I enjoy spending so much time out at the mall, always people around. I suppose the food is okay but doesn't compare to my wife's. I still have two hours before we are supposed to meet. I still get up early, been years since I had to go work at my desk job but getting up early is a part of me now. Strategically, I get ready for the day, careful not to put too much weight on my right leg. Still dress semi-formal. My job meant for to me more then I thought at the time I retired but I am too old to work anyway. Habits don't change. I grabbed by black socks and polished dress shoes. It was cold. I feel it more as I get older. Putting on my favourite sports jacket and toque I do a quick glace down at my watch, still an hour and a half till we meet. Leaving the apartment I headed to the elevator, used to take the stairs but even that is too difficult for me now. I take the bus now, owning a car is too much effort the small amount of places I go. Thankfully the bus stop is only a few hundred feet away, for me it feels like a mile. I am on the list for hip surgery but they say my condition isn't severe enough. Never liked the cold waits for the bus but I knew I timed it right, the bus on schedule. I do like the new buses, they are much more prompt and the seats hurt my hip much less. Thankfully the mall is only a few stops away anyway. I do enjoy the small city, my wife convinced me to move here. Used to enjoy the busyness of the large cities, I was hesitant at first to move here, though now I wouldn't move away. The bus stopped, I got off. The mall just opened and on these days I am usually one of the first people here. I move to my usual spot, it is always the same people here at this hour. I grab a stack of paper, now that I am retired I can finally spend time interested in the news.  I think that is true for most of us who get together for coffee, since we can't get out and do something interesting there would not be much to talk about. The seats at the mall hurt my hip, tough to tolerate for long periods. Putting a few papers as cushions help a relieve the agony a bit but it is getting tougher as my hip gets worse. I miss the large papers of the big city, takes more then a few minutes to read. I usually buy the snacks for the group, not much other uses for my money now that it is too hard to travel. After glancing at some fliers for a bit I hear John come up.

            "Hi Malcolm! How are you holding out?" John said while taking a seat, he too puts papers on the seat. He has needed to use a walker for some time now and he also has a tough time getting out to our meetings. Like most of us he wouldn't miss this time for anything.

            "I'm going pretty good, do you want some coffee?" I asked already knowing the answer. Looking over I see A&W opening up, making my way over I help the lady open it. The nice lady who seems to always be the one who has to open the restaurant, after I help here move the metal door she prepares my order of two coffees before I even need to ask. Thanking her I go back and give John his coffee, before long we are discussing the news. The rest of the group starts trickling in, within a few minutes there are six of us around the table. Laughter breaks out as we discuss the current events. We are like a community, all of us sharing so much in common and knows that this morning coffee means so much in combating the loneliness of being retired.  

21st Century Education

The most important skills I need for my post high school is the ability to problem solve and think of original ideas in coming up with computer programming. Computer programming requires to think of complex solutions to the problem. Unfortunately that is not something that I learn in school. Math is very important and problem solving can be learned in physics when solving complex problems and deriving formulas to efficiently solve the problem. In school the most important thing is to remember the facts and regurgitate them on the tests. All that is required in school is to try hard and redo what you can to get a better mark. Even in math class we have to only solve the question using one method that is given to us. There are only a few units in math that require to come up with a new way to solve the question, in trig identities, combinatorics and probability. In all the other units it is just required to follow the steps that was given to us. Physics also requires the ability to solve new and challenging situations without the help of a basic set of guidelines to follow to the answer. But in courses like chemistry, history and biology it is only about recalling facts and information about the subject. It is impossible to develop good problem solving skills to be used outside of high school. In the perfect school there would be no wasted time and the courses would be mostly self based. I was homeschooled from grade one to eight and I could get all my work done by noon each day, in grade 8 I had a workbook filled with worksheets and I just worked all of them and finished the course in march. In grade nine when I entered school I was shocked when my class only made it two thirds of the way through the text book missing lots of sections. In the perfect school I think that the teachers would just give out all the work at the beginning of the year the student can just refer to the textbook so they can learn the way that best suits them. Then the teachers main job would be then just to assist the students so they can improve their skills and not have to continually go over material that can be easily looked up. This year since I could not get into computer programming 12 inside the time table I am taking it outside the time table. I work on the course during my spare and I just finish the chapter in time for the test and so far I have been really enjoying it. Next year I plan on going to University of Calgary and I have been conditionally accepted into the engineering department. 

Superpower Blog

If I could have any superpower it would be to make a time traveling DeLorean appear from Back to the Future. This would be a cool super power because not only would I have a vehicle to time travel in but I could also fly around in it. I would make sure it was a DeLorean equipped with the Mr. Fusion fusion generator so I would not have find access to plutonium to power the 1.21 gigawatts required for the flux capacitor to time travel. This superpower would be better then all the others because I could go back in time and see the Great Pyramids being built and still be back to get to work in time, yesterday. Using the hover conversion installed on the DeLorean I could travel anywhere in the world visiting great sites like Machu Picchu in Peru or fly to the sunny beaches of Greece. While I am in the area I could even go back in time see the Colosseum when it was in its prime before it was partly destroyed by the 1349 earthquake. No more touring historical ruins, I could go see them when they were in use. Even just driving the DeLorean around the city would be fun. Drive to the Channel parkway set the time to 100 years in the future and accelerate to 88 m/h to vanish into the unknown. I would have to be careful not to alter the timeline and change the course of events that could threaten the existence of entire cities or even countries. There would be a risk of going back in time to see the Great Pyramids being built and accidental stepping on a butterfly which could catastrophically end up in the destruction of the earth. But with great power comes great responsibility.