Thursday, January 14, 2016
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
福二代 | Kids These Days ...
In China, our generation is known as the 福二代, which translates to "rich second generation". The title refers to declining status of the youth - poor academic performance, tendency to act recklessly and irresponsibly, plain 'weirdness', and above all, disregard for traditional values, usually surrounding Confucian ideals such as filial piety and humility. Mostly you hear stories of 福二代 buying fancy cars and then getting into car accidents, or splurging ludicrous sums of money at night clubs and bars. Even more infamous are the inheritors of parents' fortunes in the form of assets and companies, only to bankrupt their own businesses within a year of ownership. The central dogma surrounding 福二代 is that the Chinese youth of today were brought up in a pampered lifestyle of luxury, reaching the highest standards of living simply by being born - without the trial and hardship that our parents suffered through to reach such a status, we kids are essentially incapable and above all else, spoiled. In the same token, we can never live up to the achievements of our parents.
When Deng Xiao Ping seized power from Mao and opened China's borders (and economy) to Western influence, he gave birth to a new form of the Chinese dream. Education became a surefire way to escape the abject poverty that ravaged post-cultural revolution China. If one studied hard enough, there were scholarships to be obtained abroad, after which students could return to China, equipped with fancy degrees in law and medicine and business and form the vanguard of the economic surge that inevitably followed.
That's what my dad and mom (and most other dads and moms) did. At my age, my dad was literally a peasant - like LITERALLY a peasant. My entire family on my father's side lived in a tiny mud shack (it was washed away by a river flood some decades ago) in the wetlands of Ningbo, China. He had to balance life as a student with the rigors of being a full time farmhand, but eventually earned a place at Oxford, in England. He returned to China as a successful lawyer and started our family in Hong Kong. By the time I was born, we were a few years short of abandoning our apartment in the crowded city and moving to the suburbs of Beijing.
This is a story that will sound familiar to a lot of international students from China - especially those from the mainland. Although cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong are considered some of the most well developed metropolises today, it's hard to imagine the history of culture that emerged around them in the past few decades. 福二代 are the first generation to grow up in this 'New China' (now going to connect to OSAFS). It is the generation that reaped the benefits of others' labors, and as a result, has collectively resulted in an overall decline of social caliber. It's a generation that has never experience true hardship or suffering, and is thus 'weak'. Ultimately, 福二代 such as myself have the bar set high - our achievements and indeed, entire lives, are lived out on the shoulders of the giants who birthed us.
Okay, I'm sharing this piece of history because it's scary how contemporary social and historical themes are so well threaded in OSAFS. When Quig's charter friend is describing the failing generation of youth, all I could think about was my own privilege in being born as the equivalent of a charter kid. When the narrator described the citizens of Senecca wearing special clothes and exercising out doors, my mind immediately jumped to my dad making fun of me for going to the gym - 'back in my day, all I had to do to stay fit was hard, manual labor for twelve hours a day (he spent the other twelve doing his homework and getting ahead on his studies, I'm sure). Seriously, OSAFS is quite the experience - I see so much of today's world described in the novel - if anything, it's scary to think that our society could so easily be compared to such a 'dystopian' future. I'd write more but honestly I'm pretty rattled by the self-reflection this book is forcing me to undergo so I'll sign off here.
When Deng Xiao Ping seized power from Mao and opened China's borders (and economy) to Western influence, he gave birth to a new form of the Chinese dream. Education became a surefire way to escape the abject poverty that ravaged post-cultural revolution China. If one studied hard enough, there were scholarships to be obtained abroad, after which students could return to China, equipped with fancy degrees in law and medicine and business and form the vanguard of the economic surge that inevitably followed.
That's what my dad and mom (and most other dads and moms) did. At my age, my dad was literally a peasant - like LITERALLY a peasant. My entire family on my father's side lived in a tiny mud shack (it was washed away by a river flood some decades ago) in the wetlands of Ningbo, China. He had to balance life as a student with the rigors of being a full time farmhand, but eventually earned a place at Oxford, in England. He returned to China as a successful lawyer and started our family in Hong Kong. By the time I was born, we were a few years short of abandoning our apartment in the crowded city and moving to the suburbs of Beijing.
This is a story that will sound familiar to a lot of international students from China - especially those from the mainland. Although cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong are considered some of the most well developed metropolises today, it's hard to imagine the history of culture that emerged around them in the past few decades. 福二代 are the first generation to grow up in this 'New China' (now going to connect to OSAFS). It is the generation that reaped the benefits of others' labors, and as a result, has collectively resulted in an overall decline of social caliber. It's a generation that has never experience true hardship or suffering, and is thus 'weak'. Ultimately, 福二代 such as myself have the bar set high - our achievements and indeed, entire lives, are lived out on the shoulders of the giants who birthed us.
Okay, I'm sharing this piece of history because it's scary how contemporary social and historical themes are so well threaded in OSAFS. When Quig's charter friend is describing the failing generation of youth, all I could think about was my own privilege in being born as the equivalent of a charter kid. When the narrator described the citizens of Senecca wearing special clothes and exercising out doors, my mind immediately jumped to my dad making fun of me for going to the gym - 'back in my day, all I had to do to stay fit was hard, manual labor for twelve hours a day (he spent the other twelve doing his homework and getting ahead on his studies, I'm sure). Seriously, OSAFS is quite the experience - I see so much of today's world described in the novel - if anything, it's scary to think that our society could so easily be compared to such a 'dystopian' future. I'd write more but honestly I'm pretty rattled by the self-reflection this book is forcing me to undergo so I'll sign off here.
Thursday, January 7, 2016
*high-pitched excited screaming* | Initial Impressions of "On Such a Full Sea" by Chang Rae Lee
Aquaponics!!!
To those of you unaware of what the word means, it is a reference to the same farming system presented in On Such a Full Sea - the fish tanks connected to the vegetation growth platforms. It's a system which combines the biochemical cycles of aquaculture (raising aquatic organisms) and hydroponics (non-traditional agricultural methods, usually involving the direct immersion of root systems into a nutrient solution), into a single symbiotic process in which the individual systems' waste products are used as resources for the other. Basically, you take fish poop and use it to fertilize plants, and in the same process, clean the poop water for the fish.
It's also one of my favorite things in the world - I've spent over a year now conducting research on aquaponics, initially just studying the science behind it, but exploring aspects of it such as it's commercial viability and sustainability as my research progressed. In fact, this term, I'm conducting an IP/Abbot Grant to build an aquaponics system right in Gelb. As a disclaimer, the system described in Lee's novel was never explicitly defined as an aquaponics system, but given the context of food production and the physical set up of the system, it was a reasonable assumption to make.
So why is it significant? First, it's a testament to the speculative aspect of the novel - industrial agriculture, the current norm of food production, is really really bad. Not just in the sense that it's bad for the environment, but also in the sense that we no longer have the resources to sustain production to the point where it can support our rapidly growing population; space and water are two of the greatest limiting factors preventing further industrial growth. Aquaponics has been introduced as a sustainable and commercially viable alternative - it uses less resources, is more space efficient, and concentrates production by simultaneously supporting two streams of income (fishies and veggies). Of course, our agricultural problem still exists because the predominant infrastructure of agricultural production remains industrial - the cost of changing that system is much too high. But the popularity of aquaponics has grown immensely - many smaller or private farms are utilizing it, and it's being incorporated into nontraditional farming spaces, such in abandoned warehouses and buildings in dense urban areas. Dickson Despommier, a professor at Columbia University who popularized the idea of vertical farming, envisioned a future in which every city had it's own skyscrapers dedicated to aquaponics, hydroponics, and aeroponics, easily supporting the growing populations in an environmentally sustainable way while conserving space and resources. There have even been cute little systems created that can be attached to household aquariums, plastic fittings with space for an herb garden that rest on top of a glass tank. "On Such a Full Sea" proposes a future in which aquaponics is the predominant form of food production (as far as we know). This is hugely exciting for me, as someone who loves aquaponics, because it's not at all a ridiculous idea. It's speculative in the sense that it doesn't employ some foreign, high-tech solution to producing food, but instead a technology that exists today, but has simply yet to become the norm. If you're still not convinced that aquaponics is the way of the future, it was also used by the protagonist in the recent popular movie "The Martian" as the primary form of food production. On Mars. Trust me guys.
Okay other impressions. In "On Such a Full Sea", the society in which Fan lives is incredibly hard to describe: on one hand, B-mor seems like a utopia - everyone is happy, everyone has a place in society, everyone does their jobs. Darker undertones reverse this image however - the happiness is replaced with complacency and ignorance as people begin to disappear and no one seems to question the society around them. Yikes. Another thing that stood out to me was the whole race/culture aspect - also hard to describe. The mix of geography, cultural elements, and physical descriptions of people totally jumbled my visualization of the described future - it reminded me in a lot of ways of San Fran Sokyo, in "Big Hero 6".
Exciting stuff.
Guys seriously if you're interested in aquaponics or just want to learn more about it just talk to me or message me or whatever, I'm literally obsessed.
To those of you unaware of what the word means, it is a reference to the same farming system presented in On Such a Full Sea - the fish tanks connected to the vegetation growth platforms. It's a system which combines the biochemical cycles of aquaculture (raising aquatic organisms) and hydroponics (non-traditional agricultural methods, usually involving the direct immersion of root systems into a nutrient solution), into a single symbiotic process in which the individual systems' waste products are used as resources for the other. Basically, you take fish poop and use it to fertilize plants, and in the same process, clean the poop water for the fish.
It's also one of my favorite things in the world - I've spent over a year now conducting research on aquaponics, initially just studying the science behind it, but exploring aspects of it such as it's commercial viability and sustainability as my research progressed. In fact, this term, I'm conducting an IP/Abbot Grant to build an aquaponics system right in Gelb. As a disclaimer, the system described in Lee's novel was never explicitly defined as an aquaponics system, but given the context of food production and the physical set up of the system, it was a reasonable assumption to make.
So why is it significant? First, it's a testament to the speculative aspect of the novel - industrial agriculture, the current norm of food production, is really really bad. Not just in the sense that it's bad for the environment, but also in the sense that we no longer have the resources to sustain production to the point where it can support our rapidly growing population; space and water are two of the greatest limiting factors preventing further industrial growth. Aquaponics has been introduced as a sustainable and commercially viable alternative - it uses less resources, is more space efficient, and concentrates production by simultaneously supporting two streams of income (fishies and veggies). Of course, our agricultural problem still exists because the predominant infrastructure of agricultural production remains industrial - the cost of changing that system is much too high. But the popularity of aquaponics has grown immensely - many smaller or private farms are utilizing it, and it's being incorporated into nontraditional farming spaces, such in abandoned warehouses and buildings in dense urban areas. Dickson Despommier, a professor at Columbia University who popularized the idea of vertical farming, envisioned a future in which every city had it's own skyscrapers dedicated to aquaponics, hydroponics, and aeroponics, easily supporting the growing populations in an environmentally sustainable way while conserving space and resources. There have even been cute little systems created that can be attached to household aquariums, plastic fittings with space for an herb garden that rest on top of a glass tank. "On Such a Full Sea" proposes a future in which aquaponics is the predominant form of food production (as far as we know). This is hugely exciting for me, as someone who loves aquaponics, because it's not at all a ridiculous idea. It's speculative in the sense that it doesn't employ some foreign, high-tech solution to producing food, but instead a technology that exists today, but has simply yet to become the norm. If you're still not convinced that aquaponics is the way of the future, it was also used by the protagonist in the recent popular movie "The Martian" as the primary form of food production. On Mars. Trust me guys.
Okay other impressions. In "On Such a Full Sea", the society in which Fan lives is incredibly hard to describe: on one hand, B-mor seems like a utopia - everyone is happy, everyone has a place in society, everyone does their jobs. Darker undertones reverse this image however - the happiness is replaced with complacency and ignorance as people begin to disappear and no one seems to question the society around them. Yikes. Another thing that stood out to me was the whole race/culture aspect - also hard to describe. The mix of geography, cultural elements, and physical descriptions of people totally jumbled my visualization of the described future - it reminded me in a lot of ways of San Fran Sokyo, in "Big Hero 6".
Exciting stuff.
Guys seriously if you're interested in aquaponics or just want to learn more about it just talk to me or message me or whatever, I'm literally obsessed.
Monday, December 28, 2015
The Last Question by Isaac Asimov; A Digital Comic I Found Online
Hey y'all, "The Last Question" is one of my all time favorite sci-fi short stories by Isaac Asimov - I found a comic version (credits to 'Ryul') while browsing online and I figured this blog would be a relevant place to share it.
tl;dr the story is a super trippy take on just the universe in general - it's about a super computer whose asked if there's any way to reverse entropy (basically, to stop the universe from ending).
I recommend clicking on the link and browsing the story in imgur, which is the site where I found the comic; you'll be able to scroll down as you read instead of having to constantly flip pages and scroll back to the top.
tl;dr the story is a super trippy take on just the universe in general - it's about a super computer whose asked if there's any way to reverse entropy (basically, to stop the universe from ending).
I recommend clicking on the link and browsing the story in imgur, which is the site where I found the comic; you'll be able to scroll down as you read instead of having to constantly flip pages and scroll back to the top.
The Last Question - Isaac Asimov
Friday, December 25, 2015
Science vs. Science Fiction
What exactly is the difference between science and science fiction? In class, we discussed the idea of speculative fiction - that science fiction is really an amalgamation of various aspects of human knowledge (culture, history, technology, etc.).
Per some vacation reading, I stumbled upon an allusion to science fiction in Adam Rutherford's "The Origin of Life'' and " The Future of Life". The book itself is incredibly interesting - the two parts begin on opposite ends and arrive at the same conclusion in the middle of the book. It's a scientific exploration of just evolutionary biology, but reads super easily (5 star review, highly recommend to everyone). Anyhow, the excerpt that caught my attention was as follows:
"There is a branch of speculation that proposes the rather futuristically named 'Shadow Biosphere'. This is the idea that there is a second (or more) undetected tree of life on Earth, with hallmarks different from the ones on the only tree of life on Earth, with hallmarks different from the ones on the only tree of life we know of. But as it is, every life form so far examined is based on cells, DNA and Darwin. Discovery of a second tree of life here on Earth would give much-needed credence to the search for life on the other planets, as it would double the number the number of known successful origin of life events. It would show that we are not a fluke. However, science is based on observable evidence. Therefore the Shadow Biosphere, whilst sounding quite thrilling, is resolutely science fiction."
What intrigued me most was that Rutherford seemed to be blurring the lines between reality and the fictional or speculative aspect of science fiction - according to him, the existence of the Shadow Biosphere is hardly inconceivable, only hidden from us by the boundaries of our own observational abilities. In fact, all of "The Future of Life", an entire half of the book, speculates the future of biological evolution and corresponding scientific developments - the topics of bioengineering and genetic modification are eerily reminiscent of what we may have considered science fiction. In fact, upon further reflection, in Star Trek, a now considered old canon of sci-fi, weren't portable communication devices relying on radio transmission once considered science fiction? Hello cellphones.
There is almost something beautifully universal about knowledge - is it inconceivable that in the same way all organisms share the same basic genetic code, there is some central dogma that guides the collective human conscious? Our understanding of the world is limited by our powers of observation - there are certain natural phenomena that we cannot explain except by saying something along the lines of "that's just the way it is". Theoretical physics is all about exploring the underlying mechanics of our universe that humans, due to our physical limitations, cannot understand. For example - our sight is limited to three dimensions, but we've been able to visualize a four-dimensional cube (Easter egg - such a cube is called a TESSERACT, the same name given to the all powerful cube in the marvel universe, which contains both immeasurable power and the ability to warp the space-time continuum; argue all you want for Marvel and DC universes not being science fiction, they definitely incorporate strong elements of it). Super tangential, I know.
The point that I'm trying to get at is that often, we distinguish science fiction from reality, when in fact, as Rutherford hints at, science fiction or speculative fiction or however you'd like to think of it is often an exploration of knowledge at the boundaries of human understanding.
Per some vacation reading, I stumbled upon an allusion to science fiction in Adam Rutherford's "The Origin of Life'' and " The Future of Life". The book itself is incredibly interesting - the two parts begin on opposite ends and arrive at the same conclusion in the middle of the book. It's a scientific exploration of just evolutionary biology, but reads super easily (5 star review, highly recommend to everyone). Anyhow, the excerpt that caught my attention was as follows:
"There is a branch of speculation that proposes the rather futuristically named 'Shadow Biosphere'. This is the idea that there is a second (or more) undetected tree of life on Earth, with hallmarks different from the ones on the only tree of life on Earth, with hallmarks different from the ones on the only tree of life we know of. But as it is, every life form so far examined is based on cells, DNA and Darwin. Discovery of a second tree of life here on Earth would give much-needed credence to the search for life on the other planets, as it would double the number the number of known successful origin of life events. It would show that we are not a fluke. However, science is based on observable evidence. Therefore the Shadow Biosphere, whilst sounding quite thrilling, is resolutely science fiction."
What intrigued me most was that Rutherford seemed to be blurring the lines between reality and the fictional or speculative aspect of science fiction - according to him, the existence of the Shadow Biosphere is hardly inconceivable, only hidden from us by the boundaries of our own observational abilities. In fact, all of "The Future of Life", an entire half of the book, speculates the future of biological evolution and corresponding scientific developments - the topics of bioengineering and genetic modification are eerily reminiscent of what we may have considered science fiction. In fact, upon further reflection, in Star Trek, a now considered old canon of sci-fi, weren't portable communication devices relying on radio transmission once considered science fiction? Hello cellphones.
There is almost something beautifully universal about knowledge - is it inconceivable that in the same way all organisms share the same basic genetic code, there is some central dogma that guides the collective human conscious? Our understanding of the world is limited by our powers of observation - there are certain natural phenomena that we cannot explain except by saying something along the lines of "that's just the way it is". Theoretical physics is all about exploring the underlying mechanics of our universe that humans, due to our physical limitations, cannot understand. For example - our sight is limited to three dimensions, but we've been able to visualize a four-dimensional cube (Easter egg - such a cube is called a TESSERACT, the same name given to the all powerful cube in the marvel universe, which contains both immeasurable power and the ability to warp the space-time continuum; argue all you want for Marvel and DC universes not being science fiction, they definitely incorporate strong elements of it). Super tangential, I know.
The point that I'm trying to get at is that often, we distinguish science fiction from reality, when in fact, as Rutherford hints at, science fiction or speculative fiction or however you'd like to think of it is often an exploration of knowledge at the boundaries of human understanding.
Saturday, December 19, 2015
"If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants." - Isaac Newton; On Infinity
Grand Unified Theory refers to a 'theory of everything', an equation which can describe our entire universe. It sounds like a lot of fancy maths but it's surprisingly intuitive - anyone whose taken a physics course should be able to understand at the very least what it hints at; imagine a basic equation of displacement, which describes distance traveled as the rate or speed of motion multiplied by the length of time traveled. It's pretty straightforward way of relating three factors (rate, speed, and displacement). Off of that single equation, we can explore other laws of motion - the rate at which velocity changes is described as acceleration, the acceleration of an object can be related to the force that it carries and that force can be related to some amount of energy. Our world is governed by these equations, physical laws that form the 'rules' of our universe. Grand Unified Theory is simply a super big equation that encompasses everything, two sides of an '=' sign that explain everything from inertia, to subatomic forces, to electric and magnetic fields, to black holes and string theory. It's pretty cool when you think about it.
'Infinity' explores the same idea, at least on a thematic level. Throughout the entire novel, Abdul Karim studies the world around him through mathematics, but not through the math that we tend to think of. His world of mathematics is much more than just interactions between numbers, but a theoretical plane of natural laws and logic; his idea of infinity, a transcendental, omniscient concept that exists at all levels of reality - both physical and theoretical - is a medium through which he reconciles these two worlds.
"He learns that the distribution of energy level spacings of excited uranium nuclei seem to match the distribution of spacings between prime numbers."
Our world is rife with examples of these mysterious 'coincidences'; the fibonacci sequence is a more commonly understood one. In essence, 'Infinity' presents mathematics and mathematical logic as an emergent property of our physical world - in other words, everything can be explained through the equations and concepts that he explores (this is where Grand Unified Theory comes in). It's an interesting lens which almost has a reductive function - if everything can be explained through mathematical concepts, then what of the idea of humanity, or more precisely, of human nature? Our cultures, emotions, and ideas, can they all be explained by something as mundane as a physics equation? A squiggly side ways '8' figure? Deep stuff.
Anyhow, you'll notice that this blog post doesn't explore the story as a literary piece as much a science-y one - this is intentional, and I think it speaks to the 'science fiction' aspect of this class; 'Infinity' spoke to me much more as an exploration of theoretical physics and maths than it did a literary piece, which was awesome!
'Infinity' explores the same idea, at least on a thematic level. Throughout the entire novel, Abdul Karim studies the world around him through mathematics, but not through the math that we tend to think of. His world of mathematics is much more than just interactions between numbers, but a theoretical plane of natural laws and logic; his idea of infinity, a transcendental, omniscient concept that exists at all levels of reality - both physical and theoretical - is a medium through which he reconciles these two worlds.
"He learns that the distribution of energy level spacings of excited uranium nuclei seem to match the distribution of spacings between prime numbers."
Our world is rife with examples of these mysterious 'coincidences'; the fibonacci sequence is a more commonly understood one. In essence, 'Infinity' presents mathematics and mathematical logic as an emergent property of our physical world - in other words, everything can be explained through the equations and concepts that he explores (this is where Grand Unified Theory comes in). It's an interesting lens which almost has a reductive function - if everything can be explained through mathematical concepts, then what of the idea of humanity, or more precisely, of human nature? Our cultures, emotions, and ideas, can they all be explained by something as mundane as a physics equation? A squiggly side ways '8' figure? Deep stuff.
Anyhow, you'll notice that this blog post doesn't explore the story as a literary piece as much a science-y one - this is intentional, and I think it speaks to the 'science fiction' aspect of this class; 'Infinity' spoke to me much more as an exploration of theoretical physics and maths than it did a literary piece, which was awesome!
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Snowpiercer: Good and Bad Asians
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| "Pictures & Photos of Steve Park." Pinterest. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2015. |
Okay - why is this guy important? What does his character say about the role of Asians in the movie?
Initially, it seems like the answer is remarkably little. After all, the Asian conductor doesn't do much; he follows Mason around and carries our her orders (but not the fighting or action related ones, because those are reserved for the two big buff white dudes), and fades into the background when he's not needed (in the scene we studied in class, in which Mason delivers her speech to the train dwellers, her two large pit bull retainers face the audience directly, whereas our Asian friend stands sideways, behind several of his peers, against a shadowy wall of the train.
If we consider the train a system centered around the Divine Engine, with Wilfred and Curtis and Gilliam and all the other characters as elements within it, the conductor doesn't even seem to fit in. Is he against the tail dwellers? It doesn't seem so, at least not directly - he never fights them or confronts them, he just follows his orders. Is he just a fanatic, brainwashed, pawn? That doesn't seem quite right either - his character isn't as colorful as the pretty blonde teacher with the cute blouse who smiled creepily as she attacked Curtis' companions with a sub-machine gun. Our conductor seems to do very little, aside from his job. He dials phones, makes announcements, and, when the plot so demands, dies. His actions are more akin to those of a mindless automaton, some other intrinsic mechanical part of the train, than of a human being.
No wonder we ignored him! He's freaking boring.
But as an Asian character, he holds a huge stake (exactly 1/3). So what does it say about the movie that of the three Asian character's portrayed, two are incredibly important (thank you, gate-opening man and fortune-telling girl!) and the other does almost nothing? What are the similarities and differences between these three characters? Are they completely separate? Or do they each speak to something about different archetypes of Asians within the movie (and society? *Ooo*)?
Quite a lot to think about, I imagine, but I'm already way over the word limit. Oops.
P.S note the
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