It’s been called a brilliant piece of social commentary, a view of the future, and a life changing book. The book starts out with a great premise, where a near-future society has implanted chips in their brains that act much like today’s cellphones, as a direct link to the internet for all of their communication, shopping, research, and even knowledge needs. Furthermore, corporations control the advertising, so in effect control the youth. It’s an amazing premise, but it’s let down to make a point.
The narrator is a boy named Titus, who is so unreliable that I didn’t even realize he had a name until halfway through the book. Anderson tries to immediately immerse you into the world, as Titus and his group of friends travel to the moon while on break from school. However, it feels like Anderson is just trying to make a point that people are dumb when they have the entirety of the internet in their heads, and the narration shows that. There’s no exposition, and you don’t get a feel of who these characters are, or how the political system is set up, or even what they are doing. The only good thing about the narration is that it makes the characters seem really really dumb. You’re forced to read between the lines just to figure out what is happening, not for any deeper literary meaning, and in the end that just gives me a headache. The main issue with the book is that it isn’t “enjoyable” to read. Since Titus is such an unreliable narrator, you don’t really get a feel of the other characters of the book except Titus’s love interest, a girl named Violet. Violet is really the only person in the book who is more like you and me, who isn’t reliant on the feed. She often hints at interesting news situations, like a massive industrial accident or a brewing war between the two super conglomerate nations, the United States and the Global Alliance. However, at the end of the book, nothing seems to happen. It feels like the entire book was a prelude to a much more interesting book on the politics of this world, but decides to end with a story of two teenagers living out relatively normal lives and not changing anything. I have a feeling that M.T. Anderson’s sole purpose was to shock people that this could become our future, a brainless populace controlled by major corporations, and to hopefully prevent this. However, he made a 800 word essay into a 250 page book, which took a great concept and ultimately let it down. The characters are so foreign that it’s hard to relate to most of them and therefore, the story never fully enraptured me
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Ever since the advent of warfare, humanity has wanted to get the upper hand, to catch their enemies off guard. One of the easiest ways to do this is to fight at night, where humans are naturally unsuited for because of our lackluster low light performance of our eyes. For many centuries, we have tried to either avoid fighting at night, or adapt to fighting at night. From waiting until the light of the full moon or using torches, or using large searchlights, these solutions have been less than perfect, since they often give away your position or are not particularly effective. However, by the end of World War 2, Germany had experimented in what would become the precursor to modern night vision technology. These were called Generation 0 which intensified the light by taking light photons and converting it into electrons, and after amplifying the electrons, they are converted back into light. This makes the infrared spectrum visible, however, Generation 0 Night Vision Devices were pretty much required to use infrared illuminators to make them useful. Anyone else that had night vision devices would be able to see the infrared spectrum, essentially making the same downsides of using visible light. The 1950s saw the advent of Generation 1 night vision devices, which were marginally better than Generation 0. Today, they can be found for relatively cheap, but once again are useless without an infrared illuminator. The late 1960s and early 1970s saw the advent of Generation 2 night vision devices, which had been able to passively increase the light enough in which a infrared illuminator were not needed. These were called “starlight” scopes as they relied upon the ambient light of the stars to operate. These worked pretty well during nights with little cloud cover, however they struggled to amplify enough light during nights that there was not much passive light. Generation 2 night vision devices were the first to be used as goggles mounted to the helmet as a AN/PVS-5, however, these were only ever issued to pilots. Beginning in the early 1980s, Russian manufacturers began creating Generation 2+ night vision devices which were marginally better than generation 2 devices, but still suffered from some low light limitations. Also beginning in the 1980s, Generation 3 night vision devices came on market. Generation 3 devices had few limitations, even during nights with little ambient light. These were reliable enough in performance so the US armed forces began to mass buy Generation 3 devices for their troops. These took the form as the AN/PVS-7 and the AN/PVS-14. The PVS-7 was a single tube that covered both eyes, so it worked as a binocular but with no depth perception. The PVS-14 was also a single tube system, but instead was a monocular, allowing one eye to retain night vision. However at the same time, a new form of night vision was emerging: Thermal imaging. The idea behind thermal imaging was that the heat given off by objects would be recorded and then displayed on a screen. This of course makes it not dependent on the amount of light, so it can be used in nearly all situations. However, thermal imaging does not work through glass as glass does not let through heat radiation. Also, it is impossible to identify features using thermal imaging. Over the past 8 years, the DPRK (North Korea) have aggressively stepped up their nuclear weapons programming, dramatically increasing tensions between the ROK (South Korea) and itself. Given that the so called DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) between the two Koreas is one of the most militarized and dangerous zones in the world, I think it would be interesting to talk about a hypothetical (or not so hypothetical) war between the two Koreas. The Nuclear Weapons This is the big elephant in the room. So far, the DPRK has boasted of the capability to create nuclear warheads which is pretty well known. However, the DPRK has always lacked the capability to deliver the warheads to the Continental United States, and still lacks this capability. The DPRK’s numerous failures in developing such ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles) shows that it’s ballistic missile technology is relatively primitive and is not really a threat to anyone except South Korea and other countries in the vicinity. First of all, while we don’t know the exact capabilities of these Mid ranged ballistic missiles, we can assume it only carries one warhead and doesn’t have the capability to deploy thousands of countermeasures. US anti missiles systems like the ground based THAAD and the sea based AEGIS systems are designed to stop swarms of hundreds of Russian missiles, each carrying eight warheads and deploying hundreds of countermeasures, so a couple of ballistic missiles that are trying to hit Hawaii or Japan will most likely be shot down with ease. However, a nuclear missile aiming for Seoul will probably hit it’s target before anti missile systems get a chance to shoot it down. Conventional Mutual Assured Destruction However, even without nuclear weapons, North Korea would quickly damage South Korea. The DPRK has thousands of artillery pieces lined up on the DMZ all aimed at Seoul, so within minutes of war being declared, North Korea can commence a quick and deadly artillery bombardment of Seoul. Casualty figures for such a bombardment is over a quarter of a million. An Eventual US-ROK Military Victory As much as the DPRK would devastate South Korean populace centers, they would eventually be overwhelmed by a South Korean and US counterattack. US-ROK aircraft would quickly retaliate against DPRK artillery positions eradicating them within the first 24 hours. The DPRK Air force would share a similar fate. A ground assault would probably be extensively delayed or done entirely amphibiously, as the DMZ is crawling with mines and other hazards. However, in the end the US and ROK would win a decisive Military victory. Even if the DPRK decides to employ Nuclear or Chemical weapons, the US and ROK have trained extensively for such a contingency, while it seems the DPRK army has not. A Humanitarian Crisis However, by decapitating North Korean leadership so decisively, this could cause a much larger problem. The citizens who have lived under the North Korean regime would have no food or system of government, which could cause a huge governing crisis, much like after the Iraq War. In the end, the DPRK may have been defeated, but what may lie afterward are years of internal strife, civil war, and an insurgency battle. As soon as Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the United States’s 45th president, there was immediate controversy on how his administration was run, some of his domestic and defense policies, and his international diplomacy, namely toward Australia and Iran. However, I think it should be important to list what challenges President trump faces without getting caught up with his style of diplomacy and its controversy. A More Aggressive People’s Republic of China and the South China Sea Perhaps the most pressing and potentially explosive situation is China’s aggressive stance on claiming islands in the South China Sea, most islands being claimed by one or more of the United State’s allies (South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan). Furthermore, China’s economy has been booming and surpassing the United State’s GPA, so more and more money is going into the defense of China. This brings along many new platform updates in China’s defense force, making it more deadly, but arguably still not up to par to Russia or the United State’s militaries. Furthermore, a simple misunderstanding between one of the United State’s allies and China in the South China Sea may lead to a much larger war that has the potential to include the use of WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction, so Chemical and Nuclear weapons). Furthermore, cyberwarfare attacks and espionage from China to the United States has been uncountable, for example, China stole the designs to the F-35. Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North) and Republic of Korea (South) This isn’t a new issue, every president after the Korean war has had to grapple with this issue in one way or another. The DPRK has always considered the United States a sworn enemy, however, a poor economy and aging military equipment has always made this point moot. However, the DPRK’s new foray into the delivery of nuclear weaponry, to this date, mid ranged ICBMs. Since many of the United State’s allies are in range of the DPRK’s WMDs, it is the one of the United State’s responsibilities to help protect them. However, it’s not quite as simple as that. Since the China supports North Korea sending anti missile systems to the South Chinese Sea area may cause international tensions not only between North Korea and the United States, but also China and the United States. A Tired Military and Undermanned Air Force The United States has been in constant war for over a decade now, which leads to a tired military. While this might not be seen as stressing as other wars, like the various World Wars, there simply is not enough morale and manpower to continue fighting like this. One of the prime examples is the United States Air Force, which has been called on many times to provide air support, tiring out many squadrons due to unrelenting deployment schedules. Currently, the United States Air Force is 700 pilots understaffed due to new policies nicknamed “queep” by the pilots, essentially busywork that detracts from their job. Also, going to private airlines often pay more and don’t have such “queep” so most pilots are quitting. Complicated Situation in the Middle East (featuring ISIL, Sectarian Tensions, Syria, the Russian Federation, the Kurdish, Turkey, US Special Forces, Uncontrolled Militias, and a Dam?) It’s not a new situation, especially with the current fight for ISIL in Iraq reaching it’s final apex point at ISIL’s capital, Mosul. However, it’s not time to get complacent, as the resistance is the strongest at Mosul and there is no guarantee once ISIL is defeated that it won’t pop up somewhere else or many other factors may cause infighting. For example, the Kurds, who the US have supported against ISIL, are not welcome by the Iraqis, and will not give up the land that they took from ISIL, even though it might be officially Iraqi Land, Furthermore, Sunni and Shiite tensions are still high, with anti-US Iraqi militias fighting ISIL with the Iraqi government’s support. Furthermore, the Mosul dam is dangerously close to breaking, and if it breaks, Mosul will be flooded with a projected casualty figure of 250,000. This is not touching on the issue with ISIL in Syria and it’s civil war, with Russia backing the official government and the US Backing up the rebels. And Much More…. This has just been a brief list of the insurmountable defense challenges that faces President Trump. There are many that I must have missed, but I hope this gives a better understanding of what his policies will have to try to fix. |
AuthorThis is a school project for English 1A for high school. Archives
February 2017
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