The Language of Cancer

by: Maria Teresa Llera 2013-40924 

                Cancer is a heavy word. When we hear that someone has cancer, we would immediately cringe and feel sorry. We think that cancer is very much like death (in cases where the type of cancer has no cure); the first is just the longer process. Because of this, we often associate cancer with military words like “battling” or “fighting,” as if cancer is our enemy in a war, in this case civil war, inside our body. We always tell people that they’re brave or that they’re strong and that they will defeat the cancer in them. I am not saying this is wrong, because I myself think that we have to battle cancer somehow, but I also think that cancer is not the only think that we think it is. There are many ways to describe cancer, but what really is the most appropriate language for it?

                In the podcast, Andrew Graystone wanted to know what language people use when describing cancer, so he asked around different people who had experienced it. He found out that not all people think cancer as an enemy. Some people try to live with it, or in a more interesting phrase, to live alongside it. He also learned that people have different ways in coping with cancer, and that not all people see cancer in a very negative way.

                I don’t have cancer and I don’t have close friends or relatives who went through it, so I cannot really expect all people to fight cancer or to live alongside it. In the end, I realized that different people have different ways in coping with cancer, and it is up to them whether they want to see it in a positive manner or in a negative manner. What’s important is that we live well with it, and try to live our lives still in the best way we can.

« Rewind • ▻ Play • Fast Forward »

by: Maricella D. Valdivia 2013-55498

               When I was around seven, my classmate asked me, "What do you want to be when you grow up?", "To be a scientist.", I replied. I was confident before about being a scientist, I want to seek new discoveries, invent things, and be able to answer the unanswerable questions. And one of the things I wanted to make was the time machine. I was so innocent then, thinking that I could easily build that machine. And how I wish I could bring back that confidence in me today.
               And then I grew up never wanting to be a scientist anymore, since I cannot love science more than the love I give to math. But the discoveries and all of the astonishing phenomena never failed to amuse me. And then we had this video about time machine in my STS course, then I remembered the time I wanted to make one. Each scientist on the video finds their own way on making one, and only they proved that the time ticks slower when you're farther from the ground, but none of them made the actual machine. Actually this time travelling can only happen if we can beat the speed of light, but then again no object can beat or even come very near the speed of it, it will also take a lot of energy(the energy of our planet is not enough though). We could time travel if the whole energy of the universe is at our command.
               Well if this time machine could happen, sure it will help a lot of people, going back to the past and correcting their mistakes. But if we all have the chance to go back in time, surely not everyone will change the past for the benefit of many, and undoubtedly a lot will abuse this invention. So let's just say this may happen but we can't make it, so let's just stick with the play button.

All the time

by Fidel Delos Reyes
    2009-31842

The film shows how an gets obsessed of the things they want to do have or do in life. Sometimes situations like this do happen, when one is almost at the point of achieving his dream, events would turn out the other way round. It could be in a unfortunate/sad situation or a senseless one, or perhaps something that could be considered a ‘blessing in disguise’. If I were to make an adaptation of this film, I would present a story of a lone person (without family or relatives) who desires or is obsessed winning in a lottery. I will grant his wish, but at the end, he will have a fatal heart attack. :))

To the moon

by Fidel delos reyes
     2009-31842

If I were present during the first screening of this movie, I would say that the making of the film should have not been made hastily. This would be so, if the purpose of the people involved in making the movie was to give the audience an idea of the possibility of exploring the moon by man. The movie showed the usual behavior of man, like the scientists, when they plan to undergo a certain project - there is the presentation of the plan, collection of data/information, discussions, and after agreeing, the creation/making of the actual product/experiment. However, everything seemed very ridiculous in the movie because the portrayal of event looked so simple. This seen in the method of discharging the capsule to reach the moon, the attire of the scientists, the flight back of the scientists, the appearance to the moon’s surface, the creatures on the moon. They even did not consider about the atmosphere in the moon, if it can sustain life. Maybe this is their concept about the moon during that period.The ideas maybe were from the information gathered since the invention of the telescope by Galileo. In the end, the film could only be considered as pure entertainment, funny one.

Time Enough at Last?

by Paulline Joyce N. Olabre
    2013-11698

"Time Enough at Last" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. The episode was adapted from a short story written by Marilyn Venable. The short story appeared in the January 1953 edition of thescience fiction magazine If: Worlds of Science Fiction about seven years before the television episode first aired. "Time Enough at Last" became one of the most famous episodes of the original Twilight Zone, and has been frequently parodied since.

A bank teller, Henry Bemis, longs for time alone to read books. He gets his wish. The problem is, his eyeglasses got broken. What happens next?

Because of what happened and his urge to read books, he came up with an idea of creating a technology that would help him read the books that he always wanted to read. He went to places to look for the materials and equipment that he would need in making his project. Since he was the only survivor in the explosion, he can take anything he wants and have everything he needs. But because the machines that were available are only low-tech, it would take time for him to finish his work. After years of hard work and determination, he was able to finish his creation and he is now ready to go back to the place where the books were. The sad part is, when he came back, the books turned to ashes. Not a single page was left. This happened because the books are exposed and different seasons have passed. Now, what would life be for him?

A Trip to the Moon: Touchdown!

by Paulline Joyce N. Olabre
      2013-11698


"A Trip to the Moon" (French: Le Voyage dans la lune), alternately "Voyage to the Moon", is a 1902 French black-and-white silent science fiction (SF) film. The film was written and directed by Georges Méliès, assisted by his brother Gaston. It is based loosely on two popular novels of the time: Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon and H. G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon. It was extremely popular at the time of its release, and is the best-known of the hundreds of fantasy films made by Méliès. A Trip to the Moon is the first known science fiction film, and uses innovative animation and special effects, including the well-known image of the spaceship landing in the Moon's eye. It was named one of the 100 greatest films of the 20th century by The Village Voice, ranking at #84

The story is about some astronomers who planned a trip to the moon. By creating a capsule in the shape of a bullet and a huge cannon to shoot it into space, they were able to land on the moon and many unusual things happened there. If I was there on the first screening of the film, I would be really amazed of how they were able to come up with such movie and using very impressive hi-tech effects. 

Kick-Ass Moon

 The 1902 silent film A Trip To The Moon was very old school but it is of course understandable because it was created prior to Neil Armstrong’s moon landing. It was based on pure creativity and imagination. The film maker Georges Méliès deserves major credit for this film. I think that if I were present in the first screening of the film, I would be moon-eyed, distraught and also amazed big time! I mean, imagine a time where we had no idea of the structures and science behind the moon. Moon was nothing but a huge white circle in the night sky that follows you wherever you go. Of course people back then imagined about aliens, fairies and other stuffs that could be living there. Funny as it may sound, I could imagine myself thinking about being a moon princess after watching the film give of course that I watch it on the year it was made. I think that this silent film inspired a lot of people about finding out secrets and the science that lie deep within the moon.

Watching it in the present era however, it is just a laughable film. Funny how knowledge progressed so much, if you compare the its state a hundred years before from now. Oh how ignorant they were of the moon before! 

Time Enough At Last (with zombies)

Krystine Pearl Robles (2013-70142)

                                Time Enough At Last is the eighth episode of the first season of an American televison anthology series, Twilight Zone. The episode was aired during the early 1960s so the society, technology, art, politics and many more shown there are quite different from what we are used to today. So if I were to create a modern adaptation, I would add a little spice to the story and add the ever so popular... Zombies!

                All areas were affected by the H-bombing and Henry Bemis thought he would be alone forever with the pieces of rubble from what used to be a place for alive and breathing humans. He is yet to find out that the H bomb destroyed something that unexplainable and gruesome. It was an underground laboratory filled with quarantined chemicals for of course, the people’s safety. Chemicals spread, violent reactions occurred and boom! the undead rose to life. Funny thing how the virus affected only the dead people and now poor Mr. Bemis is the only living person in the world and he is surrounded by the undead. In my adaptation, I would make it so that Mr. Bemis is capable of running away from them and he will also find the haven of books but once he thought he was finally alone in a contained space, one and only one zombie was also there with him. He finds a pistol and tries to shoot the zombie, only it has no ammo. 

Space Enough At Last…

by Jonathan Idolor

Witness Henry Bemis, a charter member in the fraternity of gamers. A geekish young man whose passion is the computerized game, but who is conspired against by extremely high prices of technology and a girlfriend and a world full of skeptical non-techies and the unrelenting limits of hard disk space. But in just a moment, Mr. Bemis will enter a world without high prices or girlfriends or lack of hard drives or anything else. He'll have a world all to himself...without anyone.

Henry is a young man with a passion for computer games. His addiction to computer games leads him to need more hard disk space than his money can buy. You can imagine his wallet complain and, eventually, his girlfriend actually did complain about him wasting too much time and money playing games. As a cruel joke, his girlfriend asked him to teach her how to play one of his favorite games. He runs his game only to find out all his saved files were erased.  At some point, Henry went to his sound proof, surround sound, amazingly safe basement to play in surround sound in peace. Moments after he read the Yahoo news clip about the ongoing nuclear threats on his laptop connected to his HD flat screen, a nuclear bomb hit.

He regains consciousness, alone, his laptop by his side, the screen glaring at his dusty face.

Finding himself totally alone in a shattered world with food to last him a lifetime, but no one to share it with, Bemis succumbs to despair. As he prepares to commit suicide using a handgun he has found, Bemis sees the ruins of the game store he always goes to for all the games in the distance. Investigating, he finds that the game discs are still intact and readable; all the games he could ever hope for are his for the playing, and (as he gazes upon a huge fallen pile of hard disk drives) learns that he has all the hard disk space in the world to play them without needing to delete.

His despair gone, Bemis contentedly sorts the games he looks forward to reading for years to come. Just as he bends down to pick up the first game, his laptop screen suddenly turns of, finally running out of power. In shock, he checks his battery and tries to shake it in hope that it would have power again, "That's not fair. That's not fair at all. There was space now. There was all the space I needed...! That's not fair!", and bursts into tears, surrounded by games he now can never play.

­

The best laid plans of mice and men...and Henry Bemis...the small man in the laptop who wanted nothing but more space. Henry Bemis, now just a part of a smashed landscape, just a piece of the rubble, just a fragment of what man has deeded to himself. Mr. Henry Bemis...in the Twilight Zone.

*copied and roughly paraphrased from Time Enough At Last plot from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Enough_at_Last

A Capsule to the Moon

by: Maria Teresa Llera 2013-40924

                The film A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune) was released in the year 1902, a year when man has not landed on the moon yet. People in the present, when watching the film for the first time, would most likely find it ridiculous and stupid because of many things, like how one cannot just live on the moon with his ordinary clothes on, or how it is impossible to go to the moon with just the capsule that the men used.

                Of course, people in the year 1902 didn’t have the same thoughts as those of the people in the present, and if I were living in the year 1902 and watched the first screening of the film, I would probably be really impressed. I’d probably be anticipating every moment of the film. I would probably be wondering for days if the living on the moon is really like the one in the movie or not, and if those insect-like aliens on the moon really exist. Most of all, I would probably dream of going to the moon, because I’d think that maybe it really isn’t hard to go there.

Going back to the present, I find the film amusing and creative, even though the first minutes of the film were confusing (I couldn’t understand what the people were doing. Also, were they wizards, gnomes, or just plain people?). Although the idea of the going to the moon just like that seems pretty ridiculous, one cannot blame people who thought of that, because again, in the year 1902, no one has actually landed on the moon yet. The film was well-made, to think that the technology in the past wasn’t as advanced as the technology we have now. Even though it was a short film, it was enough to entertain its viewers.

Le voyage dans de lune – How loony

by Jonathan Idolor

It would be impossible to be able to shoot yourself into the moon!  You would need a ridiculous amount of gunpowder. And how hot would it get inside that bullet? Though it would be amazing to be up there… And how funny that the moon would have a face! I bit sad though that they would hit it in the eye. I wonder if it would be cold up there, how did they not need sweaters? And to think there would be creatures on our moon! What a strange idea. To  have those Selenic, insect, creatures living on our moon. What do they eat? How do they take a bath? I didn't see any water in the film. It doesn't make sense really. Also, how could they have returned? Does this mean the earth is actually flat? I thought some people said it was round? I don’t know anymore. If they just fell from the sky, wouldn’t they land far away. It must have taken awhile for them to get back. Good thing they fell into the ocean too! Or else they would have just been splat on the ground.

It’s all so ridiculous! Yet, it makes you wonder when we'll be able to go... To explore the moon, that big glowing orb in the sky, surrounded by millions of stars. It was quite entertaining, though it didn’t make much sense to me. I do believe it was meant to amuse, yet it does also seem to try and make us think on the possibility of reaching the moon. I wonder when we’ll be able to get up that little glowing orb…

Fly Me to the Moon

by Dennis Betito Jr.
2013-14724

"A Trip to the Moon"  is a black and white science fiction silent film. They created it using the stop trick technique, and the scenes were hand-colored, but the film was advanced at its time of creation. It's actually the first known science fiction film, showing a group of astronomers creating a spaceship the shape of a bullet. When the group lands on the moon, unusual things happen.

After exiting the capsule, they meet a Selenite, an insectoid alien named after Selene, the Greek Goddess of the Moon, and the astronomers kill him easily. More Selenites appear and they have a harder time killing them, so they make an escape, but a Selenite grabs on, and when they land in an ocean on Earth, they are rescued. They display the captive Selenite alongside the commemorative statue, with the inscription Labor omnia vincit, Latin for work conquers all.

Georges Méliès, writer, producer, and director of the film, was inspired by Jules Verne's "From the Earth to the Moon" and "Around the Moon". I think science fiction has gone a long way from this film, but it's amazing to know that that kind of imagination and creativity was translated into film with relatively, very limited technology.

Twilight: Not A Love Story

by: Maricella D. Valdivia (2013-55498)

        Yes, it is not the Twilight movie everybody knows, so probably it's the first time I've seen it, the title of the film is "Time enough at last", but I incorporated it with twilight. Although the first part was a little bit boring, the part where Henry told his boss that his wife's preventing him from reading books, newspapers, or even the label of a ketchup got me confused, and so I wondered why my parents keep on telling me that reading is good. Then I found out that the wife's reason was that Henry got so obsessed in reading that he's wasting too much time reading than having a real conversation with his family. Obviously, the two have different priorities in life.

        Desperate, Henry locked himself in a vault just to read his books. He read the headline of the newspaper and 'voila!', it came true! An explosion hit the entire land. He woke up from his sleep and got out of the vault. He searched for persons alive, he shouted but no one answered. Everything has fallen, and he's the only person alive. Although he is lucky enough to be alive, and has all the food he can eat, the cars he wanted to drive, it surely is a lonely place. He tried to commit a suicide but unfortunately, the pistol he tried to use ran out of bullets. Later on, he saw a sign with 'Public Library' written on it. His eyes sparkled for he loves books. The books were stacked, and all of his favorite readings were there. He got all the time he needs, he had it all. But the odds were not in his favor. His eyeglasses, the only chance to clear his eyesight, got broken.

        How unfortunate Henry is. I feel like the video was too short though. I wished I have all the time I need to do the things I want to do. But I guess you really can't have it all. Maybe I'm still in the 'Morning' time of my life, for I'm just about to start the life I want to pursue. Not just for me, but there will come a time for all of us, this 'Twilight' of our lives. Be prepared. Twilight it is, the darkness will come soon.

A Trip to the Moon: Entertaining through the Sound of Silence

Joben Ryan A. Padre

2013-42972

          Tackling science and technology in a very entertaining manner, “A Trip to the Moon” showed how creative film-makers were decades ago. This silent film truly must be special if it is still being watched by people after a hundred years after its original screening. This movie received all this hype despite being black and white and having no audio effects at all. This witty story about scientists exploring the moon is truly something special.

          If I was there during the first film screening, I honestly would be uninterested at first because it is a silent film. This is because I would typically be watching a movie with film technology way older than what I am accustomed to seeing. However, when the credits start rolling, I’m sure I would be one of the many people standing up and applauding the excellent show.

          If I lived during the time when the film was first screened, it would be a slightly different story. All of the technology used in making the movie were ‘state-of-the-art’. Silent was the trending style for films. The effects were astonishing. The movie would’ve been unbelievable back then. It was. And it is even after so many years.

          But why? What makes this film so appealing in so many ways? Is it the funny picture of scientists wearing Dumbledore’s robe and hat? Is it the comical yet creative idea of using a bullet-like spaceship? Is it the face of the moon and how it was ‘bulls-eyed’ by the bullet? It is the umbrella that turned bizarrely into a mushroom that didn’t stop growing? Is it the hilarious way how aliens turned into powder when hit by an umbrella? The thing about this film is, it was too funny that it somehow appeared serious, but in a good way.

          The movie may seem simple today but it was their ‘Avatar’ or ‘The Avengers’ a hundred years ago. The plot may seem so simple to us today but way back it was quality entertainment. And it is still today.

          Maybe sometimes, silence may be the loudest and most entertaining form of communication.

Future Drama

by: Fidel Delos reyes
     2009-31842

Futurama is a comedy show that is set in the future. It is a very entertaining show that uses stuff's from the present (or the past by now) and showing what it could look like in the future as its humor.

The story starts on the new year's eve of 1999 and is about Fry the pizza delivery boy with nothing to live for, accidentally stumbles inside a cryogenic freezer thus putting him in a state of suspended animation for 1000 years. This is the mode of time traveling they used which is often in a lot of sci-fi themed shows at that time. He wakes up in the future filled with aliens, robot and many high tech devices. In the future, not only technology is new but also the way of life, there he learns that peoples fate are determined by the testing the skill they have and will be given their eternal career.not wanting to be a delivery boy again fry defies the order given to him and fights for the right to determine his own fate. In the end he still becomes a delivery boy but a a different one and more exciting one filled with adventure.

The shows take on the future is very comical yet deep enough to get you thinking. Like the part about your destiny being predetermined. Also the part where they see that the new new york is based on top of the ruin of the old new york. Thinking about the future can be exciting and scary and Futurama makes a way so that you can laugh at the same time.

Futurama - "Welcome to the New Age!"

Joben Ryan A. Padre

2013-42972

          One of the most commonly used concepts in science-fiction stories is time-travel. The idea of going to another time never gets old. It always pokes the interest of viewers and readers mainly because it is impossible. But is it really impossible?

          Showing the possibility of time travel, Futurama presents science, technology, and society in a very unique and interesting manner. The main character, Fry, accidentally falls into a cryonic tube and is frozen, only to be defrosted after a thousand years. In my opinion, technically, he didn’t travel time because he didn’t skip any years; he was just frozen. However, the story is somewhat similar to those with time-travel related plots.

          Though the show presents the future in a comical manner, we cannot deny the fact that most of the things found in the show’s interpretation of year 2999 would be very enjoyable and astonishing especially to human beings of today. We have always dreamt of floating cars, robots, and the like, so waking up to a world full of such would be pretty delightful for most people. This is the new age.

          The show presented a glimpse of what could possible happen a thousand years from now. It depicted how a typical person would react to a thousand years of change. Unfortunately, the experience wasn’t a hundred percent enjoyable. One of the most difficult challenges that time-travel presents is the concept of change, and how the person who travels through time adjusts to these changes. In Fry’s situation, his whole life was typically gone. He had no job, no existing interests, no girlfriend, no job, and almost had no family left. The idea of being alone is somehow attached to that of time-travel and if I were to decide, I wouldn’t go to the future if it meant leaving everything I have behind.

          People say that digging up the past is very dangerous but I think dwelling in the future is equally risky. In the show’s case, where time travel is a one-way road and you can never go back, you will surely consider if you really want to skip to a thousand years from now.

          The only constant thing in the world is change.

FUTURAMA: The future of Science and Technology

By: Paulline Joyce N. Olabre 
      2013-11698

The first episode of the Futurama showed us what the world would look like in 3000. Well, even though we all know that it's just a fictional show, it gave us an idea of how technology would develop in years and what changes would it make in the society. As what we've seen, there were flying cars, robots, hi-tech establishments, etc. We may have these things in the future but I don't think there would be people that look like cyclops in the future. Another thing that caught my attention in the episode was the underworld-like place. The past environment where everything was ruined since technology developed so much they had to make a new environment of their own. This is the problem that we may face in the future, losing the natural environment because of too much technological development. Lastly, the will of the people to live. There was a suicide booth there where people will be able to kill themselves by just going inside a cubicle and dropping a coin. It seems that they don't value life that much there. And I don't think that there was a time traveling that happened in the episode since the main character didn't traveled through time. He was locked and frozen for years.

Futurama - "You gotta do what you gotta do.”

Jonathan Idolor

2013 - 14792

Being the amusing sci-fi cartoon it is, Futurama was entertaining and at times mindlessly amusing. Despite all the fun, if you look at a lot of the themes it brings up, it gets you thinking.

 The funny thing about the future here is that while Fry was cryogenically frozen in time, which is a very controversial topic in science, you can see the man-made structures being destroyed and rebuilt. I found it interesting how some structures, trends, seem to repeat. When the alien ships destroyed them it’s like we went back in time to old buildings then suddenly to futuristic ones. Here we see a one-way time travel, where the new world was built on top of the old one, always moving forward.

“You gotta do what you gotta do.” I always thought of this phrase as an encouraging statement; something to push you to your goal, desire, or maybe even destiny. I even use it as an excuse to play games or relax and enjoy while society looks down on me since I haven’t written my reaction paper yet. To see it used so differently, so ironically, makes me think about how we are being classified. From a certain age we are assigned a life which we, more or less, have no say in. We are made to serve society, made to serve people who are made to serve other people. The mocking irony where we become like robots, like Bender, needing to make things like the suicide machine to help us kill ourselves because we probably don’t know how to do anything outside our assigned jobs. Who is really living in this kind of world? Not being able to do what we want, the freedom of choice and the wonder of possibilities.

I watched a TED talk in Youtube recently, Sir Ken Robinson talks about the current educational system, and I believe society included, is trying to prepare us for the future with the standards of today or maybe even the past. We are being taught a narrow spectrum of skills which can be used in getting jobs and supporting industrialism. The thing is nobody knows how the future will look like or maybe what jobs will be available in 5, or even 1000 years, the same number of years Fry went into the future. Now he also enlightens me about talents. He says that although a person has a particular talent, it may not be what he/she loves to do. He talks about a friend that used to be a concert pianist. She played the piano magnificently, but when asked if it made her happy she said no. The same guy asked why she did it and she said because she was good at it, and he said “being good at something isn’t a good enough reason to do it. To spend your life doing it.” Fry didn’t want to be a delivery boy, he wanted to be an INTERGALACTIC…delivery boy!

Futurama Pilot Episode - A Comedic Viewpoint of a Realist Future

Erwin Dennis Umali | 2010-23119

The future had always been stereotyped as a utopia. Only in the recent decades have mainstream media began painting the future in a more pessimistic light.

Futurama paved a road to that light, and veered off course into whimsical space, making for a fresh, effective setting for adult-themed humor. Based on the pilot episode, Matt Groening took The Simpsons universe and threw it in a time machine.

The protagonist, Fry, was a ‘no life delivery boy’ who considered himself a loser in life. A series of events puts him in a cryo-chamber, which suspends his bodily functions for a thousand years, effectively time-travelling to the future. He wakes up to a completely different world, and, to him, this was a chance of a new life, an escape from his failures and shackles of the past.

However, this future only looked awesome the first few moments; soon after, he was being forced into a lifetime job he did not want to have, and ran into unsettling situations, including a near-death encounter in a ‘suicide booth’. Underneath the bustling future metropolis, he laid eyes on the remains of a lost, crumbling city. By the end of the episode, he reunites with his only relative, and eluded his lifetime job as a delivery boy… by becoming a space delivery boy.

The show tackled science and technology with an unusual twist. From my point of view, nothing in society improved, even after a thousand years; in fact, the future might have become more oppressive, nearing the point of dystopia. Despite the cryogenics, pneumatic transportation, alien and robotic life forms, and all the space-age technology, society still suffers from much the same problems we have in the present, just morphed into a different form. Ugly things still crawl beneath your feet, society still suffers from depression, oppression, anxiety, alienation, discrimination.

But, in the end, what’s amazing with Futurama is how it wraps this all up into an enjoyable adult comedy show. The pilot episode utilizes irony, schadenfreude, and even classic slapstick comedy to deliver its humor, all the while making you question the future the show depicts, and what it means in the present.

FUTURAMA: A view of our future?

by: Maricella D. Valdivia 2013-55498

               Limited with just an episode, because I really don't watch this cartoon series, there are points and questions that popped in my mind. I wonder if year 3000 will look like what Fry have seen. Maybe not exactly the same, but somehow alike. I believe that our technology will further improve after several years. But there is this song telling about the year 3000, it says “Not much has changed, but they live underwater”, then I thought of Global Warming, climate change, and greenhouse gases. Then I thought, maybe it won't be like Futurama, since we are experiencing these catastrophes because of our selfishness and greediness. And in paying the price, we might run out of minerals, sources to make the things that will make our lives better.

               But the advancement of technology in the video was astonishing. You can now find out if someone is blood-related to you, there are robots who can talk and act like a human, there are also flying cars, transport tubes, a museum of heads of famous people, and even a suicide booth! The film is sci-fi, it gives us a hint what the future 'might' be, and comedy for the audience to have a good laugh and to brush so much seriousness.

               We can make our world like what the video showed us of our future world, our lives will be a lot easier(although we're already 1010+ years old by that year), but my advice is not to be selfish. We should be aware about the next generations, they deserve to live, and they deserve a better world. The progress of our world should be increasing, and not decreasing. But my hopes are high that these advancement can happen.

Futurama: Space Pilot 3000

​Futurama: Space Pilot 3000, the pilot episode of an American adult animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening, was unexpectedly cool and funny for a show that was made more or less 15 years ago, not that I’m judging. The show’s take on future and science was quite amusing. They presented it in a humorous and light way but if you think about it thouroughly, the content about the future in that short clip was heavy.

Although the future shown there was the mainstream future we think about nowadays with the flying cars, preservation of the dead and somehow making them alive, being invaded by the extra-terrestrials and all, there were also other out-of the-box inventions like the suicide booth where you can choose different methods to die for only 25 cents and the career deciding machine were you will be assigned a job you will do for as long as you live.

Unlike what people of today dreamed and expected of having, the future shown there however didn’t show a utopiandream world. Instead, the world was pretty much the same imperfect, cruel, terrible but of course wonderful, full of surprises and amazing world we have now. Some people didn’t want their jobs, some people weren’t satisfied or contented so they commit suicide, some were enjoying in parties and other human stuffs.

Tackling time travel, Futurama made use of the method called cryogenic freezing. Cryogenic freezing was a way of preserving the body. Philip Fry, the hero of the show, was cryogenically frozen for 1000 years. So his approximately 20 year old body was exploring the future.

To sum it all up, I for one, think that Futurama is a definite must-watch not only for fans of The Future but for all. It will make you laugh and you will also gain new fascinating information like I had.

Krystine Pearl Robles
2013-70142

Thawed Through Time

The pilot episode of Futurama depicts the society in the year 3000. A pizza delivery boy named Fry has been frozen in a chamber and thaw a thousand years after.

Back in my childhood, I was a fan of television series. I remember 'The Jetsons' to have similar plot of the future to Futurama. The future presented in the show is somewhat based on a consistent development in science - hovering cars for transportation, independently interacting robots being part of the society, wireless technology all through out the city, and other showcase of advanced technology. Futurama shows the vast imagination of its creators and their ideal concept of the future.

Futurama also presented an act of time travelling. Being frozen for years and keeping the body intact is their concept of time travel. I think that their concept of time travel is not possible as to freezing won't stop time around its subject and therefore violating the concept of ageing. But science hasn't reach its limits and noting that it would have endless possibilities. 

Briones, Xavier Noel A.

2013-41022

Time Enough at Last - Or Not

by: Jovialis Jill N. Yeung (2013-72341)

I wouldn’t change much of the basic storyline in “Time Enough at Last” since it’s something that can be adapted into almost any era of modern history. Although in my version, the main character would be an avid book-lover in a future dominated by ebooks and tablets. No one appreciates the traditional paper-bound books anymore, and anyone still caught reading using such methods is considered outdated. This is course, saddens the main character as he has to resort to reading in secret to prevent ridicule from his peers.

It is winter time and because of drastic climate change temperatures have dropped to the point that it’s now the coldest winter the earth has experienced in centuries. The power plants and other technological devices are unable to function in such extreme cold and so people’s options for entertainment have become severely limited. The main character is happy, since now no one will question his hobby anymore since there aren’t many options left.  What he fails to realize though that with the failure of power plants, people’s houses are unable to function normally – electricity has been cut off, heaters don’t work, and there’s no way to manually generate enough power to sustain entire cities. Food eventually runs out, people die of starvation or hypothermia, and everything’s frozen over. The main character despairs over the fact that thanks to the frost that has enabled him to enjoy reading without question, people’s basic needs aren’t satisfied, and so society cannot survive at all (that includes him of course). He would’ve rather stuck to using ebooks and tablets if it meant he wouldn’t have to suffer through a slow and painful death. 

In the end, millions of people fall victim to the world's coldest winter yet.

To Infinity and Beyond

by Jovialis Jill N. Yeung (2013-72341)

At the beginning I’d be skeptical of the movie “Trip to the Moon”, but later on I would probably be curious of what the moon is actually like since at that time, not much was known about it (although I wouldn’t just believe anything that happened in the movie unless it was backed up by legitimate scientific findings since I’m a very realistic person). I would be impressed though by how well the props and scenes were made; the creators’ take on the moon is quite unique, since it’s usually Mars that has the weird aliens and environment. It’d be really funny though if the moon turned out exactly how the movie made it out to be.

The unknown has always been something of interest to mankind, be it the past, present or future. There’s so much to learn and man’s innate curiosity will never be sated. Same is true for me I guess, I’m interested in a lot of topics and I like learning new things so long as I’m not forced into anything. I’d rather uncover the mysteries of the world of my own free will, and not just because someone made me do it. Man has developed over the years thanks to knowledge and wisdom, and will continue to do so far into the future. The possibilities are endless, and since everything starts from an idea, people’s imaginations and hard work will pave the way for evolution.

The Future that is Futurama

by Jovialis Jill N. Yeung (2013-72341)

Futurama depicts a future that is a much more comical and sarcastic version of the present.  Fantasy elements have been added, and instead of just robots being new there are also aliens in society. The basic structure of things is the same though, like buildings, but things like transportation have become more advanced, like hover cars and transport tubes. A person’s destiny though, is determined through his genetics. People who are satisfied with their destiny go on with life as usual but for those who aren’t so happy with how things are for them, the easy option of a suicide booth is made available (this is one of those comical and sarcastic “wonders” of the future).  The characters challenge the system of predetermined destinies and so struggle to make their futures with their own hands.

Time travel in Futurama isn’t really the typical time travel, at least in the case of the main character, since they only reason why he was in the future was because he got stuck in a cyrogenics chamber until a thousand years had passed. But, it does lead to a future that is more advanced than what we have today, unlike some stories that say that the future will revert back to how it was at the beginning, after humankind suffers from divine punishment or an explosion that will destroy the earth. That is not to say though that the future is any better than the present since many problems faced today have been magnified to greater heights in the 31^st Century, issues like global warming and pollution have become especially terrible all over the world. On face level Futurama is more advanced but when you go deeper, it’s actually worse than now.