ASSIGNMENT:
O-3.
Quantum Retrocausality
Video Message
CONTEXT:
It's the year
2032 and 10-yr old
Ryan, the son of a couple who met while attending
Duke, is being interviewed about the state of the planet. How is this possible? In 2025 a technology known as Quantum Retrocausality [QR] [
http://goo.gl/8MSHw] became a reality (funded by
DARPA of course). QR is now readily available to transmit messages back in time and so you're able to hear what Ryan has to say about life in the future.
ASSIGNMENT: With QR technology you have a unique opportunity to transmit a message back to
2013, the year you took Bio89s at Duke.
Prepare a 5-min video on the
State of
Planet Earth (vis-à-vis
Human Domination), which will be shown to the Bio89s
Class of 2013. Given all we've discussed this term on climate change, land use, water security, etc., it will be extremely interesting to see how everyone is coping 20 years hence.
Something to look forward to! Can you imagine hearing from yourself in the future?
In preparing your video message creativity is encouraged but you must adhere to one of this fall's basic themes: "
... nature and the laws of physics cannot compromise - they are what they are" (pg. xi of STORMS). For example, in 2022
North America will NOT be covered in ice; the state of
Arizona will be NOT be inundated by seawater; and
Congress will NOT be functioning. You have to remain within the realm of plausibility. On the other hand, as
James Hansen writes in STORMS: "All glaciers in
Glacier National Park in the
United States will be gone in about twenty-five years if greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase. We will need to rename it "Glacierless
National Park" [page 284].
Obviously many events (both POSITIVE and NEGATIVE) will either have occurred or have some probability of occurring over the next 20 years (you may want to use the 2013
IPCC 5th
Climate Assessment
Report as a guide). You're free to discuss any topic relevant to Human Domination of the
Earth, be it geological, ecological (e.g., loss of
Great Barrier coal reef in
Australia), technological (e.g., geoengineering), biological (loss of biodiversity), atmospheric, cultural (e.g., water wars), social, political, and/or economic.
NOTE: Ryan is not following a script. I, of course, explained the subject matter of STORMS, set the conditions for the interview (the year 2032, Duke parents, etc.) and told him to imagine that the
USA would be warmer and drier. But not much more than that: I wanted to get a 10-year old's
point of view of what he thought the world might be like in ~20 years. He's a die-hard Tar
Heel fan and agreed to do it on the condition that he could wear his
UNC jersey (he loathes Duke!).
- published: 28 Nov 2012
- views: 427