The Institute for Sustainable Technological Research and Development

The Institute for Sustainable Technological Research and Development (ISTRR) would be an organization that focuses on providing resources for and funding to groups and/or individuals that are working towards creating sustainable technologies. In terms of defining what sustainable technologies is, technologies that promote the reduction of waste, energy consumption, or help the environment qualify under this definition. Promoting research in these areas will contribute towards not only reducing environmental damage and global warming, but also possibly help pave the way for colonization of different planets.

Realistically speaking, I personally feel that colonization of different planets very far from happening, and not likely to be achieved at a large scale during our lifetimes. However, I do believe that our generation can help contribute towards the technologies that will make the colonization of different planets and commercial space travel possible. More specifically, in order to effectively colonize planets that at the very least, take months to travel to, colonies will need to be able to sustain themselves. In the short term, the ISTRR looks towards helping the environment by finding sustainable ways to produce more energy. In the long run, the ISTRR is hoping to be able to help with the endeavor of space colonization by providing resources to scientists in the present to discover ways to produce energy more efficiently or reduce waste. In this sense, the organization is unique because there are tangible short term and long term goals that the organization works towards developing.

Anima Mundi Development Partners should support the ISTRR because of the impact the organization will have on the course of history. In the same way that the advent of air travel has changed the course of history and positively benefitted society, the traveling of the stars could have a similar potential impact. Even when considering the present, the introduction of more sustainable technologies could potentially be enough to create a noticeably positive impact on the world in itself.

Part. I: World We Dare to Imagine

In thinking about how I would go about changing the world, I thought about the biggest problems that the world was facing right now. Since there are so many areas that the world could be improved at the moment, I couldn't necessarily pick any singular problem outright. Some of the problems that I identified that really stood out to me were global warming, overpopulation, and an exhaustion of the world's natural resources. In finding a solution that addresses all of these issues, I looked to the people that I admire for inspiration. The best solution that I could reach was one that Elon Musk is working on right now. If I didn't have to worry about money, I would choose to change the world through space exploration and the colonization of different planets.

I'm focusing more on problems such as global warming, overpopulation, and exhaustion of the world's natural resources because these problems are more easily understood than other problems. Increased natural disasters that occur as a result of global warming and a struggle for necessities that result from overpopulation and the constantly growing consumption of finite natural resources are issues that people all over the world can agree are detrimental to the lives of not only those around today, but also future generations. By solving these issues, a large majority of conflicts in the world could be mitigated. In a broader sense, once these issues are solved, more resources could be devoted to solving other issues.

From the perspective of people living in third world or developing countries, social issues such as racism and discrimination seem relatively unimportant because these people are struggling to survive due to a lack of food. I know it seems a bit farfetched, but my reasoning behind how space exploration and the colonization of different planets can help these people can be explained through backwards induction. The colonization of and migration to different planets reduces the population on Earth, and allows resources to be distributed more evenly among the people on Earth. Additionally, by reducing the number of people on Earth, overall carbon emissions are decreased and the Earth is left better off overall. Once resources can be distributed more evenly on Earth, people in third world and developing countries can have more secure and regular access to necessities. When these people are no longer worrying about how to gain access to necessities such as food and water, they can more effectively turn their attention towards other issues that are negatively impacting society.

EXTRA CREDIT Random CHESS Post

In my last random post, I promised that I would talk about chess again, so here's that promise! I actually had to stop playing chess for a little bit because of midterms, but now I'm playing again and I think I've hit a slump. I've pretty much exhausted all of the opening and gambits on YouTube and I've been stuck at my rank for quite some time now, so I think I'll need to get a book to learn some really obscure and awesome strategies. Earlier this year, around March, I read a book by Bobby Fischer that went over some basic mating patterns and how to avoid setting yourself up in them and I was able to pretty much immediately see results after finishing the book. I'm not sure if it's because I was pretty at chess back then, but I was surprised by how much my rank improved. This time around, I don't think I'll improve as much as I did back then since I would reach the ranking level of masters after only reading 2 books, but hey fingers crossed. 

One thing I want to get out there about chess though, is that you don't actually have to be extremely intelligent to be good at chess. Contrary to popular belief, the best chess players don't actually rely on fluid intelligence (being able to think and adapt to new situations and come up with solutions). Good players actually rely heavily on crystalized intelligence (capacity to memorize). The best players simply have hundreds, or more likely, thousands of scenarios memorized. For each of those scenarios that they have memorized, they know the best move to use. When I first heard about the reliance on memorization, I was skeptical. But honestly, after playing for so long, I can safely say that this statement is true. One game I remember between Garry Kasparov and someone else (I can't remember his name) demonstrated this perfectly. In an interview following the match, Kasparov stated that he was surprised on move 26 because his opponent had deviated from Kasparov's recollection of how the game should have progressed. In other words, the game had progressed exactly according to how Kasparov recalled from memory, until the 26th move when his opponent made a blunder. Memorizing all of these combinations sounds challenging, but trust me, if you play chess a few hours a day everyday for years on end, you start to memorize patterns, consciously or subconsciously. I'm not saying I'm a great chess player either. I'm about the rank of the average competitive chess player. But now that I am ranked fairly well,  I can finally see how impactful crystallized intelligence is on your level of play. 

Third Base Post 2

I found Born on Third Base really interesting! Similar to what I talked about in my first post, Collins addresses a wide variety of issues that surround wealth. Most of these topics covered, such as climate change and tax "evasion", are very loosely related to one another. The only common connection between all of these topics is that there is a large amount of wealth surrounding all of these topics.

When Collins talks about tax "evasion", my inner accountant cringes. Collins is using the term completely incorrectly. When people donate to causes and receive a tax deduction, this is not considered tax evasion. Tax evasion is a felony, and an example of this is when the IRS tells you that you owe $100,000 and don't pay it. In contrast, a tax deduction reduces the amount of taxes that the IRS tells you to pay. Charity donations are deductible, and so are payments made for treatment of life-threatening diseases. People who donate money to charity and are required to pay less taxes aren't "avoiding" taxes anymore than people who pay for cancer treatment and receive a tax deduction. Similarly, wealthy people who move to other countries in order to avoid taxes also stand to lose too. In these instances, these people essentially forfeit their U.S. citizenships and are no longer granted all of the rights that other citizens are given. These people can't travel to other countries that are allied with the U.S., because they would likely be extradited and their investments are not protected by the financial regulations in place that prevent scams.

There are also some other things that Collins talks about that I don't really agree with, but I respect his opinion. He makes his decisions based on the experiences that he has had in his life, and the things that he's learned from them just as I do with my decisions.

Third Base Post 1

To be honest, I'm not too sure how I feel about the actions of the author. One part of me understands why he gave away his wealth. At the same time, another part of me shouts that he's being really stupid. These feelings aside, I really enjoyed this book. I didn't enjoy it in the same carefree way that I enjoy reading about adventurers and people who overcome obstacles. I enjoyed the book in a way that I'm not entirely sure about how to describe. The book really forced me to think and come to terms with many of the issues about wealth that had been sitting somewhere in my head. In a sense, Collins asked the right questions, and gave the correct anecdotes that got readers thinking.

I particularly like how Collins outlines the idea that people often seek to become the object of their own hatred, when he asks a group of people whether they despise the 1%, and whether they would want to be part of the 1%. This anecdote interested me greatly because I used to always think about this exact set of questions, and struggled to come up with a reasoning behind why we tend to associate those within the top 1% negatively, yet strive so hard to become part of that group. After a lot of deliberation, however, I came to realize that in terms of the world population, most Americans are in the 1%. The annual salary from the federal minimum wage would give someone enough wealth to be within the top 5% of earners worldwide, while an annual salary over $40,000 would put someone well within the top 1%.

On a completely separate note, while I do believe that the poverty rate and wealth gap within America is an issue, I don't think that Collins is tackling the issue in a productive way. His idea of promoting progressive populism in order to "get people to look up the economic ladder to target their populist wrath at the richest 1 percent" is hypocritical. He condemns regressive populism, where minorities are blamed for issues behind poverty and wealth without any evidence, and then proceeds to blame the 1% without any support. This type of logic is akin to saying that these corporations and individuals are becoming wealthy by taking money out of the accounts of other people. When examined case by case, it is clear that there are many factors that contribute to why families and individuals are below the poverty line.

All in all, I agree with some statements made by Collins, and disagree with others. It's interesting to see these issues from the perspective of someone who was in the 1%. So far, the book has made me think about ways to articulate my conceptions about wealth that I previously had feelings about but didn't necessarily know how to convey, and has made the book so far enjoyable.

(Another) random SMOOTHIE post

Ok so I know the title says that this post is about smoothies, but it's actually not. I'm not a smoothie connoisseur, so I pretty much said everything I wanted to say about smoothies in my last smoothie post. The title was just clickbait and I'm actually going to talk about CHESS.

  

Basically, I got into competitive chess 2 years ago sporadically with a bunch of my friends that I made from college, and with friends I knew from high school. It was a pretty crazy movement because none of us really knew anything about chess, besides how to move the pieces. But after a few of us started getting into it, it seemed like everyone I knew was watching videos about new strategies and testing them out on each other. The reason why I’m talking about chess in this post is because I’ve been on a chess hiatus for about 6 months, after losing about 20 matches in a row and probably raising my blood pressure in the process. And sure, I was also really busy with finals towards the end of last spring and with my internships/externships over the summer, but we’ll glance over that right now. I’ve gotten back into chess recently and surprisingly, my rank isn’t a ton worse than when I stopped 6 months ago. ANYWAYS, I’m going to cut this post short so that I can write about chess more in future random posts that we’ll get assigned (I’ve learned from writing too much in my last smoothie post…). If anyone wants to play a few games for fun (or for money), let me know!

nEW ROAD POST

I have good news. I actually really liked this book! Steinem offers an interesting perspective on life and traveling that I never really thought about before. Her addiction to traveling and experiences she gained from her time abroad helps point out things that I never really thought about, like how much of a difference having or not having a car can make. Having lived in the Manhattan area, I can safely say that you don't really need a car to get around, and in fact, a car would actually be more of a hassle. Yay for functioning public transportation! Now that I've pretty much decided on living in the bay area after graduation, I'm actually a little bummed out that I'll have to get a car, and pay for insurance and gas since paying for a monthly unlimited metro pass is so much cheaper. Who knows though, maybe Elon Musk will come up with a plan for good public transportation in the bay area as a side project while he figures out how to get to Mars. 

On a more serious note though, after reading about all of her stories from travel abroad, I'm glad that I have a place that I can go back to where I can completely be at home. I know she basically says that home is where to heart is, but being able to go back to one place where all of your friends and family live is reassuring. 

ROAD

I'm not gonna lie, the beginning of My Life on the Road was a little tough to get through. In fact, it was pretty slow for me up until half way through the first chapter. I probably would've stopped reading it if I had randomly picked it up at a library (I'm not a very patient guy) and the entire time I was just thinking to myself, "please don't be like that farmer book." But I'm glad I stuck with it because I actually really enjoy this book! Steinem provides a really interesting perspective on life, having been through an "unconventional" childhood and the book was actually pretty eye opening. Also, compared to Kurt, Steinem actually seems to take her audience into consideration so extra points for that Gloria.

For me, the idea that stood out the most to me was that Gloria is very candid about her life. She doesn't romanticize traveling, or embellish her stories with little lies to make them seem more interesting. She gives credit where credit is due and isn't afraid to point out the parts that sucked. I hear a lot of people nowadays saying that they want to travel more and see different places, and I'll admit that I would love to get out more too. I personally didn't travel very much in my childhood, and only recently started to travel. But having read about Gloria's childhood of never ending travel, and the struggles that came with, I'm pretty satisfied and grateful for what I've had. I guess the grass isn't always greener on the other side.

Random SMOOTHIE Post

Since coming to the southern California area, I’ve learned quite a few things. One thing I’ve learned is that it is always really hot here, and you can pretty much wear shorts and a t-shirt everyday. Another thing I’ve learned is that since it’s always hot, you can enjoy a smoothie pretty much everyday.

The initial factor that started me on my smoothie journey was variety. I wanted to have a large variety of fruit regularly, but couldn’t seem to find a way to consistently fit all of the different kinds of fruit that I wanted to have into my diet. This issue continued until last year, when one of my roommates brought a blender and showed all of my suitemates and I some smoothie recipes. Since then, I’ve been making at least one smoothie pretty much everyday, for other people or myself. Now, I have a few main recipes that I cycle through depending on the occasion and what I’m in the mood for, and often experiment with different ingredients to fine tune my smoothie recipes.

For obvious reasons, the healthiest smoothie in my recipe arsenal is usually my daily go-to smoothie. Some of the ingredients include bananas, milk, greek yogurt, avocado, spinach, peanut butter, and a fruit that’s in season. Although this is my healthiest smoothie, it isn’t the tastiest smoothie that I know how to make. Whenever I have friends over and I really need to impress everyone with my smoothie-making capabilities, I mix up my recipe of choice and opt for something more adventurous. There’s actually an art to choosing the right recipe for your audience too. For someone that might have a sweet tooth, I’ll use an ice cream or gelato smoothie recipe, with fruit that’s in season to really flush out the flavors. For someone that might want to have a little more fun, I might use a recipe that incorporates alcohol, for a sort of faux cocktail. With these smoothies, I usually just make do with whatever alcohol is available to experiment and make a recipe on the spot. To be fair, these recipes don’t always turn out great. But the good news is that after a few sips people usually learn to love the smoothie! As for words of wisdom, if I had to give one piece of advice that could apply to my fellow smoothie enthusiasts of all levels looking to experiment, it’s that the most important step is keeping the lid on the blender.