Thoughtlessness of Science

Felix Hoenikker was creating ice-nine in his home, "Apparently, before he sat down in his wicker chair and died, the old man played puddly games in the kitchen with and pots and pans and ice-nine. He must have been converting water to ice-nine and back to water again, for every pot and pan was out on the kitchen countertops. A meat thermometer was out, too, so the old man must have been taking the temperature of things. The old man meant to take only a brief time out in his chair, for he left quite a mess in the kitchen. part of the disorder was a saucepan filled with solid ice-nine." Right after this, this was when the kids took the ice nine from their father; the creation of Ice-nine has devastated thousands of hundreds of lives and these people take it for granite. Felix Hoenikkers' kids did not think about anyone beside themselves. They disregarded humanity when they took the ice nine. Ice nine was a dangerous creation, Hoenikker kids used ice nine for their own selfish reasons,"The Hoenikkers couldn't remember that anyone said anything to justify their taking ice-nine as personal property."(Cats Cradel pg.168) .Human desires is what is meant to be human. People do not care for the sake of others when it comes to science. Science was created and discoveries were made because people were supposed to find ways to make people lives better. In this story however the leading leaders did not care about other people hence why he was playing the string game "cats cradle."  There was a quote from the book that mentioned the cats cradle the quote said, "All of humanity attempts to define and discover the meaning of life are nothing more than a cat's cradle, a funny-looking string that has not become a cat or a cradle" is a reflection of our lives. People like celebrities, athletes, and figure heads are nothing more than people trying to define themselves in life. People have the desire to be known and be remembered after they have past away. None of this actually matters, the only thing that matters is that people pass on their genes and reproduce. This brings it back to science, science is important in our lives, it may go against some religions but science provides new ways to keep people living and make people happy. 

Lies of Leaders and "Their" religion

Nothing "good" has come from the atomic bomb, the effects of the bomb killed many lives. Everyone was emotionally hurt, "When Bokonon and McCabe took over this miserable country years ago, "said Julian Castle, "they threw out the priest. And then Bokonon, cynically and playfully, invented a new religion." Well, when it became evident that no governmental or economical reform was going to make the people much less miserable, the religion became the one real instrument of hope. Truth was the enemy of the people, because the truth was terrible, so Bokonon made it his business to provide the people with better and better lies." ( In chapter 78 of Cats Cradle pg.118) These two people came up with a religion, this is not an ordinary religion, this one is completely made up, unlike Christianity or Buddhism. In this sense science cannot go against religion because Bokononism is fake and is not real. In this Chapter Newt (one of the people that has ice-nine) mentions cats cradle several times, Johnah was wondering about the book about Bokononist and Newt stats "Religion See the cat? See the cradle?" The reference of the book brings it back to the following post that there is no cat nor cradle, it is made up for people's entertainment. This might mean in the future that people will do anything to acquire power and be known. This to answers the question what it means to be human, humans in general thrive to be known and people will accept anything to be happy, the people of San Lorenzo knew that lies were being told but they rather be ignorant than miserable with their lives.

The history left by Philip's Father

Philip castle told Johnah the story of his father and how his father left the hospital to him. The passage of the story of Philips dad, " So some people got free furniture, and some people got bubonic plague. At Father's hospital, we had fourteen hundred deaths inside of ten days. Have you ever seen anyone die of bubonic plague? That unhappiness has not been mine. The lymph glands in the groin and the armpits swell to the size of grapefruit. I can well believe it." (Cat's Cradle pg 111) His father had gotten free furniture and he had put them in his hospital not thinking why he was given it for free. This was his first downfall of his hospital, if science advancements were more advanced he may have been able to save these people. To be human in this sense is to help others and not let them die, but when a person doesn't save a patient he/she may go crazy. In the next quote the reader sees how death can affect a person, "Oh, yes. Anyway, one sleepless night I stayed up with Father while he worked. It was all we could do to find a live patient to treat. In bed after bed after bed we found dead people. "And Father started giggling, "castle continued. "He couldn't stop. He walked out into the night with his flashlight. He was still giggling. He was making the flashlight beam dance over all the dead people stacked outside. He put his hand on my head, and do you know what that marvelous man said to me?" asked Castle. "Nope." "Son," my father said to me, 'someday this will be yours." (Cat's Cradle pg 112) This excerpt from Cat's Cradle is freaky, the thought of a kid walking around with his Dad seeing all these dead bodies. And you then notice your Father laughing and giggling would freak the hell out of me. The imagery from this quote gives me the chill the dead bodies, the dancing flashlight made by his Dad, and the last part of saying that all of this will be his. If this was me I would not take this job at the hospital and follow his dad foot steps. This is what he did though, Philip Castle did not follow in his Father footsteps, instead he went to make a hotel. And maybe because Philip is a Bokononist he did not take the job because he knows that everything he does will not affect the world for a greater purpose. What would have happened if people didnt believe in bokononist and thought about science? I think the people would have better lives, according to this book science is a way to discover new ways to better peoples lives, and if this is true the incident with the bubonic plague may not happen ever again. The rejection of science is because the religion the people of San Lorenzo believes.

Fear and Americans

"Is said to say that Americans aren't loved wherever they go, what ever they do. Claire tried to make the point that American foreign policy should recognize hate rather than imagine love." (Cat's Cradle pg 72) America was feared by many nations worldwide because anyone that posses a threat to America would be annihilated. Places like Germany after WWII was into ruins and gotten all the blame for the war. Another quote reassures that if people posed a threat to the U.S. would be destroyed, " Im sure of it,," said Minton gently, "Christian" said Papa," "Good." "Anti-Communist," said "Papa" "Good." "No Communists here," said "Papa." "They fear the hook to much." (Cat's Cradle pg.99) The "hook" is basically a death penalty, they would die in other words. In the following chapters the book mentions San Lorenzo's history and Tumba Womba, the main idea from this section is that Americans desire for power and control gain lands but these lands that are acquired are actually useless. The advancements of technology has created war which in returns creates fear. Major themes like technology, war, and religion are tied together. Technology gives people the power to fight against opposing nations and thousands of people will die. To be human is to fight and protect what people think is important in their lives. 

Phase 2 Blog 4

"Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before," Bokonon tells us. "He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way." This quote reminds me back to Bokonon, he talks about how people how are ignorant are the people who do not learn anything from studying. In reality though Bokonon is the ignorant one, he does not care about human lives. So humans to him are just pawns used for a greater good. Nothing matters to him except the advancements of technology and Bokonoism. Bokonon uses manipulation from the gecko. He gives the people on the island false hope. These people believe Boknon over Felix. Felix is a scientist and he believes science as the proof for everything but Bokonon uses his false religion to capture the peoples mind. This shows in the future that people will do anything in order to gain absolute power.

Phase 2 Blog 3

"I, mud, sat up and saw what a nice job God had done."
"Nice going, God!"
"Nobody but You could have done it, God! I certainly couldn't have."
"I feel very unimportant compared to You."
"The only way I can feel the least bit important is to think of all the mud that didn't even get to sit up and look around."

Even though the author switches from being a Christian to a Bokonoist this quote references back to Christianity. People are the mud and they are not important compared to God. Everyone in the world is small and not even as important as God. To feel important even a tiny bit is to go around and look at what God has created. Humans job in life is to find out and explore the world that God has created for Us. People use manipulation all the time to manipulate peoples lives. In this passage Vonnegut uses religion to manipulate peoples mind.

Phase 2 Blog 2

Technology
"Perhaps, when we remember wars, we should take off our clothes and paint ourselves blue and go on all fours all day long and grunt like pigs. That would surely be more appropriate than noble oratory and shows of flags and well-oiled guns." With the advancement of technology comes the advancement of weapons. War has a connection with technology, technology creates weapons and weapons creates war. The quote shows that humans are just like animals, humans aare like the royal not like animals so why do people fight?  To be human in this quote references that humans are power hungry and everyone jsut cares about killing eachother. This quote is relevent to our current society, alot of people in the United States wonders why are there soilders still in Iraq. Many Americans blame George Bush, in several newsports there were videos of innocent people getting killed. The advancements of weapons are scary and dangerous. People are described as animals and that people should just run around on all fours, from this quote I think that humans don't necessarily see the suffering caused by wars and weapons. The atomic bomb which Hoenikker created shows that humans dont really care about other peoples lives.