Evolit: Week 13--Your Evolution as a Thinker?

This course has helped me evolve in my understanding of stories and how I should analyze them and whether I should analyze them at all. I now search for a story no matter where I am and try to relate it to some of the topics we discussed in class but mainly evolution. I have realized that interpreting a story is not important. I have started to think of all stories in terms of evolution, conscious , unconscious and try to be on the lookout for elements and themes in storybooks that point towards them.

I don't think I can look at a science book without thinking about the story that is in there. I have started searching for stories everywhere. Before I took this class, I never saw a story in anything and even if I did, I did not have much interest in learning about it. Yes, I still prefer some stories over the other but just because of that I don't belittle the other stories anymore. Science is not just boring mumbo jumbo and literature is not just "some story or boring poem" now. If nothing else, I have learnt to be tolerant of other stories and views and thoughts and that is how I think I have evolved. 

 

 

In my first post, I was amazed at the revelation of the science and humanities divide really not existing in any real way. I have to say that through the course that idea has been very enforced for me. I used to believe that science was a place that I held stray interests but it wasn't where my focus for the future would lie. Currently though I am seriously considering a major in the natural sciences so I guess my thoughts have really evolved. The "divide" between the two subjects or any subjects for that matter just seem so much less real than they have in the past. Everything is inter-connected with other things and ideas. I've always liked finding connections and now that everything has become to be inter-connected in my perception of reality there is a nice system of convergent and divergent ideas that can exist in my mind where before there was only segregated boxes neatly piled and labeled but definitely seperate. I think that I have learned a great deal about myself throught this course, more than I anticipated really. I am almost sad to leave the sometimes confusing tangle of branches and connectivity, but I am ready to go out and apply my findings to something new now.

This class has evolved so much for me. I came into the class wondering how biology and literature could possibly be taught together, and at first I was completely confused and lost on where the class was going. Now, I feel like I have an understanding of what the class intends to accomplish. I feel like this class attempts to create its own evolution by not sticking to a single lesson plan or a narrow theme but by organically coming together through ideas, forum postings, discussions, etc to create a more fluid, open direction for the class. I really liked how this class was so open and inclusive of all ideas that were proposed in class. I feel like this class definitely had a philosophical edge that kept me interested with the discussions on free will and truth. I think this course has given me a new approach to science and literature- a new approach with involving more questioning and challenging ideas.

I feel like over the semester I've learned some new things, but I'm not sure why.  This class has moved in circles the whole time, we talk about something, and not just relate it back to earlier discussions but we make it all seem parallel.  My paper on the evolution of comics and some of the techniques used in it, as well as looking at human evolution and the evolution of cartoons over time has helped me understand how these concepts apply to all walks of life and how to give myself a new way of thinking. 

I feel like by learning was evolution truly is right from the source really helps, because many poeple talk about origin of species but don't fully understand how it came to be.  It's interesting to read such a famous theory right from its source, and it really gives a new insight for me to write and learn.

I remember that I started out very contentious- the premise of the underlying connections between science and literature, between evolution and stories, felt like a challenge, and it was one that I took up with interest. Determining what the differences actually were, to what extent they were negative and contrived and to what extent positive or inherent (is it right for me to connect natural with "good" there? I still don't know) was a mental task I worked through for much of the beginning portion, and it was an interesting one. In looking at the interplay between religion and science in my first two papers, I tried to work through what contributions the "factual" and the "faith-based" make to each other and evolution of thought as a whole, and I found that philosophical reflection worthwhile. Looking at the similarities was productive for me because, among other things, it encouraged me to see what the distinctions actually were instead of just taking for granted that they existed. 

I was surprisingly dissappointed then, actually, when moving into the more literary portion because it meant a loss of competing theories. (surprising as I am, after all, an english major). While doing Whitman, I never found the personal mental space I needed to have my thoughts on his piece evolve because of the work we did with it in class. Ideas from different people can of course, in many cases, be helpful to growing and expanding your own without the competitive atmostphere I felt during the first half, but for some reason I never found that space during our discussions. Maybe I wasn't listening well enough to what others were putting on the table. I will try to pay closer attention this upcoming week to what everyone else has found important throughout the semester- maybe it can help me see the text in a new light. 

One thing I noticed this semester was that my head would feel tangled every time I left class. For the most part, the topics we discussed in class kept me questioning and wondering. I feel like it was because the questions we discussed really did not have any right answers or at least Dr. Grobstein would make us keep questioning those "right" answers. It is difficult to say that I  have concluded anything for certain because I feel like there are so many interpretations possible for everything. I think this is like evolution in that there are so many possibilities to evolve and what we do conclude is random.

I would like to reflect on the entire semester, but I am too intrigued by what Paul said on Tuesday when he asked, "What negative consequences do stories/ meanings have?" In some ways, this does link back to my very first forum post, in which I questioned what negative impacts the story of evolution could have on society. However, I never extended the negative impacts of stories onto the biological sphere itself, which makes complete sense to me and is so totally obvious after Paul mentioned it. Stories can conflict with biological processes that gave rise to them, not just with one another & the culture of which they are a part. Thus, we get the Judeo-Christian worldview, which arguably led to our current environmental situation. Our stories hitherto have resulted in human destruction of the environment - namely, that we have dominion over nature and can use it however we wish. 

 

As an environmentalist, this realization is key to me. Evolving to have different stories as a culture will have positive impacts on biological evolution as well, for we can become stewards of the environment. We must evolve our "noosphere" to be mindful of the biosphere.  

 

This seems to challenge what Lisa B. said above - “It seems that literary evolution is insignificant compared to biological evolution...” Biological evolution is incomparably more vast than cultural and literary evolution, but the latter two may be unfathomably more powerful, given the scope of their impact compared to the contracted time scale of their existence. Conservationist Aldo Leopold drew a contrast between evolutionary or “natural” changes, which typically occur slowly and locally, with human-induced changes that are “of unprecedented violence, rapidity, and scope” and have “effects more comprehensive than is intended or foreseen.” We have become a most formidable force of nature. The question remains to be seen whether we have control over our own unfathomably vast scales. It will take a hell of a good story to turn this around. 

 

Kudos to Ann & Paul for such a generative course!

I took the advice to go back to earlier posts and read my first 3 posts of the semester. A couple things struck me about them. The first is the way my view of this class has changed. In one of my early posts I said that understanding what this class is about was like trying to put together a puzzle with missing pieces. In most classes there is something the professor wants the students to learn about and then they learn about that topic.  It took me a while, but I have stopped viewing this class in that way. We certainly read and talked about evolution a lot, but unlike most classes I don't feel like the professors have certain things they want us to learn. Instead, I feel like I am able to decide what I want to think about and learn.  This has become really exciting for me because I have gotten to think about the things that I am most interested in.  I love Bryn Mawr's education classes (to the point where I only want to take education classes, unfortunately Bryn Mawr doesn't have an education major) and the freedom this class has given me to think about educational theories in relation to evolution has been really nice.  

I also realized the large number of things we have discussed over the weeks. I wrote about the difference between fiction and non-fiction in one of my early posts. What I wrote is very interesting, but I don't remember the discussion that inspired it. I don't remember every discussion we have had during class, but I am amazed at the number of different topics we have been able to discuss.

The third thing that struck me was the fact that I said I didn't think my high school Biology teacher would approve of my new thoughts about Darwin. I disagree with myself now.  I think that she would be impressed at the complexities my knowledge about Darwin has taken on. She did tell us that natural selection happens, but I don't think she meant to imply that everything Darwin thought was right.  I think that she just told us what she could in our extremely short study of evolution (it couldn't have been more than a week in our biology curriculum).  

I'm sure I would have more to say if I went back and read all my previous posts, but what surprises me about the first three posts is how much my thinking about our class and evolution has changed. 

Hello everyone, Walt Whitman was my least favorite author because he rambled on and on about things that did not inspire me.  I would choose a different text for this course however, the contrast in texts was significant.  I don't know what to say about Walt Whitman other than I didn't like his writing because it was boring.

I had the privilege of attending the 2009 Franklin Institute Laureate Award ceremony this past week. This event has been in existence since 1824. Each year a committee chooses esteemed individuals to receive these awards based on their contribution to science and technology. This year six “Benjamin Franklin Medals” were given to scientists who made great contributions in the fields of: Chemistry, Computer and Cognitive Science, Earth and Environmental Science, Electrical Engineering, Engineering, and Life Science. Before each recipient received their award there was a short film about them from childhood through to present. In every case, it was clear that not only was their development a slow methodical evolutionary process but also the work that has consumed them thus far. I sat in the audience and couldn’t help but think about Darwin and how he laid the groundwork for the development and understanding of the theory of evolution.

 

The two top awards, The Bower Award, made possible by the late Philadelphia chemical manufacturer Henry Bower, is one of the most significant science prizes in America. This award also includes $250,000. in prize money. Sandra M. Faber, Ph.D. won this award for her achievement in science. She had made extraordinary advances in our knowledge of the properties of distant galaxies, dark matter, large scale structure of the Universe, and black holes in galactic nuclei; and for innovative leadership in the development of astronomical facilities. She was absolutely amazing and her life story even more fascinating. The second award went to T. Boone Pickens for more than 50 years of creative and visionary leadership in energy production and delivery, and his recent focus on domestic renewable energy. He is around 80 years old and has a burning passion for his work second to none.

 

I was truly humbled in the presence of such greatness.

 

This class has certainly brought new meaning to my life. I feel as though I think more deeply - analyze more critically - and process all things in ways I didn't think humanly possible. Thank you to my amazing classmates and to Paul Grobstein and Anne Dalke.

Before coming into this class, I thought, like mcurrie, that we would talk about evolution in very concrete and scientific terms.  I was also surprised to find that this course focused more on ways of evolutionary thinking, and philosophy.  On writing in the forum, the first few classes I would leave class with an idea in my head about what to write.  However, after a few classes I started leaving class with no clear ideas and instead a muddle of questions and semi-ideas.  This class makes me question everything and every idea I have previously taken for granted.

The main way that my thinking has changed is in how much I question, and how deep I question.  Before this course, I didn't give that much thought to other possible forms of education, or to what my own education had done, or not done for me.  Despite my new ways of thinking, sometimes I find it difficult  to implicate an ever-questioning state of mind.(Or maybe this new way of thinking has become so rooted that I even question it...)

The first day of class I believed that we were only going to focus on the evolution theory so that I could finally figure out at least the basics.  I wanted to know the evidence behind the theory.  Well, I was in for a surprise. Yes, we did talk about evolution but how it pertained to all sorts of subjects or ideas.  I never thought of science and literature being connected except that in order to write you at least need to know the basics of writing.  On Thursday we made analogies about how we first thought of science and literature with them being separate islands and now we have built a bridge between them.  Or seeing science and literature on the same island with just borders that separate but are easy to cross.  I kept thinking about a membrane, letting only certain things cross while keeping others at their different sides.  I still see science and literature as separate but connected where they each have their own evolution and have once been connected into one but then diverged.  Now there are some ways that they are similar that can be transported from one side to another.  I have to say that I enjoyed this class. I have now started to question myself and my thoughts and even what I am learning today.  I guess the class helped me get one step closer to becoming an individual thinker instead of just believing every single word that comes out of a person's mouth.  I can take in all sides and then figure out my opinion and keep evolving my ideas.

For my recent paper, I wrote about the evolution of teh New Engand style of dance, contra dancing. This weekend I'm attending a festival where I will sit on a panel discussing youth involvment in contra. This folk festival is held annually with thousands in attendence, and I'm excited to talk with other college age dancer from all over the area about how they have adapted contra to fit the "next generation."

I will be talking about how I started the group here on campus and how we've had to change our advertizing style, etc. to appeal to students. We also want to talk about regional differences in steps of th dance to see if college students, moving aound the country, have standardized steps, embraced the differences, etc. If anything particualrly relevant comes up, I'll let you know!