Watch The Short film.docx

Watch the short film “Akiro Kurosawa’s Dreams: Village of the Watermills” GUIDE QUESTIONS 1. What is “the good life?” Is our personal concept of “the good life” the same as what was depicted in the film? For me good life is having a healthy life together with your friends and family to enjoy life to the fullest without anxiety and undue fatigue. In the film entitled “Village of the Watermills,” the villagers defined good life as simple life. They are contented to what the nature provides them as the nature provide our daily needs such as fresh air, water and food. Having a longer life is another definition of good life for them as they find life exciting as it is full of challenges to be solved. Having their death in the right age is a pleasure for them as they think that our lives in the right age is like a ripe fruit that is ready to pick. 2. Which part of the film struck you most? Why? I really like the part when the old man said that the Human beings forgot that they are part of the nature as well. They forgot the importance of natural living where the environment must be the focus of development and productivity as it provides our daily needs to survive. We must take care of our nature the same level of our way of taking care of ourselves. 3. Based on the film, discuss how technology reveals nature and the human person’s role in it. Base on the film, technology is not permanent and only provide temporary happiness that in the end will result to despair. It is true that technology makes our lives easier and comfortable, but we abuse its function and power and end up to negative effects such us danger to everyone and destroying the nature and ourselves also. Personally, I think that using modern technology properly and essentially will result to both improving human lives and improving environment that we can say that good life truly exists.

Watch the video clip “The Magician’s Twin” GUIDE QUESTIONS 1. What is scientism? “Scientism is the conviction that the methods of science are the only reliable ways to secure knowledge of anything; that science's description of the world is correct in its fundamentals. Science provides all the significant truths about reality and knowing such truths is what real understanding is about. Being scientistic just means treating science as our exclusive guide to reality, to nature-both our own and everything else’s”

2. How is science comparable to magic?

the two ideas of science and magic being similar in that they are able to function as an alternative religion in their encouragement of a lack of skepticism, and in their quest for power. First you need to pin down what you mean by magic. It might seem obvious, but when you explore it a lot of people mean different things when they say ‘magic’. The most common definition would just seem to be ‘something supernatural’. That’s a vague idea, and not a very helpful one when you get right down to it. The term ‘supernatural’ itself is not really a coherent idea. If you look at a lot of things that people call supernatural there really isn’t a good reason to call them that. For example, if ghosts are real, then they are part of the natural world. Why add ‘super’? For some the term ‘magic’ means a supernatural thing that is an intentional creation, a spell or charm or something similar. In that sense it is at least not a natural thing, so it gets closer to having a meaning. That still would seem to suggest that magic is a way of achieving a goal. Science, by comparison, is a way of gaining knowledge. So, a better question might be ‘How is science comparable to technology?’ Technology is a method of getting things done, and while we might think of technology in terms of things that use electricity, the term really applies to even very simple machines like axes and hammers. It even applies to things that are purely means of organization, methods. What that means is that magic would then simply be technology that involves the supernatural. They’re actually closer than most people might think. Among the similarities: 1. Both are disciplines that seek to understand how the world works. 2. Both are motivated by our desire, to at least some extent, to impose our will on the world. 3. Both involve experimentation, at least to some extent. 4. Both involve the search for general principles that can apply to specific situations.

3. Why is science more dangerous than magic?

Science is more dangerous for several reasons. The first and by far the most significant is that science is a powerful force in reality, whereas magic is only fiction. Science and its inventions can be good or bad. At first science explored on how our nature works, they offered us medicines that help us prevent diseases, etc. But another side of science is just for plain bad side. Bio weapons, Chemical weapons, Vaccines-indisguise as experiments, Nuclear/Atomic bomb, Hydrogen bomb. Science, if they did not stop these mad scientists, the world will surely be decimated, chaos ensues, and greed was all behind it. “Each year new war technologies are designed to slaughter lives than help.” Advancement of military is not good either. I hope we all stop these and think about how to save our world instead…care for our environment.

4. What is the presented essence of modernity and its consequence?

Science as power The third similarity between science and magic, according to Lewis, is the quest for power. Magic was about the quest for power. Magicians wanted to have power over the world and over the universe. They wanted to harness the deeper powers of nature in order to control it, and Lewis said that much of modern science, not all, but much of modern science was actually developed fro power over the world. For many people in the 20th century, the power of modern science was its greatest virtue. They hoped science would usher in a new age of peace and prosperity- a scientific utopia. For the scientific utopians of Lewis’s era, science was the savior that would allow us to remake our world. And of course that can be good. Modern science can bring us good things. Many things: from the microwave oven to the computers, to life saving treatments of modern medicine, which Lewis certainly appreciated, But, on the other hand, that tendency to want to control things can bring us the Orwellian state of George Orwell’s 1984. And so, Lewis thought that modern science, in fact, was far more dangerous than magic, because magic failed. Magic doesn’t work at the end of the day. And so, it wasn’t so dangerous because people couldn’t use it to control the world. Modern science has the potential that you really can control people, if you find the right drugs, or find the right treatments, you can manipulate them. And so, if you don’t have some other way of protecting to remedy what you do in the name of science, some ethical basis that isn’t dictated by science itself, that can control it, then you are facing a really bleak future.

5. What do we need for the sciences to be good?

Quite simply, you need for the people who put the science to use to be good people. Essentially, science itself can be neither good nor bad. Science only seeks to understand how the world works and why it works in that way. People can then take that knowledge and apply it for good or evil. You see, science itself it not good or bad. Science is just trying to find how nature works systematically. The next step comes engineering. Engineering is making things from the knowledge gained through science. This can be good or bad. And for it to be good, the engineer has to a good person and the user has to be a good person as well. For example, a gun is made by applying basic principles of nature found through science like Newton's third law of motion and what not. Now guns can serve as a deterrent of violance and it can be used to cause violence, depending of user. The first engineer who invented gun might have thoughts like “I need to make some weapon to protect my country and people from Invaders" or “I need to make a weapon so that I can invade and loot other countries and people”.

Film Viewing: THAT SUGAR FILM

GUIDE QUESTIONS 1. What was your initial reaction to the film? Did you find the evidence and format in which the film was presented to be compelling and convincing, or is the comical approach dissuading? My initial reaction to the film is that it is about love story as sugar means sweet. After Watching the film, the evidence and format presented is compelling and convincing as the film follows Gameau's experiment on himself, changing from his normal diet containing no refined sugar, to a 'healthconscious' diet low in fat but high in sugar, equivalent to 200 grams (40 tsp) of sugar per day. As a result, Gameau gained weight, grew lethargic, and developed fatty liver disease. The sugar diet was selected such that his calorie intake was not increased from his normal diet. Interviews with experts attribute this change to the high level of sugar he is ingesting, and in particular suggest that fructose may be the main culprit. It is suggested that artificial sweeteners may be no better. The viewers are introduced to the "bliss point", a term coined in the 1960s which applies here to the amount of sugar you can add to a food to make it optimally desirable. Adding more sugar beyond the "bliss point" leads to significant drop in desirability. Following the experiment, he returned to his previous diet, and the ill effects are largely and quickly reversed. 2. Did you find the information offered up in the film shocking, or were you aware of the role sugar plays in your life? I think the information in the film was not shocking for me as I am aware about the role of sugar in my life. I personally experience the effect of too much sugar. I am weighing around 120 kilograms. I like eating sweets specially rice which contain a high amount of sugar. I already watch and read different articles about the effects of too much sugar in the body where I found that it is deadly as it can cause many illnesses like diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure and many more. After watching the film, I realize that having too much sugar in the body is dangerous. But having sugar moderately and exactly in our body is healthy as it is the source of our energy. 4. Discuss the notion that “sugar is the new tobacco.” Do you believe sugar should be taxed, as cigarettes and other nicotine products are today? Are we headed towards a sugar-driven health crisis? I don’t agree that sugar should be taxed. Because here in the Philippines the supply of sugar is higher than other countries as there are many sugarcane farm and sugar factory in our country. The money that suppose to be a payment for the tax, it should give to the farmers instead. Here in the Philippines, farmers have the lowest income while in other countries, farmers are rich, how ironic. Our Government should give importance to our farmers as they are feeding us. Give them support and assistance to provide their needs and modern equipment that can use in a higher level of production of products. But in exporting our sugar product, it should be taxed expensively as it can help our economy richer so that our Government can provide our needs to survive and have a good life. 5. React to this: (SCIENCE + INDUSTRY = DECEPTION) With big budgets and deceptive advertising practices, sugar interests target vulnerable audiences and turn misinformation into profit. We eat too much sugar, and it’s bad for our health.Yet despite the

evidence that we need to eat less sugar, we continue to consume far too much of it encouraged by the aggressive, and often deceptive, marketing strategies of the food and beverage industry. The Food and Beverage industry will do anything for money or profit. They can deceive the information about sugar through advertisements via printed or broadcast media to reach wider audience and costumer as well.

6. How does the film illustrate the concept of “The Good Life?” The film illustrates the concept of good life through good health. In the film, it shows that having a bad health caused by sugar is not good. Your life depends on your health as this is the time frame of your existence and it measures your worth as an individual. Having a good health means having a good life as you can do everything without anxiety and undue fatigue. You can enjoy life and spend more time with your friends and family. You can experience and live life to the fullest.