PRE-COVID TRAVELS IN NYC, EPISODES 3 AND 4 :)

Future Civilizations with Michio Kaku

Let’s paint an image, imagine a world where everything is super advanced. Where you could actually see flying cars instead of youtube videos of it saying that they exist. And, a world where the sky is truly the limit and people take advantage of it, in a good way. A world where you put on your calendar to meet up with your cousin who recently moved to mars for a few days then return back to earth. Another way to see this would be a world that also has the same technology as seen in Wakanda (to all those whose seen Black Panther “WAKANDA FOREVER!!!”).

Okay, okay back to the topic. Wait, what was it again?

Oh, yeah, having a really really really advanced world which is in no comparison to our world (for now).

Let’s explore more about this with Michio Kaku in his chapter on advanced civilizations. Who is Michio Kaku exactly? First, in my opinion, he is an awesome scientist. He is also an American theoretical physicist, futurist, and popularizer of science. Okay, now that we’ve covered that back to advanced civilizations. It was actually in 1964 when Russian astronomer Nikolai Kardashev introduced the classification of advanced civilization. Initially, Kardashev came up with 3 types of civilizations which are the following:

  1. Type I civilization:
    • a.k.a the planetary civilization
    • this civilization would be able to employ all the energy that reaches the planet and all the energy it can produce
    • This energy is solar, thermal, hydro, wind, and more
    • Michio Kaku predicts we would have control over things such as earthquakes, the weather, and volcanoes
    • With research, it was found that this type of civilization would harness the power of 7 x 107
    • To get to this state, we would have to boost our current energy production to 100,000 times
    • We are estimated to reach this stage in about 100-200 years
  2. Type II civilization:
    • Would also probably be classified as an interplanetary civilization, too
    • We would be able to use the total energy of our sun (a star)
    • Have the ability to move planets and stars
    • To accomplish harnessing the energy of a star, we would be using a megastructure called the Dyson Sphere 
    • We are estimated to reach this stage in about 1000-2000 years 
  3. Type III civilization:
    • at this point, everything would be different from today
    • We’d have space travelers zooming everywhere
    • And, the norm would possibly be cyborgs 
    • We would also have the power to use the energy of an entire galaxy
    • This, as Michio Kaku is estimated to happen in about “one hundred thousand years and possibly not for a million years”

Type o to Type I

In case you were wondering, we are a Type o at the moment and for quite some time, too. The first thing that we would have to do is change from Type o to Type I. Now, we have some obstacles that are preventing and slowing down the process of actually advancing forward and helping our world socially and technologically to reach the next stage. As Michio Kaku writes, “the biggest threat facing a Type I civilization may be a self-inflicted one” and some of the challenges include “global warming, bioterrorism, and nuclear proliferation”. 

Problems preventing the transition from Type o to Type I

Expanding on the problems, global warming, which has been a threat to humanity has countless evidence which Kaku notes, the following:

  • EVERmajor glacier on the Earth is receding
  • The Northern polar ice has thinned by an average of 5PERCENover the past fifty years
  • Large parts of Greenland, which are covered by the world’s second-largest ice sheet, are tawing out
  • A section of Antartica the size of Delaware, the Larsen Ice Shelf C, broke off in 2017, and the stability of the ice sheets and ice shelves is now in question
  • The last few years have been the hottest ever recorded in human history
  • The Earth’s average temperature has increased by the 1.3 degrees Celsius in the past century
  • On average, summer is about one week longer than it was in the past 
  • We are seeing more and more “one-hundred-year events,” such as forest fires, floods, droughts, and hurricanes

Another great danger which the world and humans face which have been there for quite some time is diseases, plagues, and epidemics. The influenza epidemic killed an estimate of 50 million people whereas the war itself had it’s estimated down to 20 million less than that of influenza. The problem with this? There is such a thing as a weaponized biogerms. Yes, I know, terrible, if there is such a ferocious disease which gets created and released it has the potential to eliminate 98% of the human population! These are some of the things that have made it difficult for our advancement. Breaking from this would be a difficult job and a challenge when we emerge to a new civilization. But, if we work together, stop the competition, the inequality and put our awesome minds together, maybe we could transition to a better and advanced civilization compared to where we are now.

Future civilizations may change and evolve. But, with the decisions that are made today, in this century will help in determining whether that change would be better or for worse. If we take the right steps and choices, it may be possible to be living in a world where we have laser porting (which is a future way of traveling[g to the stars in light speed), space elevators, programmable matter, robotic construction, fusion power, asteroid mining, and a better-civilized world…. 

….and maybe (MAYBE) we might be living in a really cool world like in WAKANDA. Am I right?!?!

Hope you’re having an awesome day, afternoon, or night! Till the next blog, bye!!

Yours truly,

L.O.A.S.H

 


 © Elizabeth Anne Villoria 

Ibajay Journey: Third day, A Wedding

The third day in this beautiful place

Our third day begins with some Longganisa and eggs. Excited, we left to the mangrove eco – park. One of the men, Denise, who works at the park called us. We went to him and he pointed to a bucket and told us he caught two mud – lobsters. Ate Aga picked it up, but we only saw one mud – lobster. We told him there was only one, then he said that the other men ate it. I was shocked, but after, he said it might have just been a crab. So, which really ate it? I guess we had to accept it. It affect us that much.

A wedding

Denise showed us another passage to enter the starting of the park because there will be a wedding. The wedding was starting in the afternoon but we have to be prepared. We can’t just walk through a wedding all muddy and stinky.

Shovel Time

Unfortunately, when we checked our traps nothing popped up. We left the traps behind and went to our first station. The first two mounds we dug with our hands and when we used the shovel, it kinda went terribly wrong because the mounds got clogged. The third one was going alright and deep but high tide was coming. A few minutes after, we started to pack up. Luckily, we hung our bags on a branch. The water was already on our knees. You could see some worms and other weird bugs floating around already.

Another Passage

We trudged under the bridge and through the mud where we could hear the music from the wedding. And, today we learned many different things from the local people who work in the park. They told us how they cut down the nipa and sell them for about 300 PHP per sack. It’s exciting learning about their culture here and because they stay here every day they know a lot of things about mangroves and mud lobster and other wildlife.

It’s beautiful how they take care of the land so much. They know how to find the right food. But, we need to make more people aware. And, not just aware but also care about these mangroves. Are you in?

~ Juvenile L.O.A.S.H

I became a wizard at Harry Potter Studios

Hello, everybody! Ok so lets fast forward. Woke up, ate some breakfast, prepared, got my raincoat (it was raining hard out there) and left (of course with (aunt) Kristine and Saoirse).

Oh, I was so excited.

We were all scared we would miss us our 3:00 pm bus going to the Harry Potter. We didn’t, of course, thanks to our speed walk. There was a diversion on the bus which meant we had to get out of the first bus and ride the second bus. While waiting for our second bus, we bought our ticket at this booth which seemed to be decorated with harry potter pictures and stuff.

~~~~~ 1 YEAR LATER ~~~~

Just kidding.

Anyways, the bus (FINALLY) arrived and we were informed that it would take one hour to arrive at our destination. Fortunately for us, there was a Harry Potter film that showed inside the bus.

One hour later and we stepped off the bus. A sort of magical breeze blew in my face the moment we stepped out. A building came into view. The sign read The Making of Harry Potter. It was so cool. I ran up to the building, happily. I felt myself totally fan girling here.

Outside there was a ticket machine where we printed our tickets for the Harry Potter. We got two tickets and proceeded inside. Our first mission that came across all our minds was: Eat. Right Now…. It was quite convenient for us because as soon as entered, a coffee shop lit up in the distance. We ordered some cheese touts (which were basically bread and grilled cheese) and one caramel and chocolate cupcake.

We grabbed the food from the Pick-Up area and immediately lined up to enter the Studio Tour. I heard “Oooooh”s and “Ahhhhh”s the closer went to the big door leading to something quite interesting. Well, I would have predicted it was something AWESOME judging from all the “OOOOOH”s and “AHHHHH”S. But, anyway, while we were still waiting for our turn to enter, there was a display of Harry Potters room that lay under the stairs.  When it was our turn to get inside the room we all scurried in.

The host was talking about the movie and J.K. Rowling (the author). Do you know J.K Rowling? She started out unemployed and living a hard life then became a multimillionaire in five years! She’s best known for her series the Harry Potter. She actually first wrote about her first ideas on a piece of tissue on a train going to London in 1990.

Now, back to the present.

The host then asked which house everybody would like to be in. You could hear a few kids screaming Slytherin, nobody picked Hufflepuff, some picked Ravenclaw and finally, the rest picked Gryffindor. Yes, I chose Gryffindor. What would you choose?

We went inside a kind of movie house place, and the seats were perfect. They joked “Okay, everybody. We are going to play all the movies of Harry Potter back to back!”, and just in case you haven’t watched Harry Potter, it is about 2 hours and a few minutes each movie! I actually wouldn’t have minded if it weren’t a joke. Anyways, they played a short film where some parts were time-lapse of how the place was built and how long they took. I’d say it was pretty interesting.

When the film finished we went to the great big doors that would lead us to the Great Hall, and the person who opened it was one of the birthday celebrants in our group. Did you know that the Great Hall in Harry Potter is where they ate their food or made announcements in the movie? I can’t begin to describe how honored I was to be actually standing here.

Interesting/Awesome Fact: This (the hall and I guess the studio) has stood for about 10 years already

The table was filled with delicious food. I wanted to munch it all down. I know, I know I just ate but it looked all so good. But unfortunately for me, it was fake food.

We followed the guide who showed us all the clothes that the movie actors wore such as the robes and stuff. We saw all the special effect such as the green screen. Have you ever heard of the green screen? They use it in movies to make the backgrounds. For example, if you were to be flying away from a dragon on your magic broom stick, all you had to do was sit on a broom stick in front of a green screen. Once the perfect lighting is set on the green screen than just about anything you could imagine could become a reality.

One of my favorite parts of this studio was the hut of Hagrid. It looked exactly the same compared to the movie! Well, it actually is exactly the same because this was the same hut that they used in the movie!!

There was also all the faces of the small creatures (I think they were goblins) that were in the bank. They even showed us the snake looking door that led Harry Potter into the Chamber of Secrets. Every turn that you took would show another awesome thing from the movie. The room of Severus Snape was displayed and there was a pot that was being mixed with a rod that no one was holding……… magic?

We got a Harry Potter passport where we had to stamp into each page each place you go to, and there were even these small quizzes inside.

The other room we went to was the town place where Harry went to get his money, owl, and his wand in the first movie. In the town, there was the candy store where some of the candy would turn you blue or make your voice sound like an animal. I remembered in one of the Harry Potter films I watched I saw them eat some chocolates that could make you sound like a lion or a chicken.

The next room was the train that Harry rode to his first trip to Hogwarts! I never imagined it was beautiful. There was actual fog rising from the bottom of the train as if it were about to run off. I asked Kristine where nine and three-quarters were, and she said there is no such thing. Or is there?

We went through a tunnel, and I honestly wanted to scream ‘Nine and three-quarters!!’. I was scared passing through the wall would break my nose. I pass through quite well, no need to worry.

Outside, there was this place where you could take a picture of the flying car that Ron and his friends rode or the flying motorcycle where Hagrid rode with Harry to keep him safe. After this, I explored around.

Here are the places that I stamped on my harry potter passport:

Hogwarts Express (the train)

The Sets (The Great Hall)

Special Effects Area

Backlot

Creature Effects

Art and Graphics

Props

Costume

Last but not least…… The Studio Shop

Before we end this, I just want to talk about the Studio Shop. I honestly wanted to buy….. everything. There was hats, shirts, wands, jelly beans (in ALL flavors),  glasses (which looked the exact replica of Harry potters), wizard hats, keychains, necklaces and more. I just ended up looking around the shop for 30 minutes before leaving.

I had such a fun and amazing time on the actual set of Harry Potter. I think that you would enjoy it as well! If you would like to visit it, you could buy tickets at their site: Warner Bros Harry Potter.

~ L.O.A.S.H