The Wanderer's Journal

Just because writing is Fundamental.

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The Ethics of Colonizing Mars

Human has always been wondering how life can be different in Mars, especially after Apollo 11 had successfully brought astronauts to Moon’s surface. The exploration and colonization of Mars provide a unique opportunity to find new lives in outer space and ensuring the continuity of humankind while also rediscovering our ethical identity, as it offered a new perspective without the same constraints that we faced on earth. The rapid development of aeronautical technologies, such as spacecraft, rockets, and interplanetary navigation systems made by governmental institutions like NASA, or a private company like SpaceX, has opened new doors of interplanetary explorations and would make a human landing on Mars possible shortly. Subsequently, this paper discusses the sensibility of prioritizing Mars colonization over solving Earth domestic problems, and also the responsibility of Martians colonists in handling Mars natural ecosystem. The discussions of these issues will be evaluated based on act-utilitarianism perspective to decide which options will provide more pleasure over bigger populations of earth in the long term.

1.1 Introduction

As a living organism, we were coded to perpetuate our genes. However, to rely on a single home, Earth, for supporting the continuity of our species can be proven as fatal. There is no guarantee that someday in the future, an apocalyptic event would not come and wipe our entire species out. Incoming asteroids, volcanic eruptions, or other unpredictable cataclysmic events could claim our species anytime. It is also naïve to believe that Earth can solely sustain the growth of our species, contemplating from how we have treated our world. The extensive use of Earth resources by human without proper maintenance and damage control has resulted in pollutions of air, acidification of water, water scarcities, frequent forest fires, and are all signs of climate change (Mitchell). As a result, Elon Musk, the CEO of aerospace manufacturer SpaceX, revealed his plan to do interplanetary travel and colonized Mars, during a conference in Sept. 2016. Included in Musk’s speech, the idea of colonizing Mars came to ensure the survivability of human species, as there always is a chance of an extinction event that could wipe all living soul on earth (Wall). The exploration and colonization of Mars should be a priority that is held by all humankind, and a collective source that incorporates government and private sectors resources, technologies, and labors should be gathered to make this mission possible. In this massive mission, the direct stakeholders are Space X and NASA as the executors of the program, US government as an investor, and also various governmental and private sectors that collectively contribute to the mission. While the indirect stakeholders are humankind as a whole as the opportunity to grow as a species will affect everyone.

1.2 Descriptions of the Technology

Interplanetary Transport System or ITS, a branch of Space X, projected to send around one million people to colonize Mars within 100 years by promising affordable traveling tickets (Wall). ITS is trying to achieve this goal by developing reusable rocket technology, to enable multiple uses of rocket parts. These reusable parts were calculated to bring the traveling price to Mars down by 40 percent (Selding). ITS rocket consists of a booster, a spaceship, and a propellant tanker. The booster works by using 42 Raptor engines that are capable of bringing up to 500 tons of payload to low-earth orbit. The launching of ITS rocket will be once for every 26 months, whenever Earth and Mars are aligned to minimize fuel consumption and increase payload capacity (Wall).SpaceX also divided their interplanetary expedition launching process into several steps to optimize cost. First, reusable ITS rocket will launch and stop in low-earth orbit (LEO). At the orbit, the rocket will drop the booster back to Earth while the spaceships head to park in LEO. On the Earth surface, the propellant tanker is loaded into the booster. The booster will then relaunch to deliver propellant tanker to the spaceship. Then, the propellant tanker will refill spaceship with propane fuel, and back to earth surface once it is done. Meanwhile, the spaceship will continue its interplanetary journey by employing both methane fuel and also a set of solar arrays (Wall).

1.3 Benefits and Drawback of Exploring Mars

The idea of exploring and colonizing Mars are exciting because this is an opportunity to discover extraterrestrial life, uncover scientific phenomenon and also a chance for humankind to grow as a species. Many technological advancements and innovations are expected when earth resources are integrated and focused solely for Mars colonization. The sense of unification and urgency as humankind will be intensified, as Elon Musk warned that colonizing Mars is the best option to ensure humankind continuity in the case of apocalyptic event befall planet Earth (Wall). Thus, not only colonizing planet Mars is a path to ensure the continuity of human species, but also to unify humankind on earth.However, there are several issues that need to be addressed before the possibility of sending colonists to Mars can be executed. Sending colonists to Mars would require joint fund by various government and private sectors. NASA projected that the first manned Mars mission on 2035 alone would cost US government around $230 billion (Spudis and Smith). SpaceX also mentioned that Mars colonization would require collective resources of earth’s governments and private sectors. While the possibility of sending a manned mission and even colonizing Mars is appealing, such huge sum of a fund can also be used to address Earth’s humanitarian and ecosystem problems. It is imperative to determine whether collective fund resources should be spent on colonizing Mars or fix living condition on Earth.

Besides, SpaceX does not provide an adequate amount of information for potential colonists on how to survive on Mars, despite their extensive plans on sending humans there. Mars by itself has a dangerous environment with numerous amount of threat for people's health and safety. Martian soil is poisonous as it contains a high concentration of perchlorate, the atmosphere is too thin to block cosmic radiation, low gravity will cause a human to lose bone density and muscle atrophy, not to mention that water only exists as ice and permafrost on Mars (Zubrin 3). To transform Mars into a habitable environment for human requires a reformation of Martian atmosphere, or terraform. Terraforming Mars would result in the introduction of the greenhouse effect to restore high carbon dioxide concentration and warming up the planet’s temperature (Hue et al. 1). However, it is unproven yet whether Mars is sterile or if there is life in existence. If there is life on Mars, terraforming Mars will eventually put them and their ecosystem in danger. There will be a question whether human life is more precious than Martian organisms and ecosystem, and further ethical discussion is necessary before such biosphere-altering decision can be made.

2.1 Methodological Issues of Mars Colonization

Human species endured thousand years of wars and conflicts, but with the advancement of military technology with nuclear weapons, we all only one push of a button away from destroying our planet. The possibility of an asteroid collision, climate change, supervolcano explosions are also lingering around human’s life on Earth and can challenge our existence in an unforeseen future. It is imperative for us to look into our neighboring planets, and seek for an additional place to support and provide a safety net for the exponential growth of our species. Mars possess most of the raw materials we need to build the next civilization, from carbon dioxide gas inside the rocks formations, nitrogen gas, and even water in the form of ice and permafrost (Zubrin 3). Moreover, Martian soil signaled wealthy amount of valuable metals, geothermal power sources, and even deuterium as a fusion fuel. The advancement of aeronautical technologies will allow us to colonize Mars in the near future, and this will be a great chance for humankind to move into the interplanetary stage as a species.A joint effort between international governments and private sectors are needed in order for humankind to achieve a goal of colonizing Mars. Mars colonization requires a significant amount of commitment from all parties in amassing technological powers, resources, and labors. However, while the idea of sending colonists to Mars sounds appealing for some parties, the other half would worry more about what is going to happen to planet Earth as we focus toward expanding our civilization. The idea of ensuring the continuity of our species by sending colonists to Mars is romanticized when we realized that we have never sent any man past the moon. Even with joint efforts from parties mentioned before, SpaceX acknowledged it would take two years and $300 million to send unmanned capsule Dragon 2 to conduct propulsive landing test in Mars (Williams).Meanwhile, climate changes and humanitarian problems such as Syrian refugee crisis, child starvations in Yemen, El Nino drought in Africa, are still running rampant and requires immediate assistance by earth’s collective population (Esslemont). Solving these crises also requires humankind to join efforts in providing both labors and resources to protect both the balance of earth’s ecosystem and also its human population. There seemed to be no point in trying to send colonists to Mars for expanding a civilization that failed its home. Humankind needs to focus on ensuring that our species is being responsible in taking care of our kin and our home planet, Earth. Therefore, there is a question between prioritizing our resources and labors on expanding our civilization to Mars to ensure the continuity of our species, or ensuring that our civilization on earth is in good shape.Another interesting point in exploring and colonizing Mars is the possibility of finding extraterrestrial life. While this alien life might not have the same level of consciousness as human, scientists predicted that this would help them to observe the unadulterated process of biological infestation and evolution on the red planet. This scientific observation could have resulted in the revelation of the origin of life from a simple compound that was transformed by various energy sources into a replicating molecule (Hue et al. 1). Up until now, both Viking landers that were sent to detect life on Mars had not generated any consensus among scientists whether life does exist in Martian soil (Klein 8). However, if life could be found on Mars, it is our responsibility to keep it in a pristine condition to avoid interfering with the evolutionary process.However, several changes to Martian ecosystem should be made in order to support human activity. Living on Mars will be very challenging for the future colonists because of its thin atmosphere, isolated water on ice caps, and its barren lands. NASA’s technological advancement enable astronauts to recycle fluids and oxygen, but to be able to fully colonize Mars, human will need to start transforming Martian atmosphere to be similar to Earth’s atmosphere. Many works of literature offered some steps to turn Mars atmosphere to be habitable by humans. One of the examples is the introduction of cyanobacteria such Matteia sp. to release CO2 content from Martian soils and rocks into the atmosphere (Hue et al. 1).  This organism will help to create a greenhouse effect to warm up Martian temperature and slowly transforming the atmosphere. However, this method of introducing new organisms on Mars and other plans such as bombing Mars atmosphere with CFC, or orbiting mirrors to provide greenhouse effect in Mars will directly damage the existing Martian ecosystem (Zubrin 2). Thus, human activity in altering Mars could endanger extraterrestrial life that we tried to observe in the first place. Therefore, an ethical evaluation is necessary to decide whether the need to build a sustainable environment for Martian colonist beat the need to preserve pristine condition of Mars ecosystem.

2.2 Ethical Decision on Colonizing Mars

There are two points that need to be addressed regarding colonization of Mars. First, whether allocating earth’s resources to ensure the continuity of humankind by sending colonists to Mars is more important than solving earth’s humanitarian and climate change problem. Second, either we have to prioritize the provision of a habitable ecosystem for Martian colonists or preserving Martian soil for possible extraterrestrial life on Mars. Act utilitarianism will be used to analyze these ethical conflicts and to decide the case of colonizing Mars. Act utilitarianism was chosen among other ethical theories because the case of colonizing Mars is unique and could not be generalized by using other theories such as rule utilitarianism (Smith et al. 24). The colonization of Mars also involves all the human species; therefore, the usage of act utilitarianism is important in finding a decision that will produce collective good for humankind.There are several implications that will possibly happen in Mars colonization. On the positive side, colonizing Mars would enable humanity to be an interplanetary species and also increase the possibility to discover extraterrestrial life. Being an interplanetary species would provide us with the sense of security over the extension of our genes. If a terrifying scenario of an asteroid collision, nuclear winter, or any catastrophic events happens and erase humankind existence on Earth, Mars as our second world would be our safety net to ensure the continuation of our species. Mars colonization is not only the interest of US government, or private parties such as SpaceX’s Elon Musk, but is for the benefit of all humankind. It is hard to quantify the pleasure of all humankind behind this action since the consequence of this action is distant, unless we all realized that we only a push of a button away from nuclear winter, or one asteroid away from apocalyptic collisions. Then, building a new civilization on Mars will prove to be extremely pleasurable for humankind as one species. 

The exploration of Mars by colonist will be favored by scientists, as it increases the possibility of finding life outside of Earth. Observation in the evolutionary process in Martian soils will reveal the origin of living organisms that can be used to resolve the question of our existence.Setting a colony on Mars, however, can also be detrimental to Mars ecosystem. To ensure the continual presence of humans on Mars, we will have to tweak Mars by terraforming. However, terraforming could spell a disastrous effect on any living organism on Mars (Hue et al. 1). While we are trying to adjust Mars ecosystem to be livable by humans, we might ruin it for Martian organisms. Scientists would also have a hard time analyzing potential living organisms on Mars if our activity cleared them away. Therefore, terraforming will concern both scientist and extraterrestrial life on Mars. Given a condition that there is a sign of life in Mars, the pain from scientists’ perspective will be intense, certain and near because terraforming will drain their chance of observing the extraterrestrial life. While for Martian organisms, if they exist, the pain will also be intense, certain and near since human activity on Mars will eradicate them. However, act utilitarianism dictates that the pleasure of a bigger group will outweigh the few (Smith 24). Therefore, since the exploration of Mars is a matter of importance that bring pleasure for all humankind, it defeats the pain that is felt by scientists. 

Meanwhile, the living organisms that are suspected to exist on Mars do not signify to have consciousness. Otherwise, there would be an interaction between human and them as of now. Without consciousness, Cartesian theory stated that a living being would not have a will or interest, thus should not be included in consideration of act utilitarianism (Armstrong 5).Sending human to Mars would also require an immense amount of collective resources, whether it is technological, fund, or labors, between international governments and private sectors. Setting our priority for colonizing Mars would mean there will be less attention on some humanitarian crises and climate change that our species experiences on earth. The effect of all these crises is near and certain for all humankind.

Reviewing from all those perspective above, it is decided that the colonization of Mars by human species is ethical and should be continued for several reasons and conditions. First, act utilitarianism dictates that a decision must be made to provide the biggest pleasure for the most number of people. Referencing from previous discussions, the colonization of Mars will both bring tremendous pleasure but at the same time near and certain pain for humankind. This difference happened because humans can ensure the continuity of their species by living interplanetary, but at the same time putting less attention on various earth’s crises. However, colonization of Mars decided to bring more pleasure in a long run since there would no promise that other conflicts and crises will not arise if human just focuses on solving our problems on Earth. Focusing on the consequences in the future, an end of human time on earth is unavoidable, but the continuity of our gene information can be prolonged by colonizing other planets such as Mars. Second, colonizing Mars might also mean the invasion of Martian ecosystem and living organism by humans. If living organisms exist and have rational thoughts (possessing conscious mind at a human level), then Cartesian theories would argue that invading their home and endangering them into extinction would be unethical (Armstrong 5). Therefore, it is imperative that before the colonization of Mars can be done, scientists must discover the proof that no conscious living organism resided on Mars and made consensus on it. Only then, the colonization of Mars can be considered as ethical by the act utilitarianism analysis.

Act utilitarianism would concede that transforming Mars ecosystem to suit human habitat is ethical because Martian organisms do not possess a conscious mind. However, virtue ethics would argue on the contrary. While act utilitarianism emphasized on the consequence of the action, virtue ethics emphasize on the ideal character of human on decision making (Smith 41). The ideal character of human itself is very flexible, as the virtue ethics does not provide clear guidance on what to do when human try to colonize Mars. However, the idea of bringing people to Mars, transforming the local ecosystem which will devastate potential living organisms on Mars is not an ideal reflection of how a human should act. This action shows how human turned to be greedy and destructive to ensure the continuity of our species. A virtuous person should care not only about him/herself but also the need of other, and in this case we should also show our virtue to the Martian living organisms by letting them live. However, since it is unknown whether live does exist on Mars, the more urgent need is to send people to Mars and ensure that colonizing Mars will not harm any potential life in there.

3. Conclusion

Exploring and colonizing Mars provide a unique opportunity for humankind to be an interplanetary species and perpetuate our gene information, while at the same discovering extraterrestrial life. Act utilitarianism shows that allocating earth’s resources for Mars colonization is more ethical over solving earth’s internal problems. This happened because even though both will affect all humankind, colonizing Mars provide bigger pleasure and importance in the long term. Act utilitarianism was also used to decide that terraforming Martian ecosystem to be ethical as there is a lack of proof that conscious organism exists on Mars. Therefore, the exploration and colonization of Mars by private companies, such as SpaceX, must be supported to ensure the growth of human species.

References: Armstrong, D. M. "A Materialist Theory of the Mind." Google Books. Routledge, Sept. 1968. Web. 17 Nov. 2016. <https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=87uIAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=cartesian%2Btheory%2Bmind&ots=NLl7PLHfun&sig=jZRnRyRKmo59Qnf1TrNH9SHJL98#v=onepage&q=cartesian%20theory%20mind&f=false>. EI, Friedmann, Hua M, and Ocampo-Friedmann R. "Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee 32306-2043, USA." Europe PMC. Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, 1993. Web. 18 Nov. 2016. <http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/11540501>. Esslemont, Tom. "Top Humanitarian Concerns of 2016." World Economic Forum. World Economic Forum, 30 Dec. 2015. Web. 14 Nov. 2016. <https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/12/these-are-the-top-humanitarian-concerns-for-2016/+>. Grush, Loren. "The Biggest Lingering Questions about SpaceX's Mars Colonization Plans." The Verge. The Verge, 28 Sept. 2016. Web. 11 Nov. 2016. <http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/28/13087110/spacex-elon-musk-mars-plan-habitat-radiation-funding-questions>. Kramer, William R. "Colonizing Mars—An Opportunity for Reconsidering Bioethical Standards and Obligations to Future Generations." Science Direct, June 2011. Web. 12 Nov. 2016. <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016328711000498>. Klein, Harold P. "The Viking Biological Experiments on Mars." The Viking Biological Experiments on Mars. Icarus, 1978. Web. 15 Nov. 2016. <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0019103578900532>. Mitchell, John F. B. "The “Greenhouse” Effect and Climate Change - Mitchell - 1989 - Reviews of Geophysics - Wiley Online Library."  Reviews of Geophysics, Feb. 1989. Web. 18 Nov. 2016. <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/RG027i001p00115/full>. Selding, Peter. "SpaceX to Launch SES-10 on Previously Flown Falcon 9 This Year - SpaceNews.com." SpaceNews.com. Space News, 30 Aug. 2016. Web. 12 Nov. 2016. <http://spacenews.com/spacex-to-launch-ses-10-satellite-on-reused-falcon-9-by-years-end/>. Smith, O., and Paul D. Spudis. "Op-ed | Mars for Only $1.5 Trillion." Space News, 11 Mar. 2015. Web. 11 Nov. 2016. <http://spacenews.com/op-ed-mars-for-only-1-5-trillion/>. Smith, H. Jimmy, et al. “Engineering Ethics Concepts, Viewpoints, Cases, and Codes.” 2nd edition, National Institute for Engineering Ethics, 2008. Print.  Wall, Mike. "SpaceX's Elon Musk Unveils Interplanetary Spaceship to Colonize Mars." Space.com. Space.com, 27 Sept. 2016. Web. 12 Nov. 2016.< http://www.space.com/34210-elon-musk-unveils-spacex-mars-colony-ship.html> Williams, Matt. "NASA Estimates SpaceX 2018 Mars Mission Will Cost Only $300 Million - Universe Today." Universe Today. Universe Today, 20 Sept. 2016. Web. 13Un Nov. 2016. <http://www.universetoday.com/130086/nasa-estimates-spacex-2018-mars-mission-will-cost-300-million/>. Zubrin, Robert. “The Case for Colonizing Mars.” Ad Astra. 1996. Print.

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Draft.

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Karena teriakanku menyebar di ruang vakum, hanya pedih emosiku yang tersalur.

menunggu jam 16.30

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Review of - “The Future of the Mind” by Dr. Michio Kaku

I have never put a lot of interest into physics, especially into the enigmatic world of theoretical physicists, but then it is undeniable that the law of physics control every phenomenon in our universe (and possibly every alternative universes there is). This is one of the book that turns works of powerful hard science into an enjoyable afternoon reading. As a well respected theoretical physicist, Dr. Michio Kaku discusses the general understanding of human's mind and scientists' effort in empowering and enhancing its capabilities. Through various interview and extensive attempts in compiling peer reviewed papers from experts in biology, neuroscience, and computer science, Dr. Kaku raises several interesting glance into the future when we will be able to transfer our consciousness into computer and become an  'immortal' entity, altering our memory as if it is a file in a computer hard disk, or download soft skills from internet and implant it in our brain. He later would discusses these phenomenon and its ethical and economical implications to the society (the part of the book that I feel not emphasized enough); I have to be honest that Dr. Kaku always has positive views towards both scientific and social effects of tinkering with human's mind, where I stand in rather skeptical view of its social implication.

For one, transferring human consciousness (I personally think consciousness refers to 'soul') into a computer will incite a huge ethical questions that will later hinder its development as it had happened to the cloning program. There is no guarantee that the transferred consciousness will still be 'us', as the idea of consciousness itself is exist but can't be scientifically explained. Take into example teleportation, where our body will be deformed and copied into an atomic level, and the copy will be rearranged in the destination. There is no guarantee that the same consciousness will still be intact after the physical body was deformed into atomic level. So what will happen if we transfer our brain into computer and let our body decaying slowly in mortal world?  Well, scientists' hypothesis is that consciousness located in human's brain, so when we transfer our brain into computer our consciousness will go within. However as it is not scientifically proven yet,  I won't change my skepticism towards this scientific idea.

The second one would be the social implication of downloading soft skills (such as math, physics, economy) and implanting it into human's brain. Since the price of this skill download will be expensive once it can be actualized, there is a high chance that the oligarchy with power will take control of it. Obviously, by simple economy rule the price will eventually go lower as the demand goes up and will later be accessible by everyone (just like computer back in 80's until now). But how long will it takes before social revolution and anarchy will takes this skill into their own hand? And one of the interesting topic, if skills can be downloaded, what will happen to schools and teachers?

Despite of numerous questions that occurs during my time reading this book, I enjoyed every second of amazement in knowing how our mind work, and how complicated it is. Human brain is as complicated and beautiful  as the universe, and even a simple alteration such as a flick of neuron will eventually impact our life. To show how fragile our brain is, we have to observe various mental illnesses. Mental illnesses was viewed as something  impalpable, but scientific breakthroughs shows that  mental illnesses are found to be as physical as paper cut.  Mental illnesses were observed to be caused by misinformation deformations in our between our neuron. Therefore every single mental illness can be observed and might be able to treat once we are able to locate brain or. It is nothing supernatural. The victims of PTSD, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia are battling a physical wounds every day, a battle that is hard to win because we were not able to understand their pain. But things will eventually change as we got better understanding over this illness. In fact, this book also mentioned how many of the psychotic murders, rapists, and criminals have some short of deformation in their brain. Therefore, it is possible that everyone was born as a good man, until something happened to their brain.

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1/25/2016

This is the writing that has been delayed for weeks, remarkably late because of my poor management of time. In my personal opinion, the best writing comes from the discipline of time. When you have that fire in your mind that needs to be relinquished, you write. With this, the possible outcome is singular; an honest writing.

There are lot of things happened in past 2 months, from one of the most intense final weeks, California backpacking trip, et cetera et cetera, and Jakarta bombing (I offer my condolences for everyone that has been impacted by this horrible turn of event).

Final weeks in Texas Tech is not out of ordinary, unless it is finals for chemical engineering related class. The heat transfer final was very hard, that the professor generously offered unlimited time for anyone to finish the exam. Some people gave up early (yes I say gave up not finished) one hour after the exam started, some people stayed until past midnight. Which made me think, if the professor made the exam so hard that he had to give infinite amount of extra time, why doesn't he make an exam that is capable to be finished in an extent of 2.5 hours?

Apparently because he wants a creative approach in thinking for the solution. There is more than one way to solve for the question, and it requires one's creativity in thinking. While some people thrive in creative thinking when time is being limited (the power of rushing), some people just simply can't activate the creative part in their brain unless given generous amount of time. Deep down inside he only wants to stimulate our right brain hemisphere.

Another writing soon maybe

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Scratch

I have to tell you my friend, because deep down inside I feel like there is something fundamentally wrong within us. Now what does a humility taste like? I always feel it has a weird bitter taste that keeps me on my toes, for this soil is where we step on. Not those blue glare of sky upon us. But believe me my friend, when I tell you that there is not enough vodka in the world that could make people drunker than ignorance. And you say ignorance is a bliss.

When you say someone is ignorant, does not necessarily mean that one is stupid. They can be very-very smart; I am talking Einstein level smart and still they can be ignorant. I hate those kind of people. Just because you read one or more good books doesn't mean that you smarter than anyone else. It's unreal.

I am sorry that I fill this writing with a lot of personal remarks, but I just can't get over the fact that someone can be that.....pathetic.

Now I am no righteous man, but laughing at someone's dream is impeccable. I would say it's a cowardice. Well, usually when people laughed at me I would just shrug it off, my skin is pretty thick. But when someone do it to another people, I just can't get over it that easy. I don't know why. Is it because I can relate to the victim, or because there was a time where I laughed too. But if you laughed, I got to tell you that you just partly responsible of destroying someone's life.

When you laugh at someone's dream, you are a coward and ignorant. Well, keep in mind it doesn't really count unless you express it so you better keep your sweet mouth shut. I am serious. Some people are brave enough to dream high, and bid their stake high. And some of us are too busy laughing to notice that the joke is on you. You laughed at people who already made a movement, when you are stagnant. Laughing requires you to stand still, rendering you to be a force-less motion with no displacement.  Your vector unit is giving up on you, now you are a scalar. No direction, displacement, moment, just making a random movement of aimless distant. That's exactly what is going to happen to laughers, they are dust in limbo. Just moving around with no sense of direction, because it is easier to do. This happens to you, while the others trying hard to navigate themselves and people they care about.

Well I think it's enough hate and negativity for today. Good night and salam!

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We are dwelling in dreams of wealth and the ecstasy of self-importance. No one see that every bucks we spent is the manifestation of our ego, and even sometimes to impress people that we don’t even know. We were raised among the very idea of consumerism, and the virtue of having truckload of money. It’s bewildering for us to see that we are the ones who actually need help to understand that the joy of simplicity is as simple as the joy of producing rice on your plate by yourself. Today, all we care about is the finish line, not the marathon.

unknown

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Is it -pt.2

Last weekend, I met an old friend of mine in one of those weird café in Bogor. I remembered the time when this Kentucky fast food franchise only sell wings with special recipe. Now they franchised coffee shop, in the third world country.

Because they can.

They don’t have that coffee shop franchise in United States, their origin country, because few will drink it. No one goes to fast food franchise to get a cup of coffee. But I guess things will be different if you open it in 3rd world country. We have this peculiar obedience of brand loyalty to this fast food franchise. Or any franchise really, any franchise with non-third-world-country-name, I can assure you.

Pheww, good thing I am not the only one with this hedonistic disease. I had an internship in a pharmaceutical company long enough to know that they might invent a vaccine, once amount of potential market is worth its while. That being said, the more people infected the merrier the party is and the sooner vaccine will be available.

Perhaps soon is the time for vaccination. Come watch some tv people! Stare at them pretty lies on those commercials. Spend some more. We need more generations with this infection. For the light comes after the darkest time of the night.

So, that friend of mine (whom I met in that weird coffee shop) asked my opinion of this strange phenomenon. His group of students volunteer has this Bangun Desa event in Garut (an event where you will propose agenda to enhance the life quality in a small village that is usually quite remote), and decided to conduct survey of the changes that they want to see.

Now we (people that lives in more urban area/more educated people) always think that helping those people in need (read: people that lives in more rural area, because they are in “dire” need of our hand) is a noble action of liberation from poverty.

Apparently, not so much. They don’t need our help. They enjoyed their life so much that they being repulsive to changes.

“Of course having new libraries or sanitary equipment is great and all, but all we need is rice on our kitchen and we are goooood.” They said.

They don’t need new libraries, or new water tunnels, or we teaching them “8 effective steps of washing your hand.” Instead they just want to fill their belly. Their cute little belly.

This new information is very weird that I laughed my ass off. Seriously though. They just destroyed our ‘noble’ act of kindness, and trashed it to the floor. It is the very core of our society portrayal that we (urbanized/educated) need to help people in need (rural/less formally educated) through education or better sanitary system or anything, because we are their last hope. It is in very core of our urban fellow ego, to know that.  Isn’t that always the story of those soap operas? But all they want is rice.

There is no pride in giving out rice. When people asked college students what they’ve contributed for people in need, they can’t answer that they merely give them food. “I built new bridge! Libraries! School system! I pioneered 8 effective steps of washing your hand!” They need something that looks very useful for them to admit and present to their colleagues. Look at me I put my brain into use, I am your future savior! Anyone can give rice to them, there is no sweat and dedication from it thus there is nothing to brag about. Giving something as a show of our educational meritocracy, at least that we can brag to ourselves about.

However, Garut people ignorance to change because they know which ones are important. What can I say, rice is food and you can eat it. As simple as primary need.

They have to grow rice on hectares of swampy field in their backyards, with sweet sweats of victory. They know the process, they love it. Isn’t it good to actually love rice for the process not for they actually are?

They say they don’t need libraries, since books will only give you dream that you can’t achieve. What is so good about that? Those books and TV’s whispers modern era daydream of millionaires and rock stars, and they can’t afford to have that. They are doomed if they do, no one will do their chores to produce rice on the field anymore. Things won’t be goooood without rice.

As long as everyone in the family are happy, and everyone got rice on their kitchen we are goooood.

Maybe this is just the way things work in Garut. Maybe somewhere else, in some other rurals the situation is not as good as this, and they do let themselves have dreams of being millionaires and rock star.

Nevertheless, it does not stop my friend and me to keep on wondering.

We are dwelling in dreams of wealth and the ecstasy of self-importance. No one see that every bucks we spent is the manifestation of our ego, and even sometimes to impress people that we don’t even know. We were raised among the very idea of consumerism, and the virtue of having truckload of money. It’s bewildering for us to see that we are the ones who actually need Garut’s help to understand that the joy of simplicity as simple as the joy of producing rice on your plate by yourself. Today, all we care about is the finish line, not the marathon.

But what do I know. I am just a boy with $60 watch stripped on my wrist, fainted from the daydreams of relentless world. Where is the vaccine again?

People from Garut, they might not even have anything to begin with. That’s why they not afraid to lose anything, or to gain everything. They know that it comes and goes easily.

Thus as long as they have rice in their kitchen they are goooood.

[pushakaqubro]

Is it ? -pt.1

I spent most of my last weeks of internship by reading novels, news portals, or scrolling anything online. There is nothing much to do around since I finished most of my tasks by the first half of my internship period.This is the point in my life where I finished 4 novels in matter of a week, and when those novels wouldn’t be able to distract me any further I decided to write.

I barely edit my writing unless it will be used for educational or career purpose, but for this kind of writing that you’ll post in Tumblr or blogs I will just post whatever come across my mind. I don’t give butt wipe to spelling or grammar either, everything is sincere. For this session, it’s all personal.

I always I always take too much attention to details, waiting for everything to be perfectly designed before I take any action.  think of human as creature of paradox, or roughly said, a creature with hypocrisy. Maybe I am one of them.

I just finished reading Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, and I found a very interesting quotes by Tyler Durden :

“We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like”.

Damn.

I took a glance into my $60 watch that I bought 2 months ago to impress people of the international hall during our meeting with University’s president.

I starved for it. Figuratively of course, but my bank account is on the verge of exhaustion.

Do I need that watch: No I still have my old sport watch, of course it’s not a fancy one. Hey, the sport watch definitely not something that one can wear during formal meeting with these kind of folks. So I guess it’s a matter of perspective.

Do I actually have money to afford that: Well it’s worth a week of my groceries, so there went my midnight snacks for a month.

Do I want to impress them: Yes? They probably won’t really give a blink about it. But a professional said that during interview/or any formal occasion you have to dress for the position that you want, not the position you actually in now.

Do I like them: Well, this is my ubiquitous part where I am being neutral.

I guess I am sick.

Hedonistic lifestyle is the disease, and excessive spending is the symptoms. Good thing it’s not terminal as of now.

Overdrawn bank account is the terminal symptoms. I’ve been there once and it’s no fun, good thing with proper CPR instruction my checking account can be brought back to life. Some people are just unstoppable.

But I guess its all depend on the people that you choose to surround yourself with.

I’ve never dreamed about wearing formal-out-of-my-paygrade watch when I was in junior high. Or riding Cadillac for Sunday groceries. All I want was money well spent on ice cream for afternoon snack.

I guess when you are hanging out with people that have monthly salary worth of your parents’ whole property, you will slightly change your perspective of earthly possession. Those afternoon ice creams suddenly won’t seem to be an excessive expenditure, neither does those 60$ watch on your wrist.

[pushakaqubro]

The wooden throne (at Caprock Canyon Trailways)

[pushakaqubro]

In the end of the day its less and less about winning the prize, but more and more about bringing your group together. Its always been an honor to dance with all of you! #2ndplaceisonlyabonus (at City Bank Coliseum)

[pushakaqubro]

'Good job' is the most harmful word in English language

[pushakaqubro]

Being afraid of something is a thing that you were born with. To face it is optional.

[pushakaqubro]

It is very important that we slow the time during this era, where everything moving so fast that we forget to enjoy simple things and evaluate ourselves. Then sit in silence, make peace with our fear and find our courage.

[pushakaqubro]

The society will always say good and bad things about you, and there is no limit in measuring your success. For being success and approved by the community is an utopia in your mind, you are the one who made it yourself.

[pushakaqubro]

Get Over It (Pt.2)

Then things change as I grow up. I am still afraid of the dark and height even though I choose not to show it. But you start to realize of how scary real life is, and you start to afraid for being rejected by society and fail to achieve successes in your life. Those fears are very profound and I believe that everyone has it, even though it is a sure thing that we all have it  in different extent.  

When I told my friend about this, he encouraged me to go to the wilderness and that’s exactly what I did. I was in the White mountains New Mexico for 3 days hike to one of the highest peak on that state. I am not that new to hiking activities so I thought it would be easy, but it certainly was not. As I went for the summit, my paranoia of height kicked in. I made a stop, a lot of times while tried to convince myself that nothing bad as falling (all of those wild imaginations I had) will be happened. That was one of the moment when I hate hiking so much to the point that I regret stepped on those trails even for a second. I keep on complaining to myself, of how hiking is very tiring and how I could fall and not going back in one piece, until the moment I stepped on the peak. 

I was silenced by the beauty of 10,258 ft above the ground. So I sat on one of the rocks up there, and silenced my minds. In this era of information, it is very hard for you to find silence in your mind, and being there that time gave me exactly what I need. To sat in silence and let my deeper consciousness talked. During that moment I found that height wasn't that scary anymore, I began to understand that most of it came from my own imagination. All I have to do was to shut the unnecessary imaginations off and I am good to go. I also used that moment to inspect myself, the fear of being rejected and failing. The answer is easy, just keep on moving as the best version of yourself. The society will always say good and bad things about you, and there is no limit in measuring your success. For being success and approved by the community is an utopia in your mind, you are the one who made it yourself.

 And from that moment on I fell in love with hiking and trying any new outdoor activities. Some people say that going to concert and cities are fun, but I’ll say that it wont offer you the peace of mind that the wild can offer you. It is very important that we slow the time during this era where everything moving so fast that we forget to enjoy simple things and evaluate ourselves. Then sit in silence, make peace with our fear and find our courage.

[pushakaqubro]

Get Over It (Pt.1)

It’s a very normal thing to afraid of something, fear of something inconceivable. When your brain can access the required logic of a thing, it is very normal that your impulse acts aggressively to save yourself. Thus triggers one of the reason why humankind could survive thousands year long of adaptation; fear.

When I was a kid, I fear things that are physical. Things that you might see, touch, or smell. Just like most of the Indonesia kids, I was afraid of ghost and darkness (or probably I still am). But one of the moment that changed of how I perceive fear is when I was bullied in elementary school. I had rough times during my 5th grade of elementary school. That was the time when my family struck a very low point of our lives, and we had to move from Yogyakarta to Mojokerto, a small town to the east.  Things are always tougher in the East part of Java. People speak louder and harsher, and being raised in middle Java with all of its soft gestures and language, I wasn't able to adapt that good among my fellow classmates.  I was bullied, mentally and physically or even financially sometimes. My elementary school times wasn't all butterfly and rainbows and I was to afraid to deal with it. 

But once I understand that all bullies want is satisfaction of dominating their foes, I know that I have to do a thing that I was afraid of; to stand for myself. I know that the teachers won’t be able to help me, nor I want to concern my parents as they were having hard times too. Therefore, when one of the bullies confront me, I do one of the most sensible thing, I stand for myself by fought him back. I am not boasting how strong or brave I am, in fact I was so afraid that I triggered my impulse to punch or kick in any direction I can think of. The aftermath wasn't pretty for both of us, but I gained their respect. I am not saying that the bullying stop, but they will think twice before they do those things to me again. This made me realized a really important thing that being afraid of something is something very natural, but once you understand your fear and deal with it, it wont that scary anymore. And then you learn one or two things about finding your courage.