last week, I began a Human Biology course at a city college. To welcome her students to the content, the professor began by asking a series of general questions.
"What do humans do to survive?" was one of them.
I thought of donuts. Then I really thought about them; the archetypal fried "O" haloed by questionably-strawberry-definitely-pink icing, and sprinkles.
Then I thought about Bostonian vernacular--about how chocolate sprinkles are referred to there as "jimmies." But I'd rather have rainbow ones on my pastel, faux-fruit glaze.
In the five minutes she kept us guessing, we stressed the same answers while increasing in frustration. they were:
1.) "answer"
2.) "adapt"
3.) by God I even tried "regulate"
"to survive, we regulate everyday."
in some way.
Our top three answers, as a class, yielded no approval from the professor. So why did we keep repeating them?
Breaking it down, blogolysis style:
(the breakdown of chemical compounds is referred to as hydrolysis~~see what I did there~~)
2.) maybe we kept howling "adapt" because the term is vaguely sciencey; Darwin was a guy.
3.) maybe I yelled "regulate" (followed by a bashful giggle--I dont know why I felt embarrassed but I kinda do) because homeostasis was on my mind. homeostasis is the one and only bae, truly.
1.) "Answer" was the most common response. It seemed unquestionable that answer was the answer; we chorused it with momentous frequency, maybe convinced that the professor couldn't hear.
after we learned that the answer the professor was looking for was respond ("humans respond everyday to survive"), our obsession with "answer" seemed to make sense. "Answer" is:
a.) direct, like many of us have come to expect the responses of this world to be. when you connect to WiFi, it's frustrating sitting around, waiting for the little signal waves to figure themselves out.
b.) connotative of clarity. when movie plots are mysterious and hard to understand, they seem unnecessarily obscure compared to the directness of action movies or billion-dollar blockbusters
c.) immediate. why spend time on a thirty-minute meal when your microwave pot pie could go through all the stages of matter in four minutes?
so much of what we experience simply requires pressing a button. survival, however is day by day; no, as a population we haven't adapted to keep up with what we've created and maintained.
I made these the other day, they are vegan and gluten-free.
but i didn't take pictures because i wanted to avoid pushing buttons. these are taken from the website (link embedded in the images):
after we learned that the answer the professor was looking for was respond ("humans respond everyday to survive"), our obsession with "answer" seemed to make sense. "Answer" is:
a.) direct, like many of us have come to expect the responses of this world to be. when you connect to WiFi, it's frustrating sitting around, waiting for the little signal waves to figure themselves out.b.) connotative of clarity. when movie plots are mysterious and hard to understand, they seem unnecessarily obscure compared to the directness of action movies or billion-dollar blockbusters
c.) immediate. why spend time on a thirty-minute meal when your microwave pot pie could go through all the stages of matter in four minutes?
so much of what we experience simply requires pressing a button. survival, however is day by day; no, as a population we haven't adapted to keep up with what we've created and maintained.
I made these the other day, they are vegan and gluten-free.
but i didn't take pictures because i wanted to avoid pushing buttons. these are taken from the website (link embedded in the images):
now here i come, pressing an alphabet.
Purkinje fibers could be a good band name.
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