<p>Yes! Thanks for being risky with me, gbspence! I knew I couldn’t have been the only one. Do you know if you’ve been admitted?</p>
<p>I applied RD and did the “Play-Doh and Plato” essay. Not sure if it’s good enough or any good at all, but I guess I’ll find out in a few weeks…</p>
<pre><code>Aside from a few common letters and similar pronunciations, Play-Doh and Plato initially seem completely unrelated; after all, what could a non-toxic, putty-like toy have to do with a legendary Greek philosopher? But when one reads between the lines and sees the forest for more than the trees, a connection becomes evident. Even things as undeniably different as a juvenile modeling compound and a Classical Greek philosopher and mathematician can end up having more in common than one would originally presume. Upon close inspection and careful analysis, the path from Play-Doh to Plato—things as different as night and day—became clear.
Based on a whole childhood of playing with the wondrous toy Play-Doh, a few things stood out. It came in various colors; it didn’t stick; it was clean and enjoyable for parents and children alike. But the main feature of Play-Doh that begins the link between the toy and the thinker is that Play-Doh is soft. And what else is soft? Beds and pillows. Beds and pillows, ideally, should be soft so people can go to sleep on them; one of the most intriguing aspects of sleep is the rapid-eye movement sleep stage, better known as REM sleep; REM sleep, which involves functioning brain activity in the resting body, is the stage of sleep in which dreams most frequently occur; dreams, because they are invoked by the mind during one’s slumber, are a cognitive process; the other widely known cognitive process is a daily activity that everyone participates in: thinking. If one thinks innovatively and productively, they could possibly become smart; being smart is associated with the gathering of knowledge; gathering immense amounts of knowledge over a lifetime instills one with wisdom; the word “philosophy” is derived from “philosophia”, which translates to “love of wisdom”, and one who studies philosophy is known as a philosopher. What almost naturally comes to mind when somebody utters the word “philosopher”? Aristotle. Socrates. And, of course, Plato.
Play-Doh and Plato are systematically linked through a chain of various objects and concepts. From the softness of Play-Doh to Plato’s love of wisdom, these two distinctive things have much in common; these similarities just exist in a link that connects them. This process goes to show more than just the relation between two dissimilar things; it shows that originality yields endless possibilities. It shows that a connection can be made between two wildly different things WITHOUT the help of Wikipedia. Above all, if a modeling compound toy that comes in a variety of colors and forms can be proven to be similar to the Classical Greek thinker who founded the Academy and Athens, then one can create a path between nearly any two unrelated items; it’s all just a matter of creativity.
Alternatively, one could just omit a few characters and add one letter to the word Play-Doh for a shorter path to Plato, but honestly, how fun is that?
</code></pre>
<p>Deferred EA 
but still hopeful! It’s my number one.</p>
<p>All you guys have written such amazing stuff and I love what sea biscuit42 wrote. I wrote that an alarm comes between dreaming and living 
With puns on the alarm</p>
<p>Here was my optional essay</p>
<p>TEN WAYS TO RELISH LIFE</p>
<p>Sit down with a friend and read The Economist. Discuss the economic woes of the world and foreign affairs.</p>
<p>Put on your poncho and venture with friends into a rainstorm, while listening to chocolate rain, to catch raindrops on your tongue.</p>
<p>Liquidate your stocks and enjoy a hot, summer day at the beach without worrying about pecuniary matters while reading Freakonomics. Explore the hidden side of everything.</p>
<p>Wake up on a cold, Northern Michigan Christmas Day and watch A Christmas Story with your family.</p>
<p>Watch the Iowa Caucus on CNBC and Fox News simultaneously and wonder how bias the news really is.</p>
<p>Spend a summer day on Walloon Lake. Read Hemingway.</p>
<p>Read The Road to Serfdom while your friend reads The Economic Consequences of Peace, and then have a quasi-debate. Subsequently, watch the Keynes vs. Hayek rap and laugh hysterically.</p>
<p>Take a walk in the woods and create a fort. Listen to mother nature for the day.</p>
<p>While fighting the common cold – nasopharyngitis – read the New England Journal of Medicine and image the future of science.</p>
<p>Spend a summer’s night sleeping on the trampoline, listening to Airplanes by BoB. Stare at the sky’s constellations and shooting stars. Make a wish.</p>
<p>Props to the person who wrote the essay about how much UChicago sucks! That was AWESOME.</p>
<p>Write about a time you found something you weren’t looking for.</p>
<p>The Journey From the Geodetic Marker</p>
<p>After plowing through ten miles of sand with our bikes, ascending a hill that took forty-five minutes to climb, and missing a dinner that our mothers had labored over, my cousin Sara and I rolled up to our destination. Before we set out, it had merely been a star on the map of the 21-square-mile Canada Creek Ranch in northern Michigan, the setting for more than one of my most favorable memories. I convinced Sara to accompany me on this particular jaunt, assuring her that we wouldn’t be gone for more than two hours and that our destination would be the highlight of our vacation. I thought because it was a star on the map it must be worth a visit. Long story short, I was mistaken.</p>
<p>What lay before us was a tiny circular plaque set in a mossy mound, at the top of an unremarkable timbered ridge. Its only notable feature was the promise of a $250 fine to anybody who tampered with it. So that was the fabled geodetic marker, supposedly deserving of a star on the map. My cousin was exasperated to say the least, and I was disappointed as well, but when we got back to the cabin a few hours later we both had a feeling that the day had been well spent. It was not until a few days later when she and I were joking about the excursion that I realized that I had found something entirely different from what I had initially been searching for.</p>
<p>The path to the geodetic marker was paved with jokes and intelligent discussion between my cousin and me, making it a memorable experience. It would not have been half as meaningful if we had argued the entire way. It was a great journey, and it made that little metal disc in the ground worth four hours of time. A mental light bulb clicked on; what is anything worth that does not have a favorable journey involved? For that matter, what is anything worth that is not approached the right way? Looking for a nonexistent stunning vista, I arrived at the realization that the decisions made to reach a goal must
be honorable and ethical in order for it to be worthwhile.</p>
<p>It is of paramount importance for me to remember this lesson as choices in life present
themselves. Take, for example, the stories of two billionaires who achieved their goals: Bernie Madoff and Warren Buffett. Both men amassed massive fortunes over their careers. Madoff acquired his fortune after choosing to pocket the money from the massive Ponzi scheme he concocted; as a result, his name carries a stigma that resonates with any American who watches the news. On top of that, he has ended up in federal prison. On the other hand, Warren Buffett earned his fortune by becoming one of the most successful investors in the world, and is now widely admired for his philanthropy and frugality. Both of their reputations are a direct result of the choices they made to reach their aspirations, proving that the only way to achieve true success is to choose the honest path of action, like Warren Buffett did.</p>
<p>This notion of reaching goals the right way is prevalent throughout literature as well. Stephen King illustrates it in his seven-book fantasy epic The Dark Tower. At its conclusion (spoiler alert), Roland, the series’ protagonist, is about to fulfill his goal of reaching the Dark Tower when he is forced to restart his journey because the decisions he made along the way were unethical and hell-bent on reaching the tower at all costs. This demonstrates that people who make unscrupulous decisions to attain their goals are penalized in some form or another. It is not usually something as dramatic as a wrongdoer being engulfed by a vortex to the past or a con-man being locked up for the rest of his life, but sometimes that feeling of guilt that stems from an unnoticed misdeed can be just as detrimental.</p>
<p>I have taken this concept of ethical and “right” courses of action to heart in the way I conduct my life. For example, I no longer tolerate anybody, even best friends, copying off my work. It is simply dishonest of me and of the person doing the copying. Instead of just allowing them to plagiarize work, a better approach is to help them with whatever is troubling them so they can earn a good grade rather than cheat for one. Of course they could just go and cheat off of someone else, but that is their choice.</p>
<p>At swim practice I always complete the sets that my coaches specify. There is always the choice of finishing faster by skimping out on yards: a method that many swimmers utilize. But where does that leave them? Well, it certainly leaves an open spot or two on the “A” relays which I am glad to fill.</p>
<p>The decision making process starts now. The first and most important bullet on the agenda is the choice of where I am going to receive my education. I could take the easy path and go to a mediocre local college, or, I could set my sights high and aim for the University of Chicago. I will be going down the right path if it ends up being the setting of the next four years of my life.</p>
<p>I never expected to find a trove of insight in a little plaque in the ground. However, it seems as if geodetic markers have a certain quality about them. They are small and easy to miss, but they provide cartographers with the foundations to create the maps that society relied on before the days of Google Earth. It just so happens that this particular geodetic marker helped map out the way I should conduct my life.</p>
<p>Did anyone interpret prompt #6 Don’t write about reverse psychology to mean “write anything you want to write about except reverse psychology”? I am getting worried as I didn’t see any esssays that seemed not to connect to reverse psychology at all (mine made no reference to the prompt—0). T_T</p>
<p>My interpretation of prompt 6 was that the question was an illustration of reverse psychology itself. So since it told you not to, your supposed to.</p>
<p>However, that was MY interpretation of the prompt and UChicago does not expect one interpretation. The admission officers expect each applicant to take a different stance on each topic and express their views.</p>
<p>I am an international student and I wrote it the night before the deadline. I feel like that from the essay, I don’t look like I am a person who will fit in uchicago campus…</p>
<p>I like to sit by a window and look at beams of the sun sliding down from the sky onto buildings. Dusk, the least busy moment of the day, is usually when I take a rest from my busy day and think about who I am, what I did that day, and how to achieve my dreams. And then I will remind myself, don’t think about just yourself, what about people around you?</p>
<p>I got into the habit of watching the sun set when I was in 6th grade. Living on the 5th floor in a shabby community, I could only see a barren lawn, a row of grocery stores and a garbage room standing in between when I looked out the window. Because of the pressure from the National Olympiad English Competition I was participating in then, I started to watch the sun set as a way to relax. Meanwhile, I thought about the strategies to do well in the competition. It was then when the little girl who lived in the room next to the garbage room came into my sight. Though ragged and dirty-faced, the little girl had an attractive smile on her face that I couldn’t take my attention away from her.
One day when I was looking out the window again, I found the girl was reading a book by a pile of trash. It was a really old book and it looked like it she picked it up from the trash. That moment, I had an impulse to rush downstairs and ask her if she needed any help from me, but when I saw the pile of books on my table, I hesitated. There was only one week left from the competition and every minute was crucial to me. I told myself, “The girl can wait.”</p>
<p>I never saw the little girl again after that day. I was so busy preparing for the competition that I never looked out the window again since then. The day I finished the competition, the first thing I did was go find the little girl so I could offer any help to her. However, when I went to the garbage room, I was told by a sanitation worker that the girl and her family had left the city a few days ago and were not coming back.
I never found out where the girl and her family went. About a month later, I was informed that I was awarded the first prize in that competition. Yet, to this day I still regret that I decided to put my own selfish ambitions over someone in need of help. It would have only taken me about half an hour to deliver some books to her; how much of a difference would those thirty minutes actually have helped with my competition results? Thirty minutes might have made all the difference to the girl.</p>
<p>When we are busy pursuing our dreams, we always look forward to and fight for the goals ahead, overlooking the people who need help or should be cared about around us. It is the selfish ambition at times that we overlook in ourselves. In the past few months working on my college applications, I yelled at my parents and told them not to “worry about it” whenever they asked me about my college applications. I thought I could do that because attending college was my dream and I had to fight for it alone. I didn’t have time to explain all the admissions processes to them and because of my anxiety and pressure, I yelled and argued with them. But looking back at that weren’t they even more anxious then I was? If I put myself in their shoes for one minute, I wouldn’t be so impatient. I apologized to my parents immediately after an important deadline. I don’t want to feel regret ever again in my life.</p>
<p>Life is not a straight line for any of us. It is not just a routine that goes from living to dreaming or from dreaming to living. Between living and dreaming, there is a window, a window worth for us to slow our pace down, a window that we can see the people around us and see their worlds, their feelings and lives. What we view through the window, will not only be “an outside world” for us, but will also be where we will find something we never want to lose but tend to overlook when we are too focused on our own lives.</p>
<p>I am, also, an international student and this is my extended essay.</p>
<p>“My dear University Of Chicago,</p>
<p>Spanish poet Antonio Machado once wrote, “Between living and dreaming there is a third thing. Guess it.” So what’s the one thing that comes to your mind when you think of Life? Is it Happiness? Is it Love? Is it Sadness? I say it’s the Heart. How about when you think of dreaming? Is it Love again? Is it Death? Is it Fear? Again, I say it’s the Heart, for with my Heart I live, and within my Heart I dream. With every beat of my Heart, a bit of my life is left behind either to become a cherished memory or to be forgotten, and with every beat that hasn’t been yet there is a dream to be dreamt.</p>
<p>I know that deep inside of each one of us there is something grand and unique, something vital. While Science defines it as a mere blood-pumping organ, I believe that there is more to the Heart than that. I believe that it links every human to another and every human to the Universe. I remember the first time I looked at the night sky, I saw all those tiny stars sparkling in the dark, I saw the dim Milky Way, and it seemed that they were all talking to me, reminding me that we were all one and the same, sons and daughters of the Big Bang; aren’t we all made up of atoms after all? The Heart has its own language, one that is understood by everything and everyone. Sometimes when I wish for something forcefully with all my heart, it comes true, as if Life itself understood what I wanted and provided me with it, as if my Heart spoke a language that even Life understood. Otherwise, how could two people from two different places who speak two different languages set up a tent successfully, without even talking to each other? Again, it’s the language of the Heart. So it can’t be a mere blood-pumping organ, for when it stops beating it’s not just the blood-pumping that ceases, it’s a Life coming to an end; memories of Love, Happiness, Friendship, Family, and Life, all of that comes to an end, after one last Heartbeat.</p>
<p>Antonio Machado talked as well about dreaming, yet what is dreaming? Is it those images we see while we sleep? In fact, dreaming is way more than mere images, though that can be one of its cursory facets. Dreaming is when the present fades away and the future takes place, Dreaming is where the Heart is king. Though we might not all see the same images when we go to bed, I know that we all dream of Love, Peace, and Happiness. I know that our Hearts are linked, that they are the messengers of Life. In our dreams, our Hearts take us to the future we long for, one where Hatred is unknown, where Death is dead, and where Roses are abundant. Don’t we all share that same dream? Don’t we all have just one Heart after all?</p>
<p>My dear University Of Chicago, we were given a Heart to guide us through Life and Dreams, and it has been guiding me ever since I was born, it has been guiding all of us actually, though many of us don’t know it, and it has been guiding me to you. It taught me not to do anything arbitrarily, It taught me to love what I do and do what I love. As a kid I wondered if a flower could talk and the answer I got from my Mom was a “No”, yet now I know it’s a “Yes”, for flowers do talk; they speak a Universal language, one that is spoken by the Universe itself: Mathematics. Math is the closest language to that of the Heart, and that’s the reason I love it. I love physics because it always reminds me that we are all made of the same particles, that we are all one and the same: sons and daughters of the Big Bang, that our lives and dreams are linked by our Hearts.</p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>M.</p>
<p>@seabiscuit. lmao, i literally did almost the exact same thing you did…wrote about why UC shouldnt accept me…and here i though i was being really original lol. </p>
<p>The University of Chicago Should Definitely not Accept Nathan Wang</p>
<p>As the University of Chicago considers Nathan Wang for admittance into its illustrious halls, it should heavily consider rejecting him. Though he is a good student with a decent GPA, satisfactory test scores (on the Asian scale), and was a semi-finalist for something called the Siemens Competition, does that really make him University of Chicago material? No, no it doesnt. Chicago needs to demand more from its students and it is pretty clear Mr. Wang just doesnt cut it. </p>
<p>Aside from the piddling academic success that Nathan has accomplished so farwhich his parents have only acknowledged with a nod and then the question of what have you done lately?is he a good fit for UC? Honestly, Nathan is a little too balanced; and everyone knows true genius requires a little bit of crazy. Chicago should only want true geniuses walking the same halls that have educated such notable alumni as famous archaeologist and refrigerator tester Indiana Jones. </p>
<p>Nathan takes too much value in trying to advance everything in his life. He not only embraces his American and Chinese cultures, as exampled with his recent eating of a pizza slice with chopsticks, but also balances his academic, social, and alone time too well. He actually has a lot of friends while avoiding many of the trappings of Hipsterism as recently referenced in this news article: [Hipster</a> | Cracked.com](<a href=“Cracked.com - America's Only Humor Site | Cracked.com”>Cracked.com - America's Only Humor Site | Cracked.com). (He doesnt own a single t-shirt referencing a show that was on before he was born, though he admittedly likes the band Rainbow Danger Club, but of course the great minds at the University of Chicago love them too, right?) He was even voted most fun to be around by his class and recently, he even realized that he has been far too closed off and not sharing his real feelings. Does UC want that type of student? UC should aspire to have all its students value being shackled to a cubicle until class time in order to produce the next great Nobel Laureate. </p>
<p>Speaking of respecting being told what to do, Nathan is far too independent. When he first entered his independent research position he actually tried to be independent. Somehow he convinced team members of a highly respected research lab to let him take full control of running a project, obviously UC wont be that gullible. Even if UC was that gullible, would UC really want a person to sit there all day and come up with new techniques for experimentation while giving his team full credit for their work? Egomania leads to success, not team work! </p>
<p>Speaking of teamwork, Nathan also devotes too much time to his community. In fact, when somebody asks him for assistance on any sort of community service project, whether its being a peer tutor, volunteering with the American Red Cross, or helping in any number of ways through his schools National Honor Societyof which he co-chairs several subcommitteeshe cant seem to refuse. Sometimes, he even volunteers his time without being asked. Seriously, Nathan actually wasted months of his life starting a Tennis Outreach Program to help underprivileged kids in his community! Is this really the type of person that the University of Chicago wants? </p>
<p>Finally, though Nathan is likely not a good fit for Chicago, Chicago is equally unfit for Nathan. One of the things that is not obvious about Nathan is that he is obsessed with food. Even though he likes to pompously say how he reads Carl Sagan and Albert Camus, his true favorite author is the gluttonously witty yet surprisingly svelte food porn king Tony Bourdain. Nathan will spend hours and countless chickens lives in pursuit of cooking the perfect fried chicken, hes even been known to take pictures of food and put them on Facebook! Does a city with such a poor culinary tradition as Chicago really want to have such a foodie among its denizens? We all know that Hot Dougs is nothing compared to Papaya King and that Alinea is a poor mans substitute for the French Laundry. </p>
<p>Honestly, about the only benefit that University of Chicago might see in admitting a student as narcissistic and full of hot air as a person pompous enough to write an essay about himself in the third person; is well, the hot air. The hot air would be beneficial in the cold Chicago winters and fuel costs are rising at an astonishing rate these days. Then again, there are some other schools located in the higher latitudes that need some hot air too. Its better to lets these other schools have Nathan and the independence, comedy, community glue, multiculturalism, service, fun, and other baggage that comes with a student like him.</p>
<p>^Bingo! THIS is a UChicago essay! Show 'em how it should be done. Congrats!</p>
<p>Wow thanks ! Really appreciate it! Hopefully your right…</p>
<p>It’s got humor and quirkiness, but you got the salient points across too. Very well done imho.</p>
<p>Hi Guys! I’m applying for Uchi this year through RD, could you take a look at my essay?? I’m wondering if it’s Uchi’s style(though the decision will come soon)~~~thanks a lot ^^</p>
<p>“Between living and dreaming, there is a piece of caraway in a bow of beef noodles!” Here, I said it! </p>
<p>I love Chinese beef noodles so much! This particular kind of beef noodles has attracted my tongue and mouth since I was eight. In the subsequent years, I took excursions to restaurants of this noodle almost every week to relish this unique gourmet. I found an ingredient especially inspiring; it is the caraway. Few green spots with fragrance floating on the soup of noodles, caraways can complement and more important, sublime the flavor of noodles and soups. The combinations of soups, noodles and a piece of caraway in a spoon bring me maximum feelings of utility and a sense of satisfaction among all noodle dishes. I could intoxicate in happiness this noodle has brought me to the point of forgetting temporarily all pressures I have.</p>
<p>However, only few people hold the same attitude toward roles of caraways. Restaurants in the city I live ignore the significance of caraways; most chefs just sprinkle minimum amount of caraways randomly into the bowl. This is comprehensible the fact that caraways are neither great enough in size nor colorful for us to pay too much attention. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, I really have this incessant wish to find out how important on earth caraways are and the sweet fragrance they bring. Deep in the heart, I have always adored and will always adore caraways. They may always be anonymous in the bowl to most people but discretely determine and enhance the quality of the entire dish that seemed to be much greater in size. </p>
<p>Once, I took a trip to Lan Zhou Province, north west of China and visited the oldest restaurant of beef noodles there. It has created a distinct reputation not only being the best but as a place where people all around the nation swarm to get a chance to try its distinctive noodles. At first, I seriously doubted about the great difference of the noodles here compared to those you try anywhere else because nowadays, people tend to believe that older ones are a lot better, which I believe is not often the case. Some old restaurants just propagate falsely about their ages to attract customers rather than inherit and improve the quality of their “already” delicious cuisine that their progenitors have invented. But just a spoon of its soup has negated all my worries. The simple but elegant taste that prevailed in my throat never ceased even after an hour I left the restaurant. As I closed my eyes and savored carefully the beefs and noodles that melted in the mouth, a sense of sweetness has grown up in my body. It was never unworthy for me for another bowl but I did have another one. I experienced being like intoxicated by something which made me feel high, a sensation I could only experience when I was dreaming. </p>
<p>Waking up from this honey dream, I suddenly remembered to investigate whether the usage of caraways contribute to the unique flavor of noodles. I forced myself and squeezed through crowds of people to get a closer look of the chefs. They didn’t disappoint me. These chefs were using spoons of precise measure and same scales for caraways! The first restaurant ever did so! I can’t hold my excitement and talked to the manager. What he said inspired me greatly to possess the same characteristics of caraways. “Neither too much nor too few caraways can create the best taste, I firmly believed that! We pay close attention to each ingredient even something as unnoticeable as caraways.” </p>
<p>His simple words are inspiring because it revealed to me not only the essence of caraways to beef noodles but also inspired me something about life. There are a bunch of challenges waiting for me because I have a dream to live happier each moment, fuller than a second ago. In these cases, I should never forget the significance of those pieces of caraways, which represent the details in my life. To connect my living conditions with paradise in my dream, I should not ignore things so subtle that may be considered trivial. It is always the details that most of those successful persons emphasized as the most momentous for their achievements. For those who dream about making great scientific discoveries, a mistake in a number of the entire data sets may lead all their previous efforts futile. For a writer who dreams about being famous, a typo in his or her work can totally distort the meaning of a chapter or even the whole book. Just as the Butterfly Effect has stated, a tiny change in a factor of the whole system can lead gradually to a horrible catastrophe. To make our dreams come true in the living, we have to be careful with each of those factors that are interconnected with each other. The effects of the pieces of caraways to a bow of noodles shall always pander in my brain. </p>
<p>Paying attention to every detail can sometimes be easily neglected; I will definitely defeat many brambles on my way to dreams. I will turn my dreams into realities. I was taught of a moral lesson by several pieces of green vegetables in a bowl of no longer just beef noodles. It is a precious treasure for me to learn about life. I don’t know whether its God way to prepare me for some wonderful and exciting adventure express in such a wonderful dish of noodles. But I definitely know that the caraways, which few would like to give a glimpse or farther more given an importance as they swallow the noodles,. But this seed has indicated me a key to something very valuable that attach living and dreaming.</p>
<p>Admitted EA; I actually got the idea while filling out a form on another school’s app. I saw my record collection, thought it could work as a topic, and wrote what came out from putting two on the turntable.</p>
<p>Option 5: Stamps. Coins. Action figures. We all have a collection of something. What’s in yours?</p>
<pre><code>Flipping through the stack of aged cardboard, I deeply inhale the musty aroma of the covers protecting their precious contents. CDs don’t have this smell. The stylish minimalism of the iPod wouldn’t dream of having it. The smell of having forty (or eighty) minutes of heaven in your hands is something that only owning a vinyl record can provide.
Fishing out my copy of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John, I feel like I’m punching a ticket back to 1973 as I slide the glossy black disc onto the spindle. It’s not a trip to life back then, but to the escape from life that millions enjoyed. The rainbow label spinning to a hypnotic rhythm combined with breathtakingly clear pianos and guitars is just as soothing to the soul besieged with work as the one worrying about oil embargoes and Vietnam. Even as I work tirelessly on projects, I cannot help dancing in my seat.
Flipping the record onto side two, I think of how it has survived almost forty years and kept its music almost as clear as the day it was bought. Ok, maybe this particular moment isn’t the best example; the title track has some crackling and popping, most likely due to its previous owners not knowing how to aim the needle correctly when they started the record. But what sense of history does an MP3 have? The person who uploaded it for you to pirate is all the past it has. This disc has passed through several loving, if imprecise, hands before it came to mine, and I marvel at how well it has fared the test of time. Nevertheless, each tic is a badge of honor, showing that it has not sat coddled all its life but has frequently brought pleasure to its owners.
The needle lifts; side two is finished. There is a second disc, but I’m in the mood for something a little different now. The smooth jazziness of The Nightfly by Donald Fagen seems like the right choice. The chip in the spine and bland white label belie the contents’ magnificence. For the attentive listener, the sound quality of a record is enough to make it the superior medium, as if the physical presence of the music wasn’t enough. The keyboards on “I.G.Y.” are just a little bit more vibrant and smooth, giving the extra touch of depth to the sound evocative of Space Race-era America. The drums on “The Goodbye Look” are crisper, making the Latin feel of the song more pronounced. It’s like comparing maple syrup to Aunt Jemima; they’re similar enough to both do the job, but for those who make the effort, the rewards are sublime.
With the record wrapping up, it’s time for a relaxing evening of music to come to an end. I slide the disc back into its cover, and take a moment to admire the artwork. The title character is serving his loyal few listeners at his late-night jazz station, waiting for the sun to shine through the skylight. The entire cover is an ode to an era that I recapture every time I send the album around for another whirl – not just the radio station that plays its songs from vinyl, but a time when the cover even mattered to a listener. The CD lacks the difference in color between the name of the artist and the title; shows how much they cared when they copied and repackaged the album for the digital era.
The Nightfly now rests comfortably aside its fellow records on my shelf. I relish the ability to possess my music and see it on my wall with my own eyes, not just squirreled away as a set of ones and zeros on a computer.
</code></pre>
<p>Option 5: What if machines run on emotions?</p>
<p>My brother always sleeps in. One day he smashed his alarm clock’s snooze button so intensely that I ended up getting him a new one for Christmas. I also have a friend who I swear is a mortal enemy with his iron, as evidenced by the dark patches on his clothes. Surely, the broken alarm clock and the wild iron are just inanimate tools that we use in our daily lives. But, what if machines run on emotions? Putting it in another way, how will machines interact with us if they have emotions? This personification of machines interests me every day, where if you really believe it, every single thing can have a life of its own. Could it be that the alarm clock lived fearfully where every snooze-slap was a wakeup call? Or was the vengeful iron releasing steam on my friend’s new Abercrombie dress shirt? (Both puns intended). I am always amazed at the differences between the animate and the inanimate, the neutron and the neuron. If machines run on emotions, I could foresee a world similar to most science fiction movies.
The original Star Wars was very much ahead of its time. The droids C-3PO and R2-D2 are the accidental favorite characters amongst many fans, and they’re not even human. Perhaps it’s how R2-D2 shows emotion through a series of lights and whistles, or how C-3PO’s clumsiness gives some comedic relief to lighten up the audience. Without a doubt, the original Star Wars trilogy is my favorite because I can be immersed in a world where realism and surrealism intersect. Actually, I find that Steven Spielberg is quite the sage in being able to visualize the future and how mankind interacts with machine. More interestingly, I recently read that scientists (of Earth) have discovered a distant world that resembles Spielberg’s Tatooine, Luke Skywalker’s home planet with two orbiting moons. Spielberg’s clever use of personification portrays the droids as human companions showing both emotions and human features, in which I instantly fell in love with anything related to the Star Wars franchise. Spielberg’s mind drew deep into the philosophical question that I present, and his saga gave rise to the scholarly analysis of what complexities exist in the human mind that machines lack thus far.
In my observation of the world around me, I find that the human mind can think an infinite amount of unique thoughts given an infinite lifetime. But what that means is that the mind, at its peak, can theoretically outperform every tool or device that mankind has built. Personally, I believe that the human mind is so complex that neurologists, scientists, and psychologists find it overwhelming, just like astrophysicists find a never-ending universe to explore. After all, what distinguishes us from others is that we perceive things with emotion that are reflected in our judgement and actions. Emotion is so powerful that a memory in the mind, though very much intangible, can move more mountains than any amount of electrons can. Thus, my interest in psychology drives my quest to contemplate and imagine how emotion affects us. From causes and effects of human action, to the rationality of decision-making, our minds fully control every action we take.
Therefore, I’ve always enjoyed observing the subtleness of human actions. Observing others makes my mind tinker, where the very thought of why certain things happen amuses me. One day after class I ate at the local food court, which provides a field of diverse and natural interactions. From observing these people, I found that unlike atoms or electrons, individuals do not necessarily take the path of least resistance, nor do opposites necessarily attract. Sitting in the food court is a pastime of mine because by simply watching, I can make my own hypotheses of human behavior. Thus, I believe emotion is what separates us from others and makes us unique in that it can yield unpredictable behavior. Perhaps in science, reactions occur due to a need, a tipping point, that’s physical and tangible. However, in the case of human psychology, reactions can erupt from non-physical triggers, which may end up in physical reactions. And if the machines we develop can act as sporadically as rebellious babies, for example, we’ve got an issue. Though a happy toaster can give you the perfect crispy brown color, I wouldn’t want to gamble with unpredictable behavior especially when considering how heavily dependent we are on machines – I certainly wouldn’t want to imagine a rollercoaster having a bad day. As a result, any machine running on bad emotions would be most difficult to deal with, but some may argue parents-in-law take first prize in that category.
I believe that the world of science fiction is neither a nerd’s convention, nor permanent fiction. It has much to do with philosophy, psychology, and even ethics. And this mind probe of mine is really interesting because if Spielberg predicted possible scenarios three decades into the future, what can we expect in another three decades? Or in the next century? If machines can “feel” and become our equals, mankind would have to be more polite to our everyday tools. Our cars can take us on involuntary joy rides when we hurt their feelings and our computers can refuse to type if we spilled coffee on them. So the next time you slap the snooze button, think twice, for someday that alarm clock will rise up against mankind (insert suspenseful sound clip here).</p>
<p>what year did you apply? i dont remember that being a choice…</p>
<p>^ Option 5 was “pose a question of your own”.</p>
<p>Essay about living and dreaming</p>
<p>To determine what is between dreaming and living, we must first define what is dreaming and what is living.</p>
<p>According to Sigmund Freud, dreams are superficial worlds where the id is the predominate force. The id is part of our mind that contains all our animalistic needs and secret desires. The id has no self control and stops at nothing to get what it wants. Dreams are manifestations of the id’s desires. Often, we dream about achieving our wildest desires through means that aren’t possible in reality. Unlike reality, dreams aren’t bounded by any laws. We can dream about flying into space or we can dream about the most devilish desires such as killing that teacher we didn’t like or becoming the dictator of the world. During dreams, we are completely out of control and we live by no rules. In essence, dreaming is when we let the evil lawbreaking side of humanity dominate our mind. When we dream, we lose our morals. </p>
<p>On the other hand, living is the real world where the ego and the superego dominate our actions. According to Freud, the ego and superego are the parts of our mind that contains our morals and our logic. Even though we still seek to have our wants and needs fulfilled in the real world, most of us are rational in the ways that we go about fulfilling them. We know right from wrong and we understand that there are rules that we must follow. While the id is not completely gone when we are living in real life, it takes a backseat to the ego and the superego. Unlike what occurs in dreaming, we won’t kill someone in real life just to satisfy the smallest of needs. The ego and superego prevents that from happening. When we are living in reality, we let ourselves be bounded by morals and laws. </p>
<p>If dreaming is a superficial world where we aren’t bounded by morals and laws and living is the real world where we are, what is between dreaming and living must be a mixture of the two, either letting our ego and superego reign supreme in our dreams and letting ourselves be bounded by morals during dreams or letting our id dominate our behavior in the real world. The first option is much harder to achieve. Rarely do we ever dream about doing good deeds or following laws. However, the second option, letting our id dominate our actions in the real world, happens more frequently. Criminals are the epitome of a mix-up between living and dreaming. Criminals who commit murder, rape and robbery are no more than people who have let their desires get the better of them in real world. They have let their ids instead of their egos and superegos make the choices in the real world. Although most people’s wants and desires are the same whether it is living or dreaming, most people’s actions are different depending on whether they are dreaming or living. Criminals, however, are different in that respect. They have let their actions in their dreams become their actions in the real world. </p>
<p>Criminals are not the only ones guilty of mixing living and dreaming. We have all done it at some point in our life, albeit to a varying degree. We have all stolen cookies from jar when we weren’t suppose or lied to our parents in order to enjoy a night out. At those times, we let our desires get the better of us; we have allowed what we do in dreams to become what we do in the real world. When we let our animalistic id make the decisions in real life instead of letting our morals guide us, we are between living and dreaming.</p>