Monday, January 11, 2010

On "Flowers for Algernon"

Reflect on Charlie’s experiences and the concept of increasing one’s intelligence through surgery. If such a thing were possible, how would you feel about everyone in the world being made into geniuses? Consider both the “fairness” and consequences.

2 comments:

Jenny H. said...

If the concept of 'increasing one's intelligence through surgery' was not Sci-Fi(as it ought to be), then the world would be a huge mess. Though it is fair that everyone can be smart(though everyone will still have a different level of intelligence), I think the consequences are not exactly worth it. For one, the 'genius I.Q.' might not prove permanent, and if it is only temporary(as in the case with Algernon), then the people with the operation may start to feel frustrated at the fact that they're not as smart as they were when they were genius(take, for example, Charlie, who got mad at himself because he couldn't remember how to write with good punctuation or read German), and may, like Charlie, begin to feel suicidal(and do we really want a bunch of depressed peoples?). And even if the operation proved permanent, the 'genius I.Q.' would make people insanely smart(more than some people deserve to be), and then if someone decided to do something that is not exactly good (i.e. if one of them started terrorism) then it would prove very hard to stop them (even if other people are just as smart). Not to mention, it will be boring if everyone were so intelligent that there would be no need for school. I feel that people nowadays are intelligent enough as they are, and that sometimes, it's nice to just be how you are(level of intelligence might be a trait of a person,and it's not right to change someone's trait. Take, for example, Charlie). And, if everyone was a genius, then the 'natural geniuses' would feel like the world isn't being fair(even though the people with less-than-average intelligence would, most likely, feel happy). I think I'd rather be of average intelligence than genius. Sometimes,having too much intelligence teaches you things that you did not want to know(poor Charlie had to deal with the fact that Joe and Frank weren't as nice as they seemed, and that he used to be as dumb as the boy in the restaurant).
'Genius I.Q.' brings so many consequences with it that, sometimes, it's better to be average(or a bit less than that).

Henry Y. said...

If the entire world became geniuses through surgery, the economy and community would fail. Much of the way society works is by the differences of everyone's intelligence. If everyone knew how to do everything, there would be no point in buying others' products when you could easily make it yourself. Competition is extremely important in the modern world. Becoming a genius through an operation skips the most important part of learning, that is, the journey to success. The operation skips the journey and goes right to the success.

It would be unfair if this type of operation were successful. Obviously, it would cost a lot of money, and the poor would not be able to afford it. It would also be unfair to the geniuses that became smart because of hard work. Becoming a genius takes years and years of painfully hard work. But a person who becomes smart from such an operation only takes months, and the artificial intelligence has much less limitations that the ordinary human mind.