Dangerous Knowledge

Dangerous Knowledge of Life and Death

In today’s society, there are many dangerous forms of information. Knowledge of anything from science and technology to religion and history can have dangerous consequences. Having such knowledge of life and death can be frightful and downright perilous. As with most knowledge, knowledge is power. This is true; that is why most information about things, the way they work, and how they came about are not general knowledge. One must find a balance between having knowledge and what to do with that knowledge. In the instance of knowledge of life and death, there have been so many experiments on animal and people throughout the years, one must wonder if the term “zombie” has a real actual meaning now.

I think some life and death experiments stem from near death experiences. Southampton University spent four years doing a study on over 2,000 cardiac arrest survivors. They claim that almost 40% of the survivors had stated that they saw a bright light, a golden flash, the sun, and even recounted actions done by people in the room after they were clinically dead. They were still in a state of awareness even though their hearts had stopped beating for up to 3 minutes. The brain is said to shut down in 20-30 seconds after the heart stops beating, so the quest to answer whether or not these patients were exhibiting forms of hallucinations or actual out of body experiences. Dr. David Wilde, a research psychologist and Nottingham Trent University, decided to collect information on such out of body experiences to try to form some kind of pattern that may link each occurrence.

I think as a modern society having knowledge of things that were once not known by everyday people has become more acceptable, due in large part because of the Internet. Before the Internet came along, the most knowledge a person could gain was from direct understudies or spending countless hours poring over books and notes. This could take days, weeks, and sometime even years in order to “hopefully” find the intended information. On the other hand, in this day and age, it take a few milliseconds, with a good connection, to search a topic and start the research phase. What makes this so dangerous is that not only is information easier and quicker to find, but more information is out there than ever before. In days gone by, in order for someone to get their information out to the public they would need to find someone who would publish the information. This could be a tedious and daunting task. The steps would be to submit information to said publisher, said publisher researching information for authenticity, said publisher accepting or denying the request for publication, then a deal deliberated, and finally publication. Even after publication, one could only cross their fingers and pray that their book or article would be read. But that is not the case anymore, thanks to blogs, thousands of news reporting websites, and the ease of getting a personal website.

Since information is so easily put out there for all to know, we have accepted that there is a great deal more knowledge that people can obtain. Before, knowing how to build a bomb was not something that everyone knew how to do or could even find out how to do. But with good old Google and many other search engines, a quick search of “how to build a homemade bomb” produces millions of results in the blink of an eye. Also, it is virtually impossible to keep anything undercover these days. As a modern society that desires knowledge, which does not like to be left out in the dark, and will not take someone’s word at face value, this world has the need to search for themselves. Topics that were once very taboo like knowing who is a criminal in your neighborhood, where they were incarcerated, and what they did is now information open to the public. Now, I am not saying that it is a bad thing to know who your neighbors are, but we all know that these results can be dangerous and have deadly consequences due to the knowledge. What the normal, average citizen can find out at the blink of an eye means that more responsibility for learning the information comes along. Like they say, the truth is out there, and yes, someone will find it.

 

• Continue to consider what your classmates have posted, and reflect on your reading of Frankenstein. Select the post of one classmate or your professor. In a minimum of 250 words, agree with or rebut one post. Please remember to be respectful of others’ opinions in your response(s).