#7 Life on Mars

            In Sheyna Gifford’s article “Life on Mars,” she writes about the potential life without technology. Sheyna writes as if she is on the planet Mars. Although it seams like she is on the real planet, it is only a simulated world, sMars, on Mauna Kea in Hawaii.  There are six simulated astronauts to split the tasks of being a space architect, an engineer, scientists, and a crew doctor. The first mission had to deal with the “martian” being released. However, the media that called about this situation had a 20-minute communication delay. In that case, they first found out that they were unable to take phone calls, have Skype interviews, do live media appearances, or be filmed, photographed or recorded. So if there were ever any problems on sMars, the six of them would pretty much have to figure a solution on their own. They find that their chief concerns revolve around the sun, air, water, and rock. These items are what work off of each other to produce the necessities they need for survival. To understand the needs of each other, the main goal of this project is collaboration and finding out what people actually need to live, work, and survive together on other planets. Each person is to use his or her strengths, knowledge, and resources at hand to pull their weight in making this community run smoothly. The six of these people were sent to complete this project to help press humanity into the Universe. The task was created by technology, as will the trip to the actual planet Mars, but having people on the planet will be more about the physical human bodies living in cohesion rather than the technology that surrounds them.

            Sheyna Gifford’s approach to writing about technology was very different from the typical technology article. The discussion of life on sMars and relating that to the topic was an interesting way to go about talking about using technology. I appreciated how, in the end, it all boiled down to those six individual bodies. There was technology that got them to this point, but once they were actually there, it sort of seemed to vanish. Working together to find solutions to problems was more of a priority than relying on the use of technology to solve them. It seemed as though they were isolated. No outside communication because of the delay meant no call for help. And that was the most interesting thing to me about this article. They relied on each other and learned what it was that people needed to survive. I think this whole simulation is very relevant in today’s world. Everyone gets so absorbed in technology that we forget to pay attention to those around us. We, as humans, should be most important rather than the information technology can bring. Technology is a great thing and we are extremely lucky to have it at our fingertips, but it is something that can and does negatively consume our lives and our use of communication with other human beings.