Civilization and History

Introduction:
Cyril Edwin Mitchinson Joad (12 August 1891 9 April 1953) was an English
philosopher and broadcasting personality. He is most famous for his appearance on The Brains Trust, an
extremely popular BBC Radio wartime discussion programme. Joad crusaded to preserve the English
countryside against industrial exploitation, ribbon development, overhead cables and destructive tourism.
He wrote letters and articles in protest of the decisions being made to increase Britain's wealth and
status, as he believed the short term status would bring long term problems. He organized rambles and
rode recklessly through the countryside. He also had a passion for hunting. Joad's prominence came from
The Brains Trust which featured a small group that included Commander A B Campbell and Julian
Huxley. His developed and matured discussion techniques, his fund of anecdotes and mild humour
brought him to the attention of the general public. Joad was one of the best known British intellectuals of
his time, as famous as George Bernard Shaw and Bertrand Russell in his lifetime. He performed the
difficult task of popularizing philosophy, both in his books and by the spoken word.
Glorious People Mentioned in History:
Most of the people who are often and most gloriously mentioned in the history books
are great conquerors and generals and soldiers, whereas the people who really helped greatly to develop
civilization forward are not recognized by people besides never mentioned at all. People do not know who
first set a broken leg, or launched a seaworthy boat, or calculated the length of the year, or manured a
field; but we know all about the killers and destroyers. People think a great deal of them, so much so that
on all the highest pillars in the great cities of the world you will find the figure of a conqueror or a general
or a soldier.
According to author, people generally believe that the greatest countries are those
that have fought many battles and conquered greatest number of other countries and ruled over them as
conquerors. It is just possible they are, but they are not the most civilized. Even animals fight; so do
savages; hence to be good at fighting is to be good in the way in which an animal or a savage is good,
but it is not to be civilized. Even being good at getting other people to fight for one by teaching them to do
it efficiently - similar way what conquerors and generals have done in those days - is not being civilized.
People fight to settle quarrels. Fighting means killing, and civilized people ought to be able to find some
way of settling their disputes other than by seeing which side can kill off the greater number of the other
side, and then saying that that side which has killed most has won. And not only has won, but, because it
has won, has been in the right. For that is what going to war means; it means saying that might is right.
Real Status of Mankind on the Basis of Evolution:
That is what the story of mankind has been all these days, who fight and kill each other
on streets neither follow the rules nor behave with moral ethics in the society. Nations and countries have
not yet learnt to follow the social ethics, still they behave like savages. But one must not expect mankind
to lead a life of perfectionist because the race of man has only just started. On the basis of evolution they
are considered as young children, indeed few months old babies. Scientists reckon that there has been
life of some sort on the earth in the form of jellyfish and that kind of creature for about twelve hundred
million years; but there have been men for only one million years, and there have been civilized men for
about eight thousand years at the outside. The figures mentioned are difficult to grasp by scaling down to
simple calculation one can easily understand it. Man reckon the whole past of living creatures on the
earth as one hundred years; then the whole past of man works out at about one month, and during that
month there have been civilizations for between seven and eight hours. To clear, there has been little
time to learn in, but there will be oceans of time in which to learn better.
Conclusion:
By taking man's civilized past at about seven or eight hours, one can estimate his future, that is to
say, the whole period between now and when the sun grows too cold to maintain life any longer on the
earth, at about one hundred thousand years. Thus mankind is only at the beginning of its civilized life, and
as I say, we must not expect too much. The man in the past years has done much beastly business of
hurting, bullying, grabbing, and gorging. One must not expect even civilized people not to have done
these things.

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Oil
- G.C.Thornley -
Introduction:
Oil is one of the most essential dietary supplements besides lubricant in our daily life.
Without oil it is tough to lead our life. There are three main groups of oils: animal, vegetable and mineral
used in various ways. Whales are the animal which gives great quantities of oil, those enormous
creatures of the sea which are the largest remaining animals in the world. The whale with the thick
covering of fat which is called blubber is protective segment is provided by nature to protect itself from the
cold of Arctic seas. When the whale is killed, the blubber is stripped off and boiled down, either on board
ship or on shore. It produces a great quantity of oil which can be made into food for human consumption.
A few other creatures yield oil, but none so much as the whale. The two kinds of oil taken from fish are
used for medicinal purposes they are livers of the cod and the halibut, which yield nourishment to the sick
children. Both cod liver oil and halibut liver oil are generally given to sick children and other invalids who
need certain vitamins. These oils may be bought at any chemist's.
Essentiality of Oil in Daily Life:
Vegetable oil has been known from antiquity. It is tough to imagine household without it. It is
mainly used in cooking. Perfumes may be made from the oils of certain flowers. Soaps are made from
vegetable and animal oils. Importance of oil differ from person to person for instance, politician or the
engineer always refers to mineral oil, the oil that drives tanks, aeroplanes and warships, motor-cars and
diesel locomotives; the oil that is used to lubricate all kinds of machinery. The oil has changed the life of
the common man. When it is refined into petrol it is used to drive the internal combustion engine. To it
man owes the existence of the motorcar, which has changed the entire life of man by replacing the
private carriage drawn by the horse. One kind of oil comes out of the earth burns well, it is used as fuel
and in some ways it is superior to coal in this respect because it gives bright flame. Many big ships now
burn oil instead of coal. Because it burns brightly, it is used for illumination; countless homes are still
illuminated with oil-burning lamps. It is very slippery, so it is used for lubrication. The oil used for this
purpose must be of the correct thickness; if it is too thin it will not give sufficient lubrication, and if it is too
thick it will not reach all parts that must be lubricated.
Oil Existence:
The existence of oil wells has been known for a long time. Some of the Indians of North
America used to collect and sell the oil from the wells of Pennsylvania. No one, however, seems to have
realized the importance of this oil until it was found that paraffin-oil could be made from it ; this led to the
development of the wells and to the making of enormous profits.
Unknown Origin of Oil:
Scientists are confident about the formation of coal, but they do not seem so sure when
asked about oil. They think that the oil under the surface of the earth originated in the distant past, and
was formed from living things in the sea. Countless billions of minute sea creatures and plants lived and
sank to the sea bed. They were covered with huge deposits of mud; and by processes of chemistry,
pressure and temperature were changed through long ages into what we know as oil. The rocks in which
oil is found are of marine origin too. They are sedimentary rocks, rocks which were laid down by the
action of water on the bed of the ocean. Almost always the remains of shells, and other proofs of sea life,
are found close to the oil. A very common sedimentary rock is called shale, which is a soft rock and was
obviously formed by being deposited on the sea bed.
Extraction of Oil:
Geologists, scientists who study rocks, indicate the likely places to the oil drillers. In some
cases oil comes out of the ground without any drilling at all and has been used for hundreds of years. In
the island of Trinidad the oil is in the form of asphalt, a substance used for making roads. Sir Walter
Raleigh' visited the famous pitch lake of Trinidad in 1595; it is said to contain nine thousand million tons of
asphalt. Driller is considered as the King of oilfield, a skilled man; who drills more a mile into the earth.
The process should be done with great care, during the process if oil and gas meet under great pressure
there is possibility of explosion of oil which may lead heavy damage and cannot be used for ever. But
steps are taken to prevent it.
There is a lot of luck in drilling for oil. Great sums of money have been spent, for example in the deserts
of Egypt, in ' prospecting ' for oil. Sometimes little is found.
Oil Refining Process:
When the crude oil is obtained from the field, it is taken to the refineries to be treated. The
commonest form of treatment is heating. When the oil is heated, the first vapors to rise are cooled and
become the finest petrol. Petrol has a low boiling point; if a little is poured into the hand, it soon vaporizes.
Gas that comes off the oil later is condensed into paraffin. Last of all the lubricating oils of various grades
are produced. What remains is heavy oil that is used as fuel.
Availability of Oil:
There are four main areas of the world where deposits of oil appear. The first is that of the Middle
East, and includes the regions near the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.
Another is the area between North and South America, and the third, between Asia and Australia,
includes the islands of Sumatra, Borneo and Java. The fourth area is the part near the North Pole. When
all the present oil-fields are exhausted, it is possible that this cold region may become the scene of oil
activity.
Conclusion:
Thus oil plays a prominent part in our daily life. If progress in using atomic power to drive
machines is fast enough, it is possible that oil-driven engines may give place to the new kind of engine. In
that case the demand for oil will fall, the oilfields will gradually disappear, and the deposits at the North
Pole may rest where they are forever. If the atomic power comes into usage the importance of oil may be
put into cold storage forever.

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A Robot About The House
M.W.Thring
Introduction:
Thring was born in Melbourne, Australia, but moved to England when he was four years
old. His school was Malvern College. In 1946 Thring became Head of the newly formed Physics Research
group of the British Iron and Steel Research Association. In 1950 he moved to the University of Sheffield,
becoming Professor and Head of the Department of Fuel Technology and Chemical Engineering in 1953.
Thring was a visionary who changed from science to engineering "because he wanted to make the world
a better place". This knowledge of energy was shown in his 1974 book Energy and Humanity which
called essentially for a more rational and sustainable approach, with control of pollution. He was also
known as a teacher, and for his belief that engineers had an ethical obligation to improve life for all, but
notably the underprivileged and disabled.
Importance of Technology:
As civilization advances, there is a tremendous growth in technology which plays a
prominent role in mans daily life; it passes the point of supplying all the basic needs like food, clothing,
shelter and warmth. Then we are faced to make a choice of using technology for our comfort and fulfill
needs which have hitherto been regarded as unnecessary, on the other hand, by utilizing technology
one can reduce the number of working hours which a man must do in order to earn and maintain his
standard of living. In other words, we either raise our standard of living above that is necessary for
leading a comfortable and happy life, or leave it and work shorter hours. Men will be working shorter
and shorter hours in their paid employment. Likewise housewife will also expect to be able to have
more leisure in her life without lowering her standard of living. Yet majority of the housewives wish to
get relieved completely from the daily routine of the home like scrubbing the floors or the bath or the
cooker, or washing the clothes or washing up, or dusting or sweeping, or making beds. The most logical
step to relieve the housewife of routine, is to provide a robot slave which can be trained to the
requirements of a particular home and can be programmed to carry out half a dozen or more standard
operations (for example, scrubbing, sweeping and dusting washing up, laying tables, making beds), so as
switched by the housewife. It will be a machine having no more emotions than a car, but have a
programmed memory with limited pre-stored instructions in it and a or built-in adaptability according to
the positions in which it finds various types of objects. It will operate other more specialized machines,
for example, the vacuum cleaners or clothes washing machine.
House Wifes Opinion about Robot:
Author says, this kind of device with housewives, some 90 per cent of them have the
immediate reaction, How soon can I buy one?' The other l0 per cent have the reaction, I would be
terrified to have it moving about my house '-- but after explaining about its compatibility to them that it
could be switched off or unplugged or stopped without the slightest difficulty, and dismantle it at any
time, they quickly realize that it is a highly desirable object. In authors own home at first, the washing-
up machine was regarded as a rival to the worker at the kitchen sink, but after days passed there is no
greater pleasure than to go to bed in the evening and know that the washing up is being done
downstairs after one is asleep. Some families would be delighted, no doubt, to have the robot slave
doing all the downstairs housework after they were in bed at night, while others would prefer to have it
done in the mornings, but this would be entirely a matter of choice.
Mechanism of Robot:
It is tough to predict the shape and mechanism of the robot slave. It carries its computer and
response mechanism around with it and also its source of power or might be operated with a computer
stored in a cupboard under the stairs and the signals and information proceeding along a cable, which
also carries the power from the mains, through the machine moving about the house. It might carry its
power, for example, by storage batteries, and have its instructions beamed to it by short-wave short-
range electromagnetic waves. The machine would have to be able to move about in a house designed
for human beings and would therefore probably have to go through a normal door, open such a door
and close it, and walk up and down stairs or over irregularities on the floor. It will not look at all like a
human being, but rather have a unique form, a box with one large eye at the top, two arms, three
hands, and a pair of long narrow pads on each side to support and move itself with.
Complications in Making a User Friendly Robot:
The problem of making the machine respond to the presence of objects in different places such
as the foot of the staircase has already been solved, in partial prototypes. The major difficulty is the
coordination of hand and eye-for example, to teach the machine to distinguish between a knife and a
fork and to lay them on opposite sides of the place at the table. However it is true that the fundamental
problem of distinguishing between objects of different shapes by a computer has already been partially
solved and published, and therefore there is no basic problem in this. Preliminary work to be done is
the work of design which will be suitable walking and stair-climbing mechanisms has been already
shown, there are no major problems in this field, and the design of arms with the necessary degrees of
freedom and of hands both for picking up objects and for gripping and rotating an object indefinitely in
either direction is well advanced. Storage batteries or directly fuelled ceils will certainly be well enough
developed to provide, say, l KW for l hour with a weight of 20 1b or so.
Conclusion:
Applied science basically focuses on human need accordingly the usage a1l the available
scientific knowledge is made to assist in the achievement and satisfaction of this need. Helping the
housewife by eliminating the routine operation is the outstanding human need in the developed
countries that calls for solution, where money is no object. Thus the well versed scientists are ready to
work for developing efficient robot. This can be achieved only when they are supported with financial
sponsorship. Robots can be used, crucial situations such as for rescuing people from burning houses or
aeroplanes or putting out oil-well fires.


Using Land Wisely
By L.Dudley Stamp
Introduction:
A very important world problem, according to author which is the most important which
mankind is facing at present is rapid growth of population on land and land resources. The actual
problem is not the population but the rate of increase which is significant. The growth of population
comes around 1.6 percent per annum. In terms of numbers this means something like forty to fifty-five
million additional people every year. Canada has a population of twenty million-rather less than six
months, climb in world population- Take Australia. There are ten million people in Australia. So, it takes
the world less than three months to add to itself a population which peoples that vast country.

Birth Rate and Death Control:
According to author, birth rate is not the actual problem but the net increase.
To be accurate about the increase of birth rate, each and every second three babies are born. It is really
due to the spread of the knowledge and the practice of what is coming to be called Death Control.
Death control recognizes the work of doctors, nurses, and scientists who keep working to stamp out the
epidemic diseases caused by dirt and diseases like malaria and many other dangerous diseases which
causes serious illness and results in death. Medical care helps to keep people alive longer. We used to
think seventy was a good age; now eighty, ninety, it may be, are coming to be recognized as a normal
age for human beings. People are living longer because of this Death Control, and fewer children are
dying, so the population of the world is shooting up.
Using Land Wisely:
It would be just over twelve acres - the sort of size of a small holding. But not all
that is useful land which is going to produce food. Land covered by snow and ice, mountains, deserts,
and other great frozen areas and land with insufficient soil cannot be used for agricultural purpose.
Now, out of the twelve acres only about four are left as suitable for producing food. But not all that is
used. It includes land with enough soil and enough rainfall or water, and enough heat which, at present,
people are not using, such as, for example, the great Amazon forests and the Congo forest and the
grasslands of Africa. Only a little over one acre is what is required to support one human being on an
average at the present time.
Haves and Have-nots:
The standard share per person for the world is a little over twelve acres per head; potentially
usable, about four acres; and actually used about 1.1 acre. Every little American is born into this world
with a heritage of the home country, the continental United States, of just about the world average -
about twelve acres. But the amount actually used - what the Americans call 'improved land' in crops and
pasture on farms - is three and a half acres. So the Americans have over three times the world average
of land on which to produce food for them. On that land they produce more food than they actually
require, so they have a surplus for export. In the case of Canada, the official figure is twenty-two acres.
The Canadians use at the moment four acres, and they too have a large food surplus available for
export. India, with 2.5 acres per head, has considerably more land than we have in this country. Not all
of it is usable for food production. But there is land which could be reclaimed by modern methods, that
is being tackled at the present time. The crucial figure is the actual area in agricultural use - three-
quarters of an acre! The yields from this land are low, methods of production are primitive, and that is
why the Indians are so very near the starvation level for almost every year of their lives. But they are not
as badly off where land is concerned as Japan. The Japanese figures are the same as our own country in
overall land - 1.1 acres per person - but it is a very mountainous country with volcanoes, and so much
less is cultivable. Less than a fifth of an acre - 0.17 of an acre - is under cultivation. . The farm workers
plant by hand every individual rice plant, and this kind of intensive cultivation enables the Japanese to
support seven persons per acre. Much of the agriculture is based on rice
Stone Age Vs Present Day:
In the Stone Age, the people simply went out, killed wild animals - if they were lucky - and had a
good meal; if they were unlucky they just went hungry. At the present day, we do almost the same thing in
the sea, hunting wild fish from boats. In the future, perhaps, we shall cultivate the sea; we shall grow
small fish and fish spawn in tanks, take them to the part of the ocean where we want them, let them grow
to the right size, and harvest them. This is not fantasy, because, at the present time, fish are being
cultivated like that in ponds and tanks in India and various parts of the Far East so that the people there
have a supply of protein. There is a great development possible.
Conclusion:
Thus the sea is concerned we are scarcely, at the present time, out of the Old Stone Age. A lot of
things are going to happen in the next fifty years. It is enormously important to increase the yield of grain
plants and a great deal has happened through the work of the geneticists in the last few years.
Throughout agriculture geneticists are improving plants to get higher yields
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An Observation and an Explanation
- Desmond Morris -
Introduction:
Desmond Morris (1928 ), author of The Naked Ape, was born in the village of Purton, near
Swindon, Wiltshire, England as the son of an author of children's fiction and as the great-grandson of
William Morris, the pioneering founder of the Swindon Advertiser Britain's first penny paper
who was also a keen amateur naturalist. Amongst the many significant works that he wrote in these
years are The Human Zoo (1969) and Intimate Behavior (1971). The essay that follows is taken from
The Naked Ape (1967).
Mothers Behavior towards her Baby:
It is worth looking at the ways a mother behaves towards her baby. The usual fondling, cuddling
and cleaning require little comment, but the position in which she holds the baby against her body when
resting is rather revealing. According to American studies the fact is that 80% of mothers cradle in their
left arms, by holding them against left side of their bodies. The babies in their left arms, the mothers
keep their dominant arm free for manipulations. But it is not the case. 83% of right-handed mothers and
78% left - handed mothers hold their babies on their left side.
Fact behind the Behavior:
The only other clue comes from the fact that the heart is on the left side of the mother's body. It
was argued that perhaps during its existence inside the body of the mother, the growing embryo
becomes fixated (imprinted ') on the sound of the heart beat. If this is so, then the re-discovery of this
familiar sound after birth might have a calming effect on the infant, especially as it has just been thrust
into a strange and frighteningly new world outside.
Experiments Done Base on the Arguments:
In a hospital nursery groups of new born babies were exposed for a considerable time to the
recorded sound of a heart-beat at a standard rate of 72 beats per minute. Each group consist of nine
babies one or more of them was crying for 60 per cent of the time when the sound was not switched on,
but that this figure fell to only 38 per cent when the heart-beat recording was thumping away. The
heart-beat groups also showed a greater weight-gain than the others, although the amount of food
taken was the same in both cases. The beatless groups of babies burned up more energy by crying.
Bed Time Experiments:
Some groups of babies room was silent, in other groups room played recorded lullabies were
played. In another groups room ticking metronome was operated at the heart beat of 72 beats per
minute. In the remaining groups room the heart-beat recording itself was played. It was then checked
to see which groups fell asleep more quickly.
Facts on Mother Rocking their Baby to Sleep:
Here again the figure was at 80 per cent level. This contrasts with observations of females
carrying parcels, where it was found that 50 per cent carried them on the left and 50 per cent on the
right. As the song says: You gotta have a heart? It may also explain why mothers rock their babies to lull
them to sleep. The rocking motion is carried on at about the same speed as the heart-beat, and once
again it probably reminds' the infants of the rhythmic sensations they became so familiar with inside
the womb, as the great heart of the mother pumped and thumped away above them.
Facts on Adults Rocking out of Anxiety:
Man rock with anguish. He rocks back and forth on his feet on his state of conflict. A lecturer or
an after-dinner speaker swaying rhythmically from side to side, checks his speed for heart-beat time. His
discomfort at having to face an audience leads him to perform the most comforting movements his
body can offer in the somewhat limited circumstances; and so he switches on the old familiar beat of
the womb. Whenever a person feels insecure, he or she is liable to find a comforting heart- beat rhythm
in a kind disguised or another.
Conclusion:
Thus heart - beat plays a prominent role in mans life right from cradle to grave. In the early
stage a baby feels comfortable when it is exposed (or hears) to heart - beat sound. In the case of adult
the heart-beat soothes when he or she is in anxiety. Most of the folk music and dancing has a
syncopated rhythm. Here again the sounds and movements take the performers back to the safe world
of the womb.
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Big Numbers and Infinities
-George Gamov-
George Gamov begins his essay Big Numbers and Infinities, with the idea of writing large
numbers. He illustrates the two persons from Indian and African history, and how they are engaged with
large numbers. The essay ends with a key note that infinity is equal to whole numbers.
Gamov states that writing large number is trivial activity, whereas it was a step forward in the
science of Mathematics, at the time of Archimedes. He also illustrated the story of Sissa Ben (Prime
Minister) and King Shirham of India. Where Sissa Ben invented the game of chess and asked for
wheatgrains as his reward from King Shirham. Ben played the trick of asking grains for squares in
Doubling Method. Perhaps the puzzle remained unrevealing the idea of large numbers, where King
could not fulfill his promise to Sissa Ben it required 4.10 power of 12 Bushels of wheat to complete the
64 squares. The amount requested by Grand Vizier was of worlds wheat production for 2000 years.
Gamov says that the amount required by Sissa Ben was still infinite, but there are some really
infinite numbers is geometrical points on a line. Thus the numbers of all numbers is clearly infinite. In
comparing the infinities Gamov suggests the method of George Cantor - a famous Mathematician and
the founder Arithmetics infinity. The position of Hottenot is depicted where he wants to inspect his
chest, to know whether he has glass beads or copper coin in large number. Hottenot was unable to
count beyond three.
Hence Hottenot gave up his comparison. Instead Gamov puts forth the idea of pairing each glass
bead to copper coin and this method of comparing the infinity that is to pair the objects of infinities.
This is said to be a only possible way.
The comparing even and odd numbers was suitable for the method proposed by Cantor. Since
one to one correspondence of these numbers can be arranged. Even and odd infinities are equal and it
seems to be simple and natural.
When it comes to the idea of the larger one everyone is perplexed. In order to compare Cantors
rule can be implied. For everyones surprise the impression we get is wrong. In comparing infinities even
numbers are exactly large, this may sound paradoxical.
The author concludes with an idea that the world Infinity a part may be equal to the whole.

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