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viernes, 22 de marzo de 2024

English with Rachel

Hi,
The topic for the next class is religion, so please can you write a 150 word essay on the positives and negatives of religion in your opinion.

The writing exercise:

 

What about religion?


Religion is an important and, at the same time, quite a controversial subject. If you don't want to quarrel with your friends, colleagues or acquaintances, you should talk about this topic as little as possible, at least in public. Perhaps, as the song says, we are losing our religion, nowadays...

Since the dawn of time, when human beings became sentient, religion has had an enormous weight in our societies, behaviours and minds. Some organisations or ruling groups have adopted religion as a way to control our lives, dreams, minds and hopes. And why? Because of the fear of death and suffering are actually present in our "mental schemas", as human beings. 

The idea of the permanence of life, beyond the physical world, is one of the most important human hopes and dreams. However, religion also has benefits for us and our societies: it is a form of morality and an attempt to achieve good in our lives. But everything has a dark side, as we have mentioned before; the use of religion as a means of control is this dark, obscure, side of the coin.

In short, I believe that religion should be treated with respect, consideration and relativity. But be aware: this is just my point of view!

And which religion should I choose? The one that I believe is not a religion 'per se', but a good way of living: Zen...

Posted on viernes, marzo 22, 2024 by Guillermo Beltrán

sábado, 9 de marzo de 2024

English with Rachel

Hi,
The topic for the next class will be artificial intelligence, so I would like you to write a 100 word essay on what you think the future holds for AI and how that might/might not effect you. Here is some vocabulary to help you:

Image created by Copilot using the following promt: "Please, act as a graphic designer with vast knowledge of Data Science and build me an image which resumes the artificial intelligence. Thank you very much in advance!" 

The writing exercise:

Some thoughts on artificial intelligence

Artificial Intelligence, or A.I., is a hot and trending topic these days. Well, more than a topic: an imminent reality! While it has good, practical, wonderful and beneficial uses, applied to health, science, learning and improving our societies, it also has a dark side, in my opinion.

Most of us do not know exactly what Artificial Intelligence really means and how it will change our lives. We use it for simplistic purposes, but big companies are using AI for more complicated, perhaps "dark" purposes. In fact, I believe that we humans are not prepared for the outcome of AI's success in the natural path of evolution. We have not yet been able to end hunger, violence, injustice, war, the destruction of our own home - the Earth - disease, etc. So how can we move forward into the unknown with our eyes closed?

And why this point of view, why these dystopian thoughts? Because, as a race, we have more than proved that we are not capable of living a sustainable life with our environment, our fellow human beings and the living beings on our little blue planet, the only one we have.

When artificial intelligence becomes sentient, aware of its own reality, we will probably regret having played at being superficial, adolescent little gods. I wish I was wrong, completely wrong....

Posted on sábado, marzo 09, 2024 by Guillermo Beltrán