Sunday, April 23, 2017
Essay
The final essay for my project is progressing nicely with my blog actually being a great guideline for the main topics and I find myself often going back to it.
Superpowers in Fear? Final Part
Possibly one of the most iconic super villains they Joker is a man of so many layers one could liken him to an onion. No one knows for sure who Joker was before he took a swan dive into a vat of ambiguous chemicals that warped his mind, but one thing for certain is that he hasn't looked back. While Joker is known for his many mind games with the Bat of Gotham he is most known for his iconic Joker Venom. The gas that forces its victims to die laughing with a smile on their face.
Quite a gruesome way to go. This could also be linked to the fear state. The uncontrollable laughing can be chalked up to hysteria a state of extreme excitement, FEAR, and anger with the result being a combination of laughing and crying. Victims of Joker Venom are known to do both of these things. However, the main part of the venom is the Glasgow smiles permanently on the faces of the dead. The result could be linked to a combo of shock and the stress of daily life. Shock is known to have severe life threatening effects when someone is introduced to a drug their body is not accustomed to, resulting the over stress of muscles and even snapping of the spine. Prolonged stress is said to have similar effects with the added shock to the body system the muscles could simply snap into a fatal position and leave the victim to die. Not dissimilar to the disease known as lockjaw.
Quite a gruesome way to go. This could also be linked to the fear state. The uncontrollable laughing can be chalked up to hysteria a state of extreme excitement, FEAR, and anger with the result being a combination of laughing and crying. Victims of Joker Venom are known to do both of these things. However, the main part of the venom is the Glasgow smiles permanently on the faces of the dead. The result could be linked to a combo of shock and the stress of daily life. Shock is known to have severe life threatening effects when someone is introduced to a drug their body is not accustomed to, resulting the over stress of muscles and even snapping of the spine. Prolonged stress is said to have similar effects with the added shock to the body system the muscles could simply snap into a fatal position and leave the victim to die. Not dissimilar to the disease known as lockjaw.
Sunday, April 16, 2017
Superpowers in Fear? Part 2
Today I will be looking into a member of the villain gallery of Gotham who have shown some interest in the power of Fear. The Scarecrow his very iconic Fear Gas.
Dr. Jonathan Crane later known as The Scarecrow was a professor of psychology who studied the effects of various drugs on members of the Arkham Insane Asylum to see the effects of fear on humans. He later went on to a life of crime taking his experiments way beyond the realm of moral and started to treat everyone as a test subject for his study in fear and phobias.
The way Dr. Crane creates fear is by his aerosol fear toxin or fear gas. It causes the victims to see hallucinations of their worst fears come to life. It is noted that Batman has a cure for the toxin in hand at all times. Drug-induced hallucinations are not a new idea many kinds of drugs like deliriants and psychedelics that influence the brain also create hallucinations. For a doctor of psychology who had intimate knowledge of the brain it would not be far fetched for him to create a drug that can affect the amygdala and force the feeling of fear.
Dr. Jonathan Crane later known as The Scarecrow was a professor of psychology who studied the effects of various drugs on members of the Arkham Insane Asylum to see the effects of fear on humans. He later went on to a life of crime taking his experiments way beyond the realm of moral and started to treat everyone as a test subject for his study in fear and phobias.
The way Dr. Crane creates fear is by his aerosol fear toxin or fear gas. It causes the victims to see hallucinations of their worst fears come to life. It is noted that Batman has a cure for the toxin in hand at all times. Drug-induced hallucinations are not a new idea many kinds of drugs like deliriants and psychedelics that influence the brain also create hallucinations. For a doctor of psychology who had intimate knowledge of the brain it would not be far fetched for him to create a drug that can affect the amygdala and force the feeling of fear.
Speed Limits of the Human Body
While in my previous post I mention how speed similar to the Flash could be attained through extensive use of the 'fear state', but I must look back to the physical limits of the current human body. Common limits are known to us in the phrase "three weeks without food, three days without water, and three minuets without air". While this is not a concrete rule it holds merit for the average Joe whose body is accustomed to regular food, water, and air. The body has limits their is only so much calcium for the muscles and how fast blood can move oxygen around, even with chemical boosts.
In 2008 Mark Denny a biologist at Stanford University did a study on the absolute limits to speed in animals. He looked into the race history of horses and greyhounds in the U.S.. Looking all the way back into the turn of the 20th Century he had concluded that the speed had plateaued, with winning times not really moving since the 1970s. It isn't like horse breeders hadn't tried their hand to create faster horses, but the fact is with the traits the are enhancing the drawbacks increase. "You can breed a horse to go faster than ever before or to have stronger muscles but then its legs will break."
In terms of humans Usain Bolt -the world's fastest man- holds the world record of 9.58 seconds in the 100 meter dash. He has beaten his own record a few times before, but on a whole the number of world records being broken is dramatically decreasing over the years and humans start to reach their own plateau of physical ability. Peter Weyand of Southern Methodist University says that humans still have a way to go before that biological ceiling but the method of getting there is morally ambiguous.
In 2008 Mark Denny a biologist at Stanford University did a study on the absolute limits to speed in animals. He looked into the race history of horses and greyhounds in the U.S.. Looking all the way back into the turn of the 20th Century he had concluded that the speed had plateaued, with winning times not really moving since the 1970s. It isn't like horse breeders hadn't tried their hand to create faster horses, but the fact is with the traits the are enhancing the drawbacks increase. "You can breed a horse to go faster than ever before or to have stronger muscles but then its legs will break."
In terms of humans Usain Bolt -the world's fastest man- holds the world record of 9.58 seconds in the 100 meter dash. He has beaten his own record a few times before, but on a whole the number of world records being broken is dramatically decreasing over the years and humans start to reach their own plateau of physical ability. Peter Weyand of Southern Methodist University says that humans still have a way to go before that biological ceiling but the method of getting there is morally ambiguous.
Saturday, April 8, 2017
Superpowers in Fear? Part 1
When I started this project I was leading up to this point where I can make logical leaps to understand how superpowers could exist in real people. My first hero to uncover is Detective Comic's Flash.
Now Flash has had many revamps over the years and his origin changes around a little each time so I'm going to use the most widely accepted form of his origin and work from there. Barry Allen was a forensic scientist known for being slow, forgetful, and frequently late for just about everything. Until the fateful day when he stayed late at the lab only to be struck by a bolt of lightning and dowsed in a cocktail of unnamed chemicals.
This combo gifted him with the power of super speed and he went on to don the scarlet spandex of the hero Flash. A highly unlikely and shall I say impossible occurrence for any real person to have, but as I have stated before superhuman feats are possible through the hormone control in the brain.
What are the symptoms of fear I have stated before? The rapid creation of glucose increasing the level of energy the body has on hand to perform tasks. One of the accepted quirks of the flash is how much food he has to consume in the down time after he is fighting crime. A 'super' metabolism so to speak. Possibly of byproduct of a rapid usage of glucose in the fear state to force the body into faster movement. Flash is also known to heal rapidly from wounds another symptoms of the fear state due to increased blood flow and platelets moving around faster.
Among Flash's other feats it has been noted that his brain is able to function at a much faster level than before the incident. While not a symptom of the fear state this can possibly be tied back to the lightning bolt. Nerves run on a series of impulses much like electric the lightning could have possibly done something to the nervous system in Flash's body.
My final point of evidence is I have already spoken of the hormone that creates the fear state, epinephrine. What is to say that the random assortment of chemicals found in a forensic lab couldn't have created a large release of the hormone epinephrine into the body coupled with the lightning throwing his nerves out of wack the brain could forget to turn the fear response off leaving him in a constant fear state and granting Flash super speed as a side effect.
Food for thought
.
Now Flash has had many revamps over the years and his origin changes around a little each time so I'm going to use the most widely accepted form of his origin and work from there. Barry Allen was a forensic scientist known for being slow, forgetful, and frequently late for just about everything. Until the fateful day when he stayed late at the lab only to be struck by a bolt of lightning and dowsed in a cocktail of unnamed chemicals.
This combo gifted him with the power of super speed and he went on to don the scarlet spandex of the hero Flash. A highly unlikely and shall I say impossible occurrence for any real person to have, but as I have stated before superhuman feats are possible through the hormone control in the brain.
What are the symptoms of fear I have stated before? The rapid creation of glucose increasing the level of energy the body has on hand to perform tasks. One of the accepted quirks of the flash is how much food he has to consume in the down time after he is fighting crime. A 'super' metabolism so to speak. Possibly of byproduct of a rapid usage of glucose in the fear state to force the body into faster movement. Flash is also known to heal rapidly from wounds another symptoms of the fear state due to increased blood flow and platelets moving around faster.
Among Flash's other feats it has been noted that his brain is able to function at a much faster level than before the incident. While not a symptom of the fear state this can possibly be tied back to the lightning bolt. Nerves run on a series of impulses much like electric the lightning could have possibly done something to the nervous system in Flash's body.
My final point of evidence is I have already spoken of the hormone that creates the fear state, epinephrine. What is to say that the random assortment of chemicals found in a forensic lab couldn't have created a large release of the hormone epinephrine into the body coupled with the lightning throwing his nerves out of wack the brain could forget to turn the fear response off leaving him in a constant fear state and granting Flash super speed as a side effect.
Food for thought
.
Sunday, April 2, 2017
Fear in the Media
The media is no longer about just being updated on the state of the world, it is a business, and nothing sells better then fear. Fear-based news prey on the anxieties of self-safety that activates the fear response also leading the increased probability of depression relapse. However, with increased capitalism in the news industry the stories need to be bold and controversial to draw in the general public. As i said before controversy not matter the topic creates fear.
This type of programming follows the hierarchy of 'if it bleeds, it leads'. Using dramatic anecdotes instead of empirical evidence and fabricating trends of isolated events the media replaces and optimistic view with a fatalistic way of thinking. Everything is carefully crafted to be a fearful as possible.
This type of programming follows the hierarchy of 'if it bleeds, it leads'. Using dramatic anecdotes instead of empirical evidence and fabricating trends of isolated events the media replaces and optimistic view with a fatalistic way of thinking. Everything is carefully crafted to be a fearful as possible.
Culture of Fear
While fear -as I have stated before- is an inherently positive emotion and an easy emotion to create or mimic it leaves itself easily open to manipulation. This leads me to what is known today as the "Culture of Fear" meaning that people create the idea of fear to control the general public. A fear culutre is seen most commonly in politics the media and the workplace. For example in the workplace "petty tyrants" leaders who use a tyrannical style of management create a fear climate. Along with continued negative reinforcement leaves many in a permanent state of anxiety and will cause people to react differently then if they were calm and going about their lives, more often then not actually leaving the workplace.
For politics and example is seen during the political repression in Brazil since 1964 as a climate of fear was created to force the people into a tense calm at the threat of arrest or torture. This along with other methods took the country into a stranglehold of control. The fear was created through three factors silence through censorship, sense of isolation, and a general belief that all opposition was gone. The fear culture that holds the US is said to have began with 9/11, but that is just not true any form of controversy no matter if their is evidence or not will cause fear to erupt through the simple mechanism of safety to self.
For politics and example is seen during the political repression in Brazil since 1964 as a climate of fear was created to force the people into a tense calm at the threat of arrest or torture. This along with other methods took the country into a stranglehold of control. The fear was created through three factors silence through censorship, sense of isolation, and a general belief that all opposition was gone. The fear culture that holds the US is said to have began with 9/11, but that is just not true any form of controversy no matter if their is evidence or not will cause fear to erupt through the simple mechanism of safety to self.
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