Benjamin

Throughout the story the characters are changed dramatically through the events that they experience in the Congo; the cause for this change is different in some way for all of the characters, but they all experience change. This experience that Adah has illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole as it describes a major part of the events that took place in the Congo, especially when they related to Adah. The experiences Adah had in the Congo really defined the hardships and struggles that the family had and the struggles in the book as a whole, and also the rifts that were created in the family.

Thought it was too odd back in beginning of high school... maybe my opinion would change today?

Interesting discussion on the effects of quantum computing, which isn't necessarily a too far away possibility, and how this may affect existing logical computer systems and encryption processes that are widespread currently. Plot is kind of dull, as well as the characters, but I found that thinking about the effect of quantum computing on day to day computer infrastructure and the security threats that they could potentially pose was pretty interesting.

From more of the techie side, I think there might be ways to generate essentially ‘truly' random numbers with current systems such as having a seed that changes constantly that is based off of something that is truly random such as live images of lava lamps (Details here) vs a static seed that could be eventually determined. This approach to including true randomness (vs pseudo randomness) I think helps make existing systems more secure.

There are interesting technological discussion on entanglement, how technology can both be beneficial and potentially cause some problems in the future, etc.
Overall, actually enjoyed this short story and made for interesting discussions.

Not a new plot in terms of a world is going to end soon and so human race is trying to populate a new planet storyline. I thought it was a bit of a slow and sad read, a story of how Samantha, one of the last people on earth, is cataloging plant samples to take on the Ark before a life-ending asteroid, Finis, hits earth to follow the rest of mankind who has already taken to spaceships to another planet.

The story almost turns into a story of nostalgia for Samantha as she reminisces upon her Mom and talking to Hagen, the memories of orchids to both of them and really just sad nostalgia for what beauty and how special earth really is and what it has, as well as thinking about how much more there is left to discover, as we see with Samantha discovering a new flower in such a short time before the end of the earth.

Thoughts:
What is it like when you live your whole life knowing that the end of the world is coming?
What is it like to be the last people on earth, all without family members, and all (but not as defining of a detail) doing the same work and with similar degrees.

Part of Amazon's Forward Collection:
-Randomize by Andy Weir ★★★☆☆

Humans place their intelligence and ability to reason above the instinct of wild animals who live to satisfy their own needs, the ability to reason is the factor that transforms mere animals into people living together in a working society. But the author, Richard Connell, flips the idea that reason remains separate from instinct by reducing the gentleman Rainsford down to a mere “animal” of prey in General Zaroff's ruthless game. Rainsford soon came to understand that all living things depend on their instinct to endure and to evade pain and death. However, during the entire game, Rainsford remains calm in spite of his fear and continues to work carefully to postpone and prevent death. Throughout the hunt, both Rainsford's and Zaroff's methodical response and crafty devious plans bolsters the case that each man acts according to instinct, one to survive and the other to kill. There were many cases where the reaction speed of their instincts kept them alive, but also when reason played its part, in deciding what the next move would be and what impact that would have on each person/subject. The deciding factor between life and death was instinct and reason working hand in hand.