This week I had the pleasure of witnessing two very intriguing and thought provoking videos. The first was titled the The Empathetic Civilization by Jeremy Rifkin and it was about the concept that all human beings are born with the ability to empathize with others and how empathy is an important feature for human beings to have in order to thrive as a civilization. The video began with a study done in the 1990’s where scientists scanned the neurons in the brain of a primate while he was opening a nut. After the primate had finished a human walked into the room saw the bowl of nuts and without noticing the primate began to try and open the nut himself. The interesting part is that while the primate was watching this stranger open a nut like he did earlier the same neurons in the primate’s brain became active. I found this to be a fascinating example of empathy at the most basic level. I personally think that human beings are not born with such negative things such as intolerance or hate and the video supports this by giving the example that if a baby starts crying in a nursery then other babies will too and they don't know why its just human nature. However, like many other natural human behaviors empathy is sometimes beaten out of us by outside forces and as a result the oppression of human kindness and understanding is spread. The second video I watched was called Will Mankind Destroy Itself? by Michio Kaku and it was about how the world is moving along two different possible paths, one is the path to a brighter future the other is a path to our own self inflicted demise. Mr. Kaku speaks in his video about three types of civilizations, there is type one which is the planetary civilization, type two which is stellar, and type three which is Galactic. Mr. Kaku goes on to explain that type two civilizations are immortal the planet is united all the diseases have cures and we are able to deal with and survive all natural disasters from erupting volcanoes to super novas. He then goes on to explain that the most difficult task is getting from type zero to type one and that is where human beings are, type zero. I wont ruin the whole video I would just like to say that this is a very interesting concept to me, that within the next one hundred years humanity will either flourish or crumble, and if we manage to flourish the possibilities will become endless essentially not even the sky will be considered a limit. But we as a species must first come together and no longer acknowledge the differences that have caused us to war and divide for millennia, if we don't then I fear we will bring about our own end.