I Think Therefore IB

Reading recommendations:

Slate asks Who should pay for in vitro fertilization?, a question that has arisen as part of the recent octuplets controversy. Also related to some of the presentation topics (e.g. “Synthetic Biology”) we have seen in class is another Slate article, which considers the the bad uses of good technology.

I would also like to recommend a film. As you may or may not know, I rather adore movies, particularly non-mainstream ones. I have seen most of those independent features available at my local video store, but the store manager pointed out one I had missed: Så som i Himmelen (As It Is in Heaven), a Swedish film from 2004. Why it is of interest to us? Although the film deals with a variety of noteworthy and complex issues (human relationships, moral responsibility of the individual in a community that has a long-established and unwritten agreement of ’silence’ and ‘looking away’), central to it is the power of music. Some of the most pivotal scenes in Så som i Himmelen communicate their message through this different form of language. As I watched the film, I was moved by the power of this – of a song that contained words, but, sung in Swedish, being only partially comprehensible to me (“Gabriellas sång”) as well as (SPOILER ALERT!) of the wordless sounds of the final scene. Of course, both these clips will make much more sense to you if you watch all of Så som i Himmelen!