Understanding Goals of Human Resource Management in the Context of Human Capital Theory

Labor economics currently depends on several marketable skills of employees that invest in various spheres of organizational activities. This dimension of human resource management is essential for understanding both the wage system and investment incentives.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Understanding Goals of Human Resource Management in the Context of Human Capital Theory specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The theory of human capital, therefore, states that human resources are represented through a set of â€Å"skills, experience, and knowledge have economic value to organizations because they enable it to be productive and adaptable† (Jackson 1995, p. 241). In this respect, people working in organization become the part of its intellectual capital. The full potential of human capital can be fulfilled only through cooperation with an individual. In order to establish favorable relations with individuals , much spending should be directed in training motivating and retaining human capital. Managers should be concerned with different human resource management approaches contributing to increasing the value of their human capital. It should also be stressed that contextual factors, including technology, unions, market conditions, and business approaches are significant because they have a direct impact on the costs linked to alternative methods of HRM practices to enhance the value of the human capital of the organization, as well the value of the anticipated returns. Applications of Human Capital Theory to HRM Practices The standard strategy in labor distribution considers human capital as a set of characteristics that contributes to an employees’ productivity. Human capital, therefore, should rely on efficient methods and techniques that would enhance the intellectual property of an organization. At the same time, there are different views on application of the theory in huma n resource management practices.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More According to Becker’s conception, human capital theory should be regarded in the context of the production process. To enlarge on the issues, the theorist suggests that social capital promotes worker’s productivity in all fields, but to a different extent with regard to the type of organizational activities and situations, a work is involved (Becker 1994). Within these perspectives, human capital theory is presented as a one-dimensional object and the work labor is considered as a set of knowledge, skills, and experiences which directly affects organization’s production rates (Becker 1994). The importance of investing into intellectual development is equal to the investment made in technological and material development of an organization. Human capital theory can also be estimated from var ious angles and, therefore, it cannot be considered as one-dimensional only. In this respect, theorist Garner agrees with the ideas of multidimensionality of the human capital. In particular, the scholar believes that such an approach would enhance the correlation between physical and mental abilities of employees. Gardner’s views human capital through the perspective of multiple intelligences according to which intelligence cannot be regarded as a single ability, but a set of specific modalities, cognitive abilities that allow managers to define in which sphere an employee can contribute most. It also defines the learning and training programs for the personnel. Such an approach is much more beneficial because it identifies which skills are the most developed among the individuals and which ones are the least developed.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Understanding Goals of Human Resource Management in the Context of Human Capital Theory specifically f or you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More There is also an assumption that human capital implies the capacity to adjust to situations (Shultz 1972). The supporters of this approach argue that social capital theory is beneficial while dealing with constant changing environments to which employees had to adjust. Inventing techniques to handling changes also contributes to promotion of intellectual capital, as well as to the overall productivity and performance of an organization. Finally, human capital can be represented through the ability of employees to cooperate and interact in a corporate environment. Such a perspective entails adherence to the principles established by organizational culture (Bowles and Gintis 1975). According to this view, the main task of human capital theorist is to provide individuals with right missions and goals that would allow them to achieve their personal goals as well. Finally, human capital theory can focus primarily on the individual capabilities, skills, and experiences beyond the production process. Person-centered approach, therefore, has acquired recognition due to globalization emphasizing importance of cultural diversity issues. Thus, organizational activities and intelligence should first be considered independently to define the intellectual potential of employees. All the above-enumerated applications of human capital theory highlight the necessity of its integration into human resources management practices. The approaches should be considered in combination to grasp a deeper understanding of the theory.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Organizations should pay much attention to the organization’s mission, goals, and objectives that should be oriented on enhancing corporate social responsibility rather than increasing organization’s profitability. Indeed, focusing on human capital improvement can expand the horizons of marketing approaches because of wider contexts involved into the process. One way or another, workers’ characteristics must be tackled in the workplace. Moral and Ethical Implications of the Human Capital Theory Due to the fact that human capital theory relates directly to the analysis of intellectual capital, it also closely correlates with the moral and ethical principles of organizational behavior. In fact, considering ethics in business environment is essential because it contributes tremendously to economic success of an organization. Human capital management should strongly rely on moral dimensions, which includes such issues as insecurity and risk, along with surveillance and control. Thus, employees often encounter stressful situations because of the responsibilities imposed on them. Therefore, managers should be able to create an environment that would minimize the stress. According to Koster (2007), â€Å"†¦management seeks for transparent employees in order to select those offering not only outstanding professional abilities and knowledge but also displaying desired behavior, attitudes, motivation, and interests† (p. 5). Consequently, the contemporary practices in HRM introduce a set of techniques promoting the privacy and autonomy policies for employees, as well as enforcing values and attitudes by means of change programs. The ethical underpinnings of human capital theory can be interpreted through the prism of gender inequality in the workplace. In this respect, Peil (2009) argues, â€Å"human capital theory, especially as applied to gender inequality, can be interpreted as emphasizing a utilitarian approach to ethics, in which in dividuals’ subjective assessment of their well-being is not challenged† (p. 92). In this respect, both minority groups face challenges while pursuing their personal goals in an organization. With regard to the above-presented applications of human capital theory, particularly to the views of Gary Becker, discrimination is among the most serious concerns in the employed environment. According to Becker, there are two types of discrimination – discrimination in monetary terms and statistical discrimination (Peil 2009). The latter, according to the theorist, is unethical because it is premised on using characteristics related with groups that replace information about separate individuals (Peil 2009). As a result, managers ignore outdated information, which leads to inadequate generalization. The human capital should not be regarded as the intellectual property in which monetary and financial investment should be made. Rather, human capital should also be considered a cultural asset of the company which enriches and improves its corporate culture. Managers should pay particular attention to the encouragement and development of effective network within which employees could enhance their experiences, skills, and abilities. More importantly, they should also feel that their valuable members of the organization. Accepting human resources as cultural capital contributes indirectly to organizational performance through enlarging organizational values and objectives. The development of efficient human resources methods should ensures perfectly organized work of individuals who are aware of their roles and responsibilities. Therefore, human capital theory integrates the concept of social capital underlining the importance of cross-cultural understanding and trust among the employees. Alternatively, lack of cultural understanding and ignorance of ethical norms can lead distrust. In fact, â€Å"the more opportunistic people become with their â€Å"bo unded economic rationality†, the less trustworthy they are†, which contributes to the deployment of corruption and bureaucracy (Werhane and Singer 1999, p. 148). Therefore, such moral values as trust and respect should become the foundation of an organization. The productivity of workers is associated with not only their abilities and skills, as well as the amount of investment in their development and learning, but also on their motivation, and aspiration to work. Managers should recognize the fact that â€Å"motivation in turn partly depends on earning because of the effect on an increase in earnings on moral and aspirations† (Becker 1994, p. 57). Therefore, the incentive to develop moral in organization and increase earnings should depend on the same incentives to encourage outside investments. Therefore, both material and non-material investment into the development of employees can have a positive impact on the organizational development as well. Despite the assumption that business should not be concerned with ethics, human behavior cannot be adjusted to rational decision making only. In this respect, organizational behavior relies on a set of factors, including social and cultural backgrounds, ethical belief systems, and moral obligations. In fact, previous considerations on the theory of human capital prove that lack of or poor ethical standards does not contribute to the development of the corruption-free organizational system, as well as to fair cooperation between supervisors and their subordinates. According to Rose (n. d.), â€Å"Ethical business creates a positive environment in which to buy and sell, like corruption, poverty, and lack of respect for the environment generate problems for the business community in the long term† (p. 28). The excellence of business operations, therefore, is congruent with the success of the developed code of ethical conduct, which highly relevant for today’s globalized business worl d. Ethical perspectives of business development are closely associated with the underpinnings of human capital theory. Such a perspective is highly relevant due to the global trends in business community. This is of particular concern to the development of international standards of ethical codes that should be the guiding principle in an organization. More importantly, human capital theory significantly contributes to the development of morale because it is connected with exploring human behavior and its influence on human resource management. Sustainability of Human Capital Theory Human capital theory has a strong theoretical and empirical foundation because of the growing tendency to apply individual-centered approach while carrying on business. More importantly, the international standards are prone to establishing social welfare as a priority in a corporate world. In particular, social corporate responsibility provides new perspectives of developing relations between managers a nd employees because it directly related to the welfare of the entire organization (Ehnert 2009). In particular, an employee can be considered as an essential stakeholder contributing the development of business. Managers, therefore, should rely on social capital theory while developing new techniques and approaches to treating human resources. The sustainability of human capital theory also lies in the possibility of considering employees not as a workforce for achieving organizational goals, but also an intellectual asset that should be invested and advanced for the welfare of the business. Within these perspectives, considering cultural diversity, ethics, and morale should be at the core of organizational development, apart from profitability and productivity (Ehnert 2009). Appreciation of human capital can also allow an organization to take a competitive advantage over other organizations with poor ethical and moral standards. Sustainable work systems and favorable relations bet ween the employees contribute to the establishment of corporate environment. Applying to human capital theory does not only allow managers to develop a reputable image of an organization but discover new horizons for development. Therefore, the theory of human capital is a valuable contribution to social resource management techniques. Understanding human capital theory as the study of multiple intelligences can provide new methods of exploring employment and recruitment. It also enhances retention culture and reduces the turnover within an organization. Finally, human capital theory contributes to integrating efficient methods of measuring employee performance. Reference List Becker, GS 1994, Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis, with Special Reference to Education, University of Chicago Press, US. Bowles, S, and Gintis, H 1975, The Problem with Human Capital Theory – A Marxian Critique, American Economic Review, vol. 62, no. 2, 74-82. Ehnert, I 2009, Sustaina ble Human Resource Management: A Conceptual and Exploratory Analysis from a Paradox Persuasive, Springer, New York. Gardner, HE 2006, Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons in Theory and Practice, Basic Books, US. Jackson, SE 1995, ‘Understanding Human Resource Management in the Context of Organizations and Their Environments’, Annual Reviews of Psychology, vol. 46, pp. 237-264. Koster, M 2007, Ethics in Human Resource Management, GRIN Verlag, US. Peil, J 2009, Handbook of Economics and Ethics, Edward Elgar Publishing, US. Rose, A, n. d., ‘Ethics and Human Resource Management’, Ethics in Business Environment, 27-40. Viewed on http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/dl/free/0077111028/536508/EHR_C02.pdf Shultz, TW 1972, Human Capital: Policy Issues and Research Opportunities, University of Chicago, viewed on https://www.nber.org/chapters/c4126.pdf Werhane, R, and Singer AE 1999, Business Ethics in Theory and Practice: Contributions from Asia and New Zealand. Spr inger, New York. This essay on Understanding Goals of Human Resource Management in the Context of Human Capital Theory was written and submitted by user 3-D Man to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Writing Grant Proposals Essays

Writing Grant Proposals Essays Writing Grant Proposals Essay Writing Grant Proposals Essay How to Write a Good Project Proposal for Donor Funding by David Ingram, Demand Media Asking colleagues to review grant proposals before sending can reveal areas of needed improvement. Related Articles How to Write a Good Proposal for a Non-profit Orgnization How to Write a Letter Requesting Funding From a Foundation How to Write an Exploratory Project Proposal How to Write a Business Grant Proposal How to Write a Proposal for the Workplace How to Write a Letter of Introduction For Employment Grant proposals are documents used to secure grant funds from institutional or private donors. Writing grant proposals requires specialized skills and experience that allow you to stand out from the wide range of other projects competing for limited grant funds. Small business and nonprofits can hire professional grant proposal writers to increase their chances of winning funding, or company leaders can tackle the process themselves. Knowing how to write a good project proposal for donor funding can give you the edge you need to secure funding for your project. Ads by Google Project Management Software Agile Software Project Mgmt Tool. Download Your Free 10-User Version. www. rallydev. m Step 1 Speak with potential donors before beginning your proposal to determine donors specific giving preferences. Custom-tailor each funding proposal to a specific donor, rather than sending out the same document to multiple sources to increase the attractiveness of your proposals. Each potential donor has a preference for specific areas of need, different types of organizations and different types of projects. Find out what kind of projects each donor has funded before, donors preferred proposal formats and the areas of need that potential organizational donors address with their own services. ep 2 Begin your proposal with a comprehensive needs analysis to set the stage for the project you propose. Your description of your project will have more impact if proposal readers fully understand the why behind what you propose to do. Dig up solid statistics in your proposal to support your claims. A project proposal focused on community education, for example, could share statistics on adult illiteracy and high- school dropout rates in the surrounding communities. Discuss the root causes of the Related Reading: How to Write a Good Proposal for a Non-profit Orgnization step 3 Thoroughly describe the way your project will function, focusing on the impacts it will have in the area of need identified above, to give donors a more complete understanding of your project. Pair a detailed narrative of how your project will work with pictures, graphs, floor plans and any other documentation that will allow donors to visualize the completed project. Be prepared to answer any questions about this section of the proposal with confidence, to show that you know exactly how to put donor funds to the best use. Step 4 Lay out a financial plan showing exactly how you intend to use the money you raise. Even if donors are convinced that your project can effectively serve a need that resonates with them, they will still want assurance that you are going to use the money in the most efficient manner, maximizing the impact of their donations. Draw up a budget for spending the money, including allowances for unforeseen expenses. step 5 Include brief professional biographies of yourself and other top leaders in your organization, focusing on your experience implementing projects similar to the one you are proposing. Use this section to prove that you and the leaders of your roposed project possess the knowledge, experience and contacts to plan and execute a project successfully. Sponsored Links Full-Text Online Libraryonline library of books, Journals, articles. Research online. www. questia. com/Online_Library Producing A Book? Publishing a Book Made Easy. Production Marketing Distributionwww. bookpublishing-companies. com Referred Academic JournalFast Review, Publishing Printing International Journal(US Published)www. iiste. org Research ProposalPublish Your Research Article In International Journal:IOSRJOURNALSiosrJournals. org

Buying the Correct Health Insurance for You

Insurance plans in the market seem to be a good idea for insurance shoppers to find the best plan at a competitive price, but in reality there is the possibility of creating confusion and uncertainty. This article provides advice to individuals, small businesses, and large companies that may be helpful in making decisions when choosing insurance contracts. Individuals have no perfect choice for everyone. The best measure of the value you get is your 'willingness to pay' (Getzen, 2011). Last week, we wrote about what features to compare before purchasing a health insurance plan. As promised, today's versions compare some of the popular health insurance plans you can expect. As we all know, there are numerous health insurance plans in the market; some of them are good, and some of them are useless. Therefore it is difficult to identify which is the best and which should be considered for purchase. Open Registration You usually have to purchase health insurance during the annual public offering period. The open recruitment period is from November 1 to January 31 every year. Health insurance can be purchased only when there is a target life event such as marriage or divorce, childbirth, subscription to existing insurance or loss. Premium insurance fee is the way you pay insurance fee. When deciding on the premium, the insurer will ask your age, the place you live, whether you smoke or use cigarettes and whether the insurance you purchase is for one or one family I think only about it. They may not consider your health status, medical history, billing history, genetic information, gender, disability or other health factors Both of these policies encourage people to buy healthy 'insurance' only when people are sick. After all, why would you buy now if you are sick, if you can purchase it anytime? However, only those who are sick can purchase health insurance and lose all their aims, and the risk of getting sick is spreading to many people who can not know. In the fre e market of health insurance, most people buy naturally guaranteed renewable insurance when young and healthy; low premiums payable by everyone are sufficient to cover the cost of relatively small diseases is. . (This is the mechanism of life insurance.)

Techniques for the Biomedical Sciences Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Techniques for the Biomedical Sciences - Essay Example While conducting ELISA tests mild detergents are normally used in washing out the proteins that are not bound to any particular substrate. ELISA has been widely used in pregnancy tests. Chorionic Gonadotrophin is a hormone largely produced by developing placenta during pregnancy. Peptide hormone detection is used in pregnancy tests and many other tests such as abnormally growing cell tumors most importantly the germ cell tumors. Chorionic Gonadotrophin hormone is also useful in man in the determination of cancer of the testicles. 3.A typical graph plotted will assume a sigmoid shape. This is mainly attributed to the wells from column 4 which indicate a yellow color showing positive results. However, there is increased absorption as the concentration increases. Wells that did not contain the serum showed little or no absorbance. For the wells which did not have the substrate indicated the least absorbance. This type of ELISA has been known to require the use antibody pairs which are m atching. In this case, the antibody is first coated in the pate well by an antigen molecule. The next solution known as the analyte is then applied to the well. This is then followed by addition of another antibody layer, which helps in measuring the concentration of the analyte. Capturing and detection of the analyte are possible through the use of polyclonal in sandwich ELISA is variability is allowed. In cases where the enzyme is conjugated to the detecting antibody, the process is known as direct sandwich ELISA. reduce the errors.

Ontario and Forest Sustainability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Ontario and Forest Sustainability - Essay Example Although Canada is often deemed, from a romantic point of view, as a source of endless beauty and natural resources, this is simply not the case. There are limits. The Ontario forests are owned primarily by the province of Ontario, under the auspices of the "Crown Forest", and represent more than ninety percent of all forested land in the province; of these forested lands, slightly more than thirty percent have been allocated for productive uses. These productive uses include the cutting down of timber, tourism, and a variety of other uses. Because these forested lands provide different benefits to different groups, both aesthetic and economic, philosophical conflicts are inevitable. The provincial Ministry of Natural Resources of Ontario asserts that it is doing everything possible to sustain the forested lands; and, yet, there are those that counter that more needs to be done given certain data suggesting that sustainability problems have occurred and continue to emerge. The questi on presented, in short, is whether Ontario is doing enough, both in terms of policy formulation and implementation, in order to truly ensure sustainability. I am of the view that, while Ontario's actions seem superficially comprehensive and cohesive, the fact is that there remain very real problems regarding the forests and related industry. How might Ontario better approach this issue of sustainability I will attempt to provide some answers by discussing the goals and types of sustainability, some of the policies and programs adopted in Ontario, and the ultimate reality on the ground. Sustainable Development Defined As a preliminary matter, it is important to define what is meant by the term, sustainable development. The most widely accepted definition has been attributed to the Bruntland Commission which stated that sustainable development is that type of development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."1 This implies a policy model that emphasizes regeneration; more specifically, sustainable development demands that our actions today do not disadvantage people in the future. The difficulty is that sustainability must account for several sub-types of sustainability; these sub-types include environmental sustainability, political sustainability, social sustainability, and economic sustainability. One can easily imagine the conflicts which arise when one group tends to emphasize environmental sustainability, for instance, and another group chooses instead to emphasize political sustainability given certain economic p ressures and rewards. These competing points of view have been stated as philosophies or ideologies governing how policy should be inspired and designed. The ecocentric school of thought treats everything as an interrelated living whole and posits that all policy decisions must account for all types of sustainability2; the anthropocentric approach, on the other hand, holds that the well-being of human beings must transcend all other concerns.3 Many critics have argued that the anthropocentric approach has resulted in legislation and policies which have exacerbated rather than minimized certain sustainability concerns. An

General relativity Essay Example for Free

General relativity Essay For many years time travel was the stuff of science fiction. This was all just part of the worlds imagination until recently. Scientists now believe that the current laws of physics allow us to travel though time. They believe that we can now travel back to see our founding fathers sign the declaration of independence. We could travel to 2999 to witness the birth of the next new millennium. Such travel would require a machine capable of withstanding great pressures and incredible amounts of speed. The act of actually traveling though time is for the most part, agreed upon, but the implications of such travel is not so decided upon. Many different theorists have different views of what could happen and some go, as far as to say that if we did travel to the past, we would end up in a different universe that is a replica of this one. One of the most basic concepts is that of Dilation, a stretching of something. Some scientists believe that the main gateway to the past or future is a wormhole. Einsteins general relativity theory explains about universal constants, this is important to understand the concepts of travel at light speed. Traveling to the past could create problems if someone tried to change something. This is a paradox. A few of these paradoxes are explained through the use of quantum mechanics. Sailing though the cosmos at the speed of light with no time passing us by, moving throughout time to witness the ancient Egyptians create their masterpieces. This is an exciting concept that we could actually formulate and make happen. Before the time of Einstein, Newton and other great investigators thought of space as an infinite expanse in which all things exist (Hewitt 213). We are in space and we live in it along with all of the planets and stars. It was never clear if the universe exists in space or space exists in the universe. Dose space exists outside the universe or only within the bounds of it. The similar question, does the universe exist only in time or does time only exist in the universe? Was there time before the universe, and will there be time after it ceases to exist? Einsteins answer to this is that time and space only exist within the universe. There is no time or space ? outside. (Hewitt 213) Einstein said that space and time are two separate parts of a whole called space-time (Hewitt 213). To understand this, consider our present knowledge. We move though time at the rate of 24 hours per day. This is only half the story though. To get the other half we have to convert our thinking from moving though time to moving though space-time (Hewitt 213). When we move, we not only move through space, we move though time. This is the idea of space-time. If a person were to stand still, they would be moving only though time. If they moved a little bit, they would be moving though space a little bit, but still mostly though time. If one were to travel at the speed of light, what changes would they experience in time? The answer is simple; they would be traveling through space, with no travel though time (Hewitt 214). They would be as ageless as light, for light travels though space only (not time) and is timeless. The frame of reference of a photon, a particle of light, a trip across the universe would take no time at all (Hewitt 214). To understand how traveling though time would work, we must first understand how time and space can be stretched. Motion in space affects motion in time. Whenever we move through space, we to some degree alter our rate of motion in time. This is known as time dilation, a stretching of time that occurs ever so slightly for everyday speeds, but significantly for speeds approaching the speed of light. If we were to attempt to travel to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri, which is 4 light years away, even traveling at the speed of light would take 8 years round trip (Hewitt 228). The center of our galaxies is something like 30000 light years away and at the speed of light would take 30000 years to get there. We could not possibly survive that long. These arguments fail to take in to account of time dilation though. Time for a stationary observer on earth and for an astronaut on a spaceship of high velocity is different. A persons heart beats to the rhythm of the realm it is in. One realm of time seems the same as any other to the person in the realms, but not to an observer outside that realm that can see the difference. As an example, astronauts traveling at 99% the speed of light could make a trip to the star Procyon that is 11. 4 light-years away in 23 earth years round trip (Hewitt 229). Because of time dilation, it would seem that only 3 years passed for the astronauts, there clocks would be 3 years older; they would be biologically only 3 years older (Hewitt 229). It would be the mission control people that would appear to be 23 years older. The question is why dose this happen. Lets say that we are in our hometown, looking at the grandfather clock that is in the center of town. The clock reads 12:00 noon. Light from the sun bounces off the face of the clock and hits our eyes. We then turn our head and the light misses us and travels off into space. In space, there is a space ship that is traveling at the speed of light. An astronaut looks out his passenger-side window and sees the reflection of the clock. It reads 12:00 noon. As he continues to move at the speed of light, he keeps up with the reflected face of the clock. In the space ship time would pass as normal, but time in the universe would have seemed to stop. This might sound like cosmic bologna but the idea has been proven. In 1975 Professor Carl Tllie of the University of Maryland tested this theory using two synchronized atomic clocks (Brian par2). One clock was placed on a plain and flown for several hours while he other clock stayed on the ground. Upon landing, the clock on the plain was a little slower than the one on the ground. This was not due to experimental error, for the same test was done several times and each time yielded the same results. Because of time dilation travel in to the distance future is a definite possibility. The only problem lies in propelling a craft to such speed at which light travels. Carl Sagan wrote a science fiction novel about a fictional device that allowed his character to travel great distances across the universe. Those faster than light speeds are not achievable; he also knew there was a common convention in science fiction that would allow a gimmick of a shortcut through ? Hyper space as a means around this problem( par2 ) . Sagen turned to Kip Thorne for help for hyperspace connections through space-time( par2). A black hole always has two ends, a property ignored by everyone except a few mathematicians until the mid-1980s. Thorne was sufficiently intrigued to set two of his Ph. D. students, Michael Morris and Ulvi Yurtsever, the task of working out some of the details of the physical behavior of what the relativists know aswormholes. By starting out from the mathematical end of the problem, they constructed a space-time geometry that matched Sagans requirement of a wormhole that could be physical traversed by human beings. Sagan was right; hyperspace connections do at least in theory provide a means to travel to far distant regions of the universe without spending thousands of years putting around in an ordinary spacecraft. Since the 30s scientists have speculated that wormholes exist. Einsteins theory combines 3 dimensional space with time to create a 4 dimensional space (Brian par3). Wormholes are gateways between two different parts of the universe made by linking two black holes. Wormholes are in the fabric of 4 dimensional space that are connected, but which originate at different points in space and different times. By connecting the two holes they provide a quick path between two different locations in space and time. Distortions in space cause the point separated by the gap to bulge out and connect. This forms a wormhole through, which something could instantaneously travel to a far away place and time. This is basically the 4dinensial equivalent of a folded sheet of paper, to make contact from one edge of the paper to the other. One could build a craft strong enough to withstand the intense force of the gravity towards the center, and pass right through like opening a door of a house and stepping outside, except the space travelers outside could be light-years away and centuries before the current time. If the traveler enters one side he would exit in the opposite side in a different place and time. The difficulty of doing this is in keeping the hole open till the travel gets through otherwise it would collapse and the traveler would not be seen again. The trip is not impossible just extremely difficult. It is believed to be possible to create our own wormhole. To actually make one, two identical machines consisting of 2 parallel metal plates charged with unbelievable amounts of energy would need to be constructed. When the machines are placed in close proximity of each other the enormous amounts of energy, about that of an exploding star, would rip a hole in the space-time continuum and connect the two machines via a wormhole. This is possible and the beginnings of it have been illustrated in the lab by what is known as the Casimir effect. The next step would be to put one of these machines on a space ship and send it off at near light speed. The ship would take the machine on a journey while being connected to the other on earth via the wormhole. A step in the hole would take us to where the other machine is, but that would be in a different time. Its use would be somewhat limited because we could not travel to a time before the machine was created. However if we were to utilize wormhole technologic we would have to be so advanced that we could master the energy within blockhouse. Space-time consists of portraits or events that represent a particular place at a particular time. Your life forms sort of a worm in space-time. The tip of the tail is your birth and the head is your death. And everything that is the body is your life, otherwise called your world line. In three-dimensional space, a rocket that is not accelerating is stationary, but in four-dimensional space the ship is moving along is world line. Einsteins law states simply that the world line of every object is a geodesic in the continuum. A geodesic is the shortest distance between two points but in curved space is not generally a straight line. If an objects world line were to be distorted, so much of form a loop connected with a part on itself that represented an earlier place in time it would create a corridor to the past. Picture a loop to loop that runs into it as it comes around. This closed loop is called a closed time like curve. These curves could be used to travel into our own history. All the clams made about time travel are consequences of the basic scientific laws and standard Quantum Mechanics. Wormholes and closed time like curves appear to be the main way to travel to the past. The aforementioned theories do fine in expelling how to we would go about traveling through time, but they do little to explain what it would be like traveling through them. Quantum mechanics can be used to model possible scenarios and yields the probability of each possible output. In the context of time travel, it has a so-called many universe interpretation. First pursed by Huge Evertt III in 1957. This means that if something can physically happen it does in some universe. Everett says that our reality is only one of the many equally valid universes. There is a collection of these universes called a multiverse. Every multiverse has copies of every person, structure and atom. For every possible event every possible outcome is said to be played out in a different universe. This interpretation of Quantum Mechanics is quite controversial, but it does suggest that it may be impossible to travel backward in it to our own dimension, but quite possible to travel back in time to an alternate dimension. Such an idea of linking parallel universes has been suggested in science fiction novels and in some television shoes such as Sliders. In the television series Sliders, a sliding machine creates a wormhole that links 2 parallel dimensions. Each week a group of these sliders jump into the wormhole and emerge in the same place and time, but in a different dimension. They can run into there own selves and experience a society vastily different than their own. The stuff of science fiction stems from existing Physical theories. So now that we know travel through time is theoretically possible, what would it be like? What would traveling at light speed be like? It would be similar to driving our car at 60 mph. You could not really tell the difference, Einstein says that you can not tell the difference in uniformly moving vessels. According to Einsteins laws of special relativity sight speed travel is not achievable. For any object to attain light speed, an object must be massless, such as a photon. Any object with mass would require an infinite amount of energy to accelerate to light speed. As we know, everything has mass so it would be impossible for any human to achieve these speeds. Another barrier on our traveling the speed of light, is the fact that light is pure energy, if we were to travel at that speed, we would turn into energy blobs. What happens when we actually travel back in to time? What happens if we change something, or try to commit suicide or to invent something from the future that we take for granted? The future from that point could be drastically changed. This argument is commonly called the Chronology principal. This principal states that the time travel could bring information to the past that could be used to create new ideas or products. If Pablo Picaso, the most influential and successful painter of the 20th century were to travel back in time to meet his younger self, assuming he stayed in his correct universe, he could then give himself a portfolio of all his work. His younger self could reproduce the paintings and profoundly and irrevocably affecting the future of art. This would involve no creative energy by the inventor. The reproductions would exist because they are copies from the original and the originals exist because they are copies of the reproductions. No creative energy would ever have to be put forth to create these masterpieces. Because of the chronology principal time travel, by some, has been ruled out. The cosmos await us, and the history of our world is at our fingertips. Would we use this great power for good, bad, and wealth? All we have to do is get in our spaceship, set sail for the nearest wormhole, and hope for a little luck, and we can witness things only told in stories. Only the traveler can decided what he or she wishes to go back for. The theories today state that traveling through time is possible, however they do not say what could be the repercussions of our actions. This great frontier awaits us; we have the knowledge, and are slowly but surly developing the technology. Only time will tell when time itself no longer rules our lives as one of the chief amendments of the universal constitution.

From Childhood to Adulthood in Updikes A&P Essay -- A&P Essays Sammy

From Childhood to Adulthood in Updike's A&P Sammy is stuck in that difficult transition between childhood and adulthood. He is a nineteen-year-old cashier at an A&P, the protagonist in a story with the same name. John Updike, the author of "A&P," writes from Sammy's point of view, making him not only the main character but also the first person narrator. The tone of the story is set by Sammy's attitude, which is nonchalant but frank--he calls things as he sees them. There is a hint of sarcasm in Sammy's thoughts, for he tends to make crude references to everything he observes. Updike uses this motif to develop the character of Sammy, as many of these references relate to the idea of "play." Sammy is no longer a child, but much of what he observes he describes as the play that he did as a child. The way he thinks can also be described as childlike play, in terms of his being disrespectful and needing to show off. Updike demonstrates, however, that Sammy desires to be thought of as an adult, and many of his references are to the type of play that adults might engage in. Sammy, like many adults, does not think in what is considered an adult manner, but Updike uses the plot's climax and conclusion to show that Sammy has learned a tough lesson that will speed up his transition into adulthood. Sammy begins to play from the moment he lays eyes on three girls who enter the A&P one slow summer Thursday evening during the early 1960s. He comes up with a name, based on appearance, for each of the barely dressed girls. He nicknames them as children do to poke fun at one another. Ronald E. McFarland describes how this name-calling "indicate[s] his immaturity and lack of compassion" (99). Sammy makes fun of customers as well: McFarl... ...ammy's case, it is provoked by this incident at the A&P, which he will probably never forget. His "stomach kind of fell as [he] felt how hard the world was going to be to [him] thereafter" (31). He learns that life is not a game and that people, especially superiors, cannot be "played." Fun is certainly acceptable, but not when it is demeaning or disrespectful to other people. Works Cited Day, Frank. John Updike Revisited. New York, NY: Twayne Publishers, 1998. McFarland, Ronald E. "Updike and the Critics: Reflections on 'A&P.'" Studies in Short Fiction 20.2-3 (1983): 95-100. Shaw, Patrick W. "Checking Out Faith and Lust: Hawthorne's 'Young Goodman Brown' and Updike's 'A&P.'" Studies in Short Fiction 23.3 (1988): 321-323. Updike, John. "A&P." Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. Robert DiYanni. 5th ed. New York, NY: McGraw, 2002. 27-31.