People choose luxury goods even when it’s economically irrational. It’s not just vanity, it can be a social signal and a way of self-expression. If you watch Korean dramas, you’ll often see actresses who are portrayed as wealthy carrying luxury bags like Hermès. This scene leaves a strong impression on the viewer, symbolizing the character’s social status and...
The Internet of Things and embedded systems are revolutionizing our lives. In this blog post, we’ll explore the differences between the two technologies and how they can be used. You come home from class, open the front door, and the lights turn on automatically. The speaker on my desk, which is connected to my smartwatch, plays the right song based on my mood, and when I go to the...
Will advances in biotechnology enable the manipulation of human genes, leading to the extinction of Homo sapiens and the creation of a new human race? Today, humanity is accomplishing things that are the stuff of science fiction. We’ve made leaps and bounds in science and technology through countless research efforts: we’ve created fast and convenient ways to get around, we can...
Will genetic engineering lead us to extinction or allow us to evolve into a new species? In this blog post, we explore the possibilities of genetic modification and the future of humanity. In 2011, Yuval Harari predicted the extinction of the human race in his book Homo sapiens. He presented three scenarios that could lead to the extinction of the human race, which caught the attention of...
Why do humans and animals sacrifice themselves to help others? In this blog post, we’ll explore the evolutionary reasons for altruism through the kin selection hypothesis. In the human story movie genre, we often see scenes of family devotion, such as the protagonist risking his life to earn money for his younger siblings’ school fees. This kind of behavior may seem natural at...
How did altruistic genes survive natural selection? In this blog post, we’ll explore the theory of kin selection behind the sacrifices of thornbirds, bees, and humans. One of the books that made me cry as a child was Kashiogi. It tells the story of a devoted father who sacrifices his own eye for his sick son from the perspective of his cheerful young son. The reason the book is...
In this blog post, we’ll take a look at how a single fertilized egg differentiates into 70 trillion cells to form the human body. It explores the mysteries of life through the principles of stem cells and cell differentiation. A human being develops from a single fertilized egg when a sperm and egg meet, and by the time we reach adulthood, we have an average of 70 trillion to 100...
Why do bees and humans sacrifice themselves for their families and communities? In this blog post, we explore altruistic behavior in living things and its limits through the kin selection hypothesis. What do humans, bees, and meerkats have in common? They all live in families and kinship communities, and their members are capable of altruistic behavior, such as personal sacrifice, for the...
Why did Neo choose reality? Where is the line between fake and real? In this blog post, we’ll take a deep dive into the rationality of his choice. Since its release in 1999, the movie “The Matrix” has mesmerized audiences around the world. The movie is set in the year 2199, in a world ruled by machines, and the protagonist, NEO, is faced with a choice that will have a lasting impact...
Scientific breakthroughs are fundamentally transforming humanity. Who will we be after the end of Homo sapiens? As we learned in elementary school, humans have evolved through several stages, starting with Australopithecus and ending with Homo sapiens. Unlike the previous stages, Homo sapiens is achieving things that were unimaginable just a few decades ago, thanks to science and...