1.
Today our cities and lives are being taken over by digital surveillance technologies. There are doorbell cams, photo lookups at office security desks, Wi-Fi sniffers, along with bag searches at the subway. All are aimed to secure us but they at the same time are also violating the social contract due to which cities exist. This paper will discuss the importance of the balance of security checks in people’s lives along with a discussion of the social bond as an alternative measure.
For the period of the Soviet occupation of Finland, Hotel Torni served as KGB headquarters, main security agency for the Soviet Union. East German Stasi was also found involved in extensive surveillance with the help of a network of snitches that had a task to accumulate secret files. Moreover, the closed-circuit television cameras can be found everywhere in London. All these measures still have not resolved the issues of crimes rather these activities are a source of violations of the social contract. There is a need to revise this system and make the social contracts strong than the use of technology.
2.
During the mid-90s, genetically engineered seeds were introduced by Monsanto with an aim to survive with its Roundup herbicide. These were used for corn, soy, and cotton as these are most extensively planted crops in the US. This was also allowing farmers to save their labor. There is now 94 percent of soybeans along with 70 percent of corn and cotton that has Roundup-resistant gene in the US. This paper will discuss the effects of the use of roundup over the farms as well as society.
The use of genetically engineered seeds has resulted in Roundup-defying weeds as the ecosystem has got adapted to these seeds. These defying weeds are now a source of trouble for farmers. In order to get rid of this, farmers had also used harsher herbicides. There is also resistance in crops to harsher herbicides. This problem has been acknowledged openly by the USDA and accepted that farmers have to live with these superweeds. Roundup is now attaining the status of comparatively benign agrichemical poison.
