Oh boy! 2020 is over, and what an interesting year it’s been, in all the worst ways and the best ways. But it’s finally over, and next year will be a whole new chapter.
For those of you who are new here: Hello there! I'm a young teenager interested in quantum computing 🖥, advanced transportation 🚙, and space technologies 🚀. Welcome! Also, please feel free to recommend something to read!
It gets harder. . . TKS City Challenge, Pt. 2 💦
Back in November, I introduced to you the TKS x 501cThree City Challenge. Well, this month, it’s back with more stories to tell than ever before! Let’s get started! First, here’s a quick recapitulation of our challenge:
How can we influence consumers in affected communities to purchase or obtain a water quality sensing solution for their home? How do we get 1 out of 100 homes within a community to use the solution?
I think we can all agree on this one statement. Challenges are called challenges for a reason. Continuing with the story, after we initiated our #biastowardsaction and #figureditout last month (October), we successfully overcame our obstacles and created a spicy 🥵 challenge deck, which was so fyre 🔥 we placed in the top ten! 🎉
“Woot Woot” — Setare
After that, it was “back to the drawing board” as city directors Raj and Steven ripped (not literally) our slide deck to pieces with their feedback.
For the next two weeks, our [GRAPE🍇] team (Jessica, Setare, Anastasija, and I) grinded (ground?) nonstop, working our posteriors off in an [successful] attempt to act on the feedback we received. Finally, on December 30th, everything was looking cool and good and we submitted our redacted slide deck for “finals.” We will be presenting to 501cThree sometime in January 2021.
Where Are All The Aliens? 👾
This month, I happened to stumble upon a very interesting topic: the Fermi Paradox, first introduced by none other than Enrico Fermi himself. The paradox seeks to answer the question:
“Where are all the aliens?” — Enrico Fermi
Given that Earth is only around 4 billion years old and that our star and planet are part of a young planetary system (compared to the universe, which is 13 billion years old), and that interstellar travel should be easy to achieve, Earth should’ve been visited by aliens already. So, where are all the aliens?
To this day, the paradox has remained unsolved. In other words, it is the paradox to beat all other paradoxes.
I find this a very intriguing topic, mostly because I, myself, am passionate about space technologies and exploring the universe (which includes the notion of alien life). One thing in particular which really captured my attention was Great Filters: barriers that are very difficult for life to overcome. If you want to read more about the Fermi Paradox, check out the videos below!
I will also be publishing an article on the Fermi Paradox on Medium soon!
What I’m reading
The War of the Worlds by H.G Wells
The War of the Worlds is about a Martian Invasion, experienced by an unnamed male character and his brother as a result of the 1984 astronomical opposition. A Martian cylinder crash lands near Horsell Commons, near the narrator’s home in Maybury. The cylinder opens, and the aliens emerge, incinerating everybody nearby in a blinding flash of light. The alien invasion has begun.
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