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By the middle years of the 20th century, the optimistic story of limitless progress through scientific and technological advance came to be rivalled and sometimes overshadowed by a much more pessimistic, even apocalyptic vision of the trajectory of the modern project. It began to seem increasingly possible that technology would come to master its creators and carry humanity toward unforeseen and possibly catastrophic outcomes.

Premonitions of technological wizardry leading to disasters are extremely old, dating back at least to the myth of Icarus, who is said to have fatally fallen into the sea after flying too close to the sun on wings his father, Daedalus, constructed. As the Industrial Revolution gathered steam, dark anticipations became increasingly widespread, in works such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus and Karel Capek’s R.U.R. Perhaps technology, not man, was “in the saddle,” as Henry Adams worried. And perhaps machines, becoming ever more capable and interconnected, were the next step in the evolution of life, destined to dominate and eventually eliminate humanity, as Samuel Butler warned. The contours of the future, H. G. Wells announced in one of his famous lectures, “The Discovery of the Future,” were difficult to discern but would surely be unlike the past or the present, and definitely included disasters of new types and magnitudes.

In the ghastly world wars, technological advances empowered barbarism on a new scale, destroying the credibility of the simple modernist faith that more potent tools are a straight path to human betterment. Rather, technological advance has produced a cornucopia of double-edged swords, with amplified possibilities for both progress and disaster. A growing herd of horsemen of the anthropogenic apocalypse have ominously appeared on the human horizon of possibility: nuclear weapons, genetic engineering, total surveillance despotism, runaway artificial intelligence, and rampant environmental decay.

Daniel Deudney. Dark Skies: Space Expansionism, Planetary Geopolitics, and the Ends of Humanity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020 (adapted).

Spending time in space and having an unrivalled view of planet Earth is an experience many of us dream of, but the human body evolved to function in the gravity of Earth. So fully recovering from spending time in the weightlessness of space can take years.

“It’s a fact that space is by far the most extreme environment that humans have ever encountered and we’ve just not evolved to handle the extreme conditions,” Professor Damian Bailey, who studies human physiology, says. To begin with, the heart and blood vessels have an easier time as they no longer have to pump blood against gravity — and they start to weaken. And the bones become weaker and more brittle. There should be a balance between the cells breaking down old bone and those making new, but that balance is disrupted without the feedback and resistance of working against gravity. “Every month, about 1% of bones and muscles are going to wither away — it’s accelerated ageing,” Professor Bailey says.

Microgravity also distorts the vestibular system, which is how you balance and sense which way is up. In space, there is no up, down or sideways. It can be disorientating when you go up — and again when you return to Earth.

Spending time in space and having an unrivalled view of planet Earth is an experience many of us dream of, but the human body evolved to function in the gravity of Earth. So fully recovering from spending time in the weightlessness of space can take years.

“It’s a fact that space is by far the most extreme environment that humans have ever encountered and we’ve just not evolved to handle the extreme conditions,” Professor Damian Bailey, who studies human physiology, says. To begin with, the heart and blood vessels have an easier time as they no longer have to pump blood against gravity — and they start to weaken. And the bones become weaker and more brittle. There should be a balance between the cells breaking down old bone and those making new, but that balance is disrupted without the feedback and resistance of working against gravity. “Every month, about 1% of bones and muscles are going to wither away — it’s accelerated ageing,” Professor Bailey says.

Microgravity also distorts the vestibular system, which is how you balance and sense which way is up. In space, there is no up, down or sideways. It can be disorientating when you go up — and again when you return to Earth.

Spending time in space and having an unrivalled view of planet Earth is an experience many of us dream of, but the human body evolved to function in the gravity of Earth. So fully recovering from spending time in the weightlessness of space can take years.

“It’s a fact that space is by far the most extreme environment that humans have ever encountered and we’ve just not evolved to handle the extreme conditions,” Professor Damian Bailey, who studies human physiology, says. To begin with, the heart and blood vessels have an easier time as they no longer have to pump blood against gravity — and they start to weaken. And the bones become weaker and more brittle. There should be a balance between the cells breaking down old bone and those making new, but that balance is disrupted without the feedback and resistance of working against gravity. “Every month, about 1% of bones and muscles are going to wither away — it’s accelerated ageing,” Professor Bailey says.

Microgravity also distorts the vestibular system, which is how you balance and sense which way is up. In space, there is no up, down or sideways. It can be disorientating when you go up — and again when you return to Earth.

Jeremy Bentham, filósofo e jurista que viveu na Inglaterra entre 1748 e 1832, foi o criador do utilitarismo como filosofia moral. Tal concepção surgiu em um período bastante específico, a era da razão. Bentham dirigiu suas críticas principalmente ao direito, tendo sido um vigoroso defensor da codificação das leis em um país que possui o sistema consuetudinário. A originalidade de suas críticas se forjava sob os auspícios da idade das luzes.

Raoul Van Caenegem, historiador belga e renomado especialista no campo da história jurídica europeia, afirma, sobre o utilitarismo, que “O ponto de partida para a crítica de Bentham ao sistema inglês (que, em sua época, era substancialmente medieval) não foi o direito natural continental, mas sim uma ideia inteiramente original: o princípio da utilidade. Bentham não formulou axiomas nem deduziu normas do direito a partir deles; em vez disso, questionou a utilidade de cada conceito e norma jurídica, e o objetivo prático destes para o homem e a sociedade de sua época”.

Segundo Caenegem, o princípio da utilidade pode ser definido como “o princípio que aprova ou desaprova qualquer ação, segundo a tendência que tem de aumentar ou diminuir a felicidade da pessoa cujo interesse está em jogo, ou seja, segundo a tendência de promover ou de comprometer a felicidade de alguém”.

O utilitarismo envolve uma ética adequadamente denominada de consequencialista, na medida em que requer que se avaliem, em cada caso concreto, os efeitos das ações, isto é, se as condutas são eticamente reprováveis a partir do critério da utilidade. Preconiza que as ações humanas devem seguir o princípio da utilidade, consistente na consideração da quantidade de prazer e de dor que as ações provocam nos indivíduos. As ações devem considerar todos os interesses, de maneira que nenhum contrainteresse seja desconsiderado ou tenha preponderância sobre outro.

Além disso, o número de pessoas atingidas pelas ações é objeto de análise. Busca-se sempre promover a maior quantidade de prazer possível ao maior número de indivíduos, ao passo que se evita o desprazer em uma proporção inversa: há um paralelismo entre o prazer e o sofrimento para o inglês, de tal modo que a maximização de um significa proporcionalmente a minimização de outro.

Internet: <http://publicadireito.com.br> (com adaptações).

Texto para a questão

Rain Is Coming to Burning Los Angeles and Will Bring Its Own Risks

     Rain is forecast to begin as soon as Saturday afternoon and to continue as late as Monday evening, says meteorologist Kristan Lund of the National Weather Service’s Los Angeles office. The area desperately needs the precipitation, but experts are warily monitoring the situation because rain poses its own risks in recently burned areas— most notably the potential occurrence of mudslides and similar hazards. “Rain is good because we’ve been so dry,” Lund says. “However, if we get heavier rain rates or we get the thunderstorms, it’s actually a lot more dangerous because you can get debris flows.”

       Fires do a couple of different things to the landscape that can increase the risk of burned material, soil and detritus hurtling out of control. When fires burn hot or long enough, they leave an invisible layer of waxy material just under the surface of the ground. This develops from decomposing leaves and other organic material, which contain naturally hydrophobic or water-repellent compounds. Fire can vaporize this litter, and the resulting gas seeps into the upper soil—where it quickly cools and condenses, forming the slippery layer.

     When rain falls on ground that has been affected by this phenomenon, it can’t sink beyond the hydrophobic layer— so the water flows away, often hauling debris with it. “All of the trees, branches, everything that’s been burned—unfortunately, if it rains, that stuff just floats,” Lund says. “It’s really concerning.” Even a fire that isn’t severe enough to create a hydrophobic layer can still cause debris flows, says Danielle Touma, a climate scientist at the University of Texas at Austin. Under normal conditions, trees and other plants usually trap some rain above the surface, slowing the water’s downward journey. But on freshly burned land there’s much less greenery to interfere; all the rain immediately hits the ground. [...]

     Fortunately, the rain should also help firefighters tame the blazes that remain active. The largest, the Palisades Fire, is currently 77 percent contained. The second largest, the Eaton Fire, is 95 percent contained. The Hughes Fire is third largest and only 56 percent contained. A fire can be fully contained but still burning. The containment percentage refers to the amount of the perimeter that has barriers that firefighters expect will prevent further spread.

Scientific American. January 27th, 2025. Adaptado.

Rain Is Coming to Burning Los Angeles and Will Bring Its Own Risks

    Rain is forecast to begin as soon as Saturday afternoon and to continue as late as Monday evening, says meteorologist Kristan Lund of the National Weather Service’s Los Angeles office. The area desperately needs the precipitation, but experts are warily monitoring the situation because rain poses its own risks in recently burned areas— most notably the potential occurrence of mudslides and similar hazards. “Rain is good because we’ve been so dry,” Lund says. “However, if we get heavier rain rates or we get the thunderstorms, it’s actually a lot more dangerous because you can get debris flows.”

    Fires do a couple of different things to the landscape that can increase the risk of burned material, soil and detritus hurtling out of control. When fires burn hot or long enough, they leave an invisible layer of waxy material just under the surface of the ground. This develops from decomposing leaves and other organic material, which contain naturally hydrophobic or water-repellent compounds. Fire can vaporize this litter, and the resulting gas seeps into the upper soil—where it quickly cools and condenses, forming the slippery layer.

    When rain falls on ground that has been affected by this phenomenon, it can’t sink beyond the hydrophobic layer— so the water flows away, often hauling debris with it. “All of the trees, branches, everything that’s been burned—unfortunately, if it rains, that stuff just floats,” Lund says. “It’s really concerning.” Even a fire that isn’t severe enough to create a hydrophobic layer can still cause debris flows, says Danielle Touma, a climate scientist at the University of Texas at Austin. Under normal conditions, trees and other plants usually trap some rain above the surface, slowing the water’s downward journey. But on freshly burned land there’s much less greenery to interfere; all the rain immediately hits the ground. [...]

    Fortunately, the rain should also help firefighters tame the blazes that remain active. The largest, the Palisades Fire, is currently 77 percent contained. The second largest, the Eaton Fire, is 95 percent contained. The Hughes Fire is third largest and only 56 percent contained. A fire can be fully contained but still burning. The containment percentage refers to the amount of the perimeter that has barriers that firefighters expect will prevent further spread.

Scientific American. January 27th, 2025. Adaptado.

Rain Is Coming to Burning Los Angeles and Will Bring Its Own Risks

    Rain is forecast to begin as soon as Saturday afternoon and to continue as late as Monday evening, says meteorologist Kristan Lund of the National Weather Service’s Los Angeles office. The area desperately needs the precipitation, but experts are warily monitoring the situation because rain poses its own risks in recently burned areas— most notably the potential occurrence of mudslides and similar hazards. “Rain is good because we’ve been so dry,” Lund says. “However, if we get heavier rain rates or we get the thunderstorms, it’s actually a lot more dangerous because you can get debris flows.”

    Fires do a couple of different things to the landscape that can increase the risk of burned material, soil and detritus hurtling out of control. When fires burn hot or long enough, they leave an invisible layer of waxy material just under the surface of the ground. This develops from decomposing leaves and other organic material, which contain naturally hydrophobic or water-repellent compounds. Fire can vaporize this litter, and the resulting gas seeps into the upper soil—where it quickly cools and condenses, forming the slippery layer.

    When rain falls on ground that has been affected by this phenomenon, it can’t sink beyond the hydrophobic layer— so the water flows away, often hauling debris with it. “All of the trees, branches, everything that’s been burned—unfortunately, if it rains, that stuff just floats,” Lund says. “It’s really concerning.” Even a fire that isn’t severe enough to create a hydrophobic layer can still cause debris flows, says Danielle Touma, a climate scientist at the University of Texas at Austin. Under normal conditions, trees and other plants usually trap some rain above the surface, slowing the water’s downward journey. But on freshly burned land there’s much less greenery to interfere; all the rain immediately hits the ground. [...]

    Fortunately, the rain should also help firefighters tame the blazes that remain active. The largest, the Palisades Fire, is currently 77 percent contained. The second largest, the Eaton Fire, is 95 percent contained. The Hughes Fire is third largest and only 56 percent contained. A fire can be fully contained but still burning. The containment percentage refers to the amount of the perimeter that has barriers that firefighters expect will prevent further spread.

Scientific American. January 27th, 2025. Adaptado.

Rain Is Coming to Burning Los Angeles and Will Bring Its Own Risks

    Rain is forecast to begin as soon as Saturday afternoon and to continue as late as Monday evening, says meteorologist Kristan Lund of the National Weather Service’s Los Angeles office. The area desperately needs the precipitation, but experts are warily monitoring the situation because rain poses its own risks in recently burned areas— most notably the potential occurrence of mudslides and similar hazards. “Rain is good because we’ve been so dry,” Lund says. “However, if we get heavier rain rates or we get the thunderstorms, it’s actually a lot more dangerous because you can get debris flows.”

    Fires do a couple of different things to the landscape that can increase the risk of burned material, soil and detritus hurtling out of control. When fires burn hot or long enough, they leave an invisible layer of waxy material just under the surface of the ground. This develops from decomposing leaves and other organic material, which contain naturally hydrophobic or water-repellent compounds. Fire can vaporize this litter, and the resulting gas seeps into the upper soil—where it quickly cools and condenses, forming the slippery layer.

    When rain falls on ground that has been affected by this phenomenon, it can’t sink beyond the hydrophobic layer— so the water flows away, often hauling debris with it. “All of the trees, branches, everything that’s been burned—unfortunately, if it rains, that stuff just floats,” Lund says. “It’s really concerning.” Even a fire that isn’t severe enough to create a hydrophobic layer can still cause debris flows, says Danielle Touma, a climate scientist at the University of Texas at Austin. Under normal conditions, trees and other plants usually trap some rain above the surface, slowing the water’s downward journey. But on freshly burned land there’s much less greenery to interfere; all the rain immediately hits the ground. [...]

    Fortunately, the rain should also help firefighters tame the blazes that remain active. The largest, the Palisades Fire, is currently 77 percent contained. The second largest, the Eaton Fire, is 95 percent contained. The Hughes Fire is third largest and only 56 percent contained. A fire can be fully contained but still burning. The containment percentage refers to the amount of the perimeter that has barriers that firefighters expect will prevent further spread.

Scientific American. January 27th, 2025. Adaptado.

Rain Is Coming to Burning Los Angeles and Will Bring Its Own Risks

    Rain is forecast to begin as soon as Saturday afternoon and to continue as late as Monday evening, says meteorologist Kristan Lund of the National Weather Service’s Los Angeles office. The area desperately needs the precipitation, but experts are warily monitoring the situation because rain poses its own risks in recently burned areas— most notably the potential occurrence of mudslides and similar hazards. “Rain is good because we’ve been so dry,” Lund says. “However, if we get heavier rain rates or we get the thunderstorms, it’s actually a lot more dangerous because you can get debris flows.”

    Fires do a couple of different things to the landscape that can increase the risk of burned material, soil and detritus hurtling out of control. When fires burn hot or long enough, they leave an invisible layer of waxy material just under the surface of the ground. This develops from decomposing leaves and other organic material, which contain naturally hydrophobic or water-repellent compounds. Fire can vaporize this litter, and the resulting gas seeps into the upper soil—where it quickly cools and condenses, forming the slippery layer.

    When rain falls on ground that has been affected by this phenomenon, it can’t sink beyond the hydrophobic layer— so the water flows away, often hauling debris with it. “All of the trees, branches, everything that’s been burned—unfortunately, if it rains, that stuff just floats,” Lund says. “It’s really concerning.” Even a fire that isn’t severe enough to create a hydrophobic layer can still cause debris flows, says Danielle Touma, a climate scientist at the University of Texas at Austin. Under normal conditions, trees and other plants usually trap some rain above the surface, slowing the water’s downward journey. But on freshly burned land there’s much less greenery to interfere; all the rain immediately hits the ground. [...]

    Fortunately, the rain should also help firefighters tame the blazes that remain active. The largest, the Palisades Fire, is currently 77 percent contained. The second largest, the Eaton Fire, is 95 percent contained. The Hughes Fire is third largest and only 56 percent contained. A fire can be fully contained but still burning. The containment percentage refers to the amount of the perimeter that has barriers that firefighters expect will prevent further spread.

Scientific American. January 27th, 2025. Adaptado.