Selecting My Research Topic

Since I do not plan to cover this in my presentation, I thought I would take this opportunity to talk a little about my process for narrowing down my final research topic.  Reading through the Slate article, I was mostly drawn to subjects that piqued my curiosity and personal interests rather than stray to the more "likely" scenarios.  I was surprised that my choices favored the softer sciences (social, economic, political) rather than issues involving the physical sciences which we more closely associate with apocalyptic events.

I liked the idea of decadence destroying the world since we live in such a culturally divided time.  The Rome comparison that is usually associated with this scenario is a bit too cliched, however.  I would have loved writing a survey for this topic to find out people's opinions on where our culture is headed, and to see what some of their personal indulgences are (American Idol? Lord, I hope not).  Ultimately though, I decided against this.

The Suburban Slums idea sounded fascinating because it's very topical.  However, I did not really know how to approach this.  I expected that it would rely too much on conjecture instead of facts or any legitimate hypothesis.

Laziness sounded like an interesting scenario, and for a while I considered blending this with the Ted talk that outlined a mental health epidemic leading to an apocalyptic event.  I would have centered my paper around the subject of apathy (which is either a symptom of depression, of other illnesses, or a disease unto itself depending on who you ask) and the idea of society atrophying from pandemic-level disinterest.  The disadvantage of taking this avenue is that I felt it would have strayed too far from the initial topic, and that it would have been too difficult to find supporting material.

I considered looking into the Biblical apocalypse because it would have made for fascinating research, but decided it would be too hard to remain objective enough when dealing with a religious issue.

My chosen topic is voluntary human extinction focusing in particular on an organization called the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT) that is advocating a complete, willful end to humanity's existence.  What intrigues me about this subject is the sincerity of its advocates, the immediate emotional response I felt when reading about it and looking through the Movement's website, and the interesting research paths I could take.  Much of the meat of this topic lives in people's reactions to it, their willingness to listen to the Movement's argument and, possible, to agree to go along with it.  Much of my source material will likely come from news organizations and interviews, and I am really excited about exploring this angle.  Also, this seemed like the perfect subject to allow the survey (the hands-on part of this hands-on assignment) to really shine.  Gauging people's reactions to this extreme viewpoint, figuring out what they object to about it, what they can agree with it on and whether there is a middle road to find on the issue is critical to whether or not the Movement (or others like it) can succeed.  Making this research the center of my paper and argument sounds like a great way to have some fun with this assignment, and I look forward to it.  I am sure that results will lead to a few surprises.

Anyway, I thought I should get that out of my system here rather than in my presentation. It has been interesting to hear about everyone's chosen topics, and good luck with all your research. I am sure that fascinating discoveries will be made.