Ex Machina: Film Report

The most amazing thing in this film was how the "robot" was half human and half machine. This kept my interest because other movies don't do this. They usually have a whole human, whole machine, or just a computer screen that all act as robots. This allows you to never forget that she is full human. This is the first movie that i  have seen that gives me the best depiction on if A.I. can have a consciousness.

Transcendence: Film Report

This movie brings about the question on whether AI can help society or not. Of course it is instilled in us to believe that something bad always happens when the boundaries are over stepped and someone wants technology to act as a human. you would think humans are enough, but with disease and poverty spreading as fast as the plague, someone needs to figure things out quickly. This movie made me change my views on how artificial intelligence is not all bad. In fact it can change the world for the better. People downgrade AI and misjudge as if our world is not already corrupt. With people killing each other and themselves, and getting diseases from the food we eat, maybe AI is the solution to all of the chaos.

Twenty First Century Radical Rhetoric

Question 1

1. -Our Rhetoric is anti-authoritarian
2. -Our Rhetoric promotes diversity
3. -Our Rhetoric is idealistic and pre-figurative
4. -Our Rhetoric is multi-historical
5. -Our Rhetoric is anti-representational
6. -Our Rhetoric privileges complex interrogations
7. -Our Rhetoric is symbolically powerful
8. -Our Rhetoric is confrontational
9. -Our Rhetoric is visionary
10. -Our Rhetoric is self righteous and self critical     

Question 2

1. -Specify your audience- General public, not broad
2. -Make adjustments- Adjust rhetoric to fit wants and needs of audience
3. -Name and explain the rhetoric- Addressing the importance of the public argumentation
4. -Make more observations- enhances ideas
5. -Take personal responsibility- Whatever you say reflects on others. 

Question 3

Network Rhetoric is a paradigmatic figure of contemporary activism which is composed into 3 parts. 

1. -Multiple and decentered messages
2. -Dialogue among those messages and the formulation of a public statement
3. -Message or action

Moon: Film Report

This was one of the best movies I have seen yet. This movie showed how technology is not the answer to everything. In other words, humans cannot survive with just technology. Yes, technology serves an important role in our society because of the useful information it gives,but at the same time, we are humans. Humans need other humans to survive or they will eventually go crazy. Scientists created this computer to function as a human but in the long run things began to get weird. You never know what can happen with a piece of technology, it can turn on you at any given moment. Whereas, if a human was to turn on you it would not be a big deal because it is something you could expect.

Group II

1. I feel that there isn't a separation between social media and writing/conversations but there is one between public speaking. In other words, Social Media has made me a great writer because I am able to express myself in a way that i can't through public speaking. It had made me have this great creative approach to my writing. I believe this is true in writing and in conversation because you are now open to many perspectives through social media. In other words, we are able to see a huge amount of views from pretty much all over the world. This helps us in writing because now rather than having our own opinions, we can also have someone else's. 

2. Persuasion- the action or fact of persuading someone or of being persuaded to do or believe something. The media uses commercials to get people to buy things that they already have. They will make it seem like you are uncool if you dont have this particular item. 

   Argumentation- the action or process of reasoning systematically in support of an idea, action, or theory. I believe that the media uses argumentation to spread awareness. For example, through mass media, people argue how everyone should shop organic. They take a stand, tell you why it is good for you and then they will tell you the health repercussions of eating genetically modified organisms. 

  Story Telling-   the interactive art of using words and actions to reveal the elements and images of a story while encouraging the listener's imagination. 1. storytelling is interactive. storytelling involves a two-way interaction between a storyteller and one or more listeners. The media uses story telling tactics in order to get news out to citizens. Although it may not seem like a story because we just think it is news, it is. Many of these stories that are being covered on the news turn into movies and books.

   Invitation- In a non persuasive attempt to get people to come/do certain things due to common interests. Social media in particular uses this tactic a lot. Based on search history, they gather your interests and show you things you may be interested in without you having to search it yourself.

3. With me being African American, I have faced many challenging situations some that i was not able to respond to. Once I came to college  and actually took a class on some history of African Americans, I realized that i was ignorant to my own culture and maybe others are as well. So what i have learned is that through my responses, rather than get mad, i shall just educate and spread the word. I was once in a place where I used to just talk before i spoke. Now i do my research, analyze situations, and try to put people in my situation to see if they are able to understand. 

Best of Both Worlds

  This movie was very interesting, and the fact that I have never heard of it makes me a bit sad. As far as futuristic movies go, and their views of how things will be in the future, this movie has topped it. Now the human turning into a robot? Yeah, not so much. Well at least yet.  But as for the holograms? we have that already. It may not come from a machine that appears to be human but we have a machine. The machine that we have just makes it creepy. We have holograms of DEAD PEOPLE! If scientists and engineers can come up with something like that then who knows what else they have up there sleeves. I think it is funny how people think these things are so cool but they get the bigger picture of what is next to come. The bicentennial man gave a great example. If they made a robot that can do everything a human can do, why can't we make a real human? I call this technological evolution. Wouldn't you agree? We start off with basic machines that do simple tasks, onto a bigger machine the do more complicated tasks, then to robots being able to do what humans can, and then that robot appearing as a human in flesh. And they can FEEL. A bit strange, but very interesting. 

Blade Runner Film Report

Blade Runner was somewhat of a dystopia and it had a weird depiction of the future. Not only was that weird, but the fashion and style of the movie was completely strange. From the way the characters dress to how they act. The cars the characters drove and even the phones they talked on were even too high tech for today's society. Cars were flying and the closest thing we have to that is airplanes and as we progress, potentially self driving cars. As for fashion, it was 70s. it was not close to a Los Angeles 21st century style. Blade Runner's idea of the future was ahead of its time. In other words, it seemed as if the writers/creators thought the year 2016 was far away when it wasnt. They didnt take in consideration how fast technology progresses yet it moves so slow. For example, Apple comes out with a new phone every year but each time the only thing that is different is either the way it looks on the outside or just the camera pixels. Someday we will have flying cars, or maybe that is a reach, and we may also have payphones that are web cameras. The future awaits!

Social Media AI

The fact that Facebook uses AI to help its users does not surprise me at all. I have known all this time about this specific feature but never knew it was considered artificial intelligence. There are various amounts of websites that have this feature including Instagram and YouTube (that I know about). This lies within the argument that we are living post-human because we barely think about our interests, it now just pops on a screen because you have viewed something similar. Without us knowing, artificial intelligence is taking its stance on earth whether we like it or not, or even if we notice (which we don't). Facebook in fact is for the people, but artificial intelligence spices things up a bit. In other words, it gives people ideas of what they may or may not be interested in. AI on social networks gives humans options to whether or not they want to see certain posts again. So, in a way AI does not completely take over, it just steps in to give a jump start on one's thoughts sometimes. We haven't gotten close to Vernor Vinge's inflection point just yet. His definition of inflection point is when AI machines are able to outsmart humans. I believe that we are on the path of getting there, but so far all AI can possibly do is take over a humans job. It is scary to think that a human being will even want to make something that is smarter than them and possibly cause an extinction of the human race. If we had only AI machines for only certain tasks such as curing cancer then that is fine. But when you put so much knowledge into one object it can be very dangerous and outsmart you even though you created it. In closing, I leave you with a quote from a Control consultant, Bela Liptak, "Automation opened a new chapter in human evolution... this can be a great achievement, but can also become a slippery slope for human civilization". In other words, do we just sit around and not work on something that can potentially become the greatest thing ever, or work on something that can end our lives forever?

http://www.controlglobal.com/articles/2016/is-artificial-intelligence-dangerous/.

If I were in Cooks situation I don't know what I would do. Change my policies because of terror in my country? Or not bother with it because it will violate our policy and we would have to make all phones the same. FBI will have access to anyone's iPhones at any time. This may lead to a decline in customers, increase in supply, and no money for the business. Although Apple has changed their policies for pop star Taylor Swift, why can't they change it for the government. According to the Washington Post, the company did not want to be shamed by Taylor Swift. I guess that's worst than the government?

If the FBI gets there way then it violates the security and privacy of its users. Apple does feel as though this "backdoor" opens doors for hackers as well. If Apple were to get their way then they only will get criticized for not feeling for those who have lost their lives in "terrorist attack". According to the privacy act "Amid the passage of open meetings and open records laws, the federal government also recognized a citizen’s right to avoid improper distribution of data it keeps about them. The 1974 Privacy Act also allows citizens to find out what information the government keeps on them, primarily in order to ensure its accuracy." This is interesting because it may seem as the FBI may seem to say we help you out by giving you what you need, so can we get what it is that we want? This idea may seem crazy, but there are many scandalous activities and negotiations that take place behind all of these big businesses.

The Next Big Weapon

In my opinion I do believe that AI weapons violate the Martens Clause because according to the text, these "autonomous weapons systems select and engage targets without human intervention..."(Russel 415). In other words, these weapons can work on their own with no human/s needed. The Martens Clause bans weapons that violate "principles of humanity and dictates of public conscience"(415). in other words, AI weapons are taking on roles that humans are able to do on their own an the Martens Clause practically believes that it should stay that way with no interference of robots. Many countries, such as Germany for instance, "will not accept that the decision over life and death is taken solely by an autonomous system". In a way, this violates the human right to live. This autonomous system will have the say in who lives and who dies. This machine will have too much of its own power.

I describe meaningful human control over AI weapons as a human stepping in when the weapon begins to get out of control and abuse its power. From this article that is how it seems. I feel that it needs to always be controlled, before it controls us. The article states, "LAWS could violate fundamental principles of human dignity... they might be tasked to eliminate anyone exhibiting 'threatening behaviour'". How does the weapon know when someone is actually in the action of threatening someone or if one is simply joking around with a friend? Yes, they can be tasked to do these things but how do they actually know when it's serious or not? This weapon needs all the human control as possible because it still does not know right from wrong.

The scope of the conversations was social media and how it could help scientists and researchers spread the word that robots were good and can actually help out in the future. The biggest hurdle was that "many researchers have never tweeted, blogged or made a YouTube video" and "it can take years to build a social media following that make the effort worthwhile"(Hauert 417).

"Clustering analyses can define new syndromes-- separating diseases that were thought to be the same and unifying others that have the same underlying defects"(Altman 417). This easily impacts the medical fields. These machines will be able to diagnose and treat patients and even come up with treatment and cures. All of these tasks in which a medical professional can do will be handed over to robots. Yes, this will help in the future but every day our medical professionals learn new things, although sometimes it may take years. Whereas robots just seem to know everything without training. what helps patients these days are feelings. A robot cannot help a human when being diagnosed. They will not know what to say to them. In other words, a doctor can say to someone "we can hope for the best" when dealing with someone who is losing a battle to a disease. When a robot may bluntly say  "you will die in two days" or they may not say anything at all. There will be no comfort.

These articles reminded me of the Disney film Smart House. The house did everything on its own. Cooked, Cleaned, etc. Until one day it just wants to control the family that lives in the house. This film goes to show that everything that glitters is not gold. Artificial Intelligence is a great thing and may possible do great things in the future. I do believe that everyone has that small piece of fear in the back of their head knowing that it can all go wrong. Without the right control, robots can and will be able to take over the world.

Post-human vs. Humanism

1.)The Macy Conference on Cybernetics came up with "central concepts that would coalesce into a theory of communication and control applying equally to animals, humans, and machines" (Hayles, 7). The conference viewed human beings as beings that only processed information and were a bit similar to machines. To some in the conference, they were not interested in seeing humans just as machines, much rather just making the machine and human equal.

2.) Hayles defines posthuman in four different characterized point of views.
-Posthuman view privileges informational pattern over material instantiation.
-Posthuman view considers consciousness
-Posthuman view thinks of the body as the original prosthesis we all learn to manipulate
-Posthuman view configures human being so that it can be seamlessly articulate with intelligent machines.
From my understanding of posthuman, I define it as a person/thing that exists beyond and actual human being, whether it is artificial or an alien.

2.5) Since there are many perspectives of humanism, Hayles went with the fact that the liberal humanist subject has deconstructed in cybernetics, but it still has some affinities with these perspectives, it proceeded primarily along lines that sought to understand human beings as a set of informational processes.
-I have always expressed humanism as the goodness of human beings and how good they are.

3.) "For some... the posthuman evokes the exhilarating prospect of getting out of the old boxes and opening up new ways of thinking about what being human means" (Hayles 285). This is the pleasure part of being posthuman. This is what, in a way, makes me posthuman because I am more than open to learning more about humans and what it means to be one. I am also all for closing doors and opening up new ones.

Human Rights vs. Civil Rights

One may think that both human and civil rights are the same and fall under the same category. Well, at least this is what I was set out to believe. From my readings I have completely different views than before.  Civil rights protects a persons freedom and equality, whereas human rights protects one from judgement regardless of race, gender, religion etc. I believe we need a civil rights movement because when civilians fail in the category of  "human rights", we have other civilians that are willing to fight for what's right. So, I have come to the conclusion that we cannot have one without the other. We cannot have civil rights without human rights because what else will we be backing up and fighting for? In order to have a strong human rights movement there needs to be civilians out there that are willing to call someone out on going against someone's rights.

Get to Know Me

My name is Kailan Hall and I currently attend California State University Northridge. I am currently enrolled in English 114B with Professor Kaz. I am studying Bio-Chemistry in hopes of becoming a pharmacist. Some of my interests include bowling, amusement parks, dog parks, and even hiking to go see the Hollywood sign. I have a strong belief that dogs are human and they can give me a look and I will give them the world. They are are my life.