How I relate to ‘Is Google Making Us Stupid?’

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/

After giving it some thought, I strongly agree with what the article had to say. There is definately a change in my abilities as far as concentration is concerned. I cant read books the way I used to. I remember reading being one of my passions as a child, but computers and the internet has taken over. I feel that the digital realm has had such a drastic effect on my attitude towards things in general.

I hadn’t thought about my new-found fidgety nature on reading until i read this article. I used to think it was just me when it came to distractions. I thought I was to blame for my ADD; maybe the cabbages i eat and the pollution or something, but this article shows otherwise. I guess I’m not going to get excuses anytime soon.

I can relate so much to the text to the extent that I feel as if I wrote it in an earlier time. I too spend a lot of my time online and “adding to the internet database” . I think “adding to the database” would be something like creating an updating your facebook. Adding new photos and new statuses, or even tweeting.

“We are not what we read, we are how we read it” also struck me as a great quote for the modern day reader.

“Media are not just passive channels of information; but they supply the stuff of the thought and processes the shape of the thought”. Couldn’t have been better put, and all ill say to that is Kudos.

Pancake people, is exactly what we are. Spread wide and flat as we connect to the vast information filled online world.

I got even more surprised as I read on about others that experienced the same as the author and I, . I think I might just start believing that that my ADD is not due to me but due to my internet connection. I feel exactly the same when it comes to reading long paragraphs. I cant do that anymore, I too just skim through text now.

I could not relate anymore to this article. Its as if this dude wrote for me

Osama Bin Laden’s Death Film and Identity Theft

According to BBC’s news beat.
Osama Bin Ladin’s fake death film has ‘gone viral’.

The US’s refusal to show Osama Bin laden’s death tape just fueled more interest into the matter and inspired hackers to start up scams and fake stories. The scam spread like wildfire around the world through emails but mainly through facebook.

The FBI warned facebook and internet users about the viruses and scams

In America the FBI has already warned internet users about the dangers of these scams and viruses. The viruses are programmed to hack into personal information like email addresses and passwords.

Under Indentiy theft the article talked about how how people are being tricked in submitting personal information and details, using click-jacking.

Clickjacking works when people click on a link thinking it will give them what it says it will and end up give spammers access to their accounts. I have unfortunately had experience with this and had to contact my email service provider and have my password changed after providing lots of details such as my old password, secret question and other information on my contacts.

Ferguson, the director of security at Trend Micro told BBC’s Newsbeat that ultimately such scams will lead to identity theft and can have serious short term financial implications. Ferguson also says that whenever anything newsworthy happens anywhere around the world it is taken advantage of by hackers and spammers just to make their move more appealing and credible. In our case for instance, an old picture of Osama was edited with wounds and bullet marks to convince people that it was a link to the correct video. I unwillingly sent links from friends of mine who had clicked on the video. My friends claimed that they hadn’t sent me anything. The link would collect information on your contacts and send them links with a fake picture of a wounded Osama.

It was only until I looked it up when i found this picture on the internet that i realised that it was a scam.

On Recent Cyber Stalking

Everyone who has a Facebook account has had the feeling of Cyber-stalking. When either checking a group of pictures or randomly clicking on strangers’ profiles that like your comment for instance.

Personally I believe that one only puts on facebook what one wants or doesnt mind others seeing, therefore it is impossible to invade an individuals privacy on this site this makes facebook stalking a myth invented by “drama queens” and “attention seeking whores.”

Concerning this interesting idea of facebook stalking I’m going to talk about an interesting article that I came across on the BBC News website.

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/13200185]

Garry Shewan, as said in the article wants tougher laws to be imposed on those responsible for cyberstalking and online harassment.

But this is actually quite difficult since although being easy to tell which computer was used where is very hard to find out for certain who actually stalked or harassed. The article also states that it is not right for police to forcefully obtained computer equipment from a suspected hacker or stalker unless they can prove there was “an intention to cause fear or distress.”

There are actually two acts under which Cyber-stalkers can be charged the Protection from Harassment Act or the Malicious Communications Act. But studies say that with the expansion in technology both these acts are not good enough.

Mr. Shewan says that the legislation on online harassment and stalking is around 12 years old. The World Wide Web is expanded so much that of years ago we would never have thought the online stalking and harassment would be such a big deal. Therefore, he stresses, it is very important that we create new laws.

You can tell just how bigger things have become based simply on the fact that Prosecutions under the Malicious Communications Act have soared to an all-time high and increased almost 300% in five years says Jane Harvey from the Network for Surviving Stalking.

The head at The National Centre for Cyber-stalking, Carsten Maple, says existent viruses namely “*Trojan spyware” are currently being used to access personal files, hack into systems and even switch on the victim’s webcam.

*A Trojan is a computer virus that disguises itself as a harmless program, spreads via e-mail and other means of communication and accesses personal information.

The Wikileaks Documentary

MY RESPONSE TO THE WIKILEAKS DOCUMENTARY

I was gob smacked to hear that wikileaks has released more classified documents than the rest of the worlds media combined. Assange is right to say that the media is doing such a bad job. It’s a shame.

A saint or a rapist? Though always a skeptic, I can’t help but think it would be too much of a coincidence for him to be charged with rape allegations so suddenly after the massive Iraq war logs leak. This same idea was mentioned several times in the comments section below the video by several different viewers.

And for some reason I felt alot better when I heard him say that the real reason they publish files on wiki leaks is in order to provide justice. There needs to be another force that monitors those in power and im happy wiki-leaks is doing that.

I loved the line “wikileaks.org is for those people who wish to blow the whistle on abuse of power”

It was also interesting to hear how the senders of information hide traces of themselves before publishing the information on wikileaks. Another thing that struck me was when it was mentioned that the majority of the wikileaks.org readers don’t bother checking who sent the information. For some reason I don’t find that a positive point. Tomorrow if wikileaks.org decides to publish something false it is the general public that will be fooled. Wikileaks may also abuse power in the future, just a thought

Seeing the basement in Sweden was very interesting and I loved the line “ticking information bomb” and “hopefully this bomb can stop conventional weapons”. True, true, all true.

The way Assange talked about the Guantanamo bay manual was inspiring. He seemed to be extremely determined in what he wanted to do. Such talk truly makes me feel really proud of my major, Computer Engineering.

OMFG! This Manning dude has some next level guts to do something like that. I was exteremely astonished at what I saw. A very brave move I think I might just like this guys facebook page.

A very emotional moment, viewing the scenes from the helicopter and how ruthless it all is, this has more than ever convinced me to support the wikileaks movement.

It was also very interesting to hear how Assange planned to distribute the rest of wikileak’s files. One of the most important statements I’ve heard was how the news agencies should work collaboratively in the best interest of the story rather than compete against each other.

Pranav Mistry’s Sixth Sense

The most interesting TED conference I had ever seen was a new invention by Pranav Mistry. This invention, an innovation completely blew my mind away. Ill briefly describe the idea, although I strongly suggest you watch the video too.

The sixth Sense is a wearable gestural interface. It is basically a combination of certain everyday hardware we use with our desktop computers. These components have been combined in an interesting way to create this wearable interface.

Pranav came up with an idea to bridge the gap between the physical world, involving interactions and hand gestures for instance, and the digital world with the knowledge and information available in it.

As you can see in the image below, a small projector, a camera and some colour markers are used in this prototype. Both the projector and the camera are connected to the mobile computing device in the user’s pocket. This computing device similar to a phone for instance, can connect to the internet and has a relatively strong battery pack.

On the other hand the camera (portable-webcam) tracks the user’s hand motions as well as physical objects around him. This will use some sort of a visual-recognition-software.

This visual recognition software will recognise the users hand movemets and interpret them as gestures that act as interaction instructions for the projected application interfaces.

The projector displays visually on any flat enabling surface; (this could be a wall or even a newspaper).
Several applications have already been created that show the usefulness and flexibility of the system.

The map application for example lets the user navigate a map displayed on a nearby surface using hand gestures. The map will simply be analyzed by the computing device via the camera stream and will inform users by adding different indicators on the map. (Such as distance between two locations or where to buy the closest tickets from)

The calculator application will allow you to calculate like a real calculator, using your hand as a surface for example.

The apps will let the user zoom in and out or pan using intuitive hand gestures.
The system takes photos of the scene the user is looking at by detecting the ‘framing’ gesture. (shown below)

The news app for instance will allow the user to take a snap of the papers name. The device will automatically stream off the internet the video that relates to the paper and the news that was being snapped.

For example, drawing a magnifying glass symbol takes the user to the map application or drawing an ‘@’ symbol lets the user check his mail.
The gesture of drawing a circle on the user’s wrist projects an analog watch.

The current prototype system costs a surprising $350 only. And the most inspiring thing to me was that the software is all going to be open source.

Link to official page:
(http://www.ted.com/talks/pranav_mistry_the_thrilling_potential_of_sixthsense_technology.html)

Hell Yeah Gaming is Social

I had read just the first paragraph of this article and it had already spoken my heart out. I think I and this author share the exact same ideas and thoughts. I wouldn’t be surprised if I was to find out one day that a time warp had caused this article to appear and it was originally posted by me five or ten years from now. I connect so well with this author. Thumbs up to him!

The author writes about a gaming convention he attended, he realized after his visit how gaming was so much more than a loner’s act. “A gathering of humanity that proved that gamers are not the solitary creatures of legend” I quote from his writing. This is exactly what I have been telling everyone who says gaming is isolating me from my social life. I think this is a thing of the past, and the power of communication that recent online games bring with them is key to making new friends and socializing.

The author talks of his amazement towards the interaction he was able to see between the people of virtual gaming communities who met there at the convention. I personally haven’t had such an experience during gaming, but I would guess it would be something like meeting someone on facebook through a friend, having a decent chat and then meeting them in real life and later turning out to be great friends. It’s a fun experience and I see it as a good way to socialize.

The author then talks about an important point where some media say that virtual identities are mere avatars that people hide behind. Now I could agree with that to some extent, maybe not hide, but use as a portrayal of self. But just as the author was thinking I too found the media’s take on how the real life personalities of gamers are a disappointment, disappointing. Society doesn’t understand the how important the virtual world is and how similar it is to every gamers definition of a “normal” life.

The author goes on to mention how online gaming has developed so much offline. He mentions relationships that people have out of the gaming world simply due to similar interests in gaming, or a particular game. Taking a look at my life, I have come to realize just by this article how many friends I have made or friendships kept maintained due to our interest in gaming or a particular game. I even find it a great way to get back with an old friend. Play a little online game with him/her it lightens the mood up and is a great way of socializing. And thanks to the new in-game communication techniques we are able to keep in touch with our virtual and real life identities simultaneously.

Similar to the author I too thought virtual communications were insignificant compared to physical communication, but as I got closer and closer to gaming, and tried out newer and various types of games I came to realize that the excitement and satisfaction I, and millions of others get by communicating through their virtual communities is something we shouldn’t underestimate.

RIDE ON GAMERS!

FACEBOOK SECURITY, A JOKE?

I got my Facebook account around three years ago. And there are several reasons why did so; I had many friends who I wanted to keep in touch with and I had heard that Facebook was a good way of doing this. It was also the new trend at the time and everybody seemed to have a Facebook account. But the reason why it took me so long to get one was the stories of addiction I had heard about it. For many people Facebook was an easy to use and extremely well designed world as compared to many of the other social networking websites. It has so many features, ranging from the chat and messaging service to online community gaming interaction. Joking around on all the random things my friends say or share, gossiping about someone, or just checking out the latest pictures posted are most of things I and almost everyone I know does. When I meet or even see someone in a class or in a party I am very much likely to look them up on Facebook. I tend to create a mental image of how they Facebook profile would look like. I hope that this relative stranger has some information made available to the public, I can then read about this personal hobbies, the kind of music they listen to, the favourite movies and basically everything that helps me get one step closer to this new acquaintance.

I realised a lapse in my Facebook security recently, when someone I didn’t know commented on one of my posts. I was horrified by the thought that everything I had ever said before that could have been read by strangers. Was my Facebook profile secure? What’s the worst that could happen? I immediately edited my security settings and made m profile private. I looked into some cases of such security issues. I came across a story of web designer who illegally uploaded pictures of underage teenagers on to fake porno links. In his statement he had claimed to gain access to those pictures by copying them off of weak security Facebook profiles. After reading this I got quite concerned over my younger sisters Facebook Page and made sure all her privacy settings were set to the maximum possible.

Another interesting story I came across, was of a Facebook application that did a similar thing. The application would gain access to your images and posts and not only illegally use them on other websites but also send links of them to strangers. This was the time when I got concerned over the applications I was using. I made sure I blocked all the third-party applications I had ever used on facebook. I went one step further, and I don’t know if people would call me paranoid for doing this, but I blocked any application that showed up on my news feed. What made me even more confident on what I was doing was when Facebook installed a new security measure which, to me, was some sort of a disclaimer, it made sure that Facebook users knew that any new application they would join would be able to access their pictures, wall posts and information.

To me this was a sign, something that reminded me of how fragile and insecure my virtual identity was. Once again my younger sister came to mind, she and her friends are involved in an online gaming community which uses their Facebook profiles as their in game virtual identity. I was concerned with the threat that Facebook applications pose on us users and therefore also forbid my sister from using them. I explained to her the risks that these Facebook applications processed, and after some strong arguments, I convinced her to create a new Facebook account that possessed none of her photographs or personal information. I told her that it was okay for her to use this profile for her Facebook applications. I told her to send messages from her original account to all her friends in her gaming community to inform them of the new account she had created. Paranoid or not, I was concerned, and I had made sure that both our profile were secure.

A third Facebook security issue I came across was the Facebook group privacy issue. I came across this issue one day when I personally met an administrator of a public Facebook group. I saw how he was able to view information on over his group members, even though he hadn’t acknowledged them as friends on Facebook. I realised the existence of this security breach and made sure I didn’t join any public groups which were also able to access parts of my Facebook profile. I quit the older public groups that had joined prior to my investigation into this matter. I also did some research and read the different features of Facebook, I found out that private groups did not possess these kinds of threats since they were only limited to your Facebook friends.

I realized that I had to give up certain things to make sure that I had enough privacy on my Facebook account. The risks that I possessed were far more serious than the benefits/features I was gaining or able to access. I have kept this in mind and am always wary of the fact that at any time I would have to give up certain things just to make sure that my information secure. I’m ready to delete every part of my Facebook account and then deactivate it if the time comes.

On ‘Into the Blogosphere’

Let me begin by mention what came to mind after I read the incidents mentioned since i like to begin on a note that involves ME;

I thought the first incident was more to do with the rights national security has, and I believe if there is any reason at all for the FBI to suspect any illegal acts, in this case hacking for instance, it has the rights to access any private information. This is of course provided that the FBI does not leak this information to anyone outside.

The second incident shows that the privacy settings of a blog are extremely important. It is both the duty of the blog service provider and the blogger to make sure that the security settings are known. The blogger should not post any personal or controversial writing without first making sure that it does not reach those he or she does not want it to reach. At the same time there is also the ball service provider’s responsibility to ensure that those facilities and options are available.

The third incident seemed to have more to do with the freedom of speech rights that are so scarcely available in China. The fact that a debate could cause such a big problem to the government shows just how the freedom of speech has different views amongst the masses.

The meaning of Kairos or “socially perceived space-time”, was difficult to understand at first. I will quote Bitzer “a fitting response will survive to become recurrent and thus generic if the kairos also recurs, or persists” and from this I understood what he was talking about. To give an example related to myself I would say it’s like when you hear a good comeback in a verbal fight or a good joke in response to certain statement then you tend to use it if the same situation (kairos) appears. And that’s how a good joke or a good comeback lives on.

Something interesting that caught my attention called the democratization of celebrity. And Calvert opened my eyes when I realised how right he was, human beings are becoming more and more expressive of their personal information and at the same time we want to know just as much or even more personal information about others within the society. This in turn basically leads to the controversial issue of rights to privacy versus availability of information.

An interesting new word I added to my vocabulary list was “Voyeurism”. This curiosity into others private lives has reached new heights today due to the extensive coverage of media, paparazzi, and basically any form of spread of information. This is also caused the instability in the general public’s desire of voyeurism. “Seeing is knowing, not just believing.”

Let me list some of the social forces that drive voyeurism based on what Calvert mentions;

1.  The Truth:
The general public has become more and more interested in reaching the truth.  And with increased media coverage via journalism as I mentioned earlier just boosts this desire.

2. Excitement:
People want to see exciting things, things that amaze, surprise and basically most adjectives that teasers use when describing TV shows.

3. Involvement:
Everyone wants to influence someone, or make a difference. And Voyeurism by its very nature can provide only the illusion of involvement.

Sella mentions something interesting, she mentions how exhibitionism has changed its definition due to shifting definition of Fame. I too think that’s in today’s world being placed on exhibition or basically being famous and then coming out of it as you were before is close to impossible. You always be affected in some way or the other. And as Sella mentions it’s like an achievement to come out of it intact.

Calvert mentions how the amount of information on the internet and on television has caused a reality movement. She says that movement or change in media seems to be taking over the reality in real-life. Things that show up on TV seem to be more important and real to people. She says that people, because of the access, attention and the intensification of information by the media, have started to use this media to validate information rather than the IRL (In real life). And I definitely agree with this let me give you an example; I mentioned to a friend how a jewellery store was robbed near to where I live, during the 25^th of January revolution in Egypt. And his immediate response was “Yeah right, they didn’t say anything about that on TV”. I told him that I had seen it with my own eyes and to my disappointment he said “I’ll check on the Internet”.

“Defining the blog as a genre” starts by talking about the history of blogging and the primary features of the early blogs. The early blogs were chronologically organized, contained links to interesting sites and a commentary on the links. And most of these blogs were restricted to programmers and HTML coders. But as time passed, blog portals allowed easy-to-use tools for those who had no experience in coding. That was a little about the history of blogging.

The article mentions the central features of a blog, or how anyone would describe a blog. Being in reverse chronology (this blog for instance shows the latest posts first and the older ones later down the page), frequently updated, and containing a combination of links. And everyone would agree to this, but different opinions arise when we try to come up with the purpose of the generic blog.

Rodzvilla mentions how everyone agrees that the most important part of a blog is the content. And according to a survey that attempted to evaluate the three features of a blog according to importance which are; design, consistency, and content. Unsurprisingly 80 to 90% of the votes went to content.

The article then goes on to talk about the subcategories in the different types of blogs that are available on the Internet.

Later in the article the importance of the content of a blog is mentioned. The article says that the content represents freedom of selection and presentation. And this has definitely been proven by the daring steps that bloggers in Egypt took to express their political views. Blogging is like a channel to them and it seems to allow people to express their views like you would on a TV show. Similarly it also allows bloggers to reach out and tell their stories to a large invisible audience.

Bloggers try to create their own clearly motivated and unique voice. And they use this to explore their own interests and discover new ones as Blood mentions.

Later on the article talks about how blogs are also linked to relationship development and social control. Blogs allow for both the development of a community and of a universal theme. Interestingly, as the article mentions, self blogs are also intended to be read. And it’s funny how I can relate to this with my first blogging experience as I write this blog. Even though this blog is coursework I frequently check the site stats and gain this special kind of joy by knowing that someone has read my blog today, let it be one person or even 30.

I saw a similarity between social networking and blogging when I read the paragraph on how blogging was related to developing relationships within the online community. It mentions how linking and commentary work together to manage those relationships.

The article goes on to talk about the possible ancestors that blogs could have had. And although, as the article mentions we could draw a detailed “family tree”, most of what a blog is made of comes from rhetorical gestures.

I like how the article split the different ancestors of blogs. And I was easily able to relate these ancestors to the contemporary situation.

Let me just list the ancestors of blogging

1. Filtering or directory services for the internet
Several blogs now provide a list of different websites on a certain topic. For example a blog listing all the different websites that stream online and live soccer or cricket matches.

2. Collecting and organizing information
A good example of this would be the comedy page that I have on my blog, this is simply a collection of different jokes that I found online and I was able to organise them into a manner most will find easy to read.

3. Political journalism
After seeing the 25^th of January revolution I don’t think I need to even give an example.

4. Journal and the diary
Kaycee’s blog, which I blogged about earlier, would be a good example of a journal based blog. While a diary blog would be the same but with more privacy settings.

On ‘Virtual Death’

What a coincidence I was just watching a movie on TV called Simone. I don’t know if any of you have watched it; it’s about a film director who uses a computer program generated persona of a human being and incorporates it into his film.

But what’s interesting is he hides the fact that Simone is a simulation from the whole world. He uses different tricks to convince people that Simone is real, tricks like; simulated interviews, animated holograms, impersonations of is a real humans and imperfections in her physical appearance. Simone becomes so popular and so famous that the director has to think of new ways to convince the public that she exists. He can’t let go of her because she is his road to success. Slowly she starts taking over his life. He finds it very difficult to get rid of her and finally when he has the courage to do so he is accused of murdering her. I found it funny how someone with the use of digital media was able to convince so many people that she was real. Simone’s death would be what I would call a virtual death and that’s what came to mind when I read the title of this article.

The article talks about Kaycee’s support group, Kaycee being a carefully constructed virtual being who had drawn so many together expressing. When the person behind the act revealed the inexistence of Kaycee this left many thinking about the relationship between computers, community, communication and sympathy. This article mentions something that I had mentioned in my previous blog that is cyber pranks and cyber fraud.

The article mentions a positive point of how Kaycee’s followers were able to bind together and to fill their desire of communicating with one another. Let us talk a little about how Kassey’s case has affected and demonstrates the importance of rhetorical communication. The article goes on to talk about the importance of community and have it should support the individual members not only through a period of harmony but also through a period of crisis. The article mentions how the Internet has “breathed new life “into hoaxing.

The next part of the article is which was most interesting, the title itself mentioned the three components of a successful deception on the Internet; identity, community, and rhetoric in cyberspace. The article mentions one of the most important beliefs that most people have about Internet communication; that is it leaves users free to reconstruct an online persona. Coming to think of it, I have experienced this as well. There are so many fake Facebook profiles online and several of my friends have had their Facebook profiles recreated by anonymous users. This is an example of when this freedom of anonymity could be harmful.

Next, it mentions how talking to someone online who we can’t see can be misleading, and there’s definitely a lack of trustworthiness. I like how they called the Internet an “identity laboratory”. And I have to agree that chat rooms allow for experimentation with a user’s identity. I remember entering a chat room a long time ago and pretended to be someone completely different, I told insignificant lies and experimented to see how people reacted, simple lies; like my age, where I was from and what I was interested in, lies that wouldn’t really matter once I left the chat room. And I have to admit I didn’t really care what the chat room was about.

The article talks about two types of signals “assessment signals” and “conventional signals”. It gives the example of the link between a photograph and a description being a trustworthy assessment signal while something like a bumper sticker being a conventional signal.  They also goes on to mention how conventional signals are easy to forge and seem unreliable while assessment signals can be taken as strong proof of a person’s true identity. I also think forging an assessment signal could somewhat be a crime unlike putting up a fake conventional signal. For instance I know that Facebook has an option were you could report a fake profile. I have to say that those who are able to trick me had learnt how to imitate assessment signals a little too well.

Assessment signals that Debbie Swenson was able to forge included pictures of a teenage girl of and posting with a voice of a teenager, but I was surprised when I read the part about Debbie performing so effectively that she even food the New York Times. I don’t think too many people on the Internet would go through all that but that doesn’t rule out the fact that it could happen.

And I too, as a user of online social networking, believe that we take a set of assessments into consideration rather than one piece of strong evidence to figure out whether our counterpart is authentic. We see how the pieces fit together rather than relying on one convincing fact.

The next part of the article talks about how the definition of community is changing over time, it mentions how a community is no longer described in terms of physical proximity but more about social networking and using virtual social spaces. It then talks about how people or participants of these communities see cyberspace is a place where the participant feels wanted, belonging, a place to obtain important resources and have a shared identity. Once again the change in the definition of community, this time off-line and online is explained by Hogan were he mentions that a strong community is that which has strong rhetoric communication and is based on common life experiences and shared visions of the future. A good example in this case would be the 25^th of January’s Facebook revolution in Egypt, were people living far from each other shared their vision of a different Egypt and built a strong community based on this. The article mentions that developing a community requires a constant and strong social interaction between its individual members. He also mentions how Internet communities are open to practice meaning it is highly unlikely for them to have a certain someone leading them down a clear path. In my perspective this could be both a positive and a negative point; taking 25^th of January Facebook revolution in account there was no clear leader to the Facebook group and neither was there an accurate goal. The removal of the president wasn’t the initial goal but over time the demands of the protesters (or in our case the community members) kept changing once again indicating the inexistence of a leader to this community. This could be positive since it allows for a definite democracy within the community but this also requires a relatively well educated set of community members who can make sure that the path the community follows wouldn’t lead to its destruction.

The article goes on to talk about Debbie’s confession and the effect it had on the division between the community members that once supported the fictional Kassey. Most of the remarks that Debbie got after her confession indicated that she was to blame and that the community was “an unwilling victim”. The remarks got me wondering about the film I had watched. Maybe if the public found out, they would do the same to Simone’s creator.

The negative views that Debbie got showed that communities would not allow more than one identity to any one person at one time. One of the remarks that caught my attention was the one that mentioned how even though the communities spirit was torn apart and the trust was torn down but in the end the community got together. Another interesting optimistic approach was Sharon’s view where she said that your faith in humanity was renewed because of how a bunch of strangers were moved to care.

As the summary says the Kassey community did take the issue of identity and community quite seriously. As we saw in the passionate debates members had over anonymity, trust and the obligations individuals have to their communities. As mentioned in the summary how the bloggers were now inactive and had moved on, but the Debbie issue still remained unsolved; I too believe that this controversy is one which cannot be resolved.

The Rhetoric of Artificial Intelligence

My first encounter with artificial intelligence would be a porno-bot, i was about ten. I recall a virus that broke out a couple of years ago, where the messenger chat services would automatically add a set of contacts to your list. Then out of nowhere, on logging on there would be a porno-bot engaging in conversation. The major problem at the time was that we wouldn’t know it was a bot, the bot name would be generic and the bot wouldn’t give anything away at first. It automatically started the conversation with a simple “hi”, and would wait for a reply. And it was designed well enough to answer to a various type of responses. It was most interesting to explore through the bots database just to find out how strong it was. It would be about five minutes into the “conversation”, if I may even call it that, until a sex-related comment would give it away. One of the most interesting encounters at the time, and i remember chuckling to its thought.

Even before I read the “Mind Vs Machine” article, I believed artificial intelligence would never be able to replace the relationship between two humans. And honestly I couldn’t have arrived there without watching a couple of hit animation movies, Wall-E, Cars, Finding Nemo and Robots are just a couple of the many animated fantasy movies released to date. And what catches me each time as I watch these movies is the thought of how human like the film makers try to make the characters. Now I stop and think exactly what it is that is human about them, and it has to be empathy.

Wall-E, for instance, as shown in the video below, tries to show his love (acts of being human) towards the other robot by giving her the little plant. While eve, does what it was designed to do, find green life and protect it for survival of the human race. It is clear from Wall-E’s struggle how he is trying to gain eves attention (another sign of being human), later to try out new things in hope for her to come back to him, once again something artificial intelligence can’t do, go beyond what it has been programmed to do.

Getting to the article now, let me talk a bit about the Turing test. I think the Turing test is one of the most important breakthroughs in philosophical, psychological and the scientific theory towards being human. The battle between the confederates and the computers has been going on for several years now, and every time there is something new that the computers learn about imitating humans. I use “imitating” rather than “being” because being human is for humans.

Let’s take it step by step and discuss some of the rhetoric encountered during Turing tests, rhetoric in this case being the persuasive writing that computers use to convince the Judges of the tests that they are human.

• Connecting Meaningfully: (Template matching)

Involving the computer/AI to go with the flow if I may, for instance the Eliza-bot seemed to be following the conversation and it seemed that there was some meaning to what the bot was saying, regarding the responses/statements or questions coming from the judge.

[FUNNY HOW AS I TYPE I AM FEELING A LITTLE UNCOMFORTABLE REFFERING TO THE BOT AS “IT” I HAVE THIS FEELING FROM THE INSIDE THAT I SHOULD USE THE WORD “SHE”] and this is another point I could raise from this discussion. Humans tend to create a bond with whatever they encounter/talk to/talk about, this is what makes the idea of, physiological treatment or even the rhetoric of artificial intelligence possible in the first place. This human nature goes to such extents that we are ready to chat with an entity we know doesn’t exist, and we know can never have feelings for us or even remember us the next time…  yet somehow that entity makes us feel.

• Using Language:

Now using language in this case could mean different languages but that is the easy part, the more difficult part however is matching with the mode of language provided as input. The AI has to be able to respond in the same textual tone, or atleast have significant recognition of that tone. Let me use the example of the judge from Toronto university and the confederate. The language used; “Hey, Bro , I’m from TO.”,”CS dept at U of T” would be very difficult to process for any artificial intelligence. It took me a while to understand the U meant university and T, Toronto. Abbreviations, nicknames and slang would be very difficult to get into the system as it is all part of the rhetoric. That coupled with ethos as the confederate realized they were both from the same region.

• Errors:

Being human also involves making mistakes; no human is perfect and is bound to make mistakes, mainly typos in this case. And typos were made easy to detect when it came to the character-by-character approach. Although not used because it doesn’t allow personal space for thought before sending a message, it is one factor that determines being human.

• Time:

Responding over a reasonable amount of time is also part of having a humanly conversation, a human knows generally when to pause, and how long to take to respond. For instance if talking about the death of someone dear to your counterpart, you would automatically talk slowly in a less enthusiastic manner and generally change your speed of response. If the judge kept quiet for instance the confederate would do something about the (awkward) silence, unlike a computer which would either wait for another response.

All the points mention above have been tackled by computer scientists and psychologists working on adding more and more sophistication to the AI and in some way or the other the AI is catching up and fooling more and more people into believing it is real. Interestingly though, I found myself agreeing with Hofstadter’s view towards the relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and human intelligence. Each new step towards AI, rather than showing us what intelligence is, shows us exactly what it isn’t. Human intelligence is none of the points I mentioned above. Those are mere properties a human possesses, however human intelligence is something far more basic we have overlooked. The basics of human experience: adapting priorities, space and object orientation, simple language, and last but definitely not the least empathy.

Rigid, Inflexible and insensitive was what Siegelmann’s thought of the Turing

programs. And I wouldn’t agree more. And on a comic note I can relate the AI systems to politicians and government officials who are are seen as fascinating talkers but who cannot listen. And in most cases if not all have no empathy whatsoever.

 

 

 

Reality Checkup: Medical Artificial Intelligence Still a Hard Sell in the Clinic

Artificial intelligence has been around medical departments since the 1970’s and has always been in controversy. There is definitely no doubt that it can aid in diagnostics, which I personally have experienced. Like human doctors being able to capture the associated symptoms with diseases, the AI is also able to capture repeated patterns using medical records and link them to symptoms seen in new patients.

Szolovits says the AI it hasn’t been able to revolutionize medical care by neither by saving time, money nor lives. And although the machines are intelligent, holding lots of information, the integration of medical records becomes complicated because of the simplest problems that arise due to terminology and language differences says Shortliffe. Compared to human intelligence, these differences a pre-med student could identify. Human intelligence in the end is necessary to keep this AI going, and it can be concluded that the AI is nothing but support and can never replace humanness. “The AI might know what to do, but they lack common sense” says Winston.

But there are still high hopes on the use of AI in clinical services, yes it seems to slow doctors down initially but they need to be motivated to realize how helpful AI will be on the long term Szolovits states.
Other doctors have a different view over the way intelligence should be used, Patel for instance says they should be backups as large databases of information but not replace experienced doctors.

So in the end it is concluded that the most productive method of improving health care would be the combined use of both human and artificial intelligence. Combining the strengths of the doctors (human intelligence) and the capacity and diagnostic ability of the AI.

The Rhetoric of Artificial Intelligence

On ‘Zappen’s Theory’

Zappen sheds light on the use of logos, pathos and ethos (all three being the basics of effective communication/Rhetoric) in the “Lotus Marketplace and the Clipper Chip” debate. The major marketing decision of not placing the CD-ROM on the market was the consequence of a debate won online, over emails and strong protests via newsgroups. The defending side had strong logic to their arguments and although the protesters based their points on ethos which were regularly inflamed in the end they were victorious.

In the late 19^th Century the digital media also used rhetoric to attract women onto the internet since it allowed for means of communication through forums of self expression and interaction with others. This was effective since, at the time women in particular weren’t as comfortable in expressing themselves on the internet because of the direct connection other persuasive media made to porno girls. Basically another method the digital world was able to get into peoples’ minds while the traditional print method couldn’t.

The presidential campaign of 2000 used another digital tactic, a series of hyperlinks and references and used an abstract means of redundancy to subconsciously get to the reader rather than using logical appeals.

After these few points laid forward it is clear to me that the digital world has clearly brought in new means of effective communication into the writing. And I have somehow come to realizing a part of the importance of this course.

The characteristics of digital media were laid out were clear:

Speed:
Pro: Informality and style has been taken to a whole new level
Con: Speed has resulted in repetitive posting

Reach:
Pro: Accessibility has allowed people of different ages and cultures to communicate and share their interest and therefore develop communities in an array of media
Con: Security issues are major concerns

Anonymity:
Pro: Anonymity  has helped people express themselves to the fullest at times and has particularly helped those who wouldn’t speak due to political reason, gender difference or sexuality.
Con: people will be free to express themselves but sometimes can get away with misuse of their anonymity such as using abusive language for instance rendering the author responsible.

Interactivity:
Pro: Interactivity has allowed for people to meet others with similar likes
Con: Once again, security and privacy is at risk.

Use of photography and video evidence is also a major topic that needs more than just brushing upon. It is probably the strongest link between the digital world and the rhetoric, since it is a form of logos (photographic or video evidence), pathos (poverty, documentaries definitely reach out to people through pathos).

Not enough attention was given to the the relation between the author and the audience in the digital media. I think it is extremely important that the author-audience attitude be known to one another, at least a rough idea.

Cyberterrorism, cyberpranks and wikileaks are all modern day topics that can be added to the whole digital rhetoric theory.