In order to even begin to pass a Tourig Test, I feel like a computer would yes, need to have an extensive knownledge of the human dialect (all languages, grammatical rules, etc) but there would have to be so much more than that. For instance, I can detect sarcasam. I can understand humor, and I can get "vibes" from people I talk to on AIM or facebook or any other computer based communication tool. A computer would have to be able to understand and process all of those things just to begin to even pass a Turig test. I guess that means that I am saying it would need to understand or at least be able to process human emotion, which is going to be a problem, seeing as how most humans have little or no control over that aspect of their lives. In addition to that, it would also need to understand common sense. I don't want to ask a computer if i should drive my car into the lake, and have it say yes. I see that being something that might almost be impossible to program into a computer. Another thing, that I mentioned earlier, is humor. Just like I wouldnt want the computer to tell me to drive into a lake, if I made a joke about doing the same thing, I would expect it to understand that I was joking and respond approprietly.
But on the other end, if the computer was too smart, that also would be a problem. I feel like asking a computer a really difficult question, and getting a immediate answer would give everything away. But how do you do that? How smart is too smart? I mean i know that know alot about music, and could give you a list of the top 100 billboard hits of 1971, but couldn't tell you what year the Crusades were fought. How can you create a thought process like that?
Basically, and yes, I know this is completely naive and juvinile, but unless a computer can communicate with me like a C-3PO or an I-Robot, then I am not falling for it. After the discussion we had in class, I dont even see how it would be possible to create a computer that could pass the class. Humans are SO complex, and we dont even understand it. Just trying to understand the intelligence and skill a PERSON would have to have to create a computer that could pass that test blows my mind. It does interest me to hear though, that the thought of a humanoid robot/computer program may only be 10-15 years off. That is a pretty big deal.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Education
-The digital divide is a problem in education for several reasons, the most important being the lack of internet and technological access in many parts of the country. (mainly those in minority and lower income regions) If people are not trained or educated on how to use computers and the internet from a younger age, they will become lost once they get to the work place in our incresingly technology based society. So there is an issue there. The other issue is in communitys where there ARE computers avalible to be a part of the education experiance. Who is going to teach it? People are still learning to use computers and operate in this culture we have going on right now, and I know for a fact, that many of the teachers in elementary school are often more computer illiterate than the students they are trying to teach. Who is going to teach the teachers? Interesting.
Government
-I thinkthe biggest problem in government in terms of the digital divide will eventually be voting. Yes, it will not be an issue for a while I think, it seems like there are a lot of bugs to work out in that system, but eventually I am almost positive that voting will be done completely electronically and online. This will cause problems for people who again, do not have access to the internet or computers, and also will open up the game for hackers and all kinds of things to go wrong in an electorial race. I see that being a huge mess. Another issue, which I did not know about, was the fact that the government used the internet to get people help after Katrina. If only slightly more than 50% of African American's have access to the internet, and even less have a computer, how can you offer aid to a community that is largely African American that way? That means that one out of every two people couldnt get the benifits they needed after that disaster. Rediculous. Widespread internet for entire cities needs to be instituted before something like that could even remotely begin to work out.
Health
-This is kind of a stupid reason, but it is something that I have experianced. WebMD is a very interesting website, and it has (I think) some reliable information on it. As a student without health insurance, I use this website all the time because going to the doctor is a very expenisive and often useless expidition. For me, I have been able to use this website to "diagnose" my self to decide if a doctor is really neccesarry, and save money. For people who may not have this option, alot of money could be spent going to the docotors for nothing. And in many of the communities where internet access is not availible, alot of money is not something people have. So for me, that is an issue. Silly, yes, but I think its important.
Entertainment
-I do not really see a problem happening in entertainment regaurding the digital divide. Any issue i think that would come up here would relate back to education. The movie, music, and even the fine arts industries are becoming incresingly technologically dependant. Movies need more special effects. Music needs better mixers and sound boards. Plays and dance performances need more visual aids in the form of computer assistance. And for all of these, marketing is going to involve the internet. If people are not educated on how to use the computers that will make all of this possible, then no one will be competent enough to keep these industries moving. But as a consumer, I see no problem with the digital divide...as a matter of fact, I don't see one in this category. Even if I didnt know how to use a computer, I still can read a news paper to get sports scores or see a movie.
Work
-This again ties directly into education. Its simple- in this day in age, if you do not have basic knownledge of computers, you are going to find it somewhat difficult to get a job, or to perform one well. I also think that in the next couple of decades, it will become impossible to get a job if you do not know how to use a computer. So, if people do not get trained, then they dont get hired, and then we have an unemployment problem. Again- it all ties into education.
-The digital divide is a problem in education for several reasons, the most important being the lack of internet and technological access in many parts of the country. (mainly those in minority and lower income regions) If people are not trained or educated on how to use computers and the internet from a younger age, they will become lost once they get to the work place in our incresingly technology based society. So there is an issue there. The other issue is in communitys where there ARE computers avalible to be a part of the education experiance. Who is going to teach it? People are still learning to use computers and operate in this culture we have going on right now, and I know for a fact, that many of the teachers in elementary school are often more computer illiterate than the students they are trying to teach. Who is going to teach the teachers? Interesting.
Government
-I thinkthe biggest problem in government in terms of the digital divide will eventually be voting. Yes, it will not be an issue for a while I think, it seems like there are a lot of bugs to work out in that system, but eventually I am almost positive that voting will be done completely electronically and online. This will cause problems for people who again, do not have access to the internet or computers, and also will open up the game for hackers and all kinds of things to go wrong in an electorial race. I see that being a huge mess. Another issue, which I did not know about, was the fact that the government used the internet to get people help after Katrina. If only slightly more than 50% of African American's have access to the internet, and even less have a computer, how can you offer aid to a community that is largely African American that way? That means that one out of every two people couldnt get the benifits they needed after that disaster. Rediculous. Widespread internet for entire cities needs to be instituted before something like that could even remotely begin to work out.
Health
-This is kind of a stupid reason, but it is something that I have experianced. WebMD is a very interesting website, and it has (I think) some reliable information on it. As a student without health insurance, I use this website all the time because going to the doctor is a very expenisive and often useless expidition. For me, I have been able to use this website to "diagnose" my self to decide if a doctor is really neccesarry, and save money. For people who may not have this option, alot of money could be spent going to the docotors for nothing. And in many of the communities where internet access is not availible, alot of money is not something people have. So for me, that is an issue. Silly, yes, but I think its important.
Entertainment
-I do not really see a problem happening in entertainment regaurding the digital divide. Any issue i think that would come up here would relate back to education. The movie, music, and even the fine arts industries are becoming incresingly technologically dependant. Movies need more special effects. Music needs better mixers and sound boards. Plays and dance performances need more visual aids in the form of computer assistance. And for all of these, marketing is going to involve the internet. If people are not educated on how to use the computers that will make all of this possible, then no one will be competent enough to keep these industries moving. But as a consumer, I see no problem with the digital divide...as a matter of fact, I don't see one in this category. Even if I didnt know how to use a computer, I still can read a news paper to get sports scores or see a movie.
Work
-This again ties directly into education. Its simple- in this day in age, if you do not have basic knownledge of computers, you are going to find it somewhat difficult to get a job, or to perform one well. I also think that in the next couple of decades, it will become impossible to get a job if you do not know how to use a computer. So, if people do not get trained, then they dont get hired, and then we have an unemployment problem. Again- it all ties into education.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Web 2.0 Lab - Mashups
www.bandsintown.com
Google Maps/Last.fm
This website is awesome because it can show me not only who is in town playing a show, but because of the google map aspect, can show me where the venue is, and how to get there. Can't complain about that! The site also gives all the information about the show (ie: start time, cost, age), as well as links to the artist.
http://nbamap.landme2.com/
Google ajax feeds/Google maps
I like this site for a couple reasons. Not only does it show all the locations of the teams in the NBA, but hovering over each team gives the most recent news, stats, scores, and blogs of that team. The top bar also offers the same options, for the NBA as a whole. Another thing that is helpful is the traffic option. You turn it on, and it gives the traffic in the vicinity of the arena, so you know what you are getting into before you head out to the game, and for anyone who has tried to drive from the City (SF) to the Town (Oakland) for a Warriors game, this is REAL helpful.
www.everytrail.com
Google maps/ GPS
I like this website because I like to hike with my friends on the weekends. The site uses google maps to show you where the trails are, and then after clicking on a region you would like to explore, gets the GPS information about the trail, and gives you images of the terrain you should expect to encounter. It also provides the length of the trails, suggestions of simalar ones to go on, spots to enjoy the scenery, etc. This site is real helpful.
Google Maps/Last.fm
This website is awesome because it can show me not only who is in town playing a show, but because of the google map aspect, can show me where the venue is, and how to get there. Can't complain about that! The site also gives all the information about the show (ie: start time, cost, age), as well as links to the artist.
http://nbamap.landme2.com/
Google ajax feeds/Google maps
I like this site for a couple reasons. Not only does it show all the locations of the teams in the NBA, but hovering over each team gives the most recent news, stats, scores, and blogs of that team. The top bar also offers the same options, for the NBA as a whole. Another thing that is helpful is the traffic option. You turn it on, and it gives the traffic in the vicinity of the arena, so you know what you are getting into before you head out to the game, and for anyone who has tried to drive from the City (SF) to the Town (Oakland) for a Warriors game, this is REAL helpful.
www.everytrail.com
Google maps/ GPS
I like this website because I like to hike with my friends on the weekends. The site uses google maps to show you where the trails are, and then after clicking on a region you would like to explore, gets the GPS information about the trail, and gives you images of the terrain you should expect to encounter. It also provides the length of the trails, suggestions of simalar ones to go on, spots to enjoy the scenery, etc. This site is real helpful.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
E-Waste Blog
E-Waste is something that I never even thought about until taking this class. I assumed that you could just throw away electronics like everything else, and have done that up until this point. As a matter of fact, during the lecture, every time a computer monitor or cell phone or laptop was mentioned, I could remember numerous times that I threw one of those things in a trash can or a dumpster. It was shocking to me to realize that something that I have never thought of as being a problem was actually such a huge one.
Probably the one thing that struck me the most are the people who are effected by this, because, I suppose, as with most toxic materials, it doesnt directly effect the people in our own country. I was again, shocked to hear and see about the people in the third world whose sole means of meager income was to harvest and live in this toxic material coming from machines that they have never even used or seen in action before. In one of the slides shown in class, I think it was said that in that particular villiage, because of the toxic materials in the area, the water was not even drinkable. Are you kidding me?! An entire villiage has to pay to import the most basic neccesity needed for life, because machines they have never used have destroyed thier own supply? That is rediculous. I know that someone has to do it, but I mean...come on. How is this not some kind of huge issue? That cannot even be blamed on nature or anything! This is a purely man caused environmental disaster! Which leads to, i suppose, the idea of how to manage this kind of distruction.
I really see no quick fix to this problem, for several reasons. First, every country has different regulations on what you can import and export, and how it can be transported. So if the US is allowed to export thier technical waste say, to China, and it gets there, and China cant import the waste in that state, then it gets sent off to somewhere where they dont care. Welcome to countries such as Nigeria. Now imagine all of the other countries out there that are running into the same problem? With the rate that technology is advancing, E-Waste is at an all time high, and there is no end in sight. How to solve that problem? Seeing as how we cant get seperate countries to agree on ANYTHING, EVER, I see no quick solution to this problem. The other problem is that all of this has to go somewhere, and there will always be a market to do it cheap. That is just how the world works. Its the same way with regular waste. Even the most presitgious nation needs to save money where it can, and sometimes that means taking the cheap route, which may or may not result in computer parts being thrown into third world countries. Don't believe it? How else does a truck load of computer parts sent off to be recycled end up in Nigeria in a unsafe toxic computer waste dump?! As long as it costs money, I'm telling you, this is going to be a huge problem.
Probably the one thing that struck me the most are the people who are effected by this, because, I suppose, as with most toxic materials, it doesnt directly effect the people in our own country. I was again, shocked to hear and see about the people in the third world whose sole means of meager income was to harvest and live in this toxic material coming from machines that they have never even used or seen in action before. In one of the slides shown in class, I think it was said that in that particular villiage, because of the toxic materials in the area, the water was not even drinkable. Are you kidding me?! An entire villiage has to pay to import the most basic neccesity needed for life, because machines they have never used have destroyed thier own supply? That is rediculous. I know that someone has to do it, but I mean...come on. How is this not some kind of huge issue? That cannot even be blamed on nature or anything! This is a purely man caused environmental disaster! Which leads to, i suppose, the idea of how to manage this kind of distruction.
I really see no quick fix to this problem, for several reasons. First, every country has different regulations on what you can import and export, and how it can be transported. So if the US is allowed to export thier technical waste say, to China, and it gets there, and China cant import the waste in that state, then it gets sent off to somewhere where they dont care. Welcome to countries such as Nigeria. Now imagine all of the other countries out there that are running into the same problem? With the rate that technology is advancing, E-Waste is at an all time high, and there is no end in sight. How to solve that problem? Seeing as how we cant get seperate countries to agree on ANYTHING, EVER, I see no quick solution to this problem. The other problem is that all of this has to go somewhere, and there will always be a market to do it cheap. That is just how the world works. Its the same way with regular waste. Even the most presitgious nation needs to save money where it can, and sometimes that means taking the cheap route, which may or may not result in computer parts being thrown into third world countries. Don't believe it? How else does a truck load of computer parts sent off to be recycled end up in Nigeria in a unsafe toxic computer waste dump?! As long as it costs money, I'm telling you, this is going to be a huge problem.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Monday, February 4, 2008
How the Internet effects me
I can remember the very first time I ever even heard of the internet. In 4th grade, we had to take "field trips" to the library once a week, where we would learn about some new aspect of the ever exciting and advancing subject of library studies. Ha. One time though we went and the Librarian sat us down in front of the huge black and white screened boxy Mac computers. There we learned how to use the search engine "Netscape Navigator", and searched for important people in Californian history. Searching one name took up the majority of the class period, and since that day, I refrained from going on to the internet ever again. That being said, my introduction to the internet was a slow one.
In highschool, I rarely used the internet. I had a 31/5 floppy that I used to store all of my work on and transfer from computer to computer, so email was not something that I needed to use. I still mailed my letters through the Post Office, and my classrooms and classwork did not require internet access. However, half way through sophmore year, the big Instant Messaging craze hit (well at least for my town it did) and then all the sudden the internet was a pretty big necessity in my life. Other than that, however, I can honestly say that I really didnt use the internet very much, nor was it a main component of my life.
All of that changed when I got to college. All of the sudden everything was online. Registering for classes, emailing scheduals, facebook, myspace, IM, itunes, etc. I guess that would be when it started being a positive and negative force in my life. Positively, the internet makes my life so much incredibly easier. I can check the bus schedual, my bank account, order food, register for class, manage meetings, and shop for things all from my desk. I cannot even explain how convienient all of that is. I do not have to worry about making it to the bank on time, I dont need to stress out about going to the store during the holidays, and I have all of the reference's of a library with the click of a mouse (sometimes). Those are only a few of the ways the internet has positively effected my daily routine.
Unfortunately, along with all of those great things, there are the drawbacks. Because I have become so dependant on these things that make my life easier, it gets very frustrating when I do not have them. At my apartment, our internet will go out for a couple days at a time every once in a while, and its then that i see just how dependant I have come to rely on it. I miss important meetings or assignments because i have set my primary contact to email. I get antsy when I cannot watch the newest episodes of my favorite TV shows online, and am at a loss as to how to commuicate with people outside of using AIM. (Its not that bad, but you know what I mean). I also get really antsy not being able to check my email for a long time. It seems like that has become my main connection to people lately, and when i do not have that ability, I start to stress a little bit. Every time that happens, I try to think about how I functioned ten, fifteen years ago, when I didnt even know what email was, and I dont know how I did it.
So i guess it is give and take, the internet makes my life alot easier, but at the same time, cuts out alot of steps that are staples (i think) to human interaction- ie communication in person, and that bothers me a little bit. Not as much as it should, I suppose.
In highschool, I rarely used the internet. I had a 31/5 floppy that I used to store all of my work on and transfer from computer to computer, so email was not something that I needed to use. I still mailed my letters through the Post Office, and my classrooms and classwork did not require internet access. However, half way through sophmore year, the big Instant Messaging craze hit (well at least for my town it did) and then all the sudden the internet was a pretty big necessity in my life. Other than that, however, I can honestly say that I really didnt use the internet very much, nor was it a main component of my life.
All of that changed when I got to college. All of the sudden everything was online. Registering for classes, emailing scheduals, facebook, myspace, IM, itunes, etc. I guess that would be when it started being a positive and negative force in my life. Positively, the internet makes my life so much incredibly easier. I can check the bus schedual, my bank account, order food, register for class, manage meetings, and shop for things all from my desk. I cannot even explain how convienient all of that is. I do not have to worry about making it to the bank on time, I dont need to stress out about going to the store during the holidays, and I have all of the reference's of a library with the click of a mouse (sometimes). Those are only a few of the ways the internet has positively effected my daily routine.
Unfortunately, along with all of those great things, there are the drawbacks. Because I have become so dependant on these things that make my life easier, it gets very frustrating when I do not have them. At my apartment, our internet will go out for a couple days at a time every once in a while, and its then that i see just how dependant I have come to rely on it. I miss important meetings or assignments because i have set my primary contact to email. I get antsy when I cannot watch the newest episodes of my favorite TV shows online, and am at a loss as to how to commuicate with people outside of using AIM. (Its not that bad, but you know what I mean). I also get really antsy not being able to check my email for a long time. It seems like that has become my main connection to people lately, and when i do not have that ability, I start to stress a little bit. Every time that happens, I try to think about how I functioned ten, fifteen years ago, when I didnt even know what email was, and I dont know how I did it.
So i guess it is give and take, the internet makes my life alot easier, but at the same time, cuts out alot of steps that are staples (i think) to human interaction- ie communication in person, and that bothers me a little bit. Not as much as it should, I suppose.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
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