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I would love to discuss the implications of technology on our future. We’ve talked about artificial intelligence and what it means to be human, and we explored the possibility of andriods being a part of our every day lives in Blade Runner. But, I’d love to discuss something that may be less “sci-fi”, more “I can see this happening in the next 5-10 years.” What I’m talking about is: usage of robots/andriods to replace what we have to do by hand now, for example, doctors doing surgery laparoscopically, or, on a more commonplace example, machines replacing assembly line workers. Is it possible that machine will one day completely replace humans in these work fields? What do we do to solve the unemployment problems that will no doubt arise, and what skill sets can be considered “replaceable” by machines, and what are “irreplaceable?”

Also, not sure how applicable this video is to this week’s blog post question, but I came across this and found it relevant to the course and I just wanted to share. It’s a robot saying she wants to destroy humans! (Slightly concerning that the scientist is laughing at it though. Maybe he should take this course?)

http://metro.co.uk/2016/03/29/i-will-destroy-humans-intelligent-robot-gives-a-very-creepy-answer-in-tv-interview-5783373/

The most interesting aspects of the course for me were Frankenstein, The Time Machine and W. Daniel Hillis’ The Pattern on the Stone.

Regarding Frankenstein, I enjoyed the philosophical debate defining the line between humanity and monstrosity, though that topic has been discussed extensively, I even wrote an essay on it. However, Frankenstein was definitely the most entertaining assignment we’ve read, so regardless discussion could be fun.

We discussed how H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine provides political commentary and a dreary outlook of the distant future, however I believe there is more to the story.  I think the story also discusses a philosophical debate about the significance of the present, which is a very alluring topic for me.

Finally, The Pattern on the Stone was an article that I found interesting on a more personal level.  I have toyed around with simulated evolution and find it fascinating.  Any sort of discussion about this article would be intriguing.

I think a class period focused on our over-reliance on technology (or the increase of technology integrating into day-to-day life) could lead to some really interesting discussion. We could focus on whether our dependence on technology is making us less human. I’m sure we’ve all seen those individuals that seem more like a body connected to a phone than an actual person. We could also discuss social media, perhaps about its position as a “mechanism of memory.” In relation to Section 3 (specifically Sokal’s “scientific” paper), we could talk about the concern over the (questionable) authenticity of information published online. We might have touched on one or two of the topics mentioned before, but I think further exploration could yield some very interesting dialogue.

For the Final Paper, I think it is important that we focus on the major overlapping concepts of each of the three sections. Broadly, our first section was a discussion of humanity and creation, which brought up much debate about artificial intelligence and the cross between humanities and the sciences. Second, we focused on medium of communication as well as memory, focusing on hypertext and digitalized literature. Third, we are studying words, how context affects their meaning, how words vary in different academic disciplines, and how a few postmodern works look at words. I think for our final project, we should be asked to find a humanistic and a scientific work about the same topic (Example: an article about a cultural perspective of global warming, and a scientific report about rising water levels) and then compare the two. How does word choice change between the two? What aspects of the works place them in their respective disciplines? What elements overlap between the two? How does the medium and your expectations affect the way you approach each document?

I think it would be interesting to connect the three sections of the class. The idea of humans and nonhumans, memory, and words can all be interwoven. The prompt could either be an essay, perhaps using the texts and things we’ve focused on each section to draw connections between them all. Or I think this could also go in a creative direction, with maybe a drawing, a code, or something along those lines. In either case, there would probably have to be some written component to make a verbal connection between the three sections and to maybe draw some historical or modern examples for reference.

How have current technological innovations influenced the nature of today’s society: how people define humanity, how people view themselves and their past, and how people interact with the world around them?

For the final “paper” I though that it would be interesting to do something somewhat subjective, but it allows people to channel the concepts of the course to the real world. Through a collage of pictures and famous quotes, an individual could describe the qualities of human nature that best embody humanism that enables the propagation of the human race, keeping in mind how this will help the human race endure. It would allow us to find the ways in which humans identify with each other. By defining these characteristics, there is the potential for seeing what then makes someone inhuman. A short essay of why this would be successful and being able to identify a general focus of all humans could supplement this. In this essay the author could tie these qualities they chose to the characters we observed throughout the course and discuss whether or not they identify with these selected characteristics.

I sort of like the idea of a final project which ties together features of the books we read to form an argument which engages with the themes of the course. Mostly I think it would be cool to engage with The Time Machine in some way as we haven’t written a paper on it directly.

I did like the idea of doing a sort of coding project to finish the course. It’s tough to think of what such a project would look like. It might be interesting to let the students choose the form of the final project as part of the project (and then meet up to make sure that the project makes sense). I think that this would work best in conjunction with several other options, as students have in the past expressed disinterest in vague project forms, and this type of project is very vague in form.

As much as I would like to do a more creative project, I cannot come up with many ideas that would fit around the concepts we covered in this course. I am however able to come up with an essay prompt involving social media which rather interests me. In this paper, I one would address the ways in which social media use can be beneficial to communication and networking among people. While many people use social media, especially facebook, simply as a means of sharing what is happening in their life with those more distant to them, the service is often used for a much greater purpose. This involves networking between distant friends, employment posting, and event advertisement.

While I am not adverse to writing a final paper for this class, I have also had some fun ideas about a creative piece for the class. Most of my ideas involve creative drawing which would relate the three sections of the course together. However, I would understand if we wanted to limit the creative piece to a written code or some other, less analog process.

I definitely think that there should be room allowed for a creative piece in general though. A great deal of creativity went into the subject matter that we have studied in class and I believe it would be beneficial to let those works inspire the final projects of some of the students in our class. In addition to the piece itself, the student would have to write a reflection about the class and an artist statement about their work. That way it can be assured that thought and effort went into the final.