Luigi Mangione

Regarding the article: “Can Technology Replace Nature?”

Although I agree that humans are moving increasingly distant from nature, I fundamentally disagree with the author’s approach to the problem. He spends too much time arguing that technological nature (technologies that mediate, simulate, or augment our experience of nature) are not an adequate alternative to actual nature. DUH. There is no such thing as an alternative to nature! I agree that our interaction with nature is declining, but this can be solved with balance. I believe we should continue to use technology in our everyday lives, as long as we can still balance this with nature.

If you have never heard of Animal Crossing, shame on you it is a life simulation game for the Nintendo GameCube. At the start of the game, your character moves into a new home in a new town. You start out by working at the local store to pay off your mortgage. Once you pay it off, however, you are free to explore your town and play at your own pace. There is no real structure to the game, you simply engage in a number of activities. These include digging up fossils, buying furniture for your house, and (my favorite) catching fish.

If you enjoy casual or sandbox games, I highly recommend this game.

The simple trurth of life is that some people are born with better opportunity. The field of CS, however, can potentially make this opportunity available to all. The above graphs demonstrate 3 major points: there won’t be enough CS students for CS jobs, CS jobs are growing extremely fast, and CS jobs pay very well.

Thus, the field of CS provides great opportunity. The only issue is the lack of CS education in high school. In my experience, though, I learned to program entirely on my own, for free, without ever taking any courses at my school. Despite the lack of CS education in high school, I believe that anyone has the opportunity to learn CS. A good programmer, regardless of any college education, can get a job, because there won’t be enough CS graduates for such a requirement. Therefore, CS may be able to level the playing field by providing opportunity to everyone, regardless of college or high school education.

SFGate’s article shows that Berkeley’s Intro to CS class this year contained 106 women and 104 men. The article asserted that this occurence marks a major shift for gender in CS. The article, however, fails to mention that the students in an intro to CS class do not represent the demographics of actual CS majors. No real conclusion can be drawn from the data.

At the moment, males still greatly outnumber females in the tech field. If women want to participate more in this field, more will do so over time. Thus, I believe the article’s suggestions to close the gender gap are unnecessary and artificial.

http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/Revamped-computer-science-classes-attracting-more-5243026.php#photo-5899823

From tracking my movements across the web to forever keeping my data to giving my information to the government, I am content with Facebook using my data. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have registered with the site. I collect data user data in my own iOS apps, and I understand its importance.

However, I disagree with Facebook profiting off of user’s posts, without compensation or the user’s consent. One man, who jokingly shared Amazon’s deal for a 55 gallon barrel of lubricant, soon saw his post on news feeds across the web. This man received no compensation, nor did he approve of his post being shared.

According to the test, I prefer Christianity and Buddism over Judaism over Islam. These results don’t surprise me.

In general, implicit bias could reflect an individuals past experiences. This fits well with my results. Thus, knowing one’s biases can be extremely helpful. This knowledge allows people to understand their biases, attempt to discard them, and eradicate them from future judgements.

The above comic depicts a man who has been chatting online for several months with a woman named Lisa. He discovers, however, that she is actually a robot, and he immediately leaves her.

So, the question is: “Does it matter whether or not Lisa is a robot?”

In my opinion, Lisa’s identity does matter. Rob has been chatting for several months, believing Lisa was human. He even hints at starting a relationship. Instead, Lisa has been lying to him, leading him into a scenario that could not last. Although some may judge Rob for leaving Lisa so soon (since he loved her before he found out her identity), he acts justly.

Donuts – It randomly generates donuts

Seurat – It artfully recreates the superior Italian brother

Here’s a summary of my program:

When the user clicks or drags the mouse, a large circle with a red outline is created at the mouse position

When the user moves the mouse (not pressing), a medium size circle is created at the mouse position

Each frame, a small circle is spawned randomly within the square

Here’s what it looks like:

Here’s how I did it:

(2) The “Heads in the Sand” Objection

Turing denounces the objection asserting man’s superiority. I agree that it is based in fear and lacks substance. A common theory regarding the development of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence – AI comparable or superior to a human at every task), proposes that a human brain be sliced into thin slivers, the slivers scanned, a model of the brain be created, and the model implemented on a powerful computer. If the above theory is achieved, AI would reach AGI. In fact, AI would essentially be a human. Soon, said AI could begin improving itself, surpassing human level intelligence. Regardless, however, man would not be superior to AI that essentially was human. Even if this theory does not present a viable solution, I believe that the “Heads in the Sand” objection contains no real evidence, nor any viable argument.

a. Playing a decent game of table tennis

Kuka Robotics recently developed a ping pong playing robot. Although it cannot compete with skilled human players, it is capable of entering into long rallies. The robot uses calculations that include the position of the ball, position of the opponent, position of the paddle to predict the ball’s trajectory, and determine the force of its return. Thus, AI can play a decent game of table tennis and may be competitive sometime soon.

http://www.gizmag.com/omron-ping-pong-robot/34209/

c. Driving in Victorville, CA

In 2007, a 35 teams gathered in Victorville to navigate public roads and various scenarios with autonomous vehicles. These cars navigated in conjunction with human drivers as well as other bots, thus this task has been tackled by AI.

http://www.roadtripamerica.com/GettingOutThere/DARPA-Urban-Challenge-2007.htm

k. Performing a complex surgical operation

Currently, many surgeons make use of robot-assisted surgery. That is, they perform surgery using a surgical robot as a physical extension of themselves. Although mechanically possible, as evident in robot-assisted surgery, surgical robots cannot currently operate on their own, due to insufficient AI capability. The current difficulties in developing the AI include real time decision making in the face of changing conditions.

http://nymag.com/next/2015/04/robot-could-make-surgery-safer.html