Transcendence Film Report

After watching the movie Transcendence, I thought it was a really good movie. The movie is about a researcher named Dr. Will Caster who does research in an Artificial Intelligence Facility. It was really interesting and a little scary. This movie made me think about artificial Intelligence a little more. It makes think about what the benefits and risks are of having a human mind put into a robot. When Dr. Will Caster was shot with a bullet that contained radiation poisoning, he told that he has 4-5 weeks left to live. When he was poisoned with the radiation, his mind was working, but his body was dying. At that point, his human mind was put into a computer to save him. It was really interesting seeing what the outcome of it was.

Body Rhetoric

In the 4th chapter in his book Rhetoric for Radicals, Jason Del Gandio wrote about how body rhetoric can easily make an argument. The four ways that bodily argumentation expands the realm of rhetoric are that embodies argumentation is a call to action, embodied argumentation provides more rhetorical options, embodied argumentation is empowering, and embodied argumentation highlights the craft of everyday living, (Gandio 146). They are essential to supporting one’s position because your body is continuously delivering a message. Being aware of your body language gives you more control of what people may think about your position. Your messages should always meet the wants and needs of your audience.

The five steps to cultivating style are to observe your own style and the style of others, to reflect upon those styles, to experiment with different styles, to apply your style, and to take chances with different stylistic choices. 

An individual body argument is using your own body to make all kinds of arguments. For example, you can easily get tattoos or body piercings, wear particular clothes, display buttons or pins, create unique hairstyles, etc to “…communicate social and political messages that others read and respond to,” (Gandio 148).

An collective body argument “…often occurs through protests and actions, which might include: sanctioned rallies, marches, and demonstrations; direct actions; silent die-ins; snake marches; street festivals; both militant and peaceful confrontations; a few people on a street corner or a million people across the globe,” (Gandio 151). Collective body arguments involve a group of people coming together to communicate messages to others.

Moon Film Report

The movie moon was about an astronaut named Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) has a contract for three years with Lunar Industries. Bell spends three years on the moon for a mission. While he is on the moon, he has little contact with humans and starts to hallucinate at the end of the three years. During the three years on the moon, the computer system GERTY, the intelligent computer system, attends to Bells daily needs. GERTY is the only real-form of communication Bell has.

In the movie, there was not only an intelligent computer system, but also there were human clones. It was interesting seeing how there were clones in the future time where the movie was taking place. The movie portrayed what artificial intelligence could potentially be like in the future. As with any artificial intelligence movie, something always goes wrong with the machines. It was really interesting to see artificial intelligence at another perspective.  

The Power of Language

Language is a mixture of words, signs, gestures, and pictures that allow you to be able to communicate in different ways. In each language, words have different meanings to them. I think that language connects with the media to grow an influence because language allows the media to communicate to you in so many different ways.

The five guidelines to language and communication are to be accessible, to be clear, to be respectful, to be provocative, and to be interesting. I think that our generation follows these guidelines today.

The quote “War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength” from George Orwell’s book 1984 represents the totalitarian government that Orwell creates in the book. It “…enable[s] Orwell’s totalitarian government to unleash a continuous war of infinite reach and endless duration. The citizens of that regime are besieged by linguistic power and never think to question the perversity of their sociopolitical reality. They are so enwrapped in their governments language that they have foregone the ability to think beyond their situations, enabling the government to act as it wishes,” (Rhetoric for Radicals 107). In his book 1984, Orwell portrays a totalitarian government that controls the language that everyone speaks. The government controls everything he citizens due and watches them through a screen. Language on social media is influencing us like the language did in Orwell’s 1984 by using language that persuades us to perceive something in a certain way.

The book Rhetoric for Radicals by Jason Del Gandio defines Propaganda as “…any [type] of communication that distorts or obscures people’s understanding in the service of social, political or economic power,” (116). The five basic filters of social media are profit, advertising, unquestioned authority, direct control, and ideological bias. The book states that the media has a profit-driven motive. Anything that would lower their profits is ignored from the media.

Labors of the Multitude

In the 2^nd chapter in his book Rhetoric for Radicals, Jason Del Gandio wrote about how technology creates a separation in the way that we communicate and about the rhetorical approaches used in media. Technology today (especially social media) creates a separation between the way we express ourselves through writing, public speaking, and conversations with each other by allowing us to communicate in so many ways. For example, the way we converse in text messaging differs from the way we converse with one another. We communicate in different ways based off of whom we are communicating with and how we are communicating with them.

The four rhetorical approaches are persuasion, argumentation, storytelling, and invitation. Persuasion can change, shape, or sustain someone’s views and it occurs all the time. The four basic approaches to persuasion are logic, emotion, values, and credibility. Logic can take on many forms. It can be an argument, story, or basic description. Emotion can be manipulated and it can be used for socially just purposes.  “Emotions can be used for love, honor, encouragement, excitement, humor, and respect,” (Gandio 72). It can easily manipulate our choices. Values guide our daily decisions and actions. “Values are often used as persuasive tools, and this is usually done by using values to either unite or divide people,” (Gandio 72). Credibility has three characteristics: likeability, trustworthiness, and knowledgeableness.

Argumentation consists of three things: making a claim, providing evidence, and using reason. Argumentation allows you to “[take] a stand on an issue and [assert] your opinion...,” (Gandio 76). A claim that you make is your own opinion. Providing evidence allows you to support what your claim is. Reasoning allows you to further explain your claim and evidence.

Storytelling allows you to give meaning to whatever you are talking about. “We tell stories in order to evoke the meaning and importance of events, issues, struggles, and experiences. Good stories are based on human identification: we identify with the story, allowing us to see the world through that narrative frame. We then envision ourselves as the characters living out that story,” (Gandio 81). Stories are composed of five basic parts: characters, action, scene, conflict and resolution, and plot.

Invitation allows others to state their opinions and positions on a specific issue rather than persuading them to take on a particular position. There is more than one way to do an invitational rhetoric. Invitational rhetoric can be used in all forms of communication. Invitational rhetoric should be used honestly, should clarify intentions, and much more. It allows you and your audience to state their opinions on a particular issue. Each person can state his or her positions on a particular issue.

The Media uses the four rhetorical approaches to spread the news. The media allows everyone to have his or her own opinions. They use these tactics so that they can allow everyone to have a particular opinion on a certain issue. 

A Call to Rhetorical Action

Technology today might help us build a new, inclusive social norm by providing new ways of communication. Technology allows us to communicate in ways that we never thought was possible. In the book Rhetoric for Radicals, Jason Del Gandio states that, “Every human being is born into a world of interaction and we must all learn how to interact or die. Interaction is foundational to our existence,” (18). There are so many forms of interaction today such as communicating in person or communicating online.

The five contemporary challenges activists face are “…creating decentered movements, developing new forms of leadership, learning to communicate across contexts, building transnational alliances and dealing with the media juggernaut,” (29). Technology can help us overcome the five contemporary challenges by allowing us to share out any new solutions or doing some research on the challenges. By finding information about the challenges, it will allow activists to learn how to overcome the difficulties they face.

The media ignores or falsifies our movements and actions by “…[forcing] us to work against the media juggernaut,” (33). The media is everywhere at any time. Media has changed the way we communicate. “…Activists and organizers have utilized different forms of mass communication long before the Internet age,” (34). As time goes on, activists and organizers would have to learn how to communicate with newer forms of media.

The Terminator Film Report

After watching The Terminator, I thought that it had a good portrayal of what artificial intelligence would look like in the future. The Terminator, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, is an indestructible Cyborg who goes back in time from the year 2029 to the year 1984 to kill a woman named Sarah Connor before she fulfills her destiny to save mankind.  While the Terminator is out to get Sarah Connor, Kyle Reese, who is a soldier, comes with a mission to save her.

If Artificial Intelligence becomes smarter than humans, they could easily turn back and terminate all mankind. Just like in the Terminator in the movie went back to try to kill Sarah Connor before she fulfills her destiny, any type of artificial intelligence that becomes so advanced could do the same exact thing. The movie portrayed what artificial intelligence could possibly lead to as time progresses.  

Blade Runner Film Report

The movie Blade Runner portrays the future as a dark, gloomy, mysterious, and weird place with many technological features such as flying cars.It was interesting to see how there was a division in the Police department to hunt down replicants. The Replicants in the movie are genetically engineered human-like people.  The replicants in the movie were built to only have 4 years to live. Although the replicants were built to only live 4 years, they saw more than what the average human sees in a lifetime.

Deckard, played by Harrison Ford, is forced to come out of retirement and come back to work as a Replicant Hunter. While he is in service, he falls in love with the replicant named Rachael. Deckard kills off all the other replicants except for Rachael. It was really interesting to see how the replicants went after their creator to extend their life expectancy. When one of the replicants found out that there was no way for them to have their lives extended, they turned on their creator and killed him.

Facebook and Artificial Intelligence/Artificial Intelligence Singularity

Have you ever thought about how social media sites such as Facebook use Artificial Intelligence? Any time you click on any link on social media, the site collects your information to find out what your interests are. When you create an account on any site, they collect information about you to use later. In fact, some sites might sell your information to make money.

Facebook is a site that not only allows you to connect with others, but also collects information about every post that you like, the things you post, the messages you send, etc. Thousands of users go on every day without even realizing how much information Facebook learns about you each time. If you were to contact the company and ask them to send you everything they know, you would be surprised at how much information they can get just from looking at your profile.

In his article, “Facebook Is Already Using Its Artificial Intelligence On You,” Mark Zuckerberg talks about how Facebook affects your whole life. The knowledge that Facebook uses Artificial Intelligence to track your preferences impacts your relationship with that platform by showing you things you may like. “The social network is able to recognize patterns in how you interact with things and deliver content in response,” (par 2). Everything you do on Facebook is controlled by Artificial Intelligence. The system keeps track of what you do on the site or the app and uses that information to suggest different things that you may like. Even though Facebook takes over your life, there are thousands of users who login every day without even realizing what information it is collecting.

What Facebook Knows About You

Facebook is not the only Social Media outlet that implements the tracking system. Google is another example of a site that collects your information. In her article, “Everything Google knows about you (and how it knows it),” Caitlin Dewey starts of by mentioning what Google knows about her. Dewey wrote that “according to Google, [she is] a woman between the ages of 25 and 34 who speaks English as her primary language and has accumulated an unwieldy 74,486 e-mail in her life,” (par 1). She also mentions that Google knows a lot more than she thought and that “[she] didn’t tell Google any of these things intentionally…But even as you search Google, it turns out, Google is also searching you,” (par 2). Back in 2009, Google established what is called Dashboard so that users would easily be able to access the kinds of data the Internet has about them and where the information is from. One of the users of Google said that the site knows about every place they have been every single day for years. The user also mentioned that they “‘…find it very interesting, but it’s also very scary because [they] don’t doubt it’s possible to hold this information against [them at some point,’” (par 8). Dewey mentions that the scary part of it is that the information that we get from Google is stored forever in one place. No matter what site you are on, there is always information that is going to be collected from you regardless of whether or not you have filled out some kind of profile or some kind of form. Websites are constantly learning about you regardless of whether or not you are aware of it. The sites you go on will keep the information they find out about you forever.

Everything Google Knows About You (and how it knows it)

6 Links That Will Show You What Google Knows About You

This reality that websites learn so much about you aligns itself with the argument that we are already functioning as Post-Human individuals because any website you go on today uses some kind of Artificial Intelligence. Each time you click, post, message, etc., the Internet is always collecting your information. As technology advances, people become more and more reliant and technology. Because we are constantly having advances in technology, we function as a Post-Human. The Internet uses Artificial Intelligence to collect Information about us while we are unaware of it.

 Facebook is a network between humans and Artificial Intelligence. Although Facebook allows so many people to connect to each other, the use of Artificial Intelligence to collect information about all of it users leads them to making more money.

In his article “5 Very Smart People Who Think Artificial Intelligence Could Bring the Apocalypse,” Victor Luckerson talks about the different views people have about Artificial Intelligence.

Stephen Hawking, a world-renowned physicist, believes that “‘the development of full artificial intelligence could [lead to] the end of the human race,” (par 2).

Elon Musk, who is “known for his businesses on the cutting edge of tech,” (par 3), believes that artificial intelligence is a threat to humankind.

Nick Bostrom, a Swedish philosopher, spent so much time thinking about the outcomes of singularity. “In his new book Superintelligence, Bostrom argues that once machines surpass human intellect, they could mobilize and decide to eradicate humans extremely quickly using any number of strategies (deploying unseen pathogens, recruiting humans to their side or simple brute force,” (par 4).

James Barrat, a writer and documentarian, “…argues that intelligent beings are innately driven towards gathering resources and achieving goals, which would inevitably put a super-smart AI in competition with humans, the greatest resource hogs Earth has ever known,” (par 5).

Vernor Vinge, a mathematician and fiction writer, “…views the singularity as an inevitability, even if international rules emerge controlling the development of AI,” (par 6).

I think that we get closer to Vernor Vinge’s Inflection point as technology advances. The more we progress in technology, the more will be able to develop better AI machines. Once we hit the moment of singularity, there is a possibility that it may lead to the extinction of the entire human race.

Apple vs. the FBI

After reading the article "Apple vs. the FBI" by Will Oremus, I have decided to remain on the side of Apple. Apple claims that citizens and iPhone owners  "...have a legitimate interest in keeping the data on their phones private and secure-even those suspected of heinous crimes," (2). Apple has a complete right to allow its iPhone owners to keep their data secure while the government does not have the right to make Apple woken their security system. "...Apple claims that what the magistrate is asking for is tantamount to a backdoor-a loophole built into a software program that allows the government to circumvent its security measures," (2). If Apple's security system is weakened, it will make it so much easier for criminals to hack into anyone’s iPhone. Apple should not jeopardize their security system. They should keep their security system strong. Everyone has a right to protect his or her own data.

If I were in the place of Tim Cook, I would not allow the FBI to have information from encrypted data. If the FBI demanded that I supply information to unlock encrypted data, I would not supply information because people are entitled to keep their data on their phones private and secure. If the FBI gets its way, the rights that will be impacted by Apple’s actions are the rights to security and privacy. It would impact the rights of privacy and security by creating a way for them to hack into anyone’s phone. If Apple gets its way, I don’t think any rights would be impacted by their refusal to comply.

According to the article “Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” it is essential that “…human rights should be protected by the law,” (Preamble) and that “no one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation,” (Article 12). Everyone should be able to have his or her own information secure and private. The law protects the right to security and the right to privacy. The government cannot interfere with anything that is protected by the law.

In the article “Apple attorney: FBI order could ‘destroy the iPhone as it exists’” by Shelby Grad, Carlos Lozano and Paresh Dave, attorney Ted Olsen had described the case as “‘an extremely important debate about privacy [and] civil librities’ but said Apple is concerned about protecting the privacy of iPhone users,” (par 5). Apple rejected the request because they want to protect all of their iphone users. If Apple accepted the request, they would have violated the rights of security and privacy of their users. It is a good thing that Apple rejected the request from the FBI. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-apple-attorney-fbi-order-could-destroy-the-iphone-as-it-exists-20160221-story.html

Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

I think that there are a few AI weapons may violate the Martens Clause (1977). The Martens Clause (1977) “…bans weapons that violate the ‘principles of humanity and dictates of public conscience,’” (Russell 416).

I would describe “meaningful human control” over AI weapons as controlling the effectiveness of the weapons and making sure that the AI weapons won’t take over humans. The debate over “meaningful human control” over AI weapons has many factors. “Some argue that the superior effectiveness and selectivity of autonomous weapons can minimize civilian casualties by targeting only combatants. Others insist that LAWS, [Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems], will lower the threshold for going to war by making it possible to attack an enemy while incurring no immediate risk; or that they will enable terrorists and non-state-aligned combatants to inflict catastrophic damage on civilian populations,” (Russell 416). For example, in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, the H.A.L 9000 computer that would think like a human goes from working properly to taking revenge on the humans when it thinks that they are planning to disassemble it. AI weapons should be made in a way that would not all of a sudden take revenge on the human population.

https://itunes.apple.com/US/movie/id285993250

The scope of the 4 conversations is that they are all about the ethics of artificial intelligence. For each of the conversations, the writer states their view of AI weapons and their uses.

The fields that are impacted by AI/Robotics are “…taxpayers, policy-makers, investors and those who could benefit from the technology,” (Hauert 417). AI/Robotics impacts jobs that benefit from technology. They fear that robots are someday going to take over their jobs. Technology should be kept under control.

“Artificial Intelligence (AI) has astounding potential to accelerate scientific discovery in biology and medicine, and to transform health care,” (Altman 417).

Film Report- 2001: A Space Odyssey

After watching 2001: A Space Odyssey, I found that it was boring and complicated. I was really confused about what was happening. It was a weird movie. I was really confused when it started out with apes in the beginning and ended up being in space. When it started showing the part of the movie in space, some of the machinery that was used portrayed examples of artificial intelligence. It was interesting seeing that machine in the movie that would actually talk. When it had a computer malfunction, it was really interesting because it showed that it was capable of error. Other than that, the movie was really dull.   

How We Became Posthuman

How did the Macy Conferences on Cybernetics view human beings (in the hypothetical hierarchy of animal-human-machine)?

The Macy Conferences on Cybernetics viewed human beings “…as information-processing entities who are essentially similar to intelligent machines,” (Hayles 7). The Macy period related homeostasis of living organisms to machines. Just like living organisms can maintain homeostasis, machines are able to maintain it as well. “Like animals, machines can maintain homeostasis using feedback loops,” (Hayles 8). Homeostasis was highly emphasized during the times of The Macy Conferences on Cybernetics.

How does Hayles define humanism, and how would you, in your own words, define the same term? How does Hayles define posthuman, and how would you, again using your own words, define the term? In what way do these things differ?

Hayles defines humanism as a type of posthuman with the use of all the technological advances leading about to today and the future. I define humanism as being a good and free individual. The dictionary definition of humanism is “a system of values and beliefs that is based on the idea that people are basically good and that problems can be solved using reason instead of religion,” (merriam-webster.com).

Hayles defines the posthuman as an amalgam: “…a collection of heterogeneous components, a material-informational entity whose boundaries undergo continuous construction and reconstruction,” (Hayles, 3). I define posthuman as someone who goes beyond what a human can do now.

Humanism and Posthuman are different because humanism means that humans are good while posthuman means going beyond what a human can actually do know.

To what extent are you posthuman? 

I don’t know what extent I am as a posthuman. I think that we would end up being posthuman as technology advances through time.

Human Rights vs Civil Rights

There isn't a big difference between human rights and civil rights. The law protects human rights and civil rights. The only difference is that we will always need to fight for civil rights. I think that we should consider them different because while both human and civil rights are protected by the law, we will always need to fight for some rights. Ever since the Civil Rights Movement started, many activists groups have formed to advocate about certain issues. The groups would work to resolve the issues. The Civil Rights Movement still continues today after many years.

What the class should know about me?

My name is Samantha Harouni. I am a student at CSUN majoring in Biotechnology. I plan on going in Pharmacy in the future. I expect to learn the skills necessary to be successful in college and the real world. I also hope to improve my writing skills by the end of the sermester.  I hope to learn a lot from this class and look forward to learning something new each day.