I-Robot

After reading this article on artificial intelligence, it reminded me of I-Robot. It scares me to image a world of that nature but at times, I do wish for robots. How easy would it be for us college students to have something like that. Someone to do our laundry, clean our room and run errands for us. More time for us to concentrate on studying and homework. What a world that would be? However, life isn't there yet.

As for the questions at the end of the article. Computer-based neural network learn and adapt by analyzing the "scene, the objects in view and their relationships would trigger iconic representations which could be used to "output" language that describes the scene." (Davidson, 118) According to this statement, a robots analyze a scene and then if the scenery triggers an action, then the robot would obey the laws that it is programed to do so. This is what is really scary about the whole robot thing. If you can remember the scene from the movie I-Robot, when the main character played by Will Smith talks about his past and how a robot chose to save him over a child because of its analytically thinking. He had a higher chance of surviving than a child that was also drowning. He was upset because a person who chose to rescue a child over an adult because she has more life to live.

Even though this is something you can image getting upset over but at the same time, the is more that a robot can offer. Some has the ability to solve complex mathematically problems. But is math the most complex problems that we as human are challenged by. I think there are more things that we as human are challenged by. I don't believe that a robot can solve a complex conscious problem. We can program it to obey certain laws but what if the laws conflicts with an law. How would a robot react to that. It is hard to say but I know as a human, religion would play in the decision making.

Right or Wrong

Wow, this is a bit confusing. I don't even know where to start. But I chose the class discussion of page 109 and hopefully I can explain my point to view to the rest of the group.
From a scientific point of view, I understand how the authors use biology to explain consciousness. It is the cells of the body that allows memories to occur. The authors talked about how the mind can remember a face by firing neuron cells. It stated that the “neurons help the brain represent the face …” To me, this means that neurons enable us to memory faces but understand the different angle and depth of the curve of everyone’s face. Okay, our cells allow us to remember things but this does not fully explain how consciousness
There is a more to human’s consciousness then remembering. Yes, we remember the lessons learned from mistakes made but is memories the only thing that human’s consciousness is all about. If there is something that we have not learned from previous experience how do we decide what’s right from wrong. Some might use faith to explain their decision. If this was the case, then how do we explain this biologically? It is impossible to explain human consciousness. Yes, conscious does associate with the brain but there are things that can’t be explained biologically.

Week 2- Blog Reviews

Melissa Burton: Hi Melissa I enjoyed reading your 9/01 blog, its great that your continuing on going to school and not giving up. Getting an education is the to success. I agree with you when you talk about how people do judge each other when working in a class environment. First impression usually sets it off whether or not you want to work with that person in a group project or getting to know them. With this online class it does eliminate our face to face interaction with them but it does allow us to blog whatever we want while staying on task for our weekly assignment. That's cool that you took a class with other students out of the country. How was that like? What class was it for?

I liked your response for "Can we be good with God." I totally agree that the answer to that question can have a number of responses. It is up to the person wheter he or she wants to be good for either themselves or believing that it'll lead to a good path in god's hand. We have the ability to believe whatever we want ourselves to believe if we set our minds to it. Their are a large number of different religions to follow and to believe we just have to choose one and go on from there.


Melissa Paulo: Blog on 9-01 & 9-3 are N/A (no post)


Monique Perez: In your The Individual Sel "SELF" blog I know what you are talking about when a person can go a whole semester in a classroom and physically not say a word to anyone. I've seen it sometimes I forget that they are there because he/she has been so quiet the whole entire semester. You are right it doesn't make him/her a bad person because they don't relate themselves to you or anyone in the class. Maybe the find the traditional classroom as a place to concentrate on classwork as well as lecture rather than socializing.

Good without a God blog- When you said "I wouldn’t change anything I’ve learned because I truly believe those teachings, beliefs and morals have shaped who I am today" I was able to relate to you. I wouldn't change anything I learned either. It's a religion that my family truly believes and follow. Everything that I've learned has a purpose and may or may not have served its role already. Your there's no such thing as a perfect person. Making mistakes makes us a better person by learning from it.

Life without God?

In the Beedles’ textbook on page 63 a recent research suggested that a religious person is more likely to commit a crime than a non-religious person. It is believed by some that the more religious the society, the more likely it is to have high crime rates. It was also foreseen in some studies that religion has no moral affect on people’s behaviors. If that’s the case why do we need a god? We have our own power to choose our own path whether it’s good or bad. It is very possible to live a life without god. We can prevent a lot of religious controversy from occurring too.

My whole entire life I was brought up into the Religion of Buddhism. In Buddhism we believe in the way of life brought by good karma called dharma. We also believe in reincarnation, which is the cycle of life. When I was younger I used to attend the temples to see the monks all the time. As I got older that changed, my visits to the temple would be only once a month to once a year. I can see that my religion is already slipping out of my life with the busy schedule. If I was capable of letting my religion fall out of my hands I think I would be capable of living a life without a religion to fallow.

My whole entire life I was brought up into the Religion of Buddhism. In Buddhism we believe in the way of life brought by good karma called dharma. We also believe in reincarnation, which is the cycle of life. When I was younger I used to attend the temples to see the monks all the time. As I got older that changed, my visits to the temple would be only once a month to once a year. I can see that my religion is already slipping out of my life with the busy schedule. If I was capable of letting my religion fall out of my hands I think I would be capable of living a life without a religion to fallow.

In the Beedles’ textbook on page 63 a recent research suggested that a religious person is more likely to commit a crime than a non-religious person. It is believed by some that the more religious the society, the more likely it is to have high crime rates. It was also foreseen in some studies that religion has no moral affect on people’s behaviors. If that’s the case why do we need a god? We have our own power to choose our own path whether it’s good or bad. It is very possible to live a life without god. We can prevent a lot of religious controversy from occurring too.

So, in a traditional classroom setting, the first that most small size classes do is introduce themselves to the entire class. But for large lecture halls, we tend to find a place where we think we would fit until a later on, we realize that we might not belong into this crowd. After a few weeks of class, we will figure who is who and tends to make friends just because we are in similar classes and would like to get answers from each other off the homework assignment. Back to the smaller classroom, I personally make friends with female first since I myself is a female. We tend to group ourselves closer to the same sex just because we know we can relate at a similar level. As for the online class, I think introducing ourselves via blogging is a first for me. I had a hard time thinking to describe myself because I don't know what I should let people online know. There is just a bit of fear on my behave. Overall, I feel like I can express myself online better than I can in person due to the fact that I am not standing in front of the classroom introducing myself. The only thing I can say is that it will take a bit of time for me to open up.

After doing the reading, I feel like technology is good and bad. With technology, we gain more access to informations and communication. We are able to keep in touch in friends and gain more friends. With every relationship, we must compromise our time. Just like Gergen stated, "Liberation becomes a swirling vertigo of demands." We give up our time for those we are close to. So, by having more friends, we must need more time. Technology is a double edged sword. It can be good and bad.