How to Catch a Liar on the Internet

In this article by Megan Garber, she discusses how the internet makes it easy to not only lie more, but also to catch people in lies. Studies have been done that prove that people lie much more behind a computer screen than in person. Catching people in their lies is made simple with just a quick google search, or a bit of research on social media or the read receipts on an email, etc. Interestingly though, people tend to lie less on job applications/resumes because of the amount of people that will be viewing it and how easy it is to tell if someone is lying or not. People also tend to lie less in emails because of the permanence of the text. Many of the lies people tell on the internet are small, slight exaggerations. These are mostly on online dating profiles or through text messages or phone calls. I enjoyed reading this article because it had a good flow and the author used relatable examples to make it easy to understand.

Avatars in the Workplace

This article is discussing the use of virtual reality games such as Second Life in the workplace. It talked about how employees must blur the lines between work and leisure and how certain rules are applied to the appearance of their avatars similar to a dress code. This article was very interesting because I never would have thought that businesses would use a game like Second Life to conduct business. However, it kind of makes sense. It’s like a more modern version of a conference call. Instead of talking on the phone or via skype with international business partners you would all meet up on Second Life. The idea of putting a “dress code” in place for peoples avatars struck me as off because as it says in the article, online avatars are a means of self expression to so many people and limiting that just somehow seems wrong. Overall, this article was interesting and got me thinking about virtual reality games as more than just a means of entertainment.

The Problem with ‘Friendly’ Artificial Intelligence

This article discusses why autonomous robots such as military drones are not ethical because of the increased artificial intelligence. Legally, humans have to be “in the loop” when it comes to the machines decision making. However, the robots make decisions so quickly that it’s almost a waste of time for humans to have to oversee them. There are engenieers that are trying to make artificial intelligence that behave morally, these people call them themselves “friendly AI theorists”. It is scary to think that robots could some day (in the very near future) surpass humans and take over the world, wiping out the human race. However, these theorists think that those fears are foolish and only happen in sci-fi movies because robots wouldn’t be concerned with wiping us out let alone doing it for some vindictive reasons. It is noted in this article that if robots can become moral beings, their psychology would still be different from our own and we would not be able to understand them. They would be like us, but without all of our negative traits such as fear, jealousy, pride, or greed. Is it possible to program robots to be ethical and moral beings? In order to do that, there would have to be a clear cut rule of ethics that everyone agrees with and follows which is simply not going to happen.

Let the Robot Drive

Many company’s including BMW, Audi, Toyota and even Google are developing cars that drive themselves. They have screens mounted on the dashboard that show the world through the eyes of the car. They are able to calculate the movements of other vehicles or even pedestrians in order to tell not only where they are but where they’re going. The cars are able to calculate what the safest routes are and if you think about it, autonomous cars may seem scary, but they’re much safer than humans that have moments of indecision while driving or even the people that text and drive, or do other distracting things while behind the wheel. The cars aren’t learning to drive based off of the official DMV handbook. They are collecting data based on how people ACTUALLY drive and reacting to it. Autonomous cars will have advanced technology including: radar, lane-keeping, LIDAR, infrared camera, stereo vision, GPS, and wheel encoder. However, the technology isn’t perfect yet and there are still things that the cars aren’t doing as efficiently as possible. There is still confusion when it comes to the legality issues of autonomous cars as well. It is still debated on whether or not people will be on board with giving up the control of their cars.

In the article Machine Grading and Moral Learning, Joshua Shulz is educating readers about a new software created by Harvard and MIT that automatically grades students essays. This type of software is, of course, very controversial. It was invented to help teachers who need to grade a ton of essays for large classes and is said to be accurate because it is based on human-generated scores. However, some people do not think it is helpful because it focuses on irrelevant criteria that doesn’t necessarily prove that the student is doing a good job.

This article is interesting because it discusses artificial intelligence (AI) and whether or not it should be an accepted way to grade papers and to measure real people’s work. He also mentions that learning requires love, which I thought was interesting thing to bring up when discussing this topic because computers cannot love. Students don’t want to impress a computer because they know the computer doesn’t care.

I liked the authors use of analogies and metaphors in this article in order to get people to understand what it is he is talking about. For example, he described being good at grading papers in comparison to being good at building houses vs. building homes.

This article did lose me a bit when discussing the philosophical aspects that went along with artificial intelligence being a good or bad option when it comes to grading papers.

Overall, I give this article a 6 out of 10.

My relationship with writing has not been particularly easy. I find it difficult to get my thoughts out on paper. I think the reason for my stuggles with writing are due to a combination of my intense procrastination and perfectionism. It’s also tough for me to want to write when I’m not interested in the topic or if I feel as though I don’t have enough knowledge on the topic. I really enjoy reading, and I love books with a lot of detail so that I can get a vivid picture in my mind of the characters and the setting. I love getting engrossed in a book, feeling like I know the characters and I can connect with them like I know them in real life. Reading a great book makes me envious of the author because I find it difficult to be descriptive in my writing. In high school I never did terribly bad on my writing assignments, but I tend to dread the process of sitting down and writing them. However, when I got my grade back, and it was a good one I would feel very accomplished. My journey with writing has been a very interesting one and I can’t quite figure out how I feel about it. My thoughts tend to be jumbled and another challenge I face is properly organizing them on paper. I much prefer speaking and I tend to have more anxiety about writing than I do speaking in front of a class. I feel it’s far easier to get my point across verbally. Over all, my relationship with writing is confusing even to me and I hope that this class helps me branch out and feel more confident in my abilities as a writer.

I think I would be most interested in writing about technology this semester since it is such a staple in everyone’s lives including my own. For the memoir assignment, I could write about my first experience with technology… my first cell phone, game system, or simply what it was like growing up in an extremely technology based world. Learning how to work a mouse and keyboard at the age of two for example.

For the ethnography assignment, I could examine some online communities such as YouTube and how their jobs are completely reliant on the existence of the internet and technology. I could study a store that focuses on technology such as Best Buy, Game Stop, etc. Or even the day in the life of a long distance couple and how technology is the thing that made the couple possible.

Argument topics could include how technology has effected how people socialize (or don’t socialize), the obesity rate and technology’s involvement in that, safety on the internet, cyberbullying, texting while driving, etc.

A photo essay could include the evolution of cellphones focusing on how size and simplicity of the products have changed over the years, comparing life through the eyes of a child now and 30+ years ago, the evolution of how a certain website looked such as facebook or google has changed over the years.

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