Module 13

This semester has just flown by for me! Now it is time to assess what I have learned.  The biggest thing I have learned, (although I’m sure I have a full understanding of it because it seems endless) is how connected we all are through technology.  Which I also learned how it is everywhere, and I use it for almost everything.  Many younger people, like myself were sort of born into this high-tech world, and it is interesting to learn how it all came about and is constantly developing.  How could it not? I am not proud to admit it, but I always have my smart phone with me and I would guess I’m not the only one.  So of course people are always connected and trying to make our lives easier and technology better!  

Throughout the readings of The World is Flat by Friedman, I learned just a few of the ways we are all connected and can work with one another for a better economy and future.  Different countries even work together in ways they can both benefit! I have only really ever put thought into America, and Japan as developing countries because thats mostly what we hear about.  It was interesting to read about other countries also becoming more advanced in their own ways, such as the example about India.

One thing I enjoyed most was the articles.  It made it so we weren’t learning this course threw only one author and his opinions.  Instead we got to read a few others which helped me to have a better understanding of our world developing, and carry that on with me.  If we read from only one text book this would have felt more like “a class I took one time”.  A Logic Named Joe was my favorite article to read, because it was at the start technology in a sense and the accents the characters had made it fun to read.  

I’m so glad this class is online and assignments are submitted over a blog because thats what this class is all about!  Learning how to make a blog will surely help me in the future.  Reading what others blog posts had to say about the assignment was fun and a learning experience of its own.  Some people have strong opinions and some take the assignment even further by sharing their own knowledge while answering the questions asked.  Those were my favorite to read.

Overall I think this was a very beneficial class and very eye opening.  I have already recommended it to a few friends.  The course guidelines were very clear from the very beginning.  There isn’t anything I would change in this course.  Instructor Jensen was very helpful and easy to communicate with over email.  The readings were never overwhelmingly long like they are in some courses. I think I’ll keep the book.

Module 12

We all have fear in us. Some people fear spiders, some fear never finding love, but most people fear the future because we don’t know what it holds.  The author, Joy is also afraid so it seems.  Technology has helped us to overcome that fear a bit because we can now predict the future more accurately.  Because we are trying to make our lives much easier, it isn’t surprising that it might include robots.  A real concern with robots  is that they could possibly take over the human race.  They can’t die, because they aren't alive.  With technology so advanced they could possibly develop their own thoughts and personalities. When I think of robots taking over the world it always makes me think of the 2004 movie with Will Smith, I, Robot.  I think that movie is a good representation of what could happen.  GNR is a new technology that is helping to improve us. Stands for genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robots.

GNR has three components, the first being its genetics.  We use genetic engineering all the time!  We use it in agriculture for better crops, in medicine to help fight viruses, and even to choose what gene’s your baby will receive, such as green eyes and curly hair.  In my opinion genetic engineering is a good and helpful thing as long as we don’t over use it.  I would never genetically engineer a human, or what will become a human.  I think things could take a turn for the worst in something we don’t already fully understand.  We still get birth defects, disease, ect. that we have no idea where they come from or how to treat them.  Crops, such as corn we have a better understanding of the science behind it and it isn’t someones life on the line. 

Nanotechnology is similar to genetic engineering.  It is the second of the three GNR components.  Nanotechnology helps protect us from viruses that could make us sick. It can cause great good for us, but also great devastation. The military use it in their nuclear technology.  Using it as a weapon which could potentially harm a lot of people.

Robots is the third component.  We use robots for everything, if you count robots as any advance piece of technology such as a cell phone.  Id like to say robots are aids for the human race, like a robot nanny or something.  Robots are improving more and more because they are a part of technology.  It is just scary if we make them to advanced and they start having human like tendency’s.  We like robots to make our jobs easier, but doesn’t that make us lazy?  I think there is or will be a limit to how we use robots in our daily lives.  We still want to live and do things that make us human! If robots do everything for us then we are not living our lives to the fullest, as we should be.

Bill Joy is a little bit dramatic in my opinion, but I do agree with his underline understanding of it all.  GNR is good, but we could absolutely over use it or use it in a wrong way.  There are two sides to everything.

Module 11

The 2008 action thriller Eagle Eye has computer use through and through the entire movie, it is also a fun movie to watch in my opinion.  Actors Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, and Billy Bob Thornton star in the film, written by Dan McDermott and directed by D.J. Caruso. Both Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan start off in the story as strangers and are quickly brought together for a mission, threw the technology around them. In the city of Chicago it seemed to be pretty easy to do, considering they both had cell phones, traffic cameras and business cameras on the street, televisions, and any other type of technology.  

The people targeting the man and woman were able to use computers to tap into anything that uses a computer, including a lifting magnetic mobile crane. They were constantly one step ahead of LaBeouf and Monaghan.  Whenever the two would try and escape from the torturous game they were driven right back into it threw the technology around them.  They were basically just like puppets that had a mind of their own. The only time Shia LaBeouf was able to out smart the use of computers was at the very end on the movie, when he preformed a terrorist attack to make himself a target as everyone else escaped.