EOTO 2 Reaction

     I found Johnathan Reeves's presentation on the effects of echo chambers was really fascinating to learn about. It was really interesting to find out how rumors can spread very quickly through the effects of the echo chamber. The echo chamber effect really gets a hold of people who do not have a very diverse way of thinking and are very close minded. Echo chambers really take a hold of a specific rumor initially started from within the echo chamber, which later then gets outsourced to the public with it being the only known information. Like I had stated earlier, the people within these echo chambers who are really close minded and have a very rigid way of thinking are really easy prey for these echo chamber rumors. These are the people most likely to believe these rumors since they will not divert away from the one piece or very few pieces of information relayed to them. This allows the information to be more amplified, heavily fueled by the distortion of close minded people within the echo chamber. The most interesting part about echo chambers is that they are not just exclusive to online platforms. Echo chambers can take place anywhere where information is exchanged, expanding the chances that close minded people can fall to these rumors. The Internet also has a special mechanic implemented called "filter bubbles", which are algorithms that keep track of what type of content you are viewing. They filter content that is similar to content you have previously expressed interest in, and then use that information to recommend more content based on the content you had just viewed. Echo chambers can be really dangerous if you have a very limited and close minded way of thinking, but if you educate yourself on current events and have a more diverse and open minded way of thinking, you can escape the echo chamber and made your voice more heard.

EOTO: Total Information Awareness

     If I told you that someone is always watching you, would you believe me? It sounds sort of ridiculous to think about, especially in the land of the free, home of the brave that is America. But what if I told you that there was a system in place in the government designed around "detecting terrorists"? Would you still think that you are safe in your home country? Would you not trust the government? What would you do?

Total Information Awareness was created in November 2002 by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as a way to detect terrorists through analyzation of information. But the government was really using terrorist detection as an excuse to spy on people's personal data and information without their consent. This is already a not cool plan from the government, but it gets even worse. Total Information Awareness would constantly spy on an individual, grabbing tons and tons of important and personal data, all just to see how likely they would be a criminal. This was a horrible plan by the United States government, but nobody knew this was even going on back then. The government had free reign to do whatever they wanted with people's personal and even private information, just to benefit them. In September 2003, Congress stopped funding the Total Information Awareness program, which brought the end to Total Information Awareness... or did it?

    

    This gentleman here is Edward Snowden, a famous whistleblower that has been behind many leaks of government documents and programs. Snowden worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 2006 to 2009, before taking his talents to the National Security Agency (NSA). He then later became an intelligence contractor from 2009 until 2013, where he requested a medical leave of absence in order to go to Hong Kong. During his time at the NSA, he gathered data on many NSA activities, more importantly, secret service programs. So when Snowden flew to Hong Kong, he leaked all of these governmental secrets, a notable one being a court order to popular telecommunications company Verizon, which stated that they surrender all metadata (such as the numbers dialed and the length of the calls made) of millions of its subscribers. Edward Snowden really opened a lot of people's eyes as what the government was doing to them behind closed doors, and questioned how much power the government should really have.

Even though Edward Snowden successfully leaked governmental secrets, total information awareness still became prevalent, even after its apparent demise in 2003. While it may not be known to the public as total information awareness anymore, there still have been multiple projects similar to the original plan of total information awareness. Some of these projects include Genoa, Genysis, Communicator, and many others. These all harness the same potential as processing outside data, and turning into valuable information for the government to store. This makes it really unnerving for us living in the world today, as well as future generations because it does not feel like our information is safe, or that even we as people are safe. If the government is constantly watching over us, can the United States of America really be considered "land of the free?" Or is it really the "home of the unsafe?"

In The Age of AI Reflection

     We are now ever close to the dominating age of AI. It is approaching rapidly and at times, we begin to worry if robots might actually take over the world one day.

    Well luckily, our future metal overlords have not cracked the code on world domination yet. However, they are getting smarter and smarter by picking up on human habits, and the rapid evolution of technology allowing them to keep up with the future. AI getting smarter and smarter is actually a good thing for us because it can allow many current jobs to become way easier through the hands (well I guess they would not be hands sometimes) of AI. AI and machine learning allow for tasks that would take longer for a human to accomplish, if ever, to become possible. When Google's Deep Mind AI challenged the world's top ranked player of the game Go, it began the prideful battle of man versus machine, with the winner really changing how we think about AI. In a shocking turn of events, Deep Mind was able to take home the victory, outsmarting the world's former best Go player in a series of strategies humans could not even fathom.

    So how is AI able to make these incredibly complex decisions? Well they have to learn from somewhere, and the source to all of this learning comes from us humans. In machine learning, humans teach AI an assortment of different situations and responses to those situations. The more situations you give it, the more situations it can respond to, which is why the more higher level AI's are so smart. They quite literally know everything because they have been taught everything they need to know. That's what begins to worry me about the future of AI, that the will start to become these "all-knowing" beings that can outsmart anyone. If that ever happens, how will we ever know if something is entirely real or is made up of AI?

    10 years ago, this was not entirely an issue. For instance, AI voices used to be highly recognizable if the voice being used was from an AI program. Now, AI has gotten so smart at picking up voices through speech impediments and vocal patterns that it is extremely hard to tell what is real and what is fake. This could have dire consequences today as AI could just easily impersonate a figure to say something false, outlandish, or even worse, offensive. In something like our national security, if we hand over those duties to an AI program, it is now completely out of our control if the AI does not do its job among other means. 

The idea of AI is now a more pressing idea thanks to its quick evolution in the last decade. It can be a good thing with how smart an AI becomes because it can now help us solve problems humans would not be able to think of. But what would happen if that thinking were to suddenly turn on us? Would robots rule the world? Would humans become extinct? It is hard to tell but if the world closely monitors AI, its rise to power might not be as nerve racking as it sounds.

EOTO 1 Reaction

    I learned a lot from Elizabeth's presentation on the history of the motion picture. I had known that the history of movies started around the early 1920s, but what I was unaware of was the fact that the history of the motion picture had started as early as 1888, with the first motion picture being only about three seconds long. One of the very interesting facts I had learned was that Louis Le Prince was also a huge innovator for the early history of the motion picture. He was responsible for the first motion picture clip, and the Kinetoscope, which was one of the earliest inventions to view a motion picture. The motion picture industry also had a very slow, albeit, productive development when it came to making movies. They slowly started with sound, moved up to 3D films, computer generated animation, and now, have worked all the way up to today. 

    Considering the extremely fast paced evolution of communication technologies, it interested me that the evolution of motion pictures was so slow. However, the evolution of the motion picture had the same huge strides that other communication technologies often experience in their respective evolutions. They started of small in 1888 with the first motion picture. Then, in 1927, The Jazz Singer was the first motion picture to have synchronized sound. 55 years later in 1982, TRON became the first motion picture film to use computer graphic imagery or CGI, having a full fifteen minutes of the movie be entirely computer generated. Then finally in 1995, Toy Story became the first motion picture film to be entirely computer animated. With all of these achievements in motion picture history, it is no wonder that they evolved into a juggernaut in the entertainment industry and have had a positive impact on people everywhere.

EOTO Research Project

     The history of video games is a long and complicated one. There is not one direct inventor of video games but rather, multiple as the origin of video games can be traced back as early as the 1950s and 1960s. During that timeframe, computer scientists began designing simple games on minicomputers, which would later translate to the first video game, SpaceWar! in 1962. Created by MIT student hobbyists, this was the first video game to use a video display. After Pong was created in 1970, many video game companies wanted to capitalize on its fame, causing the industry to go through several boom or bust cycles due to lack of innovation.

    Around the 1980s, video games were going through a really tough time. The 1983 video game crash hit the United States really hard from too many games to cheap knockoffs. This prompted Japan to take charge of the video game industry, as the crash did not seem to hit them as hard, if at all. In 1985, Nintendo released the Nintendo Entertainment System, reviving the video game industry and brimming it full of life for many years to come. Nintendo's original ideas bundled with its very easy to understand game mechanics allowed for people of all ages to enjoy video games once again

Since then, video games have changed the world, becoming a dominant branch of the entertainment industry, being present in many families homes, and a common hobby among children and adults alike. Video games have brought forth a positive impact on the world by helping strengthen problem solving and social skills in children. This can be explained by video games constant engagement with players and how they utilize puzzles, strategy, and problem solving to encourage critical thinking skills. With the recent introduction of online multiplayer gaming, communication has evolved in video games with people now able to communicate across very long distances with friends and online opponents alike.

However, it has gotten quite the negative impact in recent years. Contrast to its improvement of social skills in children, video games also teach children to be antisocial if they are not playing and interacting with other people. Video games have also brought on unhealthy habits such as obesity and carpal tunnel, two very important diseases that are heavily linked to obsessive play of video games. Gaming is also very addicting, as it is officially labeled as "internet gaming disorder" (IGD) and can suffer dire consequences such as loss of appetite, loss of sleep, and even losing relationships and interests in other activities.

    Despite the negative criticism towards video games, video games have changed the world for the better, and in some cases, for the worst. They help communication while also hindering it. They evolved the world while also setting back. It is a very give or take subject that as humans, we are still figuring out. Gaming has evolved into a very popular branch of the entertainment industry and thanks to its communication benefits, will stay around for many years to come.

Privacy, Online and Off

     When it comes to digital privacy, it becomes very hard to determine how safe I feel online. There are good sides to this like two factor authentication, to ensure your information to an account is safe. But that also means giving this company your information... so am I really that safe online? It very much affects me because now that my information is out there, there is so much that people can do with it. They could change your name, address, birthdate, the possibilities are endless as long as you keep giving them information.

    Because the safety of online privacy is unclear, I think the government should strictly outline what information companies are allowed to ask for. Asking for some information is ok, but I think that companies and organizations are getting way too personal, especially online. There is not a clear reason as to why the government allows this, and even does this in multiple instances. Having all this information hoarded for other people to use as they wish is very dangerous, and the government should regulate this to make it so that innocent people aren't worrying for their lives

Now this sounds all sort of scary...

    And yeah. It really is scary, knowing that your personal information is not safe and can be used against you at any time. However, there are protective measures we can take to defend us against this invasion of privacy. One of the easiest things you can do is be aware of the kind of information companies want to steal from you. Are they asking too much from you? (the answer is usually yes). If they ask for your information, claiming they are using your it to curate "a better experience", that's their secret code of "say goodbye to your rights buddy". Companies just use that information to share it with other companies in the form of advertising. In other words, you really are not safe if you allow that kind of information sharing to happen. So it is very important that you take important steps such as these to ensure not only that your data is safe, but that you are safe too.