Author Archives: Jay Moody

Final Project: Artifical Intelligence and Human Concerns

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People have received most of their knowledge about Artificial Intelligence from many type media content like Terminator, I, Robot, and Bicentennial Man in the last century. What we have witnessed is that the AI has been represented in either a negative or positive character in the stories, but now AI has become our reality in our everyday life. People will take what they have learned about AI and most likely lean to the negative idea of either AI “Going to take over the world” or “This is the end of humanity.” My presentation is to bring a little light on how AI is, directly and indirectly, effect out very day lives and if we should be afraid of the future outcomes that are involved in A.I. The topic I’ll be taking will include proving my argument will be Unemployment, Medical, and the Military. Because A.I. is such huge topic to talk about, I’ll be breaking down the definition to other keywords like Weak A.I. and Strong A.I. to simplify the point surrounding the topic.

My goal to towards the end of my presentation is to educate the audience a little about A.I. and the current application that either in the works or that they are personal using at the moment. Also, show the positive and negative outcomes of have A.I. in our world today.

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AI Presentation Blog

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With the continued advancement into Artificial Intelligence, the concerns and fears the people are having are how this advancement will affect my way of life for me and rest of humanity?

Unemployment is one of the factor AI is currently affecting our society. Most of the manual labor such as banking, coal mining, and the future of truck driving are slowly being eliminated for the choice of jobs. In these field, allowing AI to take over will reduce human error and less human injury for the labor works and a small cost for the companies. Quoted in the AI Business article, “Julia Bossman, President of Foresight Institute writes that it is essential in the future that we start questioning how we use our time. In today’s society, most people rely on “selling their time” to have enough income in order to fund themselves and support their family. What happens if we are no longer required to do this? Bossman says that we can hope that this opportunity will enable people to find meaning in non-labour activities, spending their time more on things they want to do, rather than what they are obliged to do” (AI Business). These type of changes had happened before in the labor workforce like for example, before mainframe computer people use to do the complicated mathematical computing for NASA. Most people either learn the new systems, so they are relevant and useful to their employer or fell through the cracks.

While AI advancements are being developed, will there be laws set in place?

In every aspect of life today, their laws and ethical guidelines in place to protect society. For example, construction of a building has to purchase work permit and even receive site safety inspections for certified building engineers to protect the works and people around the area for hazardous conditions. I believe the same thing will apply as the advancement of AI continues. In an article by the Register, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is already starting talks to implement laws to protect its citizens from companies designing automated cars. “The European Parliament today called for EU-wide liability laws to cover robotics and artificial intelligence. MEPs also want researchers to adopt ethical standards that “respect human dignity”.  Additionally, they propose a voluntary ethical code of conduct for robotics researchers and designers to ensure that the machines operate “in accordance with legal and ethical standards and that robot design and their use respect human dignity” (Martin, Alexander J). These talks can open doors for other countries to start placing similar laws in place to protect their citizens from AI modern advancements.

My source for my presentation focused on showing the concerns that society will have on the growing advancements in Artificial Intelligence. My first source is from Future of Life which highlight the benefits and risk of AI. Breaks down what AI, the current stage in its development and the benefits/risk in detail. My second source is from The Register which explains the immediate attention of having new laws put in place to deal with the advancement of AI and Robotics. And my third source is from an article from AI Business which breaks down a few area in our society where AI will affect us and how to address them.

My next step is to continue my work on my presentation is to organize it in a way to break down what artificial intelligence is compared to what we have learned from science fiction stories and where we are currently with the development of AI. Also, show real life concerns that AI analysis are having when developing and implementing AI into our society. The troubling part of this presentation is keeping a balance of science fiction aspect with real life elements together.

Martin, Alexander J. “MEPs in ‘urgent’ call for new laws on artificial intelligence and robotics.” The Register® – Biting the hand that feeds IT. The Register, 16 Feb. 2017. Web. 18 May 2017. <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/02/16/european_parliament_robotics_liability_resolution/>.

“9 Key AI Ethical Issues & How to Handle Them.” Transforming tomorrow’s enterprises through the evolution of AI – AIBusiness. AI Business, 19 Dec. 2016. Web. 18 May 2017. <http://aibusiness.org/9-ethical-issues-related-to-ai-and-how-we-should-handle-them/>.

 

Artificial Intelligence and Humanity Concerns

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We’ve received most of our knowledge about Artificial Intelligence from many type media content like Terminator, I, Robot, and Bicentennial Man in the last century. What we have witnessed is that the AI has been represented in either a negative or positive character in the stories, but now AI has become our reality in our everyday life. People will take what they have learned about AI and most likely lean to the negative idea of either AI “Going to take over the world” or “This is the end of humanity.” Fortunately, AI is in its infancy stage of development and the closest thing to AI we carry around every day is Apple Siri that we accept freely. Currently, AI that’s in development at the moment Narrow AI or Weak AI which control facial recognition or even driving an automobile. With the continued advancement into Artificial Intelligence, the concerns and fears the people are having are how this advancement will affect my way of life for me and rest of humanity? While these advancements are being developed, will their ethical guideline be set in place? Will AI programming goals align with humanities?

While watching Westworld, the character by the name of Dr. Ford stated a comment that resonated with me, “Evolution forged the entirety of sentient life on this planet using only one tool The mistake. I flattered myself we were taking a more disciplined approach here. I suppose self-delusion is a gift of natural selection as well. Indeed it is. But, of course, we’ve managed to slip evolution’s leash now, haven’t we? We can cure any disease, keep even the weakest of us alive, and, you know, one fine day perhaps we shall even resurrect the dead. Call forth Lazarus from his cave. Do you know what that means? It means that we’re done. That this is as good as we’re going to get” (41:50). It seems that we are on the verge of heading down this road, but we are still unaware of what outcome we will end up with once we reach our goal. Currently, they are talks from Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft about setting Ethical guidelines when creating AI, so it will not completely disturb our environment or way of life.

Good: “Will AI programming goals align with humanities?” When AI comes to full bloom in our reality, there a high possibility that we would have created a sentient being that surpasses our intelligence. Which can be a tool to help deal with the other issue like world hunger or even advancement in the medical science like in the movie Bicentennial Man.

Bad: “While these advancements are being developed, will their ethical guideline be set in place?” Creating AI to control weapons system can have an adverse effect on the world and the survival of the human race. With a lack of ethical guideline can lead to this possibility.

Ugly: “With the continued advancement into Artificial Intelligence, the concerns and fears the people are having is how will this advancement affect my way of life for me and rest of humanity?” Creating sentient beings that can replace the human race on many levels such as longevity and intelligence.

Top 9 ethical issues in artificial intelligence

Benefits & Risks of Artificial Intelligence

9 Key AI Ethical Issues & How to Handle Them

Why Asimov’s Three Laws Of Robotics Can’t Protect Us

After 75 years, Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics need updating

MEPs in ‘urgent’ call for new laws on artificial intelligence and robotics

 

Artificial Intelligence: End of Days or Step Forward

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Artificial Intelligence has been introduced in many books, movies, animated cartoons in the last century. During those amazing stories, AI has it positive and negative affect on people, and the environment that makes people believe can this be possible in our reality. Currently, AI does exist in our reality and our everyday life, but it’s in the infancy stage. Currently, AI is described as Narrow AI or Weak AI which control facial recognition or even driving an automobile. With all these science fiction stories around AI, were all these authors foretelling the future of multi-possible outcomes to the advancement of AI.

While watching Westworld, the character by the name of Dr. Ford stated a comment that resonated with me, “Evolution forged the entirety of sentient life on this planet using only one tool The mistake. I flattered myself we were taking a more disciplined approach here. I suppose self-delusion is a gift of natural selection as well. Indeed it is. But, of course, we’ve managed to slip evolution’s leash now, haven’t we? We can cure any disease, keep even the weakest of us alive, and, you know, one fine day perhaps we shall even resurrect the dead. Call forth Lazarus from his cave. Do you know what that means? It means that we‘re done. That this is as good as we’re going to get” (41:50). It seems that we are on the verge of heading down this road, but we are still unaware of what outcome we will end up with once we reach our goal. The questions that I would like to explore comes from a few different angles that can help guide to understanding the outcome of our fictional stories coming to reality.

Good: When AI comes to full bloom in our reality, there a high possibility that we would have created a sentient being that surpasses our intelligence. Which can be a tool to help deal with the other issue like world hunger or even advancement in the medical science like in the movie Bicentennial Man.

Bad: Creating AI to control weapons system can have an adverse effect on the world and the survival of the human race.

Ugly: Creating sentient beings that can possibly replace the human race on many levels such as longevity and intelligence.

Science Fiction author seems to have prophesized about AI from many angles, but who would have known. Based on the statements above, will we be too smart for own good or will this be stepping stone for evolution?

The End of Human Evolution and Our Replacements

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Westworld is an HBO Series the premier 2016 that surrounds the evolution of human robotics and place in the Wild Wild West story arc environment for entertainment for the wealthy and powerful. In the first episode, I gather that these robot designs have gone through 30 years of evolution that they should be called androids. While watching the first episode, there a few key points that caught my attention which was the first sign of free will and artificial intelligence, the wealthy now has an outlet to deal with their inner demon with no repercussion and man has finally reached a point in their evolution.

During the first ten minutes of the episode, Bernard was interviewing Dolores after one of the story arcs in the park, and the last comment made feel that human servant then robot “Last question, Dolores. What if I told you that you were wrong? That there are no chance encounters? That you and everyone you know were built to gratify the desires of the people who pay to visit your world? Daddy! Daddy! (Sobbing) Daddy! No! Man: The people you call “the newcomers” (10:15, Westworld). Newcomers are individuals who visit the park or to androids, new to the town. Androids are just there to satisfy the newcomers every need which can include sex or killing of the Android. During the

These robots have evolved significantly over the past thirty years that I consider them more like Androids, but they still follow a very sophisticated routine script for the newcomers. But this episode showing signs of their next and possibly final step in their evolution that is being ignored by Bernard and rest of the team as program error. “It’s good news, really. Confirms the problem was part of the update. We can roll them back, clean them up, put them back in service. You think I’m gonna sign off on this fucking homicidal thing going back into service? It’s homicidal by design. Walter kills other hosts all the time. I’ll admit the method here is a little unconventional, but it didn’t hurt a guest. The hosts are supposed to stay within their loops, stick to their scripts with minor improvisations. This isn’t a minor improvisation” (39:50). This scene leads me to believe that this program update started the ball for the androids to have free will, which can result in rebellion in the far future against their maker or even breaking the rule of not hurting the guest.

The last thing that caught my attention was the conversation between Bernard and Dr. Ford about evolution. “Evolution forged the entirety of sentient life on this planet using only one tool The mistake. I flattered myself we were taking a more disciplined approach here. I suppose self-delusion is a gift of natural selection as well. Indeed it is. But, of course, we’ve managed to slip evolution’s leash now, haven’t we? We can cure any disease, keep even the weakest of us alive, and, you know, one fine day perhaps we shall even resurrect the dead. Call forth Lazarus from his cave. Do you know what that means? It means that we’re done. That this is as good as we’re going to get” (41:50). I thought this conversation was fascinating that Dr. Ford believes humans have reached the end of the road of evolution for us as human beings and we have possibly created our replacement. Unfortunately, the way the first episode went I believe that It’s probably true cause Dr. Ford has created artificial intelligence and I think he did on purpose. The question is, did he create our replacements?

Oregon Trails and Trust

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Lauren prophecy for her community behind the wall has finally come to the past. It took over ten chapters for this cataclysm to eventually happen to this town with a slow build up with the constant attack/robbery from outside the that had me in suspense. Now Lauren has no family members left to support or care for; I feel that this raised her survival rate on the outside dramatically. The two things I notice from chapter fourteen going forward, this is a re-enactment of Oregon Trails in modern age and trust is a need for survival.

Oregon Trail was an old route that runs from the east of the United States to the west during the 17th century. I remember Oregon trails from a videos game that involved a family of 4 (Mother, Father, Daughter, and Son) traveling Oregon for a better life. During the family adventure, they can be robbed by bandits, injured, or killed. This reminded me of Lauren, Harry and Zahra adventure to Canada for a better life but the only difference it’s a dark version. “You’re strong and confident,” I said to him. “You think you can take care of yourself out here, and maybe you can. But think what a stab wound or a broken bone would mean out here: Disablement, slow death from infection or starvation, no medical care, nothing” (180). This statement by Zahra to Harry made me understand that there no second chances if they plan to survive this trip to Canada. Also, Harry seems to be the weak link in this adventure because he wants to be kind to strangers, but he was never sympathetic to the outsider when he traveled outside with a group from the community. This lead me to one of Lauren scripture she wrote in chapter eleven, “Any Change may bear seeds of benefit. Seek them out. Any Change may bear seeds of harm. Beware. God is infinitely malleable. God is Change” (116).

When Lauren, Harry, and Zahra started their adventure together they thought that they really knew each other because they came from the same community, but after their first confrontation during their first night camping, Lauren had to explain to them why she had to kill one of them and it effects it had on her hyper-empathy. All kinds of things. “And some of the ones who lived were dumb as dirt. Can’t think, can’t learn, just sit around nine, ten years old, peeing in their pants, rocking back and forth, and dripping spit down their chins. There’s a lot of them” (191).  It quick came to their realization that they’re all stranger to each other and they needed to air all their dirty laundry to trust each other with their lives.

Conflicts, Hyperempathy, and Character Attacehment

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Finally, a book that I can’t stop reading in this class. The Parable of the Sower has endless conflicts which include Lauren and her family, the families within the cul-de-sac, the outside environment beyond the cul-de-sac and list goes on. There also so many characters in the story that I can barely remember all their names and the sad part is, the minute you start to get attach to one of the characters it’s a huge possibility they will be killed off in the following chapters. The one thing I notice from Octavia Butler writing style, she gave Lauren Hyper Empathy condition and was able to connect the reader empathy for particular character with just a few paragraphs before painfully taken them away from you. I believe she wanted the reader to feel Lauren pain.

One of the different issues that I found interesting is when Keith decided to adventure beyond the cul-de-sac wall for the second time, and Reverend Olamina (Lauren Dad) was looking all over the world for him, but Cory believes he was not trying hard enough for her. “Dad tried to go to her, but she backed away, still shouting: “If it were your precious Lauren out there alone, you would have found her by now! You don’t care about Keith.” (96). I knew Cory showed a lot a favoritism to Keith but never expected it to be this bad to express this much anger. In this seen I believe Cory real feeling for Lauren was revealed to the family which started the instability within the household.

The amount of character to remember is painful, but Amy Dunn grew on me pretty quick after she almost burns down her family garage. She was the little sister Lauren never had, and daughter Tracy Dunn never wanted. As small as the community it was a young child was slipping through the cracks because of her mother and family members but Lauren saved her life for a brief moment. “I saw Tracy take Amy into the house and shut the door. Yet somehow Amy wound up outside again, wound up near the front gate, just opposite the Garfield/Balter/Dory house. Jay Garfield found her there when he came out to investigate what he thought was another bundle that someone had thrown over the gate. People toss us things sometimes– gifts of envy and hate: A maggoty, dead animal, a bag of shit, even an occasional severed human limb or a dead child.” (49). This is where this book got real for me. This happens a few time a year in reality and like the fact that Octavia Butler tries to make this close to real life as possible.

The Historical Archive

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I’ve been enrolled in New York City College of Technology on and off for a few years and not until I took English 2575 (Technical Writing) that I had to do a research paper on the history and development of the college. During my research I didn’t discover that the college had an actual archive of collected items from when the college started back in 1870’s. A few weeks prior to visiting the CityTech library to see their Science Fiction section, it never dawns on me that the college actually had one, I just thought it was just another row of books like the rest of the books. I visited the archive this Thursday passed, and the first reaction when walked in was it smell like an old book, but that was before I even picked one up. Other than what was collected in the archive from the college history, the Science Fiction section was the newest collection added in the past year.

The first few minutes of class the librarian (I didn’t write his name down), explained how this amazing Science Fiction collection got to our archive. When we were able view the collection up close, I have seen a few books that I would of love to read just by reading the title of the book. Because time was so limited during our first time visiting the archive, I’ll make sure to write down a few titles that I plan to read. I thought it was very generous of this private collector to bless our college with all these amazing books. I wish that the archive or library itself had more funding to place all this great work in the proper environment to preserve the collection.

During the group work, I was able to look through many version Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine that were publish as old as 1960’s to 2011. The first thing I notice about the copy from 1960’s, the magazines were printed smaller than the traditional size magazines we see today. The publishing company has continued with the same design to this day, which also include advertising AD’s on the last few pages. I believe the publisher kept the magazine the same for either historical purposes or for the fan who still read these stories. We also had time to do some research about the magazines we were looking though, and I started looking into Golden Age of Sciences Fiction. During the 1938 to 1946 Golden Age, most of these stories like Nineteen Eighty Four, I Am Legend or I, Robot were written and now they are also movies, but I believe if that Science Fiction movement on door to amazing new stories for upcoming writers to continue the beautiful work of Science Fiction.

Class Notes (3/28/2017)

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Beginning of Class

Free Writing (Handed In) About the glass paperweight  Winston purchased From Mr. Charrington. The question that were asked about was, What it is, where it comes from, and what it symbolizes in the novel?

 

Definitions

Debase (verb): to lower in status, esteem, quality, or character. Used in Sentence: The celebrity’s family tried to block the production of his biographical film because they felt it would debase his memory.

Convoluted (adjective): extremely complex and difficult to follow. Used in Sentence: The film is let down by a convoluted plot in which nothing really happens.

Anachronistic (adjective): a person or a thing that is chronologically out of place. Used in Sentence: Since there were not laptop computers during the Civil War, the presence of a portable computer in the history film is a definite anachronism.

Archaic (adjective): of, relating to, or characteristic of an earlier or more primitive time. Used in Sentence: The original Ford Model T car is considered archaic when compared to modern vehicles.

Pragmatic (adjective): dealing with things sensibly and realistically in a way that is based on practical rather than theoretical considerations. Used in Sentence: My mother is quite pragmatic in nature and never does anything without rationalizing it first

 

Class Discussion Topics

  1. Glass Paperweight
  2. Julia
  3. The Book (Will cover in Thursday class)
  4. O’Brian and The Brotherhood (Will cover in Thursday class)
  5. Hate Week (Will cover in Thursday class)

 

Glass Paperweight

Discussion on page 96: Before we talked about the paperweight, we went into detail about Mr. Charrington and how he was described by Winston when he first met him. The full description of Mr. Charrington is the last paragraph on page 96.

Discussion on page 97 & 98:  After analyzing the physical detail of Mr. Charrington, we moved on to a Winston description of the shop and the discovery of the glass paperweight. We discussed by Winston purchasing the paperweight, it shows another act of his rebellious streak against the party because purchasing this relic for its beauty is disrespectful to the party. At this point glass paperweight symbolize his rebellious nature.

Discussion on page 150: The classes discuss how the glass paperweight has evolved to symbolize the room above Mr. Charrington shop with Winston and Julia frozen in time. The room itself has become their sanctuary.

Discussion on page 230: The last few pages leading to page 230, we discussed the symbolism of glass paperweight scattering to pieces when it fell off the table, as when Winston and Julia was finally caught by the Thought Police for their actions.

Julia  

The class discussed briefly about Julia and compare the differences between her and Winston. We bought how Julia lives in the present and Windows Lives in the past. Julia is also very pragmatic, street smart and care free but not book smart.

Home Work

Class Discussion #6: Nineteen Eighty-Four (one initial comment on Part Three (pp. 231-308) / Appendix: The Principles of Newspeak (pp. 309-323) by W 3/29 + two additional comments by F 3/31)

Extra Credit for the best comments! One comment picked by Professor Belli, one by the class. Click here to vote for your “People’s Choice” post! (due M 4/3)

Secret Relationship

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The full background of the Julia character finally revealed in part two chapter three and to find out she has more hatred of the inner party than Winston does. I found out that Julia and Winston are the same on how they feel about the inner party, but they are fundamentally different because Julia is an optimist and Winston is a pessimist like for instants, “She did not understand that there was no such thing as happiness, that the only victory lay in the far future, long after you were dead, that from the moment of declaring war on the Party it was better to think of yourself as a corpse. “We are the dead,” he said. “We’re not dead yet,” said Julia prosaically” (Orwell, pg.138).

Also, as young as Julia is in the story she has a great talent to live two lives without the Thought Police finding out about her dark half. She participates in the Junior Anti-Sex league but has sex with many Party members and create Hate Week banners but doesn’t believe in it. But Winston loved the corrupted aspect of Julia and the fact that she purposely to the other Party members, “Anything that hinted at corruption always filled him with a wild hope. Who knew, perhaps the Party was rotten under the surface, its cult of strenuousness and self-denial simply a sham concealing iniquity. If he could have infected the whole lot of them with leprosy or syphilis, how gladly he would have done so! Anything to rot, to weaken, to undermine!” (Orwell, pg. 128).

In Part Two, Chapter 4, Winston went back to Mr. Charrington store where he purchased paperweight to rent the room located above store to enjoy another moment with Julia. After Winston made love to Julia and showing Julia that he afraid of mice, I discover one part in this chapter that was very interesting to me. Winston described the paperweight as his relationship with Julia frozen in time, but this is the one time he was a little optimistic outside his current reality. “It was as though the surface of the glass had been the arch of the sky, enclosing a tiny world with its atmosphere complete. He had the feeling that he could get inside it, and that in fact he was inside it, along with the mahogany bed and the gateleg table, and the clock and the steel engraving and the paperweight itself. The paperweight was the room he was in, and the coral was Julia’s life and his own, fixed in a sort of eternity at the heart of the crystal.” (Orwell, pg.150).