Thoughts of Class on 1/21/10

While Blogging I often feel like an Andy Rooney on 60 minutes. He often chooses a topic that he sees in the news today and gives his opinions or views on the way he sees it. I feel like that is what we are doing here with this class. We are choosing random topics and we are placing our views on it. Andy often will ask questions as we are in class of why something works or have you ever thought about that, etc.

What I like about this class is it makes you think about a lot of things. It is true the possibilities are endless! Nothing is Science-Fiction anymore. Some of the gadgets you see on Star Trek could very well happen. Maybe not in our life time, but could very well happen. I would not dismiss the idea of time travel or teleportation either. Someone could very well figure out how to disassemble us as particles and put us back together again. I heard in Brazil they found a penny that said 2120. So my thought process is that I think literally anything can be possible.

In my opinion, technology advancement can be somewhat scary. If any of you have seen the movie Terminator you will see what I mean. The thought of humans developing machines that are smarter than us is scary to me. So much so that I literally feel like technology could in fact destroy the human race or the world. I think as a society we need to set some guidelines here. I think some of these movies that come out that are science fiction for now could very well be reality later. I think in some cases they are warning signs. I can’t imagine living in a world where you are afraid some robot is going to kill you. To me that would literally be a hell on earth. In some cases I really feel like we are playing God here. How far is too far is my question?

This applies to what is going on right now. For example, I raise the question is designer babies right or wrong? Is the designer babies issue ethical or moral? My view on it is I am all for it in the regards to eliminating inherited diseases. In some aspects, I am against it because what if that child was supposed to be something else? Perhaps you want your child to be an athlete, but instead that child was meant to be an artist. I am all for it in the prevention of diseases so that we can create a better life for our children. For who in this world really wants to have heart problems for example, etc.? I am against it in the aspects that I think it is playing God too much. A person should be the person that they should be, not who their parents want them to be. What comes to my mind is the movie Demolition man. In that movie the main guy says he was genetically altered to be a person who knits is a prime example of what I am referring to.

I feel like my calling or voice is simply being creative or artistic. I have always felt like I had a gift of being artistic or creative. I am always finding I like to day dream or brainstorm ideas. I love being able to say you know if it wasn’t for me that would not exist. I made a difference or had an impact. I think it is the main reason why I went into web design. I like being able to create a product that someone else out there is going to be able to use. I am able to use my artistic skills to make products that can be functional. I think that in part what we are saying here in class. We are saying we are the future inventors of society.

Ironically, what I dislike about this class is the same reason why I like the class. The main problem with the class I am seeing is that there are several different topics going on all at once. I find time you think of an idea that you want to contribute we are off to a new topic. I was thinking during class that having a real life around the table discussion is different from if say we were all in a chat room on-line talking. In a chat room you could type your idea and give it to the class the minute you think about it. However, when you are in a real world discussion if we all talked at once it would not make any sense. This leads me to the question; could we some day event a device that would allow us to convey all our ideas the minute we think about them? I am aware we do have thoughts that we might want to keep private. But, is there a way that we could develop a device in which could publish thoughts? For now there is no such device or so I know about anyways. So I am glad we are blogging. Sometimes I have a lot of great ideas, but it comes after the fact. Sometimes it is not the fact that I don’t want to participate in the discussion it is the fact that some time we can’t get a word in otherwise.

My interpretation of the future assignments or blogs ahead is that our blogs are going to reflect after thought. Our blogs are going to be a basis of what we thought about in class or after the class was over. We can also write about ideas from other people’s ideas. The possibilities are endless here.

I have several different thoughts that came to me after the fact. One is an afterthought of the very first time we met when we started talking about the numeric set of numbers found on a cell phone. The answer given was that if you hold out your hand with your thumb up that you have 3 rows of four with your fingers. I had a discussion with my mom about this in the car. She told me that a long time ago they use to have adding machines or calculators that had the same numeric set pattern that today’s cell phones have. This is similar to how the type writer relates to the computer. Before they had electronic type writers or computers they had type writers in which they worried that metal keys would hit into one another while typing.

I heard about the Kindle product myself on TV. If you go to amazon.com you will see a picture of the device. It is a device in which you can literally download any book known to man. I had never thought of it in terms of like a Harry Potter Book, but in a sense it is sort of like that. One of the suggestions of one my co-workers was to have it where the annual report I am developing is all on-line. It would be set up like a website and would all be interactive. You could select a category or a topic in the annual report and there would be a video on it. You could check out past events, see the financial information, maybe check out some interview of what people are saying about the organization, etc.

I think technology and the methods we choose to use today are reflections of how we grew up. I think as human beings we are use to our comfort zones. Something more familiar to us is more comforting compared to something new and different. With something new and different we have to learn how to use it. Sometimes as humans we can become lazy. Haven’t you heard the expression you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? I find the unknown can be questionable and scary to most people out there. Sometimes being educated about the subject can make you a better person. It can also make you see things in a whole new light.

I seen on TV kids today are using technology as much as a full time job. What I mean by that is kids these days are using the same amount of time to use technology or media as adults go to work for their full time jobs. Studies claim that technology has often created problems with grades. Kids these days have so many distractions that they are not making good grades. Often many kids are flunking out of school because of technology. When I was a kid we had video games and TV. We didn’t have the internet until I was probably in high school.

I agree that riding in a car can be a media experience or some kind of an experience. Sometimes I get my best brain storm ideas while day dreaming in the car. I also like listening to music in my car. I find some music uplifting and helps me feel better after a bad day at work. I have a friend who is a truck driver and that is his passion is driving on the road. Myself I wouldn’t be able to do that. I like a job more where I stay put in an office setting. My dad will tell you he wouldn’t be comfortable with an office setting because he likes to work with his hands. So I think everyone is different. Experiences can often have a different effect on different people. If we were all the same, the world would be boring. I think that is what makes us all unique in that respect.

What would be really cool is if somehow we could record our dreams. I often will wake up sometimes and think wow I can’t believe what I dreamed. Sometimes when I dream I think wow that would be great if someone came out with a movie about it. But the time I wake up and go through the everyday routine of getting ready I lose most of the knowledge of what I just dreamed. Too bad there isn’t a device that would help with artist to record their dreams. If there was they could take those dreams and make them into a product such as a movie.

Something was mentioned about our reflections of technology and about novels or books we read. I had a thought of the movie Julie & Julia. I thought it was a neat movie about one girl’s reflection in the modern day world about Julia Child. For those who have not seen it I think you should go see it. It is a really good movie. The modern day girl is a fan of both cooking and of Julia Child. She creates an assignment for herself. The assignment is that she takes one full year to cook everything in Mrs. Julia Child’s book. Everyone thought at first her idea was stupid. My question is how could it be stupid if today there is a movie about her real life blogs out today? It all started with an idea back in 2002.

My thought on the whole having bubbles in a museum that act like sound booths is a great idea. It would make the exhibit at the Children’s museum more interactive. My question is what about the deaf children? What about children who are not able to hear? Could the Children’s museum develop a way so that deaf children could also enjoy the exhibit? I often think we develop things and don’t look at the big picture. We need to start creating things that have alternatives for people with disabilities such as the loss of hearing.

I also had a chance to check out Holosonics’s website. My view is pretty much the same as giving bubbles of sound at the Children’s Museum for an exhibit. I don’t think as a society we are really thinking in terms of everyone. I find that is the problem with our world today. We often forget the minorities out there. Take for example my DVD Flash App that I developed for my current internship. I actually not only created a video, but also gave captions underneath with the text so that hearing impaired people could still enjoy the videos. I think this is what Holosonic needs to do is to invent a way for the hearing impaired people to also enjoy this technology.

I seen a movie once in which all people would have a built in chip device inside them. The device would set off a signal to bill boards or ads you would see in the mall for example to gear towards your interest. Take for example if you liked strawberry ice cream there would be an ad about perhaps strawberries or ice cream or both. The scary part is we are losing our privacy in that regard. I would not want someone knowing where I am at 24/7. I find this to be a security issue and a violation to our right to privacy. However the technology would be good in finding a missing person. If a child was kidnapped for example the police would be able to locate the child in a heartbeat. Then my fear would be that a person might want to cut open a child and remove the chip if say someone decided they wanted to murder a child or a person for that matter.

My thought process is that I hope in society we meet the concerns of all people and safety issues. I do not want to live in a world where robots are trying to kill us. I do not want to live in a world where our privacy is being taken away. I am hoping society in general will be responsible in development of future technologies.