Ex Machina

Wow! I really wasn't expecting this movie to be so mind blowing. I was really fascinated by the plot of the story. It actually got me thinking about what can actually happen in life if artificial intelligence was really this advanced. Maybe it already it is. This movie had a lot of advanced technology, that might be already out to the public, but the only one who can afford them are rich people. I would actually find it interesting to have a AI that was conscious, although it can be scary because you never know what it could be capable of. AI can be fascinating to some people because it would be something no one has ever seen before. On the other hand, people can be afraid of it because it can be capable of killing others like it did to its creator in the end of the movie. Overall, this movie was awesome and I recommend to anyone that is fascinated by technology.

1) The four ways that types of body rhetoric are embodied argumentation, street theater, rhetoric style, and vibe as bodily emanation. Embodied argumentation describes how are our body can be used as an argument. Street theater describes political protests such as protests. Rhetorical style describes the overall look and feel of our communicative gestures. Vibe as bodily emanation describes the energy that emanates from our bodies. 

2) The four ways that bodily argumentation expands the realm of rhetoric are call to action, provides more rhetorical options, empowering, and highlights the craft of everyday life. They are essential in an argument because they give normal everyday people more power when it comes to standing up for themselves. 

3) The five steps for cultivating style are observation, reflection, experimentation, and application. Observation lets us just look at yours and other styles of communication. Reflection is the time you need to judge what you observe and consider the pros and cons of the different ways of communication. Experimentation lets you test styles of communication in order to figure out what suites you. Finally, application lets you apply those styles in a real situation where you will have no control over which style you want to use, instead the style will just come out naturally. 

4) Individual body arguments are when you use your body in order to make arguments. Collective body arguments are when you go to protests and commit actions. Many people use individual body arguments in order to raise awareness to the public. I have seen people use tattoos as a way to write a message to the public. 

The Power of Language

1) Communication plays a big role in society. The way people communicate with each other is through language. Language plays a big role because it allows people to understand each other. Language is a verbal sound or gesture movement that allows two or more objects to communicate with each other. Language is different throughout the world, therefore not everyone can have the same perspective on a subject. Sometimes language can be manipulate to the point where someone can say something in order to influence other peoples decisions. The media uses this a lot in order to get people to agree on their view. The way the media uses language is by only covering parts of a story they want others to know about. 

2) The five guidelines to language are to identify the language, address the context, draw out the social and political implications, provide an alternative language, and circulate your analysis. Although those are the simple guidelines to language, not everyone follows them. People don’t follow them because they're too lazy, don’t know how, or are easily persuaded. In my opinion, the only ones how would not be able to follow guidelines are people who are not educated. On the other hand there are a couple of people who do follow them, like myself. We follow them by thinking critically on who and what we choose to believe. 

3) In the novel 1984 the quote "War is peace; Freedom is slavery; ignorance is strength" the author Orwel is trying to show how much power the government has over the people. The government is in charge of everything and the people have no say. The government believe that war would solve everything, but in reality it would lead to an endless war. In addition, the people following the government don't ever stop to think about the actions made by the government. The language in social media follows that quote by allowing people to believe only what that government believes. Popular news show cast only unimportant news in order to avoid people being aware of the actions the government is doing.

4) The media influences the world using propaganda by allowing people to believe what someone is saying just because it is popular. People in the world follow the most popular trends and believe what they see on television or social media just because it is popular. How popular something is can sometimes determine whether something is credible or not. 

Labors of the Multitude

1)     Technology has become so popular that people use it all the time now. Television used to be the main distraction for people but now it has become replaced by the internet. Technology has not only changed the way of living for people but it has changed the way people communicate with one another. Social media is the main source behind the way people communicate with each other. Since people are too lazy and feel the need to not write properly, they use abbreviations or slang words to send a message or write a post faster. People do this all the time that they begin to feel accustomed to it and when they go back to school or anywhere in public, they bring that type of writing with them. People use slang words or improper English when they talk to each other. In addition, people who have to speak in public do not speak in a manner that would get the audience interested due to the choice of words the speaker has chosen. Technology is changing human language and nobody seems to change anything about it.

2)     The four rhetorical approaches are persuasion, argumentation, storytelling, and invitation. Persuasion is when you are trying to change someone’s opinion about something that they may disagree about. The media uses persuasion by asserting ads of some sort to change people’s opinion about something. For example, they can be promoting a vitamin drink that can make people lose weight. Argumentation is when you try to stand behind your point and using different tactics to prove your opinion correct. The news media uses argumentation whenever they want the public to view only their side of any story. Story telling is when you tell a story to someone and they do the same. Story telling usually changes the concept of the story because everyone can tell it differently. Social media uses story telling a lot whenever it comes to sharing and posting things on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Invitation is a non-persuasive approach that just introduces a topic to the public in order to choose the best plan or outcome of any situation. Social media uses invitation by allowing people want a change in the world to be noticed by the public, which will allow them to get support based on the peoples own opinion.

3)     As a male I never noticed how much of advantage had over females just because of my gender. The challenge I had to respond to was the wage gap between genders. I responded to it by supporting women groups on social media and helping get the word out to the public. 

Bicentennial Man

If there is a movie that can possibly show us a theory about how robots can be then it would it be Bicentennial Man from 1999. The movie is about a civilization where robots live among humans. In the movie, robots were introduced to humans as household servants that would work by a command of its owner. Unfortunately, we are in the year 2016 and there are no robots like that in the movie. Andrew Martin the main robot from the film is an extraordinary robot. Andrew is the robot that humans to this day fear. Humans fear that robots will soon begin to build feelings and want to feel more like a human. They also fear that their jobs would be at risk. In my opinion, I am not against treating robots as if they were human as long as they were able to have and feel the same abilities as a human. Andrew thought the same way that is why he went on and starting making artificial human organs. This part of the film shows the benefits of having a robot with such intelligence as Andrew. The science and health field will benefit by all the out breaking discoveries robots would be able to achieve. I would love to live in a world where diseases due to organ failure would no longer be a problem to people. I really loved this movie because it can show us what the future would be like if we actually invested our time and money trying to develop such a thing. This movie also taught me a lesson about possibilities. Andrew fought for his right to be considered human and even though he was welcomed into society by the government that did not stop him. Andrew always fought for what he wanted and in the end, it paid off. This shows that anything is possible; you just have to keep trying and never give up. I really recommend this movie to anyone who wants to change the world. 

A Call to Rhetorical Action

1)      How might technology today help us build a new, inclusive social norm?

Technology can aid us by assisting humans with challenges they face. Technology can help us fill in the gaps where we as humans cannot accomplish alone.

2)      In what ways does the media ignore or falsify our movements and actions?

The media ignores our movements our action by using technology or celebrities to distract the public. Technology is used by allowing people to distract themselves with entertainment found on the internet. Celebrities’ problems are announced more to the public then real-world problems such as war.

3)      How can technology help us overcome the five contemporary challenges activists face?

1.       Creating decentered movements

2.       Developing new forms of leadership

3.       Learning to communicate across contexts

4.       Understanding cultural differences

5.       Dealing with the media juggernaut

Technology can help us overcome the five contemporary challenges by improving on things humans lack. One of the things humans lack is leadership. Leadership can be taught to humans by simple classes by instructors. Technology can help us in this aspect by helping us figure out easier ways to teach people leadership skills. Technology can also make communication between people. If communication between people improves, it can help us with most of our challenges. Better communication can help us with dealing with people with different cultural backgrounds. Many people with different cultural backgrounds seek the same issues to be resolved. Communication can also help unite people so they can defeat the media. The media tries to stop humans facing real problems, therefore if technology advances it will be easier for real world problems to be shared with people.   

Blade Runner

Technology is advancing every day. It is moving so fast that soon enough we will be having artificial intelligence living with humans. It’s weird how we are not there yet, even though people back in the 1900 thought, we would be. In the movie, "Blade Runner" AI has gotten to the level where it is living among humans. In the movie, the future did not look how people would expect to look like. The movie is said to be taking place in the year 2019. In the movie, the setting takes place in the city, but the city looks like it has gone through some terrible times. There is barely any light coming through and it looks dirty. It seems as civilization is going through some type of depression. The main character Decker is a blade runner, which is someone who kills replicants. Replicants are artificial intelligence that look like humans, but do not feel emotions. In order to find a replicant, they are put through a test where a series of questions are asked to them in order to see whether their pupils change shape. If the pupil changes shape, it will indicate if the replicant is human or artificial intelligence. The reason why replicant are sent to be killed, which is the reason why people today fear AI, is that they became serial killers. Although this movie has an awesome plot, people might get the wrong idea about AI. People fear AI because they believe they would eventually try to exterminate the human race. Although this can be a possibility, it is not the only possibility. My reason for writing this post is to ensure people can happily accept AI into society, if AI ever becomes so advances that they look like a competition to humans. In my opinion, AI can actually help improve the human life. They can help us discover medicine, fix economic problems, and possibly make the world peaceful. In my idea of the future, we live happily among AI. Everyone has different views of the future, so we cannot be sure our future would be like in the movie. Let us accept AI with open arms because we never know what happens.

Does AI mean the end of the human race?

Technology is getting more advanced every day. Engineers are changing our future to the point where soon artificial intelligence will be running on their own. In reality, AI is already living among us; just not as high tech as it will soon get. As of right now, AI lives among us through Social Medias such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Recently, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, relieved to us that AI lives among us in two different ways by using their social media. AI is said to be able to use basic pattern recognition or “supervised learning”. That means when you use Facebook, the application will be able to recognize what you “like” in order to suggest things that you might like. It was also get used to how you use the app in your own personal way. Unfortunately, AI is not capable of learning new things but it is pretty high tech. We are already becoming Post-humans because machines are now the ones interacting with people using Facebook and suggesting what they should view. Humans are no longer interacting with humans; instead, they use social media to talk to a machine. In my opinion, Facebook is still a Social media device where humans converse with other humans--not machine to human. Although machines are not able to talk to us right now, there will be robots with consciousness and feeling just like humans soon, if AI keeps advancing. Robots are probably going to be the next big thing in the near future. I believe robots can be a great benefit to society because it can help ease our lives. They can be able to help find cures for diseases, perform perfect surgeries, and even make occupations much easier. People like Stephen Hawking believe that if AI ever gets to the point where they can think for themselves then it will be end of existence for the human race. Robots will soon start of by taking the hard working persons job; leaving a lot of people jobless and without enough money to be supported. Our economy will become corrupt. In addition, as soon as robots realized that we are their competition, our human race will be extinct. I do not believe such thing will happen, AI can be used for good; there are other times where technology has actually been used to assist humans. The amount of people that worked on farms in the 1800s was 80 percent of the U.S. labor force and luckily, it is now 2 percent. Technology actually helped our economy by making food cheaper and giving citizens a chance to find a better occupation. If this happened, why couldn’t it happen with AI technology? Vernor Vinge, a mathematician and fiction writer, is trying to calculate the time that robots will be smarter than humans. He believes the time will be soon and there way it can be avoided. Even if our country tries to ban the advancement of AI in our country, the probability that another country creates such an AI is inevitable. AI will give whomever the competitive advantage over the economy, military usage, and even artistic. This can give people an incentive to create such an AI. The day humans interact with robots is considered “the Singularity” by Vinge. When that time comes, who knows what will be happen? Unfortunately, the physical extinction of the human race is a possibility.

Apple is Our Savior

I believe Apple is doing justice by standing up against the FBI. If I was Cook I would hold my ground and not let the government run their company. Apple shouldn't create a backdoor in order to let the FBI access into a criminal's phone. Although it would help the case, there is no guarantee that the FBI will even find anything on his phone. If the FBI wins the case people's privacy will be not guaranteed with Apple anymore. Apple shouldn't give up protecting peoples privacy because not only would its consumers acknowledge Apple as a betrayer, but they wouldn't buy as much of their product. Apple will lose their spot as number 1 against Google or Facebook because it will soon be seen as equal to them. Many people, like myself, trust apple because it has one of the best security systems. In addition, lowering the security Apple has on the Iphone will cause hackers to try to hack into other peoples phones. That will just cause chaos. There would be no more rights to privacy. On the other hand if Apple wins the case then there will be thousands of people supporting Apple. They will view Apple as company for the people. Apple's products will continue to sell; they'll probably be selling even more of their product. According to Professor Edward Younkins, business need to be left because " a free market unhampered by government intervention is the most fertile environment for technological and economic progress." Therefore, if Apple is left alone or not have any effect because of the government then their business will progress.  This can be beneficial to Apple because it can make sure they continue being #1. According to the postmodern literary critic, Katherine Hayles, "the human essence is freedom from the wills of others" and until then will someone be able to be free. Not many people know this but people are not free until they owe nothing to society. If the government controls humans and regulates them, even from their own privacy, then it will be as if they had no freedom. This America, where all we talk about is how free this country is. If it really is free then the government shouldn't interfere and tell someone how to run their business.

I'll pray for you Apple and I hope you win the case.

Artificial Intelligence

Robots are cool. I would actually love to be around robots during my life. I actually wouldn't mind owning a robot and using it to make my life easier. But nowadays robots are seen as a bad thing because they are not properly being introduced to the public. The military for example is using AI robots to eliminate enemies when fighting in a war. Not only do I believe this goes against Martens Clause from 1977, but robots shouldn't be made to kill. If AI robots are used to kill then it would just "violate fundamental principals of human dignity by allowing machines to choose whom to kill" (Russel 2).  It will be unjust for a human to die because of a robot whom they cannot even defend themselves from. If humans are to go to war, the only way a humans life should be taken away from is by another human. Robots such as AI should be able to be controlled by humans. Humans should put restrictions on technology in order to not harm innocent people. Meaningful human control is when nothing is able to go against the orders of humans. AI robots should be in the control of humans at all time and should have no self conscious. In the article Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, many things are argued on whether robots should be accepted into our society or be blocked out. In the first section of the article Take a Stand on AI Weapons, it claims AI robots are bad because of military usage. The second section Shape the Debate, Don't Shy From It, is about how robots are not bad they are just not properly introduced to society. The third section Distribute AI benefits fairly, talks about society will not be able to benefit from them because they wouldn't be able to afford them and how robots can actually benefit us medically but doctors wont accept them. The final section Embrace a Robot-Human World, is about how society should learn to accept technology advancement because it can actually benefit us. The medical field are one of the people who will can be impacted to the usage of robots in our community. Doctors believe that robots will not be able to accomplish any tasks a human can do. Doctors need trust and they wont be able to trust a machine that has no proof when advising what procedure to do on a patient. Although doctors care about human lives, I believe they wont accept robots because they don't wanna lose their job. Everyone who isn't rich fears that as well and that is why I say robots aren't properly introduced to the public. Before I finish my long blog post, I want to leave you off with something that came to mind when reading this article. WALL-E is an example of how robots can benefit humans. Throughout the movie you can see robots (who are controlled) make humans live their life easier.

2001: A Space Odyssey 

First off I want to start off by saying that the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey is a pretty interesting movie. What I like about the movie is how it shows us how human technology is advancing through time. At the beginning of the movie it starts off with Apes, which were considered humans, and how they soon become a thing off the past due to another human specie advancement. As the movie progresses technology advances as well. Like in the movie, we have also been able to advance in technology and travel to outer space. In the movie there is technology assistant called H.A.L. 9000 computer and it aids Dr.Hayward Floyd in finding the discover on how to live forever. Although this movie may seem unrealistic, I believe that someday this will come true. We might already be at that type of level of technology. Resources such like Siri resemble Hal. It would be no surprised to know that there is something smarter than Siri, because Siri isn't as responsive as Hal. In addition to there being a technology device that would be like there could also be a possibility of it taking over humans life. We humans need to prepared because anything can happen and I wouldn't want to be thing of the past.

Technology is increasing by the day. In Hayles reading, she shows us how humans have now became post-humans. Technology is advancing so fast that soon there will be robots that look exactly like humans. Soon humans will be the thing of the past. In the Macy Conference on Cybertonics, they assumed that humans will become a "information-processing entities who are essentially similar to intelligent machines." Humans will no longer have a purpose because machines will be doing all the work in the world. Hayles defines humanism as post-humanism because of the increasing of technology. I would define humanism as the act of living freely in a world where you can do anything you'd like. Hayle's defines post-humanism as the union between humans and machines. I would define post-humanism as the world moving on from humans into a new specie. These two definitions differ from each other because Hayles definition is based on a scientifically idea. While my definition is based on my own feelings and thoughts towards humans becoming a thing of the past. I am post-human to the extent that humans today have far more advanced technology than humans 200 years ago. My intelligence has all grown from humans who were born before me. Although I am afraid of becoming a thing of the past I would still love to see human intelligence inside a machine. I believe our world would actually benefit from our technology advancement. 

Throughout human history there has always been inequality between humans. Although there has never been a successful elimination of inequality there has been a few milestones, such as civil rights movements. There is no difference between human rights and civil rights. We shouldn't consider them different because each of them are trying to achieve equality for everyone. We are all humans, with very little difference or no difference at all between each other. We should all have the right to be free and feel respected anywhere we live without any judgement from anyone. I have came to that conclusion by just simply keeping an open head and not being judgemental against any human. 

My name is Christopher Morales but you can call me Chris instead. I am a Freshmen at CSUN. I grew up in South Central Los Angeles. I am currently living in the dorms in CSUN. I love cars, money, and movies. One of my favorite things to do is going to the theaters. Not many people do this but love watching the credits at the end of each film. I am also part of a fraternity, which is called Beta Gamma Nu or BGN for short. I am social person and I can be pretty funny sometimes. I am also a very ambitious person and I always get what I want. I expect this class to be fun and entertaining. I also expect it to teach me why people wont accept technology.