Follow up on Research Paper!

So far I have written an introductory paragraph which has been reviewed and approved by Professor. Dragan. I have also began to write out my first body paragraph. I found a few great sources that will help me towards this research paper, which i'm excited about. I will watch the film Memento by Christopher Nolan once more for a more critical viewing of this film. I really appreciate way this class operates. It's a step by step process that Professor Dragan is patiently teaching us (me) to helping me write the most well reformed research paper =]

 

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Critical Thinking Blog #2

Many people are looking forward to the upcoming technologies that will help improve human nature. Or is it? Artificial Intelligence has been advancing over the years, researchers and scientists are moving at a fast pace to improve versions of robotics. And I must say, that they’ve done a marvelous job so far, robotics are becoming so ‘high-tech’ that its become difficult to distinguish ‘us’ from ‘them’. In my lib 110 course, we were shown video clips of robotics at its highest. The kinds of robots that I’ve saw was the most ‘high-tech’ thus far. These robots were able to share emotions through actions and even facial expressions. Mechanisms are currently being built to share human like qualities. Or is it? My study in philosophy has helped me to wonder whether mechanisms are like us humans even if they shared the same mental states. Scientists will sooner or later build robots to have consciousness like us. Would that be entirely good? That’s the type of questions some can’t help but question. Some are extremely against this idea, merely because this may change our way of life entirely. David Gelernter states in his essay Dream-Logic, The Internet and Artificial Thought he addresses his position on what is being said about consciousness within robotics. "Here is an unfortunate truth: today's mainstream ideas about humans and artificial intelligence thought lead nowhere" (Gelernter 202). In the quote previously given Gelernter shares his thought on artificial intelligence, that being he thinks that thought in robots is not going to happen. Gelernter also states that a machine will not be able to think without free-association which humans do and are able to do daily. Free-association is when one can let their mind wander, in a way like day dreaming. He states they machines will not be able to do that therefore they cannot be build to have a consciousness (Gelernter 202). With that being said, I will reference another authors view point on artificial intelligence with a whole different output. Ray Kurzweil wrote "The Singularity is Near" He argues that "Artifical Intelligence at human levels will necessarily greatly exceed human intelligence for several reasons" ( Kurzweil 138). Kurzweil believes that artificial intelligence will be smarter and will have a huge advantage for the  way of life. He states many reasons to this, one which is that humans are able to only develop their skills in ways that have been encouraged by evolution whereas artificial intelligence can advance us even further with their systematic and well equipped ways. There are many more perspectives on this topic. Here I’ve listed only two views that were contrary. I believe the same thought as Gelernter, I do not think that artificial intelligence can be built like humans no matter how hard we try. Humans are mechanisms with very diverse parts and functions that cannot be copied. And even if someone were to invent a mechanisms with sorts similar to us I am morally against this idea merely because with items and products like robots with high functioning capabilities it will become even more difficult for humans to perform certain tasks and limit our accessibilities. For instance, It will become even tougher to get a job if mechanisms far beyond our expectations to be invented, because if they functioned even close to how humans performed than it will be easy to put unethical robots to do the job with no pay than to give to humans. That’s another issue one worries about.

Sample Paper: Overview

Today's lab classwork was very helpful, I felt like I received a lot of out put on what is expected in future papers. Although there was some flaws with the paper, overall this paper had a lot of researched quote sandwiches and information. I would like to see more of this kind of work for review and experience wise. I had a great experience with this kind of work.



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Critical Thinking Blog Assignment #1

             The last couple of lectures from eng101, eng103, and lib110 courses, I've studied the new developments in artificial intelligence. As we've discussed newly developed mechanisms such as robotics. I've grown to be optimistic about this subject matter. Although I feel optimistic about artificial intelligence, I am not strongly positive about the advancements for the future like Kurzweil. Because I worry for the problematic issues such as limited job opportunities, too simliar of clones that may steal opportunities of actual humans, and the way people will reply on artificial intelligence to carry on some if not most of the duties we're meant to fulfill alone. In other words, I feel like artificial intelligence will limit people to reach their limit of effort because we will soon become dependent on mechanisms to carry on for us. So, my standpoint would be neutrality instead of agreeing one hundred percent to this approach.
             Even in my philosophy course we've discussed the views on functionalism. The theory that if mechanisms act like humans in every way possible and carry on the same internal beliefs as us, then why aren't they considered moral like us?  Putnam's theory on functionalism is that if two things that are entirely different from one another, robot vs human, has the same input, the same output, and the same internal states then we can believe that these two things are functionally identical. I'm making the connection between a philosophical view with the views of Ray Kurzweil to simply say that
although they both mean the same position, its awakens us to believe that our world would become a supernatural place.
            As I have furthered my knowledge on human consciousness, I’ve learned that to be humanistic partially means to have behavior that correlates with the internal states like having emotions, having experiences, stories to tell to be able to relate to others in a humane way. As a in class experiment, we’ve gotten hands on with the newly discovered chatterbot such as A.L.I.C.E. My class had performed a mini Turing test to determine what it meant to  have humanistic qualities. One of which we discovered was that A.L.I.C.E was not able to answer tell us a real song like a real person will be able to. When the question, “Do you know any songs” was asked she answered “Yes, just one”. Something a real person will not do, A.L.I.C.E did, which helped us to quickly assume that to have human consciousness is to have the qualities, and morals of humans and not automated responses.  

Sharing a Source

              The most useful database I found information from was on Lexis Nexis. It helped me come across actual case histories of people who are and is overcoming this condition of anterograde amnesia. Like the article, "Understanding the Mystery of Memory", this New York Times article I discovered on Lexis Nexis shares the story of a twenty-seven year-old man by the name of H.M who suffered from a condition called eilepsy. He underwent surgery to "sorta" treat his condition which meant he had to remove some parts of himself such as his inner ear and also the hippocampus. If you didn't know already, the hippocampus is the part of the brain that helps formulate memory. He successfully underwent his surgery, alive, but with another condition called anterograde amnesia. Researchers then realized that by removing the hippocampus, outcomes such as H.M.'s will occur. The indirect experiment done on this man, will help me to see the more factual details of how this condition occurs. And ways to prevent it. This source along with many others i've discovered can help me formulate a solid argument that the film Memento does not portray the actual occurence of the condition and that the film is a dramatized version of its actuality.


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Memento trailer

10/14/2010 re: Essay 2 ENG103

I chose to write about topic #2 'Portraying Minds' through the film Memento. I chose this film because I was drawn to the subject matter of a condition that conflicts with ones mind and memory. This condition correlates to the discussions and materials I am currently learning in my Psychology course. For this essay i hope to find more answersabout myself (career wise) because I hope to become a psychologist that can help people with these kinds of diagnosis. My thoughts on this assignment is that I'm thrilled I like that I'm able to watch a Hollywood film that portrays people that suffer amnesia and I'm also thrilled that I will be able to get a better learning experience through this paper.

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