Blog 5: The Age Of AI

    After watching the video “In The Age Of AI” I have many conflicting feelings regarding this new shift in technology. On the one hand artificial intelligence is able to assist in our society and benefit us in a number of ways. By removing human error we are able to reduce the chance for accidents that could be harmful to professions such as truck drivers and other manual labor positions. We can also use it to enhance security systems, as facial recognition and fraud detection can help lower criminal activity both for online and offline services. On a more broad scale Artificial Intelligence has the ability to create solutions that we as humans could have never thought of. Sure we have not been able to do things such as create a cure to cancer, or solve climate change, but these computer algorithms could finally provide the information or breakthrough that makes these problems solvable.

    There is of course the elephant in the room, that AI technology is vastly diminishing our privacy. The ability of computers to take in countless pieces of our data and make decisions about us without us knowing, is frankly terrifying, especially because we have become more and more dependent on technology, and are using it in almost every industry. It is not even that companies have access to information that they may want, it is that they are collecting more data than they even know what to do with, and having that data sitting around with the possibility of theft or misuse, can be unsettling to most people.

    AI just like other forms of information technology has its positives and negatives. Its application could have an effect on our ability to function as a society the likes of which has not been seen before. Only time can tell whether the application of these technologies will be a net positive, or a net negative.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dZ_lvDgevk

Blog 10: Echo Chamber

    The term I researched for my Each One Teach One project was “Echo Chamber”. The simple definition of an Echo Chamber is an environment where a person only encounters opinions that reflect and reinforce their own. This goes hand in hand with the concept of confirmation bias as people are more likely to believe in things that coincide with their current beliefs and reject things that do not.

    Echo Chambers are able to arise from a variety of sources and many people may be unaware that they are currently in an echo chamber. Echo Chambers often are the result of the formation of various groups and organizations. Those who lean more Republican or Democrat often will choose to accept information from others who support their side of the political spectrum. These groups do not have to be as large as political parties, as they can be small ones too like the group of friends a person chooses to associate with, or even groups a person may not be able to avoid such as family. Friends and family often will share some of the same views as you, or at the very least will try and be supportive by not arguing with what you believe, so they can indeed act as an Echo Chamber. Whether we know it or not, it is very likely that each of us are currently stuck in at least one, if not multiple echo chambers, but they can be hard to identify, and even harder to get out of.

    Echo Chambers are especially relevant today because of our increasing reliance on the internet. Search engines such as Google use data and complex algorithms in order to show results more accurate to what the user wants and are more willing to click on. This creates a special breed of Echo Chamber that is tailored towards each of its users. If a person is convinced that the Earth is flat and is often on sites created by other people who believe the same thing, the search engine will automatically showcase similar sites, in turn creating an Echo Chamber. However this is not exclusive towards any one group or belief, as everything from religious beliefs, political affiliations, and geographic location can have its own Echo Chamber created from these search engines. With our increasing use of computers and the internet for things like the news, these Echo Chambers drastically influence the beliefs of the people, and help cause the spreading of misinformation within our society.

    Echo Chambers have a large negative effect on our society. We have seen first hand some of the harm Echo Chambers can cause due to the limitation of communication caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. More people than ever were stuck inside and had no choice but to get their news from electronic sources. Choices like what news channel to watch or what news outlets online to view kept almost all U.S Citizens in a constant Echo Chamber, as social interactions and outside information was limited. This led to many citizens blindly believing what their chosen news source was telling them, and paved the way for the insertion of misleading information and propaganda, like the conspiracy theory that the democratic party had influenced the presidential election. For the future we as individuals need to recognize that the information we receive may not paint the full truth, and that we should do our part to pay attention to a wider range of sources, including those we may not feel comfortable with.

Sources:
https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/digital-media-literacy/what-is-an-echo-chamber/1/

https://theconversation.com/the-problem-of-living-inside-echo-chambers-110486

https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2017/dec/04/echo-chambers-are-dangerous-we-must-try-to-break-free-of-our-online-bubbles

Blog 6: History of Personal Computers

  

    The communication technology I chose to research was the first personal computers. The date from our timeline listed the first personal computer as being created in 1975, but this is a very broad approximation as its creation was gradual and over a long period of time. Prior to 1970 computers were very large and heavy unlike what we are currently used to. On top of this computers were expensive and were used mostly for research and performing calculations.

    The first major breakthrough would come in 1971 when Intel released their 4004 Microprocessor, the first commercially available microprocessor. This would drastically reduce the size of future computers and was a major step to getting to personal computers. 1975 would bring the next important innovation in computer development, the Altair 8800. This is considered to be the first commercial personal computer, but it was still far from the design of modern models. For starters it needed to be assembled from kits, and utilized a purely text based display. These computers were mainly for hobbyists and were not yet accepted by the general public. However it was with these computers that allowed for further advancements and improvements in the next few years.

    In 1976 both the first word processor “Electric Pencil”, and the first text based adventure “Adventure” were released which are both important applications to the success of personal computers. 1977 Apple released the Apple II personal computer, which were fully assembled and more aimed towards the public.

    1981 would be one of the most important years in the history of computers. The first spreadsheet program “VisiCalc” was released, which demonstrated how computers could be used to enhance businesses and were not simply game machines or digital typewriters. Then IBM released their version of the personal computer which allowed for a plethora of different options and customizations, such as the type of floppy disk drive. One of these customizations included the MS-DOS operating system which IBM agreed would not be exclusive to IBM. This decision would create a shift in the tech industry as it meant that any computer created by any company would be allowed to use MS-DOS. This led to a boom in the PC industry in 1982 as a wide variety of new computers and models were released rapidly. Finally in 1984 Apple released the Apple Macintosh, what would be the closest model to what the average person thinks of when they imagine a personal computer. This computer came with a mouse and graphical user interface where users could click on and drag icons instead of typing out command lines. The computer was also much more affordable than other models released around this period and quickly became a standard for other computers developed after it.

    The invention of personal computers have had a drastic impact on us as a society. This level of advanced technology was finally put in the hands of the public instead of being used solely for scientific purposes, and would later be expanded upon further when the World Wide Web was finally created. These computers have had an effect on the business world that can not be overstated, as word processors and spreadsheets redefined how to properly organize a business. Personal computers served as a catalyst for future developments that would lead to the highly digital and connected society we have today.

Sources:

https://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/computers/

https://www.britannica.com/technology/personal-computer

https://lowendmac.com/2014/personal-computer-history-the-first-25-years/

https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=274

https://www.encyclopedia.com/computing/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/social-impact

Blog 7: Anti-War

 

    I explored both Antiwar.com and the American Conservative because of the strong anti-war voices that are showcased on both. For context I would consider myself to be heavily anti-war, I consider the atrocious spending on the military so we can continue to commit inhumane acts in other countries to be one of if not one of the biggest issues we have as a society. For me it was actually refreshing to find news outlets that are pointing out many of the tragedies being committed by the military.

    These anti-war voices are rarely heard in the mainstream media for a number of reasons, with the top one being that the owners of mainstream news outlets benefit heavily from war. The news that is broadcasted on major outlets are influenced by what connections the owner has to other industries or groups, and anything that could jeopardize or even negatively impact those connections will more than likely be shot down. An example of this is how MSNBC is owned by General Electric, which is a company that stands to make heavy profits from war, so MSNBC will almost never broadcast anything anti-war.

    Another big reason you have to seek out obscure websites in order to find these anti-war voices is that many news outlets and social media platforms censor these voices because of their political affiliations. Most if not all media outlets have some affiliation to either the Republican or Democratic parties, and both sides benefit from the U.S being in war. Government parties like us to be in war because they are able to use it as a means of rallying the people and pulling them to their side. Instead of voices calling for an end to war, it benefits these parties to steer the discourse to “What is the best way for us to go to war?”, and spin the message into patriotic propaganda like, “We need to band together in order to stop this threat”.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/01/anti-war-protest-repression-bush-iraq-iran

https://www.democracynow.org/2014/11/18/no_debate_antiwar_voices_absent_from

https://mronline.org/2020/01/23/u-s-clearing-anti-war-voices-off-social-media-in-vast-censorship-operation/

Blog 4: Trump, Dominion, and the First Amendment

    

    A recent news story I wanted to examine under the lens of what we have learned about the First Amendment, is the current potential lawsuit former president Donald Trump is facing from Dominion Voting. A brief overview of the situation is that because of claims the former president and his team made both during and after the recent 2020 Presidential Election that Dominion Voting, the company that owns the electronic voting machines in twenty eight different states, had altered votes and changed the outcome of the election, Dominion is trying to sue for damages, while the former president and his team claim that they are protected by the first amendment. While I know many different individuals and groups have different opinions on the last election and how it was conducted, for the sake of this discussion and how this topic relates to the first amendment, I will be operating under the assumption that the claims against Dominion Voting are false since they have yet to be proven.

    So let me start off by addressing my thoughts on the big question, in this situation is the former president and his team protected by the First Amendment? From my current understanding of the First Amendment, I do not think so. This case to me is a fairly clear case of slander and defamation which is not protected by the First Amendment, and there are a few questions that support my belief. First, is the claim being made false? Again for the sake of this discussion we are assuming it is. Second, was the claim made to someone other than the plaintiff? Since these claims were made to the public through various news outlets and press conferences, this is also true. Third, was the defendant acting with malice or disregard for the truth of their claims? Due to the lack of evidence presented by the defendant I would say this is true. Finally, were the plaintiffs harmed or damaged by the false claims? Because of the severity of the claim, that being Dominion tampered with the election which is a serious crime, and the harassment members of Dominion faced such as doxxing and death threats, this is true. Due to all of the factors above being true, at least to the best of my knowledge, the claims by the former president and his team fall under defamation, and would not be protected by the First Amendment.

Blog #2: Supreme Court

  

    While before this class I had some knowledge of the Supreme Court and how they operate, it was only after reading the History Channel article that I learned many of the specific details around them. For one, I did not know that the way that someone joins the supreme court is by being nominated by the president and then either being accepted or rejected by the senate. This makes sense to me as it is a natural part of the checks and balances that are critical to preventing corruption and abuse of power in our government.

There are also quite a number of laws and rights that I did not know came from important decisions the supreme court has made. For example I did not know that the origin of the Miranda Rights come from the Miranda vs Arizona Case. In addition there are case rulings that I am surprised at how late it took for certain precedents to be set. There are of course ones that morally should have occurred earlier such as Obergefell vs. Hodges legalizing same sex marriage, but even more surprising are cases such as U.S vs. Nixon stopping the president from withholding evidence in criminal trials. These kinds of cases are more shocking to me because unlike same sex marriage, which has a long history of prejudice keeping it from becoming legal, I would have thought the prevention of abuse of presidential powers in something like the Nixon case, which is a key principle in our checks and balances, would have been established much earlier than it was.

However I think one of the biggest takeaways from learning about the Supreme Court, is understanding that they are far from perfect. How they chose to handle cases in the past such as Dred Scott vs. Sanford, and Plessy vs. Ferguson, show that decisions made by the supreme court should not be viewed as absolute. It is important for us as American citizens to constantly reevaluate and reconsider the decisions made by our government, and make sure that they are suitable for the current times.

Blog #3: Values of Free Speech

After reading through and learning about the eight values of free expression, I thoroughly believe that each of them are extremely important to how our country operates. However, of the eight values I believe that Check on Governmental Power, and Protect Dissent are the two most important from the bunch.

Check on Governmental Power is important to the checks and balances system in place in government. The freedom of the press to inform citizens of scandals and abuses of power being committed by the government. If we did not have this freedom, the government could keep citizens ignorant, and would lead to corruption and abuse of power. Because of the power that members of the Government have, it is critical for the people to know if and when government officials, commit actions that the nation they are sworn to serve find unacceptable.

Protect Dissent is the other most important value of free expression because it is giving protection to the people I believe need it the most, the minority. Allowing the minority to express their views is critical to the very idea of freedom of speech and the first amendment. In fact I would go as far to say that the views of the minority are the ones that need the most protection, because they do not have the inherent protection, and are not able to defend themselves like the majority can. Without this value of free expression many important and influential groups and movements would not have been able to function due to being the minority, such as the LGBT group with homosexual rights and marriage, and the African American Community with the Civil Rights Movement.

While I believe that these are the most important of the eight values of free expression, I also recognize the importance of the other values, and see them as ways of expanding on the ideas and freedoms of the above values. Promote Tolerance, means that hate speech is protected by the first amendment, and to me is an extension of the Protect Dissent value, because even though some groups like the Westboro Baptists use hate speech, and do not share the same views as the majority of country, they still should be able to express their views. 

I would also consider Participation in Self-Government to be heavily connected to Check on Governmental Power. Because the main idea behind Participation in Self-Government is having citizens who are voting in elections be informed about the candidates policies and positions. Without Check on Governmental Power, citizens are not able to stay informed, and are able to be lied to by candidates much easier, because they would not hear and learn about any actions by the candidates that are contrary to the policies and claims they present to the public.

To me Check on Governmental Power, and Protect Dissent are the most critical values of free expression that help keep our country functioning properly. Without these two values, I would consider the First Amendment to be useless because it is not protecting the free speech that is most important to protect.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/amendment-1/freedom-of-expression-speech-and-press