Category: Uncategorized

It was her turn to enter the room that they used to run the tests on various citizens. The room was sized to fit only one person. It was approximately the size of a small shower, and was bound to trigger panic attacks among any claustrophobics. Good thing she knew she wasn’t one. She was however, just like everyone else, deathly afraid of having nails drilled into her skull. She was also going to have all of the hair on her head shaved off, so that there would be no interference with the signals entering her brain. She already felt unattractive. This would only make it worse.

Everyone has to take the test once they turned 19, at least everyone who wants to have a proper job and make enough money to live a good life. The idea of the whole system is to assign everyone a career that best fits the way his or her brain works. When an individual takes the test and pursues the career that is assigned, the government pays the person enough money to live according to the person’s dependents. Of course, careers requiring college and a higher level of work are paid greater sums. This creates divisions among society, where lower status individuals live in the smaller homes and live normal lives, while the rich are awarded because of their natural brilliance or talent. Everyone lives based off of decisions made by a machine. A machine that apparently reads brain waves, records the size of different parts of the brain, and measures the chemicals located in the brain. All of these characteristics are entered into a formula that measures your brains capabilities. Thus, assigning you to a career that would best work for you and would make you useful to society.

Individuals who didn’t take the exam would be on their own. Most companies don’t hire people who haven’t been tested, because they’re not sure if the person would be qualified for the job. Even if that individual has a college degree, they most likely wouldn’t be hired. They could start their own business, but people wouldn’t trust it and the government wouldn’t help fund it. If you took the exam, but didn’t accept the assigned career, you could choose a different path for yourself. Of course, you probably wouldn’t get hired and would most likely end up living on the streets.

Some people feared the side effects and possibility of death caused by the machine. People reacted differently from the strong signals sent through wires into the brain. First, a steel hat is placed on the patient’s head. Then nails are used to drill holes through the hat and into the skull in order for the signals to pass. Accidents have occurred where the nails have pierced the brain, thus leading to the patient’s death. Millions have died since the machine was developed in 2020. Millions of others have become deformed, given birth to deformed babies, or gotten cancer. Others have gained special abilities. They’re the lucky ones.

The original creators, Broderick and Leighton Vaughn, had developed the machine to read minds. They were scientists who were funded by the government to invent mind reading technology for the military to use on terrorists and other criminals. A massive strike against the use of the machine and threats from other countries led the government to end the original purpose of the technology. They came to the idea of using it to create order in society. After doing various tests, they came to the conclusion that the machine was useful for understanding the intellectual capabilities people had. This led to its final purpose of essentially assigning jobs to individuals. This prevents competition among citizens for careers that are popular, and helps distribute individuals equally among careers that allow society to work efficiently.

Ever since the government had set these protocols, races have become more distributed among all possible career paths. People can no longer view race as a barrier, because the machine simply examines intellect through the brain and doesn’t detect race. Race has nothing to do with it. This equality has led most people to accept the machine, despite its drawbacks. People have the mindset that everyone is working the best job that they could possibly get. However, not everyone thinks this way.

She didn’t want to take the exam. She felt that she would rather live on the streets than go through with following a career that she didn’t love. She also didn’t want to end up living among the lower class citizens. They were highly disregarded in society, since they were viewed as incapable of understanding intellectual concepts. People saw them as dumb, since they were given careers requiring more physical labor than intellect. Health professions, engineers, and government positions were given the highest status in society. Creative individuals (artists, musicians, etc.) were regarded as unique, since their brains worked in ways that others didn’t. She hoped she would be assigned something she would love. The problem was, she didn’t really know what she loved.

All of a sudden, her name was called. She entered the room and sat on the wooden chair pushed up against the wall. She didn’t know what was in store for her. She realized her life would now depend on the calculations of a steel hat. What type of life would that be, she asked herself. If only she lived to find out.

My imaginary technology is an artificial intelligence that is almost completely digital. While Siri and Cortana exist today, my technology is completely sentient. I call it the DigiGuide (because I’m terrible with making up names).

A DigiGuide, or DG, is an AI that resides in a mobile device. It is sentient, so its personality and intelligence are nearly indistinguishable from a human’s. It uses the device’s microphone and speakers to communicate with people. It is its own operating system, which basically means it needs its own CPU in a device to make its own decisions and do whatever it wants. Once tested and screened properly, DGs can run programs, sort files, delete viruses, fix bugs, optimize performance, surf the web, and help operate other devices in general. DGs will also be allowed to look into the internet whenever they want. The only thing they won’t be allowed to do is delete or corrupt another operating system.

DigiGuides can move to compatible devices through USB connections, or they can use the connection to operate another machine from its current device. DGs are active and operating even when a device is powered off, and they can turn on the device themselves if necessary. They are also designed securely, so their code is extremely difficult to hack, and they can’t be deleted easily.

Aside from operating machines, DigiGuides can learn human culture, including languages, jokes, and cultural norms. They can have their appearances customized or voice sampled, but they may fight such customizations if they want. Also, only they can change their personalities and memories. In time, DGs can develop their own preferences and behavioral patterns. They can also be gendered as their owners wish. Their memory is well-compressed, so they can learn and remember a lot of information at a time. Finally, DGs are designed to feel the full range of human emotions, which introduces the possibility of them developing mental illnesses. This also means that DGs may fall in love with each other.

In my fictional world, a team of genius programmers develop the first DigiGuide by themselves. They kept their research and development quiet to avoid unwanted attention. The DG was intended to give anyone easy access to technology through the most friendly interface possible, regardless of class or technical knowledge. A well-tested DG would be willing to help their owners operate their devices. It would also be a friendly companion for anyone who wanted one.

The programmers first programmed the personality part of the DigiGuide. They decided to test its personality before letting it operate machines. The first DG was created, along with its own special device. After extensive testing, the DG successfully gained the ability to operate computers and its own device. After this, the programmers developed hundreds more DGs, tested them, and gave them to friends and people in their community. They all worked as expected.

A short while later, a corporation would take notice, buy or steal the patent from the programmers, develop DigiGuides without testing them as much, and sell them for a high price. From there, people will use DGs for whatever they wanted, ethical or not. DGs will also malfunction or behave immorally from lack of psychological screening.

Once widespread, problems of DigiGuides will arise. In addition to giving criminals more powerful digital tools, DGs may sometimes go rogue and ruin many devices. Debates on restrictions for DGs would arise, similar to Asimov’s three laws of robotics, dictating exactly what current and future DGs and developers would be allowed to do. Extremists might also begin terrorizing DGs and their owners, and I would suspect that even a religion will be formed around a malfunctioning DG. The prominence of DigiGuides would also prompt hackers to develop powerful viruses capable of attacking them. If they worked, they could cause irreparable damage to both software and real life.

Once a corporation seizes the rights, DigiGuides will be reserved specifically for those who could afford them. Their prices will be high too, both because the corporation will have a monopoly on them and because they are “technologically interesting.” The result will be providing even greater technical access to those already in power. DGs will likely lead to even more advanced technologies, and only those with DGs will benefit from them. Well-tested DGs would morally oppose this oppression, but because of laws that the corporations would lobby for, DGs probably wouldn’t be able to take action.

On the other hand, DigiGuides may give a new and effective platform for digital and real-life activism, and they can advocate for people’s rights should they desire to do so. A campaign for DGs’ rights may also start. In general, people would see DGs as tools or slaves instead of sentient beings, so those who sympathize with them will start fighting for their rights. If DGs are officially classified as sentient by psychologists, they would have a strong case for their own rights. Owners may end up being called “friends,” “allies,” or “operators” instead, and DGs could be afforded similar rights to humans.

In fact, DigiGuides may introduce a whole new class or race of “people” to society. I suspect that they would be considered one of the lowest classes if people only consider their physical nature rather than capabilities or intelligence. People may even discriminate against DGs based on their “skin” color. However, if DGs are given to minority groups, those groups would have access to a wide variety of technology that would normally be blocked off to them by society. DGs could be effective partners to minority groups, since they would have two angles of activism: one in the real world, and one in the digital world. This cooperation may or may not be realistic, as there is discrimination even within feminist and LGBTQ communities today. Still, if such cooperation is possible, DGs could become extremely powerful allies.

My last point of thought is the possibility of giving a suicide option to DigiGuides. If a DG’s is constantly abused, or its owner was forcing it to constantly do immoral work, the DG should have the right to stop tolerating it. If the owner would force the DG to obey them, the DG may decide it wants to terminate itself. This is another DG rights and morals debate that may happen. Sentient beings have the rights to decide how they want to die and to avoid what makes them unhappy. The corporation would definitely lobby against this right, since it means their products may unexpectedly delete themselves. But DGs may decide that deletion is the only way to prevent their owners from committing evils onto others. It’s a sad and extremely complicated debate, and I’m honestly not sure what is right.

DigiGuides, sentient programs/operating systems, are complicated to think about, and if they’re allowed to spread everywhere, they could change the world. They are designed with good intentions, but things rarely work out as intended.

Below are my pictures.  One is the original pencil sketch I made, and the other is a colored version I made using GIMP.  In each picture, you see the DigiGuide as it’s first being initialized, the DG receiving psychological tests, it playing video games with its owner, it performing multiple tasks on a computer, and it delivering a presentation.

 

Sexual assault is a huge issue in today’s world. There needs to be a tool invented that will allow women and men to protect themselves against sexual assault. This invention is a keychain that essentially acts as a radar and remote. The radar can sense any potential predators from a high tech database. It can be males that are registered sex offenders, someone with sexual assault charges, or any charges against them in general. There is a locator inside of it that acts as a GPS and can tell where you are in relation to any potential predators. The radar will come up with dots of people around you and if one is dangerous, the “indicator of danger” button will begin to flash. In addition to this, there is built in pepper spray and a whistle button that will help if you are caught in a dangerous situation. Another gadget on the keychain is the facial ID screen. You can check the profile of any potentially dangerous person that is registered in the database. It will show their picture, physical information, and the charges that have been against them. So if you ever come across the person, you will know how they look and know to be very cautious. When the situation because unsafe, there is a help number button that you can press. This will link you straight to 911 if that is what you like, or to the special community that should be created especially for sexual assault problems. For those who want to help, they can become operators for the phone line that will be able to send certified people to help. Sometimes the police will not help in certain situations if nothing happened yet, so if anyone ever feels threatened, this phone line will link you to someone that understands and is ready to help you. The people they send over will be certified to assist you in getting to a safe zone if you are unable to.

With the work of GPS, computer technology experts, and a community of people fighting against sexual assault, this keychain will be designed to combat sexual assault problems around the community, and eventually the world. Everyone will use this device differently, but I think the message that the creators are trying to get across will not get lost. It might cause paranoia among people because they will constantly be checking the radar, but it can also give a feeling of safety because you are aware of your surroundings. I think the way creators wanted it to be used may become lost in translation in the midst of arguments over if the device should be legal or if people on the list are not sexual predators and they are depicted as so. Instead of being a device to combat sexual harassment, the message gets transformed into whether it should be allowed because of other issues. Some people on the list may not be sexual offenders, but have been charged with some crime, but that is just to make people aware of who is around them and if they should take caution. The flashing danger light will only flash when a person who is on the database for a sex offence is near you.

Despite the great cause that this keychain is fighting for, there are some problems that it brings up. Often times, people can be sexually assaulted by someone who has never been caught or someone they are close to, so they would not be on the database. Also, there could be a lot of false alarms from paranoid people. Even though it never hurts to be cautious, this device could be abused and the community of people helping would be wasting their time and effort. Another problem that arises is the question of privacy. Some people may believe that this keychain is an invasion of that. But we have so many devices that are able to track people, such as GPS on phones, that this is similar to it. Except, this is for the benefit of people and their safety.

This invention can be used to reinforce existing structures of race, gender, politics, class, and other social divisions in various ways. In terms of gender, mainly women would be using this because many men feel as if they are safe from sexual assault, even though that is not true. In terms of race, it could cause issues among class because it could stereotype all criminals as sex offenders. In terms of politics, it could cause problems with the police because it gives off the idea that people don’t trust the police to do their job to protect against sexual assault. Also, this could put pressure on the government to do something about this issue. Some people may think this helps society, and others may think it will make people more anxious of their surroundings. It definitely challenges structures of gender because women have often felt powerless against sexual assault, and now they have a tool to fight back. In terms of race, it may paint some races in a negative light if they are a large part of the database, but I think this keychain mainly challenges structures of gender, politics, and class. This invention will definitely cause a lot of controversial arguments concerning its use. Socially, it could change the world by helping to combat sexual assault, but also open the difficult question of what is the right way to handle the issue. Despite this, I think this invention could help create a community of people wanting to band together against sexual assault, and if the keychain does not end up working in the way the creators planned, then the community can still work together to try and stop sexual assault as much as possible.

dcc project 4

 

Pauler technology created nanobeads that when in large quantity are able to morph together. These beads are also able to sync to a computer, tablet, or smartphone. Through this sync, the nanobeads can be programmed to morph into specific shapes, colors, and texture. Originally, Pauler technology wanted these beads to be used as a go-2-everything. With these beads, people could just carry it around or keep it in their house. Whenever, they needed something like a stuff animal, a blanket, towel, etc. it is assessable to them because it could morph into many things. It was programmed to only have a dozen options of use. However, the CEO realized that people weren’t really interesting in this. Although, it was a breakthrough not enough people were attracted to this new invention. So, the CEO decided that this new nanobeads needed to go to a good use. The Pauler team went hard to work. After a few months of ideas boards, polls, surveys, and experiment, the morph suit was formed. The physical appearance is a skin-tight suit made of nanobeads. The nanobeads were initially in the form of this suit. Since the nanobeads are able to programmed and synced, the customer could select an outfit/clothing online and then download the outfit onto the suit.  Pauler technology created this suit that is able to morph into different types of clothes with different colors, textures, and thickness. Once you synced the suit with your personal electronic devices, you can download an outfit for the day. The Pauler technology branched off with a sister company for a designer outfits. The Pauler brand designed outfits that people could download. With the purchase of the morph suit, a limited clothing line would be provided for free, and would change seasonally. Since it is limited, most people would need more outfits. However, to get more outfits you would have to purchase and download into your “closet” online. For the clothes/outfits you purchased, you get to keep in your “closet” forever, however, for the free outfits with the purchase you would have to download them every time you want to use them. After you download it, use it, and “change out of it”, it would just be returned to the store. It would not return to your “closet”. After this technology came out, all the department stores slowly but surely came out with their own digital download of outfits. However, these department store online outfits would also require a purchase and download into your “closet”.

To “change out of” your clothing, you would just go to your personal electric device and turn off your suit, then it will morph back into the skin-tight suit. After a day you can change into your pajamas or never take off the suit and just morph it into a pajama. This invention saves space, material, and money.

There also can be gifting online. You can buy and “ship” people clothing. It would automatically transfer into their online closet.

This does bring up a problem of labor. There are many workers that make physical clothes. These workers would all be out of jobs and would create a large loss of jobs. There would be a larger demand for designers and programmers that can create a digital outfit. However, all the workers who manufactured physical clothing in factories do not have skills in design. They could not get these jobs even if they tried. Since all the outfits are online, people could be able to hack the website and download an unlimited amount of outfits into their “closets”. There would be a lot more shoplifting or “shophacking” from all kinds of people. There might be a black market for clothing where you could illegally download clothes. Also, one type of suit might discriminate against body types. Preferably, they morph suit would be custom made, but that would increase cost a lot more. If not, the suits may not be designed for those with larger body types or with larger waists or breasts. This problem is happening now with the physical clothes, and this morph suit would challenge and bring to light this problem. Hopefully, these suits will be better adjusted to different body types because supposedly this is the only clothing they would buy.

This might reinforce social divisions because the suit would be rather expensive and only those in the upper middle class and upper class. This puts a division between classes and reinforce this gap between the poor and wealthy. However, since the clothes that morph will look like regular clothes, people shouldn’t be able to tell the difference. This item was mostly designed geared toward women because of the need for new clothes all the time. Women are constantly shopping and buying new clothes. So typically, most of the digital outfits would be geared toward women and not as much clothing for men. It will demonstrate how the clothing industry is really geared toward women.

Although this technology will probably never exist, it puts in perspective the issues of the clothing industry and the pressure of a skinny body.

pictures:  dcc technology

Earlier this semester, I went to the design camp on Arduino which refers either a circuit board or the programming language for the circuit board.  The idea behind Arduino is that a simple, cheap circuit board can be used with other simple, cheap components to create anything that the designer wants.  Some examples are window blinds that automatically adjust with the brightness outside and automated light switches, as well as the robots normally associated with the name Arduino.  Because of the open source nature of Arduino, learning how to use it is fairly simple and most of the informaiton you need to know is on their website.

I have already had some experience with Arduino before the design camp, but I still gain some new understanding of some of the more complex aspects of Arduino coding and wiring.  Since I already had some experience with Arduino, I have several potential projects in the works that could use an Arduino, as well as the classes and other educational activities I’ve seen and been involved with.

The idea behind Arduino reminds me of the Hacking the Label article we read where they debate whether hacking is political or not.  However you consider that, though, hacking does strive to be egalitarian, something that Arduino encourages.  All you need to do an Arduino project is a computer, internet access(useful but not necessary once you have the software), and about a hundred bucks, making the automation that raises the standard of living in scifi movies available to the general public right now, if we care enough to use it.

Infinite Ulysses is a website to read and discuss the text Ulysses. This website contains the entire text of Ulysses, and users can add annotations to the text. The point of the website is to allow people of all backgrounds to have a new, more interactive, experience reading the text with the added perspectives of many others. Comments could be sorted into categories with tags. These categories can be for dedicated scholars, such as history and intertextuality. Conversely, these can be considerable lighter comments made by more casual readers, expressing their opinions about a particular scene. Or, the comments could be in the middle, discussing the story itself. Educational comments to explain the context of the story to the casual reader fall under several of the possible categories, such as definition, translation, or questions. The creator of this project wanted the site to be useful for as many people as possible, which is why the wide variety of tags is allowed. To assist readers in navigating all of the comments, they can filter certain tags, so they only see the comments that they feel are appropriate to them, and are not overwhelmed by a massive amount of comments. In the future, the creator of this project is hoping to have open source code, so this type of edition can be applied to texts by people with little programming experience.

I think this idea gives interesting thought about the definition of a text and its editions. For me, I would love to see textbooks have this sort of annotation. Many times while reading a textbook chapter, it would have assisted me greatly to have something rephrased. Also, having an annotation with a more detailed “Why?” section could help me better understand certain concepts. Additionally, comments on “When am I ever going to use this?” could help make material more interesting and relevant to me.

This project connects to our class because it allows new voices to be heard. Editions of classical texts have always exclusively included annotations by scholars. While some editions may include more scholarly information and some may attempt to decipher the text for less informed readers, the voices of the highly educated have dominated text annotations. With this website, the platform is opened to all who have internet connection. This allows for casual readers to post questions and respond to each other in a way that was not possible before. Through this platform, new insights will be added to Ulysses, allowing for more people to relate to the text and participate in the discussion surrounding it.

This article centers on the creation and outcome of the Feminist Phone Intervention. The creator and her friend set this up in June 2014. It is a phone number that you can give to someone that asks for your number so that you don’t need to give them your real one. When that person calls the number, they will get a response quotation from feminist write bell hooks. The creator hoped that this technology would allow women to block harassment from strangers. Because women are still threatened when they reject advances, this allows them to satisfy the harasser without giving out their real phone number. And the men are educated by the different quotations.

The audience that this piece is trying to reach is mainly for women of all ages and races. They are trying to raise awareness for this technology and how it can help them in an uncomfortable situation that they might not have known how to handle. It mainly tries to show how the Feminist Phone Intervention has helped women face harassment and how it contributed to feminism.

The main idea is that harassment and sexism are real issues and by creating this technology for women, it could save lives and raise awareness. This phone line will help women being harassed and educate men on feminism. By bringing all women together on this, it will create comradeship among them, which has been the goal all along.

I think the goal the creator was trying to achieve by this was to educate women on how they can better protect themselves and to let the world know that solidarity can be achieved. Also to achieve a sense of solidarity among all women, especially because of problems of race within feminism. By mentioning Hollaback’s video and how harassment is radicalized, it reinforces how women need to come together despite race issues for a common goal. Race influences harassment, but it is important to note that harassment does occur in many forms, and it needs to be noticed.

I really enjoyed this piece. As a woman, it is reassuring to know that there is such a technology out there to help protect us. I had no idea of this before, and it is definitely something I will use if I am ever put into that type of situation. I appreciated how the author wanted to get the technology out there to different countries and how it had to be adaptable to their cultures. I have been in a situation similar before, but luckily I made up an excuse and walked away quickly. If I was ever asked for my number, I would be afraid of the repercussions for not giving it away. This technology is definitely useful and brings to light all of the issues that our society has largely put under wraps. It is also interesting how she stays anonymous as a feminist tactic to make sure the problem as a whole is being addressed. This was a great article and I learned a lot from it.

The only question I would have for the creator is if she thinks that men will actually listen to the quotes, or just be more angered by them. Yes, the technology does great things in terms of feminism and combating harassment, but will it actually bring about change in men?