Instructions for Final Wednesday

Hello Technology Experts:

You will complete the final on Wednesday from 10:30 to 12:30.  

Come to E144 and I will escort you to the lab we will use.

You should bring your "visual" avatar or cyborg or a statement about "how" it will exist if there is no visual representation possible.

You will have two hours to complete the final (handout was given to you last Monday).

The final cannot be revised.  You may review it with me next week.

 I will be able to discuss your grades with you on Monday June 20.  You may come to my office (E103N) during our regular class time of 10:30-12:30.

I'm looking forward to seeing your ideas about the future of technology.

If you have any questions email me: slyckvan@gmail.com.

End of Semester Plans and Dates

Greetings English 101 Technology Students!

Here is an outline of the last two and a half weeks of class, date for final and summary of our work.

Wednesday, May 25:

Discussion of Avatars and Special Performance of Avatars by LaGuardia Theatre students

Screening of an episode from AMC's Humans.

No class Monday May 30: Memorial Day


Wednesday June 1:

Screening of Ex Machina


Monday June 6:

Discussion of final essay: Create your own avatar.  Based on review of avatar websites, Humans, Ex Machina and Transcendence, how would you envision and construct your future self.  Drawing on any of our readings about bio-enhancements, what special skills, advantages would you (your avatar) like to have?  You will create a visual representation outside of class and write the essay in class.


Wednesday June 8:

No class! (I am at conference in Boston)

Final blog on your avatar due June 8 (substitute for class); I will respond!

Monday June 12:

In-class final exam (essay)

Wednesday June 165:

Office hours to return finals, other essays and discuss your grade.

Here is review of our work for the semester and value assigned to each:

Assignment 1 (Narrative): (15%) Your personal/cultural bricolage: who am I? What has influenced me? What aspects of my culture(s) do I value?  How do I change? (3 pages/ 600 words)

Assignment 2 (Analysis) (15%) Gattaca and Eugenics (based on film screening and Sandel) (3 pages/600 words)

Assignment 3 (Argument/Research) (25%) 4-5 page essay based on one topic in The Case against Perfection. We will do staged set of writings on our blog.

Assignment 4 (15%) Social priorities and values  described in The Office of Mercy. Natasha as moral center: how she changes; how she challenges values of america 5 (600-800 words). 

Assignment 5 (15%) Final essay based on creating our own avatar--see handout (600 words)

Blogs, quizzes, class participation: (15%)

Preimplanation Genetic Diagnosis

Preimplanation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) is the cellular and molecular screening which determines if the In-vitro fertilized embryo will be used in the uterus.

PGD is available since the early 90es and since then PGD was performed on more than 15000 children. It is mostly used to identify hereditary diseases and anomalies. Also the gender can be determined by this diagnosis.

Before making the decision to undergo such procedures parents are advised to get a genetic screening to evaluate the risk of transferring the genetic disease to their offspring.

When parents make the decision to use PGD they will have to go through an In-Vitro fertilization, which means that an egg cell will be taken and fertilized outside of the body.

After that the egg will be kept under certain conditions so that the embryo will develop in to the cleavage stage embryo. At the third day a single blasphomere is removed from the cells for the genetic diagnosis. At this point it will be ascertained which embryo will be used.

The embryos which does not show any abnormalities will then be planted in to the uterus. (Molina B Dayal)

The conditions which are diagnosed by PGD are Sex linked diagnosis, which accrues when the mother is a carrier of the disease and could transfer the disease over the X-chromosome to a male offspring. There is also a 50% chance that if the embryo turns out to be female that this child also will be carrying on the disease.

Another condition which is diagnosed by PGD are single gene defects. Under this are falling diseases which are transmitted over only one gene.

The last condition is chromosomal disorder which is a chromosomal rearrangement or translocation which leads for example to miscarriage.

People who benefit from it are for example woman in advanced maternal age because the risk of having an abnormality is rising with age.

Also couples with a history of miscarries benefit from PGD. However PGD does not improve the pregnancy rate but increases the likelihood of pregnancy at term.

Another group which profits from PGD are man with infertility. The risk of chromosomal abnormalities rises with the condition of sever infertility. (Molina B Dayal)

Objectors however argue that all the fertilized eggs could develop into a baby under the right conditions and that it is unethically that the unsuitable egg cells will be destroyed.

One main argument that religious people bring up is that life starts at conception and destroying the unwanted egg cells is equal to murder.

Others argue that the disorder will not develop by 100% chance and that most diseases will develop at an older age and that at that time a cure might be found.

Others again are afraid that PGD could develop into producing babies which will be used as spare parts. (B.A. Robinson )

Even though that I think that some of the concerns are justified I still think that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

For example, nowadays the most common procedure used to check for abnormalities is prenatal diagnosis. First this procedure itself can cause harm to the unborn child and secondly if at this point of time an abnormality is diagnosed, the parents are left with the struggle to choose if they want to abort the child. So at this point I do not understand the objectors because aborting a child at this developing stage is worse than checking beforehand, because at this point of time there is already a developed baby present and the screening itself could already harm the baby.

Also I think parents want to give their child the best starting conditions, so how does someone wants to refuse this wish to the parents?

In my opinion an additional argument to that is that if parents already know about their condition, does someone want to force them to leave their child into their fate?

As well one of the biggest advantages is that some of the recent diseases could be extinct with a regular practice of PGD. Some people might say that it is against nature but no one ever had an accurate definition of nature. So is using medication and changing life so nowadays people can reach the age of 80 also against nature?

And do we really have to put people thru the struggle to live with this kind of abnormality to “protect” nature?

Also the argument of killing a human being when destroying the unsuitable embryos is not valid in my opinion. People might argue with this because of their religious believe but the start of live needs a scientific definition. So in my opinion there could be two starting points of live, the heart beat which starts after the third week after fertilization or the brain activity which accrues at first at the brain stem at the 54 day.

So by this definition there is no live after fertilization so thereby there is no dead by disposing the unsuitable egg cells.

I do agree that humanity has to be careful about choosing the right path and how we will use this procedure in the future. But at this point of time the preimplanation genetic diagnosis is the best alternative which is available.

Molina B Dayal, „Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis“, December 30, 2015,

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/273415-overview

B.A. Robinson , „Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) & haplotyping (PGH)Current status; Objections; Advantages“ , September 20, 2007, http://www.religioustolerance.org/abo_pgd2.htm

   “Forgetfulness is a common failing of old age that patent medicines once promised to cure. Some drugs in development are designed to help people with Alzheimer's disease or other brain disorders”(Marshall). In the article A Star-Studded Search for Memory-Enhancing Drugs by Marshall Eliot, explains Alzheimer’s disease, brain disease and memory drug development. With an increased of importance to develop a new way that target serious diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, memory enhancement drugs are becoming a growing business. These same drugs are also creating a huge controversy over the benefits and dangers this enhancers may cause to society. In this essay I will be discussing the benefits of memory enchantments to Alzheimer's patients. As well as the disadvantages to society, when taking these drugs as "performance enhancers" to gain a competitive advantage in the workplace. Using Marshall article I will show the importance of memory enhancements in Alzheimer patients.
       “ Alzheimer's is a type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior. Symptoms usually develop slowly and get worse over time, becoming severe enough to interfere with daily tasks" (Webster dictionary). This type of disease cause an urgency for a cure or enhancement of the memory. In the book  “the memory book” by Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas, gives more of a natural way to enhance the memory. By training your memory developing a system to remember names, numbers, foreign languages/phases, reading faster and even sports play. There’s also a ton of games you can download on any smartphone, computer or tablets that can help enhance the memory as well. Although these methods are great but how beneficial can this be to someone that already has Alzheimer’s? And this is where the drugs come in, a enhancement extremely beneficial to someone that’s already suffering from memory loss. The search of a “Viagra for the brain” as stated by Sandel (p14) targeting and reversing the memory loss. Although many of these drugs are still in the making, this does not have any negative impact on the growth of pharmaceuticals company’s. In fact this field is bombing when it comes to memory enhancements according to Sandel(14) and Marshall. The thought of a love one who suffers from any form a dementia being cured, to remembering a grand child's name or even what they ate for breakfast, leaves a sense of hope in families.  The benefits to these enhancements doesn't just stop at helping towards Alzheimer’s “but it also aim to treat vascular dementia, schizophrenia, depression, and common age-related memory loss” as well based on Marshall article. Marshall also mention " treating stroke and neurodegenerative diseases" in his article, in a world full of brain disease and conditions that causes brain disease like strokes, these enhancers serve a serious affect on people with memory loss dealing with their day to day activities to normal tasks. Such as cooking, cleaning and getting dress for example it is common to get dress in the morning but it is less common when you forget where you are going or leaving a pot on a stove and forgetting that you cooked. Memory enhancement drugs, is something that mellows the "darkside" of aging. Although Alzheimer's is the most common form dementia, memory loss can be due to other causes such as lack sleep, stress, depression, alcohol and drugs uses and even some thyroid problems. Finding a memory enhancer to cure the most common dementia can actually relieve a person from other causes of memory loss as well according to secondopion-tv.org. 
  There is another name for these enhancer giving by society called "smart drug".  The "smart drug" has many concerns and questions on the impact it can possible cause on non ill people . In the book "A case against perfect" Sandel expresses his concern on memory enhancement  for non ill people.  Sandel stated "Unlike a treatment for Alzheimer's, it would cure no disease " (14). "It could also have purely non medical uses " (14).  Sandel uses the workforce as an example "by a lawyer cramming to memorize facts for an upcoming trail, or by a business executive eager to learn Mandrian on the eve of his departure for Shanghai " (14). Using memory enhancers drugs or "smart drugs"  as an non-medical purpose can cause an unfair advantage  over peeps at work or school over people who do not use drugs. Many may also develop an addiction to these drugs just like any other drug over time. The need for having an advantage at work or school, being the number one pick, top leader or memorizing things such as a foreign languages within a short period of time, can not be done with one time uses.  According to secondopion-tv.org amplifying your memory is not that far off from an athlete who uses drugs to amplify their performance. Secondopion-tv.org questions the purpose of the enhancers ".. to help those who are sick or to improve the quality of the life of those who are health?". If enhancements are banned from sports shouldn't memory enhancements for non medical purpose be ban as well? How far will people on to get their hands on these drugs? Fake an illness to get a head? What happen to those who can not afford this treatment?
     Personally being against mostly all forms of enhancers due to side effects, disadvantages and human nature, I am for memory enhancements. One of the importance reason for myself, is that there are little  to no side effects. There are only a hand full of memory enhancement drugs, even though it is a growing industry, many have no side effects. Another reason would have to be a personal one, the love of my grandmother or as i like to call her my gma. The thought of her forgetting my name or finding her wondering the streets alone and distraught like many aging people with a form of dementia, would not be a pleasant thought for myself. Although these drugs may be a disadvantages in society when people with non medical use are using them for some sort of advantage, these drugs would be a great benefit to a serious, top common disease and over time with great development can put an ended to memory loss alone other brain diseases.

It took me a long time to understand why my great grandmother would wander the streets at times not knowing who or what anything is or who we are. When the doctors finally made my parents aware that my great grandmother had developed Alzheimer disease, we were not sure how to handle this disease. Experiencing seeing someone you love going through these changes can truly be heart broken and change everyone’s life. This is a disease that you really don’t know how the patient will wake up the next morning knowing who she/he is or who you are.

Alzheimer's disease is a loss of memory and it can be temporary or permanent depending on how severe the case is. The cause of Alzheimer's disease is currently unknown, but researchers believe that it is one of the following, a slow virus, an auto immune reaction or a biochemical imbalance in the brain. By looking at the brains of Alzheimer patients under the microscope, researchers have found that they have abnormal deposits of a protein called "amyloid. This plaque may also be a cause of Alzheimer's disease; this plaque creates an unbalance of proteins. Studies have shown that this amyloid is neurotoxic (poisons brain cells) and is the reason why the brain deteriorates. It has also been found that amyloid conflicts with normal brain functioning.

There are seven stages of Alzheimer’s Disease: Normal Outward behavior, Very Mild Changes, Mild Decline, Moderate Decline, Moderately Severe decline, Severe Decline and Very Severe Decline. On each step of these stages you start to lose your memory little by little. There are some patients that as the days go by their loss of memory begin to enhance. They could have some good days just as they can have some bad ones as well.

As stated by an article in WEBMD “Alzheimer’s Disease Heath Center & Stages of Alzheimer’s Disease”, the Alzheimer’s Foundation is under way to find new treatments to stop, slow down even prevent Alzheimer’s. New drugs take years to produce from concept to market and because drugs that seem promising in early stages may not work as hoped in large-scale trials, it is critical that Alzheimer’s research continue to accelerate.

Currently there are five FDA approved Alzheimer’s drugs that treat the symptoms of Alzheimer’s. The benefits towards these medications are to temporarily help memory and thinking problems in about half of the people who take them. But it is known that these medications do not treat the underlying causes of Alzheimer’s. There are dangers in concerns with being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. According to Scott Baily at the Alzheimer’s Association he states, “The greatest known risk factor is advancing age”.  While one of nine people age 65 or older has Alzheimer's, nearly one of three people age 85 or older has the disease. One of the greatest mysteries of Alzheimer's disease is why risk rises so dramatically as we grow older. Another strong risk factor is family history. Those who have a parent, brother, sister or children with Alzheimer’s are more likely to develop the disease. The risk increases if more than one family member has the illness. When diseases tend to run in families, either heredity or environmental factors, or both, may play a role.

Alzheimer’s is an intimidating and threatening disease. Possessing the knowledge that I now have is an advantage in being a preventable measure for me. Being that this disease is genetic, my chances of having it are increased. Knowing all of this information about it will help me in the future to be able to detect it early so I can take the proper course of action that will delay the progression of this disease for me. If tragedy ever should strike, by then, hopefully, more curable treatments will exist.

Are we ready to accept the social robot?

ENG101. 0721

Professor. PHYLLIS VAN SLYCK

Date:May.1.2016

Jisoo Kim

                                         Are we ready to accept the social robot?

                                    

    In our today lives, where all is digital with computers and also with social robots. People began to depend on machines a lot. A lot of scientists are now studying how robots can join the human society. Maybe, the robots in future not only help human’s work but also will be more social such as the humanoid. What do we think about the social robot? Are we ready to accept the social robot? I think that we need to know about benefits and dangers of social robot and then we have to prepare to accept the social robot in our life. 

     Some people are a little nervous about new social robots. They doubt whether we can trust all works about the social robots in an emergency. Besides, some experts said that as robots enter our home, they may steal secrets about our life that we don't want to share. In the article “The dangers of trusting robots”, By Evan Selinger and Woodrow Hartzog, the authors state that as robots become increasingly connected to the internet, and able to respond to natural language, we need to be especially vigilant about figuring out who or what we’re talking to. It shows us that we are not completely safe from an invasion of privacy by using the social robots. As author says “We are susceptible to telling our deepest, darkest secrets to anthropomorphic robots whose cute faces appear so innocent”. 

     People are worried that robot soon will be able to do everything human have to do. Even if they do, human wouldn’t accept it. In the article“Will Robots Make Humans Unnecessary?”, BY EVAN DASHEVSKY, the author said that the primary issue is that as the computerized AI robots take over and there are declining job opportunities. Many economists maintain an unshakable faith in The Market and its ability to provide jobs regardless of what robots and other assorted futuristic machines happen to be zooming around however, one part of the economy where technology has, beyond the shadow of any doubt, pushed humanity aside: manufacturing. According to research, between 1975 and 2011, manufacturing output in the US more than doubled (and that's despite NAFTA and the rise of globalization), while the number of (human) workers employed in manufacturing positions decreased by 31 percent.It found its way into China too. Already, we can see easily this situation that there are machines instead of a checker in a pharmacy store. If robots take jobs away from humans and then human rely on robots about everything, we can never know if the robot can handle ever situation. As Gallup Poll says “so, what happens when technology can do all that work for us and allow us to actually do what we enjoy with our time?” 

     On the other hands, social robots is a big help for us and we can use robots for a lot of things in human environment or in communicate for example at home, school or in workplace robots are a big help. Some robots are also used to do some dangerous work. For example, there are  in the car industry, in natural disasters and for explore the world with space ship or the ground from the ocean etc. Social Robots become all more as a part in our lives and design all more like humans, friendly have respect and disciplines. Robots are machines they can work and always could function. Although for older person, which can`t live along, need someone for help in the household and what ever and haven`t no other option is a social robots a good thing and a big help. JIBO is made by Cynthia Breazeal it can recognize faces, understand what people say, and respond in an amiable voice. Jibo's purpose is to help busy family members coordinate with one another and communicate with the outside world. Cynthia Breazeal who is an Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences hopes her social robot “JIBO” will become a companion for people at home.

     In the article “The Economics of Drone Delivery”, Dan Wang, Jeff Bezos promised that Amazon would soon deliver packages by drone. Also, Executives at Google Wing claim they will deliver packages in 2017 via drone. It shows us that the robots can handle lifting heavy loads, toxic substances, and repetitive tasks.  This has helped companies to prevent many accidents, also saving time and money. Companies have demoed the technology, so the real obstacle is the legal and regulatory environment.This means integrating the technologies into daily life could take a long time—or it could happen very quickly. As the Amazon CEO told “ I know this looks like science fiction however, it is not”.

  

     In conclusion, this days robots are developing and it become more compact , more capable and more flexible. We may not be able to avoid the use of robots in the future. We know the social robot has positive and negative sides. It will never be the same as God’s creation and humans will be more lazy when all more social robots consider our live. However, Robots can do a lot of things we can't even imagine yet. I believe that if we prepare to use the social robots more efficiently and safety, robots are a version of a big experiment and a good service for us humans.

    

   Do you have smart phone? Probably, most people will say yes. As we know so many people cannot live without smart phones. From the smart phone, we can see high technology is very powerful and popular. Almost all the teenagers have smart phones. We can see them use smart phones all the time. So many parents are worried about their children always hold their smarts phones. However, those parents don’t realize that they also use their smart phone for long time. The problem is smart phone is good or bad for people is this society. 

            I think the smart phone has so many benefits. As we know the smart phone combines the functions of normal cell phones and computers. The smart phone makes people’s lives easier and convenient. “Before smartphones, people used cell phones and PDAs, two separate devices that did very different things. Cell phones had the limited capability of making and receiving calls, while PDAs featured a date book, address book, task list, and memo pad. These portable organizers also worked as handheld computers, performing simple word processing and spreadsheet functions.” (Smart phone). As we know the smart phone is very useful. All the functions were put into this small box. We people go outside, no one want to bring the laptop, that’s too heavy. We almost can use my smart phone to do any work. I can do my homework, online shopping, GPS with my phone. The most useful thing is we have internet date in our phones, such as LTE. If there is no Wi-Fi, we also can use our phone, but computers are not. Also there are so many apps that I can use. I can watch news easily, we can shopping use apps. We also can apps to call the taxi, the most famous apps is uber.

          xiaonan.lu eng101

  The smart phone also helps the economy.With the smart phone, the e-commerce become normal, so many people use e-commerce to make money "As a result of smartphones and their multitude of apps, the e-commerce industry exploded, and a new generation of consumerism emerged: mobile e-commerce.""Smartphones have contributed to the growth of mobile e-commerce in multiple ways. Consumers can make purchases using mobile devices by directly visiting a retailer's Web site, linking to sites through apps, and bidding on eBay, among many other methods. Growing numbers of retailers are designing Web pages specifically for mobile screens, making it easier for customers to purchase merchandise directly from the retailer's site." (Smart phone) . We know now the famous smart phone companies are Apple and the companies with android system. Does anyone remember the company calls Nokia? "Nokia Corp. has stood at the pinnacle of the cell phone world as the world's largest manufacturer since it surpassed Motorola in 1998."(Nokia). This company was almost the no.1 company, before. however, when the Apple and android system become popular. So nokia and Microsoft get together. As we know more companies focus on how to improve their products. Technology are getting better day by day. And also before the smart phone became popular, most people used Nokia, I also love Nokia. However, after the smart phone. So know more and more people spend more money to buy smart phones. Also because the smart phone update so fast. Many people buy them for fashion.

            However, many people have some problems with using their smart phones. More and more people use their phone for long time and rely on their phone too much. Using the smart phone too much will waste people’s time and money. As we know the smart phone brings people convenient and useful, but that also makes people hold their phones all the time. People rely on their phones. When people face problems or they want to find some information. They just use their phones without thinking. When the smart phone become “smarter”, humans become stupid. Other problem is people use their phone for long time, they cannot finish their work well. For example, when I want to do my homework, I use my phone to find the words. When I start to use my phone, I cannot control myself. I start check my email, Facebook, blog, and sometime play games. After that, I realize that I didn’t finish my homework. In addition, when the new smart phone comes out, many people buy the new one, even though their phones don’t have problems. 

Sometime hurt people’s eyes and health. People are always on their phones, that hurts their relationship. When I walk in the public area, such as, bus, subway, restaurant. I see many people hold their phones. Even their friends sit together, they don’t have any conversation. When I go out with my parents, my friends or boyfriends, we don’t talk for long time, we just hold our phones. I remember when I was in China, my mother and I stayed at home, she used her phone to send a message for me and asked me “what you want to eat for lunch”. However, my mother doesn’t like me to use my phone for long time, because that hurts my eyes. I know, because my eyes are worth every year. Also I feel pain with my cervical vertebra, after I use my phone for long time. Smart phone helps people a lot, but if we don’t use it well, it may hurt us. 

            In conclusion, we know the smart phone has two sides, it has so many benefits and disadvantages. I think it depends on how people use it. We should use the smart phone in right way. The smart phone is very useful for people connect to each other, find information easily, and help economy increase. However, if people rely on the smart phone too much, people will be addicted to the smart phone, using the smart phone for long time is bad for people’s eyes, and cervical vertebras. Also people will waste money to buy the new phone for fashion.  People should treat the smart phone in right way. However, the smart phone really changes people’s life.

Homework for Spring Break: Draft of Research Paper

Hello English 101 Technology Researchers--

Please finish The Office of Mercy (There will be an in-class writing assignment on the novel next week.)

Your assignment, due Sunday May 1 by midnight, is to post your first draft of your research essay.  You should follow the guidelines we reviewed in class:

The Questions, The Structure

   Define the issue

   Who benefits? What are the benefits?

   Who is harmed? What are the dangers?

   Your concerns and recommendations.

  Your first draft should have two sources (minimum).  You should include one quotation  (or paraphrase) from each source.  A good plan would be to include one source that describes benefits and one that describes dangers.

  The sources should be correctly documented (author and if no author, title, in parentheses after quote or paraphrase).  Keep all the information about the source (author title place of publication, publisher and date; journals need volumes and pages)--we will do this together in class.

  The most important thing about this draft is that you have a clear definition of the issue in your first paragraph followed by a discussion of the benefits and dangers and concluding with your position.

  We will read and critique these drafts in class Monday May 2.  This blog will be graded so don't forget to do it!