CT blog assignment #5

While the course has given us wonderful insights into the concepts of cloning , aritificial intelligence, and other technologies, my stances on each of these concepts have not changed so drastically.  My persepctive on these matters has actually remained quite the same. The readings offered interesting idea that possibly an individual who did not know to much about the subjects could probably formulate some form of a decent opinion. The best readings that were insightful to promises and perils of these concepts were Never let me go and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, both were intriguing stories that brought your to the heart of the debates amongst cloning and artificial intelligence. Call me old fashioned but I am conservative in some respect when it comes to these issues.  We are hardly figuring out ourselves yet, and I think to jump so far without a parachute just seems terribly irresponsible. Which is why it is good that there is a debate on the matters. Though, it must be taken into account the atrocities that may occur with these future aspects. As well, I have always loved movies that central themselves around issues and are able to articulate the ideas in a moving way that it really gets you thinking. One of my favorites was "V for Vendetta", but I digress. Hopefully it can insipre a lot of use to stand up  for our convitions as opposed to the many who do not. 

CT blog assignment # 4

The debate amongst human cloning has still to be decided. We have not even gone so far in the debate on stem cell research which would be the first step into human cloning. Personally, human cloning is on completely different tangent than stem cell research. Cloning would be a whole new extreme to encounter. Numerous piece of work flim and literature convey their point of view on the debate. Particularly in Never Let Me Go shows the emotional side that the perils of cloning would bring. It deals with "students" who are later will become donors to people in normal socities who need specific organs. Kathy H. expresses, "What we want to know now, Miss Emily, is if the rumor's true or not" (Ishiguro 257). Expressing how the clones do actually have feelings. They have feelings and desires.  This is where the debate stems from on cloning, how can we expect to clone people and use them for therapeutic purposes. Especially, when they show the same attributes of being emotional and having feelings. In the story Miss Emily expresses, "---we did it to prove you have souls at all" (Ishiguro 260). The whole premise of the whole debate roots in this exact issue, which is do clones at all are real people. The importance of what we attribute to a soul, are clones capable of having one? Or are they just empy shells that are expendable sources of therapeutic purposes. Perhaps they are disposable, only further insight will tell.
Kazuo Ishiguro's,

GOODBYE BLOG!

Well I have never liked blogging and personally I still do not like blogging. However, it was fortunate for many of us to use this as way to comunicate with one another. In turn, it allowed us to help strengthen each others work. The most important thing is just keep your head in the game and do not drop the ball. Keep running till you get to the endzone and score. At least with that kind of determination you will succede in anything you do. The milestones do keep you at good a pace. Though, I do not know if it keeps everything coherent, but that is just me. The best thing was the help in how to do actual researching for your sources. I think once you get that down you good to do anything and everything. So all in all, grab a bucket of cookies and enjoy. =]

CT blog assignment # 3

The prospects of cloning is a wary thought on many minds. Especially, if you wire your beliefs and aspirations from that of religion. Though, even if you are not religious cloning still may not seem as honkey dory as the optimist of cloning like to perceive. Going so far as to clone humans has been a controversial topic amongst the the sciences and humanities alike. Even some of its avid supports are willing to admit that cloning has its flaws. As well, these present flaws are not very minuscule in presence. Ray Kurzweil  though an optimist on the matter points out,"Dolly the Sheep developed an obesity problem in adulthood, and the majority of cloned animals produced thus far have had unpredictable health problems" (p 121). If scientist cannot figure out all the nooks and crannies in this evolving field of science how can we feel comfortable with proceeding new comings. The short comings almost seem to out weigh the benefits. At what price are we willing to pay for this shaky outlook? Not to say science in the past has not had to go through its tribulations before it has rewarded us with beneficial effects. Though, to reap the awards from battered souls can contest to validity of cloning process altogether. In Churchill's A Number we have a grim depiction  of trials of human cloning,"and they take this painless scrape this specky little cells of me and kept that and you threw the rest of me away" (p 162). The play here tries to illustrate how cloning may affect an individual and at just that take away from there individuality and in essence actually hurt traumatize the person mental state if not already damaged. The character here feels belittle and even refers to himself as been "thrown away" as if he casual object that holds no real importance. The same can be said in Michael Bay's The Island and Never Let Me Go, where the reverse happens, not a question of the individual but the clones who display aspects of human emotions and feelings, yet are subjected to be petty objects that when summoned to be used they must full fill their usage. The clones in these movies are treated as if they are just another assemblage of mechanical parts that serve the purpose of replacement duties.I believe that cloning is a prospect that needs to be vigorously evaluated before we move onto any new notions on the matter. 

Where are we going to in zee Research paper!

Howdy! There is a lot of research going on in the area of borderline personality disorder. Which is lucky for me because that is the case of  the character in which my paper is framed around as well as the real life person. My prior knowledge on the subject has helped me hone in on what to focus on as I sift through all the articles. I do believe I'm well on my way to having a good paper written. I just need to focus on what I'm doing and get everything organized, whereas right now everything seems to be all scattered when I can finally assert as to how I want to use my research I should be able to pull this off. Yup.....=P

CT Blog post 2 eng101

So many people are so excited about new technologies that are coming forth. Though, I do not think some of them know what the reality of what they excited about really entails. Especially in development of robotics there are many intriguing things to that are being seen and yet to be witnessed. However, what does this all mean? Various scientist strive to achieve simulation of human behaviors, feelings, and even conciouness in machines. But, I think we have to evaluate what it really means to be human, furhtermore conciousness before we can even go so far. And it seems that the jury is s till out on the subject. Gelernter a scientist is very expressive on the future of robotics, "No computer will be able to think like a man uneless it can hallucinate" (202). Gelernter here gives us some basic standards as to what certain aspects exhibit human conciousness, and that is it only through these certain aspects can we wcome to accept that perhaps a computer is has "conciousness". Perhaps in light of these certain attributes if it is even possible it will take a vast majority of time before we can even have anything such as "strong AI". For instance many of the robotics scientist are creating simulate some human behavior such as waseda and even have problem solving abilities such as big dog, but who is to say that these are any prelimnaires to stong AI. After all they seem to only mimic a certain humans aspects, how can we conclude that they are even close to understanding how they do the things they do or why they do them. Is that not just it? That they merely preform on series of algoritims structured from some logic computations. Have they ever sat back and said "heh I wonder why this particular thing makes me angry.." or "Why am I even figuring out how to get through this obstacle?" Probably not, because we can deduce that the creators of these robots have practically all insight in their inner workings. Therefore, yes it is probably unlikely that strong AI may ever come to be realized, if at all it will take an extremely long time before it can be achieved. 

Sample Research Paper

While I strive for perfection in writing my papers. It is apparent that we do not need to have everything very prim and proper. I suppose this alright, however, I do not know if I agree with it.This person did do some things alright. She got a lot of sources and had some good ideas that were illustrated to the best of her ability; as we all try to do. Though, it was good to see another persons writing style and how they attempted to convey a ceratin idea. As well as, how they utilized these sources in there paper to argue their thesis. To be honest we all could use some work! =P