Term Paper Topic - Ryan Bercaw

For my term paper, I would like to research the history, growth, and current state of the Internet, and how it has impacted mass media. The Internet has turned all media standards upside down since it's creation and continues to do so. Many old industries have been forever changed, and not in a good way, by the rise of the Internet. Major points will be the rise of online newspapers, world-linking communications, and piracy.

Term Paper Topic - Nick Sulikowski

With the fairly new technology of virtual reality, several doors have been opened in expanding the way we explore spaces, the way we interact with each other, and possibly our perception of the world around us. With it, new and near total control of a totally three dimensional environment is given to people, and the ability to make virtual worlds existing inside computers take on a whole new level of realism, that otherwise would have been impossible on a 2D screen or even a holographic screen.

With this new technology, additionally a whole new medium opens up in which new forms of art work can be created. Imagine, instead of a 2D painting on a canvas of let's say, an abstract piece, with this the colors, shapes, and composition would totally surround the viewer and give an experience unparalleled and unexplored before.

Consider how this might be used in contemporary mainsteam media, as films are transformed into a completely different experience, or video games become so immersive you feel the feel and possibly even the pain of the character.

Finally consider how this level of interaction could social interactions. Could someone, instead of visting someone in person, meet then in a virtual community space online? Imagine if Second Life or an MMO allowed people all across the world to meet in the same virtual room, communicating as if they were really in the same area. Think about how that might affect time spent physically travelling outdoors, or other activity located in the real world.

Term Paper Topic- Caitlin Cherry

YouTube has expanded media narrative in that any person with a camera and Internet access can distribute any story he or she wants, allowing anyone to be an author, and allowing any subject or event to be told as a story. YouTube has removed traditional sensory experiences and created new sensory rituals that users extend into real world interactions.

Class Scribe 11/19

On Thursday, we continue to talk about cyborg. We looked at a couple websites that attempt to create an online chatting AI. First we looked at Eliza test, an attempt to create a cyber-therapist. It was not successful at all, as it fail to answer the simplest question such as "how are you". Another AI chatbot, Cleverbot, is a much improved AI bot. he can give you an answer that make sense most of the time, and it can even make jokes.The difference between the two AI is that, while Eliza answers with preset messages base on the keywords it find in the question, Cleverbot "learns" from the people it had conversation with. Cleverbot have a large database that stores all conversation it encounters and dish it out when similar conversation occur. After playing around with the Cleverbot a bit, we talked about how robotics/technology have change people's value of life. Dis-Armor, a "psychocultural prosthetic equipment designed to meet the communicative need of the alienated, traumatized, and silenced residents of today's cities.". The class ended by watching a short video of another form of communication through technology. In the video, a speaker will speak about their bitter past experience, and they will be project onto a building showing only their face or hands depends on the building. This method brings the audiences to know the speaker better, since most time when we listen to lecture we are unable to see the speaker's face or hand movement so closely.




Eliza test: http://www.chayden.net/eliza/Eliza.html
Cleverbot: http://www.cleverbot.com/
Dis-Armor: http://web.mit.edu/idg/disarmor.html

Computing Machinery and Intelligence

This article brought up a few interesting points in comparing physical thought process between man and machine. I found it humorous that in some aspects the machine could portray a realistic human response but not vice versa. For example, with a math question, a human could only answer so quickly, and an accurate instantaneous response isn't very realistic. A computer on the other hand could have the answer right away, but "mock" the human by increasing the response time. With the idea of computers mocking a true form, a hobby of mine comes to mind. This can be related to electronic and tube-driven guitar amplifiers and effect pedals. The traditional tube tone was originally achieved before modern electronics and circuitry, and despite the flux of modern electronic guitar equipment, many agree that the original tube tone is preferred. Some ask; will cost effective electronic gear ever fully replace the traditional tube design? Here is where the idea of mocking comes in. With each having such separately distinct sounds currently, some say that electronic circuitry will eventually be able to fully and effectively mock the desired tube tone, and the traditional pricey medium will be replaced.

Class Scribe - 11/17

Today, we continued with presentations and discussions concerning the cyborg. There is a general consensus that a cyborg is made up of constituent parts of several different beings, whether they be man, machine, or animal. As such, a cyborg tends to be a merger of ideals intrinsic to its components. The over-arching question was how a cyborg overcomes these perhaps clashing binary ideals and dualisms. Such ideals include technological/human, male/female, human/animal, living/nonliving, self/other, etc. We determined that it was difficult to actually imagine a realistic cyborg, since we depend so much on these binary oppositions. For example, we like to think about life, not death. We categorize ourselves as either male or female, good or bad.

The idea of a human/technology merger may not seem so far-fetched, however, since we already coexist with technology in today's society. Overcoming gender binary oppositions seemed to be much more difficult, and almost impossible to eliminate the distinction between male and female.

We also touched upon the notion of alienation as the "other" or unknown. Alienation serves as the foundation of inequality.

The class ended with us viewing some works and images by performance artists such as Orlan and stelarc.

Virtual Reality -- Jesse Papineau

I believe that with each new experience one is given/goes through, they will be able to take something away (be it an ideal, thought or new perspective) from it that will help them to succeed later in life. Virtual reality makes just about anything possible, not only to have fun with (imagine the VR Wii!) but also to give anyone who is looking for it something out of the ordinary realm of possibility. As for practical, useful applications of virtual reality, the Army could use it on their soldiers to train them and give them a very realistic simulation of a real war zone. It might be expensive (I'm not sure the actual cost of VR, I'd just think it must cost quite a bit), however any individual could potentially be given any experience that might be normally impossible for them to have. For example, a person who has never seen the Grand Canyon before (and also does not have the means to make it to Arizona) could go there in a virtual reality and see a gorgeous part of the world that they normally wouldn't have. It of course wouldn't be just like the real thing, but if you don't know any better (and the replica is convincing enough) then it might as well be.