Before my many years' service in a restaurant, I attended a top science university. The year was 2023 and I was finishing the project that would win me my professorship. In the end, it resulted in my becoming a kitchen employee. My forty-second birthday had made a lonely visit the week before, and I was once again by myself in the flat. Like countless other mornings, I ordered a bagel from the toaster. 'Yes, sir!' it replied with robotic relish, and I began the day's work on the project. It was a magnificent machine, the thing I was making - capable of transferring the minds of any two beings into each other's bodies. As the toaster began serving my bagel on to a plate, I realized the project was in fact ready for testing. I retrieved the duck and the cat - which …show more content…
To my joyous relief, however, I heard the thing continue on its way down the corridor. Minutes passed, then hours. I entertained myself flicking wheat-based projectiles at the cat. On the dawn of the third day, I concluded that the toaster had failed in its piloting of my body, and that help was not on its way. Gripped by the despair of one who must solve the puzzle of toaster suicide, I resigned myself to my fate. Pushed on by a grim fervor, I began igniting the entire stock of bread. As the smoke poured from my casing, and the first hints of deadly flame flickered in my mechanisms, I began the solemn disclosure of my own eulogy. Suddenly the fire alarm leapt into action, hurling thick jets of water across the flat, desperate to save its occupants. A piercing wail erupted from all sides, and a squabbling mixture of annoyance, relief and curiosity filtered into my mind. Once the firemen had visited and deactivated the alarm, I was identified as the fault, unplugged and hauled away to a repair shop. The staff there, finding nothing to remove but a faulty speech chip, apparently put me up for sale. I only know this because, on being reconnected to the
Andy Clark strongly argues for the theory that computers have the potential for being intelligent beings in his work “Mindware: Meat Machines.” The support Clark uses to defend his claims states the similar comparison of humans and machines using an array of symbols to perform functions. The main argument of his work can be interpreted as follows:
Let’s answer this question point blank: No, Chris McCandless, the ‘adventurer extraordinaire’, was not a suicidal human being. Was that too blunt? Got high off of it? Need explanation? Ok, well here are the reasons why; he knew the risks of taking the perilous journey to go “Into the Wild”, if he wanted to die, he would’ve done it sooner and the friendships that he made with people and his notebook (journal?) were far too strong. Those three reasons are why I think he didn’t end his life.
deep need to probe the mysterious space between human thoughts and what is a machine can
(1) Ethnocentrism is looking at one’s own culture and placing it above other cultures, constantly comparing it to the other cultures “below”. In America today, many people look at conflicted areas in the globe such as the Middle East and wonder why their system cannot keep a stable democracy. This idea of constantly comparing other cultures to one’s own and expecting them to be alike or follow the example is a problem in reading historical documents and understanding history as a whole. Nomadic invaders such as the Mongols were described as horrible savage people in the written accounts of the sedentary peoples. This must not be taken quite as literally because accounts tend to be biased more often than not. In examining ethnocentrism, one must always remember that few, if not none, cultures behave extremely irrationally as they may seem. For example, referring back to the views of Middle East today, one must remember that the system of Islamic law and customs has held for centuries, and would not have survived that long if they truly are as irrational as they might seem. Referring back to the example of the Mongols, the attacked people were obviously biased and the Mongols would not have had ruled for so long if they were cruel, savage, irrational monsters. Ethnocentrism is extremely difficult to avoid and is apparent in many documents, such as Columbus’s description of the American Natives (in comparison to the “civilized” Europeans), and should be dealt with carefully. In order to understand all sides of an account, one must look at what is written with deference and understanding.
One of the key questions raised by Rupert Sheldrake in the Seven Experiments That Could Change the World, is are we more than the ghost in the machine? It is perfectly acceptable to Sheldrake that humans are more than their brain, and because of this, and in actual reality “the mind is indeed extended beyond the brain, as most people throughout most of human history have believed.” (Sheldrake, Seven Experiments 104)
Boden, M. A. (2001, April 25). THE AGE OF INTELLIGENT MACHINES | The Social Impact
Krill, Paul. "The Age of the Sentient Machine Is upon Us." InfoWorld. 14 Mar. 2013. Web.
Frozen bodies, brains uploaded to computers, and the singularity - the point when robots surpass human intelligence. According to Ray Kurzweil and other spectators, this is what lies in the inevitable future. A century ago, people considered eternal life to be unachievable and a concept only related to the ancient gods. Futurists and scientists have recently started to believe that immortality is within our reach, which has captivated human interest. People find the concept promising and continue to invest in the process, without realizing the potential dangers that come with it. The technological revolution has spurned both societal ignorance and greed, and it will continue to degrade human values leaving future generations craving more than before.
Some thoughts sneak into our mind without our knowledge, and some thoughts are already in our mind without our knowledge. Music either triggers this knowledge, or it draws the already present knowledge to the surface. For example, this morning was like any other morning. I got up, made the bed, fed the dog, and brushed my teeth while she ate. I got dressed and took her potty after putting on the same blue leash I have put on her every morning since she was a puppy three years ago. Standing in the morning sunlight while she sniffed for the perfect spot, my mind was free of thoughts, or so I thought.
There are many social problems that exist in the world today, which includes but do not limits to self-identity and racism. However, they somehow go unnoticed because at times people conform to what society thinks is the way to live. In my opinion, people believe they should act or feel a certain way because of what is broadcast on television, featured in magazines, and even brought into the limelight by celebrities. After viewing the movie Crash, in my opinion, the movie targets on going social problems that are constantly being swept under the rug to this present day. I deem Crash a race movie because it forces the audience to question their own moral values.
Bar-Cohen, Yoseph, and David Hanson. The Coming Robot Revolution: Expectations and Fears about Emerging Intelligent, Humanlike Machines. New York: Springer, 2009. Print.
Can you single out just one day from your past that you can honestly say changed your life forever? I know I can. It was a typical January day, with one exception; it was the day the Pope came to St. Louis. My brother and I had tickets to the youth rally, and we were both very excited. It was destined to be an awesome day- or so we thought. The glory and euphoria of the Papal visit quickly faded into a time of incredible pain and sorrow, a time from which I am still emerging.
Bar-Cohen, Y. (2009). The coming robot revolution expectations and fears about emerging intelligent, humanlike machines. Springer.
The date is April 14, 2035 a young woman is woken up by the silent alarm in her head. She gets up and steps into her shower where the tiles sense her presence and calculate the water to the precise temperature that she likes. The news flashes in her eyes announcing that today is the tenth anniversary of the day quantum computing was invented. She gets dressed and puts on her favorite hat with a smartband embedded in the rim, allowing her access to anything she needs just by thinking it. Her car is waiting with her trip preprogrammed into it. She arrives at the automated airport to see her associate waiting for her. By the look in his eyes she can tell he is doing a quick online search in his mind. Technology is constantly growing and soon this future will be a reality.
Accidents happen all the time whether we know it or not. Some could possibly be avoided and others may not. I was a young girl, who didn’t truly grasp the concept of life and death. Every time I was upset about something, I would think about ending my own life. However, through one horrifying incident, that silly thought of mine completely vanished. Thanks to that specific mishap, the way I perceived life and death has in turn, changed entirely anew.