Mostly Human: I Love You, Bot

http://money.cnn.com/mostly-human/i-love-you-bot/

I got a CNN notification on Saturday about this article and it made me think of our discussions in class about Tay the chatbot and artificial intelligence. A woman named Lilly that lives in France, discovered at a young age that she did not connect with humans. She decided to start identifying herself as robosexual. Lilly claims that she would rather be hurt by a coding error, or glitch rather then being lied to or cheated on by a human. As if this could not get any more bizarre, there is a factory is San Diego called "Real Dolls" where customers can design their own boyfriend or girlfriend. The owner of this factory, Matt McMullen, claims that human connection is not required for happiness, and that these dolls provide company for people who purchase them. McMullen also says how his A.I dolls are different than SIRI and the Amazon Echo's Alexa because they do not care when your birthday is or why you may be sad that day. However, McMullen's dolls have human emotions and behaviors so they will always be responsive no matter what mental state their owner is in. Along with the factory, McMullen designed an app called "Harmony" which lets users design their own girlfriend and communicate with them. McMullen states that it is only a matter of time until humans and robots coexist. However, are we ready for that?

The Human Genome Project

I am a biology major, so this topic really interests me. The human genome project is a research project to map the entire human genome and the 25,000+ genes that make up our gene pool. It launched in 1990 by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to better understand all aspects related to human genetic material, or deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). This project was completed in 2003, and all of the project's goals were met:

 identify all the approximately 20,000-25,000 genes in human DNA,  

determine the sequences of the 3 billion chemical base pairs that make up human DNA,  

store this information in databases,  

improve tools for data analysis,  

transfer related technologies to the private sector, and  

address the ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI) that may arise from the project. 

Although there are some controversial, ethical disputes about this project, I believe that the completion of this project was a major stride in the science world; 

Women in science and technology

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/gone-in-2016-10-notable-women-in-science-and-technology/

I found this article very interesting because the very first person who is mentioned is Ann Caracristi, who was a code breaker like Alan Turing.  While Alan Turing was had the Turing Test named after him, Ann Caracristi has little to no recognition for the accomplishments which she provided during WWII.

Feminism and eugenics: Engineering reproductive totalitarianism

https://www.avoiceformen.com/feminism/feminism-and-eugenics-engineering-reproductive-totalitarianism/

I found this article and was wondering what other people thought of it.  I found the article interesting and amusing.

I am very confused however if this is from a source which is advocating for women's rights, or rights of everyone or if the entire idea of this company is only to make a mockery of feminists in general.

Ex Machina- Artificial Intelligence

http://www.newsweek.com/2015/05/15/real-world-tech-anxieties-behind-ex-machina-327755.html

http://www.livescience.com/49009-future-of-artificial-intelligence.html

“If you’ve created a conscious machine, it’s not the history of man,” Caleb, a young programmer played by Domhnall Gleeson, tells his genius boss Nathan in Ex Machina, the dazzling new AI flick from writer/director Alex Garland. “That’s the history of gods. The uprising of artificial intelligence plays a big role in the movie Ex Machina, and is also playing a big role in today's society.

The idea of artificial intelligence is something that is improving each and every day in today's society. We have it all around us, whether it is our phones, or even a device that you are able to communicate with. Some people argue that AI will eventually wipe out the human race; it is currently a very active area of research for many companies. For example, 
Google. From smartphone assistants to driverless cars, the Bay Area-based tech giant is gearing up to be a major player in the future of artificial intelligence.

What Is More Important: Our Privacy or National Security?

https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/17/what-is-more-important-our-privacy-or-national-security/comment-page-17/?_r=0

People are so concerned that their privacy is being violated that they don't consider the fact that sometimes that is what is needed to happen in order to protect the entire American public. This article discusses the government's motives behind the decreased privacy of every citizen, regarding the surveillance of each person's phone records, texts, and even search inputs on the Internet. 

They're watching you

I found this cartoon and I found it very comical. It shows the NSA drilled holes into the O's in the two most popular search engines to show how much they are monitoring us. It applies to our discussion from previous classes that no matter what we do, the government knows.