Every moment of your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful. Just put forth a clear enough request, and everything your heart desires must come to you. -Ghandi

Comm Class & Other Ethical Adventures

My TED Talk was a spotlight on America’s #1 cable provider: Comcast. Some specific examples of how Comcast uses its power to control aspects of communication (Internet Viewing & TV Programs) as well as the ways Comcast has put its power to good use (Sustainable Skyscrapers) are highlighted in this slide show!

All of the TED Talks were fantastic and very engaging! Topics included: Rage Against The Machine, Hospice, Technology & Humanity, & Advertising. All speakers brought something new and interesting to the table. One of the most engaging presentations was an in-class interview with the founder of Loveland

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Afterthoughts

I’m so glad I took this class because it has opened my eyes to all of the wonderful resources I can use to make an impact, either on a local or Watch Out! a global scale, starting with this very blog. One of my favorite aspects of the class was our discussions because we all have different experiences that should be shared so that we can learn to make the world a better/more humane place while fighting those evil flattening effect of technology.

For the Future

I think students should be allowed to design their own projects to raise awareness or even $money$ for an ethical cause. I’m thinking something along the lines of what this girl did to raise money send kids to school in India…

<— Salute & Click for more info about The Uniform Project

Can China Control the Weather?

I had a few ideas for my TED talk this semester including pros and cons of the new Apple iPAd and flattening effects of celebrity culture. But those topics didn’t seem to measure up to the one I landed on. First off you might be wondering why I decided to question China’s control over the weather. One of my friends studied abroad in China last year and was telling me how dark and gloomy it is over there. “Did you know they can control the weather?!?” she asked. I’m sure your reaction is just as genuinely surprised as mine, no i had no idea they could do that. Apparently, I was M.I.A. in 2008 when the Chinese government used a technique called cloud seeding to clear the air before the Olympic games began in Beijing. I won’t give it all away but here’s a little disclaimer for what you can expect for my last TED Talk of 2010.

Fireworks light up the sky during the Closing Ceremony on August 24 in Beijing.

Imagine a world where virtually everything was “Made in China”, including the weather. Marisa Petro, sun-worshiper & budding communication-ista, explores the latest technology in weather control at her 2nd TED talk this April. Be there as she presents some surprising stats about the quality of China’s air and demonstrates a cloud seeding technique the Chinese government has been using to assure that they have perfect weather conditions for special events.  Ethical? You decide.

Novel to Film Adaptation

Shutter Island, Alice in Wonderland, Dear John, & Sherlock Homes are some of the novel to film adaptations you may have caught in the past year. I’ve never taken a stance on whether written or movie versions of stories are better (although I do lean more towards novels, being an English major and all) But here’s why…

the only thing that could make this man look better is me on his arm ❤

a) any chance to watch Leo DiCaprio for 2.5 hrs wins hands down (You might recall a little novel to film adaptation called Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet)

b) sometimes actors/actresses don’t portray characters how you imagined them

c) they change endings of novels when they make them into a film

It’s hard to predict whether or not a movie will do a novel justice, blow it out of the water, or completely ruin your interest in a story altogether. Sometimes you just have to tough it out and spend the $10.50 to find out.

Fortunately, we did not have to pay to watch The Surrogates in class. Thank God because it was awful–I’d say the best/funniest part was when the female surrogate was clinging to a speeding car and leaping from buses to buildings without getting a scratch on her. I can see why they would cast Bruce Willis in this movie, the unrealistic aspects were very Die Hard.

For this novel to film adaptation several parts of the story were changed. First, Brucie and his wife Margaret lost a son in the movie and this was not mentioned in the graphic novel. This loss changes the dynamic of their relationship and you can see in the movie how depressed she is when she removes her surrogate head piece and begins to cry. Margaret hates that Bruce doesn’t use his surrogate, she is obsessed with being beautiful. It was cool too see how her surrogate operates at her job. She works at a salon where people bring their surrogates for touch-ups and make-overs.

Okay, I’m going to ruin the end of the movie so cover your eyes if you don’t want to know what happens. The movie ends differently than the novel because Margaret doesn’t commit suicide. Not to sound insensitive, but I think it makes more sense for her to die because it represents the trauma that most people will experience when they realize they cannot live vicariously through their surrogates any longer. The ending of the movie will make you believe that Willis and his wife will reconcile their differences and become closer now that all the surrogates have been eliminated.

Difficult, but not impossible to imagine.

Do you really want to live forever? Forever?

Okay, I have to be honest. When I saw that we had to buy a graphic novel for class I thought it was a joke. I actually didn’t purchase it on my first trip to the bookstore. My roommate laughed and told me told me to give it a try…it could end up the best book I read all semester.

While that didn’t end up being true, I’m glad I got to experience this new kind of literature. I’m a very visual person so I appreciate that howbizarre art of Surrogates added to it’s Bourne Supremacy style plot.

Surrogates manifested itself in a movie last year starring Bruce Willis which I’m excited to watch in class.

The novel prompted some interesting class discussions. We found ourselves wondering what it would be like to live in a world where people communicated via surrogates. Is it ethical to allow children to use surrogates? How would this effect crime in cities? This novel, as well as some of the TED Talks we have watched, suggest that in the future we will be able to experience life & senses (eating, sex, fear, satisfaction) through new technology. I personally would not want to live like this. I think it would be a detrimental disadvantage to not be able to experience life because then we would not be able to attain real personal growth. However, I can understand how some people might gravitate towards the idea of surrogates…

Right now, college has given us the opportunity to start fresh and become our own person. Here we discover our interests, dislikes, what we want to look like etc. But imagine if we could do this at any point in our life by going to the store and picking out a super model-esque surrogate to represent ourselves. Would all our surrogates be tall, blonde, blue-eyed beauties? What would your surrogate look like??

One question I still have is what happens to surrogates when their users die?

If the goal is to attain eternal life with new technology what parts of us will live on once our physical selves have passed? I can’t imagine that once I die all that will be left to remember me by will be a collection of data.

Yes, I want my work (school & professional) to matter. But I also want the effects of my existence as a human being (kindness, generosity, creativity) to matter just as much, if not more, once I’m gone.

Facebook: Friend or Foe?

It seems that the hot topic in many class discussions this past year as been Facebook.

 Popular FB related subjects:

• FB Chat
• how FB affects relationships
• my mom on FB
• stalking
• internet etiquette
• procrastination
• privacy*

Bruce Schneier’s article The Tech Lab discusses this last bullet: privacy.

Schneier basicaly says that NOTHING is private anymore, that we’re constantly being watched and tracked via the technology we use. He says that our conversations (eh hem, FB chats!) are stored and accessable.

What would someone think if they could read all of your FB chats?? Is what we’re saying important? irrelevant? perverted? profane?

 

The most disturbing part of this article is Schneier’s belief that we will all eventually be hooked up to “life recorders” that will record everything we se and hear and be used as security devices to deter anyone from attacking us. This seems a little absurd to me but at this point I think anything is possible considering how many people are already invested in the idea of surrogates and SecondLife.

Nick Bostrom says that sometimes we don’t see a problem if it’s too big. Has internet infringement on privacy become too big of an issue that we overlook the consequenses of our digital decisions? Either way I have to agree with Bostrom that…

 

1. We don’t want an absense of creativity
2. We want unlimited opportunity for personal growth

 

How does the technology you use allow you to be creative?

 

My experience

As a WordPress blogger I show my creativity in my page design and in my posts. At the same time I know that everything I share on this site will be recorded in cyber space so I have to be careful about what I put out there. The same goes for anyone who choses to represent themselves on the internet so be careful what you blog for!