Robots Won't Love You Back.

What if you could eliminate all the problems you have with others? Anything a person has ever done to frustrate, annoy, or hurt you, just gone. Would you do it? I, like most people, would jump at the chance to erase all the wrongs, but that's before I thought about the consequences. If we take away all the flaws humans possess we also take away all of the wonderful things. By erasing the hurt we erase the help. Without pain, there's no joy. Without disagreeing there's no agreeing. The emotions and actions that make us human would be gone. There's no good without the bad. So what does that leave us with? Let's see...a human -pain/joy -hurt/help - heartbreak/love -all emotion= a robot.

In Alone Together the idea of robots as companions is presented. Of everything wrong with the world (through my eyes of course) this would be one of the top issues. The fact that people are suggesting we have relationships with machines scares me. What has the world come to that we cannot be with another human being. The beauty of life is a gift from God and is not meant to be recreated by humans. It's not only unethical but its just weird. Can you imagine being "in love" with a pile of metal. I can't say my ideal man has an intel processor and great battery life.

Contrary to Turkle's belief, a relationship with a robot will not solve all of your love life issues. She mentions you no longer will experience hurt or heartbreak but be in a totally risk-free relationship. To me, depending on a machine to fulfill your relationship wants is not risk-free. Sure your robot won't cheat on you but if you program the perfect mate to your every desire it's not a real relationship. You're missing out on everything a relationship is meant to be. Webster defines a relationship as "an emotional attachment between individuals". EMOTIONAL. Robots do not have true emotions so therefore there cannot be a real relationship. 

I hope people realize how ridiculous this idea is before it's too late. Robots are not meant for friendship and love. Human interaction is vital in our lives and no robot can replace it. Go tell a friend or family member you love them and remember a robot won't love you back.

On Our Way to The Dumbest Generation.

After working out some technological difficulties I finally have access to post...on my own blog. So here's week three.

   As I approach the conclusion of Mark Bauerlein's The Dumbest Generation my opinion of my generation has not really changed. WE (notice I say we because I know I am of the guilty party) are far too concerned with connection. Our lives revolve around the latest app and update or who tweeted what. The amount of technology and the ability to research and study through technology is at an all time high, and growing, and we use it to post what we're eating for lunch. Throughout his book Bauerlein says our generation should be the greatest/most intelligent generation to ever walk the earth, to which I agree. If we have full access to information on anything and everything shouldn't know everything? Or at least know something. In chapter 5, the teaching style and level of difficulty are discussed. It seems as though America has lowered its academic standards in order to appease the current generation. Maybe not appease, but most definitely adapt. The average attention span is 15 minutes? So lessons are built around that idea, students can only handle so much learning. I personally think that's absolutely ridiculous. The reason the average attention span is now 15 minutes is because there's fifty other things going on to avert the attention.  As technology is incorporated into classrooms the attention span will continue to decrease. Like Bauerlein said earlier, we're obsessed with multitasking and technology that allows us to do so. We don't have a short attention span, we're preoccupied. Pull out the technology and you'd be surprised how long people could sit and listen.

Overall, I think Bauelein's assessment of our generation is accurate. We may not have been born the dumbest or least intelligent but we sure our making ourselves that way. Unless we find a way to do something about it, we very well could be the dumbest generation, ever. So go pick up a book and stop thinking you can do everything, because if you continue this way you won't do much of anything.

Surfing the Web.

The phrase "surfing the web" has become the true meaning of the internet. Users surf from site to site, just skimming the surface as a boarder would do. There is no diving deep into the ocean of information. They gently float atop the meaningful information until the have absorbed enough to satisfy their assignment or question. Just getting their feet wet and testing the waters. Baeurlein discusses this phenomenon, in chapter 3, and how there are two main ways to use the internet, "information retrieval" and "knowledge formation". I think we're all guilty of "information retrieval", I know I am. It's so easy to search exactly what you're looking for on Google and have endless results pop up before you. Whether it is the chemical composition of Al or topics for public speaking, the answers are simply a button click and a few seconds away. The majority of time spent online while doing school related work is not typically intended by the user to be a lasting intellectual experience, just a quick memorization of facts for short term use. I think this disposable and short term way of learning contributes to the lack of true intelligence. Test scores don't show this lack of true intelligence though, in fact they show quite the opposite. Although our generation's results on standardized test may not support it, the level of true well rounded intelligence is dropping. This could be affected by the fact that we're so consumed in the technology around us. Teenagers are still smart and do well in school, they just do it in a different way, thanks to technology. The advances in the past generation have allowed us to adapt the traditional education habits to become more "effective" and productive, there's that multitasking again. Like Baeurlein discusses in chapter 4, there are many things are generation just doesn't know, specifically words. He calls these unfamiliar words, "rare words". The rare words are words that are seldom used and foreign to most teens. Rather than taking a minute or to the understand the word, they just skip it like it's not there (I've done it many times!). To me it's kind of funny that we have the ability to quickly obtain information but don't bother to look up a word we don't know. If we used the internet as it was intended and to it's fully ability, we could greatly reduce the lack of true intelligence.