Technological Advancements: Unintended Consequences

                 

              The robot above is known as Robonaut2 and after 15 years in the making is the first humanoid to be sent into space. Unlike many other robots that have been sent into space that are designed to move large objects, Robonaut2 was designed specifically for dexterity in order to work alongside astronauts inside the International Space Station (ISS) . Much like the DARPA Grand Challenge that is attempting to replace human soldiers from the battle field, this project seeks to replace astronauts with “Robonauts” in high-risk space missions.

                Being an Aerospace Engineer, seeing and hearing about technological advancements like this really excites me. We would no longer have to jeopardize the lives of astronauts nor cause any type of suffering to the lives of the astronauts’ loved ones if their lives were to be lost.

                But even with all the nice things that this very complex technology allows us to have it does give rise to some unintended consequences. It is technologies such as this one that perpetuate the idea that machines should do all of the work for us. Although this machine, in particular, would not replace the vast majority of people (because astronauts constitute for only a very minute fraction of the entire population) it does further instill this notion into the minds of people. And because the works of NASA are very popular among the people in our society and also very revered, the process of instilling this notion into the minds of people becomes even easier.

                But what exactly are these “unintended consequences”? For one thing, technologies such as Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) navigating systems make it so easy for people to drive around without getting lost (if the damn thing is working properly). This makes it easy for people not to force their minds to think where they are at and effectively lose their sense of direction and their navigation skills. Word Processors are another example of how a technology makes it very easy for our brains not to force themselves to spell correctly and thus this skill (of being a good speller) is also becoming extinct like the “good sense of direction” skill. Much like Vannevar Bush’s memex that was supposed to be an extension of human memory, computers nowadays also make it easy for our brain not to force itself to memorize things. Thus, our skills for memorization are being reduced by computers. And there are many, many more examples.

                Now, much like the Boiled-Frog syndrome, this over-dependency on technologies is a significant problem that is occurring very gradually. Many skills that exist today might become extinct in the future.

Is YouTube a good site for learning?

             I attended a science symposium this weekend and I got the chance to present the research in microfluidics I have conducted over the last year. I had to create a poster and give a presentation to several people in the field including experts. In order to effectively do this, I watched a few videos on YouTube, such as this one, to help me make a good-looking poster and give me great tips on how to efficiently present my work as well. I found the video to be very useful. I was abe to prepare both my presentation and poster faster than if I hadn’t had the video to layout the basic structure of each one of these.

                I have also used YouTube to learn all kinds of other things. A lot of the songs that I can play on my guitar I have learned from watching YouTube videos. Guitar tabs are great source to learn from but to a certain extent because they just don’t provide you with both the hearing and visual components that YouTube videos allow one to have. Even when the quality of the video is not too great, the video does give you a good ball-park area of where on the guitar your fingers should be placed and, also, at when they should be placed there.  I also learned how to build a simple direct current (DC) motor, build a battery using lemons, several Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu submissions, and many, many other things just by watching YouTube videos.

                But is YouTube really a good place to learn? Well that is not a very easy question to answer but I will argue that it is. In the academic and formal realm of learning, it might not be, because it lacks most, if not all, the proper characteristics. But formal learning is only but one subset of the entire spectrum of forms of learning. YouTube videos give you the option to fast-forward, pause and rewind any section or sections of the video. That gives the individual a lot of power because it allows them to learn, only the parts of the video that they want and see it any desired parts as many times as they want as well.

                There are, of course, situations and cases where YouTube might not be the most ideal place for one to learn. For example, if you are trying to learn physics of how the insides of an F-22 afterburner accurately function (which will require teaching from an expert) then YouTube is probably not the place you would want to learn that from. But in this case, the amount of people who would have the required knowledge to even understand those intricate processes that occur inside of the afterburner chamber would be small. And just because YouTube isn’t capable of having videos that can teach everything in the world or just because it is not capable of teaching it in the most ideal quality doesn’t mean that it is a bad place to learn. Like Wikipedia, YouTube can serve as a reference for people to use when they want to learn the basic gist of something. In other words, those learning videos can help point people in the correct direction of whatever it is that you are trying to learn. Thus, I would say it is a great place to have whenever you want to learn the basics of something.     

SpaceShuttleTwo Makes it Possible for Private Citizens to go into Space

A little over a year ago, on December 7^th, 2009 The Spaceship Company, founded by both Burt Rutan and Richard Branson, displayed a new and improved form of SpaceShipOne called SpaceShipTwo (SS2).  This is a commercial suborbital space vehicle that takes off like an aircraft then after detachment the spaceplane, which contains the space crew passengers and pilots, detaches from the mother ship takes off like a rocket into space.  The Spacecraft first reaches a velocity of about 2600mph at an altitude of about 50,000ft before the spaceplane detaches from the mother ship. It will reach a maximum orbital height, also known as the apogee, of about 110km, and it will remain in space for about 6 to 8 minutes before heading back to Earth. The total duration of each trip is estimated to be about 2.5 hours. Now the interesting thing about this spaceplane is that it is going to be a private passenger spaceplane. In other words, people who are not professional astronauts can go into space via SS2 as long as each person pays the $200,000 (USD) fee. 

Both Virgin Galactic and The SpaceShip Company have made efforts for making private organizations to get private citizens into space. I find it really intriguing that a lot of people are taking great interest in this. Space tourism will be made possible for those who can afford it. The spaceport has a 2-mile long runway in New Mexico that was dedicated and named after its current governor there Bill Richardson. In his speech, at the opening of the spaceport, the New Mexican governor said that New Mexico was " no only helping to launch the commercial spaceflight industry but [that they] are launching new jobs and opportunities for the people of southern New Mexico". Essentially, this project is not only allowing private citizens to tour into space, but it is also helping the New Mexican governor fortify his identity and reputation as a great governor by helping create more jobs. And now that the 2-mile long runway has his name on it, it further helps solidify this reputation of a great governor.

How do spaceplanes relate to new digital media? Well, simulations of this vehicle, such as the one in the video above, have made it possibly to simulate the vehicle's trajectory way before it goes into space. The simulation is really amazing because it captures the dynamics of the space vehicle as it makes its trip to space and back very well. This is not necessarily done for mathematical or engineering purposes but rather, it is a way for Virgin Galactic and for The SpaceShip Company to advertise their new product. Many people now will not be able to afford the space tour. It is essentially a tour that only the rich and privileged will be able to afford. This is something that reminds me a little about Facebook. The reason is because when Facebook was formed, it was strictly for college students only: which in this case, were the "privileged" ones. You actually needed a college email in order to be able to create a profile. For this reason, I believe that Facebook became more appealing to people. Now suppose that both these companies grow to such an extent where  more people of the lower classes can afford the tour. Much like Mark Zuckerberg, I believe that both Rutan and Branson will become two very powerful people.

The Power of Anonimity

                Mexico, in the past few years, has become an extremely dangerous country to live in, visit or to just pass by in the past few years. The violence amongst the different cartels in Mexico has grown significantly. In the past few years a there have been countless number of innocent people that have lost their lives in the heat of violence. A lot of news reporters, journalists and other media personnel have fallen victim to these cartels. This makes it harder for the people in the people that work in the Mexican media and press to distribute any news information about the cartels. Therefore, informing the public of what is really going on has become real challenge there. In order to be able to fight against the fears that cartels have instilled into the public if they do leak out information about them, a blog website called “El Blog del Narco” (The Drug Trafficker Blog) has taken advantage of the internet’s anonymity powers in order to be able to give people the news about what is really going on in the country. You can take a look at the website, but I must warn you that there is extremely disturbing and graphic material contained in it, here.

                The author’s of this website tend to appeal to their logos and ethos than their pathos. The reason is because they do not want their biased beliefs to create favoritism. Now, some people might argue that putting all the videos, photos and “sharing” all this kind of information with public can cause and instill more fear into the public and create panic and chaos. The panic and chaos is already occurring with or without the media. If are well-informed about what is going on, I argue that that very fear that the videos perpetuate is what can serve as an impetus for the public to move away from locations where most of the cartel action is occurring. This will allow those people, who do not want to involve themselves with the cartels, have more of an advantage to secure themselves and their loved ones more effectively. It is better that these people know more than they should than they should than it is for them not to know anything at all. Thus, Richard Stallman’s golden rule “that if [you] like [something you] must share it with other people” can be applied here. Essentially, if you like your own security then you should share whatever it is in order to have other people possess that security as well: in this case, the cartels’ videos, photos and whereabouts.

Losing Mental Sharpness?

                With all the technological advances and the increasing complexities of them, it becomes harder and harder for us to understand what is behind the user interface. When people drive their automobiles, for instance, the great vast majority of them do not know the intricate and yet complex processes that are behind that interface that allow for the vehicle to thrust itself forwards or backwards. The computer interface is another highly complex system that also the great vast majority of the people do not understand the complexities behind its interface as well. Therefore, it is clear that the gap between the complexities of newer technologies and what user does not know about the system has been growing very rapidly. Now that these new technologies have found their way into the social realm of society, creating what Lev Manovich calls, in his work entitled New Media from Borges to HTML (pg. 16), “cybercultures”, it is becoming some sort of a crutch to the people who depend on this interplay between technology and the social realm. It is this very dependency on technology for social means and the dependency on every other form of new technologies that will inevitably bring with it unintended consequences. Is our technology becoming so complex that it will in the long run be too much for us to be able to handle? Especially in situations when such technologies begin to breakdown on us or be used in ill-mannered ways by other people in which they were not intended by the creator(s) to be used?

                In addition, these crutches that newer technologies are giving us are also perpetuating an environment where people being to lose, what I feel, are important skills. Take for instance the word processor and how it is making people forget how to spell, choose the correct words when attempting to say something and also making it easier to forget proper syntax. Texting on cell phones has also perpetuated this same sort of phenomenon because people write in shorthand very often in order to more efficiently communicate their ideas and thoughts with somebody else (e.g. instead of typing in people you replace it with ppl). This makes it easier for ppl…oops, I mean “people” lol…to not have to remember certain things and it keeps their minds less and less sharp in those respects. But because we do not have that burden of having to remember such things, such as spelling, syntax and many other things as well, does open up new room for storing other forms of memory. Such forms of memory might be more vital to keep sharp in terms of adapting one’s self into this ever-so-growing cyber world. Whether the amount of problems solved by new technologies outweighs the number of problems it creates is still very questionable. So if you read this blog, please comment and give me your thoughts on the subject.      

Escaping Reality

Although the internet has served humankind in terms sharing information, storing human knowledge indefinitely, and facilitated our lives in many other aspects, it has also given rise to many unintended consequences. I was surfing through the internet on virtual worlds and came across an article that really disturbed me. So it turns out that there was a Korean couple that very addicted to a virtual reality game called Prius Online. Because of this addiction, the couple would spend long hours playing in this fantasy world completely forgetting about everything in their external world: the real world. The couple had a young baby girl whom they completely forgot to feed one time because they were just so invested in this virtual world and she died of starvation. It is really sad for me to hear that anybody would that to their own child. You can read more of the story by clicking here. I also, in the same article, read about two other disturbing occurrences. One was about a 22-year-old man who killed his own mother simply because she would continuously nag at him for playing too many games and spending too much time on them as well. The other occurrence was about a boy who went into cardiac arrest and died because he played StarCraft for so long. From personal experience and from my peers experiences I know that a lot of websites, such as YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and many others as well, are very addicting websites. And it is this theme of internet and virtual reality addiction that I would like to bring into question. Since the internet is already revolutionizing the way we communicate with each other effectively affecting and changing the way we perceive and interpret the world around us, how will that affect us morally? A lot of us invest great amounts of time and energy to such virtual realities in order to escape from the so-called real world. But how much is too much? Also, as the borderline between what the "virtual" world and what the "real" world becomes ever so thin and hazy to identify, how do we respond to occurrences such as the parent's who let their little girl starve to death? Do we simply blame the parent's and castigate them for such actions? Or should we look at it in a different way and see that we as a society are essentially slowly allowing this system to generate more and more people who are more willing to escape their realities in order to invest the greater amounts of time and energy to such virtual realities? I would like to think that people are smart enough to be able to figure out how much is too much. But the fact of the matter is that we are now having the newer generations being born into this virtual system and to them this is what reality is. Therefore, I believe that future generations are going to have a harder time finding this borderline between what is reality and what is not. And if this system can drive a man to kill his own mother at this day in age, who knows what the future will have in store for us.