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This week in class we discussed a couple of objects that represented our leaky memory. The bucket with the hole in the bottom of it really resonated with me because I feel like memory is a very faulty thing. My memory especially feels like there is a large gaping hole and the “water” is rushing out. This may be due to the fact that my grandpa had Alzheimer’s and I am paranoid that I could have it. The fact that it was compared to a capacitor for a computer made me realize that technology can also fail us. I think this creates an even stronger bond to technology and may make us even more dependent on it.

I am excited for the group project because it will be fun to work with peers that are interested in the same topic as me. I have also never presented in a symposium, so it will be a new experience for me. I hope our group is able to share our information and ideas with those that are interested.

We have begun to think about our poster topics for our final symposium presentation at the end of April. I started to think about different topics that would be interesting and relevant in today’s world. In my marketing class, we have begun to talk about different marketing technique that huge companies have invented to manipulate us to higher consumption. The advancements of technology through social media has allowed companies to track our web searches and activity and use this information to know our true needs and wants on a deeper level.

So why is this so scary for our society? Because as explained using the capitalist binary with slavery, this increase in technology will forever force us to be slaves to larger corporations. The capitalist system thrives off of the demand of consumers. In a sense, we are slaves to capitalism because we rely on other people for everything and our lives revolve around money. However, the people somewhat had power in the system because our wants and desires drive capitalism. When people realize that we have information about ourselves that the capitalist want, but will never receive, that knowledge gives us power and balances out the system. However, the introduction of social media has revealed some of our personal desires that companies otherwise wouldn’t have known. That is why our news feeds have become populated with adds for goods or services that you most recently were thinking about. While this new marketing advancement has increased sales drastically for many companies, people’s privacy rights are being compromised and the power that was given to the people is now put into the hands of the fortune 500.

One example that I want to give on this is Amazon. Amazon has blown companies out of business as they have the market share of online shopping. Recently, my marketing professor told me that Amazon uses your web searches to filter your Amazon searches. While this first seems harmless, it actually is causing you to pay more for items than other people. For example, recently I was looking online at phone charges because I know my current phone charger is seeing the end of its time. I also went through somewhat of an online shopping spree the other week because I was looking for work clothes. When I went to amazon to buy a phone charger, the first few results showed chargers that started at 20$ each. With this price I was satisfied and purchased a charger to be delivered the next day. Later that day, I asked my sister to look up a phone charger off of her amazon account (after my marketing teacher told me of this tactic). The first options that showed up on her page were the same products, sold between 15$ and $18 a piece. Because Amazon tracks my web searches, they knew that I was planning on buying a phone charger in the near feature. They also know that I am somewhat of an avid online shopper and I am willing to spend my money online. With this combined information, they made the results from my search contain products that were of a higher quality and a higher price than my sister’s results. Because I did not have my sister amazon search at the same time, I had know way of realizing that some of the products could have been sold at a cheaper price, or that there were good quality options offered at a cheaper price. I became a slave to my own desires/tendencies and I did not even know it. While Amazon’s new technology is relatively new, it won’t take long for other companies to employ similar technique. Now we as a society need to begin to question the ethics behind these advancements in technology.

I have heard that man was created in god’s image. Man is the seemingly faulty, unequal and plentiful clone that now controls the world that god created. We live our lives in the way described in the picture “The Creation of Adam”. All we do is try and mimic god’s ability to transform, create, control and destroy. Now what are robots created as? Are they the faulty, unequal and plentiful clone of man? Will there be a painting of “The Programming of AI”? Will they live their lives trying to be human, to achieve what we can achieve?

In class on Tuesday Professor Perrone presented about the concept of memory and the connection between human memory and computer memory. During the discussion, there was a mentioning of a new device being constructed by Elon Musk. Musk has been a figure at the forefront of scientific discovery, exploration, and innovation for years, and his newest development may very well be one of his most controversial.

It is safe to say that forgetfulness can conditionally be a beneficial characteristic. For instance, it can be very beneficial for athletes to forget the moment they were injured, or devastating losses, or maybe even mistakes they made earlier in a game. When athletes or other professionals are able to forget information or memory from their short term or long term memory, they production and efficiency can benefit greatly. Elon Musk has created a device which will enhance memory and provide space for external memory to be held outside of the relatively minimal  capacity the human brain has.

This device would be implanted into the body of humans and allow for human memory to be “logged” on the hard drive. After class, i thought deeper about the potential that this device could have on the livelihoods of many people. The most beneficial impact I could conceive of was the potential to aid those with Alzheimers Disease. As Alzheimers attacks the memory of the human brain, the presence of this device could enhance memory and allow for more retention and less degradation of memory. On the other hand, this device could have negative impacts on the ability for athletes and professionals to take advantage of their ability to selectively forget certain memories.

I can genuinely say that I struggled while reading Samuel Delany’s novel, Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand. I mainly struggled to grasp the concepts that Delany was trying to stress in the novel, because I found them difficult to follow and understand. One thing that I did note though, was how advanced Delany’s ideas of society and culture were in the novel. Delany published Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand in 1984, yet his opinions on sexuality and gender pronouns were far more advanced than those that were accepted in the 1980’s. Rather than adhering to social norms and writing a novel with standard male and female characters, Delany chose to depict a multi-gendered universe that was both technologically and sexually advanced from what we know in the present-day. I found this fascinating because Delany presents a more open and free view of social diversity in the novel that did not parallel with what was generally accepted during the time the novel was released. Delany’s thought process aligns more with modern-day thinking of transgendered individuals and intense sexual relationships. Although I struggled at times interpreting and understanding the novel, I was impressed and satisfied to see that Delany was able to depict a universe, thousands of years in the future, that shares some of the same advancements in today’s society, such as rights for all individuals, regardless of sexual orientation.