Oral #1-
| Chapter 5: The Quality of Emergence |
By: Sherry Turkel (1995), Life on the Screen: Identity in the
Age of the Internet
(New York: Touchstone Book).
In chapter 5 of Sherry Turkles book, Life on the
Screen, she speaks of the relationship or correlation between a computer
and a human brain. She shows examples of how they can be considered
the same, and how they are obviously different. The emergence of
this argument stems from groups that considered artificial intelligence
(AI) entirely formal and logical. Looking at the computers memory
in physical terms, studies of memory and inner states started with humans,
thus developing cognitive psychology.
The artificial intelligence in a computer
follows a certain set of rules. This brought up the first problem in trying
to say that computers and human brains are the same. Human brains
do not work on a set of rules but learn from experience. One person,
Lady Ada Lovelace said this about computers," computers do what you tell
them to do, nothing more, nothing less." This brings up the
point that computers cannot think on their own. Humans gain knowledge
from being in the world and learning through experience. The main
difference about human brains and computers in the physical difference.
Human brains are biological and computers aren't. Being biologically
alive makes the human brain special and they knowledge gained can
be wider than something that has ceilings on the learning variety.
The chapter sprung new ideas of how similar the
human brain and computer are. There are obvious differences between
humans and computers, but when we look at the underlying structure of both,
the similarities seem to pile up.
Back to Top
This brought up interesting ideas about how each medium
works and how related they are. Our class talked about the set of
rules for computers and that we are different because humans don't have
them. One person brought up the idea that humans do work on rules
too. We translated it into human morals. On the other side,
humans also have a set of rules for learning. Learning practices
such as association and operant instill learned things in humans from rules
noted to plant the learned thing. This chapter opened up my mind
to the possibilities of humans tapping their whole memory as computers
do to make humans more efficient with their biological brain that is hardly
used.
Back to Top
Q: Do you think computer will be better than human being in some ways?
A: I think that computers are better than humans now. They can
process problems faster, do multiple actions at the same time, and they
have very good memories with a efficient way of accessing the entire memory
base.
Q: Is computers tend to be more efficient then the human when they
can use almost 100% of their abilities?
A: Computers are far more efficient than humans because of that
simple fact that they can use all of their abilities.
Q: You mentioned that a computer and humans have a different
type of intelligence. Do you think that their intelligence/capabilities
equal to one another? or is one intelligence better than the other?
A: I say that humans have a different type of intelligence when
compared to computers and also to other humans. It all depends on
what a person thinks is intelligence and it's a matter of opinion.
I choose to think that humans and computers have admirable and condescending
qualities which is hard to conclude which one is better.
Q: Do you think computers will ever have affective elements (character,
love, etc.) such as the ones Dr. James talked about?
A: I believe that one day they will be able to as soon as humans
find a necessary organ in the human body that they can replicate in the
computer which has these affective elements.
Q: What parts of human intelligence do you feel computers do
not have? Will computers ever be able to acquire those aspects of
human intelligence?
A: Computers do not have the affective domain that humans have.
They do not do certain things because they feel like it. They do
it because it's written in the program and the human operator is commanding
it what to do. The answer to the second question is answered above.
Q: Computers are doing what they're programmed to do: but people
behavior also operates by "rules" don't you think?
A: I do agree that humans do operate on a certain set of rules which
I explained in the presentation. Computers cannot go against their
rules, but I believe that humans can do opposite at times what is instilled
in them.
Back to Top
I felt pretty good answering question because the content
was easy to understand and easy to remember. I got the feeling that
everyone in the class basically had the same questions in mind. Everyone
seemed to be paying attention to me because I was getting a lot of eye
contact. The questions in the end gave me the impression that they
were listening and that everything was easily understood.
back to top
I think all the reports are basically the same when
it comes to content. The only differences I saw was the
appearance of the page. Some people had lots of pictures and bright
colors while others had a simple white background but their text varied
in size and style. I think because of the rules put upon the reports, that
they all were pretty basic looking.
back to top
You have to have some interest in the report you're doing because if you're
not interesting, nobody else will be. The better the person's report
you are presenting, the better your presentation will be. You need
to take good notes of the content and make it flow so everyone doesn't
get bored. Also make sure you take good notes during the discussion
because it is hard to remember everything that everyone says in a hour
long class.
back to top
