Final Paper - Alex DeLattre

Essay on Social Media and Video Games.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mHnjltWkvhY47OofL0zrMOPbjnxmJHXzV5PjLmpRZXk/edit?usp=sharing

Final Project- Cassie Lewis

For my final project I looked at whether it is an option that virtual reality can be used as a form of therapy. I believe it is important to find other uses for virtual reality, therefore using it as a helpful tool rather than a video game can potentially save peoples lives. Virtual reality as therapy could help people with disorders deal with their symptoms and could relieve people of phobias. With technology growing, we need to find different, more effective ways to treat people and virtual reality could be one of those ways.

Final Project Peter Panagiotou

My final project is about the positive and negative affects that Twitter bots can have on political discourse in the United States, and around the world. I discuss examples of positive and negative bots and how they individually affect online political discourse. 

Essay Exhibit Blog Post- Peter Panagiotou

The class essay exhibit was a display of a variety of ideas about what digital humanities is, and how it can be applied practically to many differently applications. Of the variety of interesting topics that were presented, several stood out to me. The first presentation that I viewed was a presentation on 88 constellations by Michael Banks. Mike's presentation went into depth about how 88 constellations combines philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, and history. Mike talked about how the combination of these elements in a digital format aids in storytelling. Mike goes over the different elements of the story that derive meaning from the variety of disciplines. An example of this interdisciplinary storytelling that Mike mentioned in his presentation was the use of astronomy --in the form of constellations-- to move the story forward.  Mike argues that the combination of disciplines plays a positive role in portraying digital storytelling to a large audience. After viewing Mike's presentation, I agreed that these different elements combine very well to form a comprehensive story telling experience.

I also had the chance to look at Mike Heverly’s presentation about video games, and the military. Mike argues that video games can help the United States armed forces become more advanced through training simulations. Mike also discussed the uses for video games in helping to reduce the often crippling symptoms of Post-traumatic stress disorder. After viewing Mike’s presentation, I was surprised at the utility  that video game technology can have in the military, and how this technology is already being utilized. .

Overall, the essay exhibits demonstrated how many different applications that the digital humanities can have. When living in a world that is becoming increasingly more digital, the digital humanities are having a greater effect on many aspects of life and culture. The projects I looked displayed this  growing overlap of digitization and culture, and how this combination can be beneficial for the field of digital humanities, as well as for people around the world.  

Presentation Blog - Alex DeLattre

I looked at a total of two exhibits, one was about “88 Constellations” authored by Michael Banks and it primarily focused on the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and his contemporaries along with his academic work. The author discussed the philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell a mentor to Wittgenstein. Russell’s work primarily focused on the philosophy of mathematics, his most famous work was Principia Mathematica co authored by Alfred North Whitehead. The book was an attempt to reduce math to logic , while writing this book Russell invented the field of symbolic logic. Wittgenstein focused his research on philosophy of language, philosophy of math, philosophy of mind, Wittgenstein is credited with discovering truth tables and the tautology. His most famous book is Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. He famously came up with an argument in his Philosophical Investigations, called the Private Language Argument, in which he reasoned that language is completely relative. Another on of his contemporaries was Alan Turing, a mathematician and also known as the father of computer science, his most famous philosophical work was a paper called the “Imitation Game”, in which he argued that machines have the capacity to think like a human being. The second exhibit I looked at was about video games do to society authored by Mike Heverly. This presentation was primarily objecting to the notion that video games are a bad thing for society, saying that games can make one smarter and more focused, they can also improve hand eye coordination. It it also suggested that games can be a huge stress reliever implying that games may not cause violence at all, and may actually act as a deterrence to it instead.

Lastly, after looking at these presentations, one can clearly gather interesting and valuable knowledge about important subject matter and can leave with a better understanding about the natural world.

Essay Exhibit Reflection- Cassie Lewis

One topic that I found interesting was Virtual Reality in Job Training. I found this topic interesting because it was very similar to my own topic. It is also a practical issue that will be used more often in the future. I did not realize that virtual reality could train doctors for surgeries allowing them to become familiar with different techniques before preforming the actual surgery. I believe that learning before preforming is important because it could lead to fewer mistakes in. I was also shocked by how many huge companies use virtual reality every day. Advances in technology such as VR will significantly help the medical world.

Another topic that was interesting was Gamification of Learning. Using video games as a teaching tool in the education system is fascinating because it shows how much technology has grown. Video games are often seen as bad because they are called distracting and a waste of time, but in this sense they are productive and educational. With technology continuing to grow, tools such as video games are going to reappear in the educational system which is why this presentation was relevant and important.  I believe it is also vital that we incorporate things that kids enjoy into learning to make them interesting for kids to learn, which is why video games are great tools for education.

Overall, I believe that the essay exhibit was a good way to get our peers opinions about our projects. Getting feedback on your work is always beneficial, and the exhibit made it more fun than just doing a peer review. It is also interesting to see what others papers are on and learn about topics that interest them. The essay exhibit had a positive impact on my final essay.

Convergence blog post

The convergence of technology is a phenomenon that is exciting to some and daunting to others. Technological convergence involves different technological applications, over time, performing a similar set tasks. An example of convergent technology that is widely observable is the Iphone. This piece of technology exhibits the convergence of different pieces  of technology like a camera, cellphone, and video game console. This convergence creates a great amount of utility for the consumer, and allows more productive use of technology in general. Instead of having to carry around five different pieces of technology, the consumer can have one piece of technology that performs several functions.  As more powerful technology becomes cheaper, arguably convergence will become more “mainstream”, and more available to a greater amount of people. Another aspect of convergence is how it relates to what is commonly know as the “black box fallacy.”

Furthermore, convergence is a term that in layman's terms means different things approaching a single point or different in a technological sense different systems that do different functions that as time progresses they become more and more similar until eventually going to a single entity. A good example of this is the modern day, as previously mentioned, smart phone, it has the function of a cell phone and the function of a computer. One may ask why is this useful? Simply put, it makes our lives much easier and more convenient, no longer do we have to use separate devices to talk on the phone and browse the internet, we can now do it simultaneously. Technological convergence compels our society to become much more productive and faster, which yields interesting consequences. Such as one might say that as a society we have become less patient and expect things to be done more quickly, put plainly a need for instant gratification. With that being said the increase in productivity allows for more technological advancement and the ability to connect with others more quickly with convenience. As our society continues to advance so will the productivity of our devices and it would follow the notion of technological convergence will evolve and we can only speculate what kind of technology will permeate our lives in the future.  However, The Black Box fallacy suggests that a total convergence will not happen due to the fact that different companies will want to compete and having one product essentially will completely stop any kind of competition. Also companies are required to maximize profits therefore having one “black box” product would be counter intuitive and would not maximize profits due to there only being on product instead of multiple different products.

Convergence of technology is helpful to humans who find themselves needing to do multiple tasks on one device. This makes it easier for people to get certain jobs done faster, while also allowing people to use one device for everything. Allowing an individual to do multiple tasks on one device increases productivity rates which is an aspect that many enjoy. With technology continuing to grow, convergence will continue to be more and more a part of our lives and devices will be able to become even more efficient than they are now.