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.

Archival Work Blog Post

There are variety of historical objects that could be digitized for the purpose of preservation. One type of text that out tribe considered would be important to preserve digitally would be various sacred texts from around the world. So what constitutes a sacred text? It could be the cultural or practical importance that a writing has had on a large group of people. This could include religious texts such as the Bible, Torah, and Koran. Sacred texts could also include books of science like Darwin’s “Origin of Species”, or Einstein's “Relativity: The Special and the General Theory.”  Our tribe would even consider sacred texts to be literary classics such as Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”, or  Salinger's“The Catcher in the Rye.” Through various means of preservation these documents would be accumulated in a single digital space so that they could be experienced by a wide variety of people, for free.

The best way to preserve these sacred texts are to digitize them. While books and other forms of documents can be physically preserved for as long as they can, digitizing texts can preserve items for an extremely long period of time. One way to digitize documents is to scan the original piece and place it in an archive. This gives the reader a similar feel to reading the actual text in the original form. Another way we can digitize sacred documents is by retyping the traditional piece into a form that is more modern. Some texts deserve to be preserved in a way that they can viewed in many forms, which is why our tribe thinks that it important to save sacred texts.

Moreover,  archives offer a way for DHers to preserve important information for hopefully for a very long time. An archive is essentially a database of valuable information,  in theory that information could be anything. Archiving sacred texts is pivotal to preserving the knowledge of our ancestors and to allow future generations to learn from those who have come before, in hopes of enlightening future generations. The benefits of archiving sacred texts are boundless; the preservation of those who stood against injustice,  ignited revolutions, or even changed how we look at our own lives is a pivotal aspect of our history that deserves preservation. All of this knowledge could enlighten a future generation to positively change the world.

Data Mining Blog Post

One important aspect of the digital humanities is the use of computer programs to achieve greater understanding of literature. This process is referred to as data-mining, and is used by DHers to critically examine texts, and go beyond the surface level of literature. Digital Humanities scholars use data-mining to make connections that without the aid of computer technology, would be close to impossible. This research could include looking at word frequency throughout a text to determine if the author favored or avoided certain words. A program that is useful in this regard would be Voyant, an online tool that allows the user to examine word, and phrase frequency throughout a piece of literature. The DH scholars could make inferences about the word usage tendencies of certain authors, to gain even more insight into the author's life, writing style,and education. An example of using Voyant to gain insight into a text can be found below.  We have examined our own blog post to search for trends.  While searching for trends in our latest blog post about the predictions of Ray Kurzweil; it seems apparent that the major themes based on word usage were technology, human, and brain. These words accurately exemplify the central theme of the blog post almost instantly.  This just shows that voyant, as a tool for data-mining, can offer great utility to the researcher when trying to find meaningful trends in text. Another useful tool that can be used for data-mining  is Google's Ngram.

Ngram is a program by Google that searches through a database of books for words or phrases the user enters into the program. Using its extensive database , Ngram displays a graph where it shows the usage of the given word or phrase by year. How is this useful to Dhers ? Well, it can be a good representation of culture and how the meaning of certain words have changed or are possibly no longer used,  for example the word lord was very heavily used in the late 1700s but in the modern world it's usage is practically non existent. With this kind of information one could see the changing trends of society and possible correlations with certain word usage.  Therefore given an adequate amount of information could possibly predict which words will stop being used or become more frequently used just by paying attention to the given trends society is currently behind.

Data mining gives the reader or the researcher a different way to look at literature. The process can allow readers to find deeper meanings, and patterns without technically reading the piece of literature. Connections are made more easily using tools such as Voyant and Ngram because they point out the patterns in the writing for you. Both make it easier for the DH scholar to seek relationships between different words. Thankfully, for data mining we are able to jump deeper into a greater understanding of literature.

Alex DeLattre Original Work

Original Work

Peter Panagiotou Original work of Electronic Literature

Below is a link to my original work of electronic literature that consists of a Twitter bot that continuously re-tweets internet memes that contain #memes.  The bot will keep re-tweeting posts marked with #memes indefinitely. This piece of electronic literature creates a kind of ever-expanding digital catalog of memes.  

Meme Generating Twitter Bot

Reaction to Ray Kurzweil blog post

With technology growing so rapidly, we can be can assume it will continue to grow throughout the rest of our lives. The ways in which technology may change the world are simply mind boggling. Although we think that technology will continue to advance as it has already, some attempt to predict when certain technology is going to be available.  One such person is Ray Kurzweil, an American computer scientist who is famous for accurately predicting the advances of future technology.

A prime example of all these predictions is that a computer would be able to defeat a world chess champion, which Kurzweil predicted in 1990. Not only was Kurzweil’s chess prediction completely accurate, he was may other predictions that seem to follow suit in their accuracy. Kurzweil predicts that eventually computers will become so far advanced that they will cure all disease, and far out-smart the most intelligent human. There seem to be many positives that could arise from these technological advances. Once such positive could be to lessen the need for disease, and suffering among the human race. If we, as a species, could eliminate cancer-like illnesses; it could drastically improve the condition of many individuals who suffer on a daily basis. From a humanitarian perspective, this type of technology could have great utility. Another aspect of the technological advances Kurzweil predicts is the possible uses of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence, in theory, could be used to solve problems that are too difficult for human beings to solve. This could create unbound possibilities when it comes to the many issues that face humanity, such as long distance space travel, or the previously mentioned issue of curing disease. While Kurzweil’s predictions are impressive there is some criticism of Kurzweil to consider.

While Kurzweil boasts a rather impressive record when it comes to making predictions, many of his predictions are quite broad, and often not very hard to predict. For example in 1990 he predicted the following --this from Predictions made by Ray Kurzweil-- “PCs are capable of answering queries by accessing information wirelessly via the Internet (by 2010).” This is a good example of a prediction that sounds jaw dropping to those unfamiliar with technology, but by the year 1990 the first search modern search engine had already been developed,“The first search engine created was Archie, created in 1990 by Alan Emtage, a student at McGill University in Montreal.” This from  History of Search Engines: From 1945 to Google Today. It is also well known that wireless technology was invented by Nikola Tesla and this was in the early 20th century (possibly late 19th century). It is also well known that the Internet by 1990 was not a new concept. Given that information, it wouldn't be all that difficult to make that prediction, considering we already had all the technology to do it at the time of his prediction. Kurzweil also predicted that (by 2018) “10^13 bits (=10 TB) of computer memory—roughly the equivalent of the memory space in a single human brain—will cost $1000.” This claim from Predictions made by Ray Kurzweil, is rather misleading.  The following is from What is the Memory Capacity of a Human Brain?, “Bringing this back to the human brain, according to a 2010 article in Scientific American, the memory capacity of the human brain was reported to have the equivalent of 2.5 petabytes of memory capacity.  As a number, a “petabyte” means 1024 terabytes or a million gigabytes, so the average adult human brain has the ability to store the equivalent of 2.5 million gigabytes digital memory.” The article goes on to say, “The human brain is indeed a marvel, with more capabilities than most of us can imagine.  As more studies are coming out – it is only a matter of time until we truly find out how much the human brain can store.” This article clearly implies that we do not know how much storage capacity the human brain has. Also, Kurzweil believes we as a society are heading to a singularity, here is an objection to his claim. From, The Brain Is Not Computable, “Miguel Nicolelis, a top neuroscientist at Duke University, says computers will never replicate the human brain and that the technological Singularity is “a bunch of hot air.””  Miguel Nicolelis has presented a very clear objection to Kurzweil’s claim about the singularity.

While technology can be arguably predictable at times, and at other times arguably unpredictable, it is still extraordinary that we are making rapid technological advances. Technology is a huge aspect of life today, and will only continue to grow. Relying on technology is something that could be helpful due to everything that it can help us with such as curing cancer and other medical diseases. Overall, technology could significantly improve/extend the life that humans live.

Childhood Memories by Cassie Lewis

In this Google Maps essay, "Childhood Memories", I share stories/memories from a specific location that had an impact on my childhood. These stories may be broad or specific, but they helped shape my future and created the person I am today. I hope to continue to plot points on this map as I create more memories.

Video Games Blog Post

A video game, as defined by Wikipedia,is “an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device such as a TV screen or computer monitor.”  While this definition does an adequate job of describing video games on the surface level; there is so much more depth when it comes to the world of video games. Video games can be meaningful works of art that can serve to engage, entertain, and compel the player to feel a range of emotions similar to film, or literature. One such example of a game that can have an emotional effect on the player is That Dragon Cancer.  This game takes the player on a journey in dealing with the approaching loss of a child that suffers from a terminal illness. The game can take the player on a emotional roller-coaster that conveys the pain of loss, as well as the joys that a child  can bring to parents, and the world.  Many people have a simplistic, and malformed view of the true depth that video games, similar to That Dragon Cancer, can have as an art form. Video games can be just as compelling as watching a film, and just as meaningful as reading a good book.  Although video games can exhibit emotional depth and range though well done game play and story, there are also practical examples of how video games can shape the mind.

Furthermore, in the modern world video games are very popular among people of all ages, but some might pose the question, what are video games really ? Forgoing the obvious answer , that they are games with video (or in a virtual space). Instead, this will focus on a bigger question, what can video games do for people ? Many have suggested that video games make people dumber, while this view may be popular, it appears to be false, this from Psychology Today “A new study has found that video gaming can stimulate neurogenesis (growth of new neurons) and connectivity in the brain regions responsible for spatial orientation, memory formation and strategic planning, as well as, fine motor skills. Brain volume was quantified using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).”  This clearly demonstrates that video games can help people improve their daily lives.  Playing video games can help with school because as this quote suggests, they can improve strategic planning, which is a skill that is extremely important in classes such as math. This skill is also essential if one wants to have a successful career. Video games not only help make us smarter, but they can be viewed as independent pieces of art and literature.

Games are a combination of art, literature, and film intertwined into one. Video games can be seen as digital art because there is a lot of work, and meaning that goes into making the game enjoyable and presentable. A video game with bad graphics or lacking story is not going to receive good reviews, and will not attract the attention of  players. Along with that, video games are not video games without game play. Players would not have an enjoyable time if there was not compelling game play to be experienced. Film-like elements are also incorporated into video games because without influences from film video games today would be fundamentally different. Film elements are placed in games to make them more realistic, and entertaining. Games are sometimes looked down upon, but they are works of art. The Game Awards appreciates the best types of video games every year and has nominations such as Best Narrative and Best Art Direction. Video games are celebrated by many, but should be appreciated more because there are so many aspects put into one work that is specifically for enjoyment.