Month: November 2019

DCI 180 incorporates many topics and ideas into the course. All of them surrounding the use of information and technology. Although most of the concepts discussed in the class deal with current and emerging technology that is present in today’s world, there is still discussion to be had about the morals and ethics of future technology. Is it worth it to develop this new technology if it allows more people to benefit even if some people suffer as a result? Is the greater good truly worth the suffering of the few? These are the questions posed by the idea of consequential. Specifically, utilitarianism deals with this exact issue.

A common scenario that comes up with the topic of ethics is that of the trolley problem. Is it better to pull the lever killing only one man or leave the trolley on the same course killing five? For a utilitarian, there is a simple answer, pull the lever and only kill one man. It is a simple math problem where 1 life is lost and 5 are saved. So back to the question at hand, is developing new tech that will help many be worth the suffering of the few? This is the question at hand in the movie Minority Report.
The movie Minority Report tackles morality and ethics with the introduction of the Precrime department. (Full Summary Here) This department has access to ProCogs (Mutants who can predict crimes that are going to happen.) and use their psychic ability in addition to technology to arrest people for crimes they have yet to commit. The movie goes on to discover how this system is flawed and that some of the people arrested were possibly innocent as a result. This movie shows how technology can and humans can be manipulated and the need for a balance between technology and human ethics.
This movie would fit in well with the DCI 180 course as it presents the ethics involved with the creation and deployment of new and current technology. It would also go well with the discussion on Transhumanism. As we discussed with The Circle, how can we allow AI to make an ethical decision? There is no way to program something without putting one’s own bias into the programming. This goes in hand with the movie. How do we know that these people are criminals? We only have the information provided by the mutants and tech that shows them committing the crime. This information could easily be falsified, and we would have no way of knowing. I felt like when reading the articles about deontological and consequentialism when discussing the Digital Consumer, I couldn’t get a good grasp of what those two definitions were and being able to see an example of it through a movie would most certainly help. This movie allows for the discussion of ethics without having to cite the dull articles provided as of now.
Overall, Minority Report provides a look at how ethics plays a vital role in technology and can most definitely be used in DCI 180 to help further the discussion and provide an in-depth example of consequentialism at work.

The Moon landing was one of the biggest events in human history. After spending centuries on earth and wondering about what was up in the night sky, in 1969 we finally had our chance to explore the moon. John F. Kennedy’s dream came true and the space race between the Soviet Union was won. Humans could finally accomplish a task that only decades ago sounded impossible. This is the retelling of the Historic Moon Landing with the use of social media (“AKA” Twitter)

After the launch, people went to twitter to share what they just saw.

After a couple of hours of being in space, the crew of APOLLO 11 were finally able to send tweets and started to provide updates on the view from space.

After taking a few days to reach the lunar orbit, the Apollo 11 crew was finally ready to take their first steps on the moon. As Collins stayed behind to man the ship, Aldrin and Armstrong ventured out and finally contacted the moon’s surface. They made sure to take a video to show the people back at home what the moon was like. 

Finally, once they all retreated to the ship and came back to earth a meeting was held.

This is just one of the many ways the moon landing could have could have been covered with the use of social media. Social Media plays a huge factor in how news is spread so I wonder how the moon landing would have been impacted if social media was around. Would more people think that the moon landing was a hoax, or would everyone believe it to be true due to the real time updates?

 

References:
Dunbar, Brian. “July 20, 1969: One Giant Leap For Mankind.” NASA, NASA, 19 Feb. 2015, https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/apollo11.html.