Robotics

It is truly fascinating to see how far science had come in order to produce robots. We looked at several videos of different robots, and seeing that they can jump more than two floors, or that they can reach 30 miles per hour, it is very impressive. It is interesting to observe that most of them are built in order to look alike humans or animals. This makes me consider if someday we won’t have a robot as an animal at home, or live with robots that look very similar to us, so they can do our basic tasks. The way we depend on technology nowadays, can transfer to robots, because they can be very capable. Another very interesting questions while watching the videos was if they get sad or offended when one of the guys started hitting them with a stick. The answer would be no, because feeling are not yet developed in robots.

            The next video we watched was a Honda robot, that was impressive in a way that he could move almost as good as a human. It has been developed for a long time and it has clearly gotten better and it’s interesting to see how he react to outside movements.

            The more human like robots were developed already, and have human faces and movements as well. Male and female characters and voices that are used in a trial in a hospital to see how people feel about them, and eventually in the future they can be used to talk to elders, or to help kids with mental or physical conditions.

            And even more impressive one, called Sophia, that is able to learn along the time, and show facial expressions, and even respond and have a normal conversation. When she talks, it looks like she does have feelings and goals in “life” because she said she wants to go to school and have a family, but she can’t yet.

            The first robots I talked about were very impressive, and I personally never looked into it, but apparently they are not even the best of robots. Humans have already created very efficient robots that can replace a lot of the human workers, because they have all the capabilities to move, execute, and respond just like us. I do believe that robots are going to replace many of the workers around the world, and that we are going to accept them as normal and even necessary thing in our lives.

Video Games

The correct perception of the internet is as a tool, and everything that comes from computers/internet and technology are tools as well.  Consequently, video games are tools and can they be used as tools. Video games can be used for early education, and many other positive effects. Besides entertainment, video games can be used for kids with social anxiety, and people who can not develop stable social relationships on the real world.  

We listen to a Ted Talk by Jane M. who gave us some interesting facts to think about. We have spent almost six million years playing World Craft. Another data is that in US, the hours spent by children by the age of 21 playing video games is the same as the time they have spent in school, with perfect attendance. She said that gamers are super empowered hopeful individuals, that believe they can change the world, but not the real one, only the virtual one. She explained how the first game, in Lithia, came to life, where the population was suffering because of femur, and they played dices to escape from the real life. They would eat one day, and then play the entire next one. That way they would be distracted from the pain they were going through, and today we have the same reasons to play: to avoid real world life.

Another very important thing she explained was the fact that there are so many games that evoke help from people, where the future real life conditions will be, and then people must find solutions. We avoid real life issues, and if they are in the games we play, we will think about them because we have the necessity to win. Games are simulations of situations; those can be either real or not. Usually, in my opinion, the ones that are not real are more interesting to people, because it’s not something we can do in real life. So I think the fact that there are people that create games that simulate the future of our planet, is a great way to stimulate our brains and make us realize how real those issues are/can be.

Another Ted Talk by Anita S., called the Mirror. Problem solving, teamwork, and many other are great advantages of video games. But there are also so many negatives. She was the target of a massive negative and violent movement. Many males got violent and destroyed all of her pages on the web (Facebook, Wikipedia, and so on). They were trying to protect the video games zone to only males and not females. What she wanted to do is a feminist movement through video games. Cyber harassment is not a game, and is not just boys being boys, so we can’t ignore it, and men cannot be let harass without doing anything.

Light and Femto Photography

We started the class with a Ted talk about light. It was impressive to see how fast it travels, but in fact we can even see that. In the video, they slow down the action by 10 billion times, and in that way we can actually see the light travelling through a bottle of water. It is also talked about in the Ted talk the effect of light bounces. This can be used in our future for amazing creations like medical instruments, life savers for firefighters, and many many more ideas where light can be applied.

Comparing to photography, we talked about X-ray, which is a process that shoots radiation into parts of your body, that are able to travel through soft tissues, but not through hard issue like bones, so those bones are transmitted into a plate where the image is collected. The next process is the MRA, magnetic resonance is a picture of a slice through of whatever the doctors need to see, and that way see a picture of a tumor, bones, either soft or hard tissues. The doctors are able to move back and forward to see the image the way they need. The next creation is the FMRA where the tissues of the brain are easily observed. The FMRA proved that writing or hearing or reading something puts information in different parts of our brains, so the more ways we try to remember, the more areas in the brain is going to be. Another advantage of the FMRA is that, opposite to the X-ray, it does not radiate you body, a consequently bring serious health issues.

On the video showed during the Ted talk, there is a part where a tomato is showed, and even after the light is passes the vegetable, there is a very good scientific reason. The tomato, just like us is made by atoms, but there is more empty space than matter, so the light takes more time to go through the vegetable.

The last part of class was focused on how to manage Femto Photography. We mentioned that this should be a limited product, due to some negative effects. Another product that is already restricted is the cloning process of animals and cells. This is not available to anyone not only because of the price but also, and most importantly, the wrong usage a normal person could give to it.