A Reflection on this Seminar

And at last, we have reached the 20th blog post of this series. First, I'd like to thank Professor Baldwin for giving me a chance to explore technology. I loved the charisma and energy he brought to the class. However what I envisioned for this class was totally different than what it was. I envisioned a space and time to tinker with technology and to create cool software with it. As I am busy even as a freshman, I hoped the seminar class would give me the time and opportunity to create from the leap motion, the bci software, the myo and the oculus rift. And in all honesty, I really wished that was the case. I would have been fine working on a project in class for a STEAM not a STEM. And I would have loved it, but instead, it turned out to be a showcase of different arts and technology in art. Not that that was not useful, but after 3 lectures of slides and demoes and music production, I feel utterly squished by the lack of expectation in the class. I expected a more open class and yes, of course, some students would not be able to grasp the full meaning and light of technology, but I really wished it gave us those who were interested the chance for that exploration and creativity.

For example, if we were given time and the tools in class on Sketchup and work on tiny coding projects, I think it would have been an easier class for me personally. Because outside of this class, I dedicate most of my time to my studies and to my work, I wanted this class to my place of solace and creativity time. But of course, perhaps these are just expectations I never should have had, but that was how the class was projected to me in one of the ITS chat with professors events. I won't lie, I am disappointed in parts of the seminar class because I was wholeheartedly looking forward to tackling and creating with technology in class since I am already overloaded with work outside the seminar class. I would have loved to code and create visual displays to be integrated in the other class's presentation and art performance. But given the time constraints in my schedule and the inability for me to dive deep into these projects, I was not able to bring my best to the table. It's obviously also my fault that this is the case, I mean when I am taking 17 credits amidst a 10hr/week part time job with an additional elective no-credit class, that's an indication I'm probably overloading myself with too much work. But I hope I'll still be able to find a bit of my time to come back and fool around with technology because above all, that was and still is what I am looking forward to in this class and outside this class.

This class gave me perspective and a different way of viewing technology in especially the artistic sense that I have never been exposed to. And for that, I am grateful I took this seminar class. Despite my disappointments at myself, and a tiny bit at the course structure, I do earnestly feel grateful I was at least able to see several coded projects and have the freedom to critique them to my liking. In addition, I feel grateful for the energy exuded by Prof. Baldwin as it empowers me to make more time to focus on side projects. In the end of the day, it's not anyone's entire fault for my disappointment, because it was a mixture of mostly my crazy high expectations for this class, and the need for compromise as not all students in this course are so crazily passionate about creating with technology as I am. I just drew the shorter end of the stick.

Combining Arts in Hackathons

Most hackathons are designed to be a dual experience. Programming opportunities but also recruiting opportunities. However there are some organizations that notice the need to separate the recruiting part of hackathons and the overloaded prize box with a simplistic approach to merely advocating neat and important topics in today's society.

In MIT, a hackathon other than the standard HackMIT has been developed where students and coders gather to hack the arts. This will probably be of most interest to STEAM enthusiastic like Professor Baldwin himself, and thus, here is the link to the website.
Hacking Arts At MIT

Although we can fiddle with little bits of technology her and there, I believe that a full understanding of graphical and hardware technology such as MAX, the leap motion, the Open BCI project, and the Myo are truly crucial to making fantastic art. Of course, we can settle with integrating with expression our thoughts and emotions through the filter of the most basic of features of this technology, however to break bounds and defy artistic conventions and create ecstatic and lively art that flows well and brings about an impact, I can't help but fall in love with the creations and displays shown on this website.

The energy, the grotesqueness, and the abstraction of this art is purely enthralling. And I as a programmer cannot help but wonder how it was made and what tools I can use to make it. And the same goes with dance. Many times we need a live demonstration of a variety of art in order to figure out which appeals to each of one the most. In addition, adding in a demonstration and a light discussion of the technological backbones of the process will add a fundamental understanding. For me, seeing this art, and possibly hearing about how it was created would only drive me to make my own artistic creation with my flair. But it is only through the physical tangibility of the arts when I see it with my own eyes and feel it with my own fingers, that I can feel myself growing the wings of determination to challenge these arts with my own. 

The Hackathon

In this day, hackathons provide a place of focus and fun to participants. Coders and programmers gather together to work as groups on different projects. Sometimes software, but other times hardware. They tinker with Python, NodeJS, Processing, C, among other languages and create Arduino powered gadgets, Myo or Leapmotion gesture recognition embedded in their project.  However, hackathons are now more about just creating for the fun and for trying some new code. The competition aspect of hackathon is a large reason why participants join these events. In order to gain prizes that can range from a GoPro to several thousand dollars, hopeful programmers gather in hopes of snagging a prize.

But even more so, hackathons are designed to be a show of coding talent. While rows of tables are lined up for the hundreds or thousands of avid coders, recruiters line the sides of hackathons hoping to find their next top engineers and recruit by hosting some of the prizes. Furthermore, resumes sent in as applications to attend hackathons are often forwarded to recruiters. Also, hackathons provide a time and place for coders and computer programmers to network with professionals and recruiters. This in turn creates a social environment that not only demands high quality work, but also one that demands the need to be proactive to approach recruiters. It is like a coding arena with a computer science career fair off to the side.

Hacking is now probably an extreme sports of sorts for programmers. Some programmers attend every and any hackathon in reach that provides travel reimbursements and fills their hunger to a plethora of prizes and delicious food. Many look forward to the long hours of the hackathons to meet and connect with hackers like themselves. The hours are long so that the result can be its best because many times tinkering with new and modern technology takes at least 4 hours in order for one to fully understand the documentation needed to power up an Oculus and get the right software installed.

The Hackathon title is now incredibly powerful. It implies sponsors, prizes, long nights, a large room packed with passionate coder, and competition. And it labels an event where hackers pride themselves in their work and work tirelessly for fully-developed apps targeted at improving the world. However, misuse of the title will cause negative judgements and extreme bias to cower its head because hackers who take pride in their sport would not like something other their coveted hackathon swag-filled events being mislabelled as anything else.

Overtrusting Technology, the Hidden Threat

In my previous blog post, I discussed cybersecurity and the insecurity of our information online. However, another hidden threat is yet to be seen. Your information is not only about your security, but also the security of your numerous friends. For instance, look at Facebook. You can control your privacy settings so that non-friends cannot see your timeline. However, note that if any hacker hacked into any of you 1000 friends, they have access to seeing your timeline. And underneath your timeline and social media, is you.

Because all the social media (most times) originate from your thoughts, and your initiative, they reveal bits of information that are unique to you. Your interactions, your interests, your likes/dislikes, you behavior. Even how you phrase your words can tell someone a lot about yourself. For example, in the simplest example, if your timeline is written primarily in German and you claim to study in Stony Brook University. Chances are you are probably an international student. And add that picture of that German guy who is tagged and who studies international affairs in Berlin. Well, now you're probably from Berlin.

And worst of all, it doesn't take a hacker to find that out. Even friends of friends who take careful attention and profile your timeline can determine these traits about you. Professional recruiters can tell what kind of person if you are active in social media. So sometimes, it is important to recognize that even the tiniest most insignificant comments and photos we post reveal our unique personalities and behaviors. And although separately they are insignificant, together, they form a big picture that can reveal who you are to a potential stranger.

One hack and put > 500 others at risk just because of how connected our networks are. Thus, it increasingly becomes a moral obligation to take measures to ensure security of our emails and social media accounts.

Overtrusting Technology, the CYBER THREAT

We love Technology. That is an undeniable fact. The fact that everyday we log onto our Facebook and check our emails whether computer of phone points to this important fact. However, as we increasingly spend time on the Internet, we give valuable information in the form of our names, addresses, credit card numbers, etc. In addition, we communicate with many of our important contacts via social media and emails.

So what happens when a hacker gets into your account? Imagine your entire contact list copied into the hands of the evil perpetrator. Your credit card information. Your address. What can this person do? Basically anything. He or she can stalk you. He or she can use your credit card. If you do your banking online, well, adios to your precious savings. They can also blackmail you threatening to sell you information to who knows who. And even if you pay, there is no guaranteed they haven't. However, worst of all, he knows who knows you. So when you think you've just been screwed enough, he or she can pull up your contacts in your email and your phone contacts and start digging into their lives.

It is important for us to morally educate ourselves in the processes of our computer dependent world in how to secure our information. Whether it is frequent password changing, use of complex passwords, avoiding syncing your phone to your account, these are steps all of us must consider if we want our information to remain private and secure from curious eyes. However, even if we follow these rules, there is never any guarantee they will completely secure our data. As seen with the numerous leaked documents, leaked celebrity photos, and email scandals the past year, everything has a flaw. And more and more hackers are finding more ways to break our encryption faster than our government and security professionals can keep up. Since there are an uncountable number of ways to find and create a breach in a system, we cannot defend without knowing which one will be used. As such, it is important to realize that for all of us, what goes on the Internet is not only forever, but also adding your data into a breakable security structure.

Kinecting the Body Points

Many times, the Kinect is seen as an extension of the XBOX, however, in reality, the Kinect sensor is extremely powerful. With bone, joint, and face detection, the possibilities of the Kinect are vast in number. For instance, you could make a skeleton figure. But in addition, with a little more algorithms and programming, a 3D sensing game could be made that could be used to encourage exercise. Furthermore, the sensing technology in the Kinect uses infrared, heat, and depth sensors that help it determine a specific distance away from the Kinect. This in turn can help us better visualize landscapes and image recognition. Using heat and infrared, we can test to see what objects are those with energy and figure out ways in order to categorize all objects.

The Kinect also has the sensors and data available to test which arm was raised. Specific to a part of the body, the Kinect can identify right from left, and knee joint from elbow joint. It would not be a stretch to be able to program a live 3-D rendered animated character onto the sensed parts of the body by the Kinect. However the current features already give lots of potential for applications that use triggers other than a mouse and touch screen for interaction. And the current features just point to how amazing the Kinect is and how much potential lies for it in the feature.

Raspberry Pi

When many hear the term "Raspberry Pi", they think of a red filled scrumptious crusty grandma pie. However, the Raspberry Pi I am referring to is far from that. It is a small computer about the size of the palm of an adult's hand. Originally created to allow easier access of a computer to people in poor nations and countries, the Raspberry Pi is one of the smallest buyable computers in the world. It is built on the UNIX/LINUX operating system which is a core feature of the Mac Operating System. A commonly used operating system by programmers for its versatility and flexibility, UNIX is a language most programmers should learn. And the Raspberry Pi provided for a cheaper way to allow education of computer science in 3rd world countries.

So what can you do with a raspberry pi ?
Well, how about building a robot? A electronic circuit? Making your TV into a game display or even this:

The number of things a raspberry pi can be used for is limitless, mostly for the fact it was created as a computer. What you can make out of a computer program is likely (depending on its compatibility to LINUX), can be transported to the raspberry pi and moved into a mobile technology easier independent of a 13in heavy screen. 

Virtual Reality and the potential danger to the future

Increasingly the field of virtual reality is growing due to the increase of accessibility of technologies such as the Oculus Rift and the Google Cardboard. However, as society tends to do many times, we are often informed about the great successes in this field, such as the 3-D game. But society needs to reevaluate every aspect of this technology as increasingly these technologies are being used for awful purposes.

For instance, this article explains how virtual reality is being used in the porn industry. As a probable traditionalist with conservative views in this aspect, I feel that porn in general is detrimental to not only our society but also to the psyche of users of it. (I will spare you my deeply felt opinions about this matter of pornographic images and turn to where the issue lies).

As the porn industry is increasingly developing programs to simulate real sexual activity in virtual reality, the ability this will give people will impact our society's behavior. For instance, abuse of a electronic projection of a partner in virtual reality will have virtually no laws to prohibit it. However, this will promote in the psyche of the users that this is a real but also doable thing that they may choose to enact on in the real world outside the cardboard or the Oculus. Furthermore, the creation of these images in virtual space increases the hopes and dreams of a person's ideal of a partner in what they look at in their physical appearance.

I wholeheartedly feel disgust that we judge our partners by their looks, but nevertheless, we all have our preferences and bias. However, as we can always code up another vision of what the "perfect" partner can be (at least in the future), this will leave users craving these ideals that do not exist in the real world. And thus, we may end up being sucked in a vacuum where we have been exposed to a virtual fantasy that cannot and will not exist in real life. This will in turn drive people to insanity, deep lust, and depression as these impossible desires will forever be able to be repeated in virtual space but will never exist in reality. And who knows what will be a result of these unmet expectations? It would not be far to imagine a dystopia some time in the future due to the potential negative impact virtual reality may have on our perceptions of our lives and our relationships with others.

Thus, it is important for society as a whole to recognize the potential moral issues that come with the advancing technology and to place the appropriate laws before our society transforms into one that loses control of itself.

Programming on the Go

When code was first created, the language and syntax of the programming language was written in pen and paper, and handed down by word of mouth and books to other coders. Today, all the documentation about a language can be found online. Code is often typed on a computer screen rather than written down in the ancient way of the pen and paper. However, increasingly more, in a world where we want to fill all of our free time with productive actions, it would be really useful if there was a platform to code on a phone. Yes, it would most likely be the best if programming was done on a computer, but to pull out a computer or laptop in the middle of a packed crowded train in tech hubs such as Silicon Valley and New York City would be a mistake. It would be putting candy in front of people who potentially will wan to take your stuff.

However, the issue with finding a solution to this issue is because coding takes a lot of lines and flexibility. Many times, when one codes, it is necessary to pull out several files each pertaining to different aspects of the application. For instance, one file for the database, one file for the data that needs to be imported, and one for each type of code file. However, as on the go, people tend to use smaller devices such as the phone in order to protect their gadgets, it is difficult to find a compromise between flexibility and security.

Increasingly the iPad and similar tablets are being utilized. And in creating an application to allow coding on the go, it might be of our best interest to put more of our efforts to optimizing a coding platform on the iPad as it is more feasible and more practical than a platform on a tiny smartphone.

Cyborg Bugs

Usually, we think of gigantic humanoid creatures when we think of robots. However, robots can also be that of the size of a fly. Although most times, we envision robots to be human-like with arms and legs standing at least 4-5 feet tall, robots are also useful in their minute form. Small robots allow for better movement and maneuvering around the tiny spaces, for example, examining pipes or cracks in a wall. However, for scientists, minute robots can serve the purposes of alleviating some complex tasks such as adding small changes to a very tiny object.

Recently, scientists have decided to use insects. After studying their movements, scientists have now created a system to control the movement of insect legs by way of electrodes. Scientists implant electrodes in the insects brains in order to hijack and make them into cyborgs. The hope is that scientists can use the beetle's perception to avoid roadblocks and the electrodes to steer the insect to the location they want the insect to be in. This is really useful as apparently this gives way for easier exploration of small areas. Since these "hijacked bugs" consume less energy and do not need a complete set of code to avoid obstacles as it relies on the eyes of the insect, it will be more easily deployable in the science and tech fields. However, the drawback to this technology is that the lifespan of the bug or hijacked insect is equal to that of an insect. Once the insect dies, the hijacked insect will stay frozen and dead in whatever location it is in. This may cause an issue with retrieving data and the carcass and remains of the hijacked insect. If the carcass is not removes, it could potentially harm the hardware or area of space it is in due the electrodes in the insect's brain.


http://player.ooyala.com/iframe.html#pbid=59b4de92e6b44145b5b692f41dd00d0a&ec=tuazNnMjE6pxegvSKVEHsKlhvkRwBGPy


Read more about this at this link: Cyborg Bugs

Moving Past the Easy Stuff

As a celebration for reaching number 10, I have decided to explore some live coded visual artistic things. Blogging has been very reflective for me and exploring technology is fun, but I think more than reading and reflecting, sometimes it is important to see and marvel at what code can create.

So here, let's take a look at some pretty cool animations on a couple websites:
http://cssaz.tumblr.com

These animations are made with HTML, CSS, and more importantly JavaScript. Although these look complicated, in reality, they are quite simple if one takes some time to learn JavaScript. The biggest advantage of taking the time to learn Html, CSS, and Javascript is that it gives you more control and reign on creating what your heart desires. Drag and Drop applications and programming such as Scratch limit you because you interact with a middle man in order to do an action. Someone has to add another feature to the middle man before another feature is available. But with tiny tinkering of code and gradual understanding of how they interact, more unique things from your imagination can be created. It's like for example taking an image off Google Image instead of creating or modifying a preexisting image for something that resembles an image. What you tinker with will most likely come out more desirable than the unmodified image from Google Images.

This is not limited to art however. Sometimes, you want to reveal you ideas in a presentation.
http://lab.hakim.se/reveal-js/#/7/1
Reveal JS is a library dedicating to making more unique presentations. Yes Powerpoint and Prezi get the job done, but with Reveal JS you can make letters grow, different transitions, and and even a progress bar. It's a different feel and more flexibility which means more possibilities. However, it is notable that Prezi and Powerpoint can be just enough for your presentation. But if you want to deviate and make a presentation that pops because it is different. Reveal JS is a javascript library that can make that pretty easy.

Or maybe you want to impress your audience with some 3D complexity?
 http://impress.github.io/impress.js/#/its
In Javascript, with open source Impress JS, you can get just that with zoom in and out features. Features that would never be possible in standard Powerpoint.

And of course, any personal website could be improved with a simple CSS3 animation or javascript.
Or maybe even some marquee tag. But, hey, whether you will use it or not, I thought I might just share with you so you as a reader can just look at just what incredible improvements Javascript, CSS animation, and ultimately code can do to a static boring website. Just a little code here and there can elevate your art, design, music, website, or any creation to the next level!

3D Printing Pens

Many of us have heard of 3D printing, but not all of us have heard of the 3D printing pen. A pen that literally makes plastic from what you draw. Of course this is limited as there is no backspace or any room for error, but there are things that fundamentally are easier to draw in real 3D space rather than a fake 3D space of that in a computer. Here is a video of some of the top 4 printing pens:

Make an Eiffel Tower, make that last minute sculpture gift for a little kids, make a toy. There are many things a 3d printing pen can do, and creating fanatic art are just some of it. 

But it is not just art and sculptures that can easily be made with the 3d printing pen. Look below at the amazing textures that can be drawn onto a dress with such technology.

It is not as powerful as SketchUp or Blender that can actually make 3D objects to a precise scale, but sometimes art is less about precision, but about the spur of the moment strokes and outbursts of energy and emotion. In addition, this technology is less time consuming as the printing happens not the spot, and it does not take hours and days for the plastic to render in its final form. Rather it takes only a matter of minutes. 

This pen not only has the ability to create more unique art, but also allow for kids to draw in 3D space. Why is this important? It just adds another dimension to the world of drawing. And for any kid and even any adult, why not another dimension of space to draw something? 

Here is another video with more 3D printing pen art!!!  

Girls in Stem Field (Opinion)

First, let's just get context out of the way. I am a girl studying computer science. Why am I telling you this? It's because many times I think the title of being a girl who codes or a girl engineer is suffocating. Yes, we have many organizations that help us and offer action to promoting our skills and career paths due to the lack of women in these fields, however many times, I would like to be acknowledged for my merit and my skill rather than those things combined with the fact I am a girl.

Like think about it this way.
"Oh my god, you're a girl studying computer science... it's so hard.. you must be really really smart", someone tells me.
Sure, computer science is hard and all, but why does it matter that I am a girl? Are girls inherently dumber than boys? Why must it seem like girls cannot reach the full potential of their male counterparts?  Why need mention the fact that I am a girl, does it really make a difference?

I would like to think these difference are emphasized because of the patriarchal roots that have been dominant for the last few millennia where women were oppressed of the freedom to educate themselves. Thus, as a result, we are less confident as the social standards placed upon us women are lower than of those expected of men. And this goes particularly in stem fields, where most engineers were male early on due to the intensive labor it took to run pre-modern technology.

I do think it is important for females going into STEM fields to hold pride in the fact that they are studying computer science as a female, breaking social norms, and doing what they are passionate about despite the huge majority of males in the field. However, more importantly, I feel we need to hold pride in what we do, because we do it, we love it, and we are skilled at it. When I finally graduate college and get a job, I hope that the reason I get my job is not because of my gender, but because of the many late nights I toiled coding and grabbling with complex algorithms. Not to say that females who hold very feminist ideals and work hard in computer science work hard as well, but I feel that especially in a world that is still prejudiced no only in the perspective of gender and race, we need to stand up, and show that we, or anyone, part of the minority fully deserve what we are given. We can protest and march the streets crying for the end of discrimination, but until we prove that we are better than what others perceive of us, discrimination will never cease to end, because those thoughts will still be ingrained in the social norms that are placed in us by society. It is only by gaining things by merit and hard work rather than affirmative action that our white male counterparts will finally acknowledge our intellect, skills, and work ethic. And this I feel does not apply to just females, but of all minorities in the STEM fields.

Tangible Technology

Many times, technology is not tangible. The art, the sounds, the results, the data that is spewed from a computer program is shown or displayed through an LED light. Here is a video about tangible technology, technology that affects something physical and has an instantaneous and amazing visual impact.

The tangibility of such a technology is something that could be used to improve not only mathematical  computations and visualization such as plotting a cosine function in some 3D space, but this can be very worth while in an artistic sense. With a Kinect sensor, as shown in the video, you can formulate a hand, move objects, roll a ball down a slide, and better yet trigger different actions by use of colors and light. Such a technology can have many implications in an art performance. For example, imagine a giant floor of these tiles, and a mastermind off to the side moving a person standing on these tiles. Of course, the dimensions of the tiles would have to be much greater, but the possibilities of what sort of artistic expression that can come out of this technology is amazing.

Even more, such technology has great implications in the visualization and education of some fundamental math and science problems. First, as mentioned before, the visual quality of this tangible technology helps us visualize and fully take in what we see. For example, with cosine, we can see the curves it makes in a live 3-d structural object. However, even more so, this could also be used to create puzzles or perhaps mazes that can test the our wits. In addition, image a board of these tiles being able to display Braille on the spot. With integration of some speech recognition software or some other input device, this could help  this type of tangible technology could vastly help deaf and mute people communicate. Although this video demonstrates some incredible features, we are only scratching the surface of what this type of technology can do.

The Problem of Technology Addiction

Sometimes, I feel that technology is too addictive for our own good. We are increasingly spending our lives staring at LED screens rather than the faces of our loved ones. It is actually growing to the point that our computers and phones are more of our loved ones above our actual family and friends. I, too, am no exception. Especially as an aspiring computer scientist, it's hard to depart myself with my trusty friends - my computer. When I need to write something, it is my paper and pen. When I need to close myself off from all the noise around me, it is here for me. When I need to cry, it is there to distract myself, as I ask it to provide me with the endless amount of movies that keep me from thinking about what makes me sad. It is also there for me when I need an answer to something. Technology is incredible powerful and sadly taking over the position of a friend to consult to. Of course, I still do talk to people and ask for advice from others. But at the same time, the ease of finding answers online has made me timid and a bit scared to ask the professor directly.

The ease that technology grants us not only distracts us, but prevents us from interacting people without the filter of an electronic device. But at the same time, society has grown to a point where we need to learn technology or else you are consider out-dated and incapable of surviving in the world today. A sad fate has thus fallen upon us in my opinion. I will always love the technology around me, but in many instances, I feel it has taken up so much of my time. I spend more time staring at this beloved screen of mine instead of hanging with friends.

However, this problem is beginning to become a problem for the next generation. Kids of the next generation find themselves addicted to the joys of the Internets and the vast set of games available online to the extent, they become gaming addicts. When they are 5 and learn who to play Flappy Bird instead of looking, observing, and learning from their environment or even doodling with crayon, these kids are losing their time to explore their passions and talent. This in turn will make it harder for the future generation to maintain the world's tech, much less improve it, if kids are encouraged to direct their attention at computer games at a very young age. We need to step back away from technology, breathe in the fresh air outside, stretch our cramped muscles and enjoy the natural world around us. But even more importantly, we must make sure that while we teach our kids to embrace technology, we also teach to step back and surround themselves with nature and other human interactions before we take that part of our humanity from the next generation.

GO-ing towards a technological dominated world

Recently, Google Deep Mind has developed Alpha Go which is a program that plays Go. Their goal is to exceed the human limits and to create AI that will basically be able to beat any player. And in the most recent match up between professional Go player Lee Sedol, it won 4 games losing only 1 game. This has exploded in the tech world as a historical feat, as never before has a computer Go program won a game of Go without handicaps. It's ingenuous and points to the endless limitations of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. However, for me, I find this success more daunting than before. 

Call me a conservative or a traditionalist, but I feel that games like Go involve human interaction. You look at your opponent to see if he is sweating or panicking; you notice the speed at which he plays; what moves take longer to occur; where his eyes are darting.  Meanwhile, a computer runs an algorithm that a human can't possibly understand its though process by merely staring at the board. Playing on a computer is basically playing against an object that could calculate your every move and your every possible strategies. We humans do not have nearly that much capacity in our brains to complete such a feat, but machines can because once they get too slow or low on memory, you can just order another processor or TB of memory from Amazon and supplement it. It's more than just vitamins for computers, its a nearly endless supply of brain power and steroids that no pharmaceutical  steroid will ever match for us. And for this, this news of this advanced Go program brings me some fear of the robot apocalypse. 

Yes, maybe its absurd, but think about it... is it really? If a machine has been able to topple a Go professional who has dedicated his entire life to playing Go, a 2-year program, it's possible we can make chess, Mahjong,.... other advanced board game programs that can beat these professionals. Not only will it seem that these professionals have spent their lives grappling in vain, but it seems to me that these programs indicate the possibility that some day in the future machines will be able to overtake us in all our intelligence because of their massive potential to learn from us. Of course, we only need to turn off the power to eliminate, if computers become so incredibly deadly and dangerous . Maybe I should clarify a bit, the robot apocalypse I think of is one where we depend to heavily on robots to the extent we forget how to take care of our machines and ourselves. I'm skeptical that robots will be able to overthrow humanity, but what happens for some reason, we must turn off all power in the world. If that is the case, then how many of us would actually be able to survive without our beloved computers and phones? How many of us would still be able to start a fire and cook food? How many of us will be able to adapt and fully be able to survive the programs that help us schedule our workday, wake us up every morning, and do our math for us? 

STEM needs the A

STEM Education has been exploding since perhaps the invention of the computers and maybe even before that. As the importance of math and science grows in our technologically accelerating society, it is impossible to survive without learning at the least even the fundamentals of these two fields. Even if you were to be a recluse and live as a hermit, some understanding of the science of the clouds and weather would be essential. However, it is important to note that the emphasis of stem education does in fact neglect pushing for the arts. Depending on whether a child’s parents have the funds and the determination and drive to educate their children in the arts, the artistic creativity is increasingly becoming something lacking in the youth of society. 

Of course, this seems like an unsupported claim, but this is what I feel especially since I am pursuing an STEM field as my career path. It is hard to integrate the STEM field with the arts because of just how demanding the workload is. In order to think of new technologies to invent, learning about the arts is crucial as well. The arts allows creativity to run freely. Not just the creativity to make things sound and look pretty, but creativity to break conventions set by society. And this is a creativity that it inherently not ingrained in the teachings of the STEM field. For people like me, who are so devoted in her aspiration to become a hard-core engineer, I think this skill is one I do not have because of my lack of a creativity-encouraging arts education. When I think of what invention I can create in the future, I feel afraid and stressed, because I do not have the courage and enough creativity to think of the next solution to our world’s problems. As art is a medium where you define how you want to express yourself and a medium where you push your creativity to the limits, I think there is still a need to encourage arts education for the sake of our kids to still feel passionate and inspired to think outside normal social conventions to push technology, math, and sciences to their limits. 

The Disarray in Music (An Opinion Piece)

It is always interesting when the two opposites come together. Clarity and Noise. Live Music and Electronic Music. Purposeful and Random Music. Sometimes it makes wondrous things such as the beauty in the black and white contrast in the yin and yan symbol. And other times, the noise and the randomness take over and distort the product. But when they come together in the right proportions and with the right intentions, amazing art and a splendor of colors and sounds can come about. 

Recently, in our seminar class, Derek, Zack, and Prof. Baldwin did just this. Derek with his live guitar, Zach with a computer generated keyboard, and Baldwin with his unique brain waves. What came out as a result was a sound that I had mixed feelings for. Art is about expression. But for me, the conglomerate of sound was just too overwhelming. The distortions, the clouded sounds made my mind feel confused and utterly lost. And I suppose that may be a purpose of art, but my personal preference is the clear art that makes me reflect and think about the artists and their thoughts. What was conveyed was the extreme waves and distortions and randomness in the waves, and I understood that perfectly. However, i feel like because of all the confusion and discordant sounds present at a single time, I found it interesting for one moment, and then after that it just felt even more confusing. 

I do think there is an application for sound made by brain waves and live music. But I can’t help thinking that together for an entire length of a song might just be erratic, at least for me. A little bit of noise is good, but too much just distorts the performance. And because of this, I found Zach and Dereks’s mesh of electronic music and live guitar a bit more appealing. But of course, this is solely my own opinion, and an experiment that turned out to help me discover a bit about myself, even if that was not the intention of the improv performance.