1. Lanier presents some new types of communication which are described in p215-p219. These are gradually getting realized by some systems such as Twitter. However, as written in p219, "there can be a dark side to all this" and that "they can avoid deep contact in time-consuming and meaningful ways". If these communication systems become mainstream, what other problems will occur? ex) Those who do not possess cell phone will be excluded from the community.
2. The author mentions the Lanier's idea of three ramps of human progresses. The third ramp, which Lanier thinks the most important is the progress of interpersonal connections between people. It says in the p214 that what people should focus on is the quality and the quantity of ways to communicate, and "Not ways in which they become identical, but ways that they become closer." What way would you give as an example of effective way to connect with people more closely and what are the positive and negative effect on it?
3. Lanier mentioned about the three ramps in the prevail scenario: technological and economic advance, moral improvement, and increased connection between people(p210). "Lanier thinks it is important that we carefully pick which ramp on which to focus as we ride the Curve of exponential change"(p223). If we are entering the Prevail scenario, on which ramp do you think we should focus now? And why do you think so?
Group Leaders
Fumika Ishii
Naoko Sawada
Tomoya Motoki
3. I think that moral improvement is one ramp we need to take before the others. I think so because the basis for both communications and economic activities are humans, and without improving the base, one cannot reach high. As an example of economics without ethics, we have the concept of corporations putting profits over people. A morally enlightened population would not have allowed this in the first place. Reviewing the values which govern our decisions also helps us to consider technology as nothing more than a tool to help us achieve a greater goal, and therefore helps us to avoid the problems of the hell scenario.
ReplyDelete1.We already have some problems of new type of communication such as twitter.
ReplyDeleteFirst, it accelerates the widineing of digital devide. As mentioned in Q1's example, it will create the gap between its users and non-users. Its users can share information and cooperate each other beforehand, so they can take advantage of it. However, non-users make a loss only because they don't do that. It seems unfair.
Second, some people may use it and try to deceive other users. According to current news, a male office worker made a mixi account as a high school girl and tried making friends with other girls. Like this case, there are some spoofing people online. Communication system makes it easier to take in normal people.
Third, new type of communication makes people extremely dependent on the system itself. An american institute(?) research revealed that twitter is especially true in the fact because we can get followers' response on twitter at once. The more rapidly people can get reaction, the more they become deprendent and absorbed in it. Eventually they cannot help useing it.
My answer is nothing special this time...sorry.
>Shantonu
ReplyDeleteThank you for answering the question shantonu. I also thought that improvig human moral is the ramp we should focus now. I didn't come up with the example of profits and people that you gave us, and I think that its a good example. It just to make sure, but its about the things Rab tould us in the last NP right? Well, the reason I thought that the moral improvment ramp should be taken now is because, I think the people are not keeping up with the technology and are confused about how much they should get along with it, for an example bioethical issues. So, I think we're in the ramp of economical & technological ramp and its time to think about our morals to keep us out of hell.
Since Kaori has given great examples of problems which exceed to the amount of crime, I would like to point out the problems within each individual. Maybe it is not a problem, and it is seen as a change. However, there are no exceptions whether one has informed it via calling or text messaging in breaking promises. When it comes to breaking promises trust falls apart in the relationship, and I believe that human relationships are mainly about trust. Building trust has meaning in the relationships, and we actually enjoy building these. Friends, families, colleagues, and etc are a result of it. Current devices destroy these kind of beliefs. For example, it is clearly illustrated on 118 that "it's no longer unforgivable to b late, as long as you're in contact". Moreover, it says that it is "more socially accepted to be late, because you've given notice that you would be" (118). It is a shame that the old values, significant ones, are changing. I hope it doesn't break human relationship to the point that one can't fully trust others. Or has it already begun?
ReplyDeleteHey todays the festival day!!YAY im so frickin tired lol
ReplyDelete2.Every communication system has good and bad points. The most formal one is to see each other and talk face to face. This is probably the best way to understand each other since you can see their reaction and feel what and how they are thinking. Bad point is you have to actually SEE each other at some place. Another is by using technology, of course. Cell phone is one of the best tool to communicate with each other. BUT you cant see their face or feel how they are reacting. this could be said for most of the other communication system we use today. There may be a new technologythatll allow us to show up at some place with holographic but still you cant feel em since the body isnt really there.
So the best way to communicate closely is to use all!!!LOL
Not just one or two but all of the ways to communicate so that we can interact more and communicate easily and deeply.
If you only focus on the quality part, then its best to show up at some place and meet up and then communicate. But to become closer, i think everything is needed. And we actually do use most of the communication system today dont we? All we have to do is to keep up this communication system and adapt new technology also in order to make communication more convenient.
n sorry for the late post!!!
Hope we can enjoy our festival at some point!!!
nite
Sorry for the late post!
ReplyDelete3. I think the moral improvement is the ramp that we should focus now. Sorry for not giving any new idea, but I agree with Shantonu and Naoko. I really think that the society today lack morality. Not only the corporations but also the governments, that are supposed to think about protecting their people, are considering about their profits in the first place. There are wars going on in the world and they are due to the countries' demand of profits from selling weapons and stuff. This is wrong and it is the same for technology. If humans continue to develop the technology only considering about the profit, the world will move towards the hell scenario. Therefore, to be in control of the technology, to go for prevail scenario, we need to improve in our morality.
Im so tired from the festival...otsukaresama to all of you!:)
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ReplyDeleteSorry about the late post x(
ReplyDelete1. I don't think this was given as an example in the book nor may it exactly be a type of communication... but I read about how people are starting to make identical copies of themselves, not by cloning, but by making androids? robots? that look and sound EXACTLY like you. After building this life-like representation of oneself, apparently it is possible to record answers in one's voice to several questions, so that when asked a question from its repertoire, it will actually respond back in that person's voice. This comes into use after that person dies and the family that is left behind can "talk" to that person, as if they're still alive. I think this will cause emotional problems, like never being able to accept that person has passed away. People may experience hallucinations and the concept of death might be taken less seriously. Or as mentioned on pg. 198, we will be "dumb[ing] down" our abilites to communicate with this robot as it will only understand several particular questions. Plus, when this robot really stops functioning, the person who's been talking to it for so long will be in utter shock that who knows what they may do next.
soooo sorry for the laaaate post x_x
ReplyDelete2. Lanier mentions various types of communication we have in today's community as ramp of increased interpersonal connections, and one of them is a cell phone. I think this popular device is one of the most effective tools to communicate with each other.Like Yusuke says, face-to-face communication can be the best way to understand each other, however people have inner feelings that cannot be expressed directly. Especially in modern time when we always move with cell phones and PCs, some addicted users of these technologies may have difficulties expressing their honest thinking to people in face-to-face. On the other hand, for example,the e-mail system in our cell phones enables us to take time, rewrite and improve the content of texts, therefore it is easier to express what the users really want to say. Indeed there exists a loooot of problems and negative effects, such as losing humanity and communication skill. Yet i think we cannot deny that the cell phone is one of the most effective ways to communicate with people in this world.
I am very sorry for one-week late post><
ReplyDelete3.I think that moral ramp is the most important ramp we should focus now to enter the Prevail Scenario. Lanier regards the ramp of increased connection between people is the important one and introduces an example of Gibson insisting that there should be a guarantee or trust that computers work as we expect them to work, or else we can not rely on them. Without it, global employment will be "the main virtue of increasingly crappy giant software."(P.211)
I think this trust can be applied also to the relationhsips of us humans and this actually more important than Lanier's opinion. If someone does not work in a society as expected from others, he would lose trust and moreover, the society won't be able to function. No matter how deloped the technologies would be, what keeps the increased connections between people is the trusting to each other. Like Shantonu also said, society is consisted of humans and without us being responsible, the society, the whole network would collapse, which means we are heading toward the Hell Scenario.
sorry I'm only commenting now.
ReplyDelete1.One problem I think of about the new communication is that people can be anonymous when communicating with people on the internet. There is a survey indicating the connection between networking and suicide committed by youth. It seems to me that some disconnect themselves when communicating with someone they do not actually know face-to-face. I'm concerned that those who are stuck with networking might start loosing their sense of responsibility on their voice in the world in which such a thing as anonymous commenting is possible and in which it is pretty much up to the receivers of the nasty comments how much harm the words would do to them. I fear that the new type of technology in communication field could numb people's sense for other people's pain on network interaction.
Sorry for the late post! :(
ReplyDelete1, I agree that these communication methods such as Twitter or Facebook "can avoid deep contact in time-consuming and meaningful ways". Before these kind of social networking service websites became popular, we all used phone calls or texting to keep in contact with our friends. At that time we had to actually choose a friend and call or write him/her individually.
However, now we have facebook. Once you post something on your page, it appears on all of your friends' page and they can all see it. You don't have to go and write on someone's page personally to inform something. That means that our communication style is becoming more and more involuntary. We are not really talking to individuals, rather, just dispatching information randomly.
As for Twitter, basically the same things, or maybe worse, are happening as on Facebook. You tweet what you're doing or where you are in less than 140 letters. People may have some input on this, but it's also limited to 140 letters. There're no way in depth conversations can take place there.
I'm relatively active Twittery and ironically, I do feel that "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world" (Wittgenstein) on Twitter. What's scarier about these communication tools is, since we are all somehow connected via these websites and can easily see how they live by watching their pictures and reading their posts that tell what they're feeling or doing no matter how far they live or how unfriendly they actually are. So it often happens to feel closer to people only by knowing them on the internet. It's not an actual friendship built by themselves. It is possible that our way of interacting will completely be changed in the near future. I think that is the main problem of these systems.
>Yumi and Izumi
ReplyDeleteThank you, answering no.3. Like both of you said I think that the moral is needed today. Like yumi said there are wars going on and there are technologies which are used far from a ideal way. About trust that Izumi mentioned, I agree. Trust is very important and I think that it is the basis of relations with people. We don't get along with people who we don't trust. Maybe we should empathize this kind of status not only in close relations but in the society and express and act in that way to have moral more involved.
Extremely late posting. I am very sorry.
ReplyDelete1. Your question is related to my essay that I wrote for this term. Yes, I agree that those people who does not possess technologies, such as cellphone, would be excluded from the society. I also think that problems would come on to even those who can afford those technologies. What I focused was privacy. I believe that because the communication system is becoming the mainstream, users of that is now beginning to change their attitudes toward their personal information. No one really care about their privacy anymore. That, I believe, is the reason why people put all their data on Facebook, or announce every action on twitter. So, I think that communication system becoming the mainstream would not cause conflicts only to those who does cannot possess but also, those who uses them.
It took sooooooo long to post the comment!
ReplyDeleteI'm so so sorry.
3.I think moral improvement is what we have to focus on.
We are experiencing rapid technological improvement. New technologies can be both helpful and dangerous to human. For example, a use of dynamites can be both helpful and dangerous. It was meant to help people, who work at a mine. Dynamites do all the digging for them. However, it was also used in a war-time. Lots and lots of people were killed by it. Like Kana, Yuga, Shantonu and Tomoya's group's presentation says, humans are the key. Our morality decides whether technologies turn into lethal or helpful.
It seems to me, we are not yet morally and ethically mature enough to use advanced technologies to support human lives. So I think we should focus on moral improvement.
Sorry for the late post! Since after the presentation I've been spiritless...
ReplyDeleteAnyway!
3. Moral improvement should be focused on because moral is what we, especially scientists, used to completely lack.
Technically, they ignored moral by introducing the idea of value-neutrality.
Scientists usually didn't care about consequences which their studies might bear.
This attitude led ultimately to the development of atomic bombs and tragic results in Hiroshima.
After the bombing, we have gradually come to realize the importance of moral burden on scientists.
But is that enough? Probably it is right to think we now have the common sense that technologies should not be abused. Even so,what should be understood is not just the way of thinking, but in this moral issues, we have to acquire ample understanding and knowledge about them to judge flexibly when faced with new problems.
So we not just have to be careful, but understanding deeply about the issues is necessary to make moral decisions.
Thank you Kaori, Yuji, Kaya, Sayaka, Yuga, and Natsuko for answering question1 and sorry for my late reply. I agree with the idea that the new type of communication technology becoming mainstream will cause conflicts not only between the users and non-users but also within the users. Privacy and anonymous are big problems of communication in the Internet too. I also strongly with Yuji's idea that human relationship is mainly about trust. Cell phones and other types of communication technology enables us to communicate with people whenever and wherever you like, and I think this causes people to think that "I have to be connected with other people all the time". However, being connected to others all the time is not necessary in making strong relationships with others. Maybe the relationship within people will gradually change. (and this is similar to Yuga's idea)
ReplyDelete