2.5 Notes

Turing Machine
Alan Turing (1912-1954)

Implications... the universal machine.
"A Turing machine is a hypothetical device that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules. Despite its simplicity, a Turing machine can be adapted to simulate the logic of any computer algorithm, and is particularly useful in explaining the functions of a CPU inside a com." -Wiki/TuringMachine

Turing found that any mathematical computation could be done on a mechanical device, using the binary system. It changed the way people thought about computation. "Computers" used to be women who did computations. Some call it "the moment the digital age began." He invented the concept of computers – he started something genuinely new.  His ideas are the fundamental truths that have remained true throughout all automated computing. (From video: "The Universal Machine")

The machine was hypothetical, to him, but has since been created in first a digital form, and later an analog form.

Smart phone processor chip, plus the memory (tape of the Turing Machine).

Turing Test
"The Turing test is a test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of an actual human. In the original illustrative example, a human judge engages in a natural language conversation with a human and a machine designed to generate performance indistinguishable from that of a human being. All participants are separated from one another. If the judge cannot reliably tell the machine from the human, the machine is said to have passed the test." -Wiki/TuringTest

Midterm...
Make conceptual connections between readings. Joyce, Gleik


Intellectual Property/Capital

Early MUDD 
Chat room to interact with people via text. Avatars, they were getting hijacked – girl's avatar got raped :/ ("A Rape in Cyberspace")
Leave your facebook logged in? Get hacked.

Bendito Machine III

Black and red 2D movie. Evolution of the TV, computer, knocking people about. People pitch the old devices off a cliff. New ones fall on, squash, and kill people. Kind of view that technology is not neutral, it's controlling

Edwards: "Some philosophers identify three attitudes toward technology: 

Technological determinism, which presumes that technology is an autonomous force that determines social structures and cultural values. 

#Moore's Law, no human 

Technological instrumentalism, which presumes that technology constitutes a set of tools under conscious human control.

Technological substantivism, which presumes that technology is not neutral but carries with it certain values."

"Because of the accessibility and speed of their information, different media have different political biases" – the Tweet or the Reddit headline, versus a journalistic article. One is more sensational, just the who/what/when/where, but the reporter may write about the why and go more into depth. We think we're informed because we instantly "know" what happened, when really it takes more time to get to the real meat of a story or occurrence. 

"Ah, so the velocity of information changes the quality" -Edwards