Thor s Day, 1/7: Digital Ontology

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Thor s Day, 1/7: Digital Ontology"

Hollie Sherman
5 years ago
Views:

1 Thor s Day, 1/7: Digital Ontology EQ: Can a machine be a person? Welcome! Gather Jaron Lanier, You Are Not A Gadget (WHITE BOOK), Reading Guide, pen/cil, paper, wits! Digital Ontology 101 o A Royal Pardon o A Man and An Enigma o Reading and Writing: Jaron Lanier, You Are Not A Gadget ELACC12RI3: Analyze and explain how individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop ELACC12RL4-RI4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in text ELACC12RL6: Distinguish what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant ELACC12RI6: Determine an author s point of view or purpose in a text ELACC12RI8: Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal texts of World Literature ELACC12RL-RI9: Analyze for theme, purpose rhetoric, and how texts treat similar themes or topics ELACC12W1: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts ELACC12W2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas ELACC12W4: Produce clear and coherent writing appropriate to task, purpose, and audience ELACC12W9: Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis ELACC12W10: Write routinely over extended and shorter time frames ELACC12SL1: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions ELACC12SL3: Evaluate a speaker s point of view, reasoning, evidence and rhetoric ELACC12SL6: Adapt speech to a variety of tasks, demonstrating a command of formal English ELACC12L1: Demonstrate standard English grammar and usage in speaking and writing. ELACC12L3: Demonstrate understanding of how language functions in different contexts ELACC12L4: Determine/clarify meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases ELACC12L5: Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, nuances

2 On Christmas Eve 2013, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II extended a Royal Pardon to Alan Turing, expressing, on its behalf, the gratitude and regret of the British Commonwealth. This was only the fourth Royal Pardon since Who was Alan Turing? Why did he need and deserve a Royal Pardon?

3 Read Jaron Lanier, You Are Not A Gadget: o pp , Making People Obsolete o pp , The Apple Falls Again o pp , The Turing Test o p. 36, 1 st full ( The attribution ) Available online at but page numbers different Complete Reading Guide questions; do Reading Journal Entries assigned for each section 50% of credit! This is a MAJOR GRADE get it done!

Reading Guide: Jaron Lanier, You Are Not A Gadget, Chapter 2: An Apocalypse of Self-Abdication from Making People Obsolete (pp. 27-28) 1.

4 Reading Guide: Jaron Lanier, You Are Not A Gadget, Chapter 2: An Apocalypse of Self-Abdication from Making People Obsolete (pp ) 1. Lanier writes that Silicon Valley intellectuals [computer scientists] seem to have embraced what used to be as, without the of that originally gave rise to them. 2. Their big new idea, he says, is that all of reality, including humans, is one big what? 3. This has led to what feature of modern word processors that he calls nonsense? 4. He detests this sort of feature because it serves the needs not of the person but of what? 5. This in turn serves a new philosophy: that the is evolving into a - that can understand better than people can. 6. Write Reading Journal Entry (quotation/100 wds.) on something from this section. Write below and/or on other paper.

5 from The Apple Falls Again (pp ) 7. Lanier says that Alan Turing invented the computer in order to perform what specific task? 8. What did Turing do illegally, and how specifically did British authorities treat him? 9. How did Turing respond to this treatment physically? 10. How did Turing respond to this treatment psychologically? 11. How specifically did Turing commit suicide? 12. Describe the Victorian parlor game from which Turing devised his famous Turing Test : 13. In devising his test, says Lanier, Turing replaced the with a. 14. The Turing Test asks whether we can tell if a text is created by a or a. 15. For this reason, says Lanier, Turing s suicide echoes s. 16. THINK AND WRITE: Name another falling apple important in science/history: 17. FREEWRITE 20 WORDS: What do you see on the back of your iphone/ipad? Coincidence? 18. Write Reading Journal Entry (quotation/100 wds.) on something from this section. Write below and/or on other paper.

6 from The Turing Test Cuts Both Ways (pp ) 19. What new idea does Lanier say that the Turing Test has been used to promote? 20. Lanier object to this interpretation, saying that the Turing Test demonstrates instead that machine exists only in the eyes of a beholder. 21. Summarize the warning Turing give in an extraordinary passage Lanier quotes in the footnote: 22. Lanier insists that the Turing Test cuts both ways because (summarize his point): 23. Summarize Lanier s analysis of our use of standardized tests: 24. Explain what Lanier calls the Oracle illusion which makes us trust Wikipedia, etc.: from p. 36, 1 st full paragraph ( The attribution ) 25. Lanier writes, When people are told that a is, they become prone to in order to make the computer to, instead of demanding that the be to become more. 26. In fact, says Lanier, People already tend to to computers how? 27. Write Reading Journal Entry (quotation/100 wds.) on something from one of these last two sections. Write on other paper.

7 SUBMIT Reading Guide and Freewrite TURN IN borrowed pencils LEAVE book on desk BEWARE the rise of the machines

Frigga s Day, 1/9: Digital Ontology 102

Frigga s Day, 1/9: Digital Ontology 102 EQ: Can a machine be a Self? Welcome! Gather J. Lanier, You Are Not A Gadget, pen/pencil, paper, wits! Digital Ontology 102 o Reading and Writing: Jaron Lanier,