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, 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
Alan Turing (1912 1954) Invented modern computer the idea itself, the first software and hardware, programming, applications, all of it Cracked the Enigma Code saved 10,000,000 lives (WW2) Arrested for being gay; house arrest and hormone therapy suicide at his computer The Turing Test
Read Jaron Lanier, You Are Not A Gadget, ch. 2: o pp. 27-28, Making People Obsolete o pp. 29-31, The Apple Falls Again o pp. 31-33, The Turing Test o p. 36, 1 st full ( The attribution ) Link to the book (page numbers will not match up, so look for section titles listed above): http://r-u-ins.org/resource/pdfs/youarenotagadget- A_Manifesto.pdf
Reading Guide: Jaron Lanier, You Are Not A Gadget, Chapter 2: An Apocalypse of Self-Abdication from Making People Obsolete (pp. 27-28) 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. from The Apple Falls Again (pp. 29-31) 6. Turing invented the computer in order to perform what specific task? 7. What did Turing do illegally, and how specifically did British authorities treat him? 8. How did Turing respond to this treatment physically? 9. How did Turing respond to this treatment psychologically? 10. How specifically did Turing commit suicide? 11. Describe the Victorian parlor game from which Turing devised his famous Turing Test :
12. In devising his test, says Lanier, Turing replaced the with a. 13. The Turing Test asks whether we can tell if a text is created by a or a. 14. For this reason, says Lanier, Turing s suicide echoes s. 15. THINK AND WRITE: What other falling apple is important in science/history? from The Turing Test Cuts Both Ways (pp. 31-33) 16. What new idea does Lanier say that the Turing Test has been used to promote? 17. Lanier object to this interpretation, saying that the Turing Test demonstrates instead that machine exists only in the eyes of a beholder. 18. Summarize the warning Turing give in an extraordinary passage Lanier quotes in the footnote: 19. Lanier insists that the Turing Test cuts both ways because (summarize his point): 20. Summarize Lanier s analysis of our use of standardized tests: 21. Explain what Lanier calls the Oracle illusion which makes us trust Wikipedia, etc.: from p. 36, 1 st full paragraph ( The attribution ) 22. 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. 23. In fact, says Lanier, People already tend to to computers how?
People already tend to defer to computers. Jaron Lanier, You Are Not A Gadget, p. 36 100 word Freewrite/Reading Journal Entry (depending on whether you quote Lanier): Discuss a situation in which you USUALLY do what a machine tells you to do, rather than consciously decide to do it yourself. (No good saying you never do this we all do it. Like right this second, for instance.)
SUBMIT Reading Guide and Freewrite TURN IN borrowed pencils LEAVE book on desk BEWARE the rise of the machines