artificial intelligence

A few weeks ago in class we watched a short video called "did you know" or something. One of the portions of the video said that in a few years there would be a computer created that would be smarter than humans. I don't know about you guys, but to me this is a ridiculous idea. In the condition of our economy we need all of the human jobs we can get & by giving jobs away to computers, though it may be cheaper, doesn't help our nation's financial state or the people in it. Another thing the super computer reminds me of is are the movies A.I., Terminator, and iRobot. In all of these examples, humans are almost completely reliant on technology and are inevitably screwed over because of this. It seems to me this destination is where our world is headed.

Nationalism

When talking about Canadians and how they don't want to be associated or thought of as Americans it reminded me of how Spanish speaking people get lumped together as well.  Often it is only because of their language and perhaps sometimes their profession and or skin color.  In a scene from the movie Clueless Cher tells her maid that she doesn't speak "Mexican" and the maid is immediately offended because she is from El Salvador.  These are very similar situations and show how just by referencing another country someone can be immediately offended.  

Here is a clip from the movie, the actual quote is about 8:30 into the clip (in case you want to skip ahead).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA5dudU47xQ

Media's the corner stone of role models

Interestingly, last night I ended up watching the movie Role Models with my boyfriend… not exactly my type of movie, but he enjoyed it. For those of you who haven’t seen it- it’s about two men who are court-ordered to volunteer at “Sturdy Wings”, where they are matched up with a kid (their ‘little’) and they spend quality time with them. All in all it’s not a thinker movie, but we’re discussing role models and that movie is fresh in my mind, deeper things can actually be found. I like how they chose to use ordinary people to be the role models for these kids. In past blogs it was said how Barbie or famous people have been set on a pedestal to be role models, but in reality it is the people that we see every day that truly affect us. However, the whole movie isn’t like that. One of the role models mentions the band Kiss that plays a role in the movie as well. Kiss influences one of the final scenes in the movie and forms a bond between one of the mentors and his little. So, I may be going off on a limb—since it wasn’t that deep of a movie, but can any role model exist without the influence of the media?