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Reading 13 - Patents and Patent Trolls

By: Keith MacDonell - kmacdone According to Wikipedia, a patent is "a set of rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or assignee for a limited time in exchange for a detailed public disclosure of an invention." In order to receive a patent, a patent application for the invention must be submitted and approved. It would seem to me that there are several theoretical reasons for the existence of patents. The first is in the interest of the inventor. The patent protects the intellectual property of the inventor and allows them the opportunity to benefit economically from all uses of their invention. In other words, it keeps other people from stealing the inventor's idea and profiting off it for a specific amount of time. The second reason is in the interest of society.  Patent documents describe in detail how the invention works, benefiting society with an increased knowledge base. It keeps the knowledge from dying with the inventor when he or she passes away.
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Reading 12: Self-Driving Cars

By: Keith MacDonell - kmacdone Self-driving vehicles have been a fantasy of science fiction for a long time. I, Robot, released in 2004, featured such cars in an ultra-advanced artificial intelligence filled world. There are many motivations behind the development of self-driving vehicles. One of the primary reasons, however, is safety. According to the article, "All Tesla Cars Being Produced Now Have Full Self-Driving Hardware," self-driving vehicles "will play a crucial role in improving transportation safety and accelerating the world's transition to a sustainable future." The article goes on to explain all the hardware included in Teslas that enable the self driving capabilities of these vehicles. This hardware includes a variety of cameras, a radar, and a plethora of ultrasonic sensors. "Together, this system provides a view of the world that a driver alone cannot access, seeing in every direction simultaneously and on wavelengths that go far beyond
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Reading 11: Question 1 - Artificial Intelligence

By: Keith MacDonell - kmacdone According to article "What is artificial intelligence," artificial intelligence refers to the field of computer science that has the goal to "enable the development of computers that are able to do things normally done by people -- in particular, things associated with people acting intelligently." This field is then split into "strong AI" and "weak AI." Strong AI refers to the branch that most people think of when they think about artificial intelligence. It deals with developing computers that genuinely simulate human reasoning. Weak AI, on the other hand, deals with systems that can behave like humans. The most promising work has been in between the two groups. This in between group is systems that "use human reasoning as a guide, but they are not driven by the goal to perfectly model it" (What is...). The prime example of this is Watson. According to the article "Fraudulent claims made by IBM
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Reading 10 - Question 2: Trolling & Cyberbullying

By: Keith MacDonell - kmacdone Trolling, in this instance, refers specifically to internet trolling. According to Wikipedia, a troll is "a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting quarrels or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community." Typically someone being a troll on the internet derives enjoyment from getting a rise out of other people. The connotation of a troll is generally a bad one, but the intent does not necessarily have to be malicious. It is how the troll gets a rise out of people that determines this. The more harmless version of a troll would be someone who simply plays devil's advocate. Although this behavior may still be to get a rise out of people, it is not without benefit as it provokes further discussion. Trolling behavior becomes harmful when it is simply inflammatory hateful comments towards individuals. I think that trolling only becomes a problem when it reaches this state. At t
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Project 03 Reflection: WikiLeaks

By: Keith MacDonell - kmacdone Link to podcast: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6iApqJZAB76YWVTUzZYZmVtTTA Overall, I found reading the articles about WikiLeaks to be very interesting, particularly since I didn't really know much about the organization before this project. The revelations in Vault & didn't particularly influence my views on government surveillance. To be honest, one of the main reasons for this is that this set of leaks centers on CIA documents. The domain of the CIA's operation is outside of the United States. Because of this, I am not directly impacted by the tech showed in the Vault 7 files. This is in direct contrast to the revelations from Edward Snowden's NSA leak, which revealed the NSA's direct surveillance of the United States population. I have never subscribed to the belief that "ignorance is bliss." I am more of the opinion that ignorance is what gets you hurt and that knowledge is power. I don't feel comfor
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Reading 09 - Net Neutrality

By: Keith MacDonell - kmacdone Net neutrality, in a nutshell, is the idea of an open internet. The article "What is net neutrality and what does it mean for me," states that it is "the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) should give consumers access to all legal content and applications on an equal basis, without favoring some sources or blocking others." In addition it makes it illegal for the ISPs to deliberately slow down content from competing content providers or charge content providers for faster delivery (What is net neutrality...). An ISP, as the name would indicate, provides internet access to paying customers. Examples of these companies include AT&T and Verizon. An example of a content provider would be Netflix. However, the two are not always separate. For example, Comcast provides Internet service, but it also provides video content through its subsidiaries. Obviously, there are arguments both for and against net neutrality. One of
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Reading 8 - IBM and Nazi Germany

By: Keith MacDonell - kmacdone Corporate Personhood is the legal concept that a company enjoys some of the same rights afforded to individuals. According to the article "How Corporations Got The Same Rights As People (But Don't Ever Go To Jail)," these rights include the right to free speech and expression, protection from unreasonable search and seizure, due process, double jeopardy, and more. Legally these rights given to corporations protect them from the government. As the article points out, however, corporations can't go to jail even if convicted of wrong doing. One of the social ramifications of corporate personhood are that companies are free to express themselves without fear of government reprisal. The ethical ramifications are that since they are treated as people, corporations should be expected to have the same moral and ethical obligations as a member of society would. I found it very interesting that IBM did business with Nazi Germany. Apparently th
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