- Robots coming to NYC Shake Shacks (New York Post)
- Build this tiny house in just three weeks and for $700 (Inhabitat)
- Thus far, only 260 Model 3s have been produced by Tesla (Engagdet)
- Does the Earth need a interstellar shield to protect it from solar storms (i09)
- GM promises 20 new EVs coming (Ars Technica)
- How AI is tbe future of cancer treatment (NextBigFuture)
Saturday, September 30, 2017
|Future News 9.30
Thursday, September 28, 2017
|Reflection 3: The Truth is Out There—America in the Era of Conspiracy Theories
We live in an era in which Americans are suspicious of authority—and now, the news. A mounting distrust in our institutions, built over decades of scandals and cover-ups, has Americans weary of many of the government’s “official” positions on issues. In the absence of this civic trust has allowed conspiracy theories to fill the void. These theories arouse our paranoia and rest on the common belief that we are not being told the truth. In an era of social media, conspiracy theories have thrived in recent years. It is idea vehicle for the wide dissemination of misinformation.
For this reflection, examine two of the following conspiracy theories. In your examination, explore why the theories were born and why they persist. Finally, do either of them have any grounding in reality? Are you a believer? If so, why?
Choose two of the following:
- Ancient Alien Theories
- The Battle of Los Angeles
- The Roswell Crash
- The Area 51 Cover-Up
- The Death of Marilyn Monroe
- The JFK Assassination
- The Moon Landing Hoax
- The Bigfoot Cover-Up
- The Face on Mars
- The Death of Elvis Presley
- The Death of Tupac Shakur
- The Death of Princess Diana
- The Illuminati and the New World Order
- The 9/11 Cover-Up
- The Global Warming Hoax
- The Chemtrails Cover-Up
- The Autism-Vaccination Link
- President Obama’s Fake Birth Certificate
- Hillary Clinton and Pizzagate
Cite any sources you use in your examination.
Required:
- MLA Style
- Works cited
- Two full pages in length
Due: Fri10.6
Sunday, September 24, 2017
|Week 6: 9.29
Week 6: 9.29
Class: Reading Discussion; Multimedia presentations; Watch: Excerpts from Her (2013); PowerPoint: “Toward a Consensus: The Rogerian Argument”
Due: REFLECTION 2
Upcoming:
Week 7: 10.6
Read: eR—"The 100 Best Infographics" (Creative Bloq), "10 Tips for Designing Better Infographics" (DotDash), "12 Warning Signs that Your Infographic Sucks" (Visme)
Class: ROGERIAN ARGUMENT: ANALYSIS; Reading Discussion; Multimedia presentations; PowerPoint: "Infographics 101"
Due: REFLECTION 3
Saturday, September 23, 2017
|Research Paper: The Future of ...
Topics:
Explore the future development of ...
- Privacy: The Bill of Rights broadly grants every American citizen a right to basic privacy. However, advancements in technology have drastically changed how we define and set boundaries around privacy. Whether willingly (phone apps and Facebook) or not (NSA spying), Americans have traded their privacy for convenience and security. What will privacy in America look like in the future? Will we strive to protect our individual thoughts, habits, and communications, or will the expectation of privacy eventually become an antiquated concept?
- Religion in America: The United States is still a nation of believers. However, the religions we practice are shifting, with Protestant faiths (Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, etc.) set to become minorities in the near future. Indeed, more Americans are opting out of religion altogether. According to Pew Research, "Among Americans ages 18-29, one-in-four say they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion." Will the majority of Americans still practice and celebrate religion in the future, and, if so, with which religions will we identify?
- Endangered Foods: A byproduct of climate change has been the emergence of so-called “endangered foods.” As a result of everything from over-harvesting and depleted environments to drought and disease, foods as diverse as cocoa beans, salmon, and bananas, may be threatened in the coming decades. For example, in North America, sugar maples (a major source of maple syrup) are now considered one of many threatened native species. What would be the impact of losing some of these foods? Profile three threatened foods (plant or animal), examining both the cause for their decline, as well as efforts to save them.
- Warfare: From muskets and pistols to drones and Humvees, the ways in which America has engaged in conflict has changed dramatically since its founding. Today, the US has the most technologically advanced military in the world, but also spends more on defense than the next 13 biggest militaries combined. How will that money be spent in the future? How are today’s military strategies, including counterterrorism and cyberwarfare, shaping the wars of tomorrow?
- Masculinity: The last century saw a radical shift in America’s perceptions of what it meant to be a man. How are future concepts of masculinity being shaped? For example, how will social movements, such as stay-at-home dads, increasing female economic equality, and non-binary genderism, affect what we expect of 21st century masculinity?
- Water: In a 2001 speech, then United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan warned that "competition for fresh water may well become a source of conflict and wars in the future." Others, including environmentalists and economists, have also warned of impending “water wars.” Others disagree, calling the prospect of future water conflicts both alarmist and fabricated. Will future wars be fought over water?
- Cities: What forces will shape the cities of the future? Economics? Climate change? Overpopulation? Geopolitics? Are we on the verge of burgeoning urban utopias or will megacities envelope us in pollution and congestion? How are architects, designers, and engineers laying the groundwork for the future’s cities?
- Fashion: The future of fashion is about more than just incoming waist lengths or new silhouettes. Instead, it’s about how technology and fashion might merge to meet 21st century demands, such as textile renewability and eCommerce? For example, if our future is to be hotter and more polluted, then might 21st century fashion gives us clothes that refract harmful UV light or can read our biorhythms? What does the coming century hold for fashion?
- Transportation: How will we move from one place to another in the future? Hover cars? Maglev trains? Pilotless planes? How transportation meet the demanding needs of the 21st century? Which of today’s developing technologies will revolutionize transportation? And what will be the United States’ role? Will Americans help usher in a new technological era or watch from the sidelines?
- Social Media: We live in a social media landscape dominated by a relatively few amount of players (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, etc.). But as AOL, MySpace, Vine, and Zynga can attest, social media users are nothing if not fickle. What will future social media users, particularly those born after 2000, demand from their social media sites? And are today's biggest players—many of whom will be two decades old—up for the challenge? Is the next Facebook on the horizon? If so, what might it look like? Finally, will non-American social media sites ever gain a foothold in the US? Might Brazil's Orkut or China's Renren have the opportunity to infiltrate the American market? What is the future of social media?
- The Olympics: What was once a cut-throat competition to host the world's most prestigious athletic exhibition has turned into a cautionary tale about cities abundantly wasting precious resources with little to show for it. For example, the Summer Games of 2024 and 2028 began with intense international attention, but after the financial fiasco of the 2016 Rio Olympics, only Paris and Los Angeles were left interested. And there was so little interest in hosting a Winter Games that Beijing—a city averaging only one week of precipitation per winter—was hastily awarded the 2022 ceremony. With a price tag increasingly out of reach for anyone but the world's richest cities, is there a future for the International Olympics?
- The Movies: Amidst ballooning budgets and declining box office receipts, Hollywood finds itself at a crossroads. Increasingly, Americans are eschewing what was once a cherished national pastime. But why? Inconvenience? Costs? At-home options, such as Netflix or Amazon? Will theatrical technological advancements (e.g. 4D, 8K) or increased amenities (e.g. reserved seating, food and alcohol) be enough to lure back moviegoers? And how will a diminishing American clientele affect Hollywood’s global outreach? What might the future hold in store for the movies?
Requirements:
- 2,000 words minimum—illustrations are permitted, but must be captioned
- MLA Style, including parenthetical citation
- Minimum of 6 outside sources—at least 3 from peer-reviewed academic texts
- Works cited page
Include in your research paper:
- A thesis outlining a clear argument
- An deep analysis of your chosen subject matter
- A conclusion that illustrates an understanding of your subject matter as it pertains to its future development
Timeline:
Week 13: Fri 11.17 - RESEARCH PAPER THESIS & OUTLINE (BRING 2
COPIES)
Week 15: Fri 12.1 - RESEARCH PAPER (UP TO PG. 3; BRING 2 COPIES)
Week 16: Fri 12.8 - RESEARCH PAPER (UP TO PG. 6; BRING 1 COPY)
Week 16: Wed 12.13 - RESEARCH PAPER (FINAL DRAFT)
Week 16: Fri 12.8 - RESEARCH PAPER (UP TO PG. 6; BRING 1 COPY)
Week 16: Wed 12.13 - RESEARCH PAPER (FINAL DRAFT)
Friday, September 22, 2017
|Reflection 2: Goin' Green—On the Future of Legal Marijuana
In 2012, Colorado and Washington became the first states in the Union
to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Just five years later, several more states—including California—have followed suit. These states are in addition to those that have legalized medical marijuana. Indeed, the mainstreaming of marijuana in American culture has surprised
both advocates and opponents of legalization. And while legalization on
a national level is far from a sure thing, we are closer to it than at
any other point in our history. But what are the implications of
legalized marijuana? What does American life look like when recreational pot use is made
legal? As a society, what could we gain and what might we lose? And what
lessons should we learn from alcohol and tobacco? Finally, how will California's impending marijuana legalization affect you?
Include at least two of the following in your discussion:
- "State Marijuana Laws in 2017 Map" (Governing)
- "Seven Things to Know Now that Prop 64 is Law" (San Diego Union-Tribune)
- "What is the Future of Recreational Marijuana in Trump's America?" (Los Angeles Times)
- "California Today: What if Legal Pot Costs More than Black-Market Pot?" (New York Times)
- "The Times are Changing: Millenials are Ditching Alcohol in Favor of Marijuana (EmeraldReport)
- "Jeff Sessions Slams Marijuana Legalization (Again)" (Forbes)
Required:
- MLA Style
- Works cited
- Two full pages in length
Due: Fri 9.29
Thursday, September 21, 2017
|Future News 9.21
- Academy of Art University NYFW Shows previewed the future of fashion (HuffPost)
- Proposed Mexloop to the reduce the six-hour drive from Mexico City to Guadalajara to 45 minutes (Inhabitat)
- These smart glasses are controlled by scratching your nose (TheVerge)
- Scientists develop the most realistic synthetic muscle to date (Engaget)
- Designer's tree house concept blends function with nature (Inhabitat)
- MIT climate scientist: This year's hurricanes are a taste of things to come (MIT News)
Sunday, September 17, 2017
|Week 5: 9.22
Friday, September 15, 2017
|Dramatistic Pentad: Human-Technological Interplays
Since its inception, Hollywood has been fascinated by the interplay between humans and technology. Today is no different as a variety films, from sci-fi to comedies, continue to explore the consequences of living in an increasingly technological world. Filmmakers, as we know, hold tremendous sway in shaping how we view many aspects of our society, including technology. If presented in a positive light, technology—particularly speculative—can be something to excitedly anticipate. Presented in a more menacing fashion, technology can illicit dread and fear.
Burke’s Dramatistic Pentad offers us a useful tool for deciphering the motivations behind such films. Below you will find eight film clips depicting human-technological interactions. You will use the Dramatistic Pentad to identify specific rhetorical elements in three scenes. Additionally, you will analyze the ratio between two elements.
Directions:
1. Choose three film clips from below. Also, choose one ratio with which to examine all three clips (e.g. purpose-agent, scene-agency).
2. Using the Dramatistic Pentad, identify what you believe to be each of the five elements (agent, agency, etc.) for each scene (or “artifact”), using this model below:
Artifact: “Yes, I Can Fly” from Iron
Man (Jon Favreau, 2008)
Description:
Tony Stark (Robert Downy Jr.) is testing the capacity of his prototype Iron Man suit. Specifically, he is testing the rocket features of his suit. After the initial setting is deployed successfully, he decides to increase the rocket’s output. At first, he finds the increased output difficult to control. He flies the length of his lab barely in control. Quickly, however, he finds his bearings and comes to better control his flight.
The Dramatistic Pentad:
Act: Tony Stark tests the flight capacity of his Iron Man suit.
Agency: In order to tests the limits of his suit, Tony Stark incrementally increases the output of the rockets.
Agent: Tony Stark is the agent as he is the one testing the limits of his suit.
Scene: The scene is a lab belonging to Tony Stark.
Purpose: Tony Stark’s purpose is to master, though trial and error, the rocket capacity of his Iron Man suit.
Description:
Tony Stark (Robert Downy Jr.) is testing the capacity of his prototype Iron Man suit. Specifically, he is testing the rocket features of his suit. After the initial setting is deployed successfully, he decides to increase the rocket’s output. At first, he finds the increased output difficult to control. He flies the length of his lab barely in control. Quickly, however, he finds his bearings and comes to better control his flight.
The Dramatistic Pentad:
Act: Tony Stark tests the flight capacity of his Iron Man suit.
Agency: In order to tests the limits of his suit, Tony Stark incrementally increases the output of the rockets.
Agent: Tony Stark is the agent as he is the one testing the limits of his suit.
Scene: The scene is a lab belonging to Tony Stark.
Purpose: Tony Stark’s purpose is to master, though trial and error, the rocket capacity of his Iron Man suit.
3. In one page, examine how your chosen ratio functions in each of the three scenes. For example, what is revealed by examining the scenes through these specific ratios? Are there similarities? What are the differences? You might also consider how this particular ratio informs us versus another.
Choose three of the following scenes for your analysis
"We Made You Cause We Could" from Prometheus (Ridley Scott, 2012)
"Mr. Eddie Vedder from Accounting" from Hackers (Iaine Softley, 1995)
"The Duel" from Electric Dreams (Steve Barron, 1984)
"Do You Know How to Get Out of Here?" from Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)—NSFW
"It's Someplace That Does a Thing" from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)
"Die, Mutha F--kas, Die" from Office Space (Mike Judge, 1999)—NSFW
"I May Throw Up on Ya" from Star Trek (JJ Abrams, 2009)
"Mecha, Orga" from A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, 2001)
Requirements:
- MLA Style
Due: Fri 9.22
Wednesday, September 13, 2017
|Future News 9.13
- How Mexico City's earthquake alert system gave its citizens precious seconds to prepare for a massive quake (Wired)
- Pepper the android knows how you feel (Futurism)
- Can this face recognition AI really identify homosexuals? (BBC News)
- Rotating your house is now just a button push away (Inhabitat)
- Meet Samantha, the sex bot that can be seduced by humans (Sun)
- Company's DNA test claims to be able to predict what you look like (i09)
Sunday, September 10, 2017
|Week 4: 9.15
Week 4: 9.15
Class: Reading Discussion; Multimedia presentations; PowerPoints: “Crafting the Essay: Writing as a Process” and “Inside the Narrative: Burke’s Dramatistic Pentad”
Due: REFLECTION 1
Upcoming:
Week 5: 9.22
Class: Reading Discussion; Multimedia presentations
Due: DRAMATISTIC PENTAD
Wednesday, September 6, 2017
|Future News 9.6
- Putin argues that the nation leading in AI will also rule the world (TheVerge)
- Also: Elon Musk fears AI, not Trump, will trigger WWIII (Huffington Post)
- A BBC host interviews Sophia, an advanced robot with human-like features (BBC News)
- Proposed sky taxi could ferry passengers from Manhattan to JFK in five minutes (Inhabitat)
- Are hacker attacks on US and European power grids imminent? (Engadget)
- This bionic lens can produce better than 20/20 vision (NextBigFuture)
Sunday, September 3, 2017
|Week 3: 9.8
Week 3: 9.8
NO CLASS
Upcoming:
Week 4: 9.15
Class: Reading Discussion; Multimedia presentations; PowerPoints: “Crafting the Essay: Writing as a Process” and “Inside the Narrative: Burke’s Dramatistic Pentad”
Due: REFLECTION 1
NO CLASS
Upcoming:
Week 4: 9.15
Class: Reading Discussion; Multimedia presentations; PowerPoints: “Crafting the Essay: Writing as a Process” and “Inside the Narrative: Burke’s Dramatistic Pentad”
Due: REFLECTION 1
Friday, September 1, 2017
|Future News 9.1
- New VR porn series puts women's satisfaction front and center (Forbes)
- Percentage of over-40 dad in US doubles since 1970's (Ars Technica)
- China's "Great Green Wall" hopes to curb desertification (Inhabitat)
- How motorized molecules are destroying cancer cells in minutes (Durham University)
- Here's where smartphones may be heading next (New York Times)
- WWII soldier barracks in the UK are refurbished into a sleek eco home (Inhabitat)
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