10-31-11

Everyday you learn something new.  Today I watched a show called Curiosity. The show will ask a question and then go into their version of the answer. It seemed very similar to our research and driving questions. In the episode I was watching the question was "How Evil are You?". The show discussed a test run in 1961 called the Milligan test. The test has 1 person (the teacher) who is asking questions to a 2nd person (the learner). The teacher is always being tested. The learner(who is an actor) informs the teacher that he has heart problems. The test will have the teacher ask the learner questions. If the learner gets them wrong the teacher will flip a switch that gives the learner a shock. The test will go until the teacher stops and completely refuses to go on or the learner becomes unresponsive. The results in the 1961 test showed that 65 percent of the people tested would complete the test. The test was repeated in 2011 and 77 percent completed the test. I found it really shocking to see that so many people were willing to do something like that to a person. I don't think I could, I don't think many of my friends or family could. In the past 50 years society has become more evil, even with all the things people learn to keep them from committing terrible acts, and the punishments for doing so. I don't want to see the day when everybody is that evil.

"Shoot for the Moon, even if you miss you'll land among the Stars" - Les Brown

Here is my progress on my report so far. I would love to get some extra feedback.

Humans have always been shaped and changed by the technology around them, computers were no exception. All kinds of technologies have come up from today’s computer technology.. We have changed the way people talk to each other. The way that money flows through business is vastly different than it was before. Even the physical makeup of people is different than it was B.C (before computers).

The History of Computers
Computers in the past were far different then they are today. Computers were designed for doing advanced math calculations. They were like gigantic calculators, most taking up a large room. Computers took off in the 1940’s with huge developments made by individuals and organizations in Germany, Britian, and the U.S. Eventually the computer became more compact, more complex, and more disposable.

      SixthSense
New technologies are being created everyday. With the technology we have available today a group of students from MIT created a technology that they call SixthSense. It was created with a camera, a smartphone, marker caps, a projector, and a mirror. SixthSense allows its user to be connected to the Internet with ease and use that connection to help the user interact with the world around him/her. For example if you were trying to figure out what type of ketchup to buy you could let the camra see the ketchup and give you its suggestion based on data you have already put in, like if you prefer cheap vs. healthy or vice verse.
     Our Choice E-book
As we have seen in the last 5 years e-books have become extremely popular, even more popular than regular paperbacks. Our Choice is the next step in the evolution of e-books. Kind of like an electronic pop up book Our Choice features many animations, videos, and bits of narration. With this kind of technology behind them books can do things we have never seen them do before.

     What could this mean?
This technology is only the beginning of what is to come. We’ve gone from calculators to computers, so what might be next. We could have robots or extreme supercomputers. The possibilities and their effects are endless.