Bots

Are Bots an Ethical or Unethical Technology?

When I first heard that we were going to be talking about bots in class my mind immediately went to the 2005 children's film "Robots". Then as class went on and I began to understand the true power that digital intelligence has. to say the least it scared me! All I could think of was the Orwellian society in the book 1984, how members of society were watched by their government through their television screens. Call me paranoid but you always hear about how people believe the government used "Alexa" to listen to our conversations listening for "trigger words". Despite all my theories, digital intelligence is the future of society, it will create so many opportunities for people that they didn't even know was possible. In fact digital intelligence has already been helping our troops. A military device was developed called the "Robo Dog", this "dog" is suppose to carry our troops supplies and enter zones that are unsafe for our troops and it is able to withstand any terrain and is incapable of being knocked over. This is a form of digital intelligence because it is obviously not a real dog, it is a computer that is carrying the supplies for our troops. Click on the link under the "Robo Dog" to watch a video. Digital intelligence is the future and is extremely interesting and helpful but it needs to be used wisely. In class we saw examples of various "simple" twitter bots. Even just being used on a social media platform they can have an impact.

https://youtu.be/EstNBGu3_Co

Is the future of Humans really Human?

If you haven't heard of either of these two gentlemen above, I strongly urge you as a reader to check out the conversation they have about AI. Not only are my feelings about AI positive, but I truly believe that there is a positive future ahead when Humans and AI can work together symbiotically.

Recently, in class, we've been discussing the potential that AI has, and how it has already been implemented in society. While in class, we went over some simple bots that would take information from users (the  info was based on the bot's algorithms) and produce outputted material.

Although rudimentary in regards to the true capabilities of an AI, people can begin to see the simple things that an AI can be programmed to do. After going over the material we have in class, it's become evident that a discussion about AI is one that I'm quite passionate about, and I look forward to continued discussions about such topics!

Bots are a very interesting tool used by many people today and can be very useful at times. They aren't just a program in a computer that automatically does certain things. They can be found anywhere from Siri on your iPhone to a real life transformer. Google homes or "Alexas" are also a very new form of artificial intelligence that many people I know have.  In general, bots are automated programs that run on the internet and can make or program things randomly or on command from a computer bot user. For example, they have been used on Twitter to make rhyming poems from retweeting tweets from random people and put them together so that the last word on each pair of tweets rhyme. When bots make these kind of posts they are referred to as self-generating texts. In addition to this, bots can be used to create political statements.  For example, the bot NRA Tally, on twitter, tweets out the statistics of mass gun violence anytime it is committed in America. So, this technology can be constructive when used in positive ways.

Bots and Self Generating Text

The application of a bot can also be used in negative ways.  Though the aforementioned Twitter and self-generating text bots me seem harmless, both can be used in ethically questionable ways.  An example of an ethically questionable Twitter bot would be a bot network that produces fake followers.  These sorts of bots capitalize on Twitter's follow recommendation algorithms by providing a false sense of legitimacy to a particular profile.  This means that in addition to the fake followers that can retweet any tweets, there are real people that follow the profile and are influenced by what is tweeted out.  The Twitter profile now has the power to influence public opinion when these bots are used on a large scale.  Authoritarian regimes have also been known to use these social media bots in order to suppress public opinion.  The bots networks that these governments use are designed to send out so many tweets/statuses that it pushes messages sent out by opposition activists down in the media feed, decreasing the amount of users who view it.  

The question, "Are bots bad or unethical technology?", is actually a lot more complicated than it may seem. Taking a different perspective may shed light on the answer.  If you view a bot as a tool, and neither an ethical or unethical device, the question becomes more clear.  The question of ethics does not apply to the tool, it applies to the person using it.  

E-Literature and its Various Forms

Born Digital

What is E-Literature?

The thought of an online book, or the idea of a bookstore at your fingertips, can be an alluring concept for many people.People who enjoy the process of consuming literature and expanding their knowledge of the arts usually turn to faster, more efficient ways of getting their information.

However, E-Literature is different. E-Lit (because I am not gonna spell out E-Literature every time) is a little more expansive than simply a bookstore online. The Art of Digital Literature is not something someone can simply read and understand. Born Digital media is a form of literature that engages and encourages its audience to develop a sense of meaning to the digital work. It is a creating that is not transcribed, or scanned, to be more easily accessible online. It is a form of literature that transcends the traditional pen and paper.

Take the short hyperlink story "24 Hours with Someone you Know" for example. When you read through it, easily, a one-dimensional mind could understand the notion of the story that piece is trying to tell. However, when you add elements of reader engagement and switch-up the template for story telling, you dive into a word of many possibilities that help shape a story to the decisions that the reader makes. This is the art of Text-Based Adventures, and it's origins are quite fascinating.

Text-Based Adventures  were my first introduction to this genre of E-Literature. The ability to create and develop your own story while continuing to delve deeper into the world the author creates is something quite nerving. The creator of the story may have something up their sleeve around ever new bit of information. This stylistic choice for storytelling has been one of my favorite forms of Born Digital literature.
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Electronic Literature

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Electronic literature is literature that was created exclusively for or on digital devices. I think that this is amazing because it can bring to life many poems, short stories, and historical events. Before this class I just thought that E- literature was online ebooks, or articles. After being in Digital Humanities for only a week, I have learned that that’s not the case at all after being exposed to works such as “Mr. Pimpton’s Revenge”, and “88 Constellations”. I think that “Mr. Pimpton’s Revenge” was one of the coolest pieces of E-lit that I have seen because as the story was being told, you were being taken on a trip with the story! The Author utilized google maps and connected a specific destination with each place in the story, everytime you clicked on a destination a snippet of the story was uncovered. E- Literature lets the reader interact with the piece, it cannot be printed out like a book because it will lose its razzle-dazzle effect to grab the viewer's attention. “88 Constellations,” is also a very interesting piece of e-literature especially if you like astronomy, astrological signs, and Ludwig Wittgenstein. “88 Constellations” is a piece that presents itself as the night sky full of stars. However, when you run your cursor over the stars, patterns of constellations reveal themselves. The shape of the constellation is shown as well as the name. When you click on one, there is a informational video connected with each one educating you the Philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein. It is a very informative piece that I found extremely interesting. Electronic Literature is such an amazing use of technology but people often do not know what it actually is. Hopefully, in the near future people will understand the true definition of Electronic Literature.

- Libby Korber

Erik Bengtson E-Literature

What is E-Literature?

E-Literature is a form of literature that is specifically designed to be viewed/interacted with on an electronic media device such as a tablet, smartphone, or computer.  These works are not to be confused with E-books, being that e-books are not specifically made with the intent of being electronic media.  E-books are digitized versions of print, and E-literature is "born digital".  E-literature can only exist in the particular media for which it was developed.

When I was going through the different varieties of e-literature I came across a work by Maria Mencia called Birds Singing Other Birds Songs.  The reason why I chose this particular piece was because I wanted to illustrate just how broad the concept of e-literature can truly be.  The author of this piece of literature wanted to explore the idea of kinetic typography, or the animation of images and sound.  The piece has 12 different animations that you can play simultaneously, or change at will.  Each animation is a bird song, and as it sounds a written transcription of the song is shown in the shape of the bird. 

Birds Singing Other Birds' Songs

This just shows the wide variety of what can be considered E-literature, and is a perfect example of something that could not exist had it existed in traditional analog print media.

E-Literature

E-Literature

E- Literature, or electronic literature, is a type of literature that shows work strictly on digital devices such as phones, computers, etc. More specifically, electronic poetry is a type of e-literature that I find very interesting. Essentially, electronic poetry is just poetry that is made and used to view on digital devices as well. One specific piece of electronic literature that I find interesting is "88 Constellations" by David Clark. This piece of interests me because it gives you a visual representation of some of the different constellations found in the stars and gives a brief explanation of how those shapes came to be known from people today. I have always been sort of interested in space and the stars, so this piece was definitely one that fit me and was interesting to listen to.

88 Constellations

Hello! My name is Libby Korber, I am currently a sophomore at UPJ majoring in Early Childhood Education and Special Education with a minor in Psychology. I am from a very small town in Central PA called Millerstown, it is a town where if you blink you will miss the entire town. I have shown people my hometown before and they have said that it is not a town but an intersection. The county where I live has 1 stoplight that was put in about two years ago. I graduated with a class of 58 people and that's why I chose UPJ, because I wanted a small school. I use to play soccer here at UPJ (seen in picture to the right) but I decided to take this year off to focus on the 18 credits I am taking. I love being active, playing sports or hiking or biking. I am excited for this class this semester and I hope this post lets you all know a little more about me.

Thank you,

Libby Korber

Good Afternoon Readers,

My name is David Rosati, and I am currently a Senior @ UPJ. I am currently majoring in Computer Science and am technically in my "Sophomore" year of the course. I currently have three passions in my life.

1. Driving. I love everything that has to do with driving. I currently own my 2007 Mazda 6 (manual) and my 2008 Kawasaki Versys motorcycle. I was heavily influenced by the Transporter movies when I was a kid, and nothing looked cooler than being as great a driver as Jason Statham.

                              

2. Computers, Gadgets, and Gizmos. I am obsessed with the latest tech, and am always following articles posted by Wired, IGN, and other various news outlets that relate their content to PC Gaming, and the latest tech releases. I have built a plethora of computers in my time and am fascinated by how fast and how far the hardware has come to be since building my first computer. I am currently on my 4th computer and built this one around mid summer back in 2017. I do consider myself a PC enthusiast. There is no such thing as "Console Wars" there should only be PC gaming. 

3. Streaming. Currently as a job, on top of working as a full time student, I stream. I am a partnered Affiliate with the streaming site known as Twitch. Essentially, I play games I enjoy playing for anybody in the world to see, and I am supported by people who appreciate the content that I produce. If you're ever bored and like watching people play video games you can always see if I am online and streaming by following this link here ----> www.twitch.tv/OVBDavid 

I hope this helps get to know me a little better, and I look forward to the creations I can output through this Digital Humanities medium!