Blog 14: Cyber Terrorism

Both chapter 5 and 6 went further in depth in describing our connection and develop to the internet. Out of the two chapter I found chapter 6 to be the most interesting because of the emphasis on the connection the internet provides for us. However, we must be cautious as we develope. I think one of the most important aspect to consider is the possibility for terrorism. We are so connected with the internet that it has become a part of our everyday lives. Our banking, personal information, and contacts are all stored within our phones and computers. A terrorist attack in the future could involve shutting off our grids so that we lose all access of contact. Shutting of the grids could also affect our cars, lights, and travel accessibility. We would be trapped. It is important that we learn to protect ourselves on all levels of technology. We must make sure that our personal sights are locked down from cyber attacks, but also trust that our government knows how to handle a situation if the day ever came where we did have a cyber attack on the national level. Safety is major key to the success of the internet and as we develop the internet our safety skills and security must also develop with it.

After reading these chapters my questions are:

1. What are the best ways to prepare ourselves incase of this type of terrorism?

2. Yes, we are connected, but do we take advantage of that? Do we lose interpersonal skills that we need for strong connections? Have we taken this technology for granted and ruined an aspect of our lives in the process?

Source:

Greengard, Samuel. The internet of things. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. [Chapter 5 & Chapter 6]

Picture: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/cyber-terrorism-matrix-binary-code-technology-176104184

Blog 13: My Everyday Life

Chapter three talks about the fluidity of human and machine life. The main goal when developing the technology is to make it blend into our everyday life by developing the Internet into something that requires little thought from the human thought process. We have become very accustomed to our lives including technology. I am typing this blog post on my laptop in the comfort of my bed on my laptop. I have Netflix playing in the background and I am listening to one of my favorite shows. My cell phone is sitting next to me and I am waiting on a text from my boyfriend, so I know he is done with Hockey practice. After I am done with my homework I will get up and brush my teeth with my electric toothbrush and set the alarm on my phone to wake up and do it all again tomorrow. These things I take for granted. The ability to do my homework and communicate with people wherever I want is amazing,but something I grew up expecting and almost demanding. Thinking back to back when my parents were in college and using typewriters was not that long ago, but the amount of information at my fingertips, compared to them in huge. We have so many benefits that come with technology, but I think there needs to be more awareness for the amount of time we spend using technology and how important it is to not let it control our lives.

After reading these chapters my thoughts and questions are:

1. How much time does the average human spend with technology a day? Are there any studies that show this?
2. What is in the future for us? Where do we expand to next? Technology already seems so invasive, where does it go to next?

Sources:

Picture:http://www.electronicbeats.net/the-feed/watch-how-moby-and-david-bowie-describe-the-internet-in-1995/

Greengard, Samuel. The internet of things. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. [Chapter 3 & Chapter 4]

Blog 12: The Internet and our Personal Connections

In the first couple chapters of The Internet of Things by Samuel Greengard. The two chapters touched on some topics that had been previously mentioned in some of our other books we have read and talked about in class. One of the topics I found most interesting was the information about IP Addresses an IP Address is a combination of numbers that when placed in a specific order help to identify each computer and communicate over networks. A big topic that was also touched on by Greengard is how important computers are in connecting us with each other and allowing us access to those networks. Computers have quickly became a huge aspect in our lives and impact them from the time we wake up by using our iphone alarms to the time we text our family and friends about what happened during our day. They will soon be something we wear and even have implanted in our bodies. This discussion reminded me of a family friend who has a trackers implanted close to his heart to monitor his beats per minute to show the doctors where there may be gaps. This is a life saving technology that is literally inside of him. It is incredible that this technology can be inside of him at all times and track our movements. I am really excited to see what will come next to technologies that are implanted inside of us that are outside of the medical field. Greenard also touches on a little bit of the history of the internet and the importance between physical and digital first objects.

After reading these chapters may question are:

1. What are some technologies that could be implanted in us that are outside of the medical field?
2. Where is the line of too much technology? When does it take over our lives and become overbearing?

Sources:

Greengard, Samuel. The internet of things. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. [Introduction, Chapter 1 & Chapter 2]

Picture: http://siliconangle.com/blog/2011/09/06/remaking-the-internet/

Blog 11: We must Face Our Fears

As we conclude Toye’s short introduction to what we define as rhetoric, we end in the present. Toye talks about how rhetoric has developed with us and we dove into an age of instant communication and connection to one another. The introduction to these new technology came along with a lot of anxiety and suspicion. In some aspects rhetoric took a turn for the worst. Psychological manipulation is now at our fingertips and we must be aware of how and when we use and listen to it. Personally, I think rhetoric is a very powerful tool that we should be teaching our kids from a young age. One of the reason our society struggles so much with the concept is because we have a hard time identifying it, and when we do we are offended that someone would try to manipulate us. If we could take this stigma out and teach ourselves to understand, identify, and acknowledge rhetoric I think we could have an easier time. I think rhetoric has entered into a darker time, but it is something that can be fixed through education and understanding. If we can identify it we can take away the “shock”

After reading this last chapter my questions are:

1. How can we take steps to educate ourselves about rhetoric before we feel it is an intimidating thing?
2. What is the next thing that will change the way we use rhetoric like technology did?

Picture:https://www.pinterest.com/BookOblivion/visual-rhetoric/?lp=true

Toye, Richard (2013). Rhetoric: A very short introduction. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. [Chapter 4 & conclusion]

Blog 10: Intent is Everything

In chapter two and three we learned about the three branches of oratory, the five canons, about the intentions of rhetoric. Toye explains the three branches of oratory as 1. forensic/judicial rhetoric, 2. epideictic/display rhetoric, 3. deliberative rhetoric. I was personally most interested by the deliberative rhetoric because of its close connection to legislators and voters. One of my possible job aspirations is to be a lobbyist where a huge part of the job is being able to participate and accurately use deliberative rhetoric when defending or pushing a bill. Being able to persuade someone in a very useful skill, and while some people may feel a little uneasy with it, there is still very much good to be said about someone who can effectively get their message received.

Next Toye talked about the five canons of rhetoric which are 1. invention/discovery, 2. arrangement, 3. style, 4. memory, and 5. delivery. these five canons reveal the elements of rhetoric that when hit on and delivered properly help to drive any message you are trying to deliver home. In order to effectively use these five canons one must focus on the nature of the audience. By focusing on questions like, who is your audience and what do they value you most? You can really take advantage of what rhetoric has to offer.

Lastly, a point that was really driven home by Toye is how not only do the fundamentals of rhetoric matter, but most importantly what your intentions are. Rhetoric has often been viewed in a negative connotation and mostly because people will use rhetoric, but also pepper it with lies. If you are completely honest with your audience and are strong, confident, respectful, and also 100% believe in your cause you should have no reason to doubt the intent of the argument.

After reading these two chapters my two questions are:

1. Is there a way we can detect a bad intention when someone is using rhetoric?

2. if there was a 6th canon what would it be?

Sources:

Reading: Toye, Richard (2013). Rhetoric: A very short introduction. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. [Chapters 2 & 3]

Picture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle

Blog 9: The Power of Rhetoric

In the introduction of Richard Toye's Rhetoric: A very short introduction Toye talks about the power that the Nazi regime held and the ways they used rhetoric to retain it and recruit other members. The Nazi rhetoric involved everything down to their sentence structure and word choice. Every word was chosen specifically to build the party and take down a common “enemy”. Toye goes on in the introduction to talk about how influential rhetoric is on our current society and how it has always played a role in our lives. Even though rhetoric can carry this negative connotation we have to accept the place it has in this world. In our everyday conversations we are constantly taking positions on right versus wrong and using rhetoric to tell others why we think this way and why they should to. Rhetoric in its simplest form is translated to “the art of persuasion” and is used to express ideas and show the way they are generated.

In Chapter 1 Toye talks about the first signs of evidence of rhetoric. He took it all the way back to the Sophists. They were brilliant minds who used rhetoric through their teachings while also focused on identifying and developing it in other writings. These professors were very opinionated and therefore rhetoric went hand in hand. As the chapter goes on Toye talks about the impact that rhetoric had on many different generations on many different aspects. Rhetoric was used in education, governing, and rule making. He talks more about how important it is to understand rhetoric and distract it when trying to understand complex topics in government and and social atmospheres. These arguments identify what significant issues are to a community and how to control and attack them.

After reading these two chapters some questions I had were:

1. How can we change rhetoric to have a positive connotation? There are many positive outcomes of rhetoric, so how do we bring those to the front line?
2. If rhetoric is so powerful, powerful enough to make other people kill other people, where do we draw the line between inappropriate mind manipulation and rhetoric.

Sources:

Image: http://christopherrichards.com/2016/11/11/rhetoric-art-persuasion-1/

Reading: Toye, R. (2013). Rhetoric: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bonus Blog 3: Experiencing the News

In the next class following our initial interactions with the Google Cardboard our class took a more in depth look at what these cardboards could do. We looked at comparing a digital newspaper, a normal newspaper, and then the news apps used by google cardboard. We looked for similarities and differences, and the positives and negatives. With the google cardboard apps we saw a lack of options and a tough time with usability. It was hard to scroll and read, it almost hurt your eyes to try to focus on these words while also moving your head to scroll. While there are good intentions behind the news app for google cardboard it fell very short to a hard copy print or even a news website. After testing all three of these I came to the conclusion that google cardboard is meant for experiences, it helps to transport you to somewhere else. So, while this is not the most effective way to communicate news it would be cool if it could transport you to where the news is happening. I think it would be interesting if we could watch the news from this source as well.

After using the news app for google cardboard my questions are:

1. What is the best kind of information and/or learning tools that we can utilize through google cardboard? How do we develop them? 
2. What is the next step for google cardboard? Adding buttons? Speakers? Sounds? How do we take this product to the next level?