HW 11 due Friday 4/15/22 for Information, Computing and the Future
Directions: The title of your blog post should indicate "HW 11" (if your blog is not working then you will need to email this HW to the instructor). Number your answers according to the question numbers below.
Directions: The title of your blog post should indicate "HW 11" (if your blog is not working then you will need to email this HW to the instructor). Number your answers according to the question numbers below.
0) Student presentations will be on the last day of class, unless there are too many students in the class to all go on one day, in which case some will go be assigned to the 2nd-to-last day of class. You are welcome to sign up for on any day prior to the last day. Why not get it over soon? To volunteer for a particular day, just email the instructor at thehumanracetothefuture@gmail.com.
1) Do you think we will find intelligent life in the universe? Why or why not?
2) Suppose you had a coupon for a free robot. The catch is it can only do one thing. But you can get a robot that will do whatever one thing you like, just not anything else. What would you want your robot to do, and why?
3) Imagine fully roboticized future. Would it possible in such a future for labor to be free? For example, suppose there was a law prohibiting anyone from being paid to do work. Could the human race survive in the face of such a law? See, for example, Vernor Vinge's "Technological Singularity."
4) Comment on the movie Transcendant Man. What do you agree with, disagree with, what do you look forward to, are apprehensive about, etc.
5) Create at least half of a first draft, or whatever is appropriate, of your presentation. (This is in contrast to your paper or other project.) For example, you could create some slides. If this requirement does not fit your situation, do something else equivalent, and explain what you did.
6) (Grad students only) continue with the book you obtained. Read the next 20 pages. State the book title, author, and page numbers you have read. Then, discuss those pages. Explain what you agree with, disagree with, and how your views compare with those of other reviewers on Amazon or elsewhere.
Do not do: 7) Discuss the applicability (or inapplicability) of robotics to your project topic. This should be at least 199 words. Alternatively, if your project is not a report, do something else on it of equivalent effort and explain briefly (but specifically - "made a lot of progress on implementation" is not specific, but "completed functions fireRocket(), landOnMoon(), and deployRobot()" is specific; "finished sketching the painting and plan to start applying paint to canvas next" is also specific) on your blog.
