Please find my final assignment in Google Docs

This week, I had a great opportunity to play the game Situation Lab’s Thing from the Future. At first, I didn’t understand what I had to do and was flipping through the cards using the generator.  Then I realized, the excel generator combined the cards together and it was less complicated. (oops!) Now I learned something new 🙂

The first scenario generated for me was the following:

“Describe or narrate a scenario about a candy found two generations into a future in which a profound historical evolution has occurred. Your description should address issues related to algorithms and elicit feelings of dread.”

To match the gamification nature of this week’s exercise, I created a short interactive game and tried to connect it to the readings we had this week. Enjoy!

As I create and implement the changes to this game according to this story, it made me think of ChatGPT and how slow I am at creating an artifact compared to them. I enjoyed Dr. Shannon Vallor’s talk immensely and I find that I agree with almost everything she mentioned.  One quote that stuck with me was that “AI was still not ready for solo flight” (Vallor, 2018) and it is up to us, as humans as a collective to ensure that it is used for the greater good that can enhance the human race rather than hinder it.

This reminds me of an article I recently read where Bill Gates suggest that “AI could lead to 3-day work week” (Murphy, 2023) because it can help us “cook and stuff”. Now this might scare people into thinking that it is another step to eliminating jobs. As we look around, it is true. Self-check outs are slowly replacing humans cashiers and in countries like Japan, there are stores that are entirely run by robots.  However, Microsoft’s co-founder suggests that the “purpose of life is not just to do jobs, AI could provide major benefits to productivity, health care and education” (Murphy, 2023).   This can sound optimistic for the average family who wishes to spend more time with their kids. It can potentially eliminate scenarios in Tommy Orange’s story where the child believes that adults “hates children” (Ford, 2020) and adults only puts up with them until they can drop them off at school, escape and focus on work.

This is slowly becoming a reality. 5 years have passed since Dr. Vallor’s talk, and while it is still true that AI is still not at a stage for full autonomy, (i.e.: In Greenspan’s example, there are no self-driving vehicles launched to the public in America yet to prevent potential accidents like the uber self-driving vehicle.) I can see companies such as Microsoft using the data and/or educational material that we publish / hosted on their servers to enhance their AI to create curriculum at record speed.  Like Mitrovic, I can “speculate” that AI can “open up all sorts of possibilities that can be discussed, debated, and used to collectively define a preferable future”(Mitrović, 2021) for a new generation of tech savvy learners. Perhaps a new classroom setting where learners can learn wherever and whenever in person or online and the traditional classroom will evolve into something that is entirely new.

Jobs still won’t be eliminated, but we humans will adapt and change our roles in society based on what is built by the elites. Mitrović et al. made a great point about speculative design and instead of being scared of it, we can embrace the future to see how it can be used to enhance human lives.

There are a lot of positive ideas being proposed, but for some reason, there is still a feeling of unease and dread when I look at this. There are a lot of promise from the higher ranking business men and women in society, but will it really enhance people’s lives, or will the thoughts of greed result in AI only benefiting the select few who are privileged enough to experience the rewards?

There’s still a lot of room to explore in the realm of AI and I am not brave enough to see the end result.

References:

Ford, A. C. (Host). (2020, September 2). Tommy Orange: Reopening. [Audio podcast episode]. In The Chronicles of Now. Pushkin Industries.

If I were to weave my own story and select 10 songs from the Nasa’s Golden Record list, it would probably look like this:

14. Melancholy Blues – The type of music and how it is recorded provides a glimpse to the audience that life haven’t always been this advanced, and humans evolved from recording songs using limited to very advanced technology. It also speaks to the history itself… it hasn’t always been happy.

21. Fairie Round – While history haven’t always been great and humans make a lot of selfish decisions that impacts evolution, there are also good times and those moments should be celebrated.

24. Flowing Streams – Speaks to the many innovations that sparked from this country. The paper for example was made by using streams of water and pulp from bamboo and wood. innovation does not have to be loud, but it can impact the world in a great way.

1. Brandenburg Concerto (First Movement) – I adore classical music and many of which originated from / inspired by European countries.  This also includes a variety of string instruments that follows the same sheet music, which is quite unique.

3: Percussion (Senegal) – On the opposite end, this one includes percussions that follows along with the same sheet music to create music that people are able to get up and dance to!

8: Men’s House Song – I wish to include this as controversial as the title may be, but the world is still a men’s world. While there is an effort to strive for equality in all senses, there is still a lot of room to explore.

23: Wedding song – While this song is about a woman not wanting to get married, there are still a lot of people wanting to find true love. In the past, marriage may be created as a trade / monetary reasons,  this technology has now evolved into something very different. People can choose their partners and choose to stay with them forever because of love. This song shows that marriage is evolving and men and women can learn to depend on each other for more than just financial reasons.

5: Morning Star & Devil Bird – Again, not everything is positive in this world. Just wanted to show a contrast to the happy times, there are still wars ongoing. What seems to be the truth on 1 end… may not be in the other side.

12: Tchakrulo – Going back to the point where people depend on each other. I chose a song sang by the choir to illustrate the point that together as a species we can still make beautiful music if given the chance.

Track 13: Panpipes and Drum (Peru) – Chose this song because it has the style as the first song, but it is heavier on the percussion side. It represents that we can somehow made our own history with our current technology, and whoever is listening to this track, hopefully they will be able to listen to what is here and build upon / innovate to this list of music.

Before I start, I just wanted to appreciate the opportunity to take ETEC 540. This is one of the final courses I have to take for my MET program and what a memorable experience this has been.  While I had moments of confusion, I also had many moments of clarity as I progressed through the course. 

I do not take this opportunity for granted. 

Focusing on the actual task at hand, I am tasked to choose 6 items from on 6 different blogs (from my classmates) and create links and connections to the class readings, my own understanding of the material, and my peers’ interpretation of the course material. 

1) Introductory week 

In all the courses I’ve taken in the MET program so far, I’ve always enjoyed participating in introductory week because I enjoy reading everyone’s background and learning from their experience. I also share everyone’s excitement about a new start of a semester and everyone is happy to contribute.

Connection: Louisa Green

Louisa Green decided to create her first task using Prezi and the post was hosted using Wix. In contrast, I created my first assignment using WordPress and used an existing template with a left navigation. My classmates can easily find all my posts that way. 

At first I thought her assignment was a video, but it actually had interactive buttons for people to navigate. Like me, she had multiple bags. However, instead of focusing on only 1 bag, Louisa was able to include all three and had a very interesting way to present all 3 to her audience. In terms of co-authoring, I’m not sure if Prezi has a feature that allows people to comment or to provide feedback. I also do not see a feature for commenting in the task page. With that in mind, I really appreciate the interactivity of Louisa’s work, because she was able to include interactivity and I only included static images and text to create my introduction. 

I also liked the fact that you can “dig deep” into finding more about Louisa using the interactive buttons. For example, I clicked on the black bag and it listed out a list of items, then she had a second navigation where when clicked, I could find out more information about her. The “digging” gesture is very similar to the motion we use in real life when we “dig” through our bags to find out what we want. In this case, I can find out more about Louisa. 

In comparison, my own webspace has a comment section where users can interact and provide their thoughts and feedback. What my site lacks in interactivity, it makes up in ease of access to content. Users don’t have to scroll back and forth in order to find their information. In addition, I like having bigger text so that people can read without having to squint or afford an additional click in order to view my post in full screen / to

2) Does language shape the way we think?

I really enjoyed this week’s reading because it focused on how language is a technology. No matter if it is words, sounds, dance, etc., it will keep evolving with every generation.  For this week, I chose Garth’s post to focus on because while I lived in Canada for quite a long time,  my main language is English. It is interesting to see another person whose primary language is also English and see what their experience is like after listening to Dr. Lera Borditsky’s lecture. 

Connection: Garth

In terms of the content of the post, the difference between our posts is that I focused mainly on the readings of the week and made connections to how the 3 videos can relate to each other. I noticed that Garth referenced to a book called the Power of Language. He began by focusing on his own experience and then slowly moving towards technology. Garth and I also wondered how language can shape thinking. Dr. Boroditsky mentioned that the 2 ways in which language can be used to change our thinking is to “Train new ways of talking” and “To take language away”. I appreciate that Garth included real life examples such as topics about abortions and using the term “pro life” or “pro choice” and how it can be used as a tool for social engineering, whether it can be used in a positive / negative context.

Similarly, I used dance as a way to “train new ways of talking” as stories can be spoken through dance and movements of the body, rather than just words. New performers can take a style or a portion of a dance piece and evolve it in another piece to create a story that can create positive / negative impact on the audience.

We also agreed about technologies / social media as the new way of communication and how we can include images / videos, etc. as new languages to communicate (whether it is grammatically correct or not).  It is also a natural occurrence as each new generation arise.  Instead of using just text or hand drawings, humans has evolved communicating through text and instant messengers like whatsapp. I included 21 century “innovative” apps like Steezy, Tiktok and other social media platforms to create and share dances, tutorials and other facts through videos with their peers and colleagues.

Technologies and Platform

Both Garth and I used WordPress. He included a reference to the Power of Language, which people can easily access if they wish to explore the reading further.  He included social media buttons so people can like or tweet his post if they wish to share it.  Both of us included a comment section so people can include their feedback and thoughts.

Constraints and Pedagogical Underpinnings

Garth included a very good point about people who live in multiple places around the world score better on tests of creativity. He also included how a lot of the greatest authors are non-native English speakers and stresses that multilingualism is important in educational practices. It reminds me of the Shetlandic poet, Christine de Luc and how she was able to easily switch dialects from Shetlandic to English while she casually continue to read her poem. Perhaps being able to grow up or explore multiple environments shapes the way one thinks and interpret languages. The unique experience can, as Dr. Borditsky mentions, “train people to talk in new ways”.

4) Manual Scripts

For my third link, I decided to focus on week 4’s manual script assignment. I learned about the evolution of word and how it was passed down from generation to generation. It was interesting to see how paper was invented and how it was initially used to document laws and policies. Eventually it evolved into papyrus paper and every day people can use it to invent stories and to create artwork. Now we have have evolved using digital canvases such as WordPress where anyone can freely type their thoughts down and conduct business with a click of a button. I chose to compare and contrast my task with Nick Robitaille‘s post as we both did a manual script rather than create a potato stamp for our assignment.

Connection : Nick Robitaille

For this exercise, both Nick and I had no trouble transferring our stories about our newly developed hobbies into written words on paper. However, we both found the processes physically demanding as we are both accustomed to producing languages using texting or typing. Both of us shared that we used paper to drop down notes or lists using sticky notes / note books / whiteboards, etc. but we would use technologies such as word count, spell check and other every day tasks using phones and computers. We also mentioned about spell check , word count and grammar check and how these are what we take for granted.

I was surprised that while our experience was quite similar, Nick only had 2 pages of text, where I had 8 pages of text.  It doesn’t seem like my writing was much bigger than his, but he was able to save a lot of space and saved some trees!  In terms of tidiness, I agree that the mechanical version provides the backspace button which eliminates the labour of having to cross out errors and grammar mistakes or difference in interpretation.

In my post, I also included the idea of security. During the pandemic, a lot of people used the pen-to-paper method to store their private information if they do not wish to share it with the rest of the world. Indeed, everything we type / say inside a web browser can be tracked and distributed as data. It is something I try to intentionally tell myself to avoid any cyber security related incidences.

Technologies and Platform

Both Nick and I used WordPress to document our process. Both of us included a comment section so people can include their feedback and thoughts. I’m not sure if there are any constraints to the course, in fact, this will be a great artifact to share with others (aliens?!?!) and how we as a species have evolved / what we do in our everyday lives before artificial intelligence (AI) become our supreme overlords.

Constraints and Pedagogical Underpinnings

Nick and I in our post both hinted that we have come a long way from using paper to record lists of laws to now being in the digital age where we can freely create our own worlds (i.e.: create stories to distribute to peers in seconds vs taking weeks to send a letter via carrier pigeon).

7) Mode Bending

Task 7 was tough because it was very hard to recreate Task 1 using just audio alone. However, Olivia Tarasewicz found a very funny way to “dig deep” into finding her bag. Both of us took a completely different approach but had similar thoughts while completing the assignment. That is, text is not just a written language and can be depicted using music, dance, poetry, etc.

Connection : Olivia Tarasewicz

Olivia was able to achieve what she wanted to convey by creating a detective story that took the focus off her as a central character, to someone who is not able to provide their side of the story. By including action and suspense into the narrative, I found myself being drawn to the story right away and wanted to find out more right away.  Both of us took time to think of what is the right approach in handling this. While there is no right or wrong way, I believe both of us were able to conclude that while language can be depicted using sounds, it is hard to describe individual or specific people, place, or thing without using text.

For my project, I focused on language as music and that a simple piece of music can remixed overtime, but the base sheet music is the same. I also stressed that it is important to keep our history as accurate as possible as each generation can learn from the next.

Technologies and Platform

Both Olivia and I used WordPress to document our process. Both of us included a comment section so people can include their feedback and thoughts.

Constraints and Pedagogical Underpinnings

As previously stated, it was very hard to describe the process using only audio. If I had to do it again, perhaps I would get rid of the robot voice and just include the 3 songs to see if the audience is able to capture the 3 different sounds which stems from the same sheet music.

9) Network Assignment Using Golden Network

In week 8, the class was tasked to choose 10 songs out of 27 so we can create a set of data to interpret. Then in week 9, we upload this data into Palladio and was tasked to see if we can see the reason why people chose the songs they did.  Upon reading Jerry Chen‘s blog post, I found that we had similar findings, but both Jerry and I had different methods of achieving the same conclusion.

Connection : Jerry Chen

Both Jerry and I were able to find the “Top voted song” using the facet dimensions tool. Jerry took it one step further to sort by “communities” and how 6 groups of people chose the same songs. He also found that the top 10 songs had “at least 45% of class votes”.  In the section called “Familiarity” he was able to identify the 2 most popular music genres to speculate that perhaps the reason why people chose the songs could be because the popularity of the music styles of the popularity of the artists.

I chose another direction and found out the two “least voted songs” (they were tied). My rationale was to compare and contrast the 2 songs to see whether they had significant different in beat, sounds, genre, etc. I went to each blog to see why people chose what they did.  Then I played around with the different categories. Similar to a pivot table in excel, I played around with each category to see if any of them makes sense.

However, even though both Jerry and I used very different approaches, we both found the rationale inconclusive by viewing plots and visual data alone.

Technologies and Platform

Both Jerry and I used WordPress to document our process. Both of us included a comment section so people can include their feedback and thoughts. If there was a way to pull the rationale section from each of our blogs, perhaps there is a plugin in WordPress that can do this and we can all plug in the rationale of why we chose the songs (list from drop down), that may be interesting.

Constraints and Pedagogical Underpinnings

Jerry and I both hinted that while there are facets that represented geographical locations, our classmates did not choose the songs based on where it was originally composed.  Perhaps more research is needed in order to reach our conclusion.

12) Speculative Futures

Task 12 was a lot of fun. We were tasked to play a game then create our own stories and narratives based on what was generated from AI.  I was so impressed with Bridget Anakin’s task because she create a short story and poem based on her given scenario! I was really excited to read it and to see if there are any similarities / differences to mine 🙂

Connection: Bridget Anakin

I was immediately immersed into the story that was created by Bridget. The images she chose for the cover was also fitting since. Seems like the tone and the setting of her story was quite dark.  I really enjoyed her writing, and wished I was able to create short story as exciting and engaging as the one composed. I believe the generator created a completely different story for mine, because I created a short escape game using Genially about candies and how it was found after 2 generations. I was able to include images that matched the 2 different eras.

Both of us were able to hint at “speculative” design into our short stories. The quote I included from Mitrović is quite similar to the tone of her story.:

AI can “open up all sorts of possibilities that can be discussed, debated, and used to collectively define a preferable future.” (Mitrović, 2021).

She was able to capture the darker side, while I was able to capture the more hopeful side of the future when AI takes over.

Technologies and Platform

I continued to use WordPress to document my process and was able to embed the game created using Genial.ly into my post. The borders look a bit funny after embedding, so I included a link on top of it so people can also play in full screen mode. Bridget was able to embed her story into Google Sheets and it looks like she created the story using Canva. The navigation was a bit tricky as I find myself confused clicking back and forth between pages without any arrow keys. I was able to scroll up and down, but the 2 scroll bars created a bit of confusion. I was able to find the full screen mode after clicking on the blue link underneath.

Constraints and Pedagogical Underpinnings

An assignment based on an existing game is a great idea. I really enjoyed playing it and coming up with the narratives while incorporating my own ideas into it. It would be interesting to see if we can incorporate AI somehow, similar to week 3’s assignment. Instead, we use ChatGPT to create a narrative based on the scenario and observe how fast it is able to generate it.   It is still a scary thought that AI will eventually shape our environments into something that is unrecognizable. However, I am still hopeful that there are still good that can enhance human life. If that is allowed.

This week, I am tasked with watching Dr. Lera Borditsky’s SAR lecture from May 2017 and write a few thoughts of what spoke to me.

The statements that spoke to me or I can relate to at a personal level are:

1. [1:16] Introduction to the topic on how languages we speak, shape the ways we think. We can use a finite set a rules that we combine… creating air vibrations… implanting into your brain and turning them into language”
2.  [5:35] Dr. Boroditsky speaks to the Navajo verb chart – It is interesting to see how a simple word, “consumption” can be broken down into so many parts and be used in so many ways
   

   language breakdown

3. [11:01] Dr. Boroditsky mentions about how we think about time, place, colour, etc. People reading from left to right, but languages such as Arabic that people read from right to left, can have VERY different meanings.
   

   Nestle commercial can have a very different meaning reading from right to left, rather than left to right.

   In addition, other languages depicts future as behind, rather than in front.  Other cultures don’t use languages relative to the body, but rather, directions in a map (North, South, East, West).

4. [21:07]When you teach people to talk in a new way, you are teaching them to think in a new way as well.
   

   Language creates categories

5.  [21:05] Language creates categories. If you learn a language that depicts the sun / moon to be masculine or feminine, would you start to think of the sun / moon to be more male like or female like?
6.  [43:47] While languages and cultures make us smart (through thousands of years), it reduces cognitive entropy… Meaning, we can think about the world in many ways, but we don’t the thinking the same way.The languages are ever changing, and evolving.

Introduction

Dr. Lera Boroditsky spoke to how our brain interprets language. Person A can form new meaning using verbal slurs, sounds, and vibrations which when Person B hears it, their brains can form new neurons to gather information and forms new meaning.  The difference of interpretation depends greatly on the listener’s culture and what is their mother tongue.   A great example of this is when Dr. Borditsky displays the Nestle commercial where people who reads left to right can interpret the ad very differently than a person who reads from right to left.   This can cause misunderstandings even if the speaker means well.

Language as Technology

As a dancer at one point in my life, I can relate to McDonald’s perspective that “dance is a relic, a living tradition… past down from generations to generations”. Language does not have to be spoken, it can be depicted as dance, movements, songs, or any type of art.  When another artist mimics the dance teacher, “they’re not just repeating movements” they are putting their own “stories” into the dance movements. Their own cultures and interpretations as they build on it.  As Dr. Boroditsky suggests, language is ever evolving. Technologies, such as Steezy and social media platforms, such as Instagram, Youtube and TikTok provides a network of opportunities for dancers, artist and other content creators to freely expand on their own language and pass it down to the next generation worldwide.

Dialect VS Languages

Watching the next video…It was bizzare… Actually, I did not even realize when Shetlandic poet, Christine de Luca softly read in English and then subtley switches into Shetlandic. Perhaps I was still adapting to what she was speaking to and then suddenly, I could not understand her anymore. I kept going back to a point where she switches, but still felt very strange.  It rings true, as Dr. Boroditsky suggests, that languages are interpreted as sounds, and vibrations. Sometimes if we don’t pay enough attention, there may be misinterpretations or we may miss important changes in dialects. How do we as language speakers eliminate this confusion?

Discussion

There are 3 ways which Dr. Boroditsky suggests how language can change thinking.

The first is to train people to talk in new ways. In the question and answer session, Dr. Boroditsky suggests that even people who are in close relationships can misinterpret their partner’s thoughts and meaning.  Couples who can take advantage of marriage / couples counseling can gain tools / new ways to communicate. For example, instead of saying “You never put the dishes away”, one may suggest to say “It would make me feel happy if you can put the dishes away without me asking”

The second is to take language away. Dr. Boroditsky suggests that a person can be given a set of words to speak in repetition to eliminate some of the outside noise / task that distracts our brain to interpret what is spoken.

The third is to ask the speaker to speak another language and so the learner / lister can learn and be assessed if they have successfully understood 1 language rather than juggling 2 at the same time. This can eliminate confusion and information can be absorbed faster.