For this Detain/Release simulation, I knew I would have bias, yet, being aware and trying to control for that bias I was not very successful. I was unable to see the top of my screen where the “Jail Capacity/Fear” bars were located because of how my browser was configured. I did not become aware of all the “red,” until afterwards. This was done purposefully out of curiosity given my past life experience. I was not surprised by the biases of my results. 

I graduated from university in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in criminology and corrections and immediately obtained a job with the local county office of probation for juvenile justice. I worked at this job for just 8 months, I was not cut out for it. This job required following a strict set of rules and guidelines to determine people’s lives, I felt that the system was too rigid. There was little room for empathy or understanding in the way that cases were handled, so I left.

At the time, I felt like they just wanted me to be like a computer following an algorithm, more than thirty years later the process is still the same using AI programs. AI program may be able to analyze large amounts of data and identify patterns and trends that could inform decision-making, about recidivism but it lacks the ability to understand the emotional and psychological complexities of human behaviour and the circumstances of each case. 

AI-informed decision-making has significant implications and consequences for the criminal justice system. If AI algorithms are trained on biased data, they may replicate and even amplify existing biases in the criminal justice system. This can result in unfair outcomes, particularly for marginalized groups who may already be disproportionately impacted by the criminal justice system. 

Data! Data! Data! The use of algorithms in law enforcement and the potential for bias and discrimination is not a new idea in the criminal justice system. This is highlighted in the podcast, The Crime Machine, P. Vogt (2018), discusses, young police officers being given quota directives.  Arresting people instead of actually solving crimes and downgrading crime. He goes so far as to emphasise the Summoning of people in impact zones, targeting Hispanic and black young men, and of course, white men we never targeted, all for COMPSTAT data! 

A major concern with AI programs, algorithms, and data is the potential for bias and discrimination. If AI algorithms are trained on biased data, they may replicate and even amplify existing biases in the criminal justice system. This can result in unfair outcomes, particularly for marginalized groups who may already be disproportionately impacted by the criminal justice system.

Another concern is the lack of transparency and accountability in AI decision-making. It may be difficult for defendants and their lawyers to understand how decisions were made and to challenge those decisions if they are based on opaque and complex algorithms. This can compromise due process and the right to a fair trial

Additionally, there is the potential for AI to reinforce existing power imbalances in the criminal justice system. If AI algorithms are primarily developed and controlled by those in power, they may be used to perpetuate existing structures of oppression and further marginalize already marginalized groups.

Overall, while AI has the potential to improve decision-making in the criminal justice system, it is important to carefully consider the potential implications and consequences of its use, particularly with regard to issues of bias, transparency, and power. It is essential that AI is used in a way that is ethical, accountable, and just.

References

Vogt, P. (2018, October 12a). The Crime Machine, Part I (no. 127) [Audio podcast episode]. In Reply All. Gimlet Media.

Vogt, P. (2018, October 12b). The Crime Machine, Part II (no. 128) [Audio podcast episode]. In Reply All. Gimlet Media.

The instructions for this task were to navigate through a confusing GUI game – User Inyerface, designed to distract and manipulate the user by employing what Brignull (2011) refers to as “dark patterns,” essentially, deceptive practices involving online interfaces. I gave up at the CAPTCHA after a lot of frustration and much laughter. 

Great user interface design should be invisible and seamless, but when bad design choices arise, it can create frustration and complication in an otherwise simple process. This is perfectly exemplified by User Inyerface, a short web game created by Bagaar, which throws every frustrating element of user interface design into one game. From buttons that don’t work, to dropdown menus that are sorted incorrectly, to devilish pop-up windows that can shut down the entire site if instructions are misread, the game is maddening and brutally funny to those who spend a prodigious amount of time on the internet.

The game only becomes worse as you progress, with each new page highlighting a design element that can be confusing if not designed well enough. For instance, the game’s several CAPTCHAs that need to be filled out are an excellent escalation of this concept. While the purpose of CAPTCHA image recognition tests is to confirm that the user is a human, User Inyerface perverts this challenge by demonstrating how one simple word can complicate the whole function of the test. Players have to choose images with “bows” in them, but since “bow” is an English word that can refer to different things, such as a tie, a weapon, or a greeting, it becomes a nightmare to figure out which images to choose. This is where I gave up out of sheer frustration.

Despite being a simple marketing tool for a design agency, User Inyerface effectively showcases how much effort goes into making every online interaction as smooth as possible. Clever designers use a host of patterns to encourage users to move through their websites and apps with ease, making the experience seamless. However, as User Inyerface proves, one bump can unravel the whole system, and designers should be mindful of this when creating user interfaces.

Overall, User Inyerface is an excellent example of a game that uses UX design principles of what you are not supposed to do. 

References

Bagaar. (2019). User Inyerface [web game]. 

Brignull, H. (2011, November 1). Dark Patterns: Deception vs. Honesty in UI Design. A List Apart. https://alistapart.com/article/dark-patterns-deception-vs-honesty-in-ui-design/

Describe or narrate a scenario about a beverage found a century into the future in which order is deliberately coordinated or imposed. Your description should address issues related to agriculture and elicit feelings of awkwardness.

In the year 2123, a new beverage emerged that was taking the world by storm. It was called “ChronoJuice,” and it was rumoured to have the ability to slow down the aging process. People were willing to pay exorbitant prices just to get their hands on a bottle of this mysterious drink.

However, what most people didn’t know was that the production of ChronoJuice was tightly controlled by a group of powerful corporations that had formed a monopoly on the market. They had developed a new strain of genetically modified crops that could produce the key ingredient of the drink, a rare molecule called “Chrono-X,” in large quantities.

To ensure the quality and consistency of their product, the corporations imposed strict regulations on the farmers who grew these crops. They had to follow a strict set of guidelines on how to cultivate and harvest the crops, and any deviation from these rules would result in severe penalties.

As a result, the farmers were forced to abandon their traditional farming methods and adopt a highly regimented and mechanized approach. They had to use specialized equipment and techniques to ensure that every step of the process was executed with precision and accuracy.

Despite the economic benefits of producing ChronoJuice, many farmers felt awkward and uncomfortable with this new way of farming. They missed the days when they could work with their hands and feel connected to the land. They felt like they were just cogs in a giant machine, following orders without any sense of autonomy or creativity.

But they also knew that they had no other choice. The corporations held all the power, and any farmer who refused to comply with their regulations would be left without a market for their crops. So they continued to work, day after day, hoping that someday they would be able to return to a more natural way of farming.

As for the consumers who enjoyed ChronoJuice, they had no idea about the struggles and sacrifices that went into producing their favourite beverage. They just drank it and marvelled at its supposed anti-aging properties, never realizing the awkwardness and discomfort that lay behind the scenes.

The visualizations created by Palladio left me feeling like I was in the middle of the Pacific without knowing exactly what I am looking for. I encountered some new terms, as I navigated through graph theory: nodes, edges, multigraphs, directed and undirected graphs, and finally multiplex networks, this was a learning curve for me.

The image above shows the members of the Golden Record Community represented by the dark gray nodes. Each edge shows a network that is present in the community. The light gray nodes represent the tracks on the Golden Record and are sized according to the number of network members who shared an interest in the same piece of music. The edges, therefore, represent the networks that share community members. It also appears that Amy and I are outliers on opposite sides of the community. It shows the relationships between tracks and community members, not just the tracks chosen by the same community members but all of the songs they chose, including those that are not shared between community members.

This data shows the degree of connectivity that I am most connected to in the network community. Nicole, Phi, and I seem to have the most connections within the graph. Not much other data appears to be encoded into the graph which could be frustrating if trying to look at the data for deeper analysis or compare different attributes beyond tracks and network members.

These visualizations may be able to reveal patterns and similarities in participants’ music choices, but they do not necessarily capture the reasons behind these choices. There could be a variety of reasons why people choose certain types of music, such as personal preferences, cultural background, social context, mood, and emotional states.

While the visualizations provide insight into the overall patterns of music preferences and the strength of connections between participants based on these preferences, they cannot necessarily explain why these patterns exist.

Overall, while visualizations can provide valuable insights into patterns and similarities in music preferences, they are limited in their ability to capture the complex and multifaceted reasons behind those preferences without additional data and analysis.

These are the ten tracks that I choose for this task. 

1. Brandenburg Concerto (First Movement)
2. Johnny B. Goode
3. Gavotte en rondeaux
4. Melancholy Blues
5. Rite of Spring (Sacrificial Dance)
6. The Well-Tempered Clavier
7. Fifth Symphony (First Movement)
8. The Fairie Round
9. Dark Was the Night
10. String Quartet No. 13 in B flat

The first thing I did was listen to all 27 tracks all the way through with no other purpose other than listening to music. Next, I read about Voyager’s Golden Record and all the math that was involved with its creation. What I found interesting to learn is that they tried to recruit John Lennon for the curation of the songs, but he wasn’t available, instead, he recommended they used his sound engineer,  Jimmy Iovine. (Ferris, 2017) After much overthinking about the intended message, to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials. I decided to listen again and simply choose what I found appealing to my ear. It was an elimination process, eventually settling on the ten tracks listed above.

Reference

Ferris, T. (2017, August 20). How the Voyager Golden Record Was Made. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/voyager-golden-record-40th-anniversary-timothy-ferris

JP Morgan Chase Library, New York City (2022)

Dr. Lera Boroditsky is a cognitive psychologist and linguist who has conducted research on the relationship between language and thought. In her 2017 YouTube video, she makes several key statements about language and how it shapes our perception of the world.

• 6:30 –  “Well of course speakers of different languages have to think differently because, look, languages are requiring our speakers to pay attention to such different information just in order to be able to speak.”

Dr. Boroditsky argues that language influences how we perceive and categorize the world around us. For example, she notes that in English, we tend to describe events using a subject-verb-object sentence structure, which emphasizes the agent (the person or thing doing the action). In contrast, some languages use a subject-object-verb structure, which emphasizes the patient (the person or thing that the action is being done to). This can affect how speakers of these languages perceive events: When you see an event, you might focus more on the agent or the patient, depending on what your language is emphasizing. This is a good indication of why people make such poor eyewitnesses to events. 

• 17:39 – “Across all of these cross-linguistic differences how do we know that language is creating the difference and how people think about time.”

The way we talk about time can shape the way we experience it. Dr. Boroditsky notes that different cultures have different ways of talking about time, which affects how people experience it. For example, she notes some cultures recognize time in reference to directions. However, in English, we might say ‘I’ll see you in a couple of hours,’ but in Mandarin, you might say ‘I’ll see you in a little while’ or ‘I’ll see you in a big while’ depending on how long you’re going to be.” This affects how people perceive the passing of time.

• 21:19 – “So the question is once you’ve learned a language like this, with grammatical gender, do you actually end up thinking of the sun and the moon as somehow more male-like or more female-like depending on what gender they are in your language?” 

Grammar can actually influence how we think. Dr. Boroditsky notes that some languages have grammatical gender, which assigns masculine, feminine, or neuter genders to nouns. She argues that this can influence how speakers of these languages perceive inanimate objects: “If you have a feminine noun for ‘bridge’ and a masculine noun for ‘river’, then when you think of a bridge and a river, you might automatically think of the bridge as being more delicate and graceful, and the river as being more powerful and strong.” I have noticed this with young children when they are engaged in imaginary play, giving the bridge a more feminine voice, whereas the river would have a more masculine voice. 

• 29:41 – “In English, we have this quite weird property in English in that we don’t strongly distinguish between things that are accidents and things that are intentional.” 

Spanish is a language like this, it makes more of a distinction between accidents and intentional events. In Spanish we only talking about who did it when it’s intentional, but when it’s accidental less. The language we speak can affect how we remember and recall events. As an example, speakers of different languages may focus on different aspects of an event when recalling it, based on the linguistic structures available to them. The majority of my students are Spanish/Spanglish speakers and when trying to resolve a conflict between them I sometimes find the story confusing, simply because my grasp of the Spanish language is not strong. I will usually refer them to a counsellor who is a native Spanish speaker. 

• 32:28 – “Speakers of different languages witness exactly the same event, but come away remembering different things about that event. 

Different languages can lead to different perceptions of the world: Dr. Boroditsky suggests that the structure and vocabulary of different languages can lead speakers to see the world in distinct ways. She notes that different languages have different words and structures for categorizing things in the world. For example, she notes that the Navajo language has many words for the different ways beverages are consumed. Being bilingual or multilingual can allow people to see the same object or event in different ways: “When you’re bilingual, you’re able to think about the same concept in multiple ways. You can see the same thing from different angles and different perspectives.” This can lead to a more nuanced understanding of the world.

• 57:43 – “Language continues changing and evolving and that’s its nature it’s a living thing that we create and so whether it’s through technology or through being exposed to new experiences that’s just always going to happen. So, yes, people are definitely changing the language, part of that is driven by technology, but this is nothing new.”

As the world changes, so too does the way we talk about it. New ideas, inventions, and social changes require new words and ways of expressing ourselves. For example, the rise of social media has led to the creation of new words and phrases like “tweet,” “like,” and “hashtag,” which were not part of the English language just a few decades ago. As new words and expressions enter our vocabulary, they shape the way we think about the world and our place in it. This process is not just limited to the creation of new words, but also the evolution of grammar and syntax. Over time, the way we use language can change so much that it becomes almost unrecognizable from its earlier forms. Think hieroglyphics.  

My final thought, the constantly evolving nature of language is an essential factor in its role in shaping our perceptions, ideas, and thoughts about the world.

References 

SAR School for Advanced Research. (2017, June 7). Lera Boroditsky, how the languages we speak shape the way we think [Video]. YouTube.

This task is based on Ellie Brown’s bag series that “explores the duality between the way people characterize themselves in public and the private contents of their handbags”.

Tada! The contents of my transport tote, a gift from my daughter, many Mother’s Days ago. This is my everyday bag, not my school bag, on school days I carry at least two bags and sometimes more. This however is the stuff I feel is important enough, that I tote it around whenever I leave the house on any given day. Most of it is for practical purposes, and some for comfort.

• Phone/Digital Communication Device
• Wallet
• Keys
• Prescription Sunglasses
• Water Bottle 
• Lemon Powder
• Snacks
• Lip Balm
• Sanitizing Wipes
• Change Purse- which also functions as a mini medicine holder
• Picture of my daughter
• Young Adult Graphic Novel 
• Extra shopping bag
• Dog Poop Bags 
• Random Receipts

This stuff begins to tell the story of who I am based on what I carry with me. The specific contents may vary over time, but the items pictured here are pretty much the ones I carry consistently.

My phone,  today, is the most vital item in my bag, although it does so much more, maybe digital communication device is a better label. As a communication device, it incorporates written text, visual graphics, and oral/audio modalities.  It uses text for communication, text messaging and email, for entertainment, reading a story on Facebook or watching TikToc videos. It keeps me up-to-date on news and event and provides me with driving direction regularly. My phone also is useful for information storage, grocery list and contact list, especially since it seems that people, myself included do not remember phone numbers anymore.  This device/phone also holds my credit card information, Apple Pay is a wonderful convenience, I no longer have to carry more plastic cards than necessary.  I can use it to gain access to different venues by showing my ticket barcode on the screen. This digital communication device, referred to commonly as my phone is a compelling example of how text communication has changed over the years. Today writing messages and communicating has become increasingly abbreviated and graphic, with emojis allowing easier expression of emotions and tone through written communications.  If I lost this device, I would be lost,  I depend on it for so many functions.

My wallet contains both personal and financially sensitive information about me. My driver’s license, and debit/credit cards all provide digital information about me by accessing databases, They send messages about transactions and record my purchasing and location behaviours  

My car keys may indicate I live in a place that requires a vehicle to get around. House keys and fobs to access the garage and house, we lock everything up because this is the society in which we live, and we value our personal effects. Both sets of keys contain digital information that allows me to carry out certain functions in my day-to-day life.

Prescription Sunglasses, these are necessary for me to see, especially when driving. I also need my glasses to take in and process both print and digital media. 

A water bottle, lemon powder, and snacks just in case I find myself hungry or thirsty and these things are not available to me.

I use lip Balm (3) frequently and always have one in my coat pocket so I am not surprised I have so many in my bag. Sanitizing wipes, because you never know when you may need to clean the area where you sit down, maybe for lunch or coffee or to write a paper. My change purse has coins for parking, but more importantly, it functions as a mini medicine bag containing items such as  Motrin, dental floss, Tums and a variety of other “like” stuff. These items are all printed with directions for use. 

As another example of print media, sentimentally, I have kept a picture of my daughter as a baby in my bag since she went away to university in 2013. Of all the treasured images of her I have on my phone, I just can’t seem to remove this little framed picture from my everyday bag. I take comfort knowing I have that picture. 

Young adult graphic novel: In most aspects of my life, technology is integrated, I have an iPad with a Kindle app on it, but I still prefer my books in print. I enjoy reading print media for enjoyment and relaxation, and I like to keep up with YA novels to make reading recommendations for my students. I teach grades 6-8, and I am trying to instill the love of books and reading for pure enjoyment in students, although it is a challenge competing with the digital media world.

Extra shopping bag just in case I am out and need to pick a few things up at the store, I definitely do not need any more bags, so I always try to carry an extra one with me. 

Dog poop bags tell you that I am a responsible dog owner. 

These items in my bag would indicate that I am literate in both print and digital media, and I can switch between traditional and digital media depending on my needs.

What would my bag have looked like twenty years ago?

Twenty years ago amazingly I also had a cell phone, it was a Motorola flip phone, or maybe it was a little Blackberry, I can’t be sure. I do remember the reason I had gotten it in the first place was that my car broke down and I was stranded. It was an essential safety item then, and today, it contains “everything” essential to my day-to-day life. I have always carried a wallet with the necessary cards and cash. A first or second-generation iPod with headphones for listening to music, music has always been a refuge. I was also a working mother of a seven-year-old, so my bag was full of snacks for after school, children’s books, games, and crayons for passing the time in the car, riding the train or waiting for appointments. How time flies, and how quickly technology, items in our bags, and life change.