I believe that both Joy and Kurzweil have relevant concerns and hopes concerning our future and technology. Like before, I believe that these men are much to extreme in their predictions. Yes, microscopic technology capable of completing nigh impossible medical procedures would be a wonderful thing to have in the future, but it might not be as close as Kurzweil predicts it will be. And while we may not be living in a scifi-filmesque world soon, this may not mean that technology is going to kill us either. The fact that Joy pulls in the Borg from Star-Trek also makes me question his believes. Since the beginning of humankind’s obsession with technology, there have been polar opposites in beliefs. In class we discussed how people thought that television could dramatically help people by educating them or delivering information instantly, others thought it would make everyone zombies who just sat in front of the box for hours. As it turns out, it’s been a little of both, except nothing as dramatic. Yes, there are benefits, and yes there are downfalls, but either way, it has been incorporated into our culture pretty smoothly. It’s just something that’s become apart of us, and while some people focus on it more than others, it hasn’t really harmed or bettered our society. And honestly, I believe the same is going to happen with our future. Look how fast the internet has assimilated into our lives. It’s not killing us or helping us all that much, there aren’t that many extreme jumps in technology that has entered our lives. I believe that Moore’s law is quite plausible, but it reflects the human race’s obsession with money. As far as technology has advanced, people have focused their efforts to provide more products for consumers. Even medical corporations are now focusing on create new forms of treatment, but not cures. A company can make much more money providing pills to keep people alive, but a pill that can cure will not make much money. This may be the same with futurism. Technology will advance greatly, but we’re going to be kept in a middle ground because companies will never allow the public to have the most advanced appliances, we’ll always be kept wanting the next best thing, and because of this, our lives are going to continue the way it has been for forever. I truly believe that the future will remain more or less the same, our possessions will just be more advanced. Life will go on. And I really don’t believe that we’ll ever get to cheat death, and even if we did, I’m sure enough political problems will arise, and human rights activists and religious zealots will have it shut down one way or another.

I think that while the Turing test is good for testing whether computer programs are humanlike, but it might not be the best for testing intelligence. Because intelligence is so subjective, it is hard to accurately test whether something or someone is intelligence merely by asking them typed questions. For example, a simple calculator can solve mathematical problems, but a person sitting at their computer may not. Also, because people are so different, it is hard to judge whether they are intelligent from typing questions to them. The adult phone sex programs can memorize names, ages and such, and they can fire back provocative answers and pass as a shallow human, but I don’t think this makes them intelligent. Even people sometimes forget names and ages, and some people may not even be capable of talking dirty back, so the Turing test might not be able to fully test something or someone for intelligence. In class we mentioned that there was a program that mimicked a paranoid person, and while the program can produce responses that fit its character, to some people it would be obvious that it was a program, while to others it wouldn’t. Because both intelligence and the Turing test are subjective it is hard to say whether the test itself is really a good test. A person unfamiliar with technology is much more likely to be fooled by a chatbot than a computer scientist would be. The bots in games like Counterstrike are also more likely to be spotted by an intense gamer than a mom who has never played before. Bots may be able to spout off different insults, but actual humans often come up with strange insults that don’t actually include obscenity or profanity. Even simple automated responses programmed for business hotlines may fool people who don’t have experience with them. For example, if a grandma who has never even heard of automated responses called Visa today, she would be greeted by a human voice, then prompted to say yes or no in response to the human voice asking which category her problem fell under. The voice recognition technology might be able to convince her that she was talking to a human, but to most people today, it might not be able to. This applies to programs tested with the Testing test. No matter how advanced computer programs become, there will always be a handful of people educated in that field who can recognize the programs using the Turing Test, and there will always be people who can be fooled. Because the results from the Turing test vary from person to person, and program to program, I think the Turing test is not good test of intelligence, but it is not the worst either.

Personally I believe that internet addiction is a major problem with people today. The internet, compared with other dangerous vices, seems like a minor problem. A parent is less inclined to worry or confront their children about the use of the internet than if their children had narcotic problems.

Personally, I started using the internet when I was very young. Because of this, I began to spend all my time in my computer room. From the time I got home from school to the time I went to bed I was on the computer. I wouldn’t spend time with my parents even they came home from working overseas (which they did for most of the year). I didn’t play with my little brother at all. After a while, I somehow stopped going on the computer because I realized it I was spending up to 8 hours a day on it. I might have been able to stop it cold turkey but I know of many people who couldn’t.

My cousin, who is two years younger than me, is a bright young man. When Counterstrike became popular a few years ago, he completely lost touch with the world, he spent all his time in his room on his computer. His grades became so bad, the only way his mother could threaten him at all was to take away his computer. He managed to find the computer she had hidden in the garage. His internet addiction got so bad, my aunty no longer subscribes to cable or the internet. The internet has consumed his life, and he’s nearly failing out of all his classes. I think he may be getting better now, but he still spends all of his free time in internet cafes.

I think that internet porn addiction is also a HUGE problem. Because internet porn is so easily accessible, many young teens are able to find it. Personally I know that internet porn addiction can cause problems in relationships. My friend’s boyfriends would lie about it, and try to hide it. Curious teens can form self destructive habits, a lifetime movie about a boy addicted to internet porn was even made a few years ago.” Cyber Seduction: His Secret Life" starring Jeremy Sumpter, shows how much porn addiction can affect someone’s life.

Antisocial behavior, Effect on personal, professional or social life, Obsessive, compulsive or self-destructive behavior, Denial, lying or deception about usage, are all symptoms I’m seen concerning people and the internet. Internet addiction may seem silly, but it affects many people, and it’s scary because most people don’t even seen it as an addiction or serious problem.