Final thoughts on COM 435

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Posted by dmcnulty | Posted in | Posted on 8:51 PM

Alas, this is my last post. My last semester is nearing, and this is my final assignment of my undergraduate career.

This past week we did poster presentations. I presented on Monday, and my topic was about MIT's first robotic opera. Death and the Powers will premiere across the U.S. and Monaco during the 2010 - 2011 theater year. The plot line revolves around an inventor named Simon Powers who decides he wants to live forever. He "downloads" himself into a machine called The System so the essence of who he is can live on past his own human life. It is a topic that even came up during our own class; where is the line between human and machine?

My poster highlighted six main sections. One section covered the synopsis of the play, four sections discussed specific emerging technologies implemented in this opera, and the final section talked about the importance of this play for the performing arts community. I also attached two iPods on my poster that displayed the opera's trailer. Overall, I was really pleased with the outcome of my poster and presentation of it. Below is a description of one of the technologies I talked about during my project.



On Friday, I went to the other half of my class' poster presentation. I looked through their displays, asked questions, and then tweeted about them on my Twitter account. I enjoyed learning about my classmates' posters quite a bit. What I find most interesting is how each student is drawn to a certain type of emerging technology, and that is typically what they did for their poster.

Finally, COM 435 was definitely an experience. I have learned about technology through my jobs, husband, and friends, but I have never been a part of a class that's sole purpose was to encourage information sharing about emerging technologies. I already knew about several topics we discussed in class, but there was so much more that I had never even heard about before this semester. I hope I can use some elements in my future public relations career.

Farewell, Professor K and Prashant!

Critical Analysis Paper #2

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Posted by dmcnulty | Posted in , , , | Posted on 12:54 AM

This week I spent a lot of time writing COM435's Critical Analysis Paper #2. The topic was to discuss cyborg ethics. What is a cyborg? Well, I'm glad you asked.

A cyborg is "a human being whose body has been taken over in whole or in part by electromechanical devices," according to a Princeton dictionary.

Basically, the assignment was to pick a cyborg technology and describe it within a certain perspective while utilizing a specified course reading, TED video, and two sources of our choice. I was really moved by the TEDtalk from Aimee Mann and did some research on her; my goodness, she is an amazing woman. TED won't let you download the video but check out her video in the following link:


My paper dealt with bionic legs as a cultural disruption to the Olympic and Paralympic community. My paper primarily focused on one South African athlete, Oscar Pistorius, and how he has grabbed the world's attention as a double amputee running using Flex-Foot Cheetah legs. He has achieved several gold medals and world records from the Paralympic Games, but now he would like to compete in the Olympics.


I won't bore you with my whole paper because frankly, I think my only reader is the person who grades my papers. However, there was more I wanted to discuss that did not fit into the five page limit. So here we go.

Using Flex-Foot Cheetahs do not take away the chance of injury to cyborgs. Many who oppose bionic legs in the Olympics believe it is an unfair advantage over able-bodied athletes, when in reality, it seems like cyborgs still face similar but different challenges. For example, Cheetahs are designed to have a human foot shape at the end of the prosthetic limb, but the shape is not identical. The Cheetah foot is more like it's on its tiptoes all of the time. Cyborg athletes, especially those who were not born with legs but become amputees later in life, have a difficult time learning how to balance and shift weight with the change in bodily proportion. What's more, there are still technical glitches in harnessing Cheetahs or any other similar bionic leg. Pistorius explains a story that happened to him in this situation:

Ossur’s R&D team [the company that makes Cheetahs] met them at the company’s workshop and unveiled the prototypes. Brauckmann attached the blades to the sockets, and Pistorius walked around on them, testing the design.

They were too soft, Brauckmann told Ari Clausen, an engineer at Ossur. Oscar would to break them.

Clausen didn’t believe it. His team had factored in every force Pistorius could possibly apply to the carbon fiber. So the next day, Pistorius put them on, jogged a bit, and cracked them. Clausen built a new set; that afternoon he took the South Africans to a track to try out the replacements — Brauckmann had doubts about the new pair as well, but Pistorius wanted to give them a try. He strapped in, stretched a bit, and started to jog.

When Pistorius falls while running, it’s less like a stumble and more like a skiing wipeout. A few months before the Reykjavik trip, at a training day in South Africa, one of his blades split with a sound like a snapping two-by-four. He hit the rubber track going about 25 miles an hour, and bounced and slid 10 yards before stopping. He didn’t break any bones, but the road burn took weeks to heal.

This time, as Pistorius started running he heard some creaking noises from his right leg — something felt wrong. Sure enough, the blade splintered. But this time Pistorius was able to pull up and slow down. He avoided the fall and hopped back to a chagrined Clausen, who tossed the prototypes into his huge tundra-and-magma- field-crawling Dodge Ram pickup and headed back to the workshop.

What bothered me the most while reading the people who oppose people like Oscar Pistorius from running in the Olympic Games is that they don't consider these challenges. Cyborgs are treated like second class citizens out of fear. I understand the difficulty in defining this gray area in athletic competition --- when does a limb go past the point of aiding one's mobility to giving someone super powers? However, the international sporting committee should welcome the Paralympics into the Olympics, in my opinion. I think it would make a beautiful statement about harmony and providing more attention to athletes with disabilities. Plus it would be rad for the world to understand what a cyborg is.

Those are my two cents. For now,

Dana


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