Phase 2: Post #12
My partner for this exercise was Joey. We had made up a zombie apocolapse story. there are 4 characters: a military man, a mad scientist, a scientist, and the main survivor.
There are 4 pros and cons that each character believed in.
saving humans
kill humans
saving zombies
killing zombies
The premise of the story constitutes that infected people can be reverted back to normal humans if they can find the right vaccine for the zombies. Although to find the vaccine, there has to be testing done on human subjects, and there is only 1 in 10 chance that they will survive this test. There is no guaranteed number of testing that needs to be done to find the vaccine either. There is another alternative solution where you eliminate all zombies and the virus will be eradicated.
Military man: Pro human life, Anti kill human life, Pro killing zombies, Anti saving zombies
Average person: Pro Human life, Anti kill human life, Anti Killing zombies, Pro saving zombies
Scientist: Pro Human Life, Pro kill human life, Anti killing zombies, Pro saving zombies
Mad scientist: Anti human life, pro kill human life, anti killing zombie, anti saving zombies
So now the story revolved around the scientists being able to make a cure with the given condition of sacrificing normal people. The main character the average person is conflicted that it doesn’t feel right to kill off normal people. So, he goes with the military man to kill the zombies, only to realize that zombies can be reverted back. Now, the mad scientist wants the world to end, so he is plotting against whatever the main character is doing. Eventually the group captures and puts mad scientist to his pause, and then they continue with the human experience to not only have a vaccine, but revert all the zombies back to normal.
Phase 2: Post #11
In this class, our guest speaker Michael Higgenstalks about his social justice tours, and how the tech he used ahs modified and transformed the cities he has been working in. accessibility and interconnectivity are just a few of the things that have been helping areas like downtown Brooklyn and the Projects progress of gentrification and become a much more advanced and suitable area to live. I remember how he discussed his trip to japan Tokyo and how google maps made him much more familiar with the place. I remember when my mother and I had visited Tokyo, and since we didn't have google maps available to us, we only had the subway to read, which was extremely confusing, especially since the language was foreign. Gentrification has both pros and cons, but hopefully with the new tech helping Brooklyn rebuild itself some of those pros will be reinforced and some of the cons will disappear.
Phase 2: Post #10
When I first went to NYU, one of the first clubs I visited was the LGBTQ+ club. It was not because I wanted to join actually, it was because my sister who went to NYU years before me had lots of friends in that club, so I was visiting to say hi. But every time id visit, id learn more about the LGBTQ+ community. The LGBTQ+ community environment is very welcoming and accepting of how people act, and understand not only the difficulties that may arise within each case by case scenario. Hearing Chris Woods talk about this community was very refreshing because the information was some that I was already aware of, but each time I hear it I learn a bit more. But one thing I never thought about was how technology affected the LGBTQ+ community, especially in these times. Talking with my group, we thought of how different environments and communication were extremely important. If I was someone who wanted to come out but was worried that my home was not the place to do it, I would go to the NYU LGBTQ+ community, but now, there are others who weren't able to do that. We thought about how different chatrooms and even different games would act as a virtual environment for these people to interact with those they are comfortable interacting with.
Phase 2: Post #9
Already I knew this was going to be an interesting talk because prisons are a very touchy subject. Very rarely do we get a speaker that talks about prison, let alone one that talks about there experience in it, and the lack of education in it. I already knew that we did not as a nation helps our prisoners after their rehabilitation and sentence has passed. Once there is any form of crime on your record, becoming a productive member of society becomes massively difficult. Hearing about NYUs prison education system not only informed me but made me happy. Just because they are in prison does not mean they should be shunned for the rest of their life.
Having them continuously learn and educate themselves about the world within school helps them become better and helps them become the people they want to be and pursue the path they want. Jerry's talk about the tech in his circumstance was extremely interesting, hearing about how limited he was with the tech he was allowed to use and the workarounds they had to use in order for him to learn properly.
Phase 2: Post #8
In this session of Diversity and Technology, our guest speaker, Michael Lindsey, talked about social class and how to help those who are not as fortunate as us. The McSilver Institute of Poverty Policy and Research is as the name implies, an institution that researches and helps those who are impoverished. I found the part of the talk when she mentioned STEM minorities very interesting because I never looked at different levels of class like that. To me, class had always been about a monetary amount of wealth at that exact moment. I never thought that tech could be used in statistics collected for models and diagrams in order to not only find but understand patterns for learning about the poverty rate.
Phase 2: Post #7
Open For Business is working towards the goal of increasing the inclusion of LGBT workings globally for multiple companies. One of the things that they have done that impressed me the most was that they were the first to bring LGBT problems to national TV. They have been very inspirational to activists from all around the region. Yvonne Muthoni spoke about different problems that arise in companies, and how having these companies be more accepting of the LGBT community would increase not only work productivity but ethic too.
One of the interesting points I heard was during Joshua Ogure's talk in the class, where he mentions mapping out impoverished areas, like slums and lower-class areas in general. having access to the geography of slums not only makes the easier to navigate, but it helps to identify different spots within the area, teaching others who don't know much about the area more.
Phase 2: Post #6
Both speakers, Chancey Fleet and Max Evans were amazing speakers, both engaging and informative. The topics they brought up caught my attention as well. What I enjoyed hearing about most was the double standards being portrayed that Max talked about. My sister is a lesbian who has a youtube channel, and I was able to understand more of what Max said because of the close connection. I do remember when my sister first came out to me. She told me before my mother and father because we were closer and I had much more of a lax attitude towards sexual identity cause I was in a younger generation. Then again, I feel like my response could have been better, because I may have been a little TO laid back.
I was playing a video game when she entered the room and said she had something to tell me. I told her what's up without pausing the game, and that's when she said she was gay. I paused the game, looked at her down and up, and said "Duh", before continuing my game. While the response wasn't the best, she told me that it was the best response she got to0 the reveal because it made her feel like nothing had changed, and it was normal. The fact I didn't care much meant that it wasn't a big deal in my eyes, and nothing would change or shake in our relationship.
So when Max showed us the app that told you your gender based on your biometric data, I thought it was ridiculous, because it was coming to a conclusion based on information that just want 100% accurate, nor even close.
Phase 2: Post #5
The speakers for this class were from FutureWorks Makerspace. I have been to a maker con before, a convention in California that consisted of different Makerspace styled companies and startups, all doing similar work in a very different fashion. Though when I was there, you needed to be very specialized if you wanted to be a part of that team, and therefore not many others could join. Futureworks is different than other maker spaces because anyone has the ability to apply for a membership with Futureworks. During this crisis, lots of the members and volunteers of this Makerspace have been building masks to help with the outbreak, which I find incredible because masks are not easy to make correctly, nor are they as cheap as they could be.
Not many companies that I know of have the mindset of looking at an applicant and seeing what they can do for the future, not what they've done in the past. The reason lots of jobs are tough to get is that the company will look at your past accomplishments in other work, rather than seeing what you can do for the company for the future.
Phase 2: Post #4
Multi-Sensory technology has always been an interest of mine because of my fascination with gaming. In order to experience something to the best of its ability, you must first be able to use as many senses as possible to believe that it is real. Most software just uses sight and sound. Yet we should also remember that senses do not stand alone. They can blend together in order to simulate a new sense. When we see an image, we can hear a sound sometimes, and when we smell something, we can taste it.
So with this information, the fact that that these people were able to create the Boston Linetype, an alphabet that would be accessible to both the visually impaired and nonvisually impaired, was very impressive. Though this design came with many of its own practical issues. The lettering was much more complicated then braille and took longer for one to read and learn. Of course, I do not know the answer to fix this, but the fact does lie some of these problems do arise with this new form of blind reading.
Haptic technologies are less expensive and not as widely used, so the technology seems less "privileged" than other audiovisual technologies. Though to me this seems strange because one would think that if it costs less, it would be more widely used. But it seems that the difference in the functionality adds to this definition of privileged.
Phase 2: Post #2
The Aging Incubator was a term that I had never heard before, and to be honest, the name itself gave me a little bit of a laugh. The name sounds like some sci-fi stasis chamber to freeze someone until they are needed for the future, Austin Powers style. but the talk given by Dr.Chodosh on Thursday was extremely informative and interesting. Not many organizations have the mission of improving the well being and of older adults and making sure the organizations that do that are also funded and designed properly. The number of accomplishments that the Aging Incubator had dome was stunning to me as well, and stood out how well they are doing, even in this time of crisis.