Critical Thinking Blog -Assigment #3***

    We can define Human Cloning as the making or creation of a exact copy of a human being ("Human Cloning"). Both scientists and humanists had been debating for a long time on whether or not human cloning would be ethical and possible to realize. There are two types of human cloning "therapeutic cloning" and "reproductive cloning". Therapeutic cloning is about using cloning of adult cells for medicine and reproductive cloning is involved in making cloned humans ("Human Cloning"). Even though we are now able to create clons from animals, there had been both succesess and failures on these procedures. One example is Dolly the sheep, the first successfully cloned mammal; she got very sick and eventually died. "Improvements in cloning technology have enabled researches to generate mouse, cattle, goat, pig, deer, rabbit, cat,mule, and horse clones" ("Stem Cell Research"). Using one essay "The singularity is Near" from our couse pack by Ray Kurzweil, the play "A Number" by Carly Churchil and several videos related to human cloning from our LIB 110 class I will discuss the different opinions related to the future benefits and  harms of the introduction of human cloning to our every day life.


   In the excerpt of the book, The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzwiel is presented a very optimistic view about human cloning and how it will be very benefitial for medical purposes. Even though the author thinks that it is too soon to assure that human cloning can be done with out any mistake, he is sure that this will happen some day. The author suggest that "Once technology is perfected in terms of safety, the ethical barriers will be feeble if they exist at all" (Kurzweil 122). Ray Kurzweil makes very important assumptions, explaining that cloning in general will be very productive for the development of our future societies. With cloning is possible to get animals with desirable sets of genetic traits (Kurzweil 122). It also will be useful for pharmaceutical production. Cloning will also be useful to bring back extinct species and to protect those which are in danger. The author basically is completelly positive about the use of not only human cloning but the use of these technique for different purposes. The author writes "cloning technologies even offer a possible solution for world hunger: creating meat and other protein sources in a factory with out animals by cloning animal muscle tissue (Kurzweil 124). This means that by allowing the cloning features be a part of our scientific aproaches with out criticize it as not ethical or harmful to us, we will get a lot of benefits like less expensive food.


   The play A Number by Carly Churchill present to us a very different point of view about human cloning. The author shows the story of a person who decided to clon his son and sent the original away; but what he didn't know was that not only one clon was made, there was lots of them; which at the end generated a lot of conflicts. The father whose name is Salter was very agressive, a bad father and a bad husband too. Which is why her wife killed her self. Since there was a lot of conflicts between he and his son Bernard, he took a drastic decision, to clon his son and forget completelly about him. Salter was a very good father with the clon B2, he treated him very well; but he started to question all the things that happen with the original son, so he found a lot of terrible things. Thanks to the actions of the father the original son grew up been agressive and negative about life; he hated his father and the other son too. B1 some how believed that B2 took his life away and that the father was loving B2 more than him. All the cloning stuff generated feelings of hate and frustration on B1 so he decided to kill B2 and eventually kill him self. With this play we can realize how frustrated will some persons feel knowing that they have been cloned. Some of them would suppose that their lifes and their own selves had been taked away; pushing them to do dangerous things or taking wrong decisions.


   In our LIB 110  seminar, we saw some parts of the movie The 6th Day; which shows the story of a man who finds out that he has been cloned and that some how his life has been taked away. This movie shows that some how people are seen as material things, like a cell phone which you can replace with a new one at any time. Humans will eventually be replaced with a clon. The main character in this movie finds out that his family, his wife and children are with a clone of him self doing all the usual things that they use to do with him!. He tried to do a lot of things to get his life back. This movie has a especial connection with the play A Number, because both of them show all the bad things that cloning humans could bring. They also show how cloning a person means taking away his identity and his life. Both the director of this movie and the author of this play portray cloning in a bad way; they think that it affects the person cloned in his personality and social interactions for the rest of their lifes.


    In conclusion, I believe that we will never arrive to an argument strong enough to support or criticize the idea on whether or not human cloning should be realized. Also it is important to realize that other types of cloning can also bring benefits like a less expensive kind of meat giving us economic benefits. Human cloning would maybe gave us the opportunity to extend our life or make us immortal; it also can bring animals back from extiction or protect those in danger. On the other hand it can take away the opportunity for us as induviduals of be unique; making us in extreme situations take dangerous decisions like maybe killing somebody or our ourselves.

my research paper status!

* I have allmost all my sources, but I need the movie reviews for I-Robot... can any one plz help me how to find them.... aslo I would like to find more information on AI..

Critical Thinking Blog- Assignment #2 ^.^

     Technological devices are making a very big influence  in our today's society. Now we use technology for almost everything. Devices like computers and cellphones are used every day for thousands of people around the world. They are used to solve even the most simple tasks, and to communicate with others. In the actuality scientists and researchers are working in even a more advanced type of technology, Artificial Intelligence. This type of technology is defined as the science of making machines that can do the kinds of things that humans can do ("Artificial Intelligence"). I think that is very excited and interesting at the same time to have in our near future machines or "robots" specially, doing the same kind of activities that we do, and maybe been friendly and close to us like a "human" friend. 

    In the book "The Singularity is Near" by Ray Kurzweil we see a very optimistic point of view about AI. The author of this book try by a lot of different ways to show us how robots and technology will be very benefitial for the development of our society and future generations. The author says, "a super intelligence could give us indefinite life span, either by stopping and reversing the aging process though the use of nanomedicine, or by offering us the option to upload our selves" (Kurzweil, 137). This means that AI will not only gave us the opportunity to interact with robots like with other human beings but it will make us live longer or for ever. The development of artificial intelligence would change the way in which we think and share information with one another; having robots around would help us to live a less stressful life, because we can use them to realize any kind of job or task we want. I believe that the idea that some where in the future we will be able to create robots with consciousness like us, is just evidence of the amazing capacities of the human mind.


    The essay "Dream- Logic, the Internet and Artificial thought" by David Gelenter gave us a more realistic view about AI. The author says, "expecting intelligence to emerge on the Internet is like expecting a car to move when you floor the accelerator, even though it has no motor" (Gelenter, 207). This means that no matter how hard scientists and researchers try to generate consciousness in machines and robots it will be impossible to generate; since they lack the basic element of consciousness, the brain or mind. David Gelenter gaves a lot of value to the human intelligence. He is completelly sure that computers and machines will never be able to act and behave like us. He gave a lot of reasons to support his view, some of them are that computers lack a lot of characteristics that will enable them to be consciouss. Like free-association, hallucinations, and stimulations. Basically David Galender believes we will have in the future very strong machines but never with consciousness. Instead we will have "zombies", super intelligent machines that will sound and behave intelligently but with no consciousness at all.


    In our LIB 101 we saw a video call "Waseda Face Robot- ROBORAMA"; in this video a robot is presented simulating all types of human face expressions. This video is very helpful for us to understand how advanced is the ideal of AI so far. The robot in this video has a lot of human abilities; he reacts when someone speaks or hits him; he can hold an apple without damage it. He can say hi and bye and so on. This robot show us that it may be possible to create a machine that will act and think just like humans. This video relates to the ideals in the book by Ray Kurzweil, which I metioned in my second paragraph. They both agree that to generate consciouss in machines is very possible and that it will happen in a very near future.


    In conclussion, I think that AI will be possible in a near future. I'm pretty sure that there is nothing we can do to stop it from happening. I also believe that it will bring with it both benefits and harm; even though robots will be very useful for us and will make our lifes much easier. There is the possibility for them to take over and use us maybe in a extreme case as their "pets or their food"...

research paper example-Comments!!!!

I found really interesting ideas in this research paper! there are very good quotes! and the thesis is very clear! I would like to use  the same format for the quote sandwiches because I think the author made them very clear.... I learn today that is very important to explain how useful are the quotes that you are using to explain the theme for your research paper.... !!!! ^.^ This paper gave me a lot of confidence and show me the structure in which the explaniations for my sources should be distributed! I like it a lot!!!!

Sharing a Research Paper Source!!!

The most important source that I have found so far is an article call "Intelligent Collaborate Agents" by Shimon Y. Nof, it is from the web cite www.acessscience.com. This article will be very useful in my writing to show the influence of robots and technology in the work force. It is a very intersting article showing the interactions between humans and computarized programs like the agents! it includes all the details of how this program really works and how useful it is! I will use it also to contradict the argument that the movie I Robot  presents in telling that the robots will not be beneficial for humans at all.

Critical thinking Blog -Assigment #1***

Hi!!! ^.^

     I'm Laura, I was born in Colombia, in a city call Medellin! I hope that all of you are enjoying this cluster as much as I do. I'm very optimistic about technology, its rapid advances and development! I think that technology make our life so much easier, because it can help us finish our tasks in a shorter period of time. Technologies like robots are just a demostration of our own abilities and intelligence. I think that if we know how to work things out they can became our best friends!! ^.^ Technologies gave us the opportunity to be communicated with our friends and family in all parts of the world. I believe that technology is a great opportunity to change for the better the future of our children and the next generations; with technological devices like air conditioners and heat, we some how can extend our possibilities of a better quality of life in places with extreme and changeable weather conditions like New York.


    I love technology and everything related with it, so I believe that some where in the future robots will have consciousness as we do. "Once strong AI is achieved, it can readily be advanced and its powers multiplied, as that is the fundamental nature of machine abilities" (Kurzweil 140). I agree with Kurzweil that artificial intelligence will get as same or better than human intelligence. It will be great to share coments and thoughts about different kinds of stuff with robots!, and have robot-friends or robot-teachers!! ^.^ and so on... I consider my self for the most part a science person. 


   In my college career I find it very useful the use of technologies like computers and the internet to get information for my essays and projects. I love robots and I'm very fascinated with all the things that they can do until now. My major desire is to become a counseling psychologist, so I think that technology will be very useful to study the people's minds and behaviors. With technology new medicines can be created and a lot of lives can be saved! :) With technology information can be easily distribute through societies so we can expect future generations with very high intelligence standars! I dream of a world in wich humans and robots will interact, live and help each other! :)

rEseArCh tOpIc part 2!!

I'm sure I will be working on topic #5.... but I change my mind about the movie....instead of I-Robot I will use "Terminator" I think this movie has a lot more examples on the impact that robots and technology have and will have in our society!... I'm not sure which book to use..... I need help with that!!!! I need to find a good movie review....I have so much ideas but...... there is a lil bit complicated for me to find the sources...