Discussion 1: Would you rather?
“Would you rather have a robotic pet that looks and sounds exactly like a real pet, or one that is obviously a robot?” I would rather have one that looks and sounds like one because it would be more comforting.
“Would you rather have a robotic helper that can do anything but shares your information with the company that builds it, or a robotic helper that can only do what you teach it to but keeps your information a secret?” I would rather have a robotic helper that I have to teach because that would be a lot of fun to teach it and there’s a bonus: privacy.
“Would you rather have an AI math tutor that can solve any math problem but doesn’t tell you how it got to the answer, or one that can solve most problems but can tell you how it found the answer?” I would rather have one that can solve all of the problems because all I would have to do from there is fill in the blanks and figure it out and it’d be finished, there would be more work but I would have how I got to it.
Discussion 2: Journal Entry
Prompt: “Technology is all around us, but we don’t always think about how it impacts our lives. Write a journal about the coolest example of technology you have used or heard about that helps people. Then, write down some examples of technology that you have used or heard about that has been harmful, without meaning to be.”
I think that the coolest example of technology that I have heard about that helps people is the scanners being used for diagnosing diseases and helping prevent them. Some harmful examples of technology without meaning to be that I have heard about are dangerous cars without meaning to be is that can crash and kill people and run over pedestrians. Other dangerous technologies that aren’t supposed to be dangerous are other forms of transportation like planes, trains, and ships, which are also dangerous because of crashes and other forms of failure of the technology.
