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Gaming and violence (Option one)

2004-07-26T13:53:00.000-07:00

Race seems to play a role in the way games are created. White males seem to dominate in games where women are sexual abused and other races need to be put in line. It would seem that there needs to be more minorities designing games besides white males. Obviously a women or a black man would want to not make games that portray them in a negative light so they should start designing games. For example the United States as a land of opportunity for years discriminated against women, but now women are becoming more career oriented than ever. Now women have been ceo's of enormous corporations, and played in sports games gaining just as much fame and future and the average man. I believe along with the feminist movement women will begin to slowly appear in lead roles in games just like they have played in movies. Catwomen is a good example of a lead role for a women where the women saves the world unlike the typical batman or spiderman.

I do believe that it will take a long time to see women on the violent side of video gaming, because it is know that women tend to be much more nuturing than men are. Given that women can make bigger strides in the sexism found in games a flip the coin by becoming more sexist against men. Look out soon there could be beach volleyball with hunks instead of babes!

I do think that on-line gaming blurres the lines of men and women on the internet as is stated in Kendall on page 71. The internet will and has made it so women no matter if they are stay at home moms can have a career and communicate via internet to become a more equal sex. I feel this is great even though I am a man that women want to be treated fairly. Who wouldn't?

"Identity" option one

2004-07-21T11:34:00.000-07:00

Identity is who you are. Identity can become blurred on the internet due to the fact humans can pretend to be someone they are not. Identity is the thing that makes an individual different or the same as other people. Individuals can be members of Bluesky, which outsiders will then form stereotypes. While on Bluesky members can pretend that they are of a different gender, race, or class. Identity can be a reality that is wished in the physical realm or can be altered due to curiousity reasons. Mudders they belong to websites like Bluesky form societies much like churches do. Societys that are formed on the net can be extremely superficial and at othertimes more personal. For example, blue sky members have meetings that are offline so that they can meet other members face to face. Some of the members that have been around for a long time are even called "dinos", which are mudders who have been around for at least 3 to 4 years (Kendall 21). The members that have not meet in the physical realm could be fictional in that there identity is completely made up. This is where ethics comes into play.

Gender does have a very different role on the internet. Just like guys are taught not to cry and for girls it is find these personalities also show up on the internet when mudding. Women tend to be less aggressive in communicating their ideas than men do. One member wrote about her first experience on BlueSky as "... disturbingly rough and rude" (Kendall 17). She heard blow job jokes and felt she was being sexually harrassed. She later found out that the members were ignoring her.(kendall 17) It is clear that on-line individuals might behave more bluntly then in phsical life. In an instance where two men might mointor what they are saying when a lady is present often may not be done on the internet, because all she would have to do is log off.

Cyberfeminism and Artificial Life (Option 2)

2004-07-12T14:20:00.000-07:00

Artificial life is the point at which a machine becomes a learning machine. It differs from artificial intellignence in that, artificial intellengence is programed to do certain tasks. For example artificial intellignence is like a computer playing chess (Kember 2). An Artificial life would be a robot, which could way pros and cons to a situation and then make a decision or decide on its own to go about completing a task differently without being instructed by chips to do so. One example of this would be a "A mouse will always lose at chess to a computer, but try throwing them both in a pond and see how they fare" (Kember 2). What this means is that one is adaptive and one is not for a machine to have artificial life it needs to apapt to different situations much like a human has to. Artificial intelligence is made by man and the only way artificial life can occur is through the foundation made by a human being. Where Artifical life came from was through science fiction where most of the ideas to design machines like humans cam from. The game of life is the idea of what the memicing of the cells in these machines do act like humans is.

Technology is ingrained in our society, which can almost be impossible to seperate from our daily lives as humans. Almost everything that is done whether it be work, school, or play technology is used extensively. Why artificial life is so appealing is due to the fact that it can be programed to do certain things and learn new things that could help humans make strides into new inventions and higher productivity at work. The downfall is if machines can designed and are made to transform into a machine with artificial life it can also become a lose cannon. Films like terminator show how a cyborg can destroy everthing that humans have worked for.

Also another definition of artificial life is "The idea that complex systems, such as life, are actually the emergent behaviors of systems with many elements that interact according to simple, local rules"(Ariel). Can artificial life include computers that are designed to resmble humans and make complex decisions, as well as humans that can become more like computers and complete tasks only dreamed of in Science fiction movies. Cyborgs can become more like humans, but can humans become more like cyborgs is not yet know. Doctors and Scientists have made it so parents can pick there own childerns eye color, but in the future will they be able to download information into their childern?

Midterm Paper Summary

2004-07-07T13:04:00.000-07:00

I wrote my paper on Seventh-Day Adventists and used there offical website to compare and contrast what seemed like one site that support and one site that falsely supported the SDA doctrines and beliefs. I touched on topics of racism, class differences, and discrimination. Although the websites that were compared and contrasted both seemed to be in accordance with Seventh-Day Adventists both were not. In fact one site that was called the Seventh-Day Adventist Kinship supported Gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenered individuals. The problem with that is that the Seventh-Day Adventist do not support this lifestyle. The church considers this to be a sin and is more supportive if individuals are opening to changing their lifestyle and then the purpose is to baptise the individual to save them so the enter heaven.

My thesis is "SDA official website by using faces of all different color to portray its beliefs, the use of easy navigation of its website, which leads to constructive discrimination on the basis of its beliefs, manages to capture a broad audience". My arguments are explained in these sections of my paper with examples and quotations. My evidence is given in multiple real life examples of how the SDA offical site appeals to a wide audience through avoiding destructive discrimination, class sophistication which hurts less affluent indivdiuals, and avoiding rascism like some religions do. My sources comes from three internet sites, a desk dictionary, and a book. Possible refutations of my argument are that the Seventh-Day Adventist church is too discriminating and that they need to embrace new ideas and ways of life. One example could be that if religion never changed then we would still be sacrficing lambs to get God to forgive us of our sins. My conclusion is that all around the Seventh-Day Adventist church is open-minded and appeals to a wide audience. The reason is that it doesn't hate sinners it welcomes them and tries to educate them in what is right. This is what religion does. If the individual does want to change than that is fine it is not like they are murdered for their lifestyle. It is not a threatening religion the SDA's to not murdered those that are different like some cults in this world do.

Whiteness, invisibility, dominant cluture

2004-06-30T14:56:00.000-07:00

I do not feel invisible very often on the web due to the fact of the American influences on the web. In other words due to the fact of Hollywood and the internet being born in America there is more influence in english and American culture than any other culture. I feel invisible only when there is so much information on the web, which makes me feel small. I feel like I am normal when I feel that I look at what everyone else looks at on the internet. When I use google search engine I feel very much american. I feel that language is a huge determinate of whether people feel like they belong when on the internet. For the reason of feeling like one belongs is why there are so many different language uses on the internet like yahoo U.K.

Compare/Contrast Brasher and hate.com video

2004-06-28T14:40:00.000-07:00

Brasher discusses all the postive things that religion does for our society. For example Brasher puts a postive spin on religion and the internet by portraying My little 'Putter Prayer. The pray "offers a justification that God should bless the computer because the ability to form and maintain online relationships is analogous to the ability to form and maintain a meaningful relationship with God (Brasher 40). What Brasher does not discuss is the negative things that religion promotes such as all the wars in the name of religious beliefs. Brasher portrays religion very one sided. I do not see the horrible effects of what the internet has helped terroist in their plots of destruction in Brasher. The internet provides a place that is easily accessible and often times helps support others in need, but what basher forgets to mention is that it can be used to spread hate and well as love. Hate websites are being built on the web daily and these sites are doing the opposite of what Brasher protrays seems to be the most negative thing is that hackers destroy property on the web and the Havens Gate incedent. What about hate websites that obtain followers to kill others that do not believe in the same manner.

In the video of hate.com websites whites banded together to form a society in which they could destroy anyone that was not white. The purpose was to cleans the earth. The internet is clearly a place that needs to be mointored. Given that internet was used to help with the september 11 attacks on the world trade center and Oklahoma bombs by using things like e-mail and websites there should be more governmental mointoring on the web. The main reason is that in possible riot situations there is police officers ready to protect innocent people from being hurt, but what about threats on the internet are they not important or real. Until hate is contained in the United States, which is probably near impossible there will always be threats on society as a whole and our freedom. What the video and Brasher agree on is that the internet provides a community for those of similar beliefs to come together for a specific cause.

What does religion do? What should it do?

2004-06-23T13:13:00.000-07:00

What religion does is that it provides people with something to believe in. Religion is often times built on trust and faith that what one person believes in, is true. For many people it is a place that they can find themselves. Also, religion provides a foundation for others to come together and talk about their life away from the busy lives of working. Religion is also different to every individual. For this reason alone there are hundreds if not thousands of different religions that one can accept.

Religion can be accessed through different medians, which provides a very different experience. In recent years the internet has provided a place that people can worship in far off lands in seconds where as it use to be impossible to worship in this manner. Religion also provides friendships and belongingness for people searching for something bigger than themselves.

Religion should provide a place where people can come together and feel that they can share their experiences in life and work on their problems without feeling threaten. Religion should be designed to take in members as if they are family and provide a place that people feel comfortable in. Religion really should do what people want it to do, which could be that it follows the old biblical doctrins in the bible or be a man made religion. What religion is, is what we as a people make of it.

Profile, Jon

2004-06-21T14:08:00.000-07:00

I think this class will be about heated topics relating to communication done on the web. I think that digital diversity is different people from all walks of life getting together via through the web to have effective conversations without destructive sterotypes getting in the way.