Group Project

This group project was a lot of fun to work on-- I know very little about artificial intelligence but watching the movies gave me a new appreciation of it. The three movies that my group watched were Tron: Legacy, Eagle Eye, and Stealth. I chose Tron: Legacy as my film, mostly because Daft Punk composed the soundtrack and I absolutely love them. The concept itself is very interesting: the creation of a digital world composed entirely of information that takes the form of light cycles (motorcycles that mold to your body, composed of digital information) and computer programs that take the form of human avatars. The world is ruled over by C.L.U., the human avatar of the original creator Kevin Flynn who staged a coup and wrestled control of the world from Flynn. He aims to enter the human world through the portal that Flynn's son Sam has created by accidentally entering the world. The prospect of perhaps having this technology become plausible is very exciting, even if it's highly unlikely. Working with my group members was great-- I was lucky to have tech-savvy people in my group so we were able to craft in what my opinion was a very efficient presentation. It was a great way to end the semester!

Dr. Greg Appelbaum's Lecture

I had written this post two weeks ago, but realized it's been sitting there as a draft and not published, apologies!

I attended Dr. Greg Appelbaum's lecture on cognitive neuroscience, specifically semantic analysis, and networking. I will preface this post by saying his talk was very confusing to me because of the extremely specific nature of his research and his use of terms that were completely foreign to me. His research interests spanned a wide variety of academic endeavors, in particular neuroeconomics, neurorhetorics, and vision and attention. I had actually participated in a neuroeconomic study for his lab, as I wrote about in an earlier blog post. In this particular lecture, he talked a lot about neurorhetorics, and the way that words related to cognitive processes in our minds. He presented data on the networks of words and how they related to each other, showing intricate maps of words and attributing emotions to the way we link these words. I remember taking a course about the brain and linguistics my freshman year, so this kind of research would interest me greatly. I believe Dr. Appelbaum's work is important to discover the new ways in which neuroscience may be applied to the world at large. I am excited that this kind of research is being conducted because emotion and language are two entities that interest me immensely, and the combination of the two is very unique.

My Good Pal Scooter

This blog post excites me so much because well, I love puppies. Particularly my own little fella named Scooter, a German Shepherd I got when I was 11. He is a wonderfully peculiar kind of dog, he understands both English and Chinese (whenever I say "walk" or "eat" in Chinese he goes crazy), and he behaves a lot like a cat (he loves to rub himself against people's legs and he loves being clean). When he was a puppy, he used to sleep on his back. When I would kneel beside him, he would put his paw on my knee. Simply put, he is the best dog ever. The best thing about having Scooter was watching him grow from a puppy. I think he displays a remarkable amount of emotion, and while many would dispute the suggestion that dogs have emotions, I believe they have a large capacity to feel and express them. Scooter is very particular about what he wags his tail to, he's not like a Yellow Lab whose tail muscles are so strong from wagging they could probably take out a small child. When we used to punish him when he did something like steal the knobs off of our stove, we would put him in his kennel. When we let him out, he would creep out, head lowered and tail between the legs. Of course after seeing this, all was forgiven. Like any other dog, he becomes ecstatic at the prospect of a game of tug of war or catch. This happiness becomes exponentially greater when he gets a treat, and he has figured out that since I always ask for his paw when I give him a treat, he's decided it would be better to give me two at once. All of these little habits and unique expressions make me believe that dogs, while perhaps not as 'intelligent' as humans, are more similar than we allow them to be.

My Favorite Philosopher

I have to be honest, I know of many philosophers but don't know many specifics about what they believe. The only philosopher whom I know more about is Confucius, because of my interest in history. Confucius had several beliefs that the world should be more aware of. Filial piety is something that has fallen by the wayside, and I believe it has a place in modern society. His emphasis on focusing on the self and strengthening one's own beliefs and morals above all else is a very intriguing and important belief. Self reflection and meditation should be more prevalent in today's society. Now I don't believe in ancestor worship, but the teachings of Confucius should be applied more liberally to thought today. Although it may not be considered philosophy, Confucius espoused norms for social etiquette that encouraged self control and reflection. 

A Puzzling Dilemma

Going back to my first blog post I ever did for this class, I mentioned that I was particularly interested in the link between public policy and neuroscience. Economic games happened to be my favorite part of the intro public policy course I am so this module of our neuroscience course is particularly interesting to me as well. My favorite economic game is prisoner's dilemma, not only the outcome of both defections is particularly interesting and counter intuitive, but of how prevalent it is in politics, economics, and neuroscience. The most interesting example my public policy professor brought up was the application of this game to the fact that sometimes, contrary to the belief of people who believe that the the economy will naturally provide for the needs of society. The example was a multi-party prisoner's dilemma, in which one society had to decide whether to put in streetlights. You would think that everybody would want to chip in for lights, but it is actually in each individual's personal interest to not contribute and hope to freeride on others. Therefore, without government intervention, the lights would never be put in place. Prisoner's dilemma is not just a hypothetical theory that is rambled on about in textbooks, it has a place in everyday policymaking and political strategy. 

Violating Social Norms

My experience with violating social norms was a bit anticlimactic; I expected a lot of chiding to which I would apologize profusely for my rudeness. I have also realized that my confidence in approaching strangers is not exactly very high. Since I am on the bus every other day for class, I decided to wait until the largest bus was at its fullest to ask the poor fellow next to me who had snagged a hard-earned seat if I could have his seat. He looked a bit startled before awkwardly saying "Um...sure" while looking very confused. Other people around me seemed to give me dirty looks and thus, I vowed never to break a social norm again. I think I was lucky that the person I asked was a guy, because it is definitely more acceptable for a guy to give up a seat to a girl. If I had asked a girl, I think she would have denied me the seat. This made me reflect upon how much control we humans have over establishing social norms, yet seem to shy away from attempting to make efforts to change them. This made me wonder exactly how and when these norms were established, and I think it's truly remarkable that we humans abide by these rigid laws that when broken, are actually unpunishable.

Under the Influence

There are so many instances of people under the influence of hormones, it is quite a concerning phenomenon. I must admit to it as well, why just last night my cortisol levels must have been through the roof with the stress and excitement for studying for my last midterm! They are a subtle part of every one of our actions and since they are constantly coursing through our veins it is difficult to write about one instance where someone's actions were influenced by hormones. Somebody quite close to me (name kept private for confidentiality purposes) experiences alarming mood swings due to the hormone activity prior to menstruation. It is quite frightening sometimes, so if any of you chance upon this person during this period of time, I advise you to get out of the swing zone. Need I mention the numerous arguments I have had as a moody teenager with my parents? Let's just say my oxytocin was very active that day, my mother can induce fear responses in me that I'm sure a lot of people can related to.