Hacktorial Tonight: Quantum Computing By Sean Bae

In the book Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac, Ned Begay is a young Navajo that experiences the horrors of white boarding school as a child. After graduating, he volunteers to be a Marine in World War Two as a Navajo code talker. Being Navajo had both a positive and negative effect on Ned’s life.

Code Talkers, written by Joseph Bruchac, was an prodigious novel, several words of wisdom were said throughout the piece. One of the many quotes from the book was “Strong words outlast the paper they were written upon,” to me this excerpt from the piece has the meaning that it relates to a piece of paper that Ned Begay carries in his wallet of the Navajo Tribal Council passing a special revolution in 1940. Although, the paper states that the Navajos are ready for war, I think the main reason it’s has such a significance to Ned is because it had left an impression on him. He was fond of the idea that his people could participate in war and without them the country would have lost severely. Many quotes influence people in certain ways, this quote

MAS 10B (also known as Mexican-American 10B) is a course that helps students’ become exposed to a different perspective by using a historical, cultural, and political approach within readings, discussions, and group work regarding about the ongoing Mexican struggle and how it affects us. The course examines this in a chronological order of the Mexican struggle with the capitalist in 1848 to the May Day 2006 marches. Overall, the course presented through a different perspective and provided us with tools to analyze each event, whether it would be the strike of the local-890 mill to the 1992 Los Angeles riots that all these events are linked to the present day and the impacts it has had for Mexicans.

It became a point in time, where enlisting in World War II, was the mentality of providing a unique opportunity. During this time, segregation was running the United States and ultimately whites ran the show. Many white teachers made others feel useless and inferior to others. The American society was in a transition period of cultural expansion. Whites felt the need to require patience, tact, and a high tolerance for injustice. For Navajo Indian Ned Begay, he wanted to make a difference and prove them wrong. Ned was intelligent and interested in learning and doing well in school. As a high school sophomore, recruiters came and appointed him for a special mission to learn and break the unbreakable code that was based on the Navajo language. This book “Code talker: A Novel about the Navajo Marines of World War Two”, by Joseph Bruchac, symbolizes the grueling journey of being a crucial part of the United States during World War Two. The deeply affecting novel honors all the young men, like Ned, who dared to serve for the opportunity to save countless American lives. “The lives of many men depended entirely on our memories” (1 Bruchac). An honorable group of men who took their culture and language of the Navajo Indians to break the unbreakable code against Japan.

The book QB1 is about a freshman high school quarterback named Jake Cullen. Jake’s father and older brother both used to be quarterbacks at the same school and also both won state championships. This puts a lot of pressure on him to perform well and live up to their accomplishments. Despite the immense amount of pressure surrounding him, Jake wins the starting job for the Granger Cowboys and ultimately leads his team to a state championship, creating a legacy of his own. Jake's journey to the state championship changes him in many ways. Although, Jake is only a freshman, he will have to become a better quarterback and leader to win the state championship under the Friday night lights.

In the film, The Matrix, a world exists where machines rule over the human race, using them as an energy source. The film plays with the idea of a real versus simulated world. In addition to reality, the film portrays certain Christian and non-Christian based themes. These themes are discussed by Gregory Bassham, along with the presence of religious pluralism, in his article “The Religion of The Matrix and the Problems of Pluralism.” Bassham’s article is unbalanced and does not follow his thesis statement; however, he employs topic sentences to introduce new ideas and explain how they are relevant to his argument, and secondary evidence to prove his claims.[Thesis statement doesn’t explicitly say whether the rhetoric techniques are good or bad. ]

Ironically, these interests stemmed from the least scientific place possible--my 4th grade reading test. While taking the test, I came across an article about AIDS, something I had heard about but never tried to understand. As it was an assessment, I was forced to read the intimidating article, only to find it extremely interesting! Immediately after, I wanted to find out more. However, these are not topics generally taught in elementary and middle schools, so I did a lot of self-studying, reading scientific journals--such as AAAS Science--and watching videos online. Then, as an eighth grader, I was given the opportunity to participate in a weeklong bioengineering summer camp at the University of Illinois, which was filled with exciting lectures and activities covering topics ranging from cell culture to imaging techniques; it covered so much that my naive eighth grade self could barely retain all that information. However, in particular, I vividly remember one specific lecture about quantum dots and how they could be the next big frontier of cancer research. Throughout the lecture, the more the professor elaborated on his studies of these nanocrystals, the more giddy I became with questions. How do quantum dots interact only with specific cells? Could quantum dots be used to monitor radiation levels in patients? When the professor finally took questions at the end of his talk, all my curiosities poured out, turning it

‘Freakonomics’ was written by a University of Chicago economist by the name of Steven D. Levitt. The book is a collection of articles written by Levitt, an economist that has a reputation for applying economic theory to subjects not usually covered by economists. In Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner, a co-writer of ‘Freakonomics’, state that economics is ‘the study of incentives.’ The book contains six chapters ranging from topics about cheating in sumo wrestling to legalized abortion lowering crime rate. While it was published in 2005, it covers many controversial topics from the 1990’s when America was in a pre-nine-eleven world.

In John Searle’s essay titled “Minds, Brains, and Computers,” he presents us with the “Chinese Room” experiment where he describes a scenario of himself inside a locked up room. In this room Searle is given a batch of Chinese writing or in other words the script, a second batch of Chinese writing which is the story with a set of rules in English, and questions in Chinese with English rules. Of course with Searle being a monolingual English speaker he has inability to comprehend the Chinese language. Therefore, Searle uses the given English set of rule to correlates one set of formal symbols with another that is he is classifying the symbols by their shape. With this technique he manages to answer the Chinese questions in Chinese thus making

In “The Matrix as Metaphysics,” David Chalmers, contemporary philosopher of mind, illustrates how the Cartesian “Brain in a Vat” fable (interchangeable with Descartes own “Evil Devil”) , used as an epistemological thought experiment, treads in the field of metaphysics rather than epistemology. Chalmers argues that, even if man’s world is dictated by these brains in vats, even if man’s world was ruled by an evil devil who purposely deceives their perceptions, man has largely correct beliefs about the world. This idea, however, defies Descartes original intention of the thought experiment being skeptical. So, how does Chalmers make a skeptical and, therefore, an epistemological argument one that is metaphysical instead? To make such a claim, Chalmers first substitutes the “Brain in a Vat” hypothesis with, what he calls, the Matrix hypothesis. The two hypotheses are practically equivalent, the only differences being that the Matrix hypothesis predicts a virtual, computerized world rather than the imaginary world which the “Brain in the Vat” hypothesis predicts. After this substitution, Chalmers goes on to argue that, if man is computerized, then there may be some creator, outside of their spacetime, who built said computer (Creation Hypothesis). He then says that, if man’s world is computerized, then, under all its physical processes lie computer code which accounts for those processes (Computational Hypothesis). Chalmers follows up by saying that, if man is computerized,

Few minds of this century have had an impact like that of Stephen Hawking. His discoveries and work have expanded the forefront of knowledge with a likeness to that of Einstein and Newton. Despite the clear adversity Hawking has faced, his achievements have been nothing shore of extraordinary. His work on the understanding of space, time, and the origins of the universe has set the golden standard for theories on the universes beginnings and mysteries, proving a staple teaching of modern education which we may take for granted.

The general consensus in the academic world is that knowledge is power that can solve humanity’s problems. Sometimes, it is clouded by greed, or it lights the way for a better humanity. Scientists experiment to prove new theories, artists sculpt to express emotion and theologians study to provide interpretations of biblical stories. Therein lies the problem, while society is always searching for knowledge, to date there is no singular “foolproof” method of obtaining it. In the movie “The Theory of Everything,” Stephen Hawking has a “eureka” moment when pulling a sweater over his head and seeing flames through the material. In this case, it seemed that serendipity played a role in his search for truth. This led me to wonder, to what extent is the discovery of knowledge a matter of serendipity that can then go on to solve problems? While an exploration of whether knowledge is produced only to solve problems in the Natural Sciences may be more obvious, its application to Mathematics and Indigenous Knowledge may draw some interesting observations.

Defining intelligence is extremely difficult and researchers now think that there are lots of different aspects to it, including; social, logical, creative, emotional and practical intelligence. The correct representation of the word is arguably a matter of opinion as there are many different definitions. With this argument in mind, it makes the task of arguing a Computers level of intelligence (if any) harder as, ultimately, each person’s definition could be different. A part of being intelligent is the ability for something/someone to be able to think for themselves which most computers aren’t able to do as they are simply programmed to perform certain functions which means that they are not in control of their response. However modern technologies have the propensity to make decisions based on an input from an end user. For example Apples ‘Siri’ service turns voice commands in visual and audio responses.

In his paper “Computing Machinery and Intelligence,” Alan Turing sets out to answer the question of whether machines can think in the same humans can by conceptualizing the question in concrete terms. In simple terms, Turing redefines the question by posing whether a machine can replicate the cognition of a human being. Yet, some may object to the notion that Turing’s new question effectively captures the nature of machines’ capacity for thought or consciousness, such as John Searle. In his Chinese room thought experiment, Searle outlines a scenario that implies machines’ apparent replication of human cognition does not yield conscious understanding. While Searle’s Chinese thought experiment demonstrates how a Turing test is not sufficient to establish that a machine can possess consciousness or thought, this argument does not prove that machines are absolutely incapable of consciousness or thought. Rather, given the ongoing uncertainty of the debate regarding the intelligence of machines, there can be no means to confirm or disconfirm the conscious experience of machines as well as the consciousness of humans by extension of that principle.

Virtual High school is becoming more and more popular. But is it really the best option for your child? My parents are planning on sending me to a virtual high school. But I totally disagree with that Idea. Here's why. There's no doubt that online schooling can’t get you the proper education that you need, But if your alwaysways on the computer, surrounded by no one but yourself and maybe a parent. Then how is it possible that you will be able to learn any social skills. When you first think of this it may not seem like a bad thing, but when really, it’s a huge issue that will shape your lifestyle.