The, Artificial Intelligence Pioneer, By Edward Hoagland

“Living Under Circe’s Spell” written by Matthew Soyster, and “On Being a Cripple” written by Nancy Mairs are short stories in which both of the main characters are faced with the extreme hardship of battling Multiple Sclerosis. Mairs and Soyster both depict their situations in ways that can be compared and contrasted in order to determine which of the pieces is more effective in creating an argument based off of their tone, purpose, and audience. Both of the short stories are written with the purpose of portraying their own opinions on MS (Multiple Sclerosis), and both are written to an almost identical audience, being the public eye in general, but the more specifically those who are yet to form a solid opinion on MS. However, purpose and audience aren’t the only building blocks to these stories. The combination of tone along with pathos and syntax also proves to be fundamental in creating ideas that do the job of portraying the purpose in a persuasive way to the targeted audience in order to argue that

Nancy Mairs is a woman living with a incurable disease known as Multiple Sclerosis, however with the assistance of a cane and wheelchair, she is functioning her life almost identically to she was before. In Mairs essay, Disability, she describes how she has been examining the media to find similar representations of herself within the media. Mairs found one example of a woman with Multiple Sclerosis on television, which the main focus of that individual was on how terrible their life is, and how they almost have no hope. Mairs views this as a problem, and believes that “physical disability looms pretty large in one’s life. But it doesn’t devour one wholly.” Mairs continues to explain how she is fairly similar to all the

Humanity, a concept that has existed since the beginning of time; a characteristic of people as opposed to God or animals or machines, especially in being susceptible to weaknesses (dictionary.com). An idea that was first introduced during the colonization of societies that has ultimately been implemented into our way of life through a specific set of rules and laws. The idea of humanity has been a question that has been left unanswered for centuries. What does it truly mean to be a human? Is it based on the idea of being an empathetic being or does it strictly come down to the obvious makeup that every living creature is made of; biology.

Humanity is a confusing concept. There are many different ways to describe it. Humanism is how we live our lives, the choices we make, and the way we act. Being human also means to be imperfect, or to make mistakes. As humans, we all make mistakes and all do things that we regret that could change our lives in a huge way or in a small way. Being human also means to have emotions like love, sadness, and happiness. Sometimes humans emotions get the best of us and humans do dumb things, but sometimes emotions are good and bring good into your life. Being human also means to have relationships whether, it be a spouse, a child, a friend, or a girlfriend. The last thing that humans endure is loss. Overall being human means to have emotions, have

Humanity is defined as all human beings collectively. When we speak about human nature we question the quality and condition of the human race, as well as the quality of being human, kind, and benevolent. Benevolent. The search for what made humans able to achieve benevolence in a way no other animal could. The question of what it means to be human is so important not because you need the answer to be human, but because it defines us in such an essential context. Understanding is so significant to our fundamental existence that we constantly question “why?” Two philosophers proposed resolutions as to why we, as humans, are so different than any other animal on this earth. Why? (notice how the human mind is ever asking that question) Simply because the query of

Our world is amongst living creatures on a daily basis that is commonly referred to as the term “human.” Although many do not take the time to analyze and look beneath the surface on what the term “human” truly means. So we come to the question, “what does it mean to be human?” Does it simply mean to be apart of the human race and to have opposable thumbs? Or perhaps does it mean to be compassionate, understanding and loving to those around you? Famous philosophers and psychologists of our world spent their lives devoting time and knowledge into dissecting this topic in detail. It is to no surprise that not one person came to a direct and narrow explanation as

Humans have made tremendous strides in learning about our early ancestors, but many questions remain about how and why we are what we are today, and there are as many theories. Chris Stringer, author of Lone Survivors, attempts to answer some of those questions. The question of “what makes us human” is a complicated one, with many different answers. Human beings evolved into what we are today not only through evolutions in genetics, brain size and body size, but also through our behaviors. So much about our behavior is unique, including a belief in a higher power, the art we create, and our stone tools, and is a major part of what makes us, us. Everything we are able to do today is, in part, because of our ability to think abstract and use symbols to carry our ideas through generations. There is not just one thing that makes us who we are, but a culmination of all sorts of behaviors and traits that we have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years.

The origin: Elementary School, I was seven years old and completely friendless. This second grader had just gotten done being the laughing stock with her two bright casts taken off her legs and the wheelchair being removed. Hard times had not quite started to fade yet, sadly I learned slower than the other kids at this time in life. Now instead of being the physically handicapped like before I couldn’t help, but feel mentally impaired to top it off. This in turn trapped me in “Speech Therapy”. A wretched place that was made to undermine students reducing their confidence and overwhelming their brains with childish talk. It took the whole year to be released of that horrid place. Now it was to be the third grade and I was determined step

Being a human is a lot more complex than people believe it to be. Although we can be similar, we’re unique to any other mammals or animals in the world. Humans are a difficult species to understand. We’re constantly changing and creating or discovering new things, throughout our world. Being a human isn’t always easy; we get things thrown at us suddenly like sickness or death, things go wrong such as failing a test or going through a breakup, and the most challenging thing; trying to fit in to our crazy world. Unlike our most common primate, the apes, we have a difference in physical appearance and anatomy, a stronger and wider broad spectrum of communication, and a complicated system of emotions and feelings.

Artificial Intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence processed by machines, especially computer systems in which can ran as robots. AI systems are programmed of acquisition of information and rules for using the information to reach approximate or definite conclusions. There are various applications of AI expert systems, some include speech recognition and machine vision. In the story of Traditions, we are introduced with La Maquina, a AI robot who lives with a Mexican household family who serves as a maid essentially. "Y Mira, you're interested in cooking, in being a curandero, in learning her ways" (Gonzales, Kindle). The writing style in the story is engaging because of Gonzales focus on Mexican culture and traditions in this futuristic world. I believe in cases like these this benefits the family in functional aspect of living. Having a robot/assistant perform tasks around the house can be very helpful. Such as cleaning, babysitting, cooking this can allow for us humans to focus on more important things such as trying to live a healthy lifestyle and focusing on school or work. In the prologue to this story, the author talks about incorporating their tradition to today’s world. There is a rising conflict between Mictan and her grandmother. Grandma wants Mictan to live a certain life but does not agree to what she ultimately thinks about it. The robot seems to have a high-performance technology because of her communications and abilities we notice right away,

To start off, we should point out that it is indeed true that literature can make us reflect on the world. In the novel The Fault in our Stars, the main character, Hazel, has lung cancer. She remarks on how she does not like it when her parents worry about her because it makes her feel like the driving source of their misery, or as she puts it in the eighth chapter, “...I was the alpha and omega of my parents’ suffering.” (John 116). I found that idea legitimately interesting. It is not often one considers what patients think about the reactions of their loved ones regarding their disease. This passage made me reflect on how we as a society treat the disabled, and how we romanticize their suffering. Literature can make us consider the

The response to this basic yet regularly made inquiry is that we are people. We are a being with the largest amount of cognizance living on this planet. Furthermore, as that, we are distinctive, and our feeling changes with such a variety of various perspectives and circumstances. We are not methodological, we are controlled by our most profound feelings and that extends from affection, fear,

The movie Her, by Spike Jonez, questions the notion of who we are in the sense that it shows us that artificial intelligence can also feel, evolve through learning and contact with others, and become a ‘human being’. As far as I can see, the question of artificial intelligence has been present for some time. Most of people cannot accept the fact that one day artificial intelligence could learn to feel just like we do because they say that it was not ‘born’ in a conventional way but it was created by people, and thus, it is a machine. Throughout the movie, Spike Jonez used a variation of close-ups, cuts and acousmetre (Chion, 9) to transfer the emotion of the main protagonists and their love relationship. According to Balazs (60), art deals with human beings which makes the close-up so powerful because we are brought into the very ‘soul’ of a person and it is normal for all people to start reading the facial expressions. As Balazs (60) implies, facial expressions are the most subjective manifestation of men and Jonez truly managed to fully show the wide range of emotions using close-ups on the main protagonist, Theodore. According to Balazs (62), the close-up with facial expressions creates an out of space moment with all of the expressions related more to each other than to space surrounding it. This is why the space in close-ups is usually blurred because the focus is on the facial expression of the person.

Thousands of years ago, in the dry African savannah, the human’s earliest descendents hunted for food and scoured the land for water. The main priority at that point was simply to survive. Humans have come a long way since the stone age, and continue their advancements and innovations in the age of technology. The dictionary definition of human is “sympathetic; humane” or “to be a human being.” (Human) However, to be human is a deeper and more elaborate definition. To be human cannot be boiled down to a straightforward elucidation; it is a complex answer to a simple question. Humans are defined by their undefinability, and by the collective learning that allowed for the expansion of human knowledge.

Another way to distinguish humans from other animals is through a cognitive viewpoint. The capacity of human cognition is unique when compared to other animals, and is most evidently seen through the ability to communicate via language. Finally, on the cultural measure, humans are unique and distinctive in their willingness to increase the chance of survival through limiting their offspring.