3/30 class notes

Note for 3/30

 

Skyping with MIT’s biological engineers

-       Intrinsic value of human beings

Paper due at midnight on Friday

-       Theorizing the experiences on the panel

-       Or a creative piece

Panel discussion

-       Psychiatrists

o    Relatively new field

o    Social sciences and hard sciences

§ Imaging and medicines

o    Feministic aspect

§ How many women are in the profession?

·         20% in 70s but a lot more now

·         It is more compatible with traditional women’s life style

-       Guiyu, China

o    Used to be a small farming town

o    They began to disassembling e-waste

§ From developed countries

§ Electronic wastes (Cell phones, computers, etc.)

·         They are toxic and it is inhaled by workers

§ We will be looking at the whole cycle of electronics

-       Facebook users

o    Using technology to create your own identity

o    How it changes social interactions

o    Doctors have noticed some psychological problems in young users

o    Gender roles and binaries created by using facebook

-       Arabic Musicians

o    Using music to reach Western world

o    Intersection with gender

§ Most singers are male

§ Females have more impact

-       U.S midwives

o    They are mixture of science, medicine, and ritual and spirituality.

o    The entanglement with political realm

o    There are very few home birth compare to other countries

-       Cyberpunks

o    They focus on high tech and low life

o    Opposite of utopic stories

o    There writers focus on engaging humanities and social sciences

o    They either break down the gender binary or go with the binary

-       Wampanoags

o    Sixty different sub groups

o    Their interactions with Pilgrims

§ Sharing technology

o    Their ability to speak English and French

-       REDDITors

o    Users of website called REDDIT

o    You can post, download, or can do anything

§ On a current event

 

 

Question

-       For facebook users, Arabic musicians, and Wampanoags

o    Opening up conversation with outside of the world

o    How does that affect identity?

§ Wampanoags

·         Europeans gave disease to Wampanoags, which killed lots of them

·         Matrilineal system started to break down

§ Arabic musicians

·         New songs posted on facebook that serve as connections to the Western world

·         Most of the songs used to in Arabic, but nowadays they are translated or subtitled.

§ Facebook users

·         Some users use to learn other cultures or to meet other people

§ Anne

·         One of the connection is virus

·         Possible communication with virus

-       What kinds of news are shared in REDDIT?

o    Not all of them are serious

o    The news posts are re-posted from large newspaper websites

-       How spreading of information affect the people within the virtual world?

o    REDDITors

§ Not very conservative views

-       How do you feel about websites that are very popular?

o    Guiyu

o    Technology advances so fast

o    Limiting information is not the way to limit the waste produce

§ It is possible to recycle them

-       Political and environmental issues with technology

o    How cyberpunks would interpret what is happening in Guiyu

§ Cyberpunks used the literature to call the readers into action

§ There is not much of distinction between men and machines

 

2nd Panel

-       Scientists of human genome project

o    The project was to identify the entire human genome

o    They are distributing their information

o    Although science and technology is advanced, there is a lot of problems in distributing information

o    The goal of the project was to help medicine and predict diseases to help them

§ Making genetic changes to make agriculture more effective

o    Ethical problems

§ Increase in knowledge how people will turn out based on their genes

·         Biological determinism

§ Paying a lot of money for research

-       Female gamers

o    Most gamers are men, but nowadays 40% of gamers are female

o    Majority of online gamers are women

o    Women play more frequently over day

o    Men will more likely to sit down and play for longer duration

o    Huge marketing toward female gamers

§ Games about raising babies and cooking

o    Social bonding experiences to improve their lives and lives of others

-       Female science fiction writers

o    Science fiction was male dominated field as the field of science

-       Nerdfighters

o    Dedicated to followers blog brothers (?)

o    Community formed around the brothers

o    Followers ask questions and they answer in their videos

o    They host charity events

-       First human tool users

o    Human ancestors and how it interrelates technology and gender roles

o    7 to 5 million years ago primers started to develop special muscles

o    Tool use required larger brains

§ Took large period of time

o    Females had to invest more in taking care of their young

o    Males had to go outside to hunt animals using tools and developed larger brain

§ They are more dependent on tools

o    Gaining of knowledge thru using technology

-       Young Arabic behind revolution

o    Social, economical, political issues of the country

o    Scientific figures

§ After the revolution, people started posting videos that show and broke the monopoly of information

-       Neuro-typical syndrome

o    Obsession with conformity

o    Started by autistic community

-       Deaf community

o    How they access information using technology

o    Facebook, youtube made possible for the deaf community to form a community and access the information

-       Surgeons

o    How their roles in surgery room changed

o    More surgeries more effectively

 

Questions

-       Would you define online communities real?

o    Arab teens

§ What makes virtual groups not real?

·         They actually do not know each other

§ For deaf people, it is real when they communicate virtually

§ But for others, it is still virtual?

-       Is there gender difference between how surgeons and deaf people use technolgy?

o    In surgery room, there would not be too much difference

-       More players are female, but the celebrities of gaming worlds are male. Why is that?

o    It is more marketable for female who are in the age group

o    Females are less likely to join the community

-       What is the motivation for the human genome project (in the perspective of neurotypicals)?