Reference no: EM133206642 , Length: 4 pages.
Assignment: Distracted by Communication
A. What is Alone Together's "origin story"?
B. What is the most important limitation of an "online all-the-time" social life?
C. What are some of the costs of being constantly distracted by communication technology?
D. In what sense does technology "make us forget what we know about life" (page xxii)?
E. Describe and discuss the tradeoff between the loss of privacy and the easier use of technology, e.g., Alexa's "always listening" feature.
F. In what respects is authenticity "threat and obsession, taboo and fascination" (page 4)?
G. In what ways does creating a social media profile blur the lines between intimacy and solitude?
H. What is the ELIZA effect? In what ways and for what reasons has the "romantic reaction" to the ELIZA effect given way to a "new pragmatism" about our relations with robots?
I. In what respects have computers and other technologies replaced pets as our "nearest neighbors"?
J. In what sense are Furbies "alive enough" to need their human masters?
K. What is a Turing test? How is it relevant to the "intelligence" of sociable robots?
L. Discuss the ethical issues concerning causing pain that are raised by sociable robots.
M. In what sense is AIBO a "toy that changes mnds"?
N. Discuss some of the psychological risks of the "robotic moment." What are some of the issues raised by aggression toward sociable robots?
O. What is alterity? How might it lead to narcissism in our engagements with sociable robots?