Kelly+Sun

=WEEK 3: REPLACED BY A ROBOT = This past week, Google has been cooperating with a London based company called Deepmind to incorporate robots more into their workplace. In our childhoods, we have often watched movies of machines taking over the world and replacing humans in the workplace, and my question is, is that a good idea? I for one, am pretty skeptical about the idea of emotionless machines taking over our daily lives. Not only will thousands lose their jobs, but some professions such a teaching just simply cannot substitute humans. We would lose that human to human interaction, there would be increased competition for available jobs, and it is impossible to predict how out of control this could get. This past week, the class took a field trip to Johnson and Johnson, and although I have never been there, it was interesting to hear about the trip. When I think about it, I imagine the Oscorp's lab from Spiderman and how advanced that was. It would be interesting to see how robots and humans could work together to make advancements in our world or if we would eventually destroy each other.

But then again, could it be beneficial? For one, we would have so much more time on our hands. Robots do not necessarily have to take over all aspects of our daily life but maybe help in occupations and working together with people. This would lessen the work load and allow for more leisure time. Recently, Google has also created a driverless vehicle with a robot steering the car. It is able to deliver an item to the front door of the house also. __**Imagine opening your front door and seeing a robot deliver your** pizza.__

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevebanker/2014/05/30/googles-robotic-investments-driverless-cars-supported-by-home-delivery-robots/

link to the article about driverless cars created by Google.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/01/google-is-building-a-robot-ethics-board.html

Google has crated a new ethics board to supervise the new robot takeover in their workplace.

With this new "takeover" of robots into Google's workplace, they are also creating an "ethics board" to oversee that the robots do not get out of hand. Another company, Softbank, has created a robot that can express emotions... media type="custom" key="26173552"

http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/05/japanese-phone-company-softbank-shows-off-its-new-robot-customer/

Pepper, the robot is predicted to cost under $2,000 next year. This robot can read emotions and understand about 4,500 words.

Honestly, to me it is a little creepy. I wonder if our technology continues advancing at this rate, do we know where to stop? Are we running into ideas without thinking of the consequences? What do you think about the advancement of robots into our daily lives?

= = = = = = =WEEK 2: A LIFE WITHOUT FEAR = media type="custom" key="26092536" Columbia students find fear suppressing neurons.

It is impossible to live life without fearing anything. Whether it be spiders, heights, or more, it is an innate characteristic for all humans and animals alike. In some situations, it can benefit organisms by helping them avoid dangerous situations. ==== Recently, a group of Columbia students and researchers have found neurons in the hippocampus of mice that prevent fearful memories from forming. They found that the neurons that were mainly responsible for transferring information to the correct part of the brain are called "interneurons" (in region CA1) and can block out certain memories while keeping some, acting as a filter. Once the scientists deactivated this inhibitory neurons, the fearful memories stopped forming, and the mice no longer showed any fear. This research is monumental in that it can be used to discover what went wrong and more about post traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and more psychiatric disorders. ==== http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26249509 This link is to BBC news explaining this breakthrough experiment and how it could be used in future application



In one case, a woman suffers from a rare disorder called Urbach-Weithe disease, which destroys both parts of her amygdala, which then causes her to know no fear. She claims to have never felt fear, not even when she was threatened with a knife or gun. Instead of avoiding things that any normal human would do, she is instead attracted to them and curious. Of course, this is only one person and cannot be applied to all other human beings, but one can see the quintessential role that the amygdala plays in the expression of fear.

With this breakthrough discovery, one has to wonder: __**is eliminating the most primal human emotion a good idea?**__

When I think of living without fear, I think of all think of conquering obstacles that I would have a difficult time doing now. I would easily stand off a ledge on a rooftop to get a view of the city without my fear of heights, or run for an officer position without the fear of losing. The possibilities are endless for everyone and could advance our civilization exponentially. Although it may sound intriguing to rid ourselves of this, we must remember the benefit of having fear in our lives. Evolution has favored this emotion for a reason: __**it keeps you safe**__. Without it, humans would not be able to tell if they were in danger or not. Running into a burning building and feeling only curiosity could bring about injury or death. In class, we have learned about the abundance of life at Robbins Park. Of course, every single organism that we encountered is able to fear; it is a basic emotion. Even though we may think of it as insignificant, is important to remember that this emotion is so prevalent, that even the smallest of creatures experience it; therefore, this trait must be extremely important to life on earth. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-power-slow/201307/the-benefits-fear The benefits of fear are explained in this website.

http://www.wired.com/2010/12/fear-brain-amygdala/ The article that reports on the woman who has the rare urbach-weithe disease.

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=WEEK 1: THE FUTURE OF PLANTS = media type="custom" key="25990960"PLEASED presents a video explaining the concept of harnessing plants electrical signals to create a network of biosensors.

As the world becomes more complex and technology expands at a rate unparalleled in history, the problem of human beings rejecting nature and focusing on the materialistic world becomes more prevalent. To solve this problem, we no longer look backwards and try to force nature upon us, but rather to integrate the natural world with our synthetic world of technology. That is exactly what a team of scientists at Plants Employed as Sensing Devices (PLEASED) is trying to attain. It has been known that humans emit brain waves that have the power to generate electrical signals, but what many people do not know is that plants have that same ability. They can sense chemicals or external signals and transmit signals to other plants or in this case, a computer. Currently, little is known about the signals and what each one means, but once they are decoded, we can determine the stimulus that was the cause, and from there, we can then use plants as biosensors and create a network of plants. In class, we just finished our plant lab; almost all groups created an electrical signaling in the plant without even realizing it. Whether it was Gibberellins or pesticide, the plant responded to the external stimuli and created a signal. In the future, those signals can be defined to a certain stimuli, and then we can extract a signal, and identify the stimulus attached to it. From this, we can learn new information about the affect of pollution or other human practices and their effects on the earth, and hopefully create a solution to these problems.

Although PLEASED never exactly noted what they would use these biosensors for, I would guess that they could be used to determine the effects of pollutants on the environment and would take much less time than to experiment on these plants.

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3025753/using-plants-as-sensors-to-create-a-global-monitoring-system The original article that aims towards eliminating boundaries between the natural world and humans and envisions a new world in which technology and plants can coexist for the greater good. It talks about the progress made on examining plant signals and how they could be used for future use.