jose fernandez, week 4, networks/systems/AI

This week’s lecture was on biology, networks, natural systems, and artificial life. I thought that I was going to enjoy this lecture because I am planning on majoring in biology. It was unfortunate that we only had class on Monday. We had to see a movie on Wednesday. The lecture dealt with things that are now widely recognized as important aspects of life. The first thing was the first network between two computer systems. It was predicted by H.G. Wells in 1937, which was similar to the internet, something ahead of its time. It began with two computers and then it spread out to a several other systems. Presently it is called the internet and has expanded globally. We were shown complex models of the various networks computers have established across time. I guess the networks were being compared to the web of life or the food chain. This was the biological aspect. I did not really understand this part. Then the lecture shifted to an interesting topic in artificial intelligence. I was seeing the movie I, Robot this Sunday and I found myself remembering what we had talked about regarding artificial intelligence. Robots are able to be constructed in a way that they can carry out tasks just like humans do. Yet their lack of emotion and sentiments is something that prevents them from actually being human like. I believe Joseph Weizenbaun was the man that stated that robots would never make intelligent decisions because they lacked human characteristics such as emotion. Many decisions come with that thought of what might happen and the consequences. A robot is just programmed to do tasks with out thinking about them. Another topic that was interesting was systems. We were shown several types of systems and how they function. These were self-assembly, which deals with the repair of a malfunction with out the help of an outside source. Similar to this is self-organization. There is a control system which regulates behaviors of systems. These can all be found in humans. There is the nervous system, the digestive system, and the heart. These were the thing that caught my attention of the whole lecture.
The movie on Wednesday was quite interesting. It was called Brazil and for the entire time I kept wondering why it was titled that way. Anyways the plot was wacky and very futuristic. When the professor said it had a connection to what we had been learning. For the most part I was able to recognize how the place where the main character worked as a system. Many people work as one to get the job done with the boss being the central part of the system. Apart from this I had a hard time connecting the lectures to what was going on in the movie. Unfortunately I had an appointment at 11 so I had to leave class early. I am sure I missed some of the connections the professor was talking about. Overall it was the worst week so far.