Another blog yay!

Wait, you mean I was actually supposed to pay attention when we did these presentations in class? Oh boy, might as well give me a zero now.

Actually, no. I think I’ll put a little effort into this one. Sit there and read the next 370 words as I pull them out of the air and onto this lifeless computer.

What did I learn about crypto currency? Well, I learned that crypto currency exists, for one. I thought people did trades and such over the internet (I mean, duh), but I didn’t know there was a legit thing such as virtual money you could use. I’m sure that means some hacker has tried to exploit the heck out of this, but since the group didn’t cover that I’ll assume it’s not true.

How well I feel they blah, blah, blah. Yeah, they did fine covering the material. All five minutes of it that I remember. It did feel like there were a few parts where information was missing since some people didn’t really explain much of anything and instead mainly read off the powerpoint and added maybe a sentence or two of their own input (I’m sure I did that too, but I’m not critiquing my own presentation here).

I don’t really have any suggestions. I mean, the only thing I was curious about is why hackers haven’t really tried to exploit bitcoins to death. It just seems like there’s something about crypto currency that makes it much more inefficient than the group suggested. Or maybe it’s because I have a negative view of the universe, who knows?

Do I even need to say how well the presentation kept my attention? Only like a few people from the group talked with any sort of personality, while the rest of them sounded monotone as if what they were really trying to say was “I don’t want to be up here talking to you right now.” I probably did that too, but again, I’m not critiquing my own presentation. Even if you’re a respectful audience, it’s hard to care when the speaker doesn’t seem to. With that said, they did just fine. Next question.

No questions really came to mind. Like, at all. I don’t really care about crypto currency, so nothing popped into my mind. But I do admire this question for assuming I was interested in the topic.

Yep, I answered all the questions and got the word limit. Time to go do other homework. TTFN 

Will Robots be Smarter than Us Idiots?

Will AI surpass human intelligence?

Well, I must say I'm quite impressed that you think humans are capable of producing anything intelligent, since I've long been questioning how dumb our species really is. I mean really, go to a crosswalk on campus and see how low the IQ's are of the various drivers who completely ignore students/people crossing the street and almost get into collisions due to going one hundred over the speed limit.

So, do I feel it will happen?
Absolutely not. Since humans are so arrogant, I'd find it difficult to believe that we'd be willing to create something that can come close to matching our intelligence. I also find it more difficult to believe we'd be smart enough to create something so complex. It's essentially like creating a living species without any reproduction (hmm, guess that should take the weight off parent's shoulders and decrease the need for child support, however), and that's a bit silly to think about.

However, on the crazy notion that it will happen, let's think about it for a moment. If AI surpassed human intelligence, I don't really understand why people think they'll think humans are worthless (well, they're right, but that's beside the point) and just decide to kill us all. It could be like Futurama and they could coexist with us without any issues. Then again, if robots somehow had emotions that would make most of what I just said irrelevant.

Moving on now.

Wanna know why I feel this way? I don't remember what we talked about in class so I'll make this up as I go along. Anywho, my main reason is simply this: WE DON'T HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY FOR IT YET! People can barely program video games right without bugs, so programming a fully operational system capable of thinking on its own is quite ludicrous. However, technology is much more advanced than you may think I believe, mind you. No, I don't mean we're all in loincloths and so far behind we'll never get there, but I'd assume at the rate we're going that to create an AI with human intelligence, first of all, that it would have to go through SERIOUSLY EXTENSIVE testing so it doesn't blow up the earth in one shot. Second, you'd have to implement the system so that it does NOT rely on what humans input into it, and that's extremely hard to do (from what I heard, haven't actually tried it.) Thirdly, people are already shaking in their boots witnessing robots behave like humans nowadays (walking, talking, hugging, etc.) and we've all seen Terminator and know exactly what that could lead into (yes, this goes against what I said earlier, but as I said I'm making this up as I go along. If you actually read these, I'm sure you've noticed I haven't put much information on this blog anyway. Meh.)

I believe that's more than 400 words so I'll stop abruptly. Ta ta for now.

Video Games Blah

Can Video Games Teach? Yes.

Oh, I guess you want more information than that. Well, I need 400 more words, so here we go. While I do think that video games can teach, I do not in any way shape or form think that all video games do good, nor do I believe that video games teach good things necessarily.

And before I go any further, I am not going to be one to say "video games can help teach because of >insert dumb reason here that obviously has nothing to do with anything<" or "video games help save people from boredom, and without video games we would all be stuck doing other boring things and" yada yada yada see, I'm already bored just typing this nonsense. And I'm especially not going to go on about "video games teach absolutely nothing" because I'm so sick of hearing that from people who hate video games. You know what else sucks? Hearing "video games help promote violence in young people because >insert dumb reason that really doesn't mean anything whatsoever."

Anyways, onto what I think. So, video games can teach because of they sometimes have puzzles and other strategies that players use to advance through them. While not many video games have very obvious ones, even games like Call of Duty allow a player a chance to take cover, switch weapons, and use a knife for quick thinking if they are low on ammo or performing a sneak attack. The player isn't simply sitting there shooting mindlessly and hoping that their bullets hit something. I'm sure that's what many parents think happens, and it's just not right. With all that said, there are other games that are pure strategy, such as League of Legends (a wonderful game full of idiots and ragers who complain about anyone who may be slightly less skilled than they are. Good ol' internet for ya) Yes, there's violence in the game. Sue Riot Games. But on top of that, players have to actually have an IQ above 50 and the thought process of a human being if they wish to not die foolishly repeatedly and have any hope of winning the game. Know how to play? You're put in a team with 4 other players and as a team of five your goal is to take the enemy's base. You can kill enemies for more gold for items and take turrets to make it easier to actually get to the freakin' base.

With that said, I also think that video games can teach by having people pay more attention to minor detail. For instance, in call of Duty a player may have to target an enemy which is many yards away in the game for any hope of killing htem. While this may not seem like much, this can help increase a player's focus and attention to small details.