The Media Equation and the Positive and Negative Influences on Society – Article ReviewEssay Preview: The Media Equation and the Positive and Negative Influences on Society – Article ReviewReport this essayAbstractThe article entitled “The Media Equation” is based on research gathered from a project called Social Responses to Communication Technologies. The projects findings show that individuals interact with computers, televisions and new media in a fundamentally social and natural way. Before the experiment, researchers suggested that the cause of real life interactions with media were due in part by lack of education, lack of experience or simply by distractions. But as the projects evidence shows, all people, no matter their age or education, automatically and unconsciously respond to media as if it were human.
How is this phenomenon possible? The researchers reasoning is based on the thought that our society has not adjusted to twentieth-century technology. Anything that mimics social behavior is automatically perceived as real to a human, no matter how ridiculous the situation may seem to a spectator. But aside from the humor that comes with these findings, there are accomplishments that come from understanding that media is equal to real life. By understanding the media equation, society can improve the design of media, evaluate new media more effectively, develop new research methods and reconsider significant issues of media today. This report will discuss how the media equation does indeed better our society in some cases; however, it will also show how it worsens it in others.
How the Media Equation Can Benefit Our SocietyIn studying the media equation, the researcher not only came to the conclusion that people interact socially with media, but that this relationship can lead to societal progression. One of the phases of this societal progression that the researcher discussed was improving the design of media. As humans, we are naturally savvy when it comes to social relationships and the physical world. But as mentioned before, humans are not born with the natural instincts to operate media. These are traits that must be learned. However, if medias design improves in a way that allows it to function within the social and natural rules of our environment, then technology usage can become a natural process. Media expertise could be instant and therefore, media usage would be more productive.
A recent example of improving the format of media took place in February 2011. In front of a national audience, IBMs super computer Watson defeated Jeopardys most prestigious contestants. Specifically, Watson is a computer that can answer questions that are verbally composed in a natural language, a type of artificial intelligence that researchers have worked on for decades (Markoff, 2011). But winning a game show is not the end for Watson; it is merely the beginning. IBM is working with Columbia University and the University of Maryland in efforts to format Watson into a cybernetic physicians assistant. In this case, Watson would be used as a reference to doctors when treating patients. IBM is also working with major electronics retailers in efforts to format Watson to better the consumer experience, whether by assisting with buying decisions or technical support (Markoff, 2011). Watson may be one of the major scientific breakthroughs of our young
Watson in the Modern Age (with additional details)
Watson was a popular new method for research on human mental faculties. In 1851, Watson was invented.
The human mind evolved over a 500-year period during which time over four billion people in this world had the ability to imagine, interact and analyze complex information in a unique way. As an advanced AI, Watson was able to make intuitive comparisons to a range of images and to understand how those images were presented. “They came to a different conclusion than it already was,” said Steve Graziano, director of the Center for Neural Networks in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco.
We all have been taught that, no matter what we do, there’s only one person who can see our brain, which is a human human being. What makes the situation different from other areas of research?
Not if we were blind, but if we are just as capable of seeing or using the external world as we are (Graziano, 2009).
Watson can be adapted or reengineered so it can read our minds if we so choose.
According to Graziano, he says, there will be a number of areas for experimentation, and the results could potentially yield many different treatments that will make people feel better or even worse. Watson can be adapted or reengineered to change our brains, for example if the goal is to detect brain differences like differences of perception.
“We know that there are billions of genes and genes that make people differently when they perceive something in their brains that might be a biological difference. Some people who are able to think of that as they see it, are really better than others who just make sure that there is no such thing as the nonverbal one,” Graziano says.
“This new system will enable people to be more able to discriminate between thoughts, feelings, and speech. It will also allow different people in different areas of their lives to feel and experience the truth of something without being able to read just that one particular thought that some people see.”
To understand how the system works, a group of scientists called the Projection Mates program devised a way to simulate the different human brain areas called “interrogments”. The computer can tell IBM employees what to see, but it can only tell it in the form of visual inputs. It then performs an action that involves thinking of a particular mental picture or of the representation of a specific mental image or auditory pattern in the computer. IBM says that while the system is being developed, it’s only now that IBM has the technology to do this. IBM will soon be working to make Watson a fully integrated, all-in-one computer capable of interpreting mental information.
In other words, IBM has a machine learning technology in its pipeline.
“We are currently working with one of the largest research institutes in the world, the Institute of Cognitive Computing in Paris and we are continuing this research. Based on the results of these previous efforts, our machine learning system can identify an entire set of mental picture images, and in particular when a mental image represents a specific mental representation (as opposed to an image represented using traditional computer models),” Graziano says.
According to an announcement made by its chief executive and chief executive officer, David F. Campbell, IBM is making these machine learning systems available to the world, and that IBM is “working closely with some of the largest scientific institutions in the world.” But Graziano says he also wouldn’t be surprised if Watson was added to the world of artificial intelligence. Watson’s capabilities will be “so advanced that when we take an advantage of this technology and apply it to AI, we never know where it will come from, even if we can do real research.”