My Thoughts On... Medicine & Technology

Alright, this will probably be the last blog post til Christmas, because of exams and other stuff.

Just a few notes before I continue with 'My Thoughts On...":

- I've already got one New Years resolution, and that is to post on this blog more, haha. I realize I have kinda dropped the ball on posting recently (like since September? haha). Most of the time, I just forgot that it even existed. But its not like anyone actually reads this thing anymore anyways....

- This is my favourite time of year, Christmas time... and its only 8 more days to the big day. I've tried to keep in the mood with Christmas movies every night of the week, although exams are hampering on this tradition. But Christmas just puts me in another mood, a happier frame of mind, and makes me thoughtful for what I have been given and optimistic for what is to come. I can't help but smile everyday when I put on my Christmas bell bracelets and I turn on my Christmas lights. Its just a great time of year and I love it. =D

- Okay, enough chit chat. Without further ado, here are my thoughts on the fusion of medicine and technology. How relative to the holiday season. < /sarcasm > hahaha

Will we eventually take care of all our health issues online? Will medicine and technology fuse together?

I think we are already headed in that direction. The main goal of technology has been to make our lives easier, proven with the combining of products, such as MP3 players and cameras, into one all-around device like a BlackBerry or iPhone. It just seems logical that technology will continue to branch into all parts of our lives, including our medical and health issues.

The internet has already started in that direction with the creation of WebMD, an online medical information website, which allows viewers to see different medical topics and search based on symptoms, among other things. The success of WebMD shows that people are looking for convenience; they would rather look online for diagnoses than actually visit a physician/doctor.

Some examples of medicine and technology fusing together are bionic legs that are controlled by a joystick and artificially grown lungs. Giving paraplegics the ability to walk again is an extraordinary development with the advancement of technology, as is the ability to grow artificial organs for possible human use. These developments are major breakthroughs in their respective fields, all possible because of the medical field merging with the technological field.

This “fusion” of the two fields can be seen as only the beginning. Ideas only dreamt about in previous decades can now be seen as possible. Robotic arms for amputees? Artificially grown organs for patients in need of new one? Genetically engineered anti-viruses to fight and possibly end cancer? These ideas are all possible with the binding of technology and medicine. Just as long as know where the line is and we learn from the ‘Terminator’ movies and do not let machines take precedence over human life. If society lets that happen (and hopefully not in my lifetime), then God help us all.

My Thoughts On... Second Life!

Sorry for the lack of updates. I have been, to quote the magician from Frosty the Snowman, "Busy, busy, busy!"

So I will continue with my continuing segment of 'My Thoughts On...' by talking about Second Life.

Is it dangerous to have a second life that is more desirable than your ordinary one? Are Second Life and other avatar-based programs a form of escapism?

I don’t think that it is dangerous to have an online second life; it is just how you use it that can be detrimental. I believe once your second life becomes your sole purpose for interaction, that is when you have crossed into grey area. People are fascinated with living different lives. A perfect example would the ever-popular videogame called “The Sims”, where you define what your character looks like, what they do during the day. Almost every possible characteristic can be defined in “The Sims”. Things like Second Life, The Sims, and World of Warcraft are all fine and dandy, but once you cannot recognize the line between the real world and the fantasy world, you've gone too far.

I definitely think Second Life and other avatar-based programs are a form of escapism. People always dream of having a better life, usually because their life in the real world has been a struggle filled with loss and failed expectations. Life is hard. People make these second lives to live the life they determined they have missed out on. In this case, a created online avatar was used as an alternate life to live out in a fabricated digital world. I am an optimist. My life so far in my twenty years on this earth has been hard, filled with pain and loss. But I have to believe that things will get better and they do get better. In my opinion, you cannot dwell in the past. You have to move on and make the best of the life that you have. A fantasy world is just that; a fantasy. These ‘second lives’ are a form of escape for people that think they have missed out on life in the real world and that all they have left is their lives in the fantasy world.

My Thoughts On... News Ownership!

Who owns the news?

That is a good question. Even though I would like to believe that the mass consumer audience has a say in what is and what is not news, I tend to think that money-heavy corporations, including the likes of CNN and Fox News control the news (who am I kidding, who actually watches Fox News?!) They have a choke-hold on news distribution and present the news with a certain bias, according to their views and beliefs. Their news consists of what they deem appropriate for the mass consumer audience. Since these corporations are mainstream and recognizable, they tend to garner a large amount of viewership and traffic to their websites. It is a shame that the “big suits” control our news because they have more money and power than the rest of society. News should not be biased; not be controlled. It should be a democracy, not a dictatorship.

The case with the New York Times removing their RSS feed from an iPad application called ‘Pulse’ just shows how corporate conglomerates think they control the news, even when ironically they are actually getting free promotion and traffic to their website. The ‘Pulse’ application on the iPad was actually doing a good thing, combining news from different sources to give the user a more complete range of dynamic news. In a way, the NY Times can be perceived to be preventing readers from actually reading their news, which is an aspect of control. They believe you should actually purchase their newspaper or visit their website to get their news, instead of it being available on a 3rd party application. The NY Times main argument was that ‘Pulse’ infringed on the NY Times copyright terms of using the company’s news in a product that charges a fee for download. This is reasonable, but when you take into account that they were actually gaining more viewership and attention, they decided to pull their news from the app.

Just the fact that news costs money (i.e. paying for newspapers, paying for content on news websites, etc.) is the problem alone. News should be free and available to anyone, anywhere, at anytime.

My Thoughts On... Piracy!

Since I've been doing blog responses for one of my other classes, someone recently pointed out to me that I should post those responses on here. What a great idea!

So, this is the beginning of a series of posts called "My Thoughts On..."!

This week. Piracy.

Should copyright be protected even in an age of streaming and online piracy?

Personally, I believe that that should be the case, although that tends to be difficult in our ever-advancing technological world. For me to fully understand the effects of piracy, I tend to put myself into the shoes of those that actually make or produce the music and/or films that are being pirated. Say you were a struggling musician. Piracy basically affects your way to earn a living, taking away part of your income. You can also look at it from the other way; that big artists or film makers already have enough money and that downloading a song or a movie won’t make a difference in the long run. It can be a double-edged sword. Looking at it from another point of view, Hollywood employs 2.5 million Americans in 50 states. These are middle class people that need their job and piracy could cause them to lose their jobs. But in regards to copyright, I believe that it is being protected pretty well already in this advanced technological age considering the amount of piracy on the internet. A prime example being YouTube; they use extensive copyright procedures and are always scouring the site to find copyright infringements and delete these videos. Being on the topic of internet videos, here is one of my favourite internet flash animations, directly related to piracy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBoOLR7WoN8 (Don’t worry, I’m not going to Rick Roll you.) I’m not going to lie, as I have participated in piracy before. But the key question is, who hasn’t?

Does piracy create a more democratic society where anyone has access to new music and video products? I would not look at the society that piracy creates as “democratic”. It is more of a “free-for-all”, if you will, with anyone having access to new music and movies at any time, all the time. As a result, it has created a dominant and prevailing force that has taken the internet by storm. This could even be related to the news that Blockbuster in the United States has filed for bankruptcy. Online piracy of movies and television shows could be a direct result of this. People find it easier to look online for movies rather than spend money at their local video store and could cause video chains that depend on the distribution of movies to close, causing more job losses. In my eyes, that does not seem very democratic at all.

Baby Dead Over Facebook

I guess I was just waiting for the right article to spur my anger and disgust. And now, I have found it.

It seems a baby has been killed from being shaken to death because the boy's crying interrupted the mother's game of Farmville on Facebook. Don't believe me? Read for yourself here.

Has it really come this? That we are killing our infants because their are disrupting our time on Facebook? Apparently so. This is downright disturbing to someone like me who has been born into this digital era where everything is fast and convenient. Technology should not take precedence over human life, especially your own family.

The paper also reports that she told investigators she shook the boy, smoked a cigarette to compose herself and then shook him again.

All this over a game of Farmville? You have got to be kidding me.

What is wrong with the world?

Just a little patience, yeeaaahh...

Look who came back to the blog... Still pretty boring, eh?

I just hope that changes pretty soon. I'm gonna post some stuff in the near future, as soon as I find the time to, which is always the case, right?

As always, I encourage and welcome others to offer out topics on which they would like me to voice my opinion.

Just as a hint, some upcoming topics range from my favourite season to my thoughts on the Milo kid that debuted at E3 last year in reference to Xbox's Project Natal (now known as Kinect) and more recently the game that has actually being made involving him. Really creepy if you ask me, but more on that later.

Key fact: Dolphins are aggressive swimmers.

Kev

This guy is hilarious...

I've seen this video about 200 times, and I still have no idea what this guy is talking about. haha.

Also, this video seems to appeal to just about everyone. I showed this vid to my parents who never, until recently, knew what YouTube was, and they both couldn't stop laughing. Just sayin'.

Kev

Wow, it has been a while...

It definitely has been a while since I've seen this web space... haha
I guess I should bring this blog back to life, fitting that it is on my birthday. =)

Nothing really to say today though I probably will soon!

I don't really feel 20 today... kinda feel still like a kid and having fun!


Peace for now.

Kev

IASC Video Blooper Reel

Finally, after a long time of putting off, the blooper video from our IASC promotional video has been finished. Check it out below.

IASC Video Blooper Reel from Kev Greene on Vimeo.

Quick observation...

This is just a quick little observation/rant on Brock's course selection...

IASC's course calendar suggests taking courses for the concentration in game development that seem to be absent from this year's course timetable. How am I suppose to take these courses such as 2P89 or 2P25 that they say I have to take for the concentration if they're not even available to be taken? It just doesn't make any sense... to me, at least.

***UPDATE*** July 12 @1 pm

Just got an email update from Brock, saying that if the courses are not on the timetable then they are not being offered for this session. It is pretty ridiculous that IASC has 2P89 as part of the game development concentration and it is not even available to be taken, in the year I WOULD need to take it.