Reading this story I think of how there is a lot of time and
money being put into technology to make it “smarter.” Yes, let’s keep advancing
technology but let’s not make it smarter than humans. We have so many more
issues happening in the world than to worry about making these “objects” too
smart. It’s very scary to think of this technology becoming more
powerful than us. There are many issues with human behavior that still needs to
be figured out. What’s really the point of all this technology when we are
gone? It’s going to definitely out live us. We need technology but I do not
think it needs us. Objects will advance to a point where they will be able to
keep their own maintenance. I always wonder how long I will be able to be an
artist that uses technology. It constantly changes and evolves. For example,
there are a lack of jobs with traditional printmakers. Or is you have one of
the old school TVs it’s going to be hard to find someone to fix it. Things
evolve and so do people’s jobs. Will it reach a point to where our art will make
itself? Will it be able to come up with it’s own concept? Will it be able to
make itself beautiful. I think yes.I dread
this moment but I think it will always miss the quality of being able to
connect with a person emotionally. Below is a video that I feel is the process
of what happens before the story of“There Will Come Soft Rains.” I think the story is an accurate view of the future.
-The way in which the objects are personified in the absence of humans is very interesting; the house seems to have reactions, and it's almost as if the house is attempting to fill the silence left by humans, like it's having a conversation with itself.
-The house seems to depend, somewhat on humans; if left alone, or not used, the technologies will collapse and fall into ruin
-The fact that sometimes its "helpful" duties have gruesome effects (i.e, the dog's death) is interesting; these technologies appear to respond to humans, but in this case its lack of awareness of the dog's presence highlights a disconnect. However, when the house is calling for help, it seems even more alive and aware, more aware of what's happening to and around it
While reading this story I had a difficult time understanding the topic until I had a friend read it. She compared it to the Smart House movie on disney channel. The idea of a house being fully self-functioning totally relates to the movie and our class because it shows how electronics and sensors can evolve into something so much greater than just a sensor or a breadboard. Although this reading confused me and I thought the reading was pointless until my friend made the relation to Smart House, it showed me the importance of electronics and technology.
Campy Electricity
Electronic Tools
This video was pretty funny. Well at the beginning
Things Needed:
Needlenose Pliers & Tweezers: precise and heat resistent
Snips & Clippers
Wire Strippers
Soldering Iron
Desoldering Tools
Magnification
Screwdriver Set
Breadboard Video
The breadboard is considered as the most important item in the toolbox. Its the place to wire circuits and it came about from the literal meaning of breadboards which were blocks of wood that were used to cut bread. Breadboards were cheap and large enough to support the materials. It is now plastic, they give a lot of leeway for change. Breadboards are connected through metal strips that are separated. Skinny = ground and power; vertical.
Exploring Arduino Chapter 1 I think that the book is very helpful. I like the structure of it and I like that the author has so many resources. I even followed him on twitter. The first chapter was a review of what we learned in class as to how to run a program through arduino.
August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains
When Technology is meant to make our lives better it can not improve our lives if we are dead. Brings up question about whether technology can actually make life easier, or better, or if it exists just because we think we need it to live our lives most efficiently. But by creating this product to improve our lives we are actually diminishing our lives. wut? And what is the purpose of all this technology when we are no longer there? The Videos I'm glad that I know what a breadboard does. When I opened it in class I was perplexed by how it worked. Electricity is actually kind of (not really) simple. I think what will be hard is trying to take its simplicity and making it do complicated things. I'm wondering if we will need all the tools that were shown in the video.
Bradbury's hauntingly poignant short story is very much the product the atomic age. Written a few short years after the end of WWII, it shows a futuristic world devastated by Nuclear war. 2026 must have seemed so terribly far away, 76 years in the future. Bradbury paints for us a fully automated world, with a JARVIS-like personal AI butler, a robotic fully-automated kitchen and roomba-like cleaner mice who all happily continue to perform their intended roles long after their fleshy creators are gone.
There is a certain amount of optimism in this picture, a technologically-advanced future society where every need is taken care of by a cheerful servitor class of robotic beings. It is a hopeful comment on the then-future possibilities of technology and innovation. Look! he seems to say, look at all the fantastic things that we might create! And this is wonderful, these shiny fascinating things that seemed so useful, so neat. And they would think, yes, this is a future that I would like, I would want to see all these wonderful things that technological progress has wrought.
And then the rug is pulled out underneath the reader and in their naivete they stumble. Because this future is empty, a shell of utility and glistening technology surrounding the empty space where the creators and consumers once were. And so this story becomes a warning, a cautionary tale of the double-edged sword of technological process. For the technology of the future has created wonderful things, useful things, but it has also served as the agent of their own destruction.
This house, with its AI butler that cheerfully spouts the date and a reminds someone long dead of the birthday of another long dead person. The stove cooks food that will be eaten by no one. The mice clean a house used by no one. They are purposeless in this post-human world, but they continue to fulfill their function regardless, the few remains of a civilization now of only ghosts. They are not the only ghosts in this city, the buildings are painted with silouettes of ash and negative space, the last moments of millions immortalized forever for a world just as empty as the house full of robots.
And perhaps the house's destruction is not without purpose. Perhaps the AI went mad, made useless in a world without someone to serve, talking only to itself. There is a certain elegance to the way it died, reading out loud the favorite poetry of a long-dead master as the building that houses its consciousness burns down around it. It brings to mind the Titanic, and the orchestra that played music as the ship sunk, consigning them to a watery grave.
Exploring Arduino intro & Chapter 1:
The first chapter and intro were interesting, but there were a lot of technical words and descriptions that I will probably have to go back and look at once I have more experience. It did provide a good overview of the basic functions of all the different parts of the Arduino, which was both informative and useful.
