TOK Musings

AI. To Use or not to Use?  RLS Article at: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-42810678 The world is currently enveloped in a confused battle: whether or not to use Artificial Intelligence for the good of humanity, with those who think it’s beneficial even grappling among themselves for who will lead the world into the new era. Indeed, with high profile thinkers like Prof. Stephen Hawking (known for being one of the greatest minds of the modern world) openly opposing the implementation of AI, the world cannot help but be slightly perplexed about whether or not this revolutionary, and potentially dangerous technology should be adapted. Without question, the world is standing at a deadlock, one which will likely soon be broken by those in favour.  Artificial Intelligence has great potential for the future of the human race, one that seems to be to good to ignore. For instance, the implementation of these programs and “robots” would revolutionize human way of life. There w...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/arts/design/emmett-till-whitney-biennial-schutz.html The article entitled " Should Art That Infuriates be Removed?" was written by the  New York Times in the "Art & Design" Section. Released in late March 2017, the article addresses the raging question of whether or not Art which is met with disapproval should be removed from public display. As an example, the author cites the opening of "Open Casket", a painting by Dana Schutz on display in the Whitney Biennial exhibition. The raging controversy around the painting centers around the fact that Dana, a white artist depicted photographs of the grotesque mutilated face of Emmet Till (An African-American 14 year old lad), who was murdered by two white men. The Black community argues that Schutz, a white artist has no business depicting the Black society in such an outrageous manner.  Knowledge Questions:  To what extent should artists consider their audience...

The Cannon-Bard Theory, one of the theories that have a fewer believer base, was created in the early 1920s. Since then, other theories such as the Two-Factor theory and the James-Lange Theory have been created and are more widely acclaimed. The Cannon-Bard Theory states that after a stimulus (external occurrence) takes place, humans react to the prompt and experience the emotion affiliated with it at the SAME TIME. For instance, when a bear roars at you (the stimulus), rather than simply feeling instant fear, the Cannon-Bard Theory states that both the feeling of fear (the emotion) and the symptoms of fear: a pounding heart, sweating, e.t.c (the reaction) both occur at the same time. This is an outdated theory for its limitations are significant. For instance, it is mostly seen that the reaction occurs before the actual emotion. However, this common idea (could be regarded as a second-order knowledge claim) is directly opposed by the Cannon-Bard Theory. It however manages t...

First Order Knowledge Claims: "The US Library of Congress accepted a 'translation' into emoji of Herman Melville's Moby Dick." "He and his team created 176 characters, 12 pixels square." "It wasn't until 2006 that the three networks came to some kind of consensus." Second Order Knowledge Claims: The fact that emojis are about embellishment and added context is based on the seemingly obvious claim that emojis are capable of conveying ideas, information, and feelings.  The fact that emojis are unmistakably Japanese is based on the claim that there are all manners of emojis that represent Japanese culture or lifestyle. An example of this is that there is no Easter Egg, but a Kadomatsu (A Japanese Pine decoration associated with New Year) is present among the options.  Knowledge Question:  To what extent can people communicate ideas through chat trends and emoji?

Is there a perfect map?  A map is commonly thought of as a simplified form of any worldly concept created to solve a particular quandary. This means that in order for a map to be useful, it must make life easier and should be able to solve the problem. Based on this, a generalization can be made; “ A good map mandatorily SIMPLIFIES things”. For instance, one person may want to find all the available sites at a holiday spot to go snowboarding. In this case, they would most likely seek a recreational tourist resort map. Another might look for great areas to go shopping in a new country. In this case, they would like a city tourism map. Another person, an environmental activist may look for maps detailing all the forests and natural resorts in the area. For this too, they would require a special kind of map, one meant for natural habitats and reserves. In this way, it is clear that there is a large demand for any kind of map, for there are infinitely many purposes maps could be ...

First Order Knowledge Claims:  “Kevin Brinkley’s murder conviction as a juvenile was nearly 40 years ago.” “The conviction was based largely on the testimony of two eyewitnesses.”  “The fact that Brinkley’s conviction was based on what appears to be faulty eyewitness testimony is sadly, all too common.” “Eyewitness misidentification is the single biggest contributor to wrongful convictions.” “More than 70 percent of the convictions that have been overturned through DNA testing nationwide involved eyewitnesses who got it wrong, according to the Innocence Project.”  Second Order Knowledge Claims:  The fact that Brinkley’s murder conviction as a juvenile was nearly 40 years ago can be trusted because quantifiable data is thought to be accurate. The fact that 70% of the overturned convictions through DNA testing involved faulty eyewitnesses can be trusted to be accurate because people have different DNA, which results in each person ha...