Gender and Technology – Class Notes for February 16, 2011 by Hillary G

Katherine Rowe:

-       Raised idea that there should be unpredictability in communication within information

-       Noise depends on the observer while information depends on context

-       Is the presence of “meaning” the only difference between noise and information?

Paul Grobstein:

 When asked, "Do you find it odd that teaching a computer chess is easier than teaching it Jeopardy?" I contemplated this for about a minute and realized that I do not find this odd at all. I agree with the statement that teaching a computer/robot chess is easier than teaching it Jeopardy. When I was younger, I played chess at a pretty competitive level. I learned it was very much like a mathematical equation. Chess is based a lot on probability and statistics; the key to the game is to predict the next move of the opponent. Chess is also a reaction-game - when a specific move is made, there are a limited amount of choices you can make to react to that move. Therefore, a computer would have an easier time computing the probabilities involved in the game.

I must admit that evolution is no easy task to conquer. I would like to now place Darwin right up on the pedestal with Albert Einstein and other great geniuses. Why wasn't he there before? I am not sure, maybe my gut reactions and morals were holding me back from holding him to such esteem but after attempting to piece together a course syllabus on evolution I found that the subject is not only complex but never ending. It pours into other disciplines and weaves its way into society and popular culture. I can see how some people can find great excitement from such a theory because, I feel like there's so many questions that still need to be answered and so many answers that still need to be understood. I think I might have a crush on evolutionary theory.