Education – Page 23 – Thoughts from the Underground

Response to “The Machine Ends” by E.M. Forster

Written in 1909, “The Machine Stops” is about a futuristic society in which humanity lives underground and is dependent entirely upon the Machine, which has taken over the entire maintenance and care of all human needs. It describes how people have given up control of their own freedom to exert free will, in exchange for complete obedience to the Machine.

It was a peculiar but interesting story, particularly being written in 1909. According to Wikipedia, US events in 1909 included Taft succeeds Roosevelt as president, Pearl Harbor is founded, and the Manhattan Bridge is opened, while in Europe construction begins on the Titanic and the oil company that eventually became BP was founded. Forster seems to be writing from a perspective of relatively significant industrial and social change so the story is likely meant to be a reflection and a warning on unrestrained acceptance of technological innovation, and a belief that machines alone are the key to the future of the human race.

One of the phrases that reinforced this idea was on page 18, “No one confessed the machine was out of hand”. That could be taken literally, as in ‘no one is willing to complain that the machine is breaking’. Or it could be taken as it is in the phrase, the “Master Brains had perished”, which describes how complete knowledge amongst humans regarding the mechanical knowledge about the Machine — and possibly its usefulness — had been split up, so that now no one can really remember how the machine is supposed to work. In comparison to the use of the internet, there are still people who do not know what the internet is, let alone know how it can be used or misused. I suspect that most people who use the internet, do not really understand how it works, why it exists, or care much to learn.

The first sentence gives a clue to that the tone of the story is about obedience and regulation, when it describes the setting as being similar to the “cell of a bee”. The discussions about ideas, seem like the collective thought for the humans in this story is that unless something leads to progress or to a new idea, it is a useless waste of time. For instance, when other people in the story discuss the rumor of the machine ending, they cannot even comprehend the statement. As much as I can hardly comprehend living without civil rights or an electrified home, I suppose that soon there will be people who cannot comprehend a time before the internet or computers.

Lastly, the people in this story seem afraid to think on their own and come up with their own ideas, particularly when those ideas are not acceptable to those allowed by the Machine. The internet now makes it very easy to find ideas like your own. So that if you want to find arguments that agree or disagree with your own, it’s easy to find examples, without really coming up with your own critical analysis of a problem.

Phys Comp: Week 2 – Analog sensors, Part 1

This week we worked with analog sensors.

For the lab, I was able to correctly set up the breadboard, Arduino, and potentiometer to create my first analog input. I documented along the way.

Then I made a two-input analog switch with two LEDs as output. Here’s the code:

int ledPinGreen = 10; // Green pin
int ledPinRed = 9; // Red pin

int analogFSRLeft = 0; // Left analog input
int analogFSRRight = 1; // Right analog input

int FSRValueLeft = 1; // Value of the left FSR
int FSRValueRight = 1; // Value of the right FSR

void setup() {
// initialize serial communications at 9600 bps:
Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop() {
FSRValueLeft = analogRead(analogFSRLeft); // read the left FSR value
analogWrite(ledPinGreen, FSRValueLeft/4);
Serial.println(FSRValueLeft); // print the FSR value back to the

FSRValueRight = analogRead(analogFSRRight); // read the right FSR value
analogWrite(ledPinRed, FSRValueRight/4);
Serial.println(FSRValueRight);

delay(10); // gives a 10 millisecond delay
}

Comm Lab: Week 2 — My (short) Tree Museum visit

This week, one of my assignments was to head to the Bronx to check out the Tree Museum, a public art project by Katie Holten. By name only, this sounds like it actually might be kind of interesting. I visited the Bronx Botanical Gardens last summer (2008) and I was thoroughly impressed. Everyone should go check it out. However, when I checked out the website, my hopefulness began to wane. Seriously. Rather than go into a terribly long discussion about what I didn’t like, I’ll just mention the two areas that disappointed me the most and will probably keep me from checking out more of this tree tour.

Disappointment #1: The first thing I was disappointed with was The Bronx. Well, I’m sort of scared of the Bronx. I mean, say what you will about gentrification, but what you don’t say is unsafe. I guess I prefer prefer strollers and soccer moms to whatever it is that goes on in the Bronx that keeps most people from visiting every weekend. So, I was a bit hesitant about checking it out. Also, the tour seemed to be about 70 blocks long and it just seemed like a bad idea for someone to go wandering around an unfamiliar neighborhood with no particular destination in mind, except to walk the length of the Bronx and look at semi-random trees that most people in the surrounding neighborhoods didn’t really seem to take too much notice of. So, to be safe, I wanted to look up as much as possible as I could on the website before visiting, including calling the 718 (not toll-free) number and see what this thing was all about. Which leads me to…

Disappointment #2. Not only was the audio quality poor enough that I could barely comprehend the speaker’s voice while sitting in a semi-empty room on a Sunday afternoon, but they also let the artist herself speak. What you learn on the site is that Ms. Holten is Irish. I love accents, but “poor audio” + “funny accent” = “I don’t know what you’re talking about”.

I don’t want to sound like I’m picking on the Irish accent, but the audio quality was very poorly implemented. It seems as if they forgot that New York City is L-O-U-D. When I visited on Wednesday morning, I didn’t call the 718 number but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. I got off the subway at the 135th St. stop in the Bronx. Right under a bridge. If I could barely hear inside a building, how would I possibly be able to hear anywhere in NYC outside and especially near a bridge? The street where the tour takes place is called “Grand Concourse”. It sounds like a major street, and I would expect that it’s probably always loud.

I don’t know if this walking museum idea was actually tested out before going through with the project, but my guess is no. I know that Fort Tryon Park is pretty darn quiet for anywhere in Manhattan. Seems like it would be a much better destination for outdoor listening of relatively good audio. And, there are definitely plenty of kids and strollers.

How to solve a Rubik’s Cube

For the Data Visualization class I’m on the waitlist for, we were asked to come up with the solution for solving a Rubik’s cube.

To solve a Rubik’s cube, you basically need to remember that the whole thing consists of a series of patterns that, if you trust them, will solve the puzzle for you. In the past, when I’ve tried to solve the puzzle, I was somehow able to solve one side of tiles. Then, when I try to complete the rest of the puzzle, I find that I’m stuck. Whenever I try to complete another side, I find that I am too afraid of messing up the side I’ve completed, so I stop working. This fear is, of course, justified, since I do in fact mess up the side I just completed when working on the new side.

I’ve come to learn that what I’ve been missing is an algorithm or several algorithms. “Algorithm” sounds like a math term, and since I tend to stay away from math, I can’t say I’ve come across it before. However, since I’m supposed to come up with a description for how to solve a Rubik’s cube, I did some research:

• I understand that an algorithm is a set of defined instructions that are carried out until certain conditions are met. – Wikipedia

• Different algorithms can be used to accomplish the same task. The one that is used depends on the constraints for each task. – howstuffworks.com

• Algorithms are used to solve a recurrent problem. – whatis.com

These are all interesting, and apparently algorithms are what make up computer languages. But, using these definitions, algorithms are also what fill up cookbooks and instruction manuals. Hmmm….

Well, anyway, now for my solution:
1. Get a Rubik’s Cube.
2. Turn the faces of the Rubik’s Cube, one face at a time, until one side consists of the same color in each of the nine squares. Call a side that consists of the same color in each of the nine squares a Full Side.
3. Repeat step 2 for each of the five colors but whenever you need to break a Full Side, so that the nine squares of the same are no longer touching, you must put them back so that they are touching again.
4. Repeat step 3 until there are six Full Sides.

ICM: Week 1 – Introducing Processing

In this week 1 exercise, my idea was to create a display of “swatches”, showing the color spectrum against a background of either white or black. I also created swatches of either white lines against the background of each color, and a final long series of stripes of white against no color, or black.

The whole thing was created in Processing. For the colors, I used the RGB values. It was a little difficult thinking of where each stripe would go, because I had to navigate using pixels. Pretty much, in the end I thought this was much like creating DIVs in CSS – but, less goofy. I cut and paste a lot, and experiment a bit trying to figure out which coordinates I should change when creating the new rows. The interesting part was that at one point I thought about reversing the colors, and did so in the code. However, since each rectangle’s location is specified by coordinates, the order doesn’t really matter. The order of the background’s does matter, because if it comes last, it would cover up the stripes. I guess the opacity of the backgrounds could be decreased so that some color shines through, but I’m just keeping the colors as they are.

I thought this was pretty fun, and useful perhaps in the future. I’ll give some credit to a fellow student, who suggested that I make the rows thinner than they originally were. Thank you, Nik!

Colored Lines
Week 1, color bars

Phys Comp: Week 1 – Lab

Lab 1: My experiences with observing people use interactive devices, and setting up a breadboard and an Arduino microcontroller.

Watching People Walk Down the Street Using Interactive Stuff

This sort of took place in two stages. In one stage, I walked around thinking about the different types of digital interfaces people rely on, on a day-to-day basis. For instance, buzzers for apartment buildings, cell phones, security cameras, digital cameras, and street lights to go or not when crossing the street. In the second stage, I actually counted the number of people using cell phones or iPods while walking home. I counted 22-25 within a 5 block radius, around 11PM.

At Union Square, I noticed the ticker display sign advertising the upcoming movies. That, according to Crawford, is not really interactive, but more reactive. Neither is the crosswalk. It’s simply a sign that I read and decide whether to walk (or run) across the street, or just wait for lights to change. But, because the sign doesn’t change based on my actions, it’s not really interactive.

Recently I went to see 9, the movie. (Um, it was cute.) I used the ticketing kiosk to purchase two tickets because it’s usually faster, and I don’t always like to deal with tellers. Sometimes I don’t hear them so well, or they ask me for my phone number or zipcode – which I don’t see is any of their business – or they just aren’t very friendly. The kiosk probably gets my zipcode and phone number, too, when I swipe my credit card, but it seems less intrusive since there’s not an actual person asking for my information. Plus, the machine communicates in written English, colors, and symbols, which usually means I don’t have to interact with accents or styles of speaking that I’m not used to.

Unfortunately, the machine made a mistake that day. After paying for my tickets, the machine’s touchscreen returned to the “home” screen after printing out only 1 ticket and no receipt, a signal that my transaction was over. I walked away with only 1 ticket; so, in the end, I still had to wait in line. And, yes, the teller and I didn’t really understand each other – she gave me a ticket for the wrong movie.

Setting Up the Arduino and Making Blinky Lights
This was an interesting project. I tried following the instructions as given on the lab for Physical Computing, but I guess I wasn’t naturally born with knowledge on how to set up a breadboard. So, this took a lot of tries to get it right.

Some of my problems were not lining up my ground and power with the right outputs to the switch and LEDs. Some problems were that the wires kept breaking. In the end, though, my biggest problem was the fact that I had 4 wires too many, and none of them crossed over the central divider so nothing was getting powered up. This realization came from after running Arduino a couple of times and getting the same error, then fixing the breadboard and getting the same error. Then, checking…checking…CHECKING…!!! And finally comparing my set-up with someone else’s, and coming to a group conclusion about the extra wires and lack of power.

Then, my blinky lights worked and I had lots of fun!

Lighting up the red LED — Turning on a red LED

! UPDATE !
For more stuff to do in my spare time, I sewed a button into this teddy bear’s neck. So, when you squeeze the teddy’s neck, it triggers a light switch.

More photos on Flickr!