Eragrup: Original Piece of E-Lit

                                                                     Eragrup

For my original piece of E-Lit, I chose to do an interactive story. Eragrup was made with twine, and it tells the story of you, the user, trying to escape an impossible situation.

Trial of Character
My original work of e-literature is entitled "Trial of Character." "Trial of Character" is a hypertext story heavily inspired by fantasy choose-your-own-adventure books and Dungeons and Dragons settings. It was coded from scratch using HTML.

Archiving the '90s

   Archives are important to our society because they act as a point of reference for viewers to locate and utilize important works in their research. Without archives to keep historical and other relevant information categorized, it is possible for important aspects of research to missed or overlooked during examination.

This week in class, our tribe discussed the idea of archives, in addition to taking time to explore these web pages and recognize their importance to the DH field. An archive, or an accumulation of historical records; as noted by Wikipedia, is a place used to store and categorize a series of events related to a specific topic in one general location.

   The idea of an archive is about combining many ideas of a specific topic into one well organized area. This benefits society with the quick and helpful location of the information they need. When information is quickly accessible and no important aspects are misplaced or left to be searched for, we as people can quickly learn and benefit from the source in an efficient manner.

Ultimately, the information stored in archives is used as a tool to increase the intelligence of a viewer interested in that specific topic. Archives take this important information and present it in a manner that creates a more efficient learning environment for the audience that is viewing it.

During class, our tribe was challenged to come up with a pitch for an archive. We came up with creating an archive of discontinued toys from the 90s. Our vision is to capture the time frame of 90s by archiving the most nostalgic component for the members of our tribe, toys. As “90s kids” we grew up with a lot of these toys and looking back at them brings with it so many fond childhood memories, this is the feeling we want to produce for people in creating this archive.

      Since these toys are discontinued they are not easy to come by and in some cases only the most dedicated collectors have them, so  having them easily accessible over the internet makes them more ubiquitous. Not only with this archive of toys appeal to our generation, but it might also be of interest to the next one. The next generation can look back at this archive and see what the kids of yesterday were playing with as well as see how that compares to the toys of the present.

Magna-Doodle

Original Game Boy

The toys showcased in this archive include, but are not limited to: the Game Boy, Polly Pocket, Beanie Babies, Easy Bake Ovens, Magna-Doodle, and The Viewmaster. All these toys will come with a picture of what the toy looked like in factory new condition and will have a description of what the toy is, accompanied by brief explanation on how the toy was played with.

Above all, our tribe believes it is important for someone of our generation to create this archive, because it encase the toys we grew up with. Ultimately, sharing a piece of our past with an audience can be special and a lot of these toys shaped who we are today. In short, this archive sets to display the toys of the past and shine a spotlight on a small portion of our childhood for present and future generations.

Furbies

Beanie Babies

Original Work of Electronic Literature

The Distance Between Us

For my original work of electronic literature, I decided to make a Google Maps essay, using the application Google Tour Builder. In this essay, I focus on the relationship I have with my father, pinpointing specific points about our relationship throughout Western Pennsylvania.

Original Work of Electronic Literature

My Journey to Myrtle Beach 

This work was completed on the Google Tour Builder platform and represents my interesting summer travel story to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Data Mining

This week our class began exploring the concept of data mining. As Wikipedia explains, data mining is, “the computational process of discovering pattern in large data sets involving methods at the intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning, statistics and database systems.” Furthermore, as Wikipedia notes, “the overall goal of the data mining process is to extract information from a data set and transform it into an understandable structure for further use."
After learning more about data mining, our tribe decided to take a shot at. We did this by looking at and examining our most recent blog posts, which were written individually. Using Voyant, a site that is “a web-based reading and analysis environment for digital texts, our tribe wanted to discover and understand what words we frequently used individually. Also, we wanted to discover if and how these frequent words overlapped with another tribe members. To begin, our tribe copied and pasted our individual identity blogs into Voyant’s textbox, which led us to discover what words were used the most. The results were as follows:
Jonas’s three most frequent words: identity, person, online

Sam’s three most frequent words: identity, intelligence, people
Morgan’s three most frequent words: online, intelligence, able
Chase’s three most frequent words: social, identity, virtual

Our tribes most frequently used terms (left to right): Jonas, Sam, Morgan, and Chase

After looking at our identity blogs individually, our tribe compared the frequent terms from each of the tribe member’s blogs and found that the most commonly used words were identity, intelligence, and online. Once we gathered this data, we then used the site Ngram Viewer, “an online search engine that charts frequencies of any coma-delimited, search strings,” to discover how frequent those three terms have been used over time.

As our graph showed, the term “intelligence” has had several spikes since the 1500s, most notably in the 1600s and mid 1700s until 1900. This led our tribe to wonder what was going on during those times that made people ask about intelligence. Was the rise of the term intelligence in the 1600s, due to the pilgrims arriving in Massachusetts? Did intelligence spike again beginning in the mid 1700s have something to do with the French Revolution or the United States gaining independence from England?

Along with intelligence, the term “identity” spiked majoring in 1628. Was this because of England’s exploration into what we know today is America? Were they trying to find out who they were by exploring a new land? Furthermore, after this point in 1628, intelligence drastically decreased until the mid 1950s, right around the time computers were being made and used.

Finally, our tribe examined how the word “online” measured over time. Like our tribe suspected, there was zero frequency measuring the term online until the beginning of the 1980s, when computers and their use started becoming widespread, leading many people to venture online.

After we gathered our data, our tribe was fascinated by the data mining we had done using our past blogs on identity. We found that we not only used common terms in our own blogs, but those same words have been used throughout time, showing us how often or little those words have been discussed by people. Above all, our data mining was able to provide us with some essential evidence about how our world and the time we live in is shaped by the terms and words we us

Social Media Identity

In the advent of the digital era, human beings have stretched their personalities into the internet in the form of social media. Opinions, ideas, and experiences are cataloged on websites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and any of the other ever-trending social media platforms. As such, characteristics of a person's identity are stored online, creating a presence that mimics real life persona. However, as the internet is a platform that allows for editing and filters, one has to question how much of a person's digital identity is representative of their living self.

Viewing the internet as a tool, a person must make a conscious effort to interact with it. This allows for a level of filtering in forming an online identity, just as editing a scholarly work can alter how readers absorb the information. That being said, the process of action is what gives people their identity outside of digital media. Intrusive thoughts are describe a person's instinctual, and usually unwanted, desire to do something generally negative. Things like momentarily wanting to drive into oncoming traffic on a whim occur in the minds of 4 out of every 5 people. However, few people are tempted enough by the passing whim to act on it. Does the intrusive thought identify a person, or does the action of not driving into traffic identify them? In a similar fashion, using the internet is a kind of filter like the brain is in allowing someone to dictate their actions. Arguably, action is what makes a person who they are.
So if action dictates persona, then does the additional level of filtering imply that what a person posts online is more representative of them than their actions as a living person? That depends on the context of their posts. Within the confines of identifying social media, like Facebook, then a person may portray themselves in a certain way under the premise that people know who they are. But under anonymity, a person's actions may change. On some websites, a user can post without fear that anyone will know who they are, such as 4chan. 4chan is a website within the culture of the internet that is infamous for being host to some of the most depraved, horrid content a person could imagine. It is also the birthplace of the hacktivist group, Anonymous. Research provides evidence that anonymity online allows users to fear very little for the way they are perceived, thus giving their most carnal thoughts and feelings no reason to be stifled.

Are the actions one takes under anonymous circumstances more indicative of their personality than what they post on personal Facebook accounts? Or is identity dictated by how other people perceive a person, making their anonymous posts nothing more than intrusive thought brought to life? Once again, do the actions a person takes on the internet affect their identity in real life, or is the online identity a separate entity altogether?
In my personal opinion, identity online may be defined by how people perceive that persona, but a person's identity in real life is much more represented by who they are all the time. I think the second filter allows for too much editing and doesn't necessarily fully represent a person. When considering anonymity, a person posting anonymously online is more representative of their real life persona than their online identity. Personally, I believe the philosophy of it all to be fascinating, but it is difficult to really pin down what makes an identity, and therefore, it is difficult to discuss how an online identity represents a person.

Social Media and Artificial Intelligence

A little over a decade ago there was no such thing as social media. Now, it’s hard to imagine a world where our society, including myself, wasn’t constantly online. Since I was in middle school, I have made accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram. Besides being able to reveal the posts I like or the people I follow, these apps have essentially been able to encase who I am and my identity in a way that is 100% online. As Patrick White notes in his presentation, “The impact of Social Media and Identity Construction,” online mediums, like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have been able to grow in popularity since their creation. Because of their popularity, millions of people have created accounts which led to people also creating a “second self.” As White describes, “having an online ‘self’ or avatar enables people’s identities to be ‘entirely generated by what can be typed or posted in images and text.” However, White points out, having an online presence has enabled “users the power to create who themselves as someone that does not mirror who they are in reality. For instance, as white further states, “social networking in the 21st century has added an online dimension to the theory of social identity as people are given a chance to effectively portray themselves, what they do, and what they care about . . . inaccurately in order to receive recognition, gratification, or acceptance.”

From my own perspective, I believe White has a point behind what he is saying. From a young age, I have had a variety of social media accounts and I will mostly create more as other sites become more popular in the future. As a platform, I have used these sites to follow my friends, see what others are posting, see what images others are uploading, and to creep on people that I don’t know or am not friends with. But while I have created and still regularly use these sites to perform a multitude of specific actions, I can attest that these sites have created a second identity for myself. For instance, at a young age I was always told to watch and be careful of what I post online because it would always be out there for someone to see, even after I die. To that notion, I have kept my accounts pretty clean and basic. I won’t post certain things that I know are inappropriate or offensive, that I might actually look at and read in real life. Instead, the main thing I do online is follow new friends, like their pictures, and like their posts-texts and images I wouldn’t be ashamed of liking, even thirty years from now. So yes, I definitely agree that social media accounts and having a presence online, at least for me, has created a second identity for myself. While this second identity isn’t much different from who I am today, liking and posting the same things I normally would, I am more cautious to what I am liking or posting, so it doesn’t reflect me and who I am in a negative way.

            Besides social media and our society’s presence online, another concept that is growing is artificial intelligence. As Wikipedia explains, “artificial intelligence is intelligence created by machines,” which has led to the theory of technological singularity, that states, “the invention of artificial superintelligence will abruptly trigger runaway technological growth, resulting in unfathomable changes to human civilization.” Basically what this means is that computers are surpassing and outperforming humans and will one day be more intelligent than we are. For instance, Ray Kurzweil, computer scientist, author, and futurists has made several predictions in the past about the capabilities of computers and their ability to surpass humans. Along with a list of predictions that came true, one prediction that Kurzweil correctly predicted was that a computer would defeat a world chess champion by 1998. “In 1997, IBM’s Deep-Blue defeated Garry Kasparov” a Russian chess grandmaster.

Along with Kurzweil, I do there is a such thing as artificial intelligence, that computers are able to outperform and surpass humans. But I don’t think that all intelligence is artificial. For instance, I believe there still is and always will be the idea of human intelligence. I believe humans will still be able to think for themselves and have their own belief systems and values, even though our society is regularly online and discovers ideas and concepts further online. Ultimately, even though we are gaining a variety of knowledge from the Internet and from sources online, I believe our own thoughts and reasoning and how we learn, understand, and apply the knowledge we have discovered, is what will always be able to claim as human intelligence and be able to surpass computers with, time after time.

Identity Online and Artificial Intelligence

Online one’s identity is defined by their perceptions of other’s perceptions of themselves, much like in real life. I do not have much of an online presence on social media, I use a few platforms but very sparingly. I would say I form my online identity more through video games. Gaming culture is its own entity, but it’s not too different from social media. We use our own “language” to convey certain meanings and have a particular etiquette, although most of the time it seems it is more popular to not follow the unspoken rules of online gaming. This type of behavior of not following the rules is referred to trolling. Trolling is usually done in order to get a rise of people or to amuse oneself, but most people who do this behavior will not enact it in real life. Why? My theory is that a personality can change based on whether or not the person is interacting in the real world or the virtual world. The people who I interact with online shape my identity and form how I present myself. The identity you have in real life is different than the identity you have online. In most cases people try to present themselves as a better version of their true self, the one that exists in the real world. I would say the same thing applies when looking at myself, I have a different personality online than I do in real life. It is something I don't consciously think about, but it just happens. Perhaps the alternate personality or identity already exists in the individual and it just needs a catalysts to unlock itself. The virtual world is the perfect environment to let that alternate identity take over. A place with a certain amount of anonymity, a place where you are not face-to-face with people, somewhere in which there are no governing bodies telling you what to do. The virtual world is truly just an open space. My virtual identity is more extroverted, I find myself being more proactive and open, doing things that I normally wouldn’t do in real life. I find myself to be more confident, outspoken, qualities I normally wouldn't claim I possess. I always finding myself playing multiplayer games instead of single player games. Multiplayer games I find more fun because I can play with friends. I find it interesting to self-reflect on my virtual identity for this class, it is something I would not have done on my own.  

Is our intelligence artificial?

Artificial intelligence is intelligence created by other humans. No, human intelligence is not artificial. I believe intelligence is natural to people, intelligence can be improved and built upon, but for the most part intelligence is not artificial. We attain information and knowledge from the outside world, but it is how we apply that information that makes us intelligent and it is the reason why our intelligence does not come from other people, but from within ourselves. We are born with our intelligence, geniuses are born, take the story of Jaxon Cota. He was born with high intelligence, he was not influence by anyone else, but was just born a genius. Human intelligence is not artificial.    

Virtual Identity/Artificial Intelligence

Analysis of your virtual identity and is your intelligence artificial?

Before I can describe my own virtual identity, a description of what this topic includes is necessary. The topic of identity is created due to a person striving for positive self concept.  The best way to describe this image can be done with the use of Dobson’s idea that identity is the global understanding that someone has of themself. This effort can include things such as trying to maintain and/or balance their self esteem. In our generation, this image can be sculpted with the use of many social tools, including Facebook. These tools are used to create a social image that could not have been perceived in past generations. This is possible because of the ability available for a person to actually portray themselves, what they do, and what they care about with the use of social technology platforms. Additionally, today we also have the ability to virtually identify ourselves with

Avatars

the use of avatars. Avatars are usually related with modern game play and are used as a means of a second self. Often times gamers use these avatars to create someone that they are not in reality. The reason behind why people feel the need to exaggerate or portray someone with a more positive image of themself is partly due to today's negative media and social forces. In the past generation media and social forces were inherently more positive and lacked the presence of distinguishing features of who we should be, seen in today's media. With this negative vibe, people feel the need to shield information from the public and only portray information that creates a positive self concept. Moving on to how I describe my own virtual identity, I move to the idea of the social networking theory. This theory created by Kadushin states that people and groups who surround each other share the same characteristics, values, and social statuses. This theory is important to the description of my identity due to the family and friends that  surround me. This group of people and I share the same type of identity, as we are more “old school” and focus on the physical things at hand. Similar to previous generations, I share a virtual identity of proving that I achieved something by actually doing it. Though not an avid gamer, I have to imagine my virtual identity would resemble this due to my current lifestyle. A good example of a game that I feel reminds me of my own virtual identity is Red Dead Revolver.

Red Dead Revolver

In this game, you play the role of cowboy who is set out to complete missions and get things done with the use of his tools at hand.  Outside of gameplay, I do have a few social media accounts (Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram) that I feel would describe my virtual identity, again as more of doer. Rarely do I post a picture of myself in comparison to things I have created or achieved during my life. Many posts describe the cars I have worked on, the success I have had in my academic career, and things that I have created or designed in my life. I feel as this outlook builds upon my defined virtual identity of being a person who creates to prove ability.

Is your intelligence artificial is the next piece of information to be examined by this blog. Artificial intelligence in its general form is known as the exhibition of intelligence by machines, as described by wikipedia. In humans this ability can include the idea of predictions, similar to Ray Kurzweil prediction of singularity occurring around the year 2045. The idea of singularity involves the thought that the invention of artificial superintelligence will cause out of control technological growth, resulting in dramatic changes to human civilization. This created technological runaway is due to the potential of the machines far surpassing human intelligence which could result in the end of a human era, as stated by author Vernor Vinge. Moving on to the idea of; is our personal intelligence as humans artificial, I would like to relate back to the idea of superintelligence and singularity. If machines have the ability to acquire and display intelligence that can lead to singularity, and it is considered artificial, what do we call it when humans acquire information through the act of learning? Over the period of a lifetime, a human is also continuously acquiring and displaying intelligence, similar to adding software updates to a machine. For this reason, human intelligence should also be considered artificial as it is gathered and used to advance performance in the same manner . Another good representation of why human intelligence can be artificial is through the means of social media platforms. As discussed in class, peoples profiles will live on even after they are deceased. This is important because these profiles still provide your intelligence and still represent you as a person, even after you are gone. People who view your profile can understand who you were just because of your provided intelligence on the screen. This eerie feeling of relating to a person who is no longer alive due to their left behind information is a good representation of artificial intelligence at work.

Do Games Count, too?

After midterms, our class began diving into the world of video games, exploring what they are as well as various types of video games. But before we began looking at and playing video games, our class had to discover more about the study of video games, or game studies. As explained by Wikipedia, game studies “is the study of games, the act of playing them, and the players and cultures surrounding them.” However, even though video games are widely studied, there is still a misconception held by our society that video games are useless and have no meaning whatsoever. They are only seen as distraction or outlet that leads players to act violently in the real world.

Aaron A. Reed

When we first began studying games, our tribe was unsure if they had any real value. While we didn’t see video games as only a distraction or outlet that leads players to violence, we were still unsure if we could consider video games as having the same artistic, narrative, or meaningful value and attention that audiences could easily discover and gain from traditional works of the humanities such as art, music, literature, and film.

Almost Goodbye

However, once we started to indulge in and discover the world of video games, our tribe began to think differently, beginning to see how video games can be useful and actually be good to play. For instance, one of the first video games our tribe looked at was the game “Almost Goodbye” by Aaron A. Reed. In this game, the story of Doctor Muriel Ross, a woman who is about to leave Earth forever is played out before audiences. However, unlike traditions works of literature, “Almost Goodbye” actively seeks user participation, leading users to help write Ross’s story of who she will say goodbye to, where she will say goodbye to them, and ultimately how she will say goodbye to them before leaving Earth. As our group ventured throughout the piece, we began to realize “Almost Goodbye” was unlike any game we had come to previous know before. This wasn’t a shooter game or a game with a specific mission. What we saw was that “Almost Goodbye” was an unlikely adventure game, having users control a story, rather than being transported to an alternate world like traditional adventure video, letting them create their own path for Dr. Muriel Ross before leaving Earth.

Along with “Almost Goodbye” our class looked at two different articles, “9 Ways Video Games Can Actually Be Good For You" and "How Computer Games Helped Me Recover from My Heroin Addiction,” that explore some of the reasons why games are truly valuable and attention worthy. For instance in “9 Ways Video Games Can Actually Be Good For You,” Huffington Post writer, Drew Guarini, explores 9 different and distinct ways video games are exquisite. One of the reasons he explains why video games are good for people, is that video games actually slow down a person’s aging process. According to a study conducted by the University of Iowa, “A study of 681 healthy individuals ages 50 or older revealed that playing 10 hours of a specifically designed video game was able to stall the natural decline of different cognitive skills by up to seven years.” This means that playing video games actually lead seniors to live longer and live happier. Another one of the reasons Guarini gives that suggests video games are good, is that games, specifically shooting games can improve a person’s eyesight. As depicted by a study from the University of Rochester, players participating in “shoot-’em-up games saw a boost in their ‘contrast sensitivity function,’ or the ability to discern subtle changes in the brightness of an image.” These results have led “the study’s authors (to) believe that the process of locating and aiming at enemies exercised gamers’ eyes,” which “serve as an aid we correct bad vision.” Like Guarini’s article, Michael W. Clune additionally writes that video games helped him overcome his long addiction with heroin. For instance, in his article, “How Video Games Helped Me Recover from My Heroin Addiction,” Clune expresses that computer games have always “enhanced and enriched my life while drugs and alcohol turned me into a walking corpse.” What he means by this was that computer games was his escape from the

Michael W. Clune

original high he once knew and kept looking for when he turned to alcohol and heroin. Video games were his safe place, where he suffered no negative consequences and where his mind and body are able to both be joined together to create an ultimate experience within himself, as he familiarizes himself with the game.

After discovering more about the world of video games and the studies that surround them, our tribe believes that video games should be considered as valuable and as meaningful as traditional humanities studies. While these games contrast traditional works of the humanities, video games present users with an experience that they can participate in and actively be apart of. Moreover, even though these outlets are visually and auditorily different from traditional literary outlets, users can always be able to take away lessons from them, such as the cooperation of working with other players, creativity that the game encases within its art and sound, and the perseverance one can gain by battling through trial and error to complete a specific task. Because of these lessons along with the countless other lessons users can take away from video games, our tribe believes that video game are good for humanity, helping us discover and learn more about our people in new interactive ways.