Joy Response

            Bill Joy’s article centers on his concern about the exponential advances made in artificial intelligent technologies. As a computer engineer Joy has spent his entire life building and obsessing over intelligent technologies; furthermore, Joy personally experienced the incredible growth in our technological capacity. The short time period that this occurred in leads Joy to hypothesize that by the year 2030 we will have the ability to build intelligent machines. The idea of a cheap, smart, and reliable workforce seems irresistible at first; however, advances such as these lead to many very dangerous scenarios. An artificially intelligent system contains an ever growing wealth of knowledge that surpasses the capacities of the human mind; moreover, beings that have all the power and none of the emotional worries have nothing preventing them from committing horrible acts for a good ends. Also, machines can not only be easily manufactured but they can also manufacture each other, allowing them to become the perfect self-sustaining organism. For Joy machines are not only a means to make life easier, they are also a means to end human existence as we know it.

            Joy’s article was written in a magazine read by scientists and technology buffs; therefore, he makes strong appeals towards ethos in logos in his article. In order to establish his knowledge of the subject he dedicates a few pages of the article to his love affair with computers and science-fiction. Additionally, Joy includes several statements and articles written by his prominent friends within the scientific community. Joy describes the extinction of North and South American marsupials in favor of placentals and relates it to the probable extinction of the human race in favor of machines. This extinction seems inevitable for Joy because intelligent machines would possess almost every evolutionary aspect that allows humans to be the top of the food chain in addition to their long lasting, reproducible mechanistic qualities.

            This article was published in 2000, meaning that Joy had not event seen the thousands of advances that have been made in robotics, nanotechnology, and genetic engineering. In fact, many of the things he described are producible but not cost effective. Within ten or twenty more years the expensive and exclusive technology out now will be cheap and marketable. The issues Joy describes become increasingly more important as we make significant scientific discoveries every single day. Mankind must be careful and consider all repercussions before they take technology and bend it to their will. Moreover, the dangerous technologies addressed in Joy’s article will become more available to dangerous individuals as technological advances are made and prices drastically fall. Every day we continue to make faster and smaller computer for half the cost; unfortunately, our society is working so fast to better themselves they may not realize any arising issues before it is too late.

Swift's Satirical Prompt

Swift uses a satirical approach when describing the issues associate with his homeland in order to convey a message without creating a fierce opposition against him.  His purpose is to convey the need to fix several of the problems within Ireland. Swift first attacks the large number of poor vagrants, most of them children that seem to inhabit many of the cities in Ireland. In order to fix the issue he proposes the ridiculous option of cooking and eating the children, after all this would reduce the large numbers of vagrants. Moreover, the population is self-sustaining and could easily be kept in check. In order to alleviate some of the economic troubles of both the entire country and the individual household Swift tells us that the children would be quite the profitable resource. Other, better-off countries will be willing to purchase these children at very high prices; additionally, families can raise children like livestock and trade with surrounding families. Swift’s satirical nature enforces the point he is trying to make for it allows him to directly address the subject not only in a light hearted manner but also in a way that forces readers to think and evaluate ways to resolve the issue.

            Currently the state of Pennsylvania seems to be having some issues with funding and where to make the necessary adjustments in order to decrease debt while maximizing happiness. While the current governor wishes to reduce the budget for state schools by nearly half, I believe we can choose to do even more. Why waste time and money on school, we don’t need schooling to thrive. Great countries such as Cambodia, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh all have fantastic economic positions in the world market; moreover, these very same countries lack a solid educational system. Who needs college when young men and women can be taught to work on assembly lines in three days? All of the ground taken up by universities can easily be transformed into factories; with enough work Pennsylvania could become a state of industry, production, and pollution. Why spend money on four more years of unnecessary education when we have a whole workforce and acres of land to exploit; Pennsylvania needs revenue to decrease its debt and what could be better than miles of industrial complexes?