Jonas Wechsler on Contemporary Issues in Computer Science

Most people would agree that doctors, who devote many years of study to helping people live longer and more comfortably, help build a better world. Studies estimate that the average doctor gives a net of 140 years of healthy life to their patients, which is roughly equivalent to saving 5 lives (Lewis). This is certainly a significant number. The Against Malaria Foundation can prevent a death for roughly $7,500, along with a higher quality of life and increased income for the individuals in question (Todd). By this estimate, a doctor does about $37,500 worth of life-saving over their career (Lewis). This is roughly equivalent to 10% of my post-graduation income over 3 years. Certainly, over the course of my career, I could donate to save at least 5 lives, and probably quite a few more. There's a lot of other ways to build a better world, of course. I think that staying informed, reading good news, and taking this course help me to support organizations and political bodies that w

In 2016 I worked for a company called Hanson Robotics, which develops human-like robots that can make facial expressions and converse. Their most well known robot is called Sophia, and has had interviews with the United Nations, BBC, Business Insider, the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and a host of others (Yakowicz). The robot is also currently a citizen of Saudi Arabia. The robot is currently used for entertainment and has been used in theater, and recently there's been a recent push for home-friendly consumer models (Hanson). Last year, Facebook's director of AI called Sophia a "Wizard of Oz AI" and "complete bullshit" (Ghosh). This is probably a fair assessment. Sophia's inner conversational workings are essentially a chatbot with a lot of pre-written dialogue. This works simply because it's not very difficult to predict the kinds of questions people will ask. As one of my coworkers put it, "there's basically 3 categories of question

This semester, I'm enrolled in Beginner Social Dance at UT. While some dance classes focus on choreographed sets, impressive solo techniques, or competition, social dancing is a conduit for socializing. In beginner dancing, you establish a dedicated lead and a follow, where the lead suggests, through motion, moves for the follow to do, and the follow can in turn suggest style and motion to the lead, though it may be more subtle. Dances are typically established with a "basic", which is a short repetitive motion done to the beat of the music, and other moves which are executed from the basic on the same count. In some more involved dances, like the rotary waltz, it's common to do only the basic, so you can talk while you dance. While you can take liberties in the dances, there are general guidelines to being a fun person to dance with. To be a cooperative dancer, you should be receptive to your partner's movements and style, while also being active and energetic.

I use a variety of social media platforms, but I think the growth of Discord has influenced my social media habits the most. Discord is a free VoIP group chat platform often compared to Skype. Initially, it was developed as a chat platform for gaming communities, much like Ventrilo, Teamspeak, or Mumble, though Discord does not require or support user-hosted servers. The majority of Discord servers are used for gaming, but there's a small percentage of servers built around the discussion of "everything from crypto-currency to stock trading, music appreciation to language lessons and fantasy football" (Crecente). Discord has become a social platform for myself and my friends- many of my friends from UT and earlier have congregated on Discord. For myself, Discord is a platform for discussion of music, video games, politics, internships and careers, and social functions. We moved from Skype several years ago because we found that Discord offers a much more reliable platfo