The Korakuen Times: May 2020

Friday, May 29, 2020

English Communication Skills 1: Issues of the internet - Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal・インターネットの問題「フェスブック・ケンブリッジアナリティカスキャンダル」

Hello!

How are you? Today here is another video about an issue that is still timely, and the impact of it is still ongoing - the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal that began in 2014. This has become an issue of the internet that has a social point to it because of the data mining that collects personal information about users, which goes into issues of privacy.

While data mining is not against the law in any country (including Japan), the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal is an example of data mining gone into questionable and possibly illegal areas.

Activity

Watch the video below. Watch it as many time as you need. (If you have any trouble watching it directly here, go to the link here, or look for "Facebook's Cambridge Analytica data scandal, explained" on YouTube at https://youtu.be/VDR8qGmyEQg)

What do you think of this issue? When you visit some websites, especially those that use cookies, do you sometimes feel that you cannot trust it? Do you feel that some websites are gathering data about you in ways you cannot control and that you do not want them to?

I hope this will add more understanding about this issue.

Keep safe!

Image: By David Whelan - https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidpwhelan/26614834084/, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58020376

Saturday, May 16, 2020

English Communication Skills I: Dilemmas of AI (from 2001: A Space Odyssey)・AIのジレンマ「2001年宇宙の旅から」

Hello!

How are you? Here is a post to begin our new theme of current social and technological issues about an example of AI gone wrong - in this case, as imagined in a movie.

In 1968, the film 2001: A Space Odyssey was released. In Japan, it was known as 2001年宇宙の旅. Even now, it is one of the greatest science-fiction films ever made. In it, one of the main characters is a supercomputer called the HAL 9000. The camera of the HAL 9000 is the picture at the top.

In the story, the HAL 9000 is the greatest supercomputer ever built. It can speak with humans with a human voice; play - and beat - humans at chess; find and understand human emotions, and manage the air supply and other functions of the space station the human astronaut characters in the story work and do their research on.

But there are issues that the astronauts find with "Hal," as they call the computer...

Homework

Watch these short film clips from the movie.

1. Here is the first one - in it, the two main astronauts, named Dave and Frank, are talking about what to do with the problems that Hal is showing. They go to a safe place where they don't think Hal can hear them.

How does Hal know what they're talking about?

If for any reason you have trouble seeing the clip above, go to this link here. It will take you directly to YouTube.

2. Here is the next clip. For this one, you might want to turn the sound down.

Frank goes out of a spacecraft released from the space station. Hal is in control of the spacecraft functions. What does Hal do with Frank?

If you have any trouble seeing the clip above, go to this link to see it on YouTube. (It's a better clip than the one here - for some reason, I could not upload the better clip directly to the post - that is why you should turn the sound down!)

3. Here is the clip after that. Dave wants to know what is happening. What is Hal's response?

If you have any trouble seeing it here, click this link to go to YouTube.

4. Here is the last clip. What does Dave do with Hal?

If you have any trouble seeing this clip, go to YouTube from this link.

I hope you find this interesting. If you like science-fiction films, I highly recommend this one - even though it's very long!

Stay safe!

Image: By Grafiker61 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46424786