Fourth Assignment

Choose one of the options below and write an essay in response. Your essay should be at least three and a half pages in length and should not exceed six pages. Use double-space lineation, a 12-point serif font, and one-inch margins on all sides. Your writing is expected to be error-free and up to university standards.

Essay should be argumentative essays: there should be one main thesis that the essay attempts to support/prove. The thesis represents your own original insight into the topic.

The assignment is due on March 19th, but may be handed in up to one week late without penalty. Consult the course outline for further information about late assignments.

Option 1: Social Computing Analysis

Use the web application Twit Search to search through recent tweets (from Twitter). Choose a word, words, or a phrase and search through recent tweets that contain the word(s)/phrase you have chosen. The web site will return the one hundred or so most recent tweets that match your search. Retrieve the search results for the same word(s)/phrase for at least four different times/days. Write an essay that analyzes the results.

The Twit Search web site will allow you to save those search results that you want to save. You can then retrieve the results at a later date, to enable comparison between result sets. The web site will list the top twenty or so most frequent words that occur in each of the results sets. Note that some words are not counted for the list of the most frequent words. Your essay must refer to the results by file identification number. You are welcome to use more advanced text analysis techniques on your results (as individual sets or altogether).

Your essay should attempt to come to an understanding of the types of Tweets being written about or containing your word(s)/phrase. How do the most frequent words relate to the search term? How do these words change over time? Can you get a sense of the general attitude towards the search term and/or how the search term is being used given the result sets? How is this social medium being used to communicate information about the search term?

You are welcome to use any search term for this assignment. You will probably want to choose a search term that will be included in many tweets on any given day. You are welcome to use names of people and/or products. You are welcome to search for "adult," vulgar, and/or swear words. If you choose a particular phrase (such as, "don't tell my wife" or "don't tell my boss" or "are driving me crazy"), be sure to include quotation marks around the phrase.

Option 2: Social Profiling: The Numerati

Write a detailed response to The Numerati. Examine the human implications of two or more of the types of profiling discussed in the book. What might the author be ignoring, especially when considering how social profiling might alter the definition of what it means to be a human and/or change society radically? More importantly, examine how the author presents his argument. To what extent does he endorse the type of social profiling he is presenting? How does he portray humans, computers, and the Numerati in his writing?

Option 3: Posthuman: Cyborgs

Examine the portrayal and use of the cyborg in one of the following:

• Blade Runner (1982)
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
• Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
• Battlestar Galactica (2003-09 television series); you are welcome to focus solely on the three-hour opening miniseries

For Blade Runner, you may consider the Nexus-6 models as cyborgs; for Battlestar Galactica, you may consider the new-generation Cylons (the “skin-jobs”) as cyborgs. Your essay should carefully examine the way the cyborg bridges the divide between human and machine. What human characteristics are retained? What human characteristics are lost? What is the role of the cyborg within the new society imagined by the movie/show? What comment about humanity is the movie/show making through its use of cyborgs?

Option 4: Posthuman: Feed

Examine the depictions of humanity and digital technology in the novel. What is the novel saying about the fate of humanity in a world where digital technology has a greater influence than it currently does? How have the ways humans define who they are changed? You may talk about the ways the novel explores the boundaries between the human and the posthuman.

Option 5: Copyright and open access

Research the public (as reported in the news “media”) and/or scholarly reaction to the court injunction against Napster (of 5 March 2001). To what extent is the reaction coming out in favour of or against open access to digital (copyrighted) files? How is the technology that enables open access (and copyright infringement) being treated? What attitudes are being taken with regards to the future of society?