###### tags: `CDA`
# Reading Responses (Set 1)

- Checklist for a [good reading response](https://reagle.org/joseph/zwiki/Teaching/Best_Practices/Learning/Writing_Responses.html) of 250-350 words
- [x] Begin with a punchy start.
- [x] Mention specific ideas, details, and examples from the text and earlier classes.
- [x] Offer something novel that you can offer towards class participation.
- [x] Check for writing for clarity, concision, cohesion, and coherence.
- [x] Send to professor with “hackmd” in the subject, with URL of this page and markdown of today’s response.

## Reading Responses 1 out of 5

### Jan 27 Fri - Learning

Before starting this reading I thought to myself "how useless and stupid this reading is going to be" this pre-assumption I created in my head resulted from simply reading the title of the reading and simply knowing what the topic was because specifically, I don't particularly enjoy learning about learning. In the third paragraph of the reading, learning is stated to be "... acquiring knowledge and skills and having them readily available from memory so you can make sense of future problems and opportunities." this definition of learning is basic and common. However; after stating this the authors go on to discuss three different "immutable" aspects of learning.

The first is that to be useful learning requires memory in order to store information and reuse it later. The second is that we need to learn and remember throughout our lives. The third and most controversial or framed to be perceived as controversial "immutable" aspect of learning is that learning is an acquired skill and most effective strategies for learning are counterintuitive. This aspect of learning is primarily focused on throughout this reading because the goal of this reading is to persuade the reader that this statement is true in hopes of inspiring the reader to form their own opinion on learning or to come to the overlapping realization that to learn its just like any other skill, you need to do it correctly.

After reading the article in its entirety and taking into consideration my academic career I agree with this statement. In the reading multiple studies are used to back up this claim one for example is a study done in the mid-1960s by psychologist Endel Tulving at the University of Toronto who "...found that the two groups' learning of the nouns did not differ-the learning curves were statistically indistinguishable.". This study was to test two groups on their memory in order to learn more about humans learn. The results were statistically indistinguishable which means more repetition didn't promote learning of the topic. This claim shows that learning is a skill and simply brute-forcing and re-reading or even testing your short-term memory won't lead necessarily to full mastery or long-term learning of the topic. And to truly learn you need to do it correctly and one way is by spacing out your studying or learning of a certain topic over a longer amount of time and obviously not giving up while learning.

On a different note in class, we spent time last week discussing coding and different technical terms of how computers send messages, download data, and receive and send different information through different protocols. As a note from this, I see many similarities discussed with learning in humans that take place in learning with computers. Computers can process information a lot faster than humans can through possibly a core-processing unit (CPU). Additionally, a computer can store an overwhelmingly large amount of data and information through a possible storage unit like a hard drive. On the other hand, humans are not machines built by humans in the same manner as a computer is. Humans have brains and psychologists have studied the brain a lot and different parts of the brain are said to do different things even though humans can't process like or at the same speed as computers or store as much information as humans do things in a different way from computers and instead of a computer being able to store and retrieve files instantaneously humans need to take their time to process, learn, and think about the topic and information in order to produce other information or even the same information.

One key takeaway and a possible cautionary tale from this reading that I have thought of and seen as a developing theme is stated and referred to in the reading itself as a subtopic which is the "Illusions of knowing". This concept as it sounds seems simple but it has multiple interpretations and meanings which can question your very thought process on what you actually know versus what you don't know in reality or on a more broad scale as a society what actually know and don't know. We have discussed this in class when talking about information and misinformation. As morbid as this sounds there is infinite knowledge and infinite things to be learned and our lives are small and only small parcels of time when taking into consideration the universe and time. With that being said learning is an essential tool that humans can utilize for many things from survival to making an impact on future generations and other's lives with inventions and other remarkable things that can be done by applying your learning just like Matt Brown did at the beginning of the reading where he saved himself with previously learned flying techniques as the right engine of his two-engine plane began failing.

After this reading, I disagree and resent saying "how useless and stupid this reading is going to be" because overall this reading was worth my time and I learned a lot and the topic discussed wasn't as boring or useless as I thought it would be. This topic inspired me to think about another concept that I thought of because of major recent developments in computers and engineering and the psychology and neuroscience fields. This concept asks the question: “In the future, will it be possible for humans to enhance their brains or optimize a person's brain to process faster, think faster, and store more information similar to how a computer can?”.

### Feb 07 Tue - Social Networks

Social networks can be impacting multiple different aspects of your life with or without you realizing it. In this reading, Rheingold discusses the importance of social networking and how you can effectively stop structural holes in your social network and instead bridge these holes and create more connections. Ronald S. Burt, a University of Chicago sociologist, and executive at Raytheon, investigated the importance of bridging structural holes and found that "...those who actively bridged structural holes gained a competitive advantage for themselves, their division, and their company by delivering more good ideas." This can be a result of having strong arguments and background information which can allow the individual to have a better understanding of the problem and can come up with "more good ideas" and a potential pathway to the solution. In class, we discussed the Tragedy of Commons (TOC) and Public Goods (PG) after this reading I thought of the tragedy of commons and public goods to be similar to two different ways people can choose to social network. TOC and PG are both non-excludable but TOC is rivalrous meaning the usage by others limits your usage whereas PG is non-rivalrous.

Similarly in TOC, someone can limit their own network from extending and growing which also can limit others' social networking. On the other hand for PG, if someone is networking a lot with others if it is done on a wide scale it can be beneficial and can allow others' networks to grow as well and your networking potential can be seen as limitless. However; Rheingold states "Don't fixate on the number of connections but on the quality of those connections and the diversity of your portfolio of connections. It can be worthwhile to connect to less prominent, less highly linked individuals if they are different from the other people in your network." Overall, this statement and reading reveal that social networking is beneficial only if you do it on a wide scale and don't exclude who you network with in order to see different aspects of problems, and fields of study, and ensure you don't create a social network filter bubble.

### Feb 14 Tue - The Darknet

The darknet also called the dark web is an unforgiving and evil division of the internet that contains individuals that want to cause crime and harm to others. Most cybercriminals that are on the dark web use the browser software "Tor" which is funded by the United States government State Department and Department of Defense. Tor is a free software created by the United States government that masks your location and activity which can be helpful as a privacy tool for both good and evil. Through the use of Tor, criminals can commit crimes while maintaining anonymity. In addition to keeping anonymity, there are various other measures and methods cybercriminals use to ensure they remain anonymous and don't get brought to justice for their cyber-criminal activity. In the Rolling Stone article published by David Kushner Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Manhattan's chief assistant district attorney stated, “This is the crime scene of the 21st century, and these traffickers are finding all kinds of ways to cover their tracks”. Some of these ways include: residing out of the target country/company many miles away, infecting computers to do tasks for them, using other software like Tor which maintains the anonymity of the user, and hiring others to commit cybercrimes. These methods give cybercriminals the opportunity to commit cybercrimes with a security and safety blanket that they most likely won't and can't get in trouble for their actions. This topic is relevant and a real-life connection to this is if a bank robber and their associates knew they could rob a bank 100% guaranteeing their anonymity and success. Still, they need to plan and prepare then they could cause crime repeatedly without any repercussions making them above the law. Similar to the cyber criminals planning on what software to use and how they plan to conduct each cybercrime they actually are capable of maintaining their anonymity repeatedly causing crime without ever being traced or known. This represents a bigger issue in our present-day society because with the internet cybercriminals have the tools and ability not to get caught and to cause terrorism and crime wherever they want. Additionally, cybercriminals cause crime in many different ways a common way cybercriminals like to gain economic status is through bitcoin. Criminals are comfortable doing this because similar to Tor bitcoin is anonymous making it an ideal way for criminals to make transactions. How can cybercriminals be stopped if we don't know who or where they are? Should software like Tor that masks the IP and other information of users be allowed? Are there international laws for cybercrime that takes place in multiple different countries?

### Feb 17 Fri - Exam Review

Multiple Choice Questions

According to the reading, what does HTTP do?
a. Reliably delivers data
b. Location of webpage content
c. Requesting of webpage content
d. Addressing and routing

What does triangulation mean in the context of the reading?
a. A tendency to believe information is credible if it conforms to the viewer’s existing belief system, or not credible if it does not conform.
b. Circulation of media from one user to another.
c. Act of verifying assertions.
d. A form of cross-verification done by examining multiple perspectives and sources.

Short Essay Questions

What is the difference between a Tragedy of the Commons and a Public Good? Write a scenario of a TOC and a PG.

Write a brief definition/interpretation of the Tor software being sure to include how it does what it does and who created it. Create two examples of how someone can use the Tor software for good and evil.

Answers:

C - HTTP requests the content of a webpage. A mnemonic that can be used to help remember what HTTP does is “HTTP requesting the content of a webpage for me.”
D - Triangulation is a form of cross-verification that examines multiple perspectives and sources to ensure the credibility of another source. A mnemonic that can be used to help remember the meaning of triangulate is thinking of the word triangle and how the triangle connects to each corner and is continuous this can connect with the fact that in triangulation cross-checking and continuity in claims/findings are maintained.
Both a Tragedy of the Commons and a Public Good are non-excludable; however, a Tragedy of the Commons is rivalrous and a Public Good is not. Rivalrous means the
The Tor software is a web browsing software that allows a user to access the web and do so while masking their identity and location. The Tor software was created by the US Naval Research Laboratory to be used to mask the identity of US Navy spies. Tor uses an encryption and decryption method called layering which is where Tor gets its onion logo signifying the use of layered encryption. Someone can use the Tor software for evil by committing cybercrimes by using good operational security which will allow them to be able to not get caught. On the other hand, the Tor software can be used for good as a way for users to keep their own identity safe while protesting an oppressive government or for voicing one’s own opinion without direct discrimination and hatred.

### Feb 24 Fri - Gender, Communication, & Contribution

The ongoing debate around gender distribution is a wild one. Gender impacts social media, the workplace, and the world in a multitude of different ways. Gender differences sprout from the fact that males and females are psychologically different due to differing biology and personality traits. Specifically, within a workplace in the case of Google James Damore's Google Memo which got him fired is where he spoke about the differences in gender and the effects on gender and his own belief that women since they are psychologically different than men and they perform worse than men with regards to certain traits and he encouraged gender discrimination by not hiring women. For example, Damore claimed that because women scored greater on extraversion and agreeableness as a whole this would make it harder for women to negotiate and achieve leadership opportunities in an organization and even handle high-stress jobs. David Schmitt disagrees with Damore's claims and states, “It is unclear to me that this sex difference would play a role in success within the Google workplace (in particular, not being able to handle stresses of leadership in the workplace. That’s a huge stretch to me),”. Interestingly enough Damore cites researcher David Schmitt in his memo and this very researcher disagrees with his statements and claims revolving around women in the workplace. The differences between men and women in communication, in the workplace, and overall sprout from many different factors mostly being derived from biological and psychological differences but also from differences that are very hard to measure like personality and experiences that shape different people. Because of these differences it can never be generalized or assumed that one gender or the other can overall be better for certain jobs just because of wide-scale trait tests. Gender discrimination is a real issue in today's society and James Damore's firing was well deserved in my opinion due to the fact he was encouraging gender discrimination at Google because he didn't believe women should be hired as much as men. How should the topic of gender distribution be looked at in the workplace be viewed? Women in STEM are increasing and predominantly female or male-dominated fields are becoming less gender-based than they previously have been how will this impact future generations?