###### 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
- [ ] Begin with a punchy start.
- [ ] Mention specific ideas, details, and examples from the text and earlier classes.
- [ ] Offer something novel that you can offer towards class participation.
- [ ] Check for writing for clarity, concision, cohesion, and coherence.
- [ ] Send to professor with “hackmd” in the subject, with URL of this page and markdown of today’s response.

## Reading responses 5 out of 5

### Sep 18 Tue - How the Web works

Few 50 year old research ventures can claim to have shaped the world so drastically in such a short amount of time. Yet that’s exactly what the Internet has accomplished. However, for most of us, the technical aspects of the web are better relegated as an elaborate black box of bits and waves that delivers us to all the aspects of the internet we love and rely on every day

Within Mozilla’s Web Documentation, We are guided through the different aspects and pieces behind the web and their relationships to one another. Even going as far to explain the order and process through which HTML, CSS, and Javascript are rendered to produce functional websites, As the browser builds the DOM tree and applies the styles from the CSSOM tree and executes the JavaScript, "a visual representation of the page is painted to the screen, and the user sees the page content and can begin to interact with it". (MDN, 2016)

Brody, however, details how we keep our data safe as it travels through the internet. Initially, he begins by describing the most common encryptions utilized by websites to keep data private and then explains certificates and how websites prove their reliability to their users across the globe. Despite the significance of online security and encryption often times its not neccessary, as most requests on the internet are over HTTP rather than HTTPS which is utilized mostly when the site knows it will manage sensitive information, making a trade off with regards to computation power. "Normally, web requests are sent over regular ol’ HTTP, where a client’s request and the server’s response are both sent as plain text." (Brody, 2013)

Both readings agree that HTTPS and TLS encryption are the ideals with regard to digital safety. I was still surprised by Brody’s article though as most sites in my experience have been HTTPS and Google’s secure feature makes certificates and the presence of TLS encryption known to visitors.

### Sep 28 Fri - Learning

"There are known knowns; things we know that we know. There are known unknowns; that is to say, there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also un- known unknowns-there are things we do not know we don't know"(p. 17). In Make it Stick, Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel explore the known knowns, known unknowns, and the unknown unknowns of why and how people learn the ways they do and whether these practices are counterproductive to the aim of learning.

One common misconception of how we learn is Repetition “Repeat, repeat, repeat! Repeating what you have to remember can help burn it into your memory. Belief in the power of rereading, intentionality, and repetition is pervasive, but the truth is you usually can't embed something in memory simply by repeating it over and over" (p. 12). The authors go on to explain that while repetition within our working memory to remember urgent pieces of data like a phone number, but it’s of little benefit to durable learning. Alternatively, the authors recommend spaced repetition as an alternative to rereading.

Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel additionally propose readers be mindful of the “familiarity trap”(p. 64) where someone might feel like they no longer need to practice something because they feel they understood an explanation of it "When they hear a lecture or read a text that is a paragon of clarity, the ease with which they follow the argument gives them the feeling that they already know it and don't need to study it" (p. 18). Instead we learn that the best learning strategies are habitual as these habits strengthen the neural pathways needed to commit material to long term procedural memory.

I think Make it Stick was helpful as I go into any upcoming tests this month, I was somewhat familiar with many of the concepts before yet found some like spaced repetition too cumbersome to attempt regularly so it was in a way a test of my "known unknowns" with regards to learning. My only criticism would be that the authors don’t explain when one might benefit from the learning strategies or if they are all crucial to all successful manifestations of in-depth, active learning.

### Oct 08 Fri - Cooperation

Richard Dawkins in his book “The Selfish Gene” famously argues that in its essence cooperation in nature is selfish; he does this by presenting any behavior that preserves the genetic proliferation and overall good of a species as an inherently selfish act of altruism.
* A animal that fights to scare of rivals or allies with another might look altruistic but this subdued behaviour in rejection of indiscriminate killing increases the likelihood of survival by preserving energy and likelihood of injury which in the wild is just as good a death sentence

Dawkins leverages the work of mathematician Maynard Smith on [Evolutionary Stable Strategy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionarily_stable_strategy) to describe behavior that best increases the chance of survival, relative to the way others in the environment behave a lot like Nowak's re search trials into punishment in games and the Nash Equilibrium of defection in the initial Prisoner's Dilemma game.

Martin Novak echoes this sentiment in his book Super Cooperators when describing the effect of reputation on players' altruism “Furthermore, if players were allowed to make their contributions publicly instead of anonymously, personal investments in climate protection increased substantially. The reputation effect was surprisingly strong, according to Milinski”(p. 27). People were more likely to preserve public goods or make significant financial contributions to charity when their name would be made public.


In Reading the Comments by Joseph Reagle we get to clear the picture on our limits to socialization and how members of a group or society play on a larger scale, “But the size of primates’ neocortex did correlate with the size of their groups and the time that they spent grooming one another. While the practice of talking about others (including rumors and bathroom graffiti, or latrinalia) is more interesting and complex than I can address here, I understand gossip simply as “evaluative social chat”)(p. Gossip).

Gossip though it manifests in variety of ways is an evaluation of the tribe and where everyone stands. I see it as coupling well with Novaks games on cooperation. For example a player who does not cooperate will find themselves the subject of gossip making other players less likely to play well with them when coupled with the reciprocity of socialization it creates balanced equilibrium which helps to prevent destructive antisocial behaviors that may be dangerous to the good of the group. "Natural selection actually destroys what would be best for the entire population. Natural selection undermines the greater good. To favor cooperation, natural selection needs help in the form of mechanisms for the evolution of cooperatio" (p. 16)

### Oct 15 Fri - Haters
I’m not sure how mainstream the Gamergate controversy ever got but its the first to come to mind since it dominated what internet culture looked like for a while, though its died down considerably since 2016. The scandal was cultivated around Zoe Quinn’s (an indie game developer) [Depression Quest](https://store.steampowered.com/app/270170/Depression_Quest/) in the alleged intrests of preserving ethics in game journalism before eventually encapsulating anything interpreted as ‘forced diversity’. Researchers at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society described Gamergate as a "vitriolic campaign against Quinn that quickly morphed into a broader crusade against alleged corruption in games journalism"(p. 18). Long story short a handful of women and minorities were targeted in loosely organized online harassment campaigns it eventually drew mainstream attention, and was largely condemned by the gaming industry. Unfortunately, these issues are still prevalent; legislation is slow and most of the web remain unchartered lands.

One of the more common explanations for the toxic behaviour so normalized in online interactions is the [Online Disinhibition Effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_disinhibition_effect#:~:text=Online%20disinhibition%20effect%20is%20the,invisible%20behind%20the%20computer%20screen.) a cyberpsychology term that describes the lack of restraint people feel in online communications. In Reading the Comments Joseph Reagle refrences the term internet balls which Urban Dictionary defines as “The courage to use a computer screen to write “whatever you want, to whomever you want” in a way you would not if you were face to face: “That would require having balls when you’re away from your computer … which you don’t.”(ch. 5 § "Allienated").


> People feel safer sharing their opinions online rather than in person as the feel both detached and as compeers. This can empower people to be more outspoken of their opinions regardless of how controversial or benign the may seem. Whats the worst that could happen they get mad or offended but cant fight argue or hold the offender accountable to any legitimate capacity. "Researchers estimate that between 10 to 30 percent of online reviews are fake"(ch. 3 § "Manipulated")

A lot of the external readings I looked had a tendency to portray online haters and trolls as amorphous forms with some form of anti-social personality disorder or empathetically deficient but in my opinion I find hard to believe that its a completely individual fault or moral failure rather than a fault in the design and environments fostered by some if not most online comminuties or spaces.

### Oct 19 Tue - Exam Review

Give 2 real life examples of the Pareto Principle:
* 80% of business is from 20% of clients
* 80% of pollution originates from 20% of all factories.

How can we protect ourselves from being manipulated by our filter bubbles:
* By managing cookies with cookie blockers and using Incognito mode. While also exposing ourselves to a wide range of perspectives.

Under Reeds Law networks scale at a rate of:
- [ ] N
- [ ] N!
- [X] 2^N
- [ ] N^2

Explanation:
R(ee)ds law is exponential. (Represents how networks of groups scale)

Tragedy of commons applies to goods that are(check all that apply):
- [X] Rivalrous
- [X] Non Excludable
- [ ] Excludable
- [ ] Non Rivalrous

Explanation:
The Tragedy of the Commons befalls common goods which are both non-excludable and rivalrous (conditions that lend well to freeloading)

> Somebody else's sheep will graze for free regardless might as well make sure yours do too despite the public detriment to the commons.