---
# System prepended metadata

title: Reading Responses (Set 1)
tags: [COMM1255]

---

###### tags: `COMM 1255`
# 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

### Jan 19 Fri - How the Web Worksc

Hartley Brody's article "How HTTPS Secures Connections" delves into the foundation for secure modern day communication, HTTPS. Brody first focuses on how cryptography works. Two clients communicating are able to create a mixture of data which is then reordered using their own private keys without ever sharing them with eachother (Brody, 2013). To ensure that one client is certain of who they are communicating with, the owner of the domain is able to pay to be certified by one of many private companies who then stamp any communication from the server with their mark of approval.

I found it interesting how in a world where seemingly everything is automated, a core tennet of the internet comes down to companies manually reviewing websites for their legitimacy. This first appeared inneficient to me. Although having a layer of inefficiency solves another issue that Brody raised, the problem of additional security coming with increases in required computational power. One such instance of computational power being used needlessly is Bitcoin. Jeremy Hinsdale from Colombia University's Climate School said "[Bitcoin] currently consumes an estimated 150 terawatt-hours of electricity annually - more than the entire country of Argentina, population 45 million"(Hinsdale, 2022). Having options for both secure communication and non-secure communication means http avoids falling prey to the issues of bitcoin. SSL certificates can be purchased from Comodo for 7.95/yr (SSL Store, n.d.). Attaching a fee to owning an SSL certificate, no matter how menial, avoids this problem as server owners are insentivised to save costs when possible, but the price is not so great as to incentivise a company to forgo security when necessary.

Brody, H, (2013, July 24). *How HTTPS Secures Connections: What Every Web Dev Should Know*.
https://blog.hartleybrody.com/https-certificates/

Hinsdale, J. (2022, May 4). *Cryptocurrency's Dirty Secret: Energy Consumption*. Colombia Climate School. 
https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2022/05/04/cryptocurrency-energy/

SSL Store, (n.d.). *Comodo Positive SSL Certificate*.
https://comodosslstore.com/positivessl.aspx

### Feb 02 Fri - Cooperation

Two prisoners have been caught committing some minor crime and are now in separate interrogation rooms. They are both suspects in committing a much larger crime. If they keep silent they will both receive minor prison sentences. However, if they rat on each other they will receive a reduced sentence while their partner gets a longer sentence. This is the situation proposed by the famous [prisoner's dilemma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner's_dilemma), a popular aspect of game theory. Martin Nowak's book *Super Coordinators* explores the dynamics of cooperation through the lens of game theory. The prisoner's dilemma can be characterized mathematically in the following matrix in which a higher number represents more value:

<img src="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jens-Eisert/publication/2184338/figure/fig1/AS:671529209692164@1537116448235/The-pay-off-matrix-in-the-Prisoners-Dilemma-game-The-first-entry-refers-to-Alices.png" alt="Prisoners Dilemma Matrix Example" width="500">

Prisoner's dilemma situations can be seen in many aspects of everyday life, but Nowak focuses on one of the largest games of prisoners dilemma: climate change. When we see other people pollute, it makes us feel like it is fine for ourselves to pollute. If other people pollute but we choose not to they are able to exploit more resources therefore increasing their own [fitness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitness_(biology)) over ours. Alternatively, everybody could cooperate to reduce their own pollution. In repeated games of prisoners dilemma, certain experiments gave their players the option to either reward other players or punish them. These experiments found that players who avoided punishing others, choosing instead to disengage with those who chose to betray others lead to the most positive outcomes. This leads to the logical conclusion that in our lives we should seek out other who choose to collaborate and not dwell on punishing those who choose not to.

I recently encountered a perfect example of game theory while watching a YouTube video from a professor of finance at King's College London which discusses "The Canadian Paradox". 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wx51CffrBIg?si=k0zqbVKWxr_6Q8FE&amp;start=735" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Canada is a generally high trust society but is infamous for fraud. The video brings up a [news article from 1989 from Forbes](https://scamcouver.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/scam-capital.pdf) that describes the Vancouver Stock Exchange as the scam capital of the world. The conclusion in the video is that Canada has high amount of fraud because it being a trusting society attracts fraudsters. Despite this, the high level of trust is an overall positive because it allows businesses and individuals to thrive. In the experiments Nowak discusses sometimes participants are able to see the history of another player. This is not always possible in the real world. The Canadian paradox shows that even when we cannot vet everybody that we interact with it still is logical to trust everybody. While this makes sense at a macro scale it is of little condolence to victims of fraud such as those [who suffered from the collapse of Nortel in the early 2000s](https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB113940236064568277). Regardless, as society is more prosperous when we trust each other, even though there may be bad actors who seek to undermine this trust, there are enough good people that we should not let our trust in each other waver. 

### Feb 09 Fri -  Catfishing

Imagine your significant other were to one day disappear off the face of the earth. Victims of scams such as Sarah in the Youtube video "My wife sent $250,000 to a Romance Scammer", which was uploaded by Catfished, experienced this feeling when she sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to a scammer. The the victim Sarah believed she was friends with a man who was in the military. Throughout their relationship, this man asked for thousands of dollars for things such as helping him get medical help after being shot in Syria and money for helping him return to the United States. Sarah continued to send money to this man fully believing he was real until she eventually maxed out her 401K, maxed put all of her credit cards, and lost all of her life savings. She eventually became skeptical at which point she contacted the organization Social Catfish which helps to verify if somebody is a catfish or not. They concluded that it was in fact a catfish and that all of her money was gone for good. 



It can be hard to sympathize with people who seemingly lack basic skills in detecting scams online, but the issue of catfishing goes beyond that of being gullible. It reveals an epidemic of loneliness. This can easily be seen in a different [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72_vKNULbms) from catfished. The woman, Mary, recently got divorced by her husband because he could not deal with taking care of her mother who has dementia. She felt lonely as all her effort went towards taking care of somebody else leaving her with no time to socialize for herself. This leaves her easily susceptible to scammers who can provide a seeming solace. Compared to other victims of scams featured on the catfished channel I felt much more sympathy for Mary. Sarah in the original video seems delusional and was willing to ruin her long lasting marriage for someone she had only seen on a screen she then was hesitant to admit that she had been duped once it was revealed. Comparatively, Mary was just looking for someone who cares about her in a time where she felt like there was nobody who did. Mary is a case study for the impact that loneliness can have on a rational individual, and the strength that we gain from strong relationships. 

### Feb 16 Fri - The Darknet

Oftentimes innovators are those who society rejects. Galileo was jailed for his discoveries about the universe, Alan Turning was an influential computer scientist for his contributions in WW2 who was later castrated for his homosexuality, and Ross Ulbricht was a libertarian who created a platform which facilitated the sale of illicit items including billions of dollars in drugs. Jacob Kozhipatt explores thus marketplace in his article "[Silk Road Darknet Market Testing For Bitcoin](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/silk-road-darknet-market-testing-for-bitcoin)". This platform was called the Silk Road, named after the ancient set of trade routes spanning central Eurasia. The silk road was the first prominent instance of crypto currency being used to facilitate trade between hundreds of thousands of users. Despite his knowledge of cyber anonymity, Ulbricht was eventually caught and jailed by the federal government. 

The opinion piece chooses to characterize Ulbricht in a very specific way. The author brings up how Ulbricht was a libertarian who simply wanted to create a marketplace that was free from government influence. He notably brings up how Ulbricht did not allow items such as child phonography and weapons grade plutonium to be traded on the Silk Road. While this is true, it excludes that Ulbricht  [paid $650,000 to someone who he believed was a hitman to kill up to 5 people](https://www.wired.com/2015/02/read-transcript-silk-roads-boss-ordering-5-assassinations/). This information was revealed by prosecutors in Ulbricht's trial who had sifted through the Silk Road's servers. Ultimately it is believed that all the characters Ulbricht believed he was talking to in his messages organizing the hit were either the same person or a small group who facilitated a scam against Ulbricht to run off with nearly a million dollars in total. This reveals a major challenge in the maturity of the "darknet". If everyone is anonymous, it is easy for scams to be proliferated. Even the mastermind of the most prominent darknet platform in history was able to be conned because it is near impossible for an individual to confirm the identities of those online. In the end, the movement for online anonymity may in the end give more power to the governments of the world who are the only ones with the resources to crack the many layers of the onion. As explored in my response on cooperation, trust within a society is essential for it to succeed. While total anonymity seems good for the individual, it is crippling for society as a whole, and ultimately what is bad for society can ultimately be bad for the individual as well. 

### February 19th - Exam Review

MC1: What is DNS or Domain Name System's role in the internet?

- [ ] It represents the address of a server or host.
- [ ] It maps human readable hostnames with IP's.
- [ ] It handles the reliable delivery of data.
- [ ] It ensures the security of packets being sent.

B is the correct answer. This answer tests the test takers knowledge of DNS which is one of the key components of the internet. The first two false answers are other components of the internet, IP address and TCP. The 3rd false answer is a more general statement which could be explained by multiple things, none of them being DNS. 



MC2: Which situation best describes an instance of the "strength of weak ties".

- [ ] A stranger giving you good advice on the street.
- [ ] A friend helping you move.
- [ ] An acquaintance you haven't seen in a while connecting you with a new job.
- [ ] Becoming friends with somebody you previously called an acquittance. 

C is the correct answer. This questions tests the test takers understanding of the concept called "the strength of weak ties". The component of this concept that the question tests is that the person is known to you and therefore not a stranger, but also is not considered a good friend. 



**SA1: Recently Boston city officials have brought up the idea of implementing a $15 dollar tax on people who choose to drive into the city instead of taking public transportation. This is in response to overcrowding on our public roadways from people who choose to travel in the comfort of their own personal vehicles. Is this issue more accurately described by the "Tragedy of the Commons" or "Public Good"? Why?**

The best answer is "The Tragedy of the Commons". There are two primary aspects of "The Tragedy of the Commons", the situation being rivalrous and there being a case of overconsumption. The student should explain how wanting the luxury of the car fulfills the rivalrous aspect while bad traffic fulfills the overconsumption trait. The student could also make an argument that it is a case of "Public Good" because not enough roads are built but thus is a less convincing answer than what was previously mentioned. 



**SA2: Bitcoin has been proposed as the currency of the future. Name one major challenge facing bitcoin, why it occurs, and one possible way a crypto currency could solve this problem.**

There are many possible answer for this question. A few possible answers are: large energy consumption, regulatory challenges, volatility in price, widespread use by criminals, or a reputation for fraud. If I were to choose the problem of large energy consumption my response would be as follows. 

Large energy consumption is a problem facing bitcoin. It occurs because bitcoin requires a lot of energy to perform the calculations to "mine" a new bitcoin. It could be solved by moving to a proof of steak model rather than a proof of work.

For the final component of the question "a possible way a crypto currency could solve this problem" the grading should be open ended because it is looking for if the student is able to think critically about the concept rather than if they have prior knowledge. Know about proof of work rather than proof of steak is one instance of outside knowledge aiding in the question. 