The Technological Society and Its Discontents

Archive for the Student Writing Category

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026

Josie – If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies Chapters 3 and 4

Yudkosky and Soares’ If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies centers around the idea that AI is unpredictable and has the ability to take complete control over us all. Taking a pessimistic view, Yudkowsky and Soares wholeheartedly believe that the development of Superintelligent AI can lead to the extinction of humanity as we know it. Understandably, this is an incredibly hard pill to swallow.  Starting with chapter 3, the authors introduce us to the idea of AIs “learning to want”. While AIs will never have humanlike passions, as they continue to get smarter they will begin to behave like they want […]

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Posted by on April 22, 2026

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026

Dineen – If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies (Chapters 5 & 6)

Artificial intelligence will not be built like humans (or the bird-aliens) that enjoy preferences or prime numbers. While humans consider “What is the right thing to do?” (93), machine intelligence’s ultimate goal is to be efficient and maximize output. AI can be trained to consider human’s “moral sentiments” (83), but as it becomes superintelligent it will develop beyond human psychology. Yudkowsky and Soares consider if an “alien mind would be good for humanity” and their answer is a resounding “No.” (83).  Alien superintelligence machines would not benefit from human existence and they would end our population. Yudkowsky and Soares compare […]

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Posted by on April 22, 2026

Sunday, April 5th, 2026

Dineen – Superbloom Ch. 9 & 10

Starting with Chapter 9 Carr highlights the beliefs of late 20th century technology entrepreneur, Marc Andreessen, who said “AI will save the world” (207). Andreessen notes that AI can do anything better than humans. Specifically, Andressen finds that AI is more productive, will make more scientific discoveries, and will rationalize political decisions. Moreover, Andresseen argues that AI will be humanized to appear as patient and sympathetic with the potential to make the world nicer and empathic (207).  Many AI advocates would agree with Andreessen’s points, similarly to Zuckerberg, that social media was made to bring people together and eliminate inequality […]

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Posted by on April 5, 2026

Monday, March 23rd, 2026

Superbloom Prologue, Chp.1, Chp. 2 Summary – Josie

Nicholas Carr opens up his 2025 piece Superbloom with a metaphor comparing the boom in communication technology that we see to a superbloom of tulips in California. As humans, we are constantly receiving and emitting signals to one another, and while the thrill of this new kind of communication technology was prevalent at the beginning, we are now facing some unintended consequences. Carr introduces us to Charles Horton Cooley, an American sociologist from the mid-1800s. Cooley understands that communication is the explanation for how societies evolve. The way that we communicate determines the ways that we think and act. As […]

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Posted by on March 23, 2026

Friday, March 20th, 2026

How to post to the blog

1) Go to https://www.blogs.bucknell.edu/ and log in to your myBucknell account (or if you’re already logged in, going to that url will show you a link for our course blog). 2) Go to “Visit Dashboard” for our blog. (Or, if when you get into the blog site it shows you the published front page, click on “Log In” on the right of screen.) 3) Hover over “+New” at top of screen menu. 4) Click on “Post.” That opens the editor. Type or paste in your text. Be sure to periodically “Save Draft” if you are typing for a while so you don’t […]

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Posted by on March 20, 2026

Friday, March 20th, 2026

Guidelines for Reading Presentations and Summaries

Here is what is on the syllabus on this: “Each student will be assigned to give two short introductions to readings. These should be neatly focused and concise (not more than ten to fifteen minutes) summaries of interesting points in the reading and a line of questioning to start our discussion. It is a difficult thing to properly and expertly present on a reading in such a brief period of time and you will need to be prepared. Generate notes to orient your presentation and practice to be aware of time. Fifteen minutes go by distressingly quickly and the texts […]

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Posted by on March 20, 2026

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