Trusting Artificial Minds
By Aaqib M Chowdhury Shuvo
Table of Content Note from the writer …………………………...........................................3-5 Are Part time Jobs good for students? (Substantial Revision)................6-8 What’s wrong with self Driving cars?(Gene Change) ………………… 9-11 Using media to stereotype Italians in America.(Reading Response) 12-13 Goodyear Dining Hall…………………………………………………. 14
Cons of self driving Cars…………………………………………………15
My Journey as a writer.  On my first day of class, I thought that I knew what I had to do to in this class, as I have already taken some English courses in my high school, but now when I look back I see that I did a lot of work I never thought I could do. On my way through the course, I believe I have grown as a writer and as a reader.  The course started to surprise me from the first week when I got my first assignment which was the Ethnographic essay. I had to observe a specific group of people and take interviews of the members of the group to develop a hypothesis. I was very excited and nervous at the same time as I had never done anything close to that in my previous courses, and I expected to learn a lot from that assignment. I had to focus to a specific group of people and build up my hypothesis. A superficial understanding of the group I worked on did not help me reach a hypothesis. I had to do a lot of field work to talk to individual member of the group I worked with, to learn insights of the groups. I was lucky enough to make couple of new friends on the way, who help me understand the internal mechanism of the group. When I started understanding the group I was working with, I realized that my previous understanding was wide of the mark. As I went on with my interviews my perception of the group gradually changed. I started going to their work place more often not only to develop my hypothesis but also because I developed a bond with the people working there. I took notes of all my observations and started working on my first drafts.
 I had to constantly challenge myself and worked on to get answers to all my questions. My hypothesis was not obvious, so I had to provide the reader with enough evidence to convince my reader. Instead of sticking to one side of the argument I included both sides of it, which helped me to make my hypothesis stronger. The workshops and the peer review helped me realize what I had to do to make my essay more encompassing. The feedbacks I got from my peers were very helpful, and I worked on the different aspects of the study my peers thought I was missing. I had to change my thought process to accommodate for changes I needed to bring in my study. After I had my second draft prepared I realized a change in myself. My thought had become more complex and deep because I learned how to sustain a logical argument in an organized manner. I questioned everything to obtain a better understanding of what I observed.  The reading materials I was assigned in the course helped me sharpen my critical analysis. I often read multiple texts by the same author to understand the writing style and get in-depth understanding of the text. This helped me in my second assignment which was Rhetorical analysis, where I had to work with what is implied and not stated. On my rhetorical analysis assignment I chose to work on “Harrison Bergeron" written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Before joining the class I never thought I could work on such a satirical and dystopian science-fiction short story, as it was very tough to understand what the writer is trying to portray, by amateurs. As I moved though the course realized that I was particularly interested in those types of writings. The texts were very challenging at first, but at the same time were very intriguing. I believe that the materials I read throughout the course helped me expand my literary analysis and writing skills.
But I have to say that it wasn’t just like a walk in the park. I had to push myself to the limit, sometimes working all night to read texts of the same writing style by different authors, to make my writing even better. I had to prepare an ad project for this class and I choose a product which does not exist but will surely do in the near future. My ad was on self-driving cars. The thought came to me when I was going through my Facebook page and saw a fact which stated that every 13 minute an American dies due to road accidents. I felt really bad, and I wondered what are big companies like Google and Mercedes are doing to tackle this problem. That’s when I found self-driving cars, which would eliminate all accidents caused by human errors which would lead to 93% decrease in accidents in America. While doing research about the self-driving cars, I learned about a lot of flaws in the project. I found it very interesting, and that is why I base my Gene Change essay on it. I focused on different aspects of the car in my Ad critique. It was a completely different experience for me as the writing style I used in the Ad critique was completely different that they work I did previously in the course. The writing style, the thinking process, and the reasoning I used in the Ad critique were completely new to me. I went through a lot of Ad critique to understand the style of writing and the method used to convince the reader. At last for the substantial revision, I chose to work on the Ethnographic Essay because I thought I should work on my hypothesis but this time I focused on a smaller group of people. I took some more interviews to know more about them and I also got my hands on data which would make my hypothesis stronger.
Are Part time Jobs good for students?
Transformed by their Jobs
I observed a change in my friend after he started working on a campus dining shop. He suddenly became very punctual and started investing more time on studies than on movies and games. I knew that the change was bought by his job but was not sure. I started wondering if all the students change after joining a part time job. I went to my friend’s work place to examine the issue. My thesis was- Students do better in studies after joining part time jobs. To examine my thesis I went on to interview 5 students who are working on the residential dining center, Main St. Market at Goodyear.
I went on to see the work place and I saw people from different races and background working together; to me it was very interesting. Every one worked as a team and the environment was very inspiring. I saw that people working there are not given specific jobs. People work in different work stations in turn so that no one can complain about their specific jobs as the pay rate is same for everyone. It is very common to see the manager sweeping the floor or doing jobs which any of the new recruits would do, which is very interesting to see. I kept going to the place to speculate my thesis and also because I liked going to the place. Everyone had their own reason to work there and after taking a couple of interviews I realized that a lot of students did not work there to support their parents paying for tuition but for some extra cash to spend on them. Some just worked there to afford a car, some worked to spend money on weekends, and some worked to pay rent and bills; but all of them worked there because they liked working there and made some very good friends at their work place. The manger there was very enthusiastic and was friendly enough to provide with some useful data when I asked for it. According to the data I was provided, most of the students who got the job and worked for a couple of weeks continued to work there for a long time, at least a semester. While school allows International students to work 20 hours a week, due to the study load, many of them work around 12 to 16 hours a week, which is because their priority is studies and not work. On my interviews I asked all 5 of them same questions. On asking “what is the most significant thing you learned from the job”. All of them had a common answer which that they learned how tough it is to earn money and all of them cut off their living cost by a significant amount by avoiding unnecessary spending. They also learned to be punctual as they could get fired for being late for the job. Most of theirs lifestyle changed because of their jobs they said. All of them had specific time to work, to study, and to have fun, and most of them avoided skipping classes. Most of them were reluctant to tell me their GPS’s before and after they joined for their work, but when I told them that I will not disclose their names they told me their GPA’s. All of their GPA’s got better after they started working at the residential dining center, and I was very surprised to hear that.
When I asked them to tell me about the things they had to sacrifice because of the jobs, most of them said that they sacrificed nothing. Even after joining the jobs they have enough time to socialize and have fun with friends. Most of them said that after joining the job they are utilizing time more efficiently than before, which is also one of the biggest reason behind their better performance in school. When I asked “Do you make effective use of your time?” most of them said that they are, but they were not always like that. Their job pushed them to be more productive and drop less important things from his schedule. When I asked them “what was the reason behind you joining the job”? most of them said that they want to help their parents financially. They try their best to help their parents but maybe be they cannot earn significant amount in doing so, but at least they get to know how tough it is to earn money and that they do not spend money the way they used to, before they started working there. When I asked them what change they feel in themselves after joining their jobs, all of them said that they feel more confident and possess better time-management skills than before. In addition to offering a paycheck, some independence and satisfaction, part-time job provided them both training and experience. Employers all around the world are looking for candidates who demonstrate maturity, responsibility, independence and initiative — and a good worker certainly demonstrate those important character traits which helps them to get better jobs in the future. Some say that school itself is a full time job, which might be true, but for the people working part time jobs in Goodyear Dining Hall, the job is more like an interesting change in their usual schedule and they enjoy every bit of it. It’s a break from their usual school life, and they even cash while doing so. When I asked the question “Why do you like to work in Goodyear”? most of the students said that they have become like a family now, and they don’t want to leave it. A lot of International student work there and since they live thousands of miles away from their parents, the job provide them with structural support and make them feel like home.
What’s wrong with self driving cars?
The first thing which comes to our mind when we think of Artificial Minds is “Computer”. In contrast to human minds which can be manipulated by emotions and feeling, computers base their judgments on statistics and data available. As long as the computers have some sort of data from the past, it can create a formula and use its algorithm to figure out the best possible solution. Numerous researches has been done to evaluate the reliability of the artificial minds and one of the most renounced one which made it to the New York Times was by Chris Snijders of the Eindhoven University of Technology. After studying the routine decisions made by humans and computers, he confidently concluded that computers, by large can outperform humans. He is so convinced by the study that he challenged managers from any company to compete with his algorithms. Relying on Chris Snijders’s research and numerous other researches, big computers like google and other started investing ion self driving cars. Due to recent technological developments, large volumes of information can be stored in a small place, which enables the computers on the cars to make more reliable decision. But are they reliable enough that we can trust them with our lives? Teenagers love the idea of self driving cars, since they are always on their computers, having a car which they can control with their computer of smart phone put it on the list of jobs that can be done with their pc.
 A recent servey by New York Times shows that 57% of the people who we surveyed would not by self driving cars which shows that majority of people do not like them. There are a number of reasons for not choosing them, and one of the biggest reasons is their reliability. With self driving cars, people do not have anyone to blame incase of an accident. Another thing people are scared of are hackers. Hackers will not have to anything physical to get someone killed. They can easily hack someones car and manipulate it from their home. To tackle this problem, car companies has build firewalls and advances anti-virus soft wares; which would make the cars less affordable.  People makes mistakes but so do computers. People might be distracted while driving by their phones and get into an accidents, but people tend to pick up things before it gets out of hand. People can learn from their previous errors and avoid getting into accidents. But when computers fail, they fail spectacularly, making them very risky to work with. Car manufacturers would be reluctant to mass produce self driving because if any horrific accidents occur in the first few days of the release of the car, people would probably not buy the car due to the negative publicity that would be caused. Even if self driving cars leads to a decrease in accidents in the nation as a whole compared to normal cars, people would be reluctant to buy them.  Self driving cars can have catastrophic effects on the economy of a country. Taxi drivers, lorry drivers, and people involved in all driving professionals would lose their jobs. Good driving skills may not be considered as a skill which would be disastrous for people who spend most of their lives driving, like truckers. Insurance companies which employ thousands of workers would fall because people would not need drivers insurance when they are not actually driving the car. Thousands of people would lose their jobs and the economy may fall in a very short time. This is one of the biggest reasons why the government might now pass the law to drive self-driving cars.
Another sector which would have a big effect from the self driving car, is the medical sector. Nearly 2 million visits are made to the hospitals due to traffic accidents in America in a year, and with self driving cars, traffic accidents will be less which means fewer doctors will be hired and less funds available for students who wants to go to medical school. With the increase of selfdriving cars the rate of obesity will rise. People would avoid walking or cycling to work or school because with self driving cars they do not have to worry about searching for an empty parking space, as the car would do it itself. People would avoid using public transportation which would add to the traffic jams we already have. Today, around 15% of children in America are obese and this figure would probably increase if self driving cars take over because, there would be nothing called under aged driving as the person sitting behind the steering is not actually driving the car. Popularity of pubs and clubs would increase as drinking and driving laws will not apply. It is obvious that self driving cars would help us avoid accidents in the highway, and on the city which means it will be good at interacting with other cars, but will it be good at interacting with humans? For example, a child running after a ball into the street is visible by a driver but will it be visible by a self driving car? Till now we do not have any evidence to show that the cars would be friendly to humans. Software developers will have to work on it to make those cars safer to the environment.
Using media to stereotype Italians in America.
I chose the TV show called ‘Jersey Shore” where Italian American population has been stereotyped. The hit MTV reality show “Jersey Shore” has overcome a lot of criticisms during its premier but that could not stop it from gaining huge popularity and according to Wikipedia, it has one of the highest viewers of any reality shows aired on MTV. The show follows the life of 8 Italian American who have been brought up in the United States, and due to that, their lifestyle is similar to the lifestyles of American teenagers. The show stereotypes the Italian American population with a couple of characters which I think is misleading. Due to the show thousands of Italian American all around the world are being judged. The show featured 8 “Guidos”, slang used to describe working class Italian men, spending their summer in Jersey Shore (Seaside Heights, New Jersey) beach house.
The main theme of the show was to show how they partied and basically their live revolved around these parties. They partied 3 to 4 days a week. They had no fixed job, and basically spend their time on the beach having fun and going to the GYM. The males go to the gym 5 days a week and they are very masculine, they follow a routine called “GTL” which is Gym, Tan, and Laundry. They believe that to look their best and to get all the attention of the ladies they have to “GTL”. The males show excessive aggressive behavior to prove their manliness. There were several incidents where the housemates got into fights within themselves which shows lack of unity amongst them. In a later season we see that the group was sent to Italy to spend their summer and that’s where we see the big difference between their lifestyles and the lifestyle of the true Italian. The traditional Italian people could relate to them which shows that their lifestyle has evolved to be more like that of an American than an Italian.
Goodyear Dining Hall. I did my substantial revision on the ethnographic study because I thought I did not include enough information to support my hypothesis. That is why, in the revised version I added specific data and some more interviews to support my hypothesis. I changed my hypothesis from “International students who work part time do better in their studies”, to “Students who work part time do better in their studies” because I got more interviews with students who are domestic and who work part time. I worked on a specific group of students who work in the dining hall of the dorm Goodyear. In my pervious ethnographic study I did not have many interviews to make my hypothesis strong but in my substantial revision I had enough interviews and specific data which supports my hypothesis. In my substantial revision I used specific question which I asked to students who work part time and also to students who do not to compare their responses. I even talked to the manager of the food court to know more about the students I worked with for the substantial revision. I got the CGPA of students who work part time, before and after they joined their jobs, and compared it with the CGPA of students who don’t work and I observed that the average of the students who work part time is better than the students who don’t. After finishing my final draft for the substantial revision, I feel that it is more concise and has better reasoning to support my hypothesis compare to final draft of my ethnographic study.
Cons of self driving Cars.
My ad was on self-driving cars, and how they can help us reduce road accidents to a bare minimum. In the ad I focused on various aspects of the car that will help us in our everyday life. I started with stating what people love to do while driving like texting, eating, talking on the phone, and a lot of other things. Then I added a video to show people how millions of people lose their lives due to the things they do while driving. Then I showed them how Self-driving can let them do what they love to do behind the steering without the fear of getting into any accidents. I added videos to show all the features of the car that makes roads a lot safer. I discuss about all the ways people can be benefitted by the selfdriving cars such as improved fuel economy, better road utilization, and accident prevention. I included facts like how many accidents takes place due to human errors and how many lives we lose due to road accidents every year to show them how important self-driving cars are to us. Self-driving cars a closer to reality more than anyone can imagine, and to prove that I included current researches done by Google and Volvo on Self-driving cars. Millions of dollars are invested on research on these cars to make sure they do not cause any damage to humans and Google’s Self-driving car has already travelled thousands of miles without getting into any accident. I included this in my ad to show how reliable these cars are. I ended my ad by stating that some states have already approved selfdriving cars as being safe to the road, and companies such as Nissan has predicted that mass production will start as soon as 2016, to show that these cars will be available to everyone very soon.