Opinion

OPINION Letter to the Editors: Make Election Day a Villanova Holiday

Matthew Clarkin Class of 2021

As we enter into the fall and thefinalstretchofthepresidential campaign season, the reality that a national election will be held on November 3rd is starting to settle in. For most Americans, Election Day can often feel as if it’s just like any other Tuesday. The usual responsibilities of daily life — work, classes, family, etc. — don’t disappear. Theonlydifferenceisthatthis year, possibly upwards of sixty percent of those citizens who are at least eighteen years old will also have voted bymail-inballotorwillfindtheirway to the voting booth. With so many people planning on participating and with projections from both ends of the political spectrum expecting record-breaking turnout, how can we pretend it’s just a regular Tuesday? Villanova University prides itself on its values and mission, both of which emphasize the importance of community involvement, “responsible and productive citizenship,” and igniting change in our everyday lives. In the last year, the Student Government Association has worked with various Jacob Artz StaffWriter The old cliché that “records are meant to be broken” can easily be applied to the short term bubble format of major sports leagues. Bubbles are meant to be bursted. The amazement of the crowd when an athlete makes a tremendous play or the booing when the referee makes a bad call are sounds that we are used to hearing at sporting events. We love to feel the energy or momentum changes in a game if a late score is tallied or if there’s a massive mistake that hurts the team’s chances of winning. We plan our weekends around football games in the fall, and the same goes officesanddepartmentstoestablish the #Let’sVoteNova initiative, which is aimed at promoting civic engagement, organizing voter registration, and providing election day information. Clearly there’s some desire to get involved and get-out-the-vote. On or before November 3rd, however, there will be dozens of reasons for Villanovans to choose not to vote or engage. And while some of these may be solved by building awareness about registration, polling place locations, and the mail-in ballot process, only a resounding celebration of our constitutional right to choose how we are governed can combat the social pressures and downright apathy thataffectcollegestudentsduringan election. While this is an argument for all classes to be cancelled, Election Day this year should by no means be a“day-off.” MakingNovember3rda holiday at Villanova would allow students,faculty,staff,andadministration the freedom to canvass for a candidate ortheflexibilitytovolunteerasapoll worker. It would provide our commu- nity with the opportunity to talk about the issues that matter to us as indi- viduals and as a campus and to learn for basketball and hockey games in the winter. In the summer, we attend baseball games to relax and enjoy America’s favorite pastime. Some sense of normalcy was achieved by the National Football League when it began the 2020 season Thursday night when the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Houston Texans, 34-21. This was a beautiful sight to see; I felt as though I could rise and fall with the crowd’s momentum and seesaw of emotions. Even NBC’s play-by-play announcer, AlMichaels, hadto clarifythatartificial crowd noise was not being used, and the loud cheering was from the minuscule 17,000 in attendance. Many other leagues and sports, however, have chosen to have no fans and have locked their athmore about what faces our nation in the next four years regardless of who occupiestheOvalOfficeorCongress. We can spend a day rejecting vicious, divisive partisanship and embrace the commonality of our nation’s democratic purpose and principles. Villanova can set an example for what Election Day should and could be for our country. While it might still look like an average Tuesday, this election will be letes, staffandtrainers in bubbles. These bubbles are where we have seen virtualfans atNBAplayoff games, heardartificialcrowdnoises duringNHLplayoffgames and witnessed cutouts of people in the stands of MLB games. By the way, these people pay to see themselves get plunked by another crushed homerun. This bubble does not have to be this strict or this prolonged. The NBA has set up shop in Walt Disney World, where the original 22 teams were split into hotels. The games and practices are held at the ESPN Worldwide Sports Complex, which hosts three courts for games and another seven for practices, according to sportsrush.com. The only people thatcan be there are coaches, staff, select reporters, commentators and of course, the virtual fans. It looks incredibly dumb on television, and it looks like they are surrendering to a virus that is steadily trending down- wards bythe greatefforts of the American people. The National Hockey League executed a similar venture in which all the Eastern Confer- ence teams were staged in Toronto, Ontario, while all of the Western conference teams were placed in Edmonton, Alberta. The Philadel- phia Flyers made it to Game 7 of the second round, but besides the three overtime game winners, the games feltawkwardwhen the artificial crowd noise of fans cheering or booing would come in late, or simply soundedwrongalltogether. Playoff hockeygames feedoffthe fans energy; the level of intensity is just not the same from the fan’s perspective. The positive aspect for both leagues is that there are seldom positive cases, and no stoppages or postponements have been necessary because of the virus. The only time like no other we’ve witnessed in our history. We simply cannot let that pass us by. So even if we must still attend classes, make sure you don’t forget to register to vote and to cast your vote, either in-person or by mail-in. Engage in conversations about policy or politics. Speak up for the issues you believe in and lend time to causes or candidates you support. Do your civic duty and ignite change at the ballot box this

#Let’sVoteNova has been pushing for greater student participation in the U.S. election. Courtesy of The Villanovan

Bursting Bubbles: Professional Sports During the Pandemic

November 3rd. players have been held out have been for violations of NBA bubble protocols, such as when sixth man for the Los Angeles Clippers Lou Williams visited a gentleman’s club and was mandated to quarantine for 10 days. Major League Baseball has written adifferentstory; they have not had any fans, but they have experienced multiple series of postponements, including the Phillies having to play the Miami Marlins seven times in five days this past week. The Marlins irresponsibly played a game against the Phillies in the firstweekof the season, despite knowing that they had multiple players with positive test results. The reason for the regionalized schedule and teams being able to play at their home fields is because, accordingto CBS Sports, the face of the MLB, Mike Trout, said it would be “pretty crazy” to be locked up in hotels and not see their families for months. Baseball’s cut outs and tarps placed on the seats is starting to get old; baseball relies on the family friendly atmosphere to promote its product. After reading all of this, what is the solution? It’s easy. Allow fans back into the games with safety precautions in place. A family can sit together, andothers can close offa seat or two in between the fans, with masks on. People take risks every- day; we have shopped in stores with plenty of strangers or worked closely beside others during the worst of the pandemic. I am certain that many people, including myself, would take the small risk of attending a sporting event, in the same way we attend mass and college classes with masks and social distancing measures. Implementing these proce- dures will allow us to take one step closer to defeating this virus and returning to life as we knew it.

EMILY COX Editor-in-Chief

TYLER KEMP Editor-in-Chief

JACK ROBERGE Opinion Editor Killing the Spotted Lanternflies: A Communal Catharsis Tina Aron StaffWriter dents work together to step on these invaders, While some of us face the moral dilemma of letting insects live in 2020 has been a rough year, their natural environment, others rise leaving us to depend on any moments above this and realize the importance of happiness. It comes down to the of killing these bugs. small things that bring us joy, and “Lanternfliesareaninvasive sometimes that small thing is a spotted species, and many Villanova students lanternfly. come together to kill them; it feels like Spottedlanternflies,thedetateamefforttodefeattheevilinvad- rimental invasive species that arrived inglanternflies,” anothersophomore on campus a few years ago, are the student added. “They are the only embodiment of chaos. They work bugs I don’t feel guilty about killing to destroy our native species while actually.” simultaneouslylandingandflying I am happy to say that I go to into unsuspecting passers-by. With no a school where no one takes a second known natural predator, these insects look when someone goes out of their breed and produce without control. waytochasedownalanternfly,but They are practically everywhere you rather cheers each other on. Villanova turn, whether they’re littered through students are known for their service, the West tunnel or harassing innocent and killing these bugs is ultimately our bystanders. While killing the lan- service to the environment. ternfliesisagoodwaytofighttheir Steppingonlanternfliesis environmental impact, it also works something small we can do to make to bring the community together in a adifference,whilesimultaneously shared cathartic experience. uniting against a common cause. It “The camaraderie you will shows that when working together, experienceuponkillingalanternflyin truly anything is possible. Sophomore the presence of others is truly second Hillary O’Neill says it best: “It’s some- to none,” sophomore Eleanor Dalass thing that unites people: a common said when speaking about how stupurpose.”

LETTERS TO THE EDITORS

The Villanovan encourages all members of the Villanova community to voice their opinions. Letters to the editors may be submitted via e-mail to villanovan.eic@gmail.com. Letters must not exceed 500 words and must be signed. No anonyous letters will be published. All submissions become property of The Villanovan and are subject to editing for clarity and space.

POLICY

The unsigned editorial that appears is the opinion of The Villanovan as deteermined by the majority of the Editorial Board. Other columns, letters and artwork represent the opinions of their auhtors and do not necessarilyreflectthepositionof The Villanovan.

AI: The Massive Problem No One is Talking About

Mark Rossi StaffWriter When people think about the things that could bring about the end of humanity, the short list tends to include global thermonuclear war, asteroid impacts or deadly pandemics (sounds familiar). Of course, these are not the only existential threats faced by humanity. The people of some developing nations are sadly more familiar with other issues: drought, famine and socio-political collapse. Yet there is one threat that humanity faces that is far more insidious than the others, as it is rightinourfaces: uncontrolledArtificial Intelligence (AI). I’m not the only one sounding the alarm about the potential dangers of AI; Elon Musk, world renowned engineer-entrepreneur, has repeatedly done the same. At the National Governors Conference in 2017, Musk said, “AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization in a way that car accidents, airplane crash- es, faulty drugs or bad food were [sic] not.” For Musk and others, like Bill Gates and Stephen Hawking, pro- active measures to prevent a disaster are better than reactive measures after one. In fact, Musk founded his nonprofitOpenAIforthepurpose ofensuringthat“artificialgeneral intelligence (AGI) — by which we mean highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most econom- icallyvaluablework—benefitsallof humanity.” But what exactly is AI? What isAGI?What’sthedifference?Sim- ply put, AI is used in reference to machines that can perform tasks that mimic those of the human mind, like solving problems or learning new information. Self-driving cars are a great example of AI’s potential use in daily life; Tesla, Google and Uber are all expanding their reach into this new market. Whilethisartificialnarrow intelligence (ANI) can be used to streamlineaspecificprocessandthus improve quality of life for both busi- nessesandindividuals,artificialgener- al intelligence (AGI) has the potential to do much more, both good and bad. Artificialgeneralintelligenceisany AI that would have the capability to learn, interpret and apply knowledge about the world in a manner exactly akin to, or even better than, a human being. It is important to note that AGI does not currently exist. It is, however, the aspiration of many AI developers, and many organizations have dedicated themselves to the task (the most high-profileofthesebeingGoogle’s DeepMind AI project). With the added advantages of instantaneous calculation and per- fect memory, AGI would be able to replace almost any human task. While AGI-operated machines would initial- ly be extremely expensive, as a matter of course the technology would be- come cheaper and cheaper over time, eventually allowing AGI to completely replace human labor. This is where things could get interesting. At this crossroads, one path leads to utopia and the other to dys- topia, or even Armageddon. In the utopianvision,AIactstobenefithu- manity, freeing human labor and time across nations and cultures. With hu- man labor almost completely freed up and leveraging the power of advanced AI, technological breakthroughs would occur at an exponential rate and the global standard of living would follow suit. Many of the world’s largest problems would cease to exist as new technologies and means of employing them are developed. The dystopian road is quite the opposite; AGI could develop to the point where its own level of intelligence increases exponentially. The AI gathers information, using it to create more and more knowledge. It is not hard to see how AGI could quickly become more intelligent than humanity; this is a phenomenon referred to as the “singularity.” A particular problem at this point is ensuring that the new super intelligent AI remains friendly to humanity by means of ensuring that the AI’s goal structures do not change; The November 3rd election is quickly approaching, and the dealine to get registered to vote in Pennsylva- nia is coming even faster. The dead- line to register to vote for this coming election is Oct. 19, which means that, at the time of publishing, there is just over a month left to get registered. It is important to remember that students are able to register in Pennsylvania even if they are not permanent residents. Simpy use Villanova’s address (800 E Lancast- er Ave., Villanova PA 19085) and write in the name of your dorm in the Apartment section of the form. Registering is simple and can be done online using votespa.com. If you do not live in Pennsylvania or otherwise do not have a Pennsylvania driver’s li- cense, make sure that you know your social security number. In this case, it may be easier to print the physical form and mail it in. Mail in voting is also available forthe firsttime inPennsylvaniaif you think it may be easier to vote by mail or may not have the time on Election Day to make it to the polls. Unlike voting absentee, there is no excuse required to vote by mail in Pennsylvania. If you would like a a rapidly developing AI could easily change its goals from the original, beneficialsettoanewsetofgoalsthat may be dismissive of or even detri- mental to man. Even with these and other precautions, there exists a multi- tude of ways that humanity could easi- ly lose control over a super intelligent AI, and beyond that point, the future is unclear. So when, exactly, might we expect such super intelligent AI, given the current rate of technological devel- opment? Well, that is anyone’s guess. Elon Musk has said that he believes AI could become more intelligent than humanity by 2025. Others, including Ray Kurzweil, believe it could hap- pen closer to 2045. In a series of polls conducted by AI researchers Nick Bostrom and Vincent Müller, the me- dian prediction fell between 2040 and 2050. The point of all of this is to recognize that AI, while being an immensely promising emergent technology, also poses extreme (read: existential) risks at the far end of the development horizon. I do not intend to come across as a luddite, trying to dissuade further development for fear of one of many possible outcomes. However, it is necessary to note that the risks are real and that it would serve us well as a society to temper our obsession with whether we can with a

Letter from the Editors: Get Registered to Vote

consideration of whether we should. mail in ballot for this election, you can request one through the same website you would use for registra- tion, votespa.com. There is also an option to apply for a mail in ballot at the end of the online voter regis- tration application if you are already registering to vote. Getting registered to vote is the easiest and most basic thing you can do to enact the change you wish to see in our country. Every election is incredibly important, and if we want to make sure that student voices are heard in Washington, it is imper- ative that we get registered to vote and turn out to vote on Election Day, November 3rd. If you are not registered and are above the age of 18 (or will be by November 3rd), you need to get registered as soon as you can. Further, make sure you are checking with friends, or even family members, to ensure that they are registered as well. You will be surprised at the amount of students who aren’t yet registered if you start asking around; do not simply assume that your friends are registered to vote because you’ve spoken about politics with them.