Kozminski Techblog

The internet as we know reflects really well the misogynistic tendencies of society. On all popular social media women and girls have to deal with so much hate, based purely on their looks or hobbies.

Brooklynne Webb is a TikTok personality who got to over 10 million followers being only 17. Yet despite her popularity, for many she became no more than a “cringy” joke. Most of her comments were filled with people telling her to stop singing and trying to “cancel” her. She released the song that even though became popular got more hate than acceptance.

Now, Brooklynne has released an entire album of just different remixes of just one song as she revealed that her entire social media persona was a satire. All of material that she published was designed to attract the haters to show how many people were willing to make fun of a teenage girl who were never proved to be actually problematic. The hate she receive only hyped her profile and got her more followers. Every person who tried to bully her only contributed to the success of her project.

The entirety of Brooklynne’s personality was a performance and the results were exactly as she expected. However, she mimicked a situation that does happen to a lot of creators, leaving many young girls’ esteems damaged.

***obviously hate on the internet does not only apply to girls, this does not change the fact that misogyny on the internet is a problem

In Californian city Sunnyvale crows are besetting on daily basis. It became a large problem. People had to come out of their houses with umbrellas to avoid the “attacks” of bird droppings.

The city came up with new way of trying to get rid of the birds. The idea is to give employees and local restaurants lasers and hoping that pointing these at the crows will scare them away.

The Santa Clara Valley chapter of the Audubon Society wants to prevent the new strategy in fear that this would harm the birds’ vision.
Yet again we are facing a difficult dilemma of abusing animals in the name of convenience of humans.

image source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/17/us/sunnyvale-california-crows-lasers.html
insiration: https://www.businessinsider.com/silicon-valley-city-will-use-lasers-to-scare-away-crows-2022-1?IR=T

Swiss scientists developed blueprints for a suicide pod that would enable a fast and convenient method of suicide without pain or outside interaction of other people. 

How does it work?

The technology requires a person to get inside the pod and answer a few questions that are meant to establish the person’s sanity. Only after the test is there a possibility to press the button that begins the process. The pod releases nitrogen that induces a state of hypoxia and eventually leads to death. The whole process isn’t longer than 10 minutes. Inside the pod there is an emergency button that stops the process if the person changes their mind.

How is this even legal?

In Switzerland when the pod is meant to be available both assisted suicide (giving resources that enable suicide) and euthanasia are legal. With those, the project was deemed legal.

The moral debate

There is an inevitable controversy surrounding the project as it is, in a way, the exact opposite of what scientists usually search to develop. In general, we strive to find ways to extend human life, not shorten it. However with how far medicine has come some patients are now “forced” to live for years even after they lose abilities to move or communicate, which for many (both patients and their loved ones) is more of an extended torture rather than life of good quality. The right to take their own life would be the last action that they have full control over and it’s an option that many people are relieved to see.

Still, there is a concern regarding the lack of possibility to reverse such action and the fact that for many people learning about such illness may be worse mentally and after some work with therapists or psychiatrists the person could still enjoy life for much longer.

Authors note: the mission of this project (as far as I understand) is to end the suffering of people with physical conditions (including brain conditions), not as a solution for mental illnesses, especially regarding young people. For now it is discussed that the option will only be available for people above the age of 50. 

sources:

https://www.euronews.com/next/2021/12/08/the-sarco-suicide-pod-aims-to-take-assisted-dying-out-of-doctors-hands

https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/europe/1639565590-switzerland-suicide-pods-being-developed-for-a-painless-death

+ people of reddit and twitter

Recently there has been an increase of speculations about Apple Car. Even though there had been no official confirmation to supposed leaks, the internet is buzzing with excitement. 

According to some of the new leaks the car might be completely autonomous. The concept of self-driving cars has been with us for a while now, however some people are still concerned about the consequences of such development. 

The main concerns regarding complete lack of access to control over the car is that the virtual maps are still not perfect. Even though such cars wouldn’t be available until 2025 at the earliest, it is difficult to imagine trusting an entire vehicle when we can’t even fully believe map apps. 

Another concern regards Siri. The system is still far from perfect, especially when it comes to understanding human speech. If we don’t pay enough attention during the ride there is a possibility of ending up in a completely different location, all because of a little error in understanding.

At last, there is one worry that does not concern safety nor convenience. For some people roadtrips are something beyond just getting from one place to another. It’s about the journey itself. For many people driving, even though sometimes stressful, is a time of break from work. For many, especially young people, road trips with friends are an entire adventure. Will this time still look the same without a driver or focus on the road? Only time will tell.

Taking into consideration how quickly technology progresses, the idea of having an autonomous car by 2025 is not impossible. Despite the concerns, most people are excited to see how such cars will change our life.