Week 4 blog

In her article, The Rise and Demise of a Collection of Human Fetuses at Mount Holyoke College, Lynn Morgan analyzes the history of modern day specimen collecting from its noble beginnings to its shameful endings. Morgan argues that almost every major college institution and medical research facility in the country had at least a few “human fetal specimens” for studying purposes. For example, Franklin Paine Mall, who directed the new department of embryology at John Hopkins in 1913, was able to create a collection of over 1,000 Human fetal specimens. That number rose almost ten fold and what was once just a way to build 19^th century museum showcases, Embryo collection changed at Mount Holyoke into applicable research with the creation of the first embryology classes taught by Amy Elizabeth Adams.

Lennart Nilsson became famous for beautiful images of human fetuses

However, as Morgan highlights, the Criticism she received from her colleagues represents a deeper, negative societal view on the current state of human embryos. Morgan argues that fetuses specimens have come to be considered as disturbing and inappropriate, whether they appear in a biological artistic exhibit or as the subject of a police investigation” (Morgan 2006). She argues that charitable alumna and hospitals donated so many that Mount Holyoke’s collection was “commonplace and mundane” (Morgan 2006). As the professors who took care of the collections slowly disappeared, the collection did not. This led to a genuine distaste for specimens that were left uncared for which in turn initiated a whole shift in societal opinions on embryo collection.

The “historical transformation” that Morgan calls it is an interesting turn of events in the medical field of embryology. What used to be highly sought after human embryo specimens have turned taboo because of the inherent disrespect for human life. In the context of the industry as a whole, it’s interesting how everyone has shifted away from these specimens in favor of digital life like models and other forms of research.

Casper, Monica. 1998. “Negotiations, Work Objects, and the Unborn patient: The Interactional Scaffolding of Fetal Surgery.” Symbolic Interaction. 21.4: 379-400. 

Morgan, Lynn. 2006. “The Rise and Demise of a Collection of Human Fetuses at Mount Holyoke College.” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 49.3: 435-451. 

Week 3

Mrs. Vesna Discusses many extremely famous inventors who revolutionized their society in history and made a name for themselves that will live on forever in history books. People like Nikola tesla and Albert Einstein developed theories for physics and technologies to further mechanization. I believe that the next stage in robotics, industrialization, and Art is artificial intelligence. AI has always been a dream of science fiction writers and entrepreneurs and I believe that the people who should be credited with the first user friendly, beautiful, and reliable first generation AI system is Apple Inc.

Business insider columnist Ellis Hamburger says that Siri has “changed the way [he] lives his life” and that “Siri has made some very specific tasks a lot less annoying, which makes you feel good every time you use it” (Hamburger). The idea behind a personal assistant has been fantasized through pop culture for decades. In games like Halo and Television shows like the Jetsons, Artificial intelligence has been somewhat of a dream, until Apple brought it to the masses. However, this doesn’t come without a few concerns.

            In the lecture videos, Mrs. Vesna discusses how inventions like the printing press brought way to the assembly line and how those destroyed individuality and uniqueness in every day consumer products. What would happen to humans if our technology develops to the point of self thought? Would we become useless and inefficient? Or would we use the technology to further our understanding of complex discussions?

            Three months ago we discovered a new way to fight malaria. Oh, did I say we? I meant Eve, the disease fighting robot. “Eve was designed to find new disease-fighting drugs faster and cheaper than her human peers” (Dashevsky). With advanced artificial intelligence, Eve uses a pair of robotic arms to create and test new hypotheses for disease fighting methods.

            Overall I believe that Artificial intelligence will be the next revolutionary technology that will change the fabric of our society and influence the way we see the world.

Work cited 

Dashevsky, Evan. "Will Robots Make Humans Unnecessary?" PCMAG. N.p., 3 Feb. 2016. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.

Hamburger, Ellis. "After Two Weeks With Siri, It's Already Changed The Way I Live My Life." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 28 Oct. 2011. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.

Geller, Tom. "Talking to Machines." Communications of the ACM Commun. ACM 55.4 (2012): 14. Web.