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For my final website, I was hoping to look at four writers or theorists that we discussed in class. I am planning write about their background, their stance on technology, why it is important or significant and perhaps what they are doing currently or what other writing they have published on technology. I will look at Ray Kurzweil (The Future of Machine-Human Intelligence in the Futurist and Why We Can be Confident of the Turing Test Capability Within a Quarter Century), Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan),Ted Kaczynski (Unabomber’s Manifesto), Chris Hables Gray (The Cyborg Body Politic) All have varying views regarding how society should think of technology, both current and the future. I think that discussing these different writers and their opinions on technology will make a very interesting and hopefully entertaining website.

http://www.forever21.com/f21_main.asp

http://store.apple.com/us

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/

http://www.cnn.com/

I think that one of the worst websites in existence is http://www.cowdance.com/. It has completely obnoxious colors along with even more obnoxious dancing cows that fill the entire screen. I do not know what the purpose of the website is. There is a link at the top that leads to a product page of leotards for women and girls called cowdancewear.com. Perhaps cowdance.com is an extension of cowdancewear.com. Nonetheless, I do not understand its purpose.

There are many other things that make this website awful. First, there is no title to this page. The web address is cowdance.com, but it has no title at the top to indicate that Cowdance is the name of this site. Also, there are many links at the bottom of the page that lead to other pages that feature more obnoxious cows dancing. Unlike the homepage, these pages have titles at the top, indicating what type of dance the cows are performing. These pages have no links back to the homepage so the user is forced to click on the backwards.

Altogether, this site is atrocious because of the clashing colors, distracting moving vows, lack of purpose and lack of important information.

I think that one of the best websites is http://www.giorgioarmani.com/index.html. The color combinations and design was simple and attractive to the eye. Once I started navigating through the pages, the design got more complicated but I always understood how to move back a page or how to get to the home page. Even with the more complicated pages, I was not confused. I thought this site was very user friendly.

In the year 2029, I believe that genetic engineering and artificial intelligence will be commonplace. I do not foresee an immense, environmental collapse and perhaps this is because of the widespread “Go Green” movement. Because I am surrounded by propaganda for this movement, I feel like this possibly detrimental situation is being taken care of.  I think many aspects of the “Go Green” movement will become ingrained in society: I think that the trend of conserving resources and energy is here to stay.

In regards to genetic engineering, I do think there will need to be some regulation of this practice 20 years from now. I think this practice should only be regulated moderately. There will be those who abuse this practice and take it to the extreme, but I do not think that this will be widely abused. Although many may argue that the introduction of genetic engineering will result in parents choosing to program their children to look like supermodels, I think that one should look to the introduction of plastic surgery. With plastic surgery, one can essentially mold and form themselves into the idealistic being. Although this is available to society, only the extremists or the wealthy who can afford these procedures will go through with it. Additionally, plastic surgery serves to help people who have serious, debilitating physical ailments, such as deep scarring. I think that genetic engineering will be much like plastic surgery: those who are wealthy, extremists or those who are truly in need of it for medical reasons will do it.

I believe that artificial intelligence will need to be moderately regulated. I think there will be issues regarding the rights of artificial intelligence. I think there will be argument whether or not some artificial intelligence has the same rights as humans. Again, like genetic engineering, I think that only extremists will abuse artificial intelligence.

From reading both utopian and dystopian views of technology in class, I think the most important idea that I will take with me to prepare for the future is that technology has and always will have positive and negative effects on society.  Technology will help and enable society greatly, but it will always hinder society in other ways. I think society in every generation has had an equal amount of positive and negative aspects.

After looking at the mini website about singularity, I think I can figure out how most of the elements of it were created. Still, there are a few parts of the website that I am unsure how to create. First, I’ve forgotten how to center text or an image. I know we learned it in class but since it is not on the cheat sheet, I’ve forgotten how to do this!  Secondly, I know how to make a hyperlink, but I am not sure how to make a hyperlink to a page that I have created. In the mini website, the authors’ names are links to a particular page made specifically for them. I only know how to create a hyperlink for a page that already exists. Was the process of making the hyperlinks on the mini website any different from process of making a hyperlink to an already existing web page? Is it necessary to create the page for the hyperlink before the hyperlink is created?

Because I was interested in this topic in the past, I want my website to be about nanotechnology in medicine. I want to have one page that introduces and defines this topic. I also want about three or four more pages that indicate different studies that predict the future of nanotechnology in medicine. One of these pages will be devoted to the link I posted in my last entry, which discusses a new nanotechnology that fights cancer. I am not sure if I want to limit the other pages to cancer as well. I may also include some information about nanotechnology and heart disease. I am still undecided right now.