Matt Michaud DMD

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[mattmichauddmd-blog]

I hadn’t realized that this was the week that the EU would start taking steps to enforce it’s net neutrality laws and I wish I had brought it up in class/the debate. Starting this past Saturday, telecom providers in EU countries must now cut surcharges for roaming phone calls and data usage. Even though net neutrality won’t be in full swing until June of 2017, I think that it’s smart for the EU to take small steps between now and then to start getting used to the way things will be. I also think it’s interesting that they are compromising in some way. The debates in class made the issue seem to be very black and white, but the EU, while now supporting net neutrality,  it is allowing ISP’s to deliver specialized service to content providers in some cases as long as it doesn’t “go against the open internet.” I have agreed with the EU on both The Right to Be Forgotten and now Net Neutrality. They seem to really understand what the internet is about and how it can best benefit the people. They are cracking down on corporate control over the internet and keeping it for the people, and I think that’s really admirable, and we should adopt some of the laws that they’ve put in place. 

[mattmichauddmd-blog]

How SoundCloud Changed Music Forever

Some of the best ideas are also the simplest. And there are few things more simple than SoundCloud, which in its seven year existence has sneakily become one of the best things online. How'd it get there? Slowly, surely, and with a cadre of artists as diverse as the internet itself.

This is what me, Kadeem, and Kaila talked about in class last Thursday. This is one of the ways the means of the internet has changed more traditional ways of industry and entertainment. Soundcloud provides artists with a level playing fieldd; one that is without the barriers and often impossible obstacles of the old music industry. Although I’m a fan of all kinds of music, I’ve noticed Soundcloud benefit rap music most of all. It’s not easy for young rappers to find places to perform their music, and often times all they are able to get out are recordings; amateur ones at that. Now, a lack of rap performance venues isn’t as much of a problem, because Soundcloud views all recordings as equal. Anything can get popular on Soundcloud, and the more your music is heard, the better chance you have of it being heard by a music industry executive. Whatever is good will rise to the top, and this is the new way to rise in the industry. Soundcloud has become the first place for new music to be released. You don’t even need to be signed to a record label anymore. For example, back in December, Chance the Rapper, a rapper who has risen to prominence due to releasing his music primarily on Soundcloud, became the first ever independent artist ever to perform on Saturday Night Live. Soundcloud has become a beacon for equality among artists, and it’s giving those who may not have a chance in a more traditional music industry a greater chance to become recognized. I think that eventually, record labels will become nearly obsolete, and talent agents will use Soundcloud to find new talent. Soundcloud also represents what an open internet is all about: the freedom to share and distribute content without having to go through big industry first. It is truly for the people, by the people, and it is completely taking the music industry by storm. There is much less of a middle man between talent and recognition, because Soundcloud is a community of artists and audiences. Not big business. 

[mattmichauddmd-blog]

Tron and The Matrix Long Blog Post: Society’s Change of Perspective on AI

Both Tron and The Matrix’s themes have to do with a computer dominated future and what a computer dominated future would look like to us. What’s interesting to me is their place in time, because the years that these two movies came out are very significant in my opinion. Tron came out in 1982 during the rise of the personal computer. We were seeing such rapid changes in computer technology that we didn’t even realize what the implications were. Artificial intelligence, which had seemed like an idea out of a Ridley Scott science fiction film, was beginning to take shape in society’s mind. Tron also emphasized the growing popularity of video games, and was able to define artificial intelligence to the audience through that scope. Tron focuses on artificial intelligence at an individual level, because although it seemed freaky, it was nowhere near as serious as The Matrix universe that the Wachowski siblings had created. Tron was a light, fun, comical movie that happened to have bad guys and a potentially bad fate for the single main character, Kevin Flynn. This light, fun attitude, to me, shows how cocky we were, and how under control we believed we were. However, skip to 1999 when The Matrix comes out, and there’s an insanely drastic change of attitude and vibe. The Matrix is like Tron on steroids and R-rated. It’s dark, it’s scary, and it really makes you think about what could happen in a technology dominated future. I have an explanation for this. The Matrix came out in the midst of the Y2K scare, which was a huge epidemic at the time. Basically, everyone was terrified that when the year 2000 would hit, the world’s computers would glitch out and shut down, eliminating all of the connections we had created and plummeting the world into complete anarchy. Of course, it ended up being completely overhyped by the fear mongering media, but nonetheless, it was a serious issue at the time. The Matrix perfectly represents this fear. It takes place in a terrifying future where essentially the computers are using humans rather than the vice versa that we’re used to. Because of Y2K, we finally became fearful of this rapid innovation and change, seeing the possible dangers that could arise. I’m not sure people thought that The Matrix would become their reality, and of course the film is an extreme viewpoint, but that’s what makes it great in my opinion. It’s an entertaining way of speculating what the computer could eventually be capable of. Lucky for us, the computers have not yet taken over and they have given more help than harm (debatable, but our world is certainly more efficient and informed). Both movies really delve into our own ideas about AI, computers, and the internet, just at different time periods. The huge difference in tone, however, in Tron and the Matrix, shows how computers have evolved and how our ideas about them have evolved. I think these movies were perfect for us to watch in class, as they show the evolution that we’ve been focusing on. I think they’re great examples of film reflecting and shaping the attitude of it’s audience.

[dmdamber-blog]

Randomly came across this! It’s a very intruiging article about a mom putting her phone down while watching her kids, and coming to the realization that her kids would have thought the world wide web was more important than them 28 times. She measured this by the amount of times the kids looked up at her.

http://www.answers.com/article/30831999/moms-stunning-realization-about-her-twins-changes-everything?paramt=null¶m4=fb-us-de-gute-rr-ccc¶m1=living¶m2=60771931¶m5=10152151441506186¶m6=6044238452645

[mattmichauddmd-blog]

Kind of sad. I personally think that kids shouldn’t be using iPhones and tablets until they’re a bit older. I think it’s irresponsible for parents to just hand their kid a device in order to keep them quiet or busy, as it teaches them to get sucked into what’s in their hands, rather than the world around them. Of course there are exceptions to this, since some apps have been proven to improve learning and things like that. But I think parents need to seriously crack down on their younger kids using smartphones and tablets. Time limits, age limits, things like that. 

[mattmichauddmd-blog]

Four Steps For Creating A Culture That Embraces Technology Change

Some of the biggest challenges growing enterprises face are the changes that happen along the way—this is especially true for those who get stuck in the “this is how we’ve always done it” mindset. Technology has definitely altered commerce forever, and those that have made adjustments by adopting the newest [...]

Forbes released an interesting article about what it takes to create a culture that embraces advances in technology and is excited in interpreting it into every day life. Although the article focuses on how companies can do this, it speaks volumes about our attitude towards technology as a whole. The article talks about how as a leader, you must embrace technology yourself in order to have your employees be on board. However, I’m not so sure this is the case these days, or at least not for all scenarios. I think these days, since technology is advancing so rapidly and so frequently, and since we expect it so much, we almost don’t have a choice but to embrace it. I think that’s mostly due to the fact that we’ve developed a lot of trust towards companies like Apple and Google and Microsoft since they’ve consistently been innovating technology positively and effectively. Even if new technology is released, and is a complete failure, we know that it will either be fixed or replaced by something better in a short amount of time. I think out current behavior is extremely optimistic towards technology, and the transitions between the old and the new are becoming more and more seamless. Especially now that we have seen what we are capable of and what the possibilities are, we look forward to new technology with open arms. This may or may not be dangerous. For example, the other night I was watching a British show on Netflix called “Black Mirror” (which I highly recommend because it’s FANTASTIC). One of the episodes featured a society in which most people had biotechnology that allowed them to rewind and replay the images they’ve seen their whole lives in first person. They can also share their memories on screen with other people. At the beginning of the episode, the technology seems so useful and revolutionary. Nearly everyone in this society has this ability. They only see the positives, but the episode essentially about how dangerous this tech that everyone has can be (I won’t spoil anything because you should absolutely watch it). 

[mattmichauddmd-blog]

Fundraising Through Social Media

In light of the recent situation regarding recording artist Ke$ha and her unimaginably sickening predicament, I’ve been thinking of one pretty positive thing that social media is capable of: spreading a message and raising awareness (and money) for a cause. There is currently a campaign in support of Ke$ha to raise $2 million in order to get her out of her current contract with her record producer, Dr. Luke. Thousands of people have donated, including other artists in her support. 

[nikeandike]

To think you don’t need a gym to stay in shape is crazy to me. Even thought I have tried being a college student with low financial means and trying to make the best with what I have. Still every time I try one of these you still need some sore of equipment to get results so is it really helpful.

[mattmichauddmd-blog]

This sort of connects to what I posted about a few weeks ago. I posted about young film makers and artists and how they had the power to make their own film with their iPhones. You no longer need to pay an excessive amount to follow your passions. Instead of paying for a gym and/or personal trainer, you now have all the tools you need to exercise if you have an iPhone. Searching for specialized exercises and workouts can be difficult, and apps that can find what you’re looking for quickly makes it a lot easier. I think, at least in the United States, we’re becoming much more health aware. The rise of apps like this is evidence of that change in society. I think it’s a really positive innovation.

[mattmichauddmd-blog]

This, to me, is a great example of technology impacting society in a huge way. Technology has become such a large presence in public security, that it’s almost impossible to imagine not having video and cell phone surveillance at a large event. Of course, the Super Bowl is as big as any event in the U.S. (and in the world for that matter), but the point still stands. The threat of danger at an event with an unimaginable amount of people is also arguably larger in today’s society, which is why homeland and local security organizations utilize technology in order to have the maximum amount of knowledge about the ongoings around an event like the Super Bowl. The ethicacy of the way these technologies are utilized have been controversial at times, as they can infringe upon civil rights, but its difficult to argue that some of these methods (which essentially did not exist in the 1900s) are necessary to protect civilians at an event as large as this, and there is no arguing that technology has changed the game of surveillance and security.

[mattmichauddmd-blog]

WHY WE BLOG

I think the main reason people blog is because it’s the easiest and most efficient way to express your thoughts and ideas to the masses. Diaries are great, and writing with pen and paper certainly has it’s benefits, but there’s also something about blogging that people find really profound. Unlike diaries, blogs are mostly public, and that’s probably the biggest difference between journal entries and blog posts. Online also has the advantage of reaching many people, including those you may not see on a regular basis or don’t know at all. Even if you wanted to share your diary, you would be limited to sharing with the people that you know and see on a regular basis. Blogging doesn’t have this limitation. Blogging is also permanent in a way, which is beneficial because it’s very difficult to lose your material, and disadvantageous since you have to be a lot more cautious about what you are putting online. So why do we blog? The answer is simple: It’s possibly the best expressive outlet with the fewest limitations.  

[mattmichauddmd-blog]

This relates to what we talked about in class and how @worwood ignores comments on pictures of his sons made by Facebook “friends” he barely knows. I find this about my list of Facebook friends as well. I barely know or just don’t particularly care to know about many (probably even most) of my Facebook friends. Why do we bother following the profiles of people who we don’t at all seriously care about? I think for a lot of people its to have the facade of being popular, outgoing, and active. The mentality is that the more Facebook friends someone has the more real life friends they have, when in truth, the number of friends someone has on Facebook is no indication of their popularity or personality. Another reason could be that it had almost become a common courtesy to add people from work, school, etc on Facebook, and people feel guilty declining friend requests, encouraging lenient friend adding on Facebook. I think the reason I don’t go back and delete some of my Facebook friends is a combination of laziness as well as not really using Facebook anymore.

[mattmichauddmd-blog]

One really amazing and positive thing that has come out of smartphone technology has been its ability to help young film makers (and artists in general) transgress the difficulties and challenges that come with making a film. Virtually anyone with a smartphone has the ability to make a movie and hone their creative skills at home with their iPhone. I watched Tangerine just a few weeks ago and was blown away by the quality of it. I didn’t find out it was filmed on an IPhone until I read more about the movie afterwards. It really gives me hope to see that Oscar nominated films are being made with in-pocket technology. You don’t need all of the fancy expensive technology associated with film making to make a movie (cameras, editing software, etc). Of course, the creators of Tangerine were experienced film makers who know what they were doing, but it’s still proof that all it takes for a young film maker to get to work and start getting their ideas out is to have an iPhone (which many people these days do). Not only is this changing the game for film makers, but also for musicians, photographers, writers, and many other types of artists.

[digitalmediahusky-blog]

Obama administration ready to put $4B toward self-driving cars

U.S. transportation regulators on Tuesday outlined a plan to form national policies designed to encourage the development of self-driving cars.

“What if human error could be eliminated?” 

The advancement in technology over the past 10 years has escalated so quickly that it only makes you wonder how far we’ll get in the next 10. Being a 90′s kid, I’ve had the best of both worlds, as I know a life without cell phone buzz and memes, but unlike the generation of my parents, I have almost half of my life documented on social media. Growing up I never imagined my mom’s car driving itself, but perhaps that will be the norm for my generations’s children. 

This article cites that the Obama administration has issued a 10 year plan for investing $4 billion into self-driving cars. It states that this is mostly an issue about safety, claiming that 4 in 5 vehicular accidents are at fault of the human operating the car. But this topic raises countless questions that won’t exactly be easy to answer, such as: liability and insurance concerns. I could see it now: people sitting back reading a book (maybe books will be obsolete by this time, so let’s say a kindle, or a holograph!) and then boom, two autonomous cars collide! “Your self-driving car hit me first!” “No, your self-driving car hit me!” Will texting laws be repealed? Food for thought.