georgewalther - Tumblr blog

[georgewalther]

HW5case Q2

Answering why question from HW5case Q1 ( What are some other countries examples of COPPA/equivalent? )

Answer: There appears to be some! China has their own (Not  really sure of the legitimacy) and so does the UK with the  European Union (EU) draft Data Protection Directive.

[georgewalther]

HW6Proj

This is going to be shorter post, but I have begun filming and voicing my project video. So far I have completed the introduction and the first segment talking about pokemon as food. in the next few days I will be finishing filming the take on the relationship between humans and pokemon and the age of pokemon trainers beginning. I’m also considering adding a new topic talking about the lack of government leadership. After that I will record a conclusion and make my final edits.

[georgewalther]

HW5case Q1

Link: https://termly.io/resources/articles/coppa/#:~:text=COPPA%20is%20a%20law%20that,of%20children%20in%20the%20US.

Facts: - COPPA has only been in place for about 20 years. - COPPA has a strict set of guidelines meant to protect children under 13 years of age. - The big things is ensuring children’s information is process properly - COPPA applies to more than just websites, but also the majority of online services. - The penalties are high for any company that doesn’t comply with these rules. - YouTube in particular has face fines of around $170,000,000 - There are some exceptions, but their appears to be no blatant loop holes. - COPPA only enforces companies that target US children.

Questions: - Are their other things like COPPA that apply to television or other forms of media? - Whose fault is it if a child “consents” for a parent by completing a requirement by themselves. - Are all business include? - What is the case for websites that don’t explicitly offer children’s content?

 Discussion Question: - What are some other countries examples of COPPA/equivalent?

[georgewalther]

HW5proj

In this project writing session, I have further developed my ideas and have an idea of how I want to present them.

The first topic, one that I talked about in my last project post, is the logistics of eating pokemon. I can introduce this topic by showing a clip of episode 17, Island of the giant Pokemon where the main character fantasize about eating magicarp due to their hunger.  Pokemon are known to be sentient. Their are multiple evidence of this including the same epsiode. In this episode, Ash, a main character, loses some of his pokemon. Those lost pokemon have to work together to find their way back to Ash and we can see them talking to one another trying to solve that particular issue. I can then show a clip of this episode where those pokemon are together talking by a fire pit in the night. Another example that is prevalent throughout the entire series, is how Meoth, Team Rocket’s partner/pokemon, talks to other pokemon. To my knowledge there does not appear to be a pokemon that does not have coherent thoughts, implying that all pokemon are sentient. 

The next topic I want to go in-depth on is the relationship between pokemon and humans. Pokemon are most commonly caught from the wild and used for battle in this world. Are pokemon okay with battling? I think that their may be a correlation in this world that shows they are not. In pokemon, if a trainer’s “level” isn’t high enough, a pokemon may not do what they say in battle. A good example of this is when Ash’s Charizard won’t listen to him. I think that the portrayed dynamic of friendship between people and pokemon is a farce and that pokemon only do what their trainer says if they are seen as a dominant force above them. This is ethically flawed, using power over someone/thing to bend them to your will. Whether it be battling or really anything. This topic is still in the works but I have a backup if my research does not lend itself to this idea’s creditability.

Lastly, the topic of letting a child roam free at the age of only 10 to go on a journey. Hear I can show a clip of the opening scenes of the first episode of Pokemon to introduce this topic. I think that it is not ethical to let a child make life altering decisions for themselves. There are laws in place in our world that help prevent that. In Pokemon, a child can leave at 10 with just the things on their back and their pokemon. No schooling, no parental guidance, this is not something that should be okay. It is a parent’s responsibility to guide their children and protect them. 

[georgewalther]

HW4case Q3

Facts of the case: - The code of value’s for this company is pretty short. - The first element puts a focus on the strength of working as a team. - The second element says that player’s (consumer’s) experience should be put first. - The third element talks about how ideas should be strong but able to be adapted. - The fourth element reads about how closing is important and will be done every day. - The fifth element wants workers to widen their perspective. - The sixth element expresses a need for fun the be remembered. - Lastly, the seventh element wants the company and the workers to do their best to leave an impact on the world.

Analysis: The code of ethics for Bungie is a little short, and the ideas that are covered are a little vague. That said, the code does adhere to what the company does and can be shown in the work they put out. The most important ideas in the code are teamwork, putting players first and thinking outside the box. The code doesn’t give a date to their creation, but they are shown in many f the works of bungie, hinting that they have been in place for a long time in the company. Lastly, the values are not put out easily and to find them, you have to jump through some hoops. There is no evident reason for this though, which is strange.

My conclusion: Bungie is a good example of a company that stick to its code of ethics. The company has been around for a good little while and it practices these ethics well. The code also is general enough that it can apply to man facets of the company.

Future environment: The future is full of technological advancements, specifically in the gaming industry. Computer run at astronomical speeds, and people have the ability to be fully immersed in game worlds. Video games are also far more available.

Future scenario: In this future scenario, a gaming company’s code of ethics are even more important. With people being more and more immersed in games, they are more susceptible to malignant business practices. This means that gaming companies need to have a well flushed out code of ethics and adhere to it to the best possible degree. I think Bungie’s code, while short, and practice of following that code would work in this future scenario and possibly even stick out as a role model for other gaming companies.

[georgewalther]

HW4case Q2

Question (From my blog post): - Do these values line up with the company's mission statement?

Answer: - The companies mission statement reads: "Our mission is to become a multi-franchise entertainment company." I think that this statement does line up with the company's values. That said, the statement feels kind of like a blanket and isn't very detailed, meaning the values don't have to fill a certain criteria.

[georgewalther]

HW4Case Q1

Link: https://www.comparably.com/companies/bungie/mission For this homework case, I am going over the "Values" of the video game company: Bungie.

Facts: - The code of value's for this company is pretty short. - The first element puts a focus on the strength of working as a team. - The second element says that player's (consumer's) experience should be put first. - The third element talks about how ideas should be strong but able to be adapted. - The fourth element reads about how closing is important and will be done every day. - The fifth element wants workers to widen their perspective. - The sixth element expresses a need for fun the be remembered. - Lastly, the seventh element wants the company and the workers to do their best to leave an impact on the world.

Questions: - Why is the list so short? - Where did these values originate from? - Does the company exhibit good practice of these values? - Why are these values hardish to find? (I had to jumb through some hoops to find these).

Discussion Question: - Do these values align with the companies mission?

[georgewalther]

HW4proj

So for this project continuation I have begun developing ideas for the ethical state of the world of pokemon. This includes topics I have derived to speak on and some questions about those topics to consider for my project.

The first topic/idea I am considering is the logistics of eating pokemon. In the world of pokemon there are a few instances of people eating pokemon like in the game pokemon: Gold/Silver. There is a well called slowpoke well full of, go figure, slowpoke. Team rocket, an evil organization wants to harvest the tails of slowpoke to sell them for human consumption. There is also an episode in the series pokemon: Indigo league, in which the protagonists are starving due to being stranded in the ocean and fantasize about eating magikarp. Now there are arguments to say this is right or wrong based on arguments that animal rights activists use in the real world, but there arises more issues when pokemon are shown to have cognitive thoughts with advanced processes close to humans. Is this okay? Are there any arguments to suggest that eating pokemon is okay? Are some pokemon okay to eat while others aren’t?

Another topic/idea I had is the general treatment of pokemon in the world. Pokemon once again are shown to have advanced thought processes like humans, but humans capture them and use them to battle other people’s pokemon. There does seem to be a connection between people and their pokemon and the shows/games never really show pokemon being against battling, but maybe there’s something more going on here that isn’t being looked at. Are pokemon okay with being used to battle? Should they be okay with it? There have been wars where people used pokemon to battle which was talked down on greatly in one of the newer games and movies. 

One last topic/idea I’m considering is that of letting children leave on their own as young as ten years old. When a child turns ten, they get their first pokemon and can venture off into the world. They are left to fend for themselves with only what they can carry on their back and the their pokemon. The world is not a good place at times and I think that their is just so many horrible things that could arise. A ten year old is not old enough to be making decisions for themselves regarding survival and how to take care of themselves. Is this a common practice in the world of pokemon? How is it legal for something like this to take place?

Legality of things in the world and the governments somewhat absent place in the pokemon world is another topic i would like to look into but I need to develop the idea more before I can take a stance since, surprise, government isn’t a topic touched on much in a children’s show/game.

[georgewalther]

HW3case Q3

Facts: The year is 3000 and the world has advanced far, with many technological bonds crossed like cryosleep and autonomous robots! It appears that the time though has not done anything to soothe the human condition though. A commodity of the land of tomorrow are booths where for a minute amount of money, you can end your life with no consulting, no clean up and no problems. Introduction, Stop and Drop, “Americas favorite suicide booth since 2008.” A business truly built on the premise of destroying people’s lives, literally. 

Analysis: Some questions do arise here, but I have selected the most important one in my eyes. Why is it so cheap to kill yourself? Well this implies demand for sure, but to be fair, the booth is simple. It takes in money, kills the user, and then disposes of the body. Being the future, and that this business has been going on for almost 1000 years, the process has most certainly been refined. There is also a lack of the value of human life though. $0.25 to cease existence. To me this whole suicide booth lends to being an allegory of the outcome of a capitalist society. Why waste tons of money on counselling, medication and therapy to fix an issue, when it can be dealt with quickly and cheaply with the press of a button in a booth just down the street. It a uncompassionate look at the lives of other individuals in the interest of money in my eyes.

Conclusion: I think that suicide booths are not the right answer to people’s problems. Cheaper, maybe, but at the cost of someone’s life, and can you really put a price on something as sacred as life? 

Future Environment: I honestly can’t think of another future here where this issue would become more important. Suicide is an issue that is here now and would only be made worse in the future above, but I do think we can strive for a better future where we listen to others and try to help the instead of push them away. A future where this isn’t an issue is one that is their for the people that live in it.

[georgewalther]

HW3Proj

For this section of developing my course project, I don’t have much information to put down in words. I’ve found some clips that I want to use which I will link below. Along with that, I have decided that I want to try and loop video games into the forms of media I cover, since thy play a large roll in the lives of many people.  Besides that, I think I want to also talk about how a message can influence the ethics of a piece of media. As well, I plan on taking a portion of the video to look at an example of a piece that crosses lines to spread a message or idea vs a piece that is just tying to be inappropriate.  On the flip side though, there is something that I have been thinking on...

The logistics of making a video like I have planned here are huge, and I don’t know how well I would be able to cover everything within a suitable amount of time, so I am CONSIDERING, just doing a project on a single series/game/artist. This idea came to me a few days ago. I’m really thinking about doing a video on pokemon. It’s a game/show series that has been very dear to me for a large part of my life, and I know a lot about it which would greatly aid in my research.

Wow, just typing that out really kind of made me realize how much more I would enjoy a project like that... So yeah, I think I’m going to switch my topic to covering the logistics of ethics in the world of pokemon. 

I could talk about enslaving creatures to fight one another for personal gain, the large amount of organizations with plans to take over the world and the governments failings to deal with them. There are so many great ideas there and I could wrap it all into one video talking about the concepts that are the most crucial to determine the ethical state of the world of pokemon.

I am prepared to take on the extra work to start over on this project and think it will be a lot more motivating to do it on a topic I am more attatched too.

[georgewalther]

HW3case Q2

Question: Are suicide booths a better solution than therapy and medication?

Answer: I think perspective is the real question here. Productivity and efficiency would lean towards suicide booths being *better* due to their cost effectiveness and low maintenance approach. If someone dies, they can be quickly replaced by someone else as population only grows. HOWEVER, this is not ethical. Death is not something that should be treated lightly. It should be the duty of everyone to encourage everyone to live the best life they can and to continue living. Therapy and medication may be more expensive, but it is better ethically. 

[georgewalther]

HW3case Q1

Case: (hypothetical case from Futurama) (clip: https://youtu.be/EbmQxZkSswI )

Facts about the case:

- This takes place in the year 3000.

- Suicide booths have been in use at least since 2008 in this world.

- It only costs 25 cents for a life to be ended.

- While this IS a cartoon, the fact that this suicide booth has been in business for around 1000 years means that enough people kill themselves (remember only 25 cents per death) for them to continue business.

- This suicide booth brand has been the leading brand for that almost 1000 years, implying there are other brands doing the same thing.

- A robot (another machine) is trying to use the suicide booth too.

- The people in line for the suicide booth look unbothered that they are about to die or that there is a LINE for a suicide booth.

- The suicide booth’s automated voice is friendly, but immediately defaults to a slow and painful death when fry says something completely different.

Questions about the case:

- Where do the bodies go after death?

- Has a nihilistic worldview taken over business and government in this world?

- Why is it so cheap? (25 cents but also inflation?)

- Are there other options to fix issues in this world?

Discussion question:

- Are suicide booth a better alternative to therapy and medication?

[georgewalther]

HW2case Q3

The facts of the case: Moral injury is a common problem in which something so traumatic manifests itself as a mental illness. An example of this is PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorders) in war veterans. This has impacted the lives of many families.

Analysis: Veterans are the most common example of people who are impacted by this, but they are not the only one.  While medical advancements have been made to help this area, we are not at an end all be all. Moral injury does not present itself immediately. Moral injury can lead to depression and even suicide.

Conclusion: More people need to know about this, because it could happen to anyone’s friends of family. Raising awareness is the best way to bring about change and to help the issue come closer to remedy. Along with that, while military families will always be the people that deal with this the most, it can still happen to anyone who encounters a traumatic event. 

Future environment: A future environment will consist of greater access to the internet, for everyone around the world, and advertisement will be more frequent. 

Future scenario:  I think in an environment where technology is advanced, finding a better way to tackle this issue will reveal itself faster. Along with that, technology will also help to make this issue more known via advertising, which should also be advanced. 

[georgewalther]

HW2Proj

The topic I decided on: Ethical Dilemmas between Medium

Project Format: Video

“250 words of work“:  For my 250 words worth of work, I have a bit of an outline for my video planned out. Intro: So for this section I just want to explain what my topic is and how the video is gonna work. Something along the lines of “What is an ethical dilemma?” Then give some examples of cases. I want to then ask the viewer if there are lines depending on where the ethics are a concern. E.g. Is it okay to portray some ethically “bad” acts in song and not in a video game or a movie. I could then bring up an example of a song like “Norf Norf” by Vince Staples or “Pumped up kicks” by Foster the People vs a movie like “A Serbian Film”. Background: Here I would talk about how modern ethics have become a standard practice and here they come from. I would then talk about some of the standard rules and rating system for different mediums like movies, tv shows, games and music. I could then transition to my next section with asking if ethics dictate somethings rating.

Ethics in media: Here I want to talk about the lines that a generally not to be crossed. I could bring up some examples like the movie from netflix “cuties” that got back lash or the song “Rape me” by nirvana. Then I want to talk about ho blurred these lines can be with an examples like “Pumped up Kicks” by Foster the people or the movie “Mean Girls”. Other example ideas: the artist Melanie Martinez sexualizing children. Ghost for their religious ideals. Iron man from selling weapons for war. 

Is there a line vs Should there be a line: Here I want to talk about how there seems to be a little more lee-way for music and then talk about why that might be and if that is acceptable/reasonable.

Conclusion: Final thoughts and my take on the state of ethics in media

Extras: I want to have light music playing in the background as well as show clips of the examples I talk about. I have a recording mic ready as well as an audio editing software and basic video editing software that should be capable of putting this together. 

[georgewalther]

HW2Case Q2

Replying to some questions I had...

Are certain demographics more susceptible to moral injury? - Veterans/Soldiers seem to have the most talk about when referring to moral injury because of TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) and PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). - I think it is also reasonable to assume religious individuals could be more susceptible to moral injury.  What medical advancements have come to aid this field: - Some medications have been developed to treat things like PTSD, but moral injury is most commonly treated through therapy. - Are these methods effective currently?

[georgewalther]

HW2Case Q1

https://moralinjuryproject.syr.edu/about-moral-injury/

Important Facts: - Moral injury can lead to many terrible things like depression and suicide. - PTSD is the most common example of moral injury. - Moral injury is not a new concept but it is being looked into more and more. - Moral injury is damage to the “soul”. - Moral injury does not happen instantly after an act has occurred. - Therapists and social workers are at the forefront of helping this problem. - There are many causes and they can effect every person individually. - Since this is a common and widespread issue, it’s everyone’s job to educate themselves.

Questions: - Is PTSD the only example of moral injury? - Are certain demographics more susceptible to moral injury? - How many people here know about this issue? - What medical advancements have come to aid this field? Discussion Question: How could computer security relate to this case? - Are their any cases of moral injury primarily involving computers?      - My thought here is since war veterans are a primary victim to moral injury, could people in the tech sector be affected similarly? I’m thinking like people who are in charge of stealing data from foreign powers and maybe even people who pilot drones.

[georgewalther]

HW1case Q3

Link to case: https://www.polygon.com/2018/8/15/17693556/emuparadise-roms-shut-down-threat-nintendo

Description in my own words:  EmuParadise was once a well known emulator and ROM hosting website. The website had a huge repository of ROMs that could easily be downloaded for free to play. However in 2018, the owner of EmuParadise took down all of the ROMs that were once provided. This was most likely in response to a lawsuit filed by Nintendo, a popular video game company, on another ROM website owner. That owner was threatened with millions of dollars worth of damages if they didn’t shut down their website, and the owner of EmuParadise knew that they would suffer the same fate. While the website did remove the ROMs, the emulators ere kept up. Also, the people who have already downloaded ROMs are not being pursued.

 Analyze: The to biggest three questions from this case that I thought could be discussed are: “Should people be allowed to keep the ROMs they downloaded?” “Should the sites be allowed to still provide the emulators and continue updates for them?” and “Do ROM hacks fall into the fair use boat?”

My  Conclusion:  For these questions, I have concluded the following. People should not be allowed to keep the ROMs. Since it is considered Piracy, it is illegal. The only reason people haven’t been pursued is because it isn’t worth the time of the authorities. Next, the sites shouldn’t be allowed to provide the emulators. While it isn’t illegal, it’s the equivalent of selling crack pipes. While it isn’t necessarily illegal, it is still a means to use illegal paraphernalia. Lastly, I believe ROM hacks do not fall under fair use. Whether or not the game is originally acquired legally, the spites and other assets within the game or ROM is not for public use and you cannot use it to make money for yourself. 

Future Environment: This case would be effected by the times changing. As me go forward, video games are becoming a more and more profitable industry. Pirating the hard work of video game developers should not be abused in these such ways. I believe that ROMs will always be a problem, and as more games are released, I think they’ll become more and more rampant.

Future Scenario:  Like I said I think this will continue to happen and be even more of a problem in the future. While that is true, I also think internet policing will only get better to so that it will be taken care of more efficiently. Along with that, I still think that people who have already acquired the ROMs will still go unpunished.