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Miah Caine
Harvard GenEd 2023
Apr 19, 2023
In Space
I think the most interesting bit of information I learned is that, in the search for extraterrestrial communication, scientists look for communication in a really broad range of frequency. This is where a good portion of the uncertainty in this field comes from and, according to Jill Tarter, has been the cause of false positives in detecting intelligent beings outside of Earth. This wide band of frequencies being used in order to anticipate extraterrestrials reaching out, while being a feat in computation, requires those detecting the frequencies to filter between what is normal communication and what is abnormal. If I conducted the interview, I would ask what the methods of "calculating" uncertainty in space exploration are, if there are any. In particular, I am interested in how certain we are of there being other intelligent civilizations, what the probability is that these civilizations having motivations to contact us, and how we could gauge if these civilizations are hostile.
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Miah Caine
Harvard GenEd 2023
Apr 12, 2023
In Health
I think one of the most surprising bit of information I learned is that when thinking about personal genomics and its relation to prediction, the main motivation behind the project is an alternate way to predict the fate of future generations besides simply choosing whether or not to have kids. I also thought an interesting bit of information was advanced imaging and its role in the advancement of genomics research. This imaging is a method to view and reconstruct molecules (such as DNA, chromosomes, cells, etc.) which is fundamental in methods of editing DNA and changing a patient's fate, like CRISPR. These methods of reading, though computationally intense, allows researchers to read molecules and represent them in different dimensions to create new gene therapies to cure ailments like HIV and blindness. If I conducted the interview, I would like to ask his thoughts on the intersection of computational sciences and the personal genome project. I am particularly interested in encryption schemes and the privacy of participants' data, and his predictions on the impact of various technological advancements on the field and the project. I am interested in this since a few of my computer science classes have touched on genomics being a large application of my field, and I would like to hear an explanation from this from someone in this area of research.
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Miah Caine
Harvard GenEd 2023
Mar 29, 2023
In Artificial Intelligence
Link to interview - While not necessarily surprising, I thought the commentary about "computer-generated" nitrogen fertilizer problem piqued my interest the most (along with the importance of language when talking about these problems). The analogy of misuse of algorithms to improper design with airbags I feel is particularly important to the conversation of the role of AI in important decisions in the world. Humans have what I believe is an obligation to use AI responsibly as a means to supplement our own knowledge and abilities where we have the final say so rather than an end in itself, as in the fertilizer example. I do think we must focus creating the best, ethical designs on applications that have real life consequences, especially in the age of tools like ChatGPT. I would love to ask about the implications on prediction of the more powerful generative AI models that have been built recently (ChatGPT, DALL-E, etc). A lot of these applications have been used mostly for entertainment or exploration reasons. I, however, wonder as more people explore the abilities of these new technologies and sharing them with the world, how does Ben Schneiderman think this use will shift how humans use technology to predict things in the real world? Because the underlying technology of many of these generative systems is AI predicting good answers versus bad answers, I also wonder Schneiderman's thoughts on whether "better" generative models (whether that's measured in more realistic output or more truthful output) will affect the trust we put in using AI to predict outcomes?
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Miah Caine
Harvard GenEd 2023
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