Blown to Bits Chapter 1 - Chase's Questions

1. It is our nature as humans to expand our capabilities and advance society in ways otherwise impossible without technology. And while we were able to sustain ourselves for many centuries with little technological growth, the rush of relatively recent advancements has greatly improved the standard of living for many people, and now we are using technology to aid third-world countries, cure diseases, and do dangerous jobs that could be harmful to ourselves.
2. Computers are capable of being much faster than the mail service. E-mails are sent over the course of a few seconds, whereas mail is generally sent over the course of a few days, or week or so. To put this in perspective, there are 604,800 seconds in a week. So, theoretically, given the best circumstances, you could send that many emails in the time it takes to deliver one letter.
3. All new technologies can create good and harmful effects. There are many obvious pluses to this digital explosion - you can look up anything you would need to find, you can talk with people across the globe almost instantly, and you can use programs to perform tasks that the human mind simple cannot reproduce with such speed, among countless other things. However, all this information can also be a bad thing - keeping things private can be very difficult, hackers find their way into code and steal personal information, and, of course, we could reach the singularity and robots will take over the world. 
4. (See image):

Blown to Bits - Chapter 1 Questions

1. Describe what a “koan” is.
2. Draw a graph roughly depicting what Moore’s Law looks like. (Hint: think exponential growth)
3. Debate and weigh the good and bad aspects of technology, and whether you would describe technology overall as good, bad, or somewhere in-between.
4. Predict how Moore’s Law may continue in the future. Will it continue on its current path, or will it eventually level out?

1.1.7 Scratch Game - "Scratch-Man"

SCRATCH-MAN

Created by Timothy Coon, Jr., Connor Noble, and Ché Young

Click the image to head to the game's page on the Scratch website!

1.     We split up our creative responsibilities between members of the group - I worked on art and music assets, Ché worked on stage layout and programming, and Connor worked on exploring options for the ghost/dog AI. We also met up every class and discussed what to do with the game as a whole. This allowed us to go through the creative process relatively efficiently.
2.     I believe that we worked pretty well for the most part, however, there were certain aspects of the game that were disputed as to how they would be implemented. Despite differing views, we were able to work together as a team and make overall team decisions that benefited our project.
3.     Ché's impressive programming skills made the stage layout work very well, and his format of character movement reduced the amount of bugs drastically. Artwork was a cinch and Connor basically figured out what not to do with the dog programming.
4.     Implementing looping music was difficult at first, and combining our separate work took a little extra time.
5.     We would've implemented a lives system, a game over screen, and probably a bit more retouching if given more time.