Samuel Reddick

Professor Ingram

UWRT 1102

March 28, 2016

Multi-Genre Reflection

I decided to make a movie review for what I think are the most accurate and thought-provoking

portrayals of AI in popular science fiction movies as well as a time line that details the development of

computers to date. I stated in my fifth blog post that my target audience would be a relatively young

(forties or less) people curious about what the future of technology means for humanity. After some

class discussion, I realized that the type of audience that reads things like interesting Reddit forums

would probably find this topic interesting. I have done my best to stay away from the technical details

of artificial intelligence and cutting edge technology in general. After all I am certainly no expert nor

will I be one for a great deal of time, but what I do have to offer is curiosity and time to invest in the

investigation of what I find to be an intriguing topic. I think for a subject as specific as mine, one needs

an audience who is very similar to themselves, so I think that this more specific group of Internet

surfers is right for my ePortfolio.

My thesis for this project is that AI technology comes with some inherent risks, but those risks

have been blown out of proportion. The potential rewards of this technology are to grand for us to not

invest in it. This thesis is best reflected in my movie review and the slide presentation that I added to

the wildcard section of my writers notebook. I was correct in my earlier assumption that writers and

philosophers, not computer scientists would make up the bulk of my sources. I didnt realize that most

of those writers would be from technology magazines and various news sources though. Again, it was

very unlikely that I would become an expert in what is a very complicated field in such short time, so it

was wise for me to avoid scholarly articles for the most part.
 Before looking at the list of possible genres, I found myself in a bit of a panic for a few days. I

had no idea which genre or even medium would be most appropriate for my topic. This led me to stress

about it for those days, until I read over the list of examples in detail and saw the movie review. I

recently watched 2001: A Space Odyssey for what might have been the third time and I still didnt

understand it fully, but this last time with the end in mind I made an effort to better understand HALs

actions. This led me to realize just how accurately the movie depicted artificial intelligence and its

potential imperfections . The movie review idea brought this memory back and made me want to use

this opportunity to honor those movies which I thought either most accurately depicted future AI or

brought up the most valid points on the subject. These sorts of lists are commonly enjoyed all over the

Internet for various topics, and I realized that my target audiencebeing like me after-allwould

probably enjoy them too.

When we first began discussing the Multi-Genre project in class, my group helped me realize

that a time line would be another effective piece to help my audience understand my topic. I think that

the time line should be read first which is why I placed it above the movie review. Its purpose is to give

the audience a solid grasp of the rapid pace of development in the field of computer science. This is to

help them visualize how quickly the technology might develop in the future.

In my ePortfolio as a whole, I have relied heavily on the linguistic mode of communication in

the form of text. As I said in the midterm essay and one of the earlier blog posts, this mode is my

comfort zone. This fact is reflected in the movie review which turned out to be far more writing than I

initially intended. With the time line I made an effort to focus on the visual mode of communication. I

think that it ended up looking okay, but I was still a bit disappointed with the end result. Im not too

upset about it though. I did put a lot of time and effort into making it look decent, and considering that I

didnt have the opportunity to do it on Microsoft Officewhich would have been better suited to the

taskand since I couldnt find any templates on line that I was satisfied with. What is important is that
making the time line forced me out of my element and I feel like I learned more about multi-modal

composition because of it.

In regards to Aristotles appeals, I consciously focused on minimizing pathos instead of using it,

choosing instead to focus on logos when describing believable situations for the future. As reflected by

my words in the movie review I think that at this point in time, the fear of AI is blown way out of

proportion. This is not to say that I dont think that it is a potentially dangerous technology; it certainly

is. I try to avoid perpetuating the sensational aspects of the subject though, because AI, if possible in

the form that humanity is trying to create, is inevitable. I dont want the audience to be bombarded with

worst-case scenarios for this topic because I feel like my target audience is the type to disdain blatant

paranoia for the future instead choosing to look at other likely possibilities. Avoiding pathos here

should give me more ethos with the audience that Im looking for since Im willing to look at the future

from what I think (and hope) is a more realistic perspective. The last important component for my

relationship to the audience will be my timeliness overall and in particular with my multi-genre

projects. With the time line I think the presence of kairos is obvious. As I said before it gives the

audience an introduction into where they are in computer development history. It is probably less

obvious with the movie review. Kairos is important here too. The movies span from the 1960s to the

21st century, which gives the audience a comparison of how futuristic technology was depicted, while

computer science was developing in the real world.

In the end I feel like these two pieces will be very effective in setting the mood for my audience.

The time line will make an easy entry point into the advancements of the past 200 years and the movie

review will be an effective tool that incorporates common culture and the idea of artificial intelligence

seamlessly. Whether the particular member of my target audience is well versed in the topic or not, they

should be able to enjoy the visual appeal of the time line and the conversational approach of the movie

review either way.

Sources:

McHugh, Molly. "Teslas Cars Now Drive Themselves, Kinda." Wired. Conde Nast, 14 Oct. 2015.
Accessed 03 May 2017.

Woods, Chris. "The Story of America's Very First Drone Strike." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media
Company, 30 May 2015. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/05/america-
first-drone-strike-afghanistan/394463/. Accessed 03 May 2017.

"Deep Blue."IBM100 - Deep Blue. Accessed 03 May 2017.

"AI & Robotics | Timeline of Computer History." Computer History Museum. Accessed 03 May 2017.