MENU DRIVEN IDENTITY WORKSHOP-My response

1.Which categories are available for users to choose from when signing up for Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail or in order to use the Second Life gameworld? What presumptions do these categories make about users, and what does the absence of certain categories of identity say?

As observed by many from this tutorial group, Hotmail and Yahoo!Mail provides the categories of language, country/region, gender, birth date and occupation for users to choose from. Yahoo! Mail, for advertising purposes, provides a more extensive range for occupation including industry and specialisation for users. This is to funnel the massive range of advertising to suit the user’s needs as presumed by the service provider based on the choices selected(interests, career etc). The categories available seems to place little importance on the race of the users as they are differentiated by geographic locale rather than by ethinicity or colour.

Second Life provides “Second Life First Name”, “Second Life Last Name”, “date of birth” and “gender”. The game offers a selection of preset last names that are uncommon and allows for a unique in-world identity that seems to be race and colour free.

4.Are any of the websites you've visited inherently racist? Why or why not?

One must question the definition of the term racism in attempt to answer this question. If racism is defined to be an animosity towards other races or a belief in racial superiority then perhaps many of the sites are racist towards the minority races or less affluent races, as there is exclusiveness in categorization. However, I do not believe that the intent and motive of the sites were to condescend and marginalize these other races. As an Asian myself, I never felt ‘marginalized’ by Yahoo! and Hotmail, as I find it more of a hassle to deal with a long list of tick boxes and columns “about me”. I believe that most of the sites probably started by providing their service to a targeted user group based on market research and statistics. However, as the accessibility of internet increases resulting in a greater diversity online, these service providers must begin to take responsibility to ensure that more groups are accounted for.

To be honest, I did feel tangibly isolated while browsing through Lavalife due to the overall design of the site, which seems to have adhered to a default set of identity categories (namely age, location, colour, star sign, religiousness , height, physique, smoking/drinking habits). Colour (mainly white) seems to be an important aspect of the Lavalife ‘identity’ thus creating an obvious segregation between other races.

Changes to this tutorial blog

Hi Everyone,

New Link
A couple of changes to your tutorial blog. Firstly, you will notice I've added a link to the main Self.Net blog; this contains occassional posts from myself or Karen focusing on items which may be of interest for all students. Also, a number of curious people have found my own personal blog. Since some of you have found it, I may as put a link here, so if anyone else wants a read, you're most welcome (but do keep in mind, this is my personal blog, so isn't always 100% academically orientated!).

Blog Navigation Bar
I'm sure you've all noticed this new Navigation Bar at the top of the blog:

This adds some functions which might make using the tutorial blog easier:

• The orange Blogger button will take you directly to Blogger.com.

• Entering a search into the empty form box (the white box) and hitting search will search this blog (or whatever blog you are viewing). This should make finding earlier material much easier (only 15 posts remain on the front page, the rest go into the archive, accessible via the links on the side).

• Finally, the BlogThis! button will automatically open a window to let you write a blog post.

FollowUp Comments for those Introducing Readings
Just a quick note: most of you who have already introduced readings this week in tutorials have gone back and published your reflection upon the tutorial after it finished. Those who haven't (and those presenting in the coming weeks) please remember that part of your tutorial presentation is to go back to the post you made before the tute and reflect on how well your presentation went (how well the ideas were received; what sort of conversation happened; any ways your ideas about the reading might have changed/expaned). Ideally, this should be done as soon as possible after your tutorial presentation (but really should be before the next meeting of your tutorial). Others are reminded, that they are always welcome to comment on any posts in their tutorial blog and are also welcome to post relevant links/ideas whenever you find things! (oh, and for those of you who've never read other people's comments, give it a go; there are some really interesting dialogues taking place in the comments!).

A reminder:
Before clicking the 'Publish Post' button, if you place the cursor inside the window where you have written your post press either Ctrl+A to select all and then Ctrl+C (on a PC) or Apple+A to select all and then Apple+C (on a Mac), this will place the text you have written in the memory of the computer (this is referred to as placing text on the clipboard). If something goes wrong during the attempt to publish, all you need to do to make the post a second time is place the cursor in the post window and press either Ctrl+V (PC) or Apple+V (Mac) to paste the text from the clipboard into that text box. (Occassionally blogger does 'hang' [which means not finishing the posting function], so it is useful to make this quick backup in order to avoid typing out the entry a second time!)

Eugenics and its credibility in Gattaca

Does genetic screening and manipulation as presented in Gattaca evoke a new eugenics? Does this scenario seem credible given current scientific trends?

During the reign of the Nazis, German scientists contrived to create a single pure "Aryan" strain that they considered the dominant via selective breeding. This artificial selection and breeding of humans for genetic qualities, essentially what we have been doing for animals and crops are applied to humans. This is the fundamental element of Eugenics.

The world in Gattaca definitely evokes a new eugenics where a new form of discrimination called genoism has arisen.Those born of ‘natural-births’ have a higher chance of success and credibility and the gentically pure and perfect are favoured in society. In this environment, one could eliminate genes for myopia, a predisposition towards violence, mental retardation, and a host of other genetically induced traits and diseases. As a result, those conceived the traditional way, the ‘faith birth’s, or ‘God Children’’ or ‘Invalid’ people are at the bottom of the hierarchical chart due to their weaker DNA and shorter lifespan.

This scenario is highly conceivable given today’s rapid scientific and technological progress. Humanity has been tampering with eugenics for many years, through careful breeding of prize animals, engineered crops and livestock. Towards the early 1990’s, in-vitro fertilization was made possible and babies were produced from the merging of sperm and egg outside the womb. Soon after, cloning exploded in the scientific community with the birth of the first cloned animal, Dolly the Sheep. Now, in the early 2000's, there has even been debates of cloning a human, and the first trials of gene therapy have been done. The probability of a world like Gattaca’s is not merely fictional portrayal anymore.

However, the Gattaca world is a world of in which the pace of scientific discovery has been left unchecked by moralistic and ethical debate. If the ethical codes in our world continually shift and are compromised by declining morals then the greed and self-interest gains will control science and society will soon stagnate. The Nazis failed in their experiment, because their rule lasted less than one generation. But in the future, it is foreseeable that the rich will spend their money in creating designer babies void of health problems and matched with good looks through genetic engineering, creating an ‘elite class’ very similar to the superficial world portrayed in Gattaca where spirit is sacrificed in exchange for genetic supremacy.

a click at a time

Just checking in to say hi to everyone, I'm aNnabEL and i'm basically a closet web-surfie. My preferences are constantly evolving, and currently i'm just really content with JORDI LABANDA 's website. I find it classy and i love the graphics. Yea, have a go at it (though part of me wants to selfishly guard it from new gazers). And like Francesca , I found Friendster extremely addictive when i was swept in the hype. Go wild;p