WS 1152 Spring 2008

"The Ultimate Crossword Smackdown" was a thoughtful, well-written article. I didn't have much initial interest (I don't do crosswords) but the idea of a computer doing something better than a human has always been a subject of interest to me. I didn't find "The Rabbit on Mars" to be that fascinating (it seemed almost preachy and overly profound), but "Let There Be Light" was a great read - lots of information about the formation of galaxies and, at same point, the universe.

After reading the three assigned essays, I decided I liked "The Rabbit on Mars" the best. This essay was short and sweet, to the point, and even a bit humorous. This is the type of article that would hold almost anyone's attention. I was a bit bored by "The Ultimate Crossword Smackdown", as crossword puzzles have never been of interest to me. The one I liked least was "Let There Be Light." This essay started off holding my attention, and then seemed to plummit into a huge data dump that bored me to death.

"The Rabbit on Mars" was short but interesting and also a little comical. I like how it addressed how humans have a tendency to let their imaginations run wild and get the best of them. "Let There Be Light" discussed facts about the universe and galaxies. I do not know much about space so I enjoyed learning some facts and history. "The Ultimate Crossword Smackdown" was also a comical and lighthearted essay. It addressed the fear of people being fired from their jobs because they would because of replacement by computers.
Even though, it is becoming a reality, I thought Gaffney made it humorous with a story line.

"Let There Be Light" was interesting for me because of the information about the distant galaxies and new telescopes, but I thought they went a little to far with all of the information. I did not really care for "The Rabbit on Mars", it did not really have any information on Mars other than one of the rovers got a picture of the torn protective balloon it had for landing. I liked "The Ultimate Crossword Smackdown" I found it to be funny and well written, I do not care for crossword puzzels but the story kept me interested.

"The Ultimate Crossword Smackdown" was a very interesting essay, however, like others on this blog have mentioned, I'm not very interested in Crossword Puzzles and I rarely do them when it comes to the paper. It was very well put together and it does spark some interest in the topic. "The Rabbit on Mars" was rather entertaining and I enjoyed reading, but "Let There Be Light" was by far my favorite in that I have a distinct interest in space and distant galaxies as well as technological developments in telescopes and other equipment used in space exploration.

"The Rabbit on Mars" kept me interested to the point where I actually wished it was a bit longer. I really liked the author's point of it not being if there is life away from Earth, but when we would find it. I could not get into "Let There Be Light", even though astronomy does interest me. I thoroughly enjoyed "The Ultimate Crossword Smackdown", as I figured that crossword puzzles were always created by computers today. It was interesting that there still are people who create them without a computer. Though I thought it did show that computers are, in a sense, taking over.

I love outer space and the idea of space exploration. That said, the "Rabbit" article and "Let There be Light" were both interesting reads for different reasons. The Rabbit article was short and sweet and pretty beautifully written I thought with some good questions. Its not really what i look for in a science article though. "Let there be Light" was definitely more traditional and definitely more what i like to read. Informative, attention grabbing and about a topic that is pretty damn cool i think. The cross word article was kind of interesting to me (I play a lot of scrabble) but of course the idea of machine taking over mans domain is the issue that grabs your attention. But hey, if human beings want to be god and create intelligent things they have to deal with the creation when it bites.

I thought the "Let There Be Light" was very intriguing yet suprisingly informative. In the style it was written, you could really take a lot of facts and concepts with you without realizing it because it is such an enjoyable read. I found myself less aware that I was reading for a class and felt more in a situation where I was reading an interesting article in a magazine at the dentist's office. While intricately dictated, it used language and styles to interest and pull in the reader.

Out of the three essays, I would have to say that my favorite is the “Ultimate Crossword Smackdown” piece written by Matt Gaffney. This piece was very well written and it kept me interested. It’s kind of hard to fathom that people still write these crossword puzzles by hand when the computer nowadays can do it faster and in some cases better than human writers. What I like about this piece is that someone is challenging our technology today and although it surprised me that the writer came in last it also surprised me that another human came in first. The essay I liked the least would have to be the “Let There Be Light” piece written by Michael Lemonick. At first it seemed like an interesting piece, the story in the beginning of the piece kept my attention and it seemed quite interesting. But as the essay progressed it seemed to be throwing lots of information out there and that seemed a little overwhelming. The “Rabbit on Mars” piece was a sweet and short essay, right to the point and very interesting. The questions imposed at the end of the essay raises some really good issues as well.

I found it interesting how all three readings emphasized the unknown aspects of the subjects. It was intriguing to see how mystery not only makes for a good experiment, but it is essential for an interesting piece of writing as well. While some areas are completely unknown to us, as illustrated in "The Rabbit on Mars", others areas are within reach but will take many trial and errors before we come to the correct conclusion. Human error is essential in life, and I like that these stories highlight that rather than denying our flaws.

I was really surprised at how interesting "Let there be Light" was. Normally any reading about the formation of galaxies and the like would bore me, but not this. Somehow the author finds a way to keep the reader interested even if they don't really care the subject. The "Rabbit on Mars" article was my least favorite. Its subject was more what the author thought than fact, and it felt more like something I had to read vs. something I'd like to read. I liked the article about the crosswords. It's always been interesting to hear about when computers start doing jobs as well as humans can.

I enjoyed all of these articles, but for different reasons, as the articles themselves were very diverse. "The Ultimate Crossword Smackdown" was easy to read and entertaining. It brought up the question, "Who writes better puzzles, humans or computers?" Although the article was mostly anecdotal, it did have some serious questions hidden under the surface. For an average reader, the article was simply funny and interesting, but the issue of computer intelligence matching that of human intelligence is a huge issue, and could have been explored more in this article. That said, I liked it how it was. It was fun to read. "Let There Be Light" was immensely interesting, but for one not even barely schooled in the terminology of the universe, it was a little hard to follow. I would like to read it again, once I am more learned. For now, I was happy just having the image of the giant new telescopes they will be constructing in the next decade. "The Rabbit on Mars" was my least favorite article, because it seemed a little disorganized. It began by musing about the jokes of animals, and ended with a set of philosophical questions fit for Aristotle. It raised a lot of wonder and interest, but never really left any information for the reader.

Out of the three articles I found "Let There Be Light" was the most intriguing to me. I am very interested in outer space at the moment and I found it very interesting that scientists actually know how long ago galaxies were created. I am also very interested in what is going to happen when the next generation of telescopes do come out and what is going to be observed and what breakthroughs are going to be made. The crossword article also grabbed by interest right away and I thought it was the best written article of the three. I like how the author refuses to submit to computers and how he decided to create the whole testing process between humans and computers. It says a lot about his character that he can write an article like that even when he came in last place in his own testing. The article "The Rabbit on Mars" stirred the least amount of interest in me and felt like the biggest chore to me. Nothing that was written in the article really brought anything up that I was interested in or grabbed my attention.

Of the three articles, "The Rabbit on Mars" was the least entertaining. There are a million stories about life on other planets and I didn't feel like this one was any different than one I've alrady read. The "Ultimate Crossword Smackdown", however, was much more interesting. I do believe that the job of a human writing a crossword puzzle will someday be completley replaced by computers. Also, I believe it will become increasingly harder to tell the difference between the human and computer generated puzzles. I was over whelmed by all the information in the "Let There Be Light" article, and was not interested in it at all.