Ethics Introduction
My name is Breanna Devore-McDonald.
I'm from a mountainous, smallish city in rural Northern California where we actually
have seasons. I have three older brothers who (sometimes lovingly) harass me at every
possible chance, two lovely parents who I adore, and a diverse array of animals of which
includes my favorite Ewok-dog, Teek (the fluffy thing in the picture).
Most of my interests lie in the realm of Computer Science, but I do have a few unrelated
hobbies. I love tennis, kayaking, YouTube storytimes, espresso, sleeping, acrylic
painting, jogging around St. Joe's lake, and playing with my dogs in my parents' front yard.
Within Computer Science, I am obsessed with the
Python Programming Language and Linux,
and I am interested in runtime systems, virtual machines, formal languages,
and computer language memory management.
Why am I studying Computer Science? I'd love to say the reason is that I just want to save humanity and help work towards the betterment of society. However, that wouldn't be the complete truth... because I actually just want to hack everyone.
Just kidding.
Actually, Computer Science is just the most fascinating study I have ever come across. The more I learn, the more I want to learn and the more passionate I become. I wouldn't want to study something that doesn't make me excited every morning when I wake up, or that doesn't constantly give me the desire to learn. I am so entranced by what computer science is, how it came to be, why it works, how deeply rooted in logic and even philosophy it is. I mean, numbers are just made-up mathematical objects, so what does that say about computer science, a field almost completely composed of numbers?
This entire train of thought is what led me to choosing my Computer Science major. I came into Notre Dame as an Honors Math major with some undecided Engineering double-major. I had experienced a glipse of coding before (I took a C++ community college course in high school), but I was never introspective about the content. It wasn't until a few weeks into my freshman year, when I started working with LabView, that I actually gave it a thought. Why was I more excited to drag around some icons on a terrible UI than I was to spend 15+ hours a week proving Calculus? Yes, the answer is clearly because spending 15+ hours proving anything is not fun. But, it led me into looking at Notre Dame's Computer Science curriculum and researching the relationship between pure math and computer science. The rest is history. I guess I owe LabView a thanks...
I'm actually really curious what my peers think about the issues we will be discussing. I know my own opinions, for the most part, and I know the opinions of the few people I really talk to, but I actually have no idea where my class stands as a whole. I'm quite terrible at making decisions, so hearing contradictory opinions will probably throw me off a bit, but I really want to hear what others have to say, their point of view, where their ideas come from. I think it's incredibly important to consider multiple views of an issue, so I hope to get out of this class where my peers stand and what I can do to understand issues in other ways. I also hope to branch out and share my own thoughts, to try and be less afraid to give my personal opinions and maybe shine a light on a new viewpoint of some issue (doubtful). All in all, there is so much I can learn from my peers, and I want to take advantage of this opportunity.
I think the most pressing issues are AI, privacy, and diversity. AI is so prominent now, and has been for a while, and I think it's important to learn more about the issues that it presents since we will soon be the people helping make those kinds of decisions. Privacy is always a big issue, but I think it was recently highlighted for me during the Pokemon Go wave. At work, everyone was obsessed with the game and it was played all day during the workday. However, after two weeks, all the employees were cautioned about the app and the AR mode option: we worked at a secure facility and since Niantic shares its data with larger data-hungry companies, we could have been leaking private company information via camera. This problem really made privacy stick out to me as a larger problem than I originally had thought. Lastly, I think diversity is also a big problem. It's clear that Computer Science is not the most diverse field, and I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts.