In the episode, “The Measure of a Man”, it is mainly about the conflict between the rights of a machine.  In this episode, there is a robot named Data. Data is a high intelligent robot who are very similar to a human.  Because of that, a commander wants Data to be his experimental tools. He wants to use Data as a tool to develop and recreate many robots who is just like Data. but Data will die because of that.  Then the captain of the star ship disagree with that because he consider Data as his crew, not a robot. After a debate, the captain win and finally Data will not be killed.

Even though in this episode, it implies that technology, such as robot has the right just like our human beings and not treating them well is like treating them as slaves, I don’t really think that is realistic in the real world.  First of all, machines are not slave, even though we use them. They don’t have a life, feelings, or anything that a normal human should have. Also, they are created by human beings to make their lives easier. People do not create them because they want to make more people or more lives.  Also, I don’t really think that humans will not treat their machines with violent since they are really expensive to get,(at least myself) but updating them is reasonable. No one wants to spend 100 hours just waiting for your computer to restart. Therefore, comparing them with slaves in the episode is not really appropriate. Lastly, it is not reasonable for machines to have their freedom and do everything they wish because even our humans have unequal rights and freedom.  People are discriminated against by each other based on their race, color or culture. If machines are granted rights, then what about those humans who do not? Does that mean they are even worse than the machine? Thus, I really think if we can’t even get our own rights, there’s no point of getting a machine’s right.

After reading the excerpt, Algorithms of Oppression, I feel really depressed.  I never notice that searching engine is one of the weapon that people use to attack other people. The discrimination online is much greater than what I thought.  I never know people use words like “sex” to bind them with black girls. I feel really bad about them.I think we are all humans and have identical genes,( other than skin color) why would people discriminate against them? I am one of the victim of discrimination too. When I just came to America, I got discriminated against by my classmates because I don’t speak English. I know how it feels, so I don’t want it to happen on anyone. Also, there are always sexism happening online.  I have seen many comments about that such as “ girls should stay home’ I just don’t understand it. A lot of girls are smarter than boys. Girls and boys are same other than biological structures. Without girl, life will be a lot difficult today. Therefore, please treat girls with care.

In The New York Times article “ How to land on Mars” written by Jonathan Corum,the main idea is about the process of a spacecraft lands on theMars.  It will take six months of traveling in order for a spacecraft to arrive to Mars. After its arrival, there are many steps that the spacecraft needs take in order to avoid the failure of landing. First of all, scientist have to make sure that the timing and the location that they are going to aim is correct, so they can avoid the dust storms on Mars. Then after the spacecraft is ready, it will travel within Mars’ atmosphere at a speed of 12,300 miles/hour.  However, the spacecraft must land with a degree of 12 in order to successfully land on Mars, because if the spacecraft is too steep, it will burn and if it is too shallow, it will just pass through the atmosphere and return the space. While the spacecraft is passing through the atmosphere, the parachute inside the craft will pop out and slows down the landing. Lastly, the legs of the spacecraft will also pop out to make sure that the spacecraft lands. Since the distance between Earth and Mars is really far, it takes 8 minutes and 7 seconds for the communication signal to sent to Earth, so the scientist do not know whether the spacecraft fail or not until they have waited for a long time.  

The diagrams on this article really help me to understand the entire article. I feel like without the diagram, I will not understand what the article is trying to say because I have never see a spacecraft before and I never learn about how a spacecraft will function and the usage of visuals give me an image of what’s going on.  In addition, introducing those images will also prevent me from getting tired of the reading. Also, just by reading those images, you also get figure out the intent of the autor without reading the entire article which is to show the audience about the process of landing on the Mars. Overall, visuals are really helpful in boosting the understand of reader and providing the reader a very brief summary. I would compare the relationship with texts and visuals with a song.  Texts are just like the lyrics of a song, while visuals is like a rhythm. Without any of these, a song will not be complete.

In “Understand Rhetoric:A Graphic Guide to Writing,” it talks about  many elements of writing such as rhetoric, pathos, ethos, logos, and kairos.  Rhetoric was originated from the Greek meaning to say. Basically, it means to give a space to a person to express their ideas. These includes shows, speeches and debates.  One of the Greek philosopher named Plato thought negatively about rhetoric. He thought that shows such as tragedy has negative effects on teens because teens might pick up some negative things from it.  On the other hand, Aristotle believed performing tragedy in front of teens will let them know the dangerous of doing so, which prevents them from doing it. In this case, I agree with both of them because I think shows are not the only factor that affect teens.  While it might be true that teens might pick up negative aspect from the show such as smoking and drinking alcohol, it doesn’t mean teens will always absorb these negative things, and some might even resist that. For example, when I was little, I keep watching shows about how a person betray another person. That doesn’t affect me.  I hate betraying. Therefore, even though I don’t think rhetoric in a show affect a child’s growth, sometimes it is true since child are most likely to be affected by his/her surrounding. ( I stay neutral) Also, the author is also trying to show us the importance of pathos(use of emotion), ethos(credibility), and logos(logical) in the writing. I agree with that because we need credibility, emotions and logical in our writing. Even though pathos might not be that effective in a lot of writing such as research paper, it is very effective during speeches, shows, or sometimes debate.  Personally, I think emotions are the most powerful weapon in the writing. If a speaker is having a poor background or any forms of tragedy, the speaker will mostly likely to receive more attention compare to other speakers. Also, when a character in a movie is having a poor family background, the audience will likely to feel pity about this character and want him/her to complete his/her goal. The author also introduce Kairos, which is about the importance of time. We don’t want to say any negative things during a birthday party.

The article “When your grades are based on labor” has 5 main ideas. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, take risks, don’t write to impress others, redo the assignment might be a good thing and work harder!  I agree with these, because I was afraid of making mistakes before, so I never learn. However, right now I don’t care about mistakes, I just try , try and try until I am satisfied about my assignment. And it worked.  I learned more things and I feel more confident about myself.