Digital Commons Network^™

Recognition And Domination: A Hegelian Approach To Evolving Gender And Technology Paradigms, Zachary Davis

CMC Senior Theses

This paper aims to develop a strong account of recognition. It begins with a Hegel-inspired account of recognition as a fundamental desire that drives humanity. This account establishes recognition as fundamental to the initial subject formation of independent self-consciousnesses as agents. I offer the lord-bondsman dualism to provide a critique of domination as oppositional to securing the means for recognition. This entails that, as history progresses the world ought to move towards universally adopting mutual recognition relationships without domination. I adopt this goal as an ideal form of recognition. In Chapter 2, I apply this recognitional framework to gender. Through …

The Man In The Fiber Optic Cable: A Short Film, Lucas Cunningham

Pomona Senior Theses

A man runs through a fiber optic cable.

The Ilm Industrial Complex: Star Wars And Vfx In The Digital Age, Jane Baldwin

CMC Senior Theses

This paper proposes an expansion of Tom Gunning’s seminal theory of the “cinema of attractions.” Advancements in visual effects (VFX) technologies—such as the rise of George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) and the advent of the digital age, among others—necessitate a more rigorous, updated understanding of effects as objects of media study. Using the Star Wars franchise as an analytical center, I aim to bring the subfield of effects study closer to compatibility with the ever-evolving VFX landscape.

Machines With Heart: Utilizing An Sts Framework To Analyze Implementation And Design Of Social Eldercare Robots In Germany And Japan, Lucy Conover

Pitzer Senior Theses

Robots are everywhere from car factories to cafes, but many people may not realize robots are quite popular in assisted living residencies for older adults. Social eldercare robots (SER) provide care to older adults without relying on human labor, offering a lucrative promise of technological efficiency during global labor crises. However, their adaptation into care settings is not this simple. Human trust in robots is rooted in nuanced social, cultural, and historical factors, making SER a highly interpretively flexible technology. This thesis analyzes social eldercare robot implementation in two countries, Germany and Japan, using a "Science, Technology and Society" (STS) …

The Influence Of Community Cultural Wealth And Tauhi Va On The Navigation Of Pacific Islanders In Science, Technology, Engineering And Mathematics (Stem), Marlena Vi Wolfgramm

CGU Theses & Dissertations

My research examines the influence of community cultural wealth and tauhi va on the navigation of Pacific Islanders (PIs) in STEM. The disaggregation of data on Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) attaining STEM bachelor's degrees revealed that PIs (16%) are represented half as much as Asian Americans (35%) (NCES, 2020). Under the AAPI designation, PIs have been masked, underserved, and underresearched in higher education and STEM. For this reason, this study focuses on the educational trajectories and experiences of PIs in STEM to highlight their strengths and challenges to understand how better to serve and support PIs in STEM. …

Privacy-As-Property: A New Fundamental Approach To The Right To Privacy And The Impact This Will Have On The Law And Corporations, Sevion Dacosta

CMC Senior Theses

The most popular conception of the right to privacy stems from Warren and Brandeis’s description of privacy as “the right to be left alone.” This theory ultimately points to a more fundamental approach to the right to privacy rooted in property rights. This fundamental approach - which I call privacy-as-property - is what I establish in this paper. I argue that the Lockean concept of property that “every man has a property in his own person” provides the foundation for the right to privacy. Privacy-as-property begins with the fundamental right to control oneself. Because of this intrinsic right, your property …

Liberation Technology In The Age Of Digital Authoritarianism: Examining The Potential For Digital Technology To Promote Democratic Practice, Skyler Sallick

CMC Senior Theses

In an effort to reclaim agency in the global battle between digital democracy and digital authoritarianism, this thesis asks: What, if anything, can be done? Through a review of the current literature, it found that a singular technology can at once be liberatory while simultaneously serving to counter its own liberating potential. As a result, repressive regimes have been able to successfully push back against mass mobilization and quell efforts to bring greater transparency and accountability to systems of governance. The case of Egypt is used to explore mass mobilization and the right to freedom of expression before, during, and …

Modern Artificial Intelligence: Philosophical Context And Future Consequences, Mark Kumleben

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This paper analyzes the state of modern artificial intelligence research from a philosophical perspective, in order to argue for interdisciplinary cooperation in building an effective AI research paradigm. I assess four different aspects of AI: its ability to perceive the world through pattern recognition, its ability to act in the world through reinforcement learning, its role in technological society as predicted by Heidegger’s theory of technology, and its future development into potential superintelligence. By connecting these to an unexamined theory of the human mind underpinning AI research, I seek to show the relationship between our understanding of natural minds and …

The Digitalization Of Development: Understanding The Role Of Technology And Innovation In Development Through A Case Study Of Kenya And M-Pesa, Kara Schachter

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis analyzes the connection of mobile phone technology to increased economic development in Kenya. Drawing on previous research, I first examine the state of development by analyzing social, political, and economic factors in Kenya in 2007/2008. I then examine the role of technology on these development factors in Kenya by focusing on the rapid rise of mobile money platform M-Pesa and the rise of decentralized banking. This thesis finds that M-Pesa’s success stems from the failure of public trust in traditional institutions, collaboration between the public, private, and nonprofit sector, initial lack of regulation to promote innovation, and heavy …

The Attention Crisis Of Digital Interfaces And How To Consume Media More Mindfully, Kristen M. Liu

Scripps Senior Theses

Digital forms of media are monopolizing individuals' attention spans, utilizing visual strategies that demand our interactions. Throughout the history of media technology, mediums have become increasingly immersive, presenting more information than ever before. The user interface designs of digital platforms can damage our ability to focus and distribute attention in meaningful ways. Through analysis of our digital media consumption, this capstone project ultimately proposes mindful practices that help us lead more balanced lives and thrive in the digital age. The second half of this capstone project is a digital zine with digital illustrations, animations, and editorial-style articles. The digital zine …

Generalization Of Ipad®-Learned Skills In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Claire Klein

CMC Senior Theses

The present study investigated the effects of learning from an iPad® to real-world skills for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Research has demonstrated that for some children with ASD, electronic media such as an iPad® is highly motivating, highly preferred, and increasing in popularity in homes and in classrooms (Chen & Bernard-Opitz, 1993; Rideout, 2017; Shane & Albert, 2008). Because academic skills are often difficult for children with ASD due to problems with motivation, the current study used the motivating features of iPad® apps to teach real-world academic skills to children with ASD, with the hypothesis that skills would …

Reaching The Unreached: The Role Of Information Communication Technologies On Agency Of Women In India, Suvena Yerneni

CMC Senior Theses

In this paper, I analyze the impact of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) on female empowerment in India. In defining female empowerment, I consider the three dimensions of agency: social autonomy, economic autonomy, and mobility. Using nationally-representative data of 2012 from the Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS), I find that these information communication technologies, measured by ownership and use, have positive and significant impacts on female agency and decision-making abilities. I extend my analysis to two types of media: computers and mobile phones. These results persist even after accounting for the effects of education, income, and age of women.

21st Century Film Criticism: The Evolution Of Film Criticism From Professional Intellectual Analysis To A Democratic Phenomenon, Asher Weiss

CMC Senior Theses

Film criticism has changed since its inception and will continue to change moving forward. The evolution of film criticism has largely been a story of the shift from an elite field of intellectual exploration by a few knowledgeable experts to a democratic phenomenon where expert analysis is aggregated and averaged, and the lines are blurred between true expertise and the random opinions of the masses. This paper will address the transition from the birth of film criticism to its popularization through the 90s, to what it has become today. By exploring the nature of film criticism historically and reviewing the …

Blockchain And The Future Of The Audit, Connor Ortman

CMC Senior Theses

“In the future, virtually every function in the world of financial services will be displaced, disintermediated and decentralized. The Internet gave us a powerful way to share and access information. Blockchain now gives us a powerful way to share and access value.”

During a February 2017 AICPA roundtable, Chairman of the Wall Street Blockchain Alliance and previous Global Head of Trading Analytics at Thomson Reuters, Ron Quarantana spoke to the revolutionary scale of blockchain. Quaranta, viewed by many as an expert in financial technology, predicts that the adoption of blockchain, both by the Big Four accounting firms and their clients, …

Best Friends Forever? The Influence Of Technology On High-Quality And Low-Quality Childhood Friendships, Molly R. O'Donnell

CMC Senior Theses

This literature review provides a holistic assessment of childhood interaction by investigating the many ways in which new technologies have influenced both high-quality and low-quality childhood friendships. As technology becomes increasingly more prevalent in society and inevitably continues to evolve peer-to-peer communication, traditional approaches to social interaction have adopted entirely new mediums. Children are now being exposed to communication-altering devices younger than ever before, which has profoundly influenced their social relationships. This thesis explores past competing research on the topic of children and technology by explaining the many ways in which technology has both helped children develop high-quality peer relationships, …

A Look Into The Industry Of Video Games Past, Present, And Yet To Come, Chad Hadzinsky

CMC Senior Theses

Since its inception, the video game industry has been both a new medium for art and innovation as well as a major driving force in the advancements of many technologies. The often overlooked video game industry has turned from a hobby to a multi-billion dollar industry in its short, forty year life. People of all ages and genders across the world are playing video games at a higher clip than ever before. With so many new gamers and emerging technologies, it is an exciting time for the industry. The landscape is constantly changing and successful business models of the past …

The Impact Of Fitness Technology On Health Outcomes, Megan C. Kelley

CMC Senior Theses

Using 2014 data compiled from a sample of Claremont McKenna undergraduate students, I examine the effect that fitness technology (i.e., mobile and wearable technology) has on users' health outcomes. Specifically, I find no effect of mobile or wearable use on self-reported health. However, I do find some evidence of mobile use on weight but not wearable. Applying a basic OLS regression analysis, I show that mobile users tend to be heavier than non-mobile users irrespective of gender. Furthermore, I find that contemporaneous health on prior mobile use show higher weight levels compared to non- mobile prior users. Such findings provide …

Isolated Infinite, Kelsey M. Kimmel

CGU MFA Theses

I explore the relationship between human borders and digital space. The porous borders between these entities shape contemporary culture and identity. Amid the digital current, I find myself over-stimulated, fighting to stay afloat through multitasking, immediacy and cramming. My sculptural installations investigate how I see, experience, interact with and react to digital space.

Concession To The Obsession, Julie A. Orr

CGU MFA Theses

My work is both a commentary on the pervasive societal ills of disposability and detachment in contemporary culture and an active participant in the same environment it criticizes. By exaggerating the colors of plastic bottles in a painting, I hope to show our obsession with the material as well as its overlooked value. Plastic packaging is often made from petroleum that is sourced from the Middle East, and waged for in war. It is often used once and then discarded. I make small attempts to fight these wasteful practices by working bottles into utilitarian lights, reincorporating plastic molding from store-bought …

Auras, Adele Ball

Scripps Senior Theses

Auras is a series of illustrations of Carlos Fuentes’s novella, Aura, a horror love story about memory, obsession, desire, corporeality and immortality. Defying narrative conventions, the story is told through second person. You are the protagonist, Felipe Montero, and are employed by a 109-year old widow to edit her husband's memoirs. Inside the pitchblack house, you fall in love with her beautiful and bizarre green-eyed niece, Aura. The gradual discovery of the true relationship between the young woman and her aunt propel the story to its extraordinary conclusion.

The story seems to take place within the confines of the …

Does The Mind Extend Out Into The World, Andrew D. Kishino

CMC Senior Theses

The extended mind debate juggles the possibilities of whether or not the mind extends out into the world. Today, with the rise in technology, we have an additional claim that our tools are responsible for extending our minds. The internet, smart phones, and other tools give us a foothold in the extended mind debate by providing real world examples of how our mind is perceived as extending out into the world. In discovering where the divide between mind and environment exists we can come up with a conclusion whether or not the mind truly extends out into the world.