GESTSOC Reviewer

Module 1: Journey to Being Human

• Humankind's progress is rooted in science, often overlooked small advancements.
• Early humans improved tools due to animal and body adaptations (ex: canine teeth).
• Tools are practical applications of collected experiences.
• Babies inherit social traditions, not bodily movements.
• Helplessness of infants is extended relative to other animals.
• Older generations transmit knowledge and experience to younger generations.
• Imitative method is prevalent and education teaches practical and theoretical knowledge.
• Language emerged as communication (sounds), positioned high in the neck (apes) aiding in eating and breathing.
• Language acquisition is innate.

Language and Communication

• Societies have made tools for communication (ex: sounds).
• Language is labeled spiritual because it is a system of sounds (in apes, and human infants).
• The larynx position in apes vs. humans prevents the same range of sounds; this allows eating and breathing at once.
• Humans can produce articulate sounds due to the structure of the larynx, tongue muscles, and other organs.
• Language acquisition device (LAD) theory states all children have the innate capacity to learn and produce language.

Birth of Education

• Older generations teach younger generations knowledge and experiences.
• Imitative methods were slow, so education became necessary.
• Education involves both precept (explaining beforehand) and example (explaining during the situation).

Module 2: Time Periods in History

• World history can be categorized into eras based on geographic and anthropological data.
• Prehistory (2.5 million to 1,200 BC) is the time before humans developed writing.
• Significant events include use of tools, clothing, language, and animal domestication.
• Stone Age (2.5 million to 3000 BC) involved human migration and early tool use (ex: Neanderthals).
• Bronze age (3000 to 1300 BC) is associated with settlements and advancements in metal working.
• Iron age (1300 to 600 BC) featured cities and iron production.
• Civilizations (ex: Egyptians, Greeks, Romans) laid groundwork for modern culture by focusing on traditions, politics, and belief systems.

Middle Ages (AD 476-1450)

• Rebuilding after Roman Empire, rise of Islam in Middle-East
• Start/growth of Catholic church and crusades (AD 1000-1250)
• The Black Plague, European exploration, and printing press invention (AD 1250-1450).
• Important events (years): fall of Roman Empire, birth of Muhammad, birth of the Caliphate/Ottoman Empire, Charlemagne's coronation as Holy Roman Emperor.
• Alfred's conquest against Danish invaders, early Christianity reaches Russia including Orthodox Christianity, William of Normandy conquers England, First Crusade, Genghis Khan founds the Mongol Empire, start of the Hundred Years War and the Black Plague.

Early Modern (AD 1450-1750) and Modern (1800s to WW2)

• Renaissance Humanism (rebirth of classical thought in 1400-1500).
• Protestant Reformation (1517 to 1648).
• Enlightenment (1650-1800) focused on reason and science.
• Age of Exploration (15th and 17th centuries) led to European conquests and colonization.
• Industrial Revolution (1760-1840), which saw massive technological innovations, new methods of manufacturing goods.
• Revolutionary period (1764-1848), saw significant revolutions all around the world including the American and French revoltuion.
• Age of Imperialism (1800-1914), saw European empires expand and grow their territories.
• Victorian era (1837-1901), led to increased urbanization and African slavery.
• Second Industrial Revolution (1869-1914), led to new innovations and inventions including the lightbulb, telephones, airplanes, and Model T automobiles, and the Suez Canal opened in 1869.
• World War One (1914-1918)

###Contemporary Period (Post-WWII)

• Post-WWII (1944-1947).
• Organizations such as the United Nations were created to promote global peace and prosperity.
• Cold War divided world into three different groups.
• Major events (1940s onward).

Module 3: New Digital Media Ethics

• Multimedia ethics involves understanding identity, privacy, and online behaviors.
• Identity concerns how people package themselves online.
• Privacy involves sharing intimate information online.
• Stalkers and online protection need to be addressed.
• Credibility and ownership of online resources need to be established for better credibility of such materials.
• Participating in online communities can aid in informal learning.

Module 4: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

• Reproduction compromises "aura."
• Art reproduction changes the presentation and original concept of art.
• Unique characteristics of art are lost with reproduction.
• Technological reproduction enables broader accessibility of art.
• Reproduction's effects are seen in the diminished value of art in the technological era.

Module 5: Care Ethics, Friendship, and Facebook

• Facebook use and societal shifts are connected with implications in care ethics.
• Facebook use can facilitate or inhibit caring.
• Facebook can promote detachment and impersonal relationships.
• Caring relationships demand knowledge and empathy on all sides.

Module 6: Profile Picture, Right Here, Right Now

• Punctum (an immediate impression) in the context of a photograph.
• "Studium" (the literal description).
• Understanding photographic impact on thought and culture.

Module 8: Are Droids Capable of Thought?

• Can AI/droids show true understanding and emotion given the ability to generate human language and use it practically?
• This module discusses philosophical viewpoints regarding AI.
• Chinese Thought Experiment and Turing Test are mentioned as thought tests for AI.

Module 9: Can Zillo Beast Strike Back

• Cloning process in the context of species and evolution.
• The issue of cloning extinct species: can extinct species be returned to life by cloning? It is problematic because each species has its own life course, and therefore, new individuals have different life stories.

Module 10: Sociology of Technology and Cybersociety

• Cyberspace is a constructed reality.
• Internet and communication technologies transform human relations.
• Technology influences beliefs, values, and behaviors.
• Technology has transformed human relationships and how people use technologies.
• The internet and social media lead people to participate in a global village in which the boundaries and time are gone.
• Technology is detached from traditional cultures.
• The human is presented as a technological being in which people live in a technological world and do not have their own life outside of it.