Jake Perry Journal 7

My community is Portland. The reason I choose Portland is because thats home. It’s a city on the ocean that doesn’t have a big city vibe, mainly because it’s not a big city. It has a lot of personality and character. It’s home to many local businesses that help male Portland unique. It’s a community that largely supports equality, climate research and small businesses. The population of Portland is mainly the reason the state of Maine was a split state during the 2016 election. Portland is on the up and coming and will soon be a desired destination of many people outside of the state. This is good and will prevent idiots, like the people who voted for LePage, from controlling how Maine is run. 

A technology that is on the rise in Portland is kelp. Since we are constantly pumping out carbon dioxide into the air, the oceans acidity levels have risen as well as the temperatures. Researchers have found that kelp actually soaks up surrounding carbon like a sponge and provides a better environment for shellfish to grow. Shellfish farmers have started growing their own kelp within their farms to provide a little carbon sink for their animals. 

Im choosing kelp for my second technology as well because it has another use. Product developers have been working with kelp to create knit clothing using dried kelp. Similar to the way hemp is used to for fabric. Kelp is also edible. The reason this important is because we could attack part of the product industry line that learned about in class. Kelp is planted and easily maintained. All it needs to grow is sunlight, thats it. You plant it and leave it. So it’s not using resources and its actually taking away carbon from our waters. It’s healthy for your body, and it is biodegradable. Its truly one of the best way that I’ve found to improve what we discussed in class this week. KELP.

A technology that I would ban in Portland would be AI facial recognition software in public places. This has caused recent protests in china. People have been smashing these cameras because it’s a violation of ones privacy rights. The governments job is to protect us and hear what we have to say, not to track, supervise, and attempt to control us. There is no freedom if there is no privacy. This would ruin Portlands community and its our personality as a city all together. Banning this technology would keep Portland the way it is, a free and safe environment where people have the ability to relax and be creative. 

In order to decide on technologies within a community I think that there should be levels. People should be able to come to the town hall and express their opinion on certain tech and depending on how many people feel the same way, determines what level that tech should be on. There should be two levels. Level one would be accepted and level two would be “up to vote”. If enough people protest or express their negative opinion on a tech then the tech becomes a level two and gets voted on by the entire community wether or not to keep it. The level should be reachable. What I mean by that, is if a reasonable amount of people make a claim against a certain tech. That number should not be a number that could never be reached. It needs to be reasonable in order for the people to actually have a voice and a part within the community.