Voting Online

Voting online will eventually become our only means of voting. It's a distinguished, easy, and fast way to vote.It has more perks like; accessibility, security, quickness, accuracy, consistence in voting, and less absentee ballots for those who cant make it to the polls. 

Voting online  also have a few downfalls, such as, upsetting the local polling booth committees, and voting machine companies and

 Americans, who don't use computers, will need technical support and access to local libraries' computers and distrust putting personal information on a computer.

 Petition signing is another way to vote online. On the White House website, you'll find many petitions in seek of signatures so that they can be seen.The modern online petition gives you unlimited reach and lets you petition for almost anything. All you have to do is register with an online petition-hosting site..The problem with petition signing is that insignificant people are posting insignificant petitions that are has nothing to do with our country. 

Can Machines Be Conscious?

I would have to agree with John Horgan's opinion in the reading, Taking Sides: Science, Technology, and Society (10th Edition), and say no. Machines are man made, brains aren't . Consciousness or thinking is  not something that can be programmed. Yes, machines are able to process information, but they don't have to actually think about it or debate upon it, they're programmed to know exactly what to do in every situation that comes there way.

Being Conscious, is being aware (within ones self), and being characterized by emotion, thought, and sensation. You might think of robots being able to fall in love or something of that nature, and i don't know how that whole thing works, but i'm pretty sure it doesn't work the same way as a human falling in love.

The brain is a very complex object, it has billions of neurons, one neuron uses a neurotransmitter to send a signal to other neurons. Flowing through the brain is more than just neurotransmitters, it's also hormones, neural-growth factors, and a host of other chemicals. A computer, or a machine, has none of those elements. So going back to the original statement, no, machines can not be conscious.