The Last Blog

The blog project turned out to be very beneficial. I learned that you can keep your self anonymous online, but only to a certain extend. There are things that you can do to make yourself belnd in but there are also things that can give you away! Keeping your identity secret was the fun of it because my blogs were sort of like my alter ego. I was not very talkative in class but when I wrote on my blog, I just wrote whatever I thought and I liked that. I never had a blog before this. It wasn’t very hard for me to keep myself anonymous but there were times when I didn’t put certain information on there because I wasn’t sure if someone could figure out who I was. I liked how there was not a lot of restriction on the blogs and we could venture off on whatever topic we liked. I felt like and write freely on that topic. I could talk like I spoke which made it easy to get my ideas out. I also liked the site for the blog, it was really easy to use. I liked the combination of online work and in class because I knew at least I never had to bring anything to turn in, in class, because all assignments were online. I’m not a fan of online classes, but this was good, I actually enjoyed it. Overall, I really liked this project and I wouldn’t change anything about it. I enjoyed doing the blogs and learning about what technology is, other types of technology and most importantly how it impacts our lives and society. I would not have learned that anywhere else.

Position Paper: Computers as a Changing Technology

I think one of the biggest changing technology is computers. Computers are and will continue to rapidly evolve in our education, medical field, engineering, business, economy, government, arts and entertainments. Computing is embedded into our society and everyday activities and life. When there is something wrong with our computers, our personal, career, business and entertainment pretty much goes down with it. Because this technology is so convenient and efficient in making our lives easier, at times it can be very inconvenient (i.e. internet sites are down, computer crashes along with all your typed papers). This means that programmers will progress to make our computers even more efficient, thus a changing technology.

The history of computers can be dated back to very early years, but according to PBS there are 5 major changes when talking about our modern computers (electronics). Starting at around 1947 with transistors, in 1968 Doug Engelbart invented the integrated circuit, moving on to the apple II, in 1971 Bill Gates and Paul Allen form Traf-O-Data sold their computer traffic-analysis systems, in 1972 Gary Kildall wrote PL/M, a high-level programming language, and the world wide web in 1991. Of course, many things have happened in between to make the advances to this point, but these are some of the most influential and important dates.
(http://www.pbs.org/nerds/timeline/. )A really good illustrated and more detailed history about computers and the early pre-electronic days of computing, can be found at this website: (http://www.computersciencelab.com/ComputerHistory/History.htm)

As computers become more evolved and intelligent so do we as a society and individual. There is so much information available to us because of the web, just in the last 10 years, that people would not be exposed to otherwise. Now if we have a symptom or question we just type it in the little “google” box. There is also the idea that computers will one day become more intelligent than humans because computers can design and build other computers and evolution occurs, literally two lives will occur-human and machine. (http://www.historyoftheuniverse.com/futucomp.html). Will computers be a new, higher form of intelligent being some time in the future?

My personal belief is that one day in the relatively near future our computers will be the size of a cell phone and we will go around a just plug them into monitors, basically our personal computers will be with us everywhere we go. In one of my classes, we had a guest speaker come in from University of Louisiana and talk about nano technology that can actually make this idea a reality.

It will be interesting to see the growing interaction between computer and human. Computers have great opportunities for exploration and in the future it will be interesting to see how our society changes around this kind of technology. According to Daniel Reed, a computer expert, computers give us a great ground for future research in humans and our interaction with technology. (http://homepages.indiana.edu/092404/text/technology.shtml)

Some of the biggest concerns to future computers and other types of this technology is that it will be too advanced. While it would enhance our ability to do effective research, it would just simply be information overload and we will not be able to deal with it, which will make our lives almost unmanageable and flood our brains with too much information. Also, we may not even be able to store that much information. Finding a way to manage all this information into effective tools that can help in medicine, business etc. will be a huge challenge for the future. (http://homepages.indiana.edu/092404/text/technology.shtml)

There area lot of reasons why this technology will advance in the future. I found a really interesting website about the pros of computers. Some of these are that computers can progress a lot of information quickly, can be handy for traveling (maybe even long distances like space), they can be made small, they can work together in a network which can help to solve bigger problems than humans cannot do, it takes a smaller amount of time to load a program onto a computer than educate a human, computer information can be passed from computer to the next when the computers get out of date compared to human knowledge which is lost when we die, and finally, computers don’t fight! ( http://www.historyoftheuniverse.com/futucomp.html)

Computers have made our lives easier but easier does not necessarily always mean better. The more technologically advanced we are, the less human interaction we have with one another. When we have money and technology we have machines that do pretty much everything for us. Things that used to only be human interaction has now turned machine. For example we can do all our banking online, direct deposit, atm etc, gas pumps now are all credit card ready there is no more gas clerk, net-flicks makes it easy so you don’t even have to leave your home to go rent a movie, online shopping, aim etc. I have a feeling that while future computers will make our lives even easier than they are now, we will become lazier and lazier. A lot of people believe that computers and the web are just another way for people to make money off of others, and that in reality we do not really need them. Even CEO Bill Watkins who runs a 15 billion dollar hard-drive company said in a recent interview, “"Let's face it, we're not changing the world. We're building a product that helps people buy more crap - and watch porn." (http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/30/magazines/fortune/obrienseagate.fortune/index.htm?section=money_latest). It is interesting to see that maybe all this technology is not really for the sake of technology, like the hacker ethic, but rather for the almighty dollar.

Computers and the web has brought the world to our fingertips but it will be interesting to see how the human quality of life will change as our technology, especially computers, become more advanced. We use computers in so many aspects of our lives from personal to business and everything in between. I believe that humans need social interaction, technology can not give us that. Computer may be able to remember long random strings of characters and computer large numbers but humans can remember faces and notice objects and feel compassion for those around us. It will interesting to see where computer technology will evolve and how we will change with it.


Bibliography

An Illustrated History of Computers :
http://www.computersciencelab.com/ComputerHistory/History.htm

Fortune Online:
http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/30/magazines/fortune/obrienseagate.fortune/index.htm?section=money_latest


History of the Unverise: Future of Computers:
http://www.historyoftheuniverse.com/futucomp.html

Information Overload- The Great Challenge of Evolving Technology:
http://homepages.indiana.edu/092404/text/technology.shtml


PBS: Triumph of the Nerds: The History of Computers:
http://www.pbs.org/nerds/timeline/

Issues in Science and Technology

Given all we've talked about this semester, what do you think is the biggest issue in science and technology? What will have the most significant impact (either positive or negative) on society?

I think one of the biggest issues in science and technology which we haven’t really touched on in this class, but I have in other classes, is the issue of sustainability in science and technology. Basically it is a concept of meeting one’s needs to live and survive within their means, without compromising future generation’s resources and needs. For example, natural resources and its long term problems and solutions and doing something that can benefit in a long-term in mind set, economic development,( such as an organization that is able to operate efficiently and making money while still taking social and economic sustainability into account), food production and distribution, and how energy and oil is consumed. These issues need science and technology for the safety of our future earth. We have to do something to preserve our future and with this information scientist started to set long term plans in action to preserve and prevent from more destruction.

Southwest Florida is home to many beautiful species of plants, animals and a home for many communities and families. It is also up to us to preserve the beauty of this area and one day we will need science to help us to restore and protect our earth. Not only do we have many different species that are rare, endangered animals, we also have a growing human population. It is said that 1,000 people everyday relocates to Florida, most of them in this area, which is a booming and growing area. The area is threatened everyday by the new developments, clearing of land, and the destruction of our resources. One day the world is going to reach a point where (and we may already be there) that we have to do something about population, resources etc. and using science may be the only way.

If people don’t feel like there needs to be an urgency with protecting our ecosystem and the long term consequences it can cause and built up land with golf courses, office buildings and shopping malls, which we have seen in this area. Many people do not see the link of animal and plant extinction and unnecessary development to the application and research of science but it an important tool in this issue. People do not see the link between natural resource and habitat and their crucial relation to each and every one of us. So in the future I think this has a huge impact to our lives and using science and technology to achieve long term sustainability is important and crucial.

Response

There was no response on the digital Revolution so I will respond to the electronic voting of Frederich Mousallini.

The response on electronic voting had a lot of the same points as my blog. The study that he cited was very interesting and supports the possibility that elections could be hacked. I thought it was interesting how he pointed out that we do put a lot of trust in technology even though we know it may not be secure or crash on us, we use it everyday because of the easy factor. Our culture doesn’t like to wait and we want our results fast and efficient. Also, the example in student views of punching a computer button or filling in a scantron it completely accurate. Great post!

Digital Revolution

The digital revolution was supposed to improve our lives, increase our leisure time, and bring the world to our fingertips. Has it? Is life really better in the new digital age?

I don’t think that life is any better, just easier, and easier does not necessarily always mean better (as I pointed out in my post on electronic voting). Convenience of technology I think can be argued because at times it can be very inconvenient (i.e. internet sites are down, computer crashes along with all your typed papers). There has been so much technology is the last 50 years, I always find it interesting, my grandparents who grew up in the south of Germany in World War II with hardly and food and water and absolutely no material things sit in front of the t.v or computer every night and drive around and talk on their cell phones and have a full equipped kitchen with all its technology, and it just blows my mind how much they have adapted to technology from coming to a time when there was not much of anything around. I think future generations will become lazier and lazier. I wonder if we will even have libraries anymore, or if books will just be download onto your hard drive. Some say that things like that will never change, but they already have. I like to go to the library but very few times do I go there to read books. Technology has definitely brought the world to our fingertips. My generation pretty much grew up with the internet for the most part and its really amusing to see my parents baffled by what type of information they can find on the internet, “What? I just type in my symptoms?” and other inquisitive googles, and its something that I take for granted many times.

I think that technology has given us less leisure time because we are bombarded with constant stimulation, entertainment and things to do. Its funny because if I am away from technology for a few days (and I have done this on occasion) I try not to answer my cell phone or at least don’t have it on me when I go out and don’t check my email or go on my computer for a few days and when I return to the digital world I have a ton of missed calls and emails, people demanding why they couldn’t get a hold of me and why I hadn’t written them back earlier. Its quite ironic. But still, even if I am not on my computer or cell phone there is technology all around me that has made my life easier such as air conditioning, a stove, lights, and things like that. Easier yea, but better, I’m not sure the quality of life is really any better. Efficient, absolutely, but to me a better or good life is health, family, and happiness, I don’t even think that technology can give you that.

Response

While there was no post on electronic voting for Jane Doe's blog, I will respond to her online class post.

I agree that there are some online classes that are more appropriate than others. I was suprised looking at Jane Doe's and other's bloggs that there were a lot of people that liked or prefered online classes, since I am not a fan of them. We both noted that certain classes would be better in a classroom setting rather than online and the classroom experience of interaction between teacher and student cannot be replaced.

Electronic Voting

What are the advantages / dangers of electronic voting? Is it really possible for the election results to be hacked? If electronic voting machines are so bad (as some computer scientists contend), then why are they being used in so many states? What are the advantages of moving voting from paper input to touch screens?


In the news there has been a lot of controversy over this issue. Electronic voting can be dangerous to the outcome of an election because of many reasons. Some of the disadvantages are that there is no paper trail, the software can be hacked, glitches in computers can make numbers skew and errors are very high. There can be a lot of technical problems such as uncounted ballots due to computer or voter error, creation of fake ballots and negative votes, and there is no way to back-count or re-count votes. These errors make this high risk usage because if there is a election that has a close race, there is more a chance that errors played a factor in who the winner is.

Some advantages of this kind of voting is that they are accessible to disabled people, and these machines can do audio as well as visual aid. Also, it could be possible that the more people become familiarized with these machines the lower the error rate will be.

In reality, electronic voting is around to make our lives easier. As we become more lazy and more technologically advances we wants things done quickly. But, electronic voting is also supposed to make it more accurate and accountable. But to me, it brings up a point of easiness. Is voting really supposed to be easy? Are Americans that impatient that they cant take time out of their day a few times a year to vote on important issues that will effect their future and their children’s future? It seems like our government is making voting much easier and people are feeling more and more guilty about not having their voice heard and so on. But with all the political campaigning garbage, I don’t even know what the real issues are and who is running for what. I don’t understand why these politicians need to be polar opposites or at least portrayed that way in the media. Nowadays it seems like its about the competition and not about the issues. So it brings up some interesting points, one being does easier necessarily mean better?