CS 306

FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOWABOUT TECNOLOGICAL CHANGE

CS 306The human dilemma is as it has always

been, and it is a delusion to believe that the technological changes of our era have

rendered irrelevant the wisdom of the ages and the sages.

… all technological change is a trade-off…

A Faustain bargain

CS 306First Idea

• Giveth and taketh away• Advantages and disadvantages• Examples: Automobile

Air Craft/plane Medical TechBanksCell phone

Idea number one, then is that culture always pays a price technology.

CS 306Second Idea

Second Idea is about the distribution.• Advantages and disadvantages of new technologies are never distributed evenly among population.• There are always winners and losers in technological change.

CS 306Second Idea

• Who specifically benefits from the development of a new technology?

Which group,what type of person, what kind of industry will be favored?

CS 306Second Idea

And, of course, which groups of people will thereby be harmed?Winners:Big businesses and Big Company:Multi-national coporations…• Name it… large-scale organizations like: military, Govt (tax collection), bank, Medical science (researchers) etc.

CS 306Second Idea

And…Steel workers,Vegetable store owner,Automobile mechanicBakers, bricklayers, dentists?? … lives the computer now instrudes?

CS 306Second IdeaIntrusion:Junk mail from advertising companyName it…MS always encourages (losers p.4) to “be enthusiastic” and use or upgrade their new products… What interests you represent? To whom are you hoping to give power? From whom will you be witholding power?

CS 306Third IdeaEmbedded in every technology there is a powerful idea, sometimes two or three powerful ideas.• Hidden• Abstract nature“The medium is the message.”

CS 306Third IdeaThe consequences of technological change are always vast, often unpredictable and largely irreversible.

CS 306Fourth IdeaTechnological change is not additive; it is ecological. • Capitalism• Risk takers • Invention• InnovationNow, is it up Bill Gate?Capitalists are, in a word, radicals.

CS 306Fifth Idea

The media - which is that tend to become mythic.

“Myth” refers to a common tendency to think of our technology creations as if they were God-given, as if they were a part of the natural order of things.

Example:

Car, truck, stop lights/signs, VT… always have been there.

CS 306

Slouching Toward the OrdinaryCurrent Trends in Computer-Mediated Communication

Susan C. Herring

CS 306Slouching Toward the Ordinary

Current Trends in Computer-Mediated Communication

It has become a truism that Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) systems, and is slouching toward the ordinary.

ICQ – (‘ I Seek You’)IM – Instant MessagingWeb logs - (blogs)IRC – Internet Relay Chat required client, such as ICQ required ICQ client etc..ISP – Internet Service Provider“Keller App”, the default mode of CMC for most users.

CS 306

Social IssuesSocial and technologies Issues:Name it..

Slouching Toward the OrdinaryCurrent Trends in Computer-Mediated Communication

CS 306

Now Technologies Social and technologies Issues:Name it..Such as P2P etc..

Slouching Toward the OrdinaryCurrent Trends in Computer-Mediated Communication

CS 306On the Nature of Computing

Examples of the Virtual:• Virtualization. Within the discipline of CS

- Such VM, RAM Disk- API to all I/O Devices….

• Virtual communities• Entertainment

Computing is its own virtual world, bound only by its practitioners’ imaginations and creativity

-Jon Crowcroft

CS 306TechnologiesThe media tend to become mythic.“Myth” refers to a common tendency to think of our technology creations as if they were God-given, as if they were a part of the natural order of things.Example:Car, truck, stop lights/signs, VT… always have been there.

CS 306IssuesSocial and technologies Issues:Name it..

CS 306On the Nature of Computing

Examples of the Virtual:• Virtualization• Virtual communities• Entertainment

Computing is its own virtual world, bound only by its practitioners’ imaginations and creativity.