Evaluating and Controlling Technology - Computerization and Its Impacts - Lecture Slides, Slides of Applications of Computer Sciences

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Chapter 7: Evaluating and Controlling

Technology

What We Will Cover

• Information, Knowledge, and Judgment

• Computers and Community

• The ‘Digital Divide’

• Evaluations of the Impact of Computer

Technology

• Making Decisions About Technology

Information, Knowledge, and

Judgment (cont.)

Evaluating Information on the Web (cont.):

• Wikipedia:
  • Written by volunteers, some posts are biased and

not accurate

• Although anyone can write, most people do not
• Those that do typically are educated and experts

Information, Knowledge, and

Judgment (cont.)

Evaluating Information on the Web (cont.):

• Wisdom of the crowd
  • Problems of unreliable information are not new
  • The Web magnifies the problems
  • Rating systems are easy to manipulate
• Vulnerable viewers
  • Less educated individuals
  • Children
• Responsibilities of site operators
  • Should identify user-supplied content
  • Make clear which information has been verified

Information, Knowledge, and

Judgment (cont.)

Writing, Thinking and Deciding:

• New tools have displaced skills that were once important
• Abdicating responsibility
  • People willing to let computers do their thinking
  • Reliance on computer systems over human judgment may become institutionalized
  • Fear of having to defend your own judgment if something goes wrong

Information, Knowledge, and

Judgment (cont.)

Computer Models:

• Evaluating Models
  • How well do the modelers understand the

underlying science or theory?

• Models necessarily involve assumptions and

simplifications of reality

• How closely do the results or predictions

correspond with the results from physical

experiments or real experience?

Information, Knowledge, and Judgment

Discussion Questions

• How do you evaluate the reliability of information

you find on the Web? How do your evaluation

methods compare to the way you evaluate

information from other sources?

• Some computer models are better than others.

What types of models work well? What types

don't? Why?

Computers and Community

• It is human nature to form associations based on

common interests

• Some feared early technologies, such as telephones,

thinking communication would be de-humanized

• Computers and the Internet were blamed for the

decline in community involvement and memberships

in clubs and organizations

• The Internet provides communities focused on

specialized interests or problems

Computers and Community Discussion

Questions

• How convincing is the argument that electronic

commerce threatens small (“brick and mortar”)

community businesses and thus the health of small

communities?

• Do you think that communicating by text messaging

and via social-networking sites depersonalizes or

dehumanizes your relationships with friends?

The "Digital Divide"

Trends in Computer Access:

• New technologies only available to the wealthy
• The time it takes for new technology to make its way into common use is decreasing
• Cost is not the only factor; ease of use plays a role
• Entrepreneurs provide low cost options for people who cannot otherwise afford something
• Government funds technology in schools
• As technology becomes more prevalent, the issues shift from the haves and have-nots to level of service

Evaluations of the Impact of Computer

Technology

The Neo-Luddite View of Computers, Technology, and Human Needs:

• Computers cause massive unemployment
• No real need (We use technologies because they are there, not because they satisfy real needs)
• Computers cause social inequity
• Benefit big business and the government
• Do little or nothing to solve real problems
• Computers separate humans from nature and destroy the environment

Evaluations of the Impact of Computer

Technology (cont.)

Accomplishments of Technology:

• Prices of food are down and raw materials are

abundant

• Real buying power is up
• Food supplies and GDP are growing faster than the

population

• Dramatic impact on life expectancy
• Assistive technologies benefit those with disabilities

Making Decisions About

Technology (cont.)

Intelligent Machines and Super-intelligent Humans - Or

the End of the Human Race?

• Technological Singularity - point at which artificial

intelligence or some combined human-machine

intelligence advances so far that we cannot

comprehend what lies on the other side

• We cannot prepare for aftermath, but prepare for

more gradual developments

• Select a decision making process most likely to

produce what people want

Making Decisions About Technology

Discussion Questions

• If you could decide what technologies should be

developed, what would you develop? Why?

• Does the prospect of super-intelligent robots

scare you?