12

1. Broader Issues on the Impact and
Control of Computers
Computers and Community
Information Haves and Have-Nots: The Access Issue
Loss of Skills and Judgment
Evaluations of the Impact Computer Technology
Prohibiting Bad Technologies

2. Computers and
Community
How do computers and telecommunication affect
human interaction and community?

3. The Problems
• There is a worry that computers have a negative impact
on us, our children, and our society
• Hurts local community vibrancy
• Causes isolation from neighbors
• Erodes family life
• On-line commerce affects real stores and community-
based professionals
• Face-to-face gathering
• Emphasis on individual rather than community
• May lead to underdeveloped social skills
• May lead to internet addiction

4. http://www.cnn.com/US/9706/16/briefs.pm/internet.neglect/index.html

5. The Positives
• Allows for new ways of doing old tasks
– Teleworking
– Automation
– E-Commerce
– Research
• Greater range of communication
• Online convenience = Real World Freedom
• Greater depth in communication

6. Information Haves and
Have-Nots:
The Access Issue
Is having equal opportunity to access information
a far-fetched goal?

7. Information Access
– Current State of the Digital Divide
– Impact of the Digital Divide
– Possible Remedies
– Future of Information Access

8. Digital Divide:
Refers to the gap between groups of
people with regular, effective access to
Digital and Information Technology, and
those without.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_divide

9. Factors contributing to the Digital Divide:
– Status of country (LDC/MDC)
– Individual wealth
– Physical disabilities
– Gender
– Politics
Sara Baase, “A Gift of Fire”, 2003, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_divide

10. According to Nielsen/Netratings 74.9% of American (US)
households had access to the Internet in 2004 (an increase
from 57% in 2001).
About half of those Americans had high-speed/broadband
connections.
• Internet access (by age):
– 82% of women between the ages of 35 - 54.
– 80% of men between the ages of 35 - 54.
– 77% of women between the ages of 25 - 34.
– 76% of men between the ages of 25 - 34.
– 75% of young adults between the ages of 18 - 24.
http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/pr/pr_040318.pdf , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_access_in_the_United_States

11. One Laptop per child (MIT Media Lab), XO-1.

12. Intel’s World Ahead Program, Classmate PC.

13. Various efforts are being made to break the
hierarchical diffusion pattern.
– Libraries
– Internet/Cyber Café s
– Public Hotspots
– Donations (public/private)
– Government / Non-Profit Organizations
– Open content, software movement
• AMD’s 50x15 Initiative
“The 50x15 mission is to enable affordable, accessible
Internet connectivity and computing capabilities for 50
percent of the world's population by the year 2015”
- http://50x15.amd.com

14. Loss of Skills and
Judgment
What is the impact of computing on the individual?

15. Skills vs. Automation
– Loss of Skills
– Loss of Judgment
– Loss of Responsibility

16. Loss of Skills
Writing, Thinking, and Memory
I have a spelling checker.
It came with my PC.
It plainly marks four my revue,
Miss steaks aye can knot sea.
Eye ran this poem threw it,
I’m sure your pleased too no.
It’s letter perfect in it’s weigh,
My checker tolled me sew.
-Jarrold H. Zar, “Candidate for a Pullet Surprise”
From the Journal of Irreproducible Results
Jan/Feb 1994, 39:1, p. 13

17. Loss of Judgment
“The problem isn't that Wikipedia itself is flawed, say
supporters; it's that many Net users don't understand
how it works. The system allows anyone to post or
change an entry. On Monday Wikipedia changed the
system so only registered users could post, but
registration requires only creating a username and
password. Identities are still not verified.”
-USA Today
From USA Today, “It’s Online but is it true?”
By Janet Kornblum, 12/6/2005

18. Loss of Responsibility
– How to make a particular business decision
– Treatment of disease with a particular medicine
– Application process for a college or job

19. Evaluations of the
Impact of Computer
Technology
Is computer technology overall beneficial to us or harmful?

20. Luddites
– In England in 1811-1812, people burned factories and
mills in efforts to stop the technologies and social
changes that were eliminating their jobs. Many were
weavers who worked at home on small machines.
They were called Luddites.
– More recently, Luddite has been used to describe
people who oppose technological progress, and has
been adopted as an honorable term by critics of
technology.

21. Criticisms
– Causes massive unemployment and deskilling of jobs
– We use them because they are there (not because
they satisfy real needs)
– Causes social inequality
– Source of social disintegration; they are
dehumanizing
– Separates humans from nature and destroys the
environment
– Benefits big business and big government
– Thwarts development of social skills, human values,
and intellectual skills in children.
– Solves no real human problems.

22. Benefits of Technology
– Reduce the effort needed to produce goods and
services.
– Food prices have dropped worldwide
– Raw materials are more abundant and prices of
natural resources have declined
– Wages and salaries have risen in both rich and poor
countries
– New substitutes for natural resources have been
created
– New forms of crop management
– Improved transportation of food from field to table
– More diseases now treatable or eradicated
– Improved, safety-minded products for home, school,
and work

23. Technology Benefits Spreading to the Poor
Cox and Alm, Myths of Rich and Poor, Pg. 15

24. • Singularity Countdown
Courtesy of Ray Kurzweil and Kurzweil Technologies, Inc.

25. Prohibiting Bad
Technologies
How should computing technology be controlled to ensure
positive uses and consequences?

26. Technology Critics
– Technology is not “neutral.”
– Big Business and governments make decisions about
technology.
– Once created, technology drives itself.
Technology Advocates
– People can choose to use a technology for good or ill
– Influenced by society, technology does more than it
was designed to do.
– People adapt technologies that give us more choices
for action and relationships.

27. "Although a technology does not drive
human beings to adopt new practices,
it shapes the space of possibilities in
which they can act."
-Peter Denning
“The Internet After 30 Years,” by Peter J. Denning
The Internet Besieged, Addison-Wesley, 1998, p. 20

28. The Difficulty of Prediction
– The telephone is so important, every city will need one!
-Anonymous
– My personal desire would be to prohibit entirely the use of
alternating currents. They are unnecessary as they are
dangerous.
-Thomas Edison, 1899
– I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.
-Thomas J. Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
– Computers in the future may… only weigh 1.5 tons.
-Popular Mechanics, 1949
– There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in
their home.
-Ken Olson, pres. of Digital Equipment Corp. 1977
– The US will have 220,000 computers by the year 2000.
-RCA Corporation, 1966 (The actual number was
close to 100 million.)

29. Discussion
1. Should the Internet be something that everyone can
access from everywhere? Is Universal Access a
right? Is it even possible?
2. What can we do to prohibit bad technology? How
can we make sure that technology is used positively
without hindering its progress?
3. How do we prevent our society from being overly
dependent on computers and technology? Is this a
bad thing?