2/5/08

slide rule or a bigger one or more virtual slide rules
how to

what patterns can we see in the human history of technological change:

• with new technology there are always losses as well as gains
• new technology often makes some skills obsolete
• some people are eager and some people are wary of technological advancements
• necessity is the mother of invention--technology develops faster when there is a pressing need
  
• economists call that demand pull--is demand the basis of all new technologies?
• personal computer wasn't that much in demand,
  
• corporate strategy and maneuvering is based on eventual demand but maybe not right away
• competition makes technology develop faster
• opposite of demand pull is technology push--something is invented and then try to create a market for it
• there are a few people who want to do something with technology just because they can
• tension between practical technology and technological pride--do more because you can
• the first steps of progress often involve suspension of practicality
• the dream that it will eventually work--follow the technological dream (to become a creator like God)
• technological momentum and paradigm shifts (p. 272)
• what can we learn about the future from the past--how change happens
  

computer liberation (p. 212)-not practical but rather a radical idea

• wanted the average person to have access to big computers
• later version--"information just wants to be free"
• Tim Berners-Lee invented the web--wanted everyone to write web pages as well as read them
• all information should be available to everyone (because secrets create unfairness)
• what about business secrets, patents,...
• in the 1990s people thought corporations were taking over the internet
• now a mix
  
• now some people say "content just wants to be free"
• we expect things to be free that we used to have to pay for
• partly because we expect the internet to be free
• partly because the internet allows very low cost distribution
• our system of paying for creative works is broken and we don't know how to fix it
• there are still efforts to regulate the internet
  
• can we make the system run by advertising alone?
• now the internet companies are consolidating and people worry about Google's power
  

larger issues here:

• access to information
• what do we pay for
• is technology liberating?
• free us from work
• create utopia--provide everything we could want
• be more creative with more free time (people thought for a while that the work week would keep getting shorter and shorter)
• more choices (for information...)
• might technology enslave us instead of liberating us?
• we are dependent on technology--are we enslaved to technology without realizing it
  
• we have less privacy--both information available, data mining, people can find out where we are from cellphones
  
• our work follows us around
• can we keep using more and more resources
• technologies may have harmful effects--global warming, resistance to antibiotics
  
• RUR--we lose the ability to do things ourselves
• Metropolis--people serve the machine
• we live in a more and more artificial world
• technology is running everything we do

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how is the internet transforming society

• perceived anonymity
• speed of what you can do and of getting information
• speed at which we expect things to happen
• new opportunities--anyone can share what they write/create
• prosumers--producing and consuming content get mixed together
• social networks have changed rapidly
  

microcomputer revolution

what were the early markets for personal computers--what developments made computers useful to more people

• first electronics hobbyists
• schools--computers were the next big things so teach kids to program computers
• numbercrunching
• BASIC programming language
• applications--you don't have to write your own program--wordprocessors and spreadsheets
• graphical user interface made computers much easier to learn to use--Macintosh, the Windows
• email
• development of web browsers and the web
  

history of the internet

because of the way the internet is organized it cannot be centrally controlled (though some countries try with some success)
very quickly you had communities with their own social customs
what are the impacts of robots and computers on our community lives

Google groups and Netscan