Module 13: The world is Flat

I found that “The World is Flat” is an educational book.  At first, I thought Friedman loved India and everything about it.  Later, I learned that Friedman was only educating the reader on what has, is, and will be happening in India.  I think that Friedman is right when he suggests that countries will look at globalization as a form of peace.  One thing to look at though, is that a country that is supporting itself with food, jobs, and merchandise will have a smaller reason not to go to war with a different country than a country that depends on other countries for its survival. 

I find it interesting that the countries that solely rely on oil struggle and are continuously in a slump.  It’s only when their oil supply runs dry that they realize that they must think of new ideas and procedures to stay alive and to survive.  For this reason, I think oil can be both a blessing and a curse

As we move further into the future, technology will advance, cars will get better, ways to communicate will be faster, and perhaps we’ll be able to find better ways to harvest and expand renewable energy.  When these new technologies are discovered, pollution can be slowed, we’ll become more efficient, and science fiction becomes a reality.

            More and more each day Star Trek is becoming a reality.  One of the things I think about when I watch Star Trek is how are the humans able to communicate with many other intelligent species on their onscreen video? Even species that they have never came in contact with?  The technology to be able to do that would have to be very versatile.  We have standards for our computers to communicate back and forth, so when we get to the point where space travel is as simple as driving a car, most likely we would have come in contact with other intelligent species from other galaxies.  By then, a standard for networks would probably have to become some sort of galactic standard in order to communicate with beings from other planets effectively.  Also, when this communication begins the global economy, I think, would become an intergalactic economy with some galactic form of currency. 

            Another aspect of Star Trek, I think, might become a reality is the holodeck; a holographic room that can display any time, any place, and anybody by simply telling the computer to do so.  Voice commands on cell phones are already prevalent and the new IPhone can retrieve news articles, directions, and many more information simply by talking into the phone.  I think the real difficult thing to make a holodeck possible is to make the bridge between physical and virtual spaces.  Here is a youtube video that describes the physics of a holodeck.  Companies are definitely trying to make the holodeck a reality and by doing so; I think that some might lose themselves in the virtual world just like the movie “Inception.”

            Overall, I think that the class was a success.  I really don’t have any complains of anything in the class, except the reading part.  The assignments were fair and one of the best aspects of the class was that no tests were involved.  I suggest that it stays that way.  When tests get involved in classes similar to this one, many times students focus on memorizing the material.  The memorized material gets used once on the test and is then shoved out of mental space never to be used again.  Writing essays help individuals understand and learn about what is being taught and read.  As I wrote each week, I had to remember, contemplate and use my mind to convey thoughts and feelings from the things I had read.

            During the weeks we were reading the book “The World is Flat,” I felt that some of the reading was too much.  Maybe the reading could be spread out more over the weeks we didn’t read the book.  It was nice having a break once in a while from the book; however, the reading seemed to be extra-long the following week.  Again, I think the class was successful and taught all of the objectives for the course.

Module 12: The Future

Bill Joy’s article “Why the future doesn’t need us,” describes the potential disaster of the human race due to nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare; and genetic, nanotechnology, and robotics (GNR).  As technologies increase, caution must be given so that the technology that humans create, do not supersede the creators of that technology. 

Joy fears GNR because with the increased advances of these three components, man will be able to create something that just might destroy the human race.  As the size of manufacturing of circuits and electronics decrease to a molecular size, more ideas come together to create a safe place and to defend against attacks from the outside.  Joy fears the technology that can save us can also attack the biosphere, leaving us with an inhospitable earth.  He also believes that the molecular electronic devices could be able to reproduce or divide; thus, reversing this action would be absolutely impossible, because no one can see tiny molecular objects with the naked eye.

We have seen in many movies that technology is wiping out the human race.  Take for example “Terminator” and “Terminator II”, futuristic robots travel through time to try to change the outcome of the human race, because the robots have attacked the humans and are rendering the human race extinct.  Although this is a movie and I have always thought that technology could never get that advanced, while I have read this article, I have realized that technology is forever growing and will never stop.

All of these technologies, genetic, nanotechnology, and robotics, are a powerful tool meant to assist the human race in making tasks easier and more efficient, but they can come to a cost.  After reading the article, I do agree with Joy in that we should proceed with caution in what technology is developed.  Moore’s Law is still in action, which means that transistors are being manufactured smaller and smaller.  I find the reading a little scary, because Joy has a very thorough background that is built around technology.  Being in a computer science field, he has a responsibility to peer into the future and to play ahead of the game so that he does not fall behind of the game. 

Being in the position and state Joy is in, I think that Joy’s fears are legitimate and that we, as a society, must proceed with caution so that we do not end up like the dinosaurs.  The difference would only be that the elimination would be from our own demise and not from natural consequence. 

In order to combat some disastrous situation due to genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics, the individuals that are developing such technologies must be educated.  I think that classes must be taught either in college or an education system implementing a way to get the information to all the physicists and scientists. Education is the key for us to not go too far with technology. 

One negative aspect is that not all scientists and countries are regulated.  Especially not all scientist have the same ethics, this is why I think this issue is important.  Scientists in different countries may have different motives just like we have learned that those in Al-Quaeda have different motives and some of their ethical issues are not the same as ours.  This being said, the future is unpredictable with the advent of nanotechnologies, genetics, and robotics. 

I think that this issue of future technologies possibly destroying the human race will not be taken very seriously by many, especially by those that feel that development and technology have no boundaries.  Although some might feel these technologies will not have a repercussion, with every choice and decision comes a consequence.  We have control of our  choices and decisions; however, the consequence is something do not have control over.

Module 11: Film Review Essay

During this week, I watched “War Games.”  The movie starts out with a computer replacing men to launch nuclear warfare to the Soviets.  David, a high school boy who hacks into his high school’s computer to change his grade in biology, uses a dialup internet connection to communicate with the computer.  He also tries to access a video game company through the internet, but cannot access the computer because he does not have the proper credentials. 

David researches a game list that he finds on the computer of the inaccessible computer.  During his search, he learns about the inventor of that specific computer and finds out that the computer is a learning computer.  Based on moves by the players, the computer can learn what moves are best and how to win.

David searches and ultimately finds the access word of the maker of the computer.  After thinking that he is accessing the computer from the video game company, he plays a thermonuclear war game.  In all actuality, David would really be accessing a military computer and would be simulating an attack from the Soviet Union to the United States. 

The military bring David into custody for questioning.  While in custody, David finds out that the computer is still playing the game and has a time limit to when the game will end.  David spends his time finding the maker of the computer, describing him what is happening, and assisting in dismantling the game so that the United States do  not send a false attack to the Soviet Union.

Meanwhile, the military see an imposing attack on the United States from the Soviet Union.  At one point, the military scramble a couple F16 fighter jets to inquire about incoming missiles, but the F16 fighter pilots do not see any missile at all. 

At the end of the movie, the computer learns that nobody wins in the game of tic-tac-toe.  Then, the computer learns too that nobody wins when the thermonuclear war game is played.  Ultimately, the computer halts any missile attacks and the DEFCON status is changed from one to five. 

In this movie, the film makers develop this movie to make is very conceivable for man to believe; however, some things in the movie seem impossible.  One of the impossibilities is that the computer can learn.  Some websites can track you with cookies and see what you are purchasing or viewing.  These cookies assist the originating entity to learn about what you are viewing and what else you may be buying. Later, the entity uses the information to direct consumers to other products that they may be interested in, based on other consumer’s searches, purchases, and views. Computers do not conjure a learning behavior out of thin air and do not learn on their own; programmers exist and are behind all of the smart technologies we have today. 

In the movie, the military replace men by a computer and rely solely on it to monitor and to launch nuclear missiles.  Of course this is absurd.  To completely replace reason with logic can be detrimental without some means of failsafe or fallback.  The people went 100% into the new computer system and learned after a game was being played that reality was merely fictitious.  Relying 100% on a computer system is a mistake that many make.  We always have computer issues, whether it is the hard drive, software, other hardware, or other issues; we cannot solely rely on the system, we must have some type of back-up.

A cultural issue that could have happened in this movie is a world epidemic of nuclear attacks; thus, possibly destroying the world and humanity.  If a person did not die from the initial blasts and explosions, then they would most likely die from the radiation exposure.

Module 10: A Logic Named Joe

This week’s assignment consists of reading “A Logic Named Joe”, an article that was published back in the year 1946.  In this publication, a lot of foretelling about computers is told; some being conceivable and other foretelling being inconceivable.  I found the reading very interesting, being that the document was published just as computers were invented and became a reality.  I can imagine what people thought back then when they read this publication.  Some of them might have thought, “There will be a time when see all of these things come to pass.”  Another might have thought, “This publication is ridiculous, we will never see this.”  Whatever the response was, today we are seeing some of these prophecies come to pass.

                In the publication, one computer is built slightly different, but not so different that can be detected.  The alteration makes the computer super smart and answers anybody’s question correctly, even to the point of exceeding human intelligence.  The computer is owned by a family that does not know that their computer has a defect.  The computers are interconnected, meaning that there is a network available for all to use.  This interconnectedness had not happened in 1946, nor did it happen soon after.  It wasn’t until the early 1960’s when organizations were coming together to collaborate and develop a network to communicate between computers.  So, for this document that explains the interconnectedness of computers means that the people’s minds and thoughts were way ahead of their times. 

                When the users would log on to their computers, they would be told that the computer can answer any question of their desire.  This I think is similar to modern day search engines.  When users go to Google’s website to enter their questions into the search bar, if the question is simple, even mathematical, it can be answered on the result page.  If a direct answer is not found, then many websites that contain the information wanted is presented and most of the time the results are presented by the most relevant.  The difference between the 1946 publication and today’s technology is that the computer in the publication was smarter than human intelligence, and that if no answer existed for the user, then the computer would search until it found an answer.  The computer would be able to compute and find an answer to an unknown answer that nobody could find.

                One thing that is happening today, and is quite scary if you ask me, is being able to find anyone and retrieve any information of that person.  In the publication, a woman was able to get any information of her neighbor, husband, friend, acquaintance, or stranger.  Today, some websites are available to anyone who pays a small fee.  One that is worth mentioning is spokeo.com.  Spokeo is a website to find people; however, it is not just a people finder website.  Spokeo has the ability to search for people and their address, phone, gender, age, email, what relationship they are in, their income, house value, ethnicity, education, occupation, political orientation, religion, hobbies, family tree, what social networks they belong to, and property details.  The property details inform the searching individual of how long the person has been at that location, lot and home size, how many rooms and baths, how many floors, if a garage is on the property, how many people live at that location (along with how many adults and how many children), what heating and cooling is on the property, if there is a swimming pool, the architecture, construction type, and material.  To me, this is way too much information for anyone to have, especially when we live in a day when terrorists desire to harm the innocent.  Fortunately, Spokeo provides a way to eliminate yourself from others searching your personal information.   One can log on to the website and enter in their information for Spokeo not to display result of the information.  In the publication, it is described that anybody can locate and find information on anyone else, this was a prophecy that is now in our world today.

                Of course, some things in the publication just cannot come to pass.  One of these prophecies consisted of the computer that was made just the same as the others, but had special non-detectable qualities that made it run in an above human intelligence way.  Another is that the computer could tell others how to do anything and that the information was only specific to that person.  For example, in one of my other classes, we configure Linux servers to operate specific services.  Everyone in the class is given the same assignment; however, each person has different issues that arise.  So, I could not simply ask a computer how to correct my issue, because my issue could be completely different than the person next to me.

                I found the reading informative and entertaining, because of the date the article was written.  It definitely foretold many things that we do today.

Module 9: The World is Flat Chapters 14-17

The way companies have developed, their strategy, and their efficiencies have astounded me while reading the part about how Dell computers are made.  When an individual orders a Dell computer, the order can come through the Dell website or through a call center.  The specifications of the computer get emailed directly to an offshore plant that will build the computer.  Since the company needs a fast turnaround, the plant has a nearby supplier logistic center that houses all of the components for the computers.  Every two hours, components for the computers are dropped off from the supplier logistic center, sorted into the correct locations, and taken to the place where the components are put together to build the computer.  The components of the computer originate from many different facilities that are located in various locations throughout the world.  The companies that own the facilities that manufacture the computer components are in America, Europe, and Asia; but the facilities are mainly found in the Orient. The manufactured components are shipped to the supplier logistic centers. At the logistic center, the needed components are shipped to the Dell facility; which in turn, put the components together.  The computer then gets placed on a conveyer belt that leads to the people who load the software onto the computer.  If the buyer specified certain programs and operating system, then the software installers would load all of that information onto the computer.  The built and loaded computers are then placed on pallets; shipped to the airport, where they board a 747 bound for the United States; sorted to the UPS Company for delivery; and delivered to the buyer.  The process duration takes only a matter of days from beginning to end, which is amazing. From parts to completed project to your doorstep only in a matter of days mean the world is small, very small.  The world is so small and is getting smaller every day that people can act in very big ways.

Al-Qaeda does have a supply chain.  Those that think otherwise are only fooling themselves.  Instead of capitalism, al-Qaeda chooses murder by suicide bombings and suicide attacks that affect innocent people.  The way they get young people to join their causes are made through the flat world.  Yes, al-Qaeda uses the same flat world as many companies, politicians, and individuals.  They convey messages to their people, raise funds, recruit, and send messages to others by means of the internet.  It seems that the flat world assisted in making al-Qaeda and the flat world gives al-Qaeda more fuel to feed the fire.

Many countries depend on the exports of oil for the survival of their country.  It is only when the country’s oil supply runs out when the country finds different means to survive.  Venezuela is a country that depends on their oil export.  The Venezuelan government does not tax its citizens, but relies on oil export for funds.  The citizens really have no say on how to spend the money received from the export, because the money had never belonged to them.

When a country focuses on developing their oil wells, they depend on the oil funds to operate most of functions of the country.  It is only when the country’s oil is depleted or a major change in governmental decisions happens, when the government and people of that country need to expand their knowledge and creativity.

I have found the reading this week interesting and enlightening.  I now have a better understanding of al-Qaeda and why and how they were formed.  The Dell theory is a good theory that I have never heard of, but it does make sense.  When a country wants to go to war with a different country, they must consider how the action will affect their own country in a flat world kind of way.  Will the action to go to war destroy the economy so that ties are severed between countries for a very long time?  Hopefully, leaders will think of the Dell theory before making any important decisions that will affect the interdependent world we live in today.

Module 8: Computers and Me.

During my education I have used many technological tools that have assisted me in many different ways in school.  Some of these tools include the following: internet, web browsers, Skype, Tortoise SVN repository, and Dropbox.  The tools mentioned have helped me personally as well as assisted in group work.  The following paragraphs discuss how these tools work and how they have helped me accomplish tasks better.

The first couple tools I mentioned are the internet and web browsers.  Without the internet and web browsers, I could not have accomplished as much as I have.  The internet allows me to connect to various parts of the world using established protocols.  The protocols permit me to connect to servers, transfer information to and from databases, email messages and documents to others, and transfer files.  Through web browsers and for the typical user, all of these functions take place while using the web browser.  Although I use stand alone programs that handle some of these functions, all of these functions can be accomplished using a web browser.  I have taken many online classes that would not be available without the internet and web browsers.  Online classes allow me to connect to the classroom, submit assignments, post discussions, and email the instructor from at home or from anywhere I can get an internet connection.  Online classes have made going to school very flexible for people like me that have a family.

Skype is a tool used to call phone numbers from a device to a device.  Many devices support Skype and have to be installed on the device in order to use the service.  I have used Skype in a few different situations.  My first time using Skype was for group work in a computer science class that involved documentation of a new software application.  The group had decided on using Skype for a means of communication when the group was unable to meet face to face.  I downloaded and installed the application onto my laptop, set up an account, and logged in to my account to establish contacts to call.  When my group of four used Skype, each member of the group needed Skype to be installed on their own device.  One of the group members was away from his computer and used a Skype app on his smart phone.  I thought that being able to use Skype on multiple platforms is an awesome idea.  All group members were able to communicate as though we were talking on the phone with a 4 way call.  We were able to divide assignments, discuss issues, and communicate effectively all from different locations.  The best parts of using the software are that it was free, relatively user friendly, connected our group together, and all I needed was an internet connection.

Tortoise SVN Repository is a program that helps software development individuals in a way that many people can work together on the same project.  Tortoise SVN is a cloud based repository tool, but the information in the cloud is viewed on your personal computer.  It is stored in a folder that has access to the repository and one must only update the folder in order to view what has been updated.  Tortoise SVN creates a centralized location for files that developers create.  When a developer creates a file and wants to share the file of computer code to the group, they add it to the repository file.  If any developer wants to update the file, he can commit the change to the repository.  Before committing the file to the repository, the developer can view the differences of the files.  The developer can keep the old version of the file, line by line, or commit the new changes, line by line.  If a developer wants to see who has written code, he or she can open up each file and view the authors.  The file will open and the author of each line of code will be displayed along with the code itself.  If the program stops working with the new change of the file, the file can be reverted back to the original.  This tool has helped me and a group of developers to collaborate by being able to work any project, any file at the same time without worrying about integration of code and files.

Dropbox is a free, centralized folder that can be accessed by multiple users if the owner chooses to let others access the information.  The makers of Dropbox give each user a courtesy two gigabyte storage space.  The user can upgrade to expand the storage space, but will cost the user some money.  The user can create folders and send requests to others by email to view the contents of the folder.  This is a form of cloud based storage, because any user can access the cloud based information if he or she as rights to view the content.  Dropbox is similar to Tortoise SVN; however, comparing and committing computer code is not a part of Dropbox. If I change or update a file in Dropbox, the people that are logged onto their computer will see a notification that the file has been changed.  This has also helped me personally to collaborate effectively with team members.