Ethics for the Information Age - Detailed Notes

Catalysts for Change: Ethics for the Information Age

Introduction to the Information Age

  • Information Age: Characterized by unprecedented access to information.
  • Catalysts:
    • Low-cost computers.
    • High-speed communication networks.
  • Emerging Technologies:
    • Smartphones
    • Video streaming services
    • Voice-activated digital assistants
    • Low-cost drones
    • Self-driving cars

Impact of Modern Computing and Communications Systems

  • 1950:
    • Limited number of electronic digital computers.
    • Internet did not exist.
  • Contemporary World:
    • Networked devices with embedded microprocessors are prevalent.
    • Frequent engagement with these devices.

Our Relationship with Technology

  • Dynamic Interaction: People create and adopt technology, leading to societal changes.
  • Technology's Influence on People:
    • Experiences with technology can cause physical changes in the brain.
    • Information access releases dopamine, creating a desire for more information.
    • Technology can have psychological effects.
  • Dual Nature of Technology: Solves problems but can also create new ones.

Social-Technological Cycle

  • Social conditions can drive the creation and adoption of new information technologies.
  • Adoption of new information technologies can reshape social conditions.

Milestones in Computing

Calculations & Calculators

  • Manual calculating methods.
  • Early mechanical calculators emerged.
  • Social Change: The market for calculators arose during the Gilded Age due to the emergence of larger corporations.
  • Calculator Adoption:
    • Led to a competitive market.
    • Resulted in the "deskilling" and feminization of bookkeeping roles.

Tabulators → Data-Processing Systems

  • Data-processing system:
    • Receives input data.
    • Performs calculations.
    • Produces output data.
  • Punched cards:
    • Used to store input data, intermediate results, and output.
    • Advanced systems used them to store programs.

IBM and the Holocaust

  • Hitler's rise to power in Germany in 1933.
  • IBM CEO Watson's disregard for anti-Semitic violence and concentration camps.
  • IBM's expansion of its German subsidiary and pursuit of contracts with the German government.
  • Nazis' utilization of IBM machines for censuses and generating lists of Jews, facilitating asset seizure and deportation.

Precursors of Commercial Computers

  • Atanasoff-Berry Computer: Used vacuum tubes.
  • ENIAC: Externally programmed with wires.
  • EDVAC: Program stored in memory.
  • Small-Scale Experimental Machine: Used CRT memory.

First Commercial Computers

  • Remington-Rand:
    • Completed UNIVAC in 1951.
    • Delivered to the U.S. Bureau of the Census.
    • Predicted the winner of the 1952 Presidential election.
  • IBM:
    • Had a larger customer base.
    • Possessed superior sales and marketing capabilities.
    • Made greater investments in R&D.
    • Dominated the mainframe market by the mid-1960s.

Programming Languages

  • Assembly language
  • FORTRAN
  • COBOL
  • BASIC
  • Time-Sharing Systems:
    • Divided computer time among multiple users.
    • Users connected via terminals.
    • Spread the cost of ownership.
    • Increased accessibility to computers for more people.

Transistor

  • Replacement for the vacuum tube.
  • Invented at Bell Labs (1948).
  • Semiconductor.
    • Faster.
    • Cheaper.
    • More reliable.
    • More energy efficient.

Integrated Circuit

  • Semiconductor containing transistors, capacitors, and resistors.
  • Invented at Fairchild Semiconductor and Texas Instruments.
  • Advantages over replaced parts:
    • Smaller
    • Faster
    • More reliable
    • Less expensive

IBM System/360

  • Before System/360
  • System/360 In the 1960s, IBM dominated the mainframe computer market in the United States.

Microprocessor

  • A computer inside a semiconductor chip.
  • Invented in 1970 at Intel.
  • Made personal computers practical.

Personal Computer

  • Antecedents to the PC
  • Altair 8800
  • Personal computers became popular.
  • Businesses drawn to personal computers

Milestones in Networking

Electricity and Electromagnetism

  • Volta invented the battery (1799).
  • Oersted discovered that electricity creates a magnetic field.
  • Sturgeon constructed the electromagnet.
  • Henry used electromagnets for communication (1830).

Telegraph

Telephone

  • Alexander Graham Bell.
  • Social impact of the telephone.

Typewriter

  • Individual production of "type set" documents.
  • Common in offices by the 1890s.

Teletype

  • Typewriter connected to a telegraph line.
  • Popular uses:
    • Transmitting news stories.
    • Sending records of stock transactions.

Radio

  • Pioneers
  • First used in business
  • Entertainment uses.

Television

  • Became popular in the 1950s.
  • Social effects.

Remote Computing

ARPANET

  • DoD
  • Licklider
  • Message transmission

Email

Internet

  • Cerf/Kahn
  • TCP/IP

NSFNet

Broadband

Wireless Networks

  • Cell Phones
  • Public access Wireless LAN

Cloud Computing

  • Utilization of remote computing resources over the Internet.
  • Enablers of cloud computing
  • Advantages of cloud computing
  • Software as a service
  • Infrastructure as a service

Milestones in Information Storage and Retrieval

  • Greek Alphabet
  • Codex and Paper
  • Gutenberg’s Printing Press
  • Newspapers
  • Hypertext
  • Graphical User Interface (GUI)
  • Single-Computer Hypertext Systems

World Wide Web

  • Networked Hypertext
  • Browsers

Search Engines

  • Returns documents most closely matching keywords

Cloud Storage

  • Storing data remotely on Internet-accessible servers.
  • Simplifies accessing files from multiple devices.
  • Simplifies file sharing
  • Provides massive data storage at a relatively low price.
  • Provides automatic backups of data.

Information Technology Issues

*Definition of information technology: – Devices used in creation, storage, manipulation, exchange, and dissemination of data, including text, sound, and images

IT Issues

  • Pirating copyrighted content
  • Cloud storage services
  • Credit cards
  • Loan applications
  • Computers embedded in devices
  • Telecommuting
  • Improved global communication network
  • Social Media

Summary

  • We are living in Information Age, but information technology has a long history
  • Today’s devices are culmination of centuries of incremental progress
  • Social conditions give rise to new technologies
  • Adoption of technologies can change society
  • Computing professionals have a responsibility to be thoughtful about their role in creating the future