Transcript 7.3 The Digital Divide

Craig Delzangle
Kyle Hampton
Kyle Retzer
Information, Knowledge, and Judgment
 Computers and Community
 The Digital Divide
 The Impact of Computer Technology
 Making Decisions About Technology
 Case Study: Internet Addiction
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Huge amount of information
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Much of it is wrong
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Lack of editorial control
Vulnerable viewers
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Threat of bad information
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How do we reduce access?
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Site operator responsibilities
Make clear the sources of information
 Mechanism/moderators
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Image manipulation
Widely used for entertainment
 Also used for deception/fraud
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What to do?
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Become aware of the possibility of fakery
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Open project
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Free, ad-free, participatory, huge amount of information
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Do these qualities insure information quality?
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Problems:
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Constant effort required according to volunteers
Anonymity
Bias of contributors
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Examples:
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 Agencies
 Political staff members
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Promoting information quality
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Although anyone can write/edit, most do not.
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Most writers are well educated
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Wikipedia saves older versions of articles
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The web is full of questions/answers
The comfort of anonymity
 Positives
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 Larger audience
 Responders have more time to give a well-researched reply
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Problems associated
 Bias/opinion/intent/truth or lack thereof
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Distinguishing between good and bad information
Skepticism!
 Source reputation
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Loss of skills?
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What to do?
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Convenience can lead to laziness
Lack of analysis and evaluation
Don’t emphasize data rather than analysis
Cutting and pasting vs. research and writing
Don’t overemphasize what the computer is good at
Abdicating responsibility
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Reliance on software rather than judgment
Who is to blame?
“I did what the program recommended”
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Mathematical models
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Used to investigate possible effects/outcomes
Enable us to consider alternatives
Accuracy?
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Modelers’ understanding of the science behind their
system.
Involvement of assumptions and simplifications
How close do the model results compare with real
experience?
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Problems:
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Lack of understanding/knowledge of the system
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Data errors
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Inadequate computing power
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Quantifying human values
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Accuracy factors:
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Understanding of physics
Data quality
Simplifications?
 Grid pattern is the most obvious (size of each element)
 Time intervals
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How well do results compare with real crashes?
Are they accurate?
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Yes!
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Reasons:
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Straightforward physics
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Engineers’ understanding of materials
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Computer speeds limit simplifications
 Finer grids
 Smaller time intervals
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Use of sensors to record values
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Used to predict weather patterns and
rises/falls in temperature
Use grid structure and time intervals
Grid circles the earth, passes through the atmosphere, and
enters the ocean
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Uses many equations
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Atmospheric pressure, temperature, wind
speed/direction, moisture, etc.
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Problems:
Variations in output from the sun
 CO2 emissions/concentration
 Insufficient grid size
 Insufficient number of included processes affecting
climate
 Clouds!
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 Formation, effects, dissipation
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The effect of computers and technology on
community
Different types of community
Local community
 Global community
 Online community
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The internet has given people the choice of
which communities they want to participate in
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Global community
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Positive effects
 Building and strengthening of world-wide
communities
 Helps people connect with like-minded people
 Cheap communication
 Video chat across continents for free- Skype
 Previously this would have been impossible or very
expensive
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Local community
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Negative effects
 The rise of the internet has led to a lack of face to face
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interaction
Shrinking of local communities
Banking, shopping, going to the post office- all can be done
by staring at a screen instead of interacting with a human
being
Isolation
Technology puts the focus on the individual instead of the
community
Positive effects
 Help people connect with like-minded people nearby
 Increased convenience saves time that can be spent with
people one chooses to spend it with
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Comparison of what Walmart did to many
small businesses to what E-Commerce is doing
to local business.
Walmart moves into a town, and their prices
are cheaper than the local stores
People shop at Walmart because it’s cheaper
Local businesses can’t compete with Walmart,
so they shut down
Now, people are forced to shop at Walmart
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Stakeholders
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E-commerce companies
 Negative right to operate a business
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Local business owners
 Negative right to operate a business
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Local people
 Negative right to shop where they choose
 Do consumers have a positive right to have options on where
to shop?
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Local government
 Does local government have the positive right to make its
community a good place for small businesses to operate?
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Online taxes that get reinvested into local
business
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Price hikes on internet service at certain times
or on certain days of the week
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Opinions on this solution?
Opinions on this solution?
Are you willing to pay a higher price to keep a
local store open?
Do you want options, or do you want to be
forced to shop online?
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Digital divide - the fact that some groups of
people have access to and regularly use
computer, information, and communications
technology while others do not.
1990’s – providing access to poor and rural
groups in developed countries
Now - divide between developed and poor
countries
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1994 households with a college graduate parent
were 5 times more likely to own a computer
than that of a non-graduate family
Almost half of the children of grads. used a
home computer
Only 17% of non-grads. children did
Early 1990’s 10% of Net users were women
Black and Hispanic households were half as
likely to own a computer as the general
population
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Established minimum requirements
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Everyone in the country must have access to the net
Hardware and software must be easy to use and fit
the needs of all users, including disabled
Training must be available
Pricing must be affordable to all
Universal access – e-mail, web browsers,
interactive, multimedia equipment and
software
Advocates of access see it as a positive right
others view it as a liberty
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Decline of prices
Ease of use
1990 22% of all US households owned a
computer
2001 63% owned computers, 57% had internet
access at home
2004 75% had internet access
By 2000 98% of high schools had internet access
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Approx. 1 billion people worldwide have Web
access
“The Next Billion Users”
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The effort to spread the Web to another billion
people, mostly in non-developed countries
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Non-profit organization working to extend
access
Sponsored by several companies and computer
professionals
Distribute inexpensive, rugged laptops with
specifically designed software
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Laptops must work in extreme heat or cold
Dusty, rainy, and extremely humid
environments
Must have low power requirements
OLPC’s laptop costs $100 and only requires 2
watts of power
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Intel’s program to design low-cost computers,
increase high-speed internet access, and train
students and teachers
To invest $1 billion over 5 years
Intel and Microsoft set up thousands of
computer kiosks in rural India
Are we killing their culture and traditions?
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“Luddite” comes from the name of weavers
who burned down textile factories during the
Industrial Revolution
Reject all technological progress
View it as damaging to humans
 Computers cause massive
unemployment and the deskilling of
jobs
 Computers “manufacture needs” that is,
we use them just because they are there
not because they satisfy real needs
 Computers cause social inequity
 Computers cause social disintegration,
they are dehumanizing
 Computers separate humans from nature and
destroy the environment
 Computers benefit big business and big
government the most
 Use of computers in schools thwart
development of social skills, human values
and intellectual skills in children
 Computers do little or nothing to solve real
problems
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We create new technology because we can, not
because we need it
Needs are relative to goals, goals are held by
individuals
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Natural resources prices declined due to
advances in better mining technology
Average percent of income spent on food down
37% from 1947 due to food supplies growing
faster than population which is linked to better
farming technology
1960-1990 U.S. production of its 17 most
important crops rose from 252 mil. Tons to 592
mil. Tons while using 25 mil. Fewer acres.
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N.L – multinational corporations and
centralized corporate power. Little value to
ordinary workers
Disabled persons
Scholars
Scientists
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Some argue that we should limit the pursuit of
some technologies until we understand what
effects they will have on society
Questions
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Can it be possible for a technology to be inherently
destructive and negative, or can all technology be
used for good and evil?
Should we limit the pursuit of some technologies?
What if there was a technological equivalent of a
nuclear weapon?
Who should make these decisions?
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If we could predict the positives and negatives
of technology, it would be easier to decide
which technologies should or should not be
regulated
Prediction is difficult, even for experts
Example:
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Future of computers
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“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
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The point at which artificial intelligence or a
combination of human/machine advance to
the point that we cannot comprehend or
understand what will happen next
When machines or machine/human become
smarter than humans
Some predict that this event will happen within
this century
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The Singularity depends on both hardware and
software
Research in Artificial Intelligence is not
progressing fast enough, and may never reach
the point of being able to create Artificial
Intelligence
Do AI researchers have an ethical obligation to
not create Artificial Intelligence that could
compete with the human brain?
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The end of the human race?
MIT robotics researcher Rodney Brooks predicts
that by 2020, there will be wireless Internet
interfaces that can be implanted in our heads
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People will be as comfortable with these as undergoing
laser eye surgery
What kind of social and ethical issues will this
raise?
Will we still be human?
Nearer term: Google Project Glass
What kind of social and ethical issues will this tech
raise?
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We should limit the new technologies that we are
considering regulating to as few as possible
The regulation of these technologies should be a
decentralized and non-coercive decision
These decisions should not be made by one
company, or one president, or one government
A broad coalition needs to come up with a process
for making these decisions now for when the time
comes that they need to be made
How certain must we be of horrible consequences
before we restrict the development of a technology
that could have great benefits?
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Seoul, South Korea
Mother- Kim Yun-jeong and father- Kim Jaebeom
Child dies of malnutrition due to parents
addiction to an online fantasy game
Five year sentence sought for negligent
homicide
Verdict: Two years for the father and the
mother, mother’s sentence was suspended
because she was expecting another child
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Who are the stakeholders?
Parents
 Child
 Game maker
 Government
 South Korean society?
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 Is this problem only relevant to South Korea or is it a
universal problem?
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What are their rights?
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Child
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Parents
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Negative right to play an online game
Video game company
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Positive right to be cared for
Negative right to make a game
Does the video game company have an obligation to make their
game non-addictive? Should they put warnings on the game
like cigarettes and alcohol?
Government
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Does the government have a positive right to control or
monitor people’s online gaming habits to protect their
children?
Should the government regulate the video game companies if
they can’t regulate themselves?
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What we covered:
Information, Knowledge, and Judgment
 Computers and Community
 The Digital Divide
 The Impact of Computer Technology
 Making Decisions About Technology
 Case Study: Internet Addiction
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Baase, Sara. A Gift of Fire: Social, Legal, and
Ethical Issues for Computing and the Internet.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall,
2008. Print.
Salmon, A. (2010, May 28). Jail for couple whose
baby died while they raised online child. Retrieved
from
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf
/05/28/south.korea.virtual.baby/index.html