Week 7: “The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly” of Social Networking

http://www.cognitivemedia.co.uk/index.php/blog/2011/03/the-internet-in-society

Since posting the blog on Ethics & Technology for Week 6 I’ve been discussing the pros & cons of social networking.  This week’s blog isn’t on any specific technology as much as a video by Cognitive Media on “the internet in society.”  I hope you find it as thought provoking as I did.  Thoughtfully – CDamian (10-25-2011)

Week 6: Are Humanities’ Ethics in “Jeopardy?”

Examining innovative & emerging technologies, like Sherlock Holmes, led my inquiries to “Watson,” International Business Machine’s (IBM’s) computer capable of competing with humans on the game show Jeopardy.  See the following link for greater details: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DywO4zksfXw .

While there have been many Sci-Fi doom and gloom stories written over the past century of how computers will eventually take over the world, technology itself has been slow to advance to meet the vision.  With Watson being on Jeopardy and recent projections of scientific and technological advances occurring in the next 10 to 20 years, increased computing power may advance manmade robots into the realm of what was previously only fiction.  

As my Google queries on potentially new technologies continued beyond Watson a series of disturbing ones fitting not only into Sci-Fi but religious & philosophical moral issues kept emerging; like Chimeras.  Now into the 3^rd to final class of the course I’ve gone full circle and have found the materialization of innovative & emerging technologies to be coupled with ethics versus 2 distinct areas of study.

My research led me to the Institute of Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET); see the following web site: http://ieet.org/ .  Here ethics is also establishing a technical presence on the internet to address advances in science.

Reading over the IEET website I happened to come across a question I first considered after having watched a documentary on Nazi experiments on human beings.  See the following link for the specifics.

http://www-03.ibm.com/innovation/us/watson/?cn=agus_watson-20100712&cm=k&csr=google&cr=emerging_technologies&ct=USJWK002&S_TACT=USJWK002&ck=emerging_technologies&cmp=00000&mkwid=slsIwbnl5_9199393053_432n0d3749

I am still in the crossroads on the subject of whether society should use information gained at the expense of others by inhumane means under the guise of science?  Prompting me to scrutinize the affects & effects new technologies such as Social Networking may have on humanity.   Does Watson represent the ensuing gloom & doom of science fiction and the end to civilization or the beginning of a new paradigm?  

As a certified National Rifle Association (NRA) instructor, education on the proper and safe use of firearms is stressed.  One would not give or encourage someone who isn’t properly trained to handle a gun.  Plenty of incidents can be found where a youth has come by a handgun only to cause harm to themselves or someone else.

In kind, there are examples of youth or the uninitiated (see the Darwin Awards site - http://www.darwinawards.com/), to miss use technology with negative consequences.  An example shared by a classmate can be observed at the following link which shows a Boy Scout finding the means to create a nuclear reactor with potentially harmful radiation to the surrounding community in his back yard; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwRt74nzRmY .

Is technology good or bad?  Computers have been depicted as being as smart, good or evil as the individuals creating them.  A here-to-for unmentioned but very well known science fiction story series is Star Trek.  It isn’t the advances in technology which make the show so appealing to audiences as the positive factors of the people exhibiting their humanity.  The crew of the Star Ship Enterprise are aided by technology very much like Sherlock Holms receiving assistance from Dr. Watson.

IBM’s Watson represents a potential for computers to posses the capability to learn.  Can computers learn to comprehend the best that humanity has to offer in the future?  Will advances in robotics sustain the better part of humanities’ ethics long after mankind is extinct?  Benevolently – CDamian (10-17-2011)

Week 5: Bug Semantics

Webster’s II New College Dictionary defines “Bug” as: “…2.An insect,… 4.b. Computer Sci. A defect in the code or performance of a program,…[&] 6. A small hidden device…used for eavesdropping.”  The semantics of what is a bug is the subject for this week’s blog.

In reading over various New Technology Research & Development (NTRD) reports I came across the CLASH, not the music group but a robot that can climb up cloth like a bug.   See the following link for details: http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/diy/no-couch-is-safe-from-clash-clothclimbing-robot.  The concept of the GWU course is to merge various technologies together.  Earlier this year I did some research on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology and the thought of merging it with micro-bugs & computers came to mind.  However, upon further reading the CLASH was larger than anticipated but led me to the Robotic Autonomous Crawling Hexapod (RoACH).  See the link http://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/~ronf/Ambulation/Roach.html .  The RoACH is similar in size to a quarter and in line with the following concept I would like to propose.

As mentioned earlier I previously conducted research on RFID technology.  There are two versions of the early history of RFID technology.  Both stem from a common background; developed by the Allied forces during World War II.  (ORG 2005-2009)  The first version by some sources indicate the Allies – primarily the English & Americans – developed a technology called “Identify Friend or Foe (IFF)” to differentiate aircraft in order to determine whether to respond to a threat or not. (CENTER 1997)  The second version begins in the 1920’s with a Russian musician, Leon Theremin who performed with his invention the “Theremin” in many well established concert halls in the United States until his disappearance in 1938.  (McIntyre 2005, 9-11)  After the fall of the “Iron Curtain” Mr. Theremin was interviewed in Russia where his involvement in the development of “The Thing” was brought to light.  The device was called “The Thing” after its discovery by U.S. State Department security in 1952.  “The Thing” was embedded in a seal of the United States (U.S.).  The seal was presented to U.S. Ambassador Averell Harriman in the mid 1940’s by Russian school children & placed in the Embassy Residence until its discovery. (Murray 1996-2011)

To build upon existing technologies by incorporating newer technical developments & merging them with improved business processes the capability exists to merge printable electronics with a printable battery power source and Central Processing Unit (CPU) onto a micro bug.  Unlike “The Thing” an immobile device, a mobile bug or roach would pose greater challenges in being detected and improve the capability of those using such a device.  (Bonsor 2011) & (McIntyre 2005, 18)  This would renew the use of the acronym IFF; people will now look at an annoying bug crawling or flying around and ask what kind of bug is it?  Contemplatively – CDamian (10-10-2011)

Works Cited

Bonsor, Kevin. HowStuffWorks. 2011. http://computer.howstuffworks.com/printing-computer1.htm (accessed June 14, 2011).

CENTER, DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL. http://www.history.navy.mil/branches/avchr5.htm. June 30, 1997. (accessed June 13, 2011).

McIntyre, Katherine Albrecht & Liz. Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID. Nashsville: Nelson Communication, Inc., 2005.

Murray, Compiled by Kevin D. http://www.spybusters.com/Great_Seal_Bug.html. 1996-2011. (accessed June 13, 2011).

ORG, RFIDENT. http://www.rfident.org/. 2005-2009. (accessed June 13, 2011).

Week 4: “Black Silicon: A Mystery in Infrared”

I learned the following over the course of the week:

1.      My blog has 6 followers

2.      Zero comments

3.      Since September 12^th I’ve had 52 pageviews from the United States, 8 from Russia, & 1 from Germany

4.      It is recommended to include a graphic in the blog

5.      One should have a catchy title

6.      The blog should be engagingly short

Taking this new found knowledge into account I have added the title of a MITRE article to Week 4.  In keeping with some ongoing continuity from week to week I’m sharing what I’ve learned and will segue into this week’s blog by returning back to week 3.  Resembling the cover of Pink Floyd’s album the “Dark Side of the Moon” – see the catchy graphic below – I selected “Black Silicon: A Mystery in Infrared.”   

A MITRE team replicated a Harvard experiment of manufacturing black silicon.  The black silicon is capable of doing two things: 1) it is close to absorbing a 100% of light; & 2) it also absorbs infrared energy.  The article alludes to black silicon having the potential to significantly impact such current technologies as night-vision goggles & missiles.

Presently efforts are underway to learn the physics behind the creation of black silicon in order to best establish a manufacturing process to mass produce it.  Jody Mandeville from MITRE is currently conducting tests with molecular sulfur.  While the first experiment was unsuccessful Mandeville came across a technique that won a Nobel-Prize in 1940 and anticipates unraveling the mystery behind black silicon.

See the following link for the entire article. http://www.mitre.org/news/digest/advanced_research/08_11/black_silicon.html

Considerately – CDamian (10-06-2011)