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Computer musings |
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Computers, Technology, and Society
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This is a blog about random thoughts on computing |
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Ethics
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Tuesday, April 18, 2006 8:15 AM
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It is interesting to look at the code of ethics published by the ACM. In it they spell out 'exactly' what is to be considered ethical and non-ethical by a computer professional. This is in stark contrast to the code of ethics Laid out by the church in such documents in 'For the Strength of Youth', which tells you more or less 'be good' with some guidlines. The reason that 'For the Strength of Youth' can do this and the 'ACM' cant is because, the ACM cannot acknowledge God. Once one believes in God, and desires to follow him, and have charity, the code of ethics just becomes a subset of their behavior and is unrequired, the directive to be charitable covers the whole of the ACM code of ethics.
This blog in reference to: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/perrolle/ethics/ACMcode.html
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Sentient Systems
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Tuesday, April 11, 2006 8:23 AM
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The day may come in the future that computers are made self aware. They will be capable of independent thought, and action, in context of their current environment, needs, and desires. Once this happens there will be presented a moral conundrum. Currently we kill (either by destroying the machine or shutting off its power permanently) computers whenever we want, for any reason, or no reason at all. Many people consider it wrong to kill animals for any reason, and especially for no reason. When a computer is self aware it really has little difference from animals other then what it is made of. We have no problem destroying what a person or animal is made of for we cremate bodies, and remove malicious tumors, it is the destruction of the intelligence (or separation of it from a physical form depending on you religious views) that is considered wrong by many. When a computer is self aware, by turning it off forever, or destroying it, we are destroying an intelligence. Will this societal realization create groups such as PETC (People for the Ethical Treatment of Computers). Or computer preserves, where unwanted computers are taken to live out the rest of their "natural lives" ? It may force a redefinition of what intelligence is, or it may force legislation in the creation of 'intelligent' systems. At the very least it will be a problem that society has never faced before, the preservation of intelligence created and completely owned by man , not god, nature, or evolution.
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Wireless For the Masses
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Thursday, April 6, 2006 11:43 AM
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San Fransisco has finally inked a deal with Google and Earthlink to provide wireless Internet access for all of San Fransisco. Google will provide lower speed service, through the network, by placing ads in-line with the content. This reminds me of the way that netzero used to do business. The privacy implications of scanning content to place ads in-line is troubling, because many of people don't know that their information is being gathered, and how it is used. And being a government sponsored network, there should be higher standards on information managment, Google ought not be able to do whatever they want with it.
This blog in reference to: http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B81855463%2D6C67%2D458C%2DABCE%2DAA6C28C70D56%7D&siteid=google&dist=
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Computers, force of good and evil?
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Thursday, March 30, 2006 1:00 PM
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WARNING THIS IS A BLOG ENTRY IN PROGRESS WITHOUT FULLY DEVELOPED IDEAS:
Technology changes the way in which people interact with each other and their environment. These changes can be either good or bad, in large part it depends on how an individual applies it to their workplace,community, family and personal lives.
Computers and the Workplace:
Computers have changed the American workplace dramatically. It has had a positive effect in that it has reduced the need for thoughtless labor. People are no longer required for the processing of checks, applying formulas to loan applications or filling in appointment books. But it has also brought additional distractions into the Workplace. Cellphones enable people to talk to others without employer moderation. Thoughtless emails are now used in lawsuits, and people are reading news when they should be working.
As a positive example of computing in the workplace look at the modern process of applying for a loan. You can now walk into a bank talk to a loan officer, and get approved for a loan with the click of a mouse. When my parents first applied for loans, they had to go the the bank, fill out mountains of forms, and then wait a month or more to see if they had been approved.
This speedup is not because banks are less risk adverse but because computers have automated the task of assessing It. By using a computer, the bank saved countless man hours in computing the risk, and has made you happier by being more prompt with their response.
As an negative example of thoughtlessness in computing, two lawyers in London faced a sexual discrimination lawsuit because one jokingly wrote an email to the other asking for a 'Busty blonde' , as a replacement for their current black secretary (‘Busty blonde’ email lawyers face lawsuit).
By automating work computers have allowed banks to save on labor and increase profits by simplifying the task of risk assessment. But by the same token they also harmed the law practice, by making lawyers thoughtless in their inter-office communications, leading to a lawsuit.
In a formal typed letter these lawyers would certainly never have been stupid enough to write such blatantly sexist comments. The casual and virtually instant nature of emails, tends to make people talk to each other in a casual manner. Unfortunately these people forget that unlike a casual conversation, emails are stick around (sometimes even after they are deleted) and can be used as evidence in trials. If the ease of the computer hadn't led to the 'joking' email being written, the lawsuit would have never happened.
Computers and the Community:
Computers can improve community life by allowing organizers to quickly publish any event, find people with mutual interests and create forums for discussion. But in a way Computers have taken from community life, in that communities are often no longer defined by geographic boundaries, and as such physical interaction between people has reduced. Also with the broad array of communities available for one to participate in people are no longer forced to learn how to interact with those of different preferences, opinions and values.
The Mountain Valley Red cross website, has many resources that help in improving community life. For example you can schedule a blood donation, find information on creating an emergency plan., even sign up to become a volunteer (American Red Cross, Mountain Valley Chapter).
Computers in this situation have improved community life. They have improved it by making information, from the American Red cross readily accessible to people whenever they want it.
The Internet has brought about the phenomena of Internet dating. Instead of going to the local bar or park to find potential mates, people now go to their computer, and browse profiles for people they think might be a match. The person no longer is forced to conform to the standards that are acceptable in their geographical region in order to find a mate. The individual can essentially be totally separated from
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MultiCore Java Processor.
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Tuesday, March 28, 2006 8:42 AM
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WARNING THIS ARTICLE MAY BE FULL OF TECHNOBABLE!!!!!
Azul has announced a 48-core Java accelerator processor. They claim that the performance gains by putting extra cores on a Java accelerator chip is greater then x86 based systems, because they do the scheduling, not the OS.
The whole concept of a Java accelerator processor is interesting to me. Java was designed to be totally hardware and OS independent. It accomplishes this by having a virtual software processor and OS in which it resides (aka the Java VM).
By having a Java accelerator processor, that understands Java commands, Azul is creating a hardware dependency. They are now offloading some (most likely not all) of the work from a software VM to a hardware processor.
I can understand why Sun may not like someone doing this to their baby Java, and is suing Azul over intellectual property infringement. Sun is the creator of Java, and has retained the power to control its destiny. They have fought very hard to maintain Java's hardware/OS independence. To them Java should never run in anything but a VM and should depend on nothing but their Official VM. This is so that it doesn't become attached to some Processor or OS that becomes outdated, and so out date the language or the programs written in it. Sun went after Microsoft when they tried to add their own OS specific extension to Java in an attempt to "improve it" (really they just wanted to create an OS dependency and a barrier to people who wanted to switch from Windows to some other OS ).
Also having the processor do the scheduling (or their modified VM its not clear which) and not the processor is a paradigm shift. Traditionally hardware engineers have left that up to the OS because they believed that the OS could do it better, and more efficiently (probably because there are infinite ways to do it and the right way is dependent on the application). By doing this Azul is taking something that has always been in the domain of the software developer and putting it in the the domain of the hardware developer, It will be interesting to see how well this works.
For further information look at: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=30577
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Digital Preservation
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Friday, March 24, 2006 5:34 PM
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Has enyone noticed how people are rushing to transfer information from microfilm to CDRom's or DVD's in the name of digitally preserving things 'forever'?...
What many people don't realise is that the lifespane of a CD or DVD is estimated to be only about a decade, maby longer if you are lucks, and magnetic media on average is only good for five years.
If you want somthing to last for all generations you are probably better off to do what people have been doing for centuries, write it down in a book. Or more recently put it on microfilm.
In addition to the limited lifespan of the media on which digital information is stored is the limitied lifespan of the hardware and software used to view it. How long has it been since you saw an apple IIc in the store shelves?. Any information that was stored with those computers is now extremely hard to retreive.
One disadvatage of storing information on film or on paper is that it is difficult to retreive. You cannot type an arbitrary search into a bookcase and get both the book and the page that is most relevent to that search.
I propose that on open format be used for storing data(like xml) and projected onto microfilm. In this way not only is the information stored for long periods of time, but a computer at some future date could scan it it and make the information contained within it easily accessable.
More info (technical in nature): http://www.library.cornell.edu/iris/tutorial/dpm/foundation/oais/administration.html
(less technical): http://historyresearch.utah.gov/
(more academic);http://www.uky.edu/~kiernan/DL/hedstrom.html
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Genetic Testing
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Friday, March 24, 2006 4:55 PM
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Genealogy has come upon a new barrier, unfaithful spouses trying to cover their tracks. While genetic testing can tell you where you are from (generally) and who your parents were (if you have samples from them). It also has the possibility of revealing adulterous affairs.
The value of applying this technology to genealogy is questionable. Because at best it can give you a ball park figure of where your ancestors came from (Which is only useful if you have no clue). It cannot tell you who they were, who their children were, and when they got married. To me it seems more like an additional revenue stream for labs, then a viable way to trace ones ancestors.
This technologies impotence (at least currently) in helping to do genealogy work, probably mitigates the actual barrier to searching out ones ancestors that infidelity causes. But Infidelity may cause problems for those down the line because they may not know who their biological father really is. In fact this conundrum may reveal the true usefulness of genetic genealogy - telling you if there is someone else that you should be looking for.
This blog is in response to this article: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/3738296.html
More information on genetic genealogy can be found here: http://smgf.org/how_it_works.html
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Holy Blood, Holy Grail
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Thursday, March 23, 2006 8:50 AM
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The Author of 'Holy Blood Holy Grail' is suing the author and publisher of 'The Davinci Code' for having lifted the structure of the 'Davinci Code' from his copyrighted book. While 'The Davinci Code' may have infringed on the western taboo of plagiarism, it troubles me that this lawsuit is being pursued under copyright.
Copyright is not intended to protect 'structure', 'concepts' or even broad Ideas, it is intended to protect individual works of art.
Copyrights are issued when an author creates a work, and then registers it with the copyright office (and even that doesn't need to be done always). On the other hand Patents are reviewed by patent clerks to see if they are truly unique, and aren't a 'law of nature' or some other thing that is proscribed from being patentable. Patents often take years (if not decades) to be issued.
The reason that the process for obtaining a patent is much more rigerouse is because ideas are much more broad. Copyrights and Patents are a type of Government sanctioned monopoly. Monopolies are dangerous because they stifle competition and hence creativity. Because of the danger that these monopolies present their scope has been limited.
Because of the much broader application of ideas the limitation of their scope is much more rigorouse. If ideas were subjected to the same lack of rigor that copyrights were all of human knowledge and all laws of nature would soon be copyrighted and innovation would cease.
All that would be required for someone to gain a profit from everyone who bathed animals, would be for them to write the words "One can bath animals", copyright the document and then sue anyone for royalties who dared to bathe their dog.
Applying copyrights to ideas is risky business, while the plagiarism may have been unethical, the path that is being taken for remedy could lead to catastrophic consequences.
further reading: http://www.swnewsherald.com/online_content/2006/03/032206ov_ste_davinci.php
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Copyright
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Thursday, March 23, 2006 7:40 AM
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Copyright was originally provisioned for in the constitution to foster development in the arts and science. It was not made to foster monstrous profits by corporations. Few people would argue that the artists of the corporations that are actively pursuing extensions to copyright laws (record companies, movie studios) , are suffering from the current regime, thanks to copyright and the 100's of ways they have made you pay for the same work of art twice they are millionaires. At one time the distribution of music required a large overhead that required significant protection to ensure an ROI by the corporations that made these investments. But the capital overhead of distribution has disappeared, and so has the need for the legal protections that ensured the ROI.
I Believe that as a society we would be better served if instead of expanding copyright protections (such as the millennium act, extending copyright to beyond the lifetime of the author,and allowing corporations to own copyrights) we would be better served to relax them. Corporations by their very nature cannot focus on everything and so have reduced the music that is distributed, in a way they stifle creativity. One of the things that allows corporations to keep on doing this is copyright, because it allows immense profits and reduces the number of legitimate channels of distribution to ones that they can control. These children of copyright are directly in opposition to the constitutional provision for copyright. So copyright laws ought to be modified to remove these "Big Brothers of creativity".
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Job Hunting
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Sunday, March 19, 2006 4:42 PM
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Has anyone ever noticed how employers are in the position of waiting till they have all of their cards on the table before they make offers. Yet they expect prospective employes to give them responses within 24 hrs, of them having made the job offer, this doesn't allow an employee to wait for every perspective employer to make an offer. I just find the imbalance interesting. Maby we ought to be more like France with its economy strangeling labor laws that put the worker at the advantage regaurdless of the employment market.
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