CS-1094 Freshman Seminar: Computers and Society



CS-1094 Freshman Seminar: Computers and Society

Final Exam, Fall 2007 Name_____ANSWER KEY___________

Part I. Privacy Issues

1. The study of computers and society is a recently developed field of scholarship. We built a concept map of the discipline in class by arranging individual concerns into concept clusters and then describing the relationships between them. List five of the largest concept clusters and give an example of one concept belonging to each category.

Worldview: everything is misc., search engine results

Commercial use:

Addictions: Computer gaming, porn, online gambling, gaming

Malware: viruses, spam, spyware, etc.

Social networking: Facebook, MySpace,

Environmental impact:

Privacy:

Ubiquitous computing: handhelds,

Work:

Archives:

Piracy: copyright violations, RIAA lawsuits,

Digital Divide: unequal distribution of resources and technology

Information overload: emaelstrom

2. Defend, or refute this statement:

“cyberspace presents an escape into an alternative reality that is illusory because it presents us with trivialized and glamorized substitute realities that lack context.”?

(5 points)

Defense: Social networking sites, for example, permit people to construct their own personas that may have nothing to do with who they really are. There is no context deeper than the website itself so no way to truly get in touch with another person. People often use websites to escape from reality.

Refutation: Social networking sites, for example, allow real people to share real ideas, pictures, beliefs and to carry on real conversations. They bring people closer together and are just as real as any other aspect of a relationship as evidenced by the extreme popularity of these sites.

3. How might information technologies threaten freedom, privacy and democracy? (5 points)

Organizations with large information resources (including the government) may use information technology to intrude on personal privacy, as a means of social control and ultimately to undermine democratic values. The reason these threats go largely ignored is that privacy concerns have no natural constituency. For example, religious groups do not recognize them as immoral in the same sense as other acts that drive their political action. Most people view the issue as simply one of technologic change.

4. The theme of the “democratization of information” was addressed by Keen in his book, The Cult of The Amateur. What does the term “democratization of information” refer to? How is it being achieved? In what ways is it desirable? What are the undesirable aspects of it? Give specific examples of the strengths and weaknesses of this movement.

Advantage: It allows everyone to have a voice.

Disadvantages: It kills professional products, research and expertise, replacing them with amateur products, research and lack of expertise.

5. In his book, “Everything is Miscellaneous”, David Weinberger discusses the “third order of order”. What is he referring to? Explain the first, second and third orders of order using examples.

6. Explain the role of filters, branches, metadata and the control over information in formulating the third order of order presented by Weinberger?

Part II. The Hacker Ethic

Part III. History of the Network Society

6. What is the Open Source Movement and what was the role of the following individuals in it? (5 points each)

a. Linus Torvalds

The author of the linux operating system, a unix-based system

software product that is open source and is the current strongest rival

to Microsoft Windows®.

b. Tim Berners-Lee

The inventor of http and the progenitor of the Many view him

as the founder of the modern internet.

c. Marc Andreesen

He devised a GUI for the internet that later evolved into Mosaic and

then into Netscape and was the cornerstone of all early web browsers.

Part IV. Cyberwarfare

8. Concerned scientists have warned for years about the potential of cyberterrorism. The US Department of Defense has several agencies devoted to cyberwarfare and cyberterrorism response. Give three examples of the kind of cyberterror or cyber warfare attacks that might be most devastating. (5 points)

Attacks that disable defense communications networks making their communications impossible or incorrect.

Attacks on the critical infrastructure of a country including electric power grids, water, gas, air traffic control, etc.

Attacks on banking systems, stock markets and other sources of financial stability.

10. Critics have said that concerns about cyberterrorism amount to the same kind of fearmongering we experienced with Y2K. What arguments do they use to support this belief? (5 points)

Corporate interests in selling security systems and upgrades may fuel advertising and disinformation campaigns targeted at making us feel more vulnerable to attack than we really are.

Part V. Artificial Intelligence

11. Who was Alan Turing and what is the Turing Test? Why is it important? How does the Eliza program, demonstrated in class, illustrate the concept he promoted? (10 points)

Turing was a British mathematician who authored works on ‘Computing Machines’ back in the 1930’s, was involved in one of the largest top secret computing projects during WWII (used to break German codes) and a visionary for the cause of general purpose computing, especially the role of artificial intelligence. His Turing Test is the claim that if a person could be deceived for more than 5 minutes into thinking they were conversing with another person rather than a machine then we would have to claim that the machine had exhibited a form of intelligence. This is an important benchmark that AI programmers often test projects against.

Part VI. Intellectual Property

14. Explain the intellectual property concerns surrounding two of the following:

cybersquatting, John Doe anonymity, fan fiction, linking, protest websites (10 points)

cybersquatting: Owning a domain name in order to extort a large domain name purchase fee from a more appropriate owner does not protect you against having the domain name reassigned by a higher authority.

John Doe anonymity: Persons hiding behind anonymous email accounts may find that a court order to their ISP will force the ISP to reveal the true identity of the account holder.

Fan fiction: Many websites dedicated to movie stars, cartoon characters, etc. violate the rights of film companies and corporations who own the name, trademarks and other aspects of that person/characters presentation before the public.

Linking: Some corporations view links to their website as things that can add value to somebody else’s website. They wish to get paid for the value their link has added.

Protest websites: Sites that lampoon products or companies are in danger of being sued by product-makers and corporations for misuse of trademarks.

15. With the demise of Napster, KaZaA, Morpheus, Gronkster, IMesh and other file sharing sites often used to download music, what legitimate business forms are taking their place (Give examples). Do you believe this will solve the music file-sharing problem the Recording Industry of America is attempting to stamp out? Why or why not? (10 points)

iTunes (Apple Computer), Rhapsody, MusicNet on AOL and pressplay have all emerged as pay-per-song download or subscription services. They are supported by the recording industry as legitimate avenues for song distribution. In their favor is the fact that the recording industry has been very successful in stamping out the older file sharing sites by court action. Against them is the fact that many overseas sites are not bound in the same way by US laws and may continue the file-sharing practice.Part VII. Film: The World at your Fingertips (5 points each)

16. The computers’ role in contributing to the “disappearance of remoteness” has made new forms of social interaction possible in which geography is not a factor. Give two examples and explain how they work.

17. Recent Gallup Polls suggest that Internet privacy concerns are important to most people. However, critics claim that “If you didn’t do anything wrong you have nothing to worry about.” Defend or refute this claim using specific examples from our readings.

Privacy is a matter of human dignity and of each person deciding what about themselves should become part of the public record in order to make it less possible for false and misleading information about them to create incorrect representations.

18. Harvard Law Professor Arthur Miller has argued that his greatest fear about the impact of technology on our lives is that it will become so commonplace that we will no longer know, or even care, how much information about us is being sent to others. Give examples of how personal information is routinely collected about us and sent to others without our knowledge. Suggest remedies for the situation?

His greatest fear is that “we will become anesthetized by it.” With technology becoming so much a part of the conveniences of modern life, he believes that we will fail to pay attention to what is happening behind the scenes, especially the collection and use of data about us that is gathered from our transactions.

19. In what ways does the concentration of personal information in digital form threaten our livelihood or personhood? Give two examples from the film.

Foreman Brown (an elderly screenwriter) found that incorrect data (marking him as deceased) prevented him from receiving his Medicare and Social Security payments as well as using credit cards.

Harriet Tuppences (a former reservations clerk for TWA) found that the use of information gathered from constant employee monitoring led to an emotional breakdown and ultimately to her being fired.

20. Give two examples of software bugs and their disastrous impact.

The AT&T phone system crashed on the entire East Coast.

Air traffic control system failure at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport

Cancer radiation overdoses by the Therac radiation machine

21. Why are software bugs so difficult to get under control?

Software systems are almost infinitely complex. In addition, we do not have standardized methods of production (it is all piece-work) which might ensure a certain level of reliability.

22. How are networks both robust and fragile?

They can survive physical attack (bombs destroying nodes are no problem) but simple software bugs can travel quickly throughout them and render them useless.

23. If you wanted to

Part VIII. Computers and Higher Education

23. How will college be different for your children? What new forms of technology will most likely be employed? How will content, instruction and learning change? (10 points)

Most likely changes include ubiquitous computing (computers everywhere, in buildings, appliances, clothing, etc.), wireless computing, small information access appliances of similar size to today’s handheld computers but with far more dynamic and exciting possibilities for interaction.

This may mean that reading becomes less important and the provision of dynamic, interactive and animated content ushers in an era of visual learning. Instruction can be handed off to these devices and be delivered on demand instead of requiring classroom time and lecturing.

Part IX. Social Systems

24. Technology evolves much more rapidly than social systems can adapt. Why is this concerning? Give an example. (10 points)

As the capacity to gather information without the knowledge of the person whose information is harvested grows, so does the potential for misuse. A malevolent government could easily monitor and control citizens, targeting disruptive ones for censure before they became a problem and spreading enough disinformation that society as a whole would not know their was anything amiss. What makes such 1984-ish scenarios possible today is that our governmental bodies cannot possible act fast enough to control what is going on around them.

Other examples of social systems not being able to keep up with technology include:

Governments trying, but failing, to restrict internet access, porn or news.

The proliferation of spam despite widespread annoyance and concern.

The disruptive effect of computer viruses with the potential to cause widespread problems.

25. It has been argued that just as writing began as a utilitarian tool that ultimately enhanced civilization through its evolution into art and literature, so the computer is beginning as a utilitarian tool (to process numbers) but will evolve into something of great consequence for humanity. What evidence is there for this kind of evolution taking place now? (10 points)

Students are much more engaged with visual media than conventional forms. The evolution toward interaction with animations and visualizations on a computer screen rather than conjured up in our imaginations (as books require you to do) is unknown.

Some have seen the rise of AI applications as heralding the decline of human intellect. As machines grow in intellect and perhaps “awareness” they may become the new life forms of consequence (superceding us).

Others see the proper role of technology to better inform humans and drive more profitable economic models, more fair and just political systems, more insightful learning, and more efficient skill building, ushering in a golden age of humanity.

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