Reed - 5 questions analysis

We were presented with five questions, one per group, that allowed us to have interesting discussions. The first group talked how some devices have evolved, giving an example of the phone. It was interesting to think that before the importance of a phone was so much insignificant, because it didn’t allow us to do as much things as we do now. Now a day we don’t think about a phone as a phone, but as a computer that allows us to not only connect with people, but also with stores, libraries and everything else we can imagine. As a class we also talked about fridges, because there are some that have way more functions than a normal fridge should need/have.

The second group talked about many topics but the most interesting was the fact that we use technology to “talk things” and sometimes it allows us to talk about “taboo” topics, because they would not be socially acceptable otherwise.

The most interesting “presentation” was the fourth group that discussed the topic: “Technologies will remake us as we make and remake technologies, but we, by virtue of consciousness and self-consciousness, have the edge in those processes, and with that advantage comes great responsibility.” Before their discussion, what it came to my mind was the fact that humans are creating technology and we are changing it in an amazing level, but at the end of the day, humans are the ones that are changed because we became dependent on what we created. The fact that each device gets updates, our “dependency” changes too, because we start needing the new applications, or new functions of each invention.

My group, the fifth one, has a very interesting question to discuss. Actually it had two questions. The first one was: “Utopia or Dystopia?” I looked what those words meant, because I was not very sure, and Utopia “has come to mean a place that we can only dream about, a true paradise. Dystopia, which is the direct opposite of utopia, is a term used to describe a utopian society in which things have gone wrong.” Both of these realities are related to a future where technology has been used to create a perfect life. I personally don’t believe that technology, by it self, can create perfect living conditions, and the only way is if humans loose the natural necessities and becoming more technology like.

Ubiquitous Computing

         The Ubiquitous Computing group had their presentation during class and a lot of new information was shared with us. They started by explaining that ubiquitous computing is about interconnected processors everywhere around us. My understanding is that it’s the connection of technology. But this was only half of the definition. They explained that the human element is very important, because we found the way to bridge the digital world to the physical world. “Information technology that will have a presence n different contexts, have multiple form and it will affect everyone.” They gave us this quote, saying that to find Ubiquitous Computing we don’t have to specifically look for it, because we can find it everywhere. A great example of this is the Apple products, because the Apple watch is connected to the iPhone, which is connected to the MacBook and so on. My favorite part of the presentation were the examples, because I was not sure about the definition of the topic, so the examples made it very clear. One of them was about a solar panel build in the roofs, and I don’t think I would ever think of that as Ubiquitous Computing, but in fact, almost everything surrounding us can be included in this topic.

They talked about examples of positives and in my opinion those are the ones driving the progress in technology. But it’s much more than what we can imagine. Medical, healthcare, educational help, are just examples of other positives. Ubiquitous Computing also helps collaboration in long distances, and also helps organization and management of time. But as everything, it has negative effects too. We rely on devices much more than what we should, virus and hacking can create multiple issues on personal or society level. They also reminded us of things that can sound “part of the future” but in fact are already happening. Now we talk to machines, like Siri, and we can communicate and interact with them as real people.

They showed a video that amazed me, where the future reality was presented, and in fact, some companies had mentioned that this is what it is going to be in five or ten years. My opinion is that, if the positives are going to increase this much, then the negatives are going too, and that is something to be concerned about. “Biohacking” is the term that scared me the most, because people are already planting technological devices in their bodies, and that is way past the limits of technology, because, in my opinion, is not natural anymore. 

Big Data and Privacy and Mediated Spaces Book Reviews

          After listening the Big Data and Privacy group talking about their book, it made me think about a lot of things, and as they mentioned, there are a lot of barriers and taboo’s in the Internet. Barriers like culture, language, ethnicity, and may other are major factors. I can definitely see that and understand due to the fact that certain website is restricted in language, and other websites are made only for certain ethnicities or culture, and that is a huge barrier for the use of Internet. The part that interested me the most was about how some ethnicities rather have more privacy than others. They talked about how white Americans, in general, don’t have any problems sharing information about them, while African Americans are more reserved when questions like “What do your parents work?” or “What do you do during your free time?” The biggest example they showed was demonstrated in a video about the American mentality that people should not talk about money or salaries. It was very interesting to me to see how this is a taboo topic, but that, in fact, is not helpful at all, because it might bring some negative consequences. The fact that people rather talk about their relationships with others, than about the money they make. I connected this topic with social media and I came up with a lot of questions: “if people still value their privacy what are they so exposed in social media?” “why are people always posting and sharing things about themselves if they don’t want their information all over the internet?” A lot of studies were made by the writer of their book and what I learn the most from it is that the Internet is full of barriers that sometimes you cannot avoid.

          The second presentation was about the book “Future Perfect” by the Mediated Spaces group. From what I understood as a global idea of this book is that technology lets us visualize new methods to solve problems and new methods for communication. They also talk about how technology and networks can bring a lot of negative consequences and a lot of “evil” can come from it, but a bigger “good” is the ultimate goal, which is to progress and get a better future. They also talked about how we are competitive, but work together, and thinking of the Internet, everyone creates a different website, and sometimes is better than others, sometimes is worst, but at the end of the day, all of this competition is what makes the internet valuable and useful.