Module 13

IST SS1100, The Wired Society, was by far my favorite class of the semester. Although the book by Thomas L. Friedman was a good book, I really enjoyed the in class lectures that I attended. I love learning about new technologies and how they were made or came into existence. For a student studying for a computer science degree, a history class devoted solely to technology advancements is definitely the way to go. I generally dislike history classes, but I found this class rather enjoyable and it gave me a new understanding of how the world functions and grows through the use of technology.

One of the most enjoyable class lectures that we had was about 3d printing. Before IST I had heard about 3d printing, but had never delved into it. All the tasks these new printers could do were completely mind-blowing. I didn’t realize how far along we actually were in this area of technology. But along with discussing all the amazing functions of this printer, we discussed the legal and ethical side of this machine. This lecture made me realize that a lot of thought needs to go behind the newest and latest gadgets. It also made me grateful that we live in a country where the laws can be adapted to handle all the issues that arise from new technology.

The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman was a book filled with facts and knowledge while at the same time being an easy read. This book gave me an understanding of how much the use of the internet and the new ideas of global collaboration have changed our world and the businesses within it. This book explains all of the real world applications to our new flat world with its level playing field. It also explained how businesses use a global network to become successful in their marketing, supply chaining, and internal communication.

 Friedman also explains that although our flat world allows good businesses to run at a level they have never ran before, it also allows malicious organizations to carry out even bigger and more devastating attacks of terror on the world. The example he uses in this book is al-Qaida and its ability to successfully plan an attack against the United States through global networking.  

I also enjoyed the structure of the class with our ability to have our own blogs and post our essays for public view and discussion. Reading others blogs made me think of points on the topics I had never thought of and was practically another source of easy reading course material. I would recommend this class to anyone who has a desire and a love for technology.  

Module 12

At first glance Bill Joy’s article in Wired Magazine called “Why the future doesn’t need us,” seemed rather pessimistic about moving forward in the field of technology but, I found the article to be very thought provoking and eye opening. This article has a lot of good points and made me realize that just because we can doesn’t mean we should. Technology is a great and powerful machine that we have learned to harness, but without the right precautions and right people, technology could get out of control. Joy’s article explains the threats that technology could impose. The threat he focuses on the most is GNR. He defines GNR as Genetics, Nanotechnology, and robotics.

Advancements in the field of genetics could help in many areas of science. Joy points out that we have already started using genetics in farming. We have used genetics to produce food with the flavor and size that we want. We have also produced foods that contain a much smaller amount of pesticides, making the food healthier. At the same time, we have to be very cautious about our genetically modified food. If a scientist either accidently or purposely creates a malicious crop through genetic engineering and allows it to corrupt farmers crops we could have a large problem on our hands.

Genetics also brings up the touchy subject of cloning.  As we progress in our ability to clone foods and animals, the thought of cloning humans is a very intriguing possibility. Whether it be to save someone’s life or in Star Wars case to create a clone army that could help save or destroy humanity. Regardless of what the human cloning is for the question of “is this ethical?” arises.

Joy expresses his fears with Nanotechnology by describing nanobots; which are Nano sized robots that have the ability to self-replicate. I think his fear regarding nanobots is very realistic. If we lose control of this technology, I can easily see these robots replicating at a pace at which we have no control and causing massive destruction, especially when the nanobots are in the wrong hands.

 As I was reading this article, I began to wonder as to why we would even want to explore this area of technology, but Nanotechnology has so many constructive and lifesaving implications. Ideally they could be used to locate and destroy cancerous cells. They could also be used to devour oil spills and cleanup large areas of garbage and debris. But if we lose control, these same nanobots that were supposed to clean up oil spills could potentially devour our oil supply itself.

Due to sci-fi, a vast majority of individuals think that robot means a human like machine with similar mental and physical capabilities. We have had robots for a long time some more lifelike then others. Joy feels that in the foreseeable future robots could become a threat.  I can see where he gets his cautious notions, but we are not at a point where such predictions can be made. Many countries have made robots that seem very intelligent and lifelike. All these function are programmed into the robot. Unless the robot is programmed to attack the human race, it will not go rogue and start wiping out the human race. I’m not saying that this is not a possibility further down the road, but with our advancements in robotics up to this point, we are nowhere near creating a robot capable of making significant decision based on emotion and overriding its own programming. Although, I do feel like sometimes my computer has a mind of its own.

Robots help in many aspects of life. In a factory production line robots are used all the time to speed up production and do very dangerous tasks. Some retirement homes in Japan use robots to help care for the elderly. This doesn’t completely rule out the need for nurses, but when a nurse isn’t available the patient can get the help they need. Robots can also be used for entertainment. Toyota has created a robot that can play various violin songs and can even achieve the vibrato technique.

 Technology has the potential to make our lives so much easier and connect us to people in ways we would never have thought possible, but that is only if it is being used for the right purposes. There are enough good hearted people in the world that technology has become a very beneficial part of our lives.  Technology is not something that should be feared. It should be embraced.

 

Module 11

The movie I chose to watch and write about is WarGames. I had never heard of this movie before and I don’t know why, because it was a great movie. This movie was made in 1983 so the Ideas of super computers and artificial intelligence were still relatively new subjects. This movie depicts the roles that computers could inherit in areas like the military and national security. I have grown up with computers my whole life and to me the three and a half inch floppy disks are rather old school. So to see these eight inch floppy disks, dial-up networks, and computers that filled a whole room opened my eyes as to how far we have come in our technological advancements with computers and networks.

To give a brief synopsis of the movie without being a spoiler : David Lightman, a teenage hacker, accidently stumbles upon a military defense computer and starts a simulation for Global Thermonuclear War, thinking that it is just a game. This causes the government to think that the simulation is real and results in a large amount of chaos. The government catches David and interrogates him while not believing that he accidently started the simulation and accusing him of being a terrorist. Because the government thinks he is a soviet terrorist, Lightman has a very hard time trying to tell them that the computer is still playing the simulation. If the computer finishes the simulation, nuclear missiles will launch and World War III would commence.

WarGames encompasses many different functions and uses of computers back in the eighties. This movie manages to show what home computers were like thirty years ago as well as state of the art, military super computers. One of the first computers seen in the movie is called WOPR. This computer fills almost the whole room. Even though the computer is very large, it can only facilitate a small list of games while learning from its own mistakes or the mistakes of others. At the time this was ground breaking technology, but now a computer with the same functionality would be very cheap and could possibly be the size of an individual’s thumb.

The next computer that is shown in this movie is David’s home computer. This computer has a phone attached to it for dial-up and takes eight inch floppy disks for memory. When looking at the monitor, there is no windows or mac operating system with a full user interface. Up until Windows, these computers ran strictly on input in the form of command prompts. To use one of these computers one would almost need to learn a programming language. Now granted command prompt is a lot simpler than writing common programming code like JavaScript or C#, but it was still a lot more complicated than our method today of just simply clicking the right buttons.

This film shows the great care, thought, and testing that is necessary to automate very critical and life changing tasks through the use of computers. The idea of using the WOPR to automate the task of launching nuclear missiles was a good idea in theory. NORAD conducted a test to see if their employees mentally had what it takes to launch the missiles. Around twenty percent of the missiles were not launched. So their solution was to have a computer to do the task. This would eliminate the problem of human emotions, but they failed to realize how poorly secured the computer was and to take note of bugs in the system that would not allow for a system shutdown or a system override.

An issue I could see arising from WarGames is a new found interest and curiosity in the world of hacking. Because after watching this movie, I was very intrigued about hacking and wanted to learn more and maybe try some of it myself. Not to say that all hacking is bad, because there are many people who can make an honest living from ethical hacking and maybe after this movie companies hired some hackers to test how secure their computers actually were. I just wouldn’t be surprised if after this movie came out, more people wanted to pursue an interest in hacking whether it be ethical or completely illegal.

Module 9

Dell is a company that is known for their custom built laptops and desktops. Due to a very efficient supply chain and assembly line, Dell can mass produce these customized computers. After reading how fast the process is, I began to wonder how well these computers are actually put together and how many issues result from the fast pace supply chain, but the computers must work well enough for Dell to be a very wide known and successful company.

Friedman states that Dell is comprised of six factories. Only two of the factories actually reside in the United States. Each of these factories have their own supplier logistics center (SLC) which is practically a warehouse full of all the parts needed to produce around twenty-five thousand computers six days a week. The SLC receives their parts from over twenty five different suppliers. Because of the massive amount of computers that are produced within the hour, the SLC must be prepared to deliver parts to Dell factories every two hours.  These deliveries are based on the customer’s order.

Once the parts arrive at the Dell factory they go through an assembly of workers who put together each individual part. The computer is then prepared with the software and operating system requested by the customer. Next the computer is boxed up and shipped to the buyer via large 747 airplanes and UPS trucks.

Sadly strategic supply chaining can also be used for malicious purposes. Dell uses their supply chain to provide customers with their products in a timely manner, while at the same time, Al-Qaeda uses their supply chain to pass information and perform well planned attacks. Osama bin-Laden was able to outsource the task and planning for the 9/11 bombing to terrorists who specialized in the needed areas of expertise. Due to the “flattening of the world” bin-Laden was able to put together a team of skilled professionals that contained individuals from all over the world.

Al-Qaeda supply chain doesn’t only consist of executing terrorist attacks; it also consists of multiple charities and pro Al-Qaeda organizations. These charities and organizations were able to receive their money through propaganda campaigns. To prepare for the 9/11 attack, bin-laden was able to receive the funding needed from these organizations through the use of the internet. He used this global network for wire transfers, online transfers from overseas bank accounts and many other methods. Al-Qaeda definitely uses supply chaining from propaganda campaigns all the way up to the final attack.

The curse of oil, according to Friedman, refers to nations run by dictators and monarchs who have spent all of their time and money drilling for oil and leave little or no money and effort to be put towards the people.  In this type of economy the rich definitely get richer and the poor definitely become poorer. Because of oil, the talents of the people become viewed as being much lower in importance. As long as the oil continues to flow, the dictators and monarchs can keep a tight hold on their power. These nations tend to have weak education systems and very little or no rule of law.

 I can see many reasons why dictators who care about nothing other than power would suppress on the peoples education and freedom. First off they only care about investing in themselves, so dispersing money towards an education program would seem like a waste of money to them. Secondly if the people were able to gain an education they, as dictators, would have less of a grasp on the people’s freedom and would then have more competition in their oil drilling businesses. Friedman also explains that their actually are some Arab countries that are innovating and successful in today’s world. And wouldn’t you believe, these countries are the countries promoting educational opportunity and creating job growth for the people.

Module 7

During the past twenty years, many technological advancements have taken place to allow a more global economy surrounded by free trade. As the opportunities of global trade have risen, successful nations have whole heartedly taken advantage of these new advantages. But just signing a contract to be part of free trade isn’t nearly enough to obtain a successful and profitable country, based on the example of Mexico.  Mexico entered free trade in the 1990’s, but didn’t make the proper adaptations to efficiently use the benefits resulting from the contract.

Friedman explains that countries must be honest with themselves and find where they stand in the flattening world and what adaptions need to be made to take advantage of the new platform. He also gives four adaptions and systems that need to be in place for nations to be successful in a free trade market. First a nation must have the correct infrastructure needed to connect to the rest of the world. A country will have a hard time competing or collaborating with other countries across the world if they have no internet access.

 Second is education. Although learning trades like agriculture and carpentry is still beneficial, new systems of schooling must take place. A country cannot compete in the global economy and invent new technology if they don’t have any education on computers and new technology. Even farmers need to know a great deal about computers if they are using modern technology for irrigation or harvesting.

The third aspect is governance and the ability to motivate workers to be more successful in their businesses and strive for bigger and better things. If the government of a country doesn’t have the ability to summon and focus local energies on reform retail, then it will take forever for decisions to be made and will possibly halt the progress of their economy on a global scale.

 Fourth is the right environment. If countries spend all their time industrializing instead of thinking about the effects on the environment, often times once the environment is at an awful state the economy ends up backtracking. Take for example the dustbowl. So much time and effort was spent in growing cotton and ignoring the effects to the soil from producing so much cotton that it became impossible for any farming on the soil. The soil was so dry that any wind produced major sandstorms. Because of this, all the families had to uproot themselves and start over.

One of the most important aspects of any business is customer service. In any retail or restaurant job there is always the saying “the customer comes first,” and this is completely true. Not very many people will go to a store repeatedly if they know the store has horrible customer service.  This is what makes fitting the needs of a “self-directed customer” so important.

 I would definitely consider myself a self-directed customer. One example would be the new online ordering method for Dominoes. They allow the customers to choose a variety of options for almost every step in the pizza making process. This allows the customers to make decisions at their own pace in their own home while making them feel like they are the chef creating their pizza. To me, this new way of ordering is one of the best ways of customer service.

During the early stages of globalization, other nations were worried that they would lose their culture due to America’s position as a strong global economic force, but I don’t think this is the case.  Before globalization most of our information about foreign countries was brought forth by media in a stereotypical fashion. But because of globalization, we now have a broader range of information about other nation’s cultures. Now this will only remain true if other nations take part in this new global platform. Granted there are American companies all over the world now, but as other nations grow they have just as much, or maybe even more, of a chance as American’s do to push the cultures out to the world.

 

Module 6

The idea of free trade was a theory brought forth by David Ricardo, an English economist. In my opinion this Idea explains that if each nation specializes in the production of their own goods and trades these goods with each other then, theoretically, the gain in trade and overall income should rise. This theory only works if the nations do not interfere in over regulating the imports and exports to other countries.  

I feel as though free trade would be beneficial to our global economy. I realize that many Americans have lost their jobs due to offshoring and outsourcing but overtime we can adapt to the changes of the global economy and be able to compete with other nations. The idea of a global economy is a lot like the second step of triple convergence discussed in my previous module. This new found Idea of free trade could become a useless and very unbeneficial theory if all the countries decide to open up to free trade while making no adaptions whatsoever to take advantage of the benefits and functions of a global economy with limited regulations.

Like any company going through a new upgrade in their system, company time is spent trying to learn this new system instead of making new business with other customers and bringing in profit. This time can feel pointless and frustrating in the beginning when typical functions in the company now take twice the amount of time because of unfamiliarity. But once the employees become familiarized with the upgrade, the system will become streamlined usually resulting in an increase of profit and a decrease in company time wasted. In my opinion we, being Americans, are in the learning stage of this new global upgrade and as we continue to adapt to these changes by an improvement in education we will see an increase in trade and overall income.

The term “new middler” refers to Friedman’s theory which includes eight characteristic traits that will help the common people become a successful middle class individual in our new technological world. He explains that those jobs that we once thought were untouchable are now disposable and if we don’t adapt to these changes in time we can become disposable too.

 The first is Great Collaborators and Orchestrators: These are those who have a great ability to communicate with others and orchestrate a team that works successfully around the clock. Second is The Great Synthesizers: these are the innovators that can bring together the global flatteners in new and creative ways. Third, The Great Explainers: those with the ability to explain complex concepts in a way that others can understand.  Fourth, The Great Leveragers: the people who can brainstorm ways of competing with the increasing size of laborers. Fifth, The Great Adapters: individuals who can roll with the punches of the changing economy and job pool, while adapting to the job changes. Sixth, The Green people: Those who are concerned about the environment and devoted in finding ways to create renewable and sustainable products. Seventh, The Math Lovers: These people have a love and have obtained great skills in the math department. The math lovers have the ability to design and control the new and upcoming technologies. Last but not least The Great Localizers: Those who are conscious about creating local jobs in all sizes of business.

When trying to understand Friedman’s equation of CQ + PQ > IQ, one must first understand what each variable stands for. CQ stands for curiosity quotient. PQ refers to the passion quotient. And Finally IQ which as most know is the intelligence quotient. In this equation Friedman is stating that curiosity and passion combined are greater in value then the pure power of intelligence. I couldn’t agree more with this statement. If a person possesses the curiosity and passion to learn everything they can learn this becomes far greater than someone who is able to spew out facts and knowledge. At the same time, I believe that by utilizing ones curiosity and passion to the objective of learning one can raise their IQ. In this competitive world a lot more than just smarts is needed to be successful. 

Module 5

To explain Friedman’s term of Triple convergence, I must first explain each tier of the convergence. The first tier, known as Convergence I, is the combination of all the flatteners from Globalization 2.0 and 3.0.  Each of the technological advancements of Globalization 2.0 and 3.0, explained in earlier chapters, were significant in the process of flattening the world when brought together as a whole, but when separated the significance of these advancements declines. Paul Romer, a Stafford University economist, gives an analogy of a pencil and paper. Both were great inventions, but without one another’s existence their importance dramatically decreases. Because of the connection between these global flatteners, as one concept or product is improved upon the others are bound to follow.

Convergence II or “horizontalization” Is the process of understanding the purpose and importance behind these global flatteners while making the use of the advancements habitual. A company could buy the fanciest computer in the world that could do tasks from creating workflows to taking your dog on a walk, but if nobody in the company knows how to use this computer it becomes useless. Even if the company decides to train an employee to use the computer it may still have no use if they have not yet created a new business plan to utilize the new technology.  This is essentially what Convergence II is comprised of.

Now Convergence III has more to do with international economics and politics.  Without Convergence three our global platform would be missing a large sum of about three billion people.  Before the 1990’s, Individuals from China, India, Russia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Central Asia would have never been allowed to compete and collaborate with other nations. By 2000 events affecting each of these groups of people, including the fall of the Berlin wall, expanded our global economy to six billion people.  When all three of these tiers of convergence came together they became the Triple Convergence

The question of who is being exploited and who is doing the exploiting in the case of Indiana and India is a tough question to answer, but in the end I believe that the people of Indiana were being exploited by their own government.  At the same time India’s government was exploiting its own residents.  I do not believe that Indiana or India were exploiting each other.

Indiana’s government was in need of an upgrade to their computer system and decided to contract out this task. When the biddings were all said and done Tata America International, a subsidiary of India’s Consultancy Service, was able to bid about a third lower than its competitors.  The state of Indiana decided to go with this India based company before thinking clearly about the resulting consequences that would come from contracting out a task this large to a company not comprising of its own people. If this was a decision made by any other business or company not under the umbrella of the federal government, it would not have been that great a concern. But when the government neglects to contract out a task to its own people who they were sworn to serve, a much larger issue is at hand. The state government’s top priority should not be money but that of its own people, who are the reason they, as government workers, have a job in the first place.

Now from India’s perspective they were only bidding on a task that was in their area of expertise. They were right in taking the business perspective and not worrying about who they were doing the job for as long as they could get a bang for their buck per say. Friedman explains that due to the Socialist economic policy of Indian government, they could not provide their own engineers with work locally. Leaving those that cannot afford to leave India to look for an alternative career field to keep food on the table.  

Intellectual property is an Invention, piece of literature, or work resulting from an individual’s own creativity. Due to new technological simplicity and ease of access, inventions, ideas and literary works are shared all over the world. Without proper knowledge of copyright and patenting laws one can easily become subject to copyright law suits or become a victim of plagiarism. This can become a hassle, but at the same time patenting laws protect innovators and motivate them to come up with new ideas. Without the protection of intellectual property, innovators would become a dying breed.