A young woman seeking her apotheosis, ages ago, opens a portal, and changes the destiny of society, as we know it. Now endow as the first computer programmer, this woman propose an analytical engine, to construe society problems and to make exquisite music for mass. She is the Countess of Lovelace, Ada Byron. Presently, society, as a whole, is profuse in Ada design. It has advanced the education systems, automated manufacturing, globalized media, and globalized commerce. This “system break” is still having profound changes in our society today and some of these metamorphosis are not good (Shane, 3). For this reason, programmers need to understand society problems and solve them for the future.
In conjunction with the institutions being wiring, our education system is vividly seeing the impact of Ada design (Holmes, 13). Institutions are now using programs and the Internet to facilitate training in hopes of attaining sound results in schooling. An Integrated Learning Systems (ILSs) is good paragon of these new program tools (Schofield, 217). ILSs are hardware-software solutions designed to deliver instructional content.
Nowadays, almost every textbook you purchase will have some kind of ILSs content; unless, you acquire a used textbook. In this case, undergraduate/graduate can buy the Internet access, without purchasing a new book, at your friendly neighborhood campus bookstore or at the textbook publishers’ Web site. To access this content, a publisher uses some kind of secured Internet Web portal. The portal site could have supplementary slides, glossaries, audio, video, and plenty of practice examinations.
Texas A&M University Central Texas (TAMUCT) business statistics class textbook uses a special ILSs called ALEKS . ALEKS acronym is:
• Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Space
ALEKS is a Web-based, artificially intelligent assessment and learning system. Students use ALEKS to execute the class requirements of homework, quiz, and exams. Professors use ALEKS to do the lecture and the roster. Essentially, ALEKS automates everything to include the grading. So, ILSs tools can be very beneficial for institutions.
Other useful tools institutions have access be computers, projectors, and internet access in classrooms. The use of these tools could produce sound results in schooling; however, it is “apparent that preexisting attitudes” are still a big problem (Schofield, 94). Some educationist and students will not take the time to learn how to use these tools that are available to them.
For example, there is a web site called Blackboard that could be use to post the class syllabus, to do the roster, post assignments, start group chats, and to communicate with the class outside of the classroom. Unfortunately, many institutions do not have it or prefer not to use it.
Likewise, lots institutions have projectors connected to computers; howbeit, they are not using them effectively. Utilizing these projectors as an electronic whiteboard would be a very smart move. Why squander school funds on markers and erasers for whiteboard usage? Electronic whiteboard could be use at institutions, and whiteboard usage done virtually is brilliant green politics to boot.
Another smart move is converting these electronic whiteboard notes as a Portable Document Format (PDF) and posting them on a school website or Blackboard for further study. All the same, we must keep in mind that the “digital computer is just a tool. As with a hammer, the benefits of using it depend on the scale of the user” be it students, professor, or Institution (Holmes, 45).
To adjudicate what is best for an academic, institutions need to be flexibility if they are incline to use these tools; they must receive appropriate training and support (Holmes, 100). Programmers will need to make sense of these problems of preexisting attitudes, training/support, and making the software easier to use. Now, the impact of Ada design has not of course been limited to the education system. We have robots invading our homes!
No, this is not some kind of Isaac Asimov science fiction novel. There is a bona fide Roomba clean the floor. The Roomba is nothing more than a robot. Robots are reprogrammable machines designed to move materials, parts, tools, or specific programming motions for the execution of range of everyday jobs (Shane, 28). The Roomba is an autonomous robotic vacuum cleaner made and sold by iRobot Corporation (http://www.irobot.com).
Moreover, this corporation name comes from the classic novel called “I, Robot,” which is a collection of nine science fiction short stories by Isaac Asimov. Now, the iRobot Corporation’s Roomba automates the job of cleaning the floor. Under normal operating environment, this robot is able to plot a course in a living space and avoid obstacles while vacuuming your floor. For the robot to perform its job, a programmer had to solve the problem of plotting a course for the Roomba to clean the floor properly. Haphazardly, programmers have given foundation to Isaac Asimov vision; yet, they are not abiding to Isaac Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotic:” (Shane, 28)
1. A Robot shall not injure a human being.
2. A Robot must obey humans unless their order conflicts with 1.
3. A Robot must protect itself as long as its action does not violate 1 or 2.
Isaac Asimov’s three laws adhere to Ada design; however, programmers are automating war machine.
Right now, robots are now substitute human soldiers in dangerous missions, like searching tunnels and caves for terrorists, saving wounded soldiers, intelligence work on enemies and even slaughtering humans. In Iraq, robots have defused over 10,000 roadside bombs, which are responsible for 40% of U.S. casualties there. In the past, other robots were not so shocking.
In the late 1960, a “new industrial revolution” happens in the automotive industries. This revolution brings about assemble-lines that are safer, cheaper, faster, and a more advance automotive industries (Shane, 29). These robots followed Isaac Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotic” word for word.
Presently, Ada design is not so divine anymore. It now comes in many shocking shades of gray. Not all robots are as alarming as the automated war machine. Some have contributed to the good of society; however, a few robots do have a Cimmerian side. The issues of programming ethics will have to grasp by programmers. Another consequence of Ada design is observe in the globalization of “the media” (Shane, 36).
In a flash, a media explosion is appear across the world! It has resulted in more information being more quickly gathered, more carefully process, more rapidly distribute, more overwhelmingly difficult to combine (Pylyshyn, 399-400). This media explosion is the Internet. The Internet is a worldwide system of interconnected computer systems that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite (commonly known as TCP/IP) to serve billions of users globally. The Internet is a network of networks that consists of millions of individual, community, academic, business, and government networks of local to the global expanse. This network of networks is connected by an array of electronic/optical networking expertise, and is a very handy tool in the development of a research paper.
Researchers’ acquiescence of the Internet has not diminished their purpose, but in fact, has ameliorated their reasoning by adding more credibility. The difficulty of researcher paper composition is lessened, and information is more rapidly gathered. This is in keeping to Ada design; however, there are always two sides to every coin. “Too Much Information” has overwhelmed society. “Man is severely limited in a number of data-processing functions. He can attend two very limited numbers of things at one time” (Pylyshyn, 366). An individual’s limited ability to process information will have to be contemplated by programmers. Global commerce and worldwide trade is another aspect globalization.
Electronic commerce (E-commerce) is what this commerce globalization is call. “E-commerce refers to performing any type of financial transactions online, such as paying the phone bill, ordering products or services, or buying and selling stock” (Morley, 81). This activity is termed business-to-consumer (B2C) transaction. Large companies like L.L. Bean, Dell computers, Wal-Mart, Macy’s, and Amazon.com can conduct business with consumers via their web sites. For this activity to work together, a programmer had to do the code. E-commerce has conferred to the advancement society; however, e-commerce has a nefarious side. Online fraud, credit card fraud, and identity theft are raising problems (Morley, 81). Programmers will need to take care of these snags too. More beneficent of this E-commerce is appreciated in entertainment business.
Because of the Internet, the procurement of entertainment is now a smoother process. The public can go to different online stores without leaving their abodes. They can purchase music by file compression software (Morley, 81), which is Ada Byron’s dream of exquisite music for masses. In addition to audio, the Internet has increased the demand of videos and TV rebroadcasting. The public can enjoy interactive TV (iTV) or video-on-demand (VOD) (Morley, 84-85). However, entertainment business now has the complications of piracy.
Piracy concerns are increasing because of the availability of pirated copies of books and movies on the Internet. One such site is The Pirate Bay (http://thepiratebay.org/). The public can go to this web site and download illegal copies of books and movies. As a result, programmers will need to address this problem too. More aspects globalization is online training and working.
Hanging out at school or go to work is so outdated. The public can do it all online thanks to the “Information Society” (Holmes, 253). They do not need to leave their homes; again, this is attributed to programmers. This Web-based training and working is termed: (Morley, 86-87)
o Distant Learning
o Telecommuting
All these are wonderful innovations, but they too have many glitches.
The notorious “digital divide” is one of these glitches (Holmes, 250). Poverty and inequality is still a very big problem for our society. The poor do not have access to computers. Another glitch is outsourcing. Outsourcing is jobs leave your country and go overseas, and to stay competitive, several companies have sent many jobs oversea.
All of this is good for e-commerce; however, this is bad news especially for American programmers who have to contend with oversea programmers whom have a much lower cost of living. The most significant glitch is the scale of terrorism as seen in September 11. This innovation made it possible. Ada design “built both of the towers and the plane that destroyed them” (Holmes, 253). Programmers will need to propose possible solutions for these misfortunes too.
Solving society problems has caused many new problems to arise. As society seeks to find its apotheosis, we need to turn Ada design for new solutions. Society has advanced the education systems, automated manufacturing, globalized media, and globalized commerce. However, we still have digital divide, and many new problems have arisen. We are still having profound changes in our society and some of these changes are contemptuous. For this reason, programmers will have to decipher our future problems - deo volente.
Work Cited
Holmes, W. Neville. Computers and People Essays from the Profession. New York: Wiley-IEEE Computer Society Pr, 2006.
Moore, Doris Langley. Ada, Countess of Lovelace Byron's legitimate daughter. New York: Harper & Row, 1977.
Morley, Deborah. Computers and technology in a changing society. Australia: Thomson/Course Technology, 2003.
Pylyshyn, Zenon W. Perspectives on the computer revolution. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall, 1970.
Schofield, Janet Ward. Computers and classroom culture. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995.
Shane, Harold Gray. Teaching and learning in a microelectronic age. Bloomington, Ind: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, 1987.
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3 TAMUCT - Course Number GB311-580
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5 Blackboard - http://online.tarleton.edu/Dual/DualLoginPage.htm
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13 Lyrics from the band The Police - Too Much Information” http://www.lyricsfreak.com/p/police/too+much+information_20110047.html
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20 Latin – “God being willing”
