Unwrapping the Gift:

Benefits of Computer
Technology
Negative impacts of new technology
– Unemployment
– Alienation
– Poor customer service
– Crime
– Loss of privacy
– Errors
General positive benefits
– Convenience / less effort
– Time / cost savings
– New kinds / classes of jobs
– More options for transactions
– Improvements in crime-fighting
– Improved customer service / satisfaction
– Fewer errors
– New forms of entertainment
– New ways to communicate
Appreciating the Benefits
- communication
- transportation
- aid local schools.
- fighting crime.
- medicine.
- disabled people.
Benefits to communication
– Non-invasive; read at recipients’ convenience
– Time-saving
– Access to immense (often timely) amounts of information
– Text, graphics, and sound can be combined
– Much information on the web is “free”
– Public forums not limited to geographic boundaries •
Traditional boundaries are no obstacle
– More independence - people can do more themselves
– Remote access available
Benefits to Transportation
– Navigation
– Diagnostics - e.g. chips that collect information
about engine behaviour
– Safety - e.g. ABS
– Hybrid engines
– Fuel efficiency
– Traffic pattern studies
Benefits to education
– Language acquisition
– Spelling
– Literacy
– Distance learning
– Simulations (e.g. for learning air traffic control
or endoscopic surgery)
– Speech recognition & synthesis (e.g. for learning
a foreign language)
Benefits in fighting crime
– Improved crime reporting (e.g. information about
stolen art may be posted)
– Faster search of arrest records and fingerprint files
– Remote access to records and reports (e.g., from
patrol cars)
– Enhancement of records (fingerprints and photos)
– Access to numerous databases
– Improved monitoring and surveillance equipment
Benefits to medicine
– Sophisticated medical imaging
– Reduced surgery time
– Faster recovery time (e.g. minimally invasive
surgery)
– Patient monitoring
– Improved treatments
– Fewer errors (e.g. robotic pharmacies)
Benefits to the disabled
– Disability-specific computer applications (e.g., a braille
printer)
– Control of household and workplace appliances
– Mobility
– Control of artificial limbs
– Improved vision (e.g. large font sizes)
– Access to adaptive educational equipment
– Improved communication (e.g. speech input for people who
can’t write, speech synthesis for those who can’t talk)
– Opportunity to return to work
 The Ubiquity of
computers and the
rapid pace of
change
The Pace of Change
• 1940s: First computer was built.
• 1956: First hard-drive disk weighed a ton and
stored five megabytes.
• 1991: Space shuttle had a one-megahertz
computer.
– Ten years later, some automobiles had 100-
megahertz computers. Speeds of several gigahertz
are now commo
The Pace of Change Discussion
Question What devices are now
computerized that were not
originally? Think back 10, 20, 50
years ago
Cell Phones
• Relatively few in 1990s. Approximately five billion
worldwide in 2011.
• Used for conversations and messaging, but also for:
– taking and sharing pictures
– downloading music and watching videos
– checking email and playing games
– banking and managing investments
– finding maps
• Smartphone apps for many tasks, including: – monitoring
diabetes – locating water in remote areas
Change and Unexpected Developments
Cell Phones (cont.) - cons: • Location tracking raises
privacy concerns.
• Cameras in cell phones affect privacy in public and
nonpublic places.
• Cell phones can interfere with solitude, quiet and
concentration.
• Talking on cell phones while driving is dangerous.
• Other unanticipated negative applications: teenagers
sexting, terrorists detonating bombs, rioters organizing
looting parties
Kill switches
•Allow a remote entity to disable
applications and delete files.
•Are in operating systems for
smartphones, tablets and some computers.
•Used mainly for security – but raise
concerns about user autonom
Social Networking:
• First online social networking site was
www.classmates.com in 1995.
• Founded in 2003, Myspace had roughly 100 million
member profiles by 2006.
• Facebook was started at Harvard as an online
version of student directories
• Social networking is popular with hundreds of
millions of people because of the ease with which
they can share aspects of their lives
• Businesses connect with customers.
• Organizations seek donations.
• Groups organize volunteers.
• Protesters organize demonstrations and
revolutions.
• Individuals pool resources through “crowd
funding”.
• Stalkers and bullies stalk and bully.

• Jurors tweet about court cases during trials.

• Socialbots simulate humans.

Communication and the Web
•In the 1980s, email messages were short and
contained only text.
•People worldwide still use email, but texting,
tweeting , and other social media are now
preferred
•Blogs (“Web log”) began as outlets for amateurs
wanting to express ideas, but they have become
significant source of news and entertainment.
•Inexpensive video cameras and video-manipulation tools
have resulted in a burst of amateur videos.
•Many videos on the Web can infringe copyrights owned
by entertainment companies
Telemedicine
•Remote performance of medical exams and procedures,
including surgery.
E-commerce
•Amazon.com started in 1994 selling books on the Web. It
has grown to be one of the most popular, reliable, and
user-friendly commercial sites.
•eBay.com facilitates online auctions.
•Traditional brick-and-mortar business have established
Web sites.
•Online sales in the United States now total hundreds of
billions of dollars a year.
•Sellers can sell directly to buyers, resulting in a
peer-to-peer economy.
E-commerce and trust concerns
•People were reluctant to provide credit card
information to make online purchases, so PayPal.com
grew out of need for trusted intermediary to handle
payments.
•Encryption and secure servers made payments safer.
•The Better Business Bureau established a Web site to
help consumers see if others have complained about a
business.
•Auction sites implemented rating systems
Free stuff
•Email programs and email accounts, browsers,
filters, firewalls, encryption software, word
processors, spreadsheets, software for viewing
documents, software to manipulate photos and
video, and much more
•Phone services using VOIP such as Skype
•Craigslist classified ad site
•University lecture
•Inorder for companies to earn ad revenue to
fund multimillion-dollar services, many free
sites collect information about our online
activities and sell it to advertisers.
Artificial intelligence
•A branch of computer science that makes computers
perform tasks normally requiring human
intelligence.
•Researchers realized that narrow, specialized
skills were easier for computers than what a five-
year-old does: recognize people, carry on a
conversation, respond intelligently to the
environment.
•Many AI applications involve pattern
recognition.
•Speech recognition is now a common tool.
The Evolution
of the
telephones
The First Telephones
Telephones were invented by Alexander
Graham Bell in 1876. The first words ever
spoken on a telephone were when Bell said
to his assistant, “Mr. Watson, come here! I
want to see you!” There was no way to dial
on this phone because each phone was
connected to just one other phone. Most
people who had telephones had one in their
home and one in the office or place of
business.
Switchboards and exchanges
By the 1880s, a new invention was introduced to allow
telephones to connect with more than just one other phone. It
was called a switchboard. When people wanted to place a call,
they would get the operator on the line and then say who
they wanted to call. The operator would connect the call by
plugging one line into another. The buildings where the
switchboards were located were often called exchanges. Most
towns in NH had their own exchanges until the middle of the
20th century. Telephone numbers started to be used at the
same time, but the first telephone numbers used both words
and numbers. Telephones also got smaller during this period
too.
Phone Numbers
In the 1950s, rotary phones became popular. You
could dial the number for your own call, and an
electric switchboard would make the connection.
Switchboard operators weren’t needed anymore.
Push button phones were introduced in the late
1970s. It was much easier to push the buttons
than to use your finger to turn the heavy dial
of a rotary phone
Pay Phones and Phone Booths

If people needed to make a phone call when they

were away from home, they probably had to use a
pay phone, which is when you put coins into a
public telephone to pay for the call. Pay phones
were invented in 1889. Most pay phones were
located in telephone booths. Phone booths were
also invented in 1889. There aren’t many pay
phones or phone booths left anymore. Now most
people have cell phones to make calls.
Wireless Phones
The first wireless telephones were developed in the
early 1970s. They worked differently from earlier
telephones. Wireless technology was invented in the
1880s when it was used to send wireless telegraph
messages. It was later developed for radios, which
became popular in the 1920s. Wireless technology sends
sound through electromagnetic impulses and radio waves
instead of wires. The first wireless phones were pretty
big, but they got smaller and smaller over the years.
Some wireless phones were specially made to work in
cars. Now cell phones can work anywhere they can get a
signal!