One thing technology has clearly given us is more information--is this always a good thing?

Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the world wide web, thinks so.  He wrote a book titled: Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web.  He says he:

wanted the web to be out of control--not possible to regulate it
wanted information to be unlimited, everyone to be able to contribute
radical idea of freedom of expression

to share information: information just wants to be free

• make information available to everyone--so you don't just have a select few who have the information
• information gives people ability to affect the things around them--makes it possible for people to take a more active role (for good or for evil)
• people living in repressive countries can learn about alternatives
• people can try out being someone else, people are more equal
• privacy is outdated and we shouldn't worry about it any more
  

other people see reasons to restrict information:

• information we don't want people to have, such as bomb recipes
  
• security may be compromised
• false information spreads more easily
• everyone shouldn't be able to know everything--privacy and security
• military should be able to keep secrets
• restrict what children can see
• anonymity protects dangerous activity, you don't know if people are telling the truth
• people don't learn real world social skills
• if there's too much information it is hard to find what you need

example: medical information

• we can find medical information
  
• people may go look for diseases to be scared they have
• people try to tell their doctors what to do
• people get the information to try to treat themselves, not well enough
• some people can benefit from information their doctors don't have
• more information available on rare disorders
• there is a lot of wrong and dangerous information (but sometimes the experts disagree or information changes)
• can/should the web partially replace doctors?
• people who have more information can make better choices (people have wanted to be more involved in making their own choices)
• since there isn't one clear right answer people should be involved in the choice
  
• do you want to take the time to learn as much as the doctor knows?
• sometimes we don't want to know all of the possibilities
• do we really want the responsibility for making decisions?
• I'm not sure we want to be equal to our doctors
  

• internet brings together people who share a medical issue
  
• support groups can be very helpful
• to not be alone and to share information
  
• support groups for unhealthy behaviors
• doctors can share information and discuss problems with other doctors
• telemedicine and remote controlled surgery
• order medication from other countries--save money, people get medication illegally...

People who saw the interent as a new world sometimes used the slogan: "information just wants to be free"

• we can't have the good without the bad
  
• no censorship--we will trust people reading to evaluate information for themselves (buyer beware)
• most information gets out eventually, it is hard to keep secrets
• problem of too much information--how do you find what you actually want
  
• leave it to human ingenuity to solve the problem

is free information simply a good thing?

Nye focuses first on the problems of too much information:

• lack of privacy
• lack of focus
• lack of quiet time

The internet is only the most recent of a long series of technologies that were seen initially as bringing us into a new world, but we get used to them and they are no longer a big deal

our lives become more and more not direct experience but experience filtered through technology

• Technology... the knack of so arranging the world that we don't have to experience it.  ~Max Frisch
• will it do us harm to depart too far from nature?
• does the ability to be different people on the internet lead us to have multiple personalities?

artificial intelligence ( What is Artificial Intelligence by one of the pioneers or an interesting opinion piece ) --an example of how much of our lives are filtered through technology

• what is going to happen when in many areas computers can make better decisions than people?
  
• can a computer think like a person?--some say yes
  • why or why not?  in what different ways do people think?
• Eliza fooled people as early as 1966, other examples at  MGonz (caution, language), talk with John Lennon ,  or  hampy the hamster expert or for more see  botspot  and choose chatterbots
• Expert systems: a lot of what professionals do can be reduced to decision trees, and computers can keep all the possibilities in mind better than the person ( what are expert systems )
  • how about a computer diagnosing disease?  (see for example  The Heart Disease Project )
  • to what extent can expert systems replace engineers? 
• one of the big goals was language translating, and that has come into use (though imperfect)
• Neural Networks --an approach to making a computer that can learn by copying the brain
• what do we do when computers can make better decisions than people?
  

Impact of computers on professionals:

• autocad replaces mechanical drawing and speeds up designing
• computer modeling allows quick and easy testing
• math and statistical programs make calculations easy
• professionals do a lot of their own clerical work
• expert systems may be better than professionals for some applications--how do you put the two together