IT Future and Final Blog Entry

The future if IT promises to be an interesting one. Technology is rapidly expanding and very little can be done to slow its growth. In my opinion humans have to learn how to utilize these new advances rather than let them utilize us. You see many examples of people becoming to complacent with technology, and letting it run their life without really understanding how it operates. This is a tragedy to me, as I feel that the new mass availability of information makes it easier than ever to learn about these functions.

Many people are afraid of new technology, and want to stop its growth because they feel that it will somehow replace human beings. I can see some possibility in these ideas, but it is a very small chance in my opinions. This scenario is unlikely in my opinion, mainly because currently I would see no ambition that machines would develop in order to replace humans. Mainly because they are machines and have no human ambitions of power. I personally believe that humans and machines must evolve together, and possibly even become interconnected in the future. This has already begun on a small scale in terms of medical implants, bionic limbs, and even technologies that can sink with people's brains like the Braingate example that we watched in class. Basically in my mind the possibilities are endless, and I hope to see marvelous advancements in my lifetime.

In this class I have learned much about a complicated topic. My knowledge of information systems was very limited before this course. Although we only scratched the surface of the topic in this class, I am glad that I was able to gain basic knowledge on this topic that I hope to expand on in the future. Information Technology is the way of the future, and in the interest of not being left behind I will attempt to learn as much as I can in order to one day utilize these advances and properly use information systems during the remainder of my college experience, into my professional career, and wherever else life takes me.

Eastern Tuition

Eastern Michigan University seems to be the only college not going up on their tuition fees. Michigan State, U of M, Saginaw Valley etc. are all going up by the thousands each year. But Eastern is the only school not going up on their tuition fees. It seems things are getting worse with the economy and even more worse with the amount of money schools need. Last year Eastern did raise it's fees but for this year they have decided not too. On July 14 2009 Eastern put a 3.8 percent tuition increase for the fall semester.

They are saying that things financially are getting real bad for the country. Which is the reason for the rising of price for schools. I think this is ridiculous. It's bad enough there aren't enough jobs for students to even try to pay for their schooling. Everyone basically has to go through Financial Aid.

Things need to get better soon. This is an issue that should be discussed more with families and how they are going to handle the pressure of this amount of money being spent on the college level of education.

Future discussion and Singularity

When we talk about singularity in class we saw a dividing line. I notice how a couple people say this is good for society while others felt was a bad choice. Me personally I feel we should go to a certain point. Though it is not strong evidence movies such as I Robot and Terminator prove what could happen if we continue to improve technology. With these possible result I kind of worry what future we might be making for ourselves.

Ray Kurzweil was the first person to talk about how far we are taking technology. Though in his book we talk about in class he contradict himself a few times he predict adroids will be here. He also stated that a computer with the calulation power of a human should be out around 2029. He also states that aorund 2049 a computer will be out witht he calulation power of every human being on this planet. With these kind of prediction I kind of want to see these could of computers.

For our debate and last day of class ended with every person having their own opinion of what singularity might bring as a result. For me only the future can tell what might happen with singularity. Like investigating DNA that in the 80s was suppose to take 200 years only took 13 years once started. Technology seem to not have anything blocking it from imporving. Once the android come that can think for itself we can only hope for the best.

link to singularity: http://www.singularity.com/

Ethics

Ethics is a word we as people use to decide what is right and what is wrong. Yet, we cannot explain what being ethical means only because evey person have their own meaning of being ethical. Ethics are really building blocks because your parents teach you what is right and what is wrong very young. As you grow you really start having feeling about what you is doing is right or wrong. Even when collecting ethics you need to be careful because you can easily become confuse with it.

Ethics also rely on your religious beliefs. Which further make it harder for people to define ethics. As we saw in class with our disussion every person their had their own opinion about ethics. In honest opinion to me ethics should not really have a definition. I feel thjis was because when a word have a definition most if not all the people agree with it. Ethics is one of the highest debating topic we has humans have.

Ethics also can conflict with itself. A major conflict with ethics is doing something wrong to help someone in need. For example and true story a man's mother was dying from a disease, the doctors had what she needed, but they could not afford it. The man got tired of seeing his mother suffer that he went to the store where they had it with a gun. So, he rob the store, but only took the medcine for his mother this is very hard to say if it is ethical or not because in my opinion I did not see this being unethical.

link to ethics: http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/whatisethics.html

12th (and final) post

I cannot believe how fast the semester has gone by! I literally walked into this class not knowing a thing about information systems and now I feel like I could confidently hold my own in a conversation on the topic. All of the projects in class were interesting but I liked the decision making homework the best. It is really practical for absolutely everyone. And blogging was definitely an interesting experience.

Before class the most experience I had with blogging was for the website "Xanga" when I was in middle school. I pretty much used it to tell stories about my friends and myself. It got boring because let's be honest, the life of an eighth grader isn't very exciting. Blogging for this class has lead me to the conclusion that blogging is best done when focused on a certain topic. Our class blog is a perfect example of this, because all of the blogs had one thing in common: they were about information systems.

Although I'm not sure I'll be checking information system blogs regularly when the class is over, it is definitely helpful to know they are there to answer questions. It is likely that someone on the internet will have the information you're looking for. I think everyone should take their experience with blogging this semester and gear it towards something they're passionate about. For example, I love fashion and could spend hours (and sometimes do) surfing fashion blogs. I encourage everyone to explore because it is a lot of fun!

IT Future

The information technology develops so faster that many experts even the common people feel afraid and worry that one day the computer will be instead of human intelligence. The worry is reasonable. There is something that the human beings should consider about.

Superhuman intelligences may have goals that it is inconsistent with human survival and prosperity. Some experts think that artificial intelligences may simply eliminate the human race but the human beings will be powerless to stop them in the future. Some situations may be happened that an artificial intelligence system solves an excavation problem on the moon in a brilliant and novel way, but nearly kills a work crew in the process. And the human beings should realize that if information systems are becoming too sophisticated and complex to predict or manage, a scientific team sets out to teach a sophisticated computer network how to think more humanly. When humans create the first super intelligent entity, they may make a mistake and give it goals that lead it to annihilate humankind, assuming its enormous intellectual advantage gives it the power to do so.

The others think that the basic intelligence of computer is not tied to any particular body, which will give it a radically different world view. This intelligence may be the one factor that leads to singularity. Someone describes the situation which just likes something go through a barrier, if information technology approaches a barrier, the new information technologies will cross it.

Case studies

In the last two weeks of class, we've been learning with a different approach: case studies. Case studies are a great way to approach a topic, and with how class has been these past two weeks, I think most agree that these have been great. Case studies are meant for many levels of learning, and some institutions, like Harvard, use them almost exclusively. These can give us an interesting idea of how real-world business works.

The nature of our case studies and why class discussion was so interesting is that they pull together more concepts than just the foundations of IS - they require us to think about many soft concepts. An analysis of how people work, ethics, and our world's current problems gives many more people the ability to make a contribution with so much to talk about. When more specialized fields become topics is when people often have less to say.

One idea I thought might help is to introduce case studies earlier in the course. Maybe establishing a consistent frequency of case studies would help - it might give everyone a day to look forward to. What do you think about case studies?

Thanks Eastern

In the beginning I really didn't know what to expect from this course. I don't know that much about computers in general. I thought that it was really interesting to hear about how they originated. I didn't know all the things that they can do. I am glad that I wasn't thrown into a class that depended on knowing and understanding all of the technical terms. I think that if you are going into this field it is important but since this is just a requirement for me I was a bit relieved.

I think that this course will help me in the future to understand the advancements in technology. I now know what kind of impact new inventions are going to have on our culture. Before I would say who cares? But now, I know what the invention of the ipad will bring to technology. These things really do change our future.

I am glad that Eastern makes us take these types of electives. I believe that they are important for a couple reasons. First, it exposes us to different courses that we otherwise never would have taken. Imagine if someone was required to take this class and they decided that this is something that they have been looking for. Second, I feel that it broadens our knowledge of other fields. If we didn't have this course work we wouldn't completely understand or respect other people who are involved in these fields.

The Human Genome Project

As a benchmark for the importance of reverse engineering the brain, and the time needed to do it, we discussed how quickly the human genome project was completed. The human genome project was expected to be completed in 2090 and instead was finished in 2003. That's difference of 87 years. This figure also gives us an idea of how much we underestimate the future.

The human genome project was also a global effort by several advanced countries. This also shows how large the flat factor plays into how we estimate, or underestimate, the future to be. Outside of the human genome, the project also focused on: E. coli, the fruit fly, and the lab mouse. These three projects play a large role in understanding the human genome and other scientific areas of humanity.

However, the human genome only is complete in general terms. There are several specific areas of the human genome, such as telomeres, that are still incomplete. As of today, the best estimate for how complete the human genome is 92.3%. The most interesting fact is that the human genome contains roughly twice as much DNA as the roundworm, and almost the same amount as mice. This data will lead us to create very important cures as we obtain the technology to practically use it.

12th blog

Well this is my final blog of the class, I never thought it would end lol. At first when I heard that we had to do all these blogs I was sad and thought blogging was nerdy and pointless. It turns out that I was wrong for a few reasons. I think that there is a lot of information from other people that you can lean this way, and it turned out to be pretty sweet.

In the last two classes we talked about ethics and the future, respectively. Ethics have always been a topic briefly covered in various classes. Thics are a system of moral principles, or the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group or culture.

A big threat to the future of any business is failure in ethics. Business ethics as an issue are much much more powerful than globalization or even the internet, and can destroy a business almost instantly. The standards of business ethics however, are changing rapidly. What was good is becoming bad and vice-versa, very fast.

A good site to get some information of this is: http://www.globalchange.com/businessethics.htm

When I think about our little heated discussion that we had the day in class about things like the future and what it had in store for us technology wise I think about robot people. I think that we need to take a serious look at whats going on around us and see that we need to keep ourselves in check and be sure that we are not relying on technology too much. it has been said that 97% of children today play video games for more than three hours a day. I feel that this is just one example of how we abuse technology. I believe that kids use this as something to do instead of going outside or reading, and parents use this as a babysitter. The technology is so great that we have now, it can help us in so many ways. I just don't want people to not be able to help themselves. I want to see the day where people are able to use a chip to store information in their brain, but I don't want to see the day when everyone uses this chip to do everything for them. I cant say I will ever use a chip but it is all just part of history that I can see happen. Technology will continue to advance whether I want it to or not, I just want it all to be used the right way.

The Singularity and Ethics

Is the Singularity really coming and how will it affect us? These are two unanswerable questions so far, unfortunately. Let's assume that the Singularity is indeed approaching and will arrive at a rate consistent with Kurzweil's predictions. The ramifications are unclear because it is difficult to predict what this will mean for us as humans. Certainly, it would appear troubling, particularly to those of us who have watched the Terminator, that this prediction includes a reality in which machines exceed the intelligence of the average human brain. In this scenario, machines could theoretically build increasingly intelligent machines without human intervention or help. If these machines have no inherent concept of ethics or morals, isn't there a strong likelihood that human and machine goals could become incongruent? In this scenario, isn't it also possible that machines could at some point decide that humans aren't "useful" or "necessary"?

If you believe that humans are imbued with some supernatural conception of ethics from birth, this scenario should be particularly frightening to you. If however you, like me, believe that ethics and morals are a contrivance of a biological survival mechanism, then you should be a lot more optimistic about the future of super-intelligent machines. If machines become highly intelligent, and to be "more intelligent" than humans I believe they would have to be self-aware, it is not at all unlikely that the biological survival mechanism that yields morality in humans would be mirrored by a mechanical survival mechanism that yields a similar machine "morality". In fact, if this were not the case, I would argue that the machines, although highly intelligent, were not yet smarter than humans for this very reason.

Another ramification of super-intelligent machines is the God paradox. To me, God sort of occupies that asymptote that Kurzweil calls the Singularity. God in this sense is a deification of everything we don't know. Disregarding the other purported capabilities of God (see the Omnipotence Paradox), if a machine eventually came to know "all things", and in fact was able to predict all things based on perfect knowledge of the universe and its mechanisms, how would this square with that aspect of God's identity? Could the machine replace God? Wouldn't this undermine our notions of Free Will? In this crazy world, I wouldn't doubt that some people at least would begin worshiping such a machine. Ultimately, as history has shown us, only time will tell, and I find it unlikely that we have the means to stop the locomotive of technological advancement at this point.

Case Study

I have found the case studies to be very interesting. There are things that I didn't know before reading them. I really liked the one about Medivet. I thought that it was a cool concept to be able to go to a clinic that is easily accessible where ever your day may take you. This would also be helpful if there were an emergency and they didn't have the equipment necessary or if you weren't near your usual vet.

Recently, I was reading Ahead of the Curve and it takes place at Harvard. It is kind of like the diary of someone who went through their MBA program. All of the things in the book were true. They use case studies to teach their graduate students about real life situations. It was interesting to read because they get to give their own perspectives on a matter. I enjoyed the similarities between how case studies are being used here and at Harvard.

I know that we aren't at the same caliber as Harvard but it just goes to show you that the same type of teaching is used in each location. I believe that it would be beneficial to use these case studies in more depth. Perhaps in an accounting course it would be useful to see what happened with Enron, worldcom, or Tyco.

These three words; integrity, commitment, and truth I believe play a large role in ethics. I believe that all people should be ethical, not just when it comes to business but in all aspects of life. i feel that it is important to be ethical because in a lot of ways to be ethical it means you need to be fair and that it the best way to make sure all people are being taken care of equally. If no one was ethical people would go out of business so fast because like it has been brought up in class before people don't want to do business with people who are unethical. I think that it can be hard at times to be ethical because in a business you are there for pretty much one thing only, and that thing is to make money. There are a lot of things that are unethical that you can do to make money. Like say you had a service that some people wanted and some people actually needed. You want all of the business that you can get so for the people who just wanted your service you give them and okay price on it, just to make sure that they use you. For the people who need it you charge an arm and a leg for because you know that it's not a choice for them. It is completely unethical, but you make more money. There will always be people out there who don't care at all about ethics and will do anything they can to get to the top, in some situations they are way more successful and this is what makes it hard to try to do things in an ethical manor, but I still believe in ethics no matter what.

Technology: everyday life

Webster defines technology as " The discipline dealing with the art or science of applying scientific knowledge to solve practical problems." When one hears the word technology they instantly think of cellular mobile phones, computers,video games, and anything else used with electricity. What society fails to realize is that the world could not function without technology. technology does not only consist of devices that operate based off electricity. Technology refers to any device and the inner workings and process used to operate that device. The usage of technology is needed and used at all times in everyday life.

For the last 50-80 (fifty through eighty) years the world was in what is known as the industrial era where mass production of things such as automobiles were the "cash-cows" as most would say. From a current standpoint the world is making a transition into the information/technology age. If your not aware on what this is, the information era is a time when individuals will have access to instant knowledge that they could not obtain in previous years as well as the ability of society to transfer information freely and operate technology logically with no perplexity. With the excellent transition the world is making into the new era many useful things have came from this great transition such as advancements medically, in communication, and overall electronically. Technology at its best will result in the advancement of countries as well as different regions across the world who lack technology literacy.

Technology is proven to be used in everyday life. The average day of a human begins with a wake up alarm from an alarm clock or even a cell phone. One then begins to get ready for their day, after one gets finish bathing they dry their hair with an electronic handheld hair dryer, then begin to style their hair with devices such as a comb, electronic curlers, and electronic flattening irons used to lay hair down. Now one prepare breakfast after ironing their clothes with an electronic iron. They open the refrigerator which uses electricity to cool food and they prepare a simple breakfast. They make toast which was cooked in their toaster, and they also prepare and omelet on their electronic stove. The day continues as work and an average citizen eventually returns home nine hours after leaving while out the person used technology in ways such as getting fuel for their car, using their cellular phone, using a cash register based upon their occupation, using a computer, listening to the radio in the car, ordering lunch at a drive through menu restaurant, it even goes back to placing money in a electronic parking meter in order to go to an electronic money machine. After making dinner on their electronic stove the person watches a little electronic television and then sets the alarm on their electric clock or cellular phone in order to start their day over.

Others argue that the usage of technology deadens the human brain when in reality technology is making the human brain think and make decisions on when and how to use a device properly. Others argue that technology makes people forget about work ethic and having to work for things. What people do not understand is that with technology in the world it advances citizens personally as well as occupationally. Without technology I would not have been able to do something as simple as write this essay on how we use technology while using technology. Technology is everywhere at all times and it helps us as people to make life not a stressful doing simple things which is a need. Technology is needed and is used at all times in everyday life.

Ethics and philosophy

One of the questions asked in class Tuesday was "why be moral"? Well, to answer this question, it would take well over 100 years to entirely answer the question in full. As for a brief synopsis, I would say that ethics affect more than you would think it does. So, why be moral? Who's going to care? Who's it going to benefit?

Early economists proposed a theory on human behavior. They believed that all human behavior is totally motivated on self-interest. The decisions made by the person is basically recognizing the better difference between the cost and the benefit of buying that product. There are definitely people out there that make decisions not based upon a benefit/cost analysis. Such examples would be turning a lost purse into the lost and found if possible, risking their own life to save someone else, or donating blood.

Aristotle created an ethical theory labeled as self-realizationism. In his definition, he claimed that when a person realizes their full potential, they will be content and have a happy life. It is those who don't realize their full potential who live unhappy lives. "Nature does nothing in vain", as Aristotle boldly stated.

So, as you can see, the ethical decisions made in your life completely has an effect on the rest of your life, and sometimes affects on others. The need to be ethical is most people's drive forward. It is especially important to a business. If you want to succeed you have to help other people do the same. If you can recognize the difference between good and bad ethics, you can do pretty well for yourself. So I don't think there's anything that the human race can't solve somehow, as long as people are moral and make moral decisions.

Sources: Sahakian, William S. & Sahakian, Mabel Lewis. Ideas of the Great Philosophers. pp 33-35. Barnes & Noble Books (1993). Kwan ,Micahel. Beyond the Rhetoric. Official Blog.

Dell Theory

According to Thomas Friedman, the Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention is a theory he presented in his book The World Is Flat. The theory stipulates: No two countries that are both part of a major global supply chain, like Dell’s, will ever fight a war against each other as long as they are both part of the same global supply chain. I took a History of the 20th Century class last semester and the professor brought up a similar theory where the rise of global IT will decrease the possibility of a global war, like WWI and II, of ever happening again.


When I first heard of this I thought this could not be true. I always figured there was an inevitable WWIII that was bound to happen. Now, I realize that will never happen now. Once every country in the world becomes industrialized, there will be no more world wars. What country would want to go to war with another country that was full of their own businesses? If this were to happen, the global economy as a whole would collapse. An example would be if the US were to attack Japan like they did in 1945. Japan is now full of US-owned businesses and many businesses that thrive because of the US market. If all imports and exports to and from Japan were blocked, the US economy would take a major hit.

This is just another reason why global IT is such a success. However, the Dell Theory is not a guarantee, it means governments of these countries will have very heavy economic costs if they go to war. A real life example of this theory is the China and Taiwan relationship. Both countries have strong supply relations with each other so a war seems very unlikely today.

Last blog

I have never had or been apart of a blog before and I thought it would only be appropriate to blog about my experience. I always looked at blogging as something that the nerdy did when they were bored. Something to do when your sick of playing video games. When you need to know how to get past a level in the latest video game. I never really looked to see the purpose behind blogging. There really are many benefits of blogging besides getting the latest nerd news. I found that blogging got to be more and more interesting and I can see how with a large amount of people that this is an great way to get ideas out there.

I wrote several blogs about what was going in class, but the blogs that I really like are ones that other's did on the same topic. Blogging has been a great way too see how others think about everyday topics. I noticed that RFID chips are blogged about a lot and I thought it was cool to be able to see how many different opinions there were. From those who can't wait too those who would never even consider it. It seems like blogging is the most civilized way to have a discussion with a large group of people. this way you can wright what you think and anyone who wants can comment. This is a lot easier because it lets everyone talk at the same time, but also stay on topic.

The networking possibilities are also good. You can easily see how people would get to know each other. I can also see this being used to talk about your self or even as a way to get to know those your work with. It seem like the more your interested in the topic the better the discussion and the better quality information. This kind of naturally will let you see out of all those your blogging with who is interested in the same things you are. I blogged about some of the worst inventions which was something I really thought was interesting. I saw that there ended up being a lot of comments on it. Blogging has a lot of different uses and I think that if you use it wisely it can really help you succeed in the sharing of ideas.

Accountability and Data Collection

Over the past few discussions in class, the idea of accountability and data collection has been brought up several times. While the collection of data helps the majority of the population, it does hurt in several instances such as the situation we read on the Marches and what they endured from a bank mistake. I realize that society will never revert to pre data collection days, so the only alternative is to increase data collection and hold the data collectors accountable for assembly accurate data.

I recently learned of an accountability bill that has been passed by the House of Representatives. This proposed legislation, which now moves the Senate, requires data brokers to provide nationwide notice for certain data breaches and allows consumers to verify and to correct information held on them by data brokers. Representatives approved this legislation in december, it required data brokers to establish procedures to verify the accuracy of information that identifies individuals in their databases and to allow consumers to access and request correction of incorrect information. The Data Accountability and Trust Act would also require brokers to provide nationwide notice in the event of certain security breaches.

The idea of accountability is a huge responsibility when what is at stake is an entire nation. I think it is only a good thing to have this Data Accountability and Trust Act enacted into law. If anything at all, it will help settle the minds of millions of Americans.

Privacy

Recently in class we discussed the issue of privacy. Do we have a right to privacy or is it something we must be willing to forfeit for the good of the people? In class we discussed this issue mostly in the terms of the common person versus "big brother". However, what if the common person took the role of "big brother"? Would we still feel so alienated at the idea of surveillance if it was our friends and neighbors doing so?

In my research on this topic, I came across many websites for each side of the privacy issue. Most websites took the common person's side or the government's side. I think that there is another side, why can't the government and the common man partner. Somewhat like a grand scale neighborhood watch? I do see the downside here, that putting the responsibility into the hands of perhaps unwilling people leaves links missing in your "neighborhood watch" chain. But perhaps every citizen's participation isn't necessary for this idea to flourish.

Now, I realize my thoughts for a global community watch are pie in the sky ideas. I have obviously not put much thought into this as I have no idea in what way this could be enacted. However, with the technology at our fingertips today it would not be hard. Think of all the crimes that have been caught on tape by the average citizen, we have seen it everywhere from Seinfeld to YouTube. Perhaps if we took this role as a small scale vigilante a bit more seriously we could drastically reduce the incidence of crime while still retaining some of our privacy.

While my idea clearly has many holes, while researching this idea I did find something similair. President Obama recently announced that he is enacting this type of idea in the cyber world. To decrease cyber terrorism he is putting the responsibility in the hands of the people. He is relying on the common man's help to watch for cyber terrorists. Whether or not this plan or a global crime watch plan would work would solely depend on the dedication and the honesty of the people and as of now it is impossible to say if the people would support this- but hey its only an idea right?

To read more about Obama's Plan Check this out: http://www.govtech.com/dc/articles/714308