Technology in Society Handout

I notice you have a lot of information on your blogs. Have any of you tried working on your wiki? MaryBucy - 13 Nov 2007

In regard to technology in U.S. society, many items are changing the way we live. Two items in particular are at the forefront of this trend. Those items are cellular phones, which enable the user of the phone to call and speak to anyone, anywhere, anytime. The second thing is the internet, which in 2003, numbered 100 million sites, and in 2005, numbered 8 billion sites. At this time, the internet provides a virtual fountain of knowledge at our fingertips. Hyperlinks can get us anywhere on the internet or the world we want to go. The Dewey Decimal System in libraries has become obsolete as a result of this, and even to a small extent, field trips are becoming a thing of the past.

One problem, at least in the U.S., is that there are not enough monitors on the internet, due to the incredibly rapid growth that is being experienced at this time. Kids under the age of 18 are able to look at anything, anytime, with few filters to guard them from seeing these sites. Additionally, people can have any information dug up about them anytime. Although we read this article in class, a perfect example of this is the link "scan 0007" below. Privacy is becoming rare in this day and age. The other problem is the kids sometimes can not control themselves to spend proper time in the Internet, including the teenagers, they always spend much time on the games or some entertainment thing. This is also a big problem.

The technology advances we currently see are just the tip of the iceberg. Whole new towns are being built with fiber-optic technology (see www.mountainhouse.net and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_House for more information), school districts are trending toward becoming "paperless," (see http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600156967,00.html) albeit very slowly, a person's personalized health, financial, etc. data will be integrated, the public will be able to get information anywhere, anytime, publicly, and community bulletins and emergencies will be able to be broadcast to people quickly and at the touch of a button.

Once again, this brings up a touchy point about "haves" and "have-nots," at least in America. Several people - about 25% of the population have no access to technology. It brings up a point about if we have an emergency such as Katrina in New Orleans, will everybody really be notified - a good percentage of the citizens in that town were unable to get out.

Another type of technology that I would like to touch on would be energy. In the last few years, it has come to our attention that an alternate source of power must be found, or our earth will be drastically altered forever. Sources which have been mentioned include biofuel (which is made from corn, sugar, and other crops), hydroelectric (which uses water), wind, and two other sources which I will touch on in the following paragraph.

Solar power (which comes from the sun) is remarkable. Scientists are now finding ways to "store" solar power, so that it can be used at night or on cloudy days. In the California Desert alone, there is enough solar-use land to provide the state with 6x the amount of power they now use. A town is even in consideration of being built there that would run on entirely solar power. See more about this idea at www.quayvalley.com or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quay_Valley. Geothermal power is also a fascinating idea. How it works is that cold water is pumped 2-3 miles down in to the earth. The water creates fissures in the hot rock, creating energy. This energy is pumped up to the surface, much in the same way that oil is. Most of the U.S. geothermal land is in the Western U.S. It is estimated that 2% of the nation's geothermal resource land could yield 2000x the power the U.S. uses right now. Two articles that really get in to this subject in depth are attached below. Please see the links entitled "scan 0006" and "scan 0008" for articles from Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report for that information.

While the future of technology is fascinating, it brings up some serious questions. One, will all people in the U.S. be able to partake in this new technology, regardless of socio-economic level? Two, will any of us ever have any form of privacy again? And most importantly, what happens if there is a massive system failure? Will we get thrown in to the "dark ages?" It is a question that we have to wait to see what the answer will be.

-- CoreyBianchini - 13 Nov 2007

• scan0006.pdf: Newsweek energy related article

• scan0007.pdf: Alexander article from class

• scan0008.pdf: US News and World Report energy related article

Bibliography:

Alexander, A. and Hanson, J. eds. (2007). "Can privacy be protected in the Information Age?" in Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Mass Media and Society. McGraw^?-Hill Contemporary Learning Series, IA. Pp. 334-350.

Somerville, Chris, and Zakaria, Fareed. (2007). "It's not a Silver Bullet." Newsweek, 11/5/2007. Pp. 54.

Lavelle, Marianne (2007). "Power Revolution." U.S. News and World Report, 11/5/2007. Pp. 46-53.

This is a link to show some studie researches(STAT) how is internet in Middle East usage and population. http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats5.htm. Also, this is Scientific Research from Dr. Abdullah Ahmed Al-Rasheed about Internet in Saudi Arabia. http://www.isu.net.sa/library/CETEM2001-AlRasheed.pdf Mohamed Aldowiri
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