JoJo's Blog- Peek into my Life

Week 13 Last Blog

The last blog has arrived because the semester is coming to an end. Before I get into the main subject of this blog I would like to answer some of the questions we were asked to think about when we left class today. The questions were: What was your favorite book and why? What book did you dislike most and why? What did you learn? Here are my responses. The book I enjoyed reading most was “Linked”. It has many interesting random facts that were tied together very nicely. Even though there were some examples that I found less comprehensible, in a whole it was entertaining as well as educational. The book I liked least was probably “Digital Ground”. It also brought up many different aspects of the world but failed to do so in a comprehensible manner. What made it a difficult read was how after reading each page the underlying message was hidden behind all the philosophical examples. I learned so much from the class it is hard to pinpoint one in particular but an important one was the ubiquity of networks.
We have been reading about game theories in my political science course. The only ones we discussed were the more interesting ones: Prisoner’s Dilemma and Stag Hunt. I understood stag hunt but was confused before with the explanation of Prisoner’s Dilemma what I read in “Smart Mobs” cleared it all up. What I get out of it is that individuals are better off picking the suboptimal choice because it guarantees them something. In both games if a person assumes the other is going to do what would be in their best interest as a whole they face the chance that they are wrong and that would leave them with the least optimal result. For example, with the Stag Hunt theory the optimal choice would be to catch the stag but it relies on the cooperation of both hunters. When the rabbit appears there is a chance that the other hunter will take his eye off the deer. The suboptimal choice guarantees food, while aiming for the optimal choice may actually result in the least optimal choice which is having neither the deer nor the rabbit. The suboptimal choice is sort of pessimistic or better yet realistic making it the most acceptable.
Last year in my political science course that dealt with lobbying and interest groups the free rider problem came up. The free rider problem is that everyone wants the benefits from the public goods but not everyone contributes. It results in a combination of competition and selfishness that leads to the public goods not being utilized to the fullest potential because with few contributing it is bound to become scarce. Many applications were mentioned as displaying this problem. One example was how Napster users downloaded music but the majority did not bother to share their own files. The only way it seems that this problem can be addressed is if the applications no longer allow people to have the option of free riding. A standard has to be made so that those benefiting also contribute and loopholes cannot exist.

Asian Crisis....Language Network

Today in class we discussed how the example given in “Linked” of the Asian financial crisis. Well just as I have written about in previous blogs topics from other classes always seem to overlap. The book did not go into any details bout the situation so I would like to share what I think I got out of my International Relations class that addressed the same issue. This way I may actually get a better understanding of it myself. Basically Asia was being praised for its economic success especially when compared to Latin America so when they had their crisis it seemed as if it happened out of the blue. While Latin America had an import substitution strategy Asia’s growth was export led. This difference seemed to be making all the difference. Anyhow private companies in Asia were borrowing short-term, low interest loans in dollars. The private markets in Asia were taking on debts from government controlled banks. Since they did not have the finances to pay the money back when needed they resulted to transferring balances since other banks kept offering loans. This went on for a while so know one could tell Asia was getting into trouble. The problem was that all of a sudden the banks stopped offering them loans and they had to pay everyone back at the same time. As a result, Asia suffered a liquidity crisis since they would have been able to service later they just at that moment did not have the money. The IMF is blamed for having exacerbated the situation since Asia did not start off in such a terrible situation but because of the banks pulling out without warning there was nothing they could do. I find it necessary to provide a disclaimer because that is what I understood from the lecture today but I could be way off so excuse any inaccuracies. If you can better explain the phenomenon feel free to do so when posting your comment because I really need to know what I am talking about since it will probably be on the final. Thanks in advance.
Another topic brought up in discussion was to name other networks that have not been brought up. Religion possibly could be a scale-free network since individual languages could be the nodes and Latin could be the hub since it connects so many different languages. There are hundreds of languages in Africa alone and even though one African group may be unable to understand another group there are similarities throughout a few. Going back to Latin it connects Italian, French Spanish, and Portuguese, among others. Even though Latin is considered a dead language since people do not speak it if all the languages with Latin influence no longer had it there would be major differences. English has numerous Latin words especially in the medical field and they simplify knowing the definitions of the words by knowing what the Latin part means. All the languages that were connected by a hub such as Latin would no longer be connected. It would probably be a bit more difficult to learn different languages if you cannot recognize similarities that exist because of the shared origin.

Star Wars...High School...

To begin I would like to comment on my take of Star Wars. I never really got into “Star Wars” but I have seen a couple of the movies but they are just a blur. I found it fascinating the comparison made in class between physics, political science and Star Wars. The reason I find it so interesting is because “Star Wars” has been used in my life to explain other phenomena as well. During my junior year of high school in my English class we studied McCarthyism. We had an assignment which consisted of watching an old movie and analyzing it an essay explaining the presence and effects of McCarthyism in it. I remember the movie I picked was “Roman Holiday” and I thought it was a good movie but I felt the analysis being made was a long shot. My English teacher had the class watch one of the “Star Wars” movies to illustrate how McCarthyism could be seen. After doing the assignment I felt as if any movie can have aspects that can be used as symbols to explain McCarthyism or anything of that matter. In my Confirmation classes at church to my surprise we also watched “Star Wars” this time to compare it to Catholicism. With all these instances in which “Star Wars” was used, I feel as if not every movie can be used to illustrate something but “Star Wars” definitely is.
Another comment made in class that reminds me of a story during high school has to do with one of the groups’ paper. When Professor Yoo explained how the university in Maryland had those fixed desktops in the classroom in which the professor could control what was being displayed on the students’ monitors and view what they were doing. In Lorain Middle School we had that technology. I was in the 8th grade when I was introduced to Microsoft Excel in my computer class. We all had books that contained the assignments but prior to doing them our teacher would show us how. He was able to do this from his own computer. He made it so that everything he did on his computer would show up on our screens. He was also capable of viewing everything we were working on whenever he pleased. I never made anything of this technology since I thought it was the norm in the U.S. To here students in the class so amazed at it came as a shock since my school was always being criticized and here we had technology that we were just taking for granted. What is ironic is how in high school the computer classes I took did not use this technology so I figure they must not have the capabilities but I had not realized earlier.
I have learned many random facts and trivia from “Linked”. The anecdotes inform me about events that I knew nothing of. I do not know of any close friends or relatives that have been afflicted with the love-bug virus and I assume it has to do with the fact that we do not use Microsoft Outlook to e-mail.

Degrees of Separation

“Linked” is by far the best book we have read in class this semester. I have been thinking about the connections I have and the ones I need to make. I took a picture with Jerry Springer last summer because he came to this Lorain Democrat fair to promote John Kerry and I was selling memorabilia at one of the booths. Therefore you guys are all at least one link away to him now not that you guys would want to be. A friend of my uncles was on Maury so I’m one degree of separation from him. It is kind of weird that I have such close links to talk show host since they are criticized about the quality of their shows. I have a link to a Puerto Rican sitcom star but no one here probably knows of him. A link I would like to figure out is between me and Omar Epps. I know I can make it 1 degree of separation but I have to do some investigating. We are cousins through my father’s side of the family. I believe we are second cousins but I only know a small portion of my family on the paternal side since it is so large. I really need to go to a family reunion. Another odd person to be linked to is the guy from the Norton Furniture commercials. He’s the one that says, “If you can’t get credit in my store, you can’t get credit anywhere.” His commercials are pretty bizarre and always have a drawing of his facial profile. A guy I know that goes here went to his store and has a photo with him on his laptop so now you should all be excited about being 2 degrees of separation from him or one if you know him too.
The chapter that addresses the importance of acquaintances makes sense. I do believe friends come in handy too since not everyone has just 1 set. More than likely college students for instance may have a group of friends at home, at school, at work, and online. Even within school there are groups of friends you interact with primarily through schoolwork and others through clubs and the rest may be around for all social gatherings. Obviously there are different levels of friendship but they are still acknowledged as being more than just acquaintances. The formula given in the book that to figure out how close a group of friends is I found to be interesting. The groups of friends I have at Case and outside here do not necessarily combine to join one but they do have more than me to join them. Practically every friend that has come to visit me has run into people they knew and did not even realize went here. It is a small world indeed. My mom used to say that all the time when I was little and as I got older I started to understand. I just did not understand it as a network that was so intertwined.

Poverty and the net

Week 9
So much can be said about “Internet Galaxy” because of the array of topics Castells addressed. The gap that exists between those that do and do not have internet access is interesting since having the internet seems to be the basis of much of the other advances in technology. It is understandable for there to be a gap between the young and the old although I would love it if I could communicate with my grandparents via the net. I do not see it happening in the near future though they do seem amazed when they watch someone else do it. The ethnic divide I agree is directly related to socioeconomic status. There are Cleveland schools that lack running water so how can we expect the students to have access to computers let alone the internet. When we speak of nations from the Global South not having access to the internet it makes perfect sense because they lack the infrastructure and they need development that directly affects there survival so catching up to the Information Age is not a priority. It just does not seem to make sense though that just down the street the technological potential has not been reached at all. Internet access probably does not accelerate the divide between classes but it is does make is obvious.
In my International Relations class we were talking about how other countries perceive the US as wealthy because of what they see on TV. Even though there is a large disparity in between classes it is kind of hidden. The poor of urban cities are not seen by many since they just avoid going to those vicinities and the poor that live in rural areas are not seen because we drive on the highway right past them without ever stopping. As a result the poor in the US are not just invisible to those in foreign countries but also to its own citizens. A reason that my professor brought up about the poor in the US compared to those elsewhere is that for the most part they are not starving and that is physically visible but it is not because they have enough money to buy food and become overweight but that the cheapest food is the unhealthiest. Which makes a lot of sense because I was a cahier at a local grocery store by grocery cart alone you could tell people had just received their “food stamps” because of the type of food they had. Another example that was brought up is how by a parsons clothing other than the homeless, you can not really tell if a person is poor. People always talk about how certain people could not be poor because of what they wear and if they are, it’s supposedly their fault because they are spending their money on frivolous clothing instead of the necessities. Well that is not a fair comment to make since second hand shops like Goodwill and the Salvation Army don’t discriminate when it comes to the brands of clothing they sell since they receive all kinds and hand-me- downs can go along way. The point of what I am trying to show is that because of the preconceived assumptions people make about how the poor are supposed to look we do not realize how much poverty there actually is. Once people realize the poverty that exists in their own backyard maybe the means can be made so that internet access can actually be accessed by all that way the gap can minimize and they will have the chance to break the poverty cycle.

Privacy...? What's that?

Week 8
It was actually a relief to read chapters 5 and 6 since they were not technical and I could relate to what was being explained because of the whole political orientation. I always think it is interesting when I hear about any place that I am directly associated with discussed in books or on TV so the part about Case’s involvement with the Cleveland Freenet was cool even though it happened the year I was born so I guess the notion of having a direct connection is stretching it a bit since I knew nothing of Case until the latter have of my senior year in high school. A political science professor of mine went out of state over fall break, I can not recall where exactly but Maryland comes to mind for some reason and she now appreciates the wireless network here much more since she felt disconnected from the world because she could not go online even though she had her laptop with her the whole time. I got off on a tangent so retuning back to “Internet Galaxy” as usual I am going to bring up a topic addressed in this book that is also been addressed in other courses I have taken and this time it is the Zapatista Movement in Chiapas, Mexico. I find it worth mentioning because it came up in a reading for one of my Spanish classes and it has come up before in other classes and I am proud of myself when I actually remember events since history a weakness of mine; way too many dates and names.
For the most part the chapters were very informative because I was glad when noopolitik was defined because it was mentioned early on and did not no exactly what it encompassed. Many observations were made that I agree with such as there not being political secrets in the Internet Age once they are told to a small group. The war crimes that the US army committed against their captives was all over the news and people could see the photos online. Even the clips of soldiers being beheaded were available online. Although it is not as important as the examples I have already mentioned but situations that occur with celebrities like R. Kelly and Paris Hilton are accessed by the public via the net. Basically with the internet and how quickly information is spread by it makes it so that secrets are rare in more than just the political arena. Privacy does seem like it was a right of the past that is put aside more frequently as times go by. The Patriot Act ignored privacy as does the freedom of expression when people use it to disburse photos and media clips online. Do not get me wrong I am not trying to say that some of the reasons are legitimate or undermine the Patriot Act but am simply trying to illustrate that in the book when it said people should get over the loss of privacy it has a point but of course I am also not saying that privacy is a lost cause because certain aspects of it should always be protected ofcourse.

Internet and other topics

I am going to start this blog entry on a positive note that really has no true substance other than it made me happy. After receiving the peer editing packet I was feeling a little overwhelmed because I thought we still had to read from “Internet Galaxy”. Thank goodness for planners because if I would have been overly prepared it would be disappointing because I can not afford to be making my workload any heavier. Unfortunately, what I read for this class tends to be stored in short term memory unless I find it incredibly interesting so it can not be done way beforehand. After reading the research papers I found them to be entertaining which was nice because it made the peer editing so much better to do.
On to a more appropriate topic, I always find it to be interesting when topics addressed in one class are also discussed in another. That was the case with the ownership of the Internet issue. Although it was not discussed on the same days it stood out to me since I had read it in my notes repeatedly yesterday and Sunday when reviewing for my Violence in the Political System, Poli. Sci. course. Of course the discussions took two different roles. In the political science class it was brought up to show how the United Nations is not supported as much as the agency that currently is responsible for the internet therefore showing the presence of repression.
Personally, I think that since the internet was developed in the US it should remain its responsibility. I think it is unnecessary to alter the current situation since I do not see anything wrong with it. Why fix it if it isn’t broke? I agree that if it does change then problems are surely going to arise especially when it comes to censoring information on the internet in foreign countries. Even though Chinese will be the most common language spoken in the US, I do not think that is basis for the US to relinquish its right to control the internet due to language when language has failed to be the basis for other decisions. For example, in a Florida county where Spanish was far more spoken there than English they failed to make it the official language. The point is I do not think it is fair that the internet would not be in English firsthand. I understand that this is not the most compassionate view but I think it is in perspective.
Lastly, I would actually like to address “Internet Galaxy”. One of the parts that caught my attention the most was about how Cisco claims they were making these huge changes but Latinos were still being paid a measly 8 dollars to clean for them. That is in no way close to be considered a livable wage considering the location of CISCO. Although, efficiency is always among the advantages of technological advances some things never change. Human interaction is always an issue when addressing issues concerning these advances but what should also be the focus is how certain aspects of the humans are neglected in particular the little people that do the menial labor to survive and are barely doing just that.

WK 6 The Internet Galaxy

Castells’ The Internet Galaxy did succeed in these beginning chapters to bring me to the realization that I was misinformed about hackers. I was under the impression that hackers are what he described as crackers. I always thought that hackers were those to blame for computer viruses. I never had even heard of the term crackers used to refer to the people that are actually the ones being devious. The whole techno-meritocratic culture is new to me. Castells had perfect timing when it came to describing hackers as being “normal” people since at that moment I was thinking about how they are probably loners. Some of my high school peers I am pretty sure can be considered hackers and belong to this culture but before reading this I would not have thought so.
Since my group is writing about the history of internet for the final research paper I did know a little bit about its development. I think it is amazing how so many people especially college students were able to add on their own coding and for the product to be the internet as we know it today. I do not understand how it works but it shows how people can work together and not to sound elementary but share and have so much to show for it. I wonder if more innovations for products came about this way what the outcome would be. It seems limitless. Once again the Leonardo book relates because each person that contributed basically superseded what the other had done before him. Creativity makes progress come a long way.
In Thursday’s class discussion the topic of government’s financial responsibility came was brought up. It is interesting because in my International Relations class that I have prior to SAGES had also discussed the government in terms of how they spend money for projects that may never be necessary. An issue was how the US is contemplating creating some nuclear protection system that would take 15 years to implement and how it would be more feasible to allocate the money on a project that has immediate results. I think these issues relate since the government originally spent so much money to develop on the internet for security measure but the outcome was entirely different. The difference is that everyone benefits even though the government’s original plan failed per se.
Anything related to security usually does get all the necessary money to fund it but now people are a little more hesitant. I am glad the hesitance was not present back then because the world would be an entirely different place. I am sure the internet would have been invented eventually but I wonder how much later. Being that the internet was developed with a security purpose in mind because of the government initiating it, without the governments initial involvement the internet may have developed in stages much different that the ones that took place to get it to how it is now.

Shopping Carts and McDonalds

Both of the films we viewed at class were interesting, especially the first one. It is no wonder why the one young man has put off going to medical school while working for that company. It seems like such a fun job and even though they have many deadlines and projects they really do not have any reason to get stressed as a result of their environment. None of them have to worry about their ideas being criticized. It is also obvious that they value diversity since they do not want a bunch of mundane suggestions for their product innovations.
Instead of just relying on what their own experiences, they also rely on field research to learn the situations of others. It is shocking that modern shopping carts are not used in stores currently when there are so many injuries caused buy them. The velocity of the shopping cart was addressed and so should be the issue with shopping carts running into cars. To prevent this some stores have resorted to charging a quarter for the use of the shopping cart which is refunded when the cart is returned to its rightful location. Most stores place many of those cart holder spots but that does not fix the problem since some people are too lazy to put them there regardless. Last night my friends and I bought groceries at the local Tops at Severance Circle and for the first time I have encountered another approach to this shopping cart dilemma; bars were strategically placed to prevent shopping carts from leaving the vicinity. Of course as a result this presents an inconvenience to the customers. The customer is forced to carry all their groceries to their car if they are alone or if they are more fortunate by coming with others someone can bring the car to them.
On another issue brought up in our class was how McDonalds may be spending lots of money on ubiquitous technology. In high school I remember being told that a McDonalds existed in California that was practically completely run by computers. So there was no need for workers since people could place their orders by themselves. It always seems as if such advancements eradicate menial labor which makes it more efficient but at the same time leaves people of the lower socio-economic strata unemployed among with young people. Advances in technology possibly allow more jobs associated with computers to exist but others are left out in the cold.
In a utopia it would not be an issue because for every job taken away another job would be released. The world is far from being ideal so it does not make sense that people are unemployed. Places need to be cleaned, litter needs to be picked, and tons of other jobs could be done around to make our surroundings better to look out. If everyone that is unemployed had a job then slums probably would cease to exist. Ubiquitous technology would be created to enhance everyone’s life not just those that work on offices and the upper middle class.

Wk 4 Digital Ground

“Digital Ground: Architecture, Pervasive Computing, and Environmental Knowing” by Malcolm McCullough is quite a different read when compared to “Leonardo’s Laptop”. Though it is not difficult to read through it seems as if when you are finished not as much has been grasped. The book is not “put you to sleep boring” but it is a bit drier and very abstract. Though it flows, the context itself seems to encompass extreme examples that do not seem to relate. It is nice how McCullough draws so much on Mark Weiser’s ideas about ubiquitous computing.
The introduction and first two chapters seem to deal more with the psychology and anatomy of people and how that effects how technology should be developed. Some interesting facts are included but most of the time how everything relates is pretty unclear. Another positive aspect of the book is the definitions for terms being introduced for the first time. In that aspect he goes right to the point. Similar to Ben Shneiderman’s book graphs are included. Since I do not think I am that much of a visual learner they do not really help me remember how it all works but its availability is should be useful for others.
Being that I have commented on the Orwellian Big Brother complex it was a plus to see that I am not alone. It does make sense though that the problem is not necessarily the government using technology to keep an eye out on us but the thousands of “little brothers”. It is similar to how I open up my e-mail and have so many from “people” I do not know. I always wonder how they have my e-mail address and know my name when I make a point when signing up for something to check the box stating they will not give out my information. The example using the Microsoft Word paperclip hopefully never reaches the streets because it would be a serious nuisance.
The part that discussed finding out your home’s software crashed reminds me of a Disney movie I seen in which a family won a house that was completely technologically advanced and could probably be considered ubiquitous for them until the system “crashed”. As we have discussed in class as horrible as it would be for the system of our home to crash people would probably accept it because they would figure they did something wrong. Having a home system crash would not have to be a crisis though if measures are taken from the get-go to allow things to function without the advanced technology. For example if the modern house does not need keys to lock and unlock doors they should still be available just in case. A house “crashing” should not be equivalent to when a computer crashes even though it seems as if it would be much worse.
I like the list of common objectives to pervasive computing since I could imagine people actually saying, most of those comments. The list brings to light many of the advantages and disadvantages of pervasive computing.

Week 3

When it comes to Shneiderman’s idea of e-learning there are apparent advantages and disadvantages. Since e-learning does not appeal to everyone’s needs or preferences technological advances such as that should not eradicate current teaching methods. Real life face- to- face interaction still has its own advantages too. E-learning does indeed resemble some of the goals Montessori and charter schools share. Advances in education seem to be inevitable when e-learning is discussed but equality within school systems still have to be addressed because only the economically capable schools will have the ability to finance such educational tools. Even if the school were able to fund a sufficient amount of computers how are less fortunate, poverty stricken children be able to do their homework if they do not have their own computers at home.
Completely unrelated is The Wall Street Journal article dealing with the copyright issues. It is odd that a compromise has not yet been reached. Making stricter laws and enforcing them through strict punishments placed on a few unlucky people is apparently not making much of a difference. This may be a long shot but this might be similar to the prohibition if indeed it becomes legal to share music. During the prohibition it was useless to remain that way since so many people were breaking the law by making bootleg alcohol and now people are making bootleg CDs and movies. The big difference is that before the prohibition drinking beer was legal and to my knowledge “sharing” music has never been. It is in my opinion their fault for undermining people by providing them with the technology and capability to do exactly what they prohibit and expect it to not be done.
Illegal or not people do not relate to the musicians and producers of the music they “steal” through piracy because how can I put this they are extremely rich and do not know what to do with all the money they already have so whatever amount of money they are losing does not seem worth crying about. People say if it were the other way around people would feel different but that may not be the case. It basically is greed because it is not right for people to buy an entire CD whose album only has one decent song and $.99 seems cheap but that adds up really fast if you are trying to use up the majority of your space on your iPod.
Lastly, Leonardo’s Laptop was actually a good book to read. The spin it took by including so much biographical information about Leonardo DaVinci made it very interesting. It was difficult for me to see us getting close to many of the technological advances mentioned because of the few misspelled words that could be found. If the spell-check is still not up to par after so long it is hard to imagine being so developed technologically. It would be nice though if people could always feel comfortable knowing that no matter where they are a doctor has access to their medical records when needed. Then people would just have to feel comfortable knowing that they are only being viewed when necessary.

Week 2 Henry Louis Gates

I attended the Henry Louis Gates speech on Thursday. I was glad I arrived a little bit early since it became crowded relatively quickly. I had heard about him coming to speak within my first week of school and was embarrassed because it was assumed that I knew who he was. I did not know though that people from so many other schools were invited. I think more students from Case should have attended. I was impressed by the introduction he was given since it seemed so sincere.
I am not really good at history so I really enjoyed the manner in which Gates told his story. I had never realized all that W.E.B. Dubois had done. I basically just recognized the name as belonging to an affluent African American because he was only brought up during Black History Month. Unlike Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X that are discussed in Political Science classes, he does not get much attention in my eyes. The parallels shown by the focus of his having a dream was interesting because I always associate such phases with Martin Luther King Jr. I also like how Gates would go back and forth from speaking about Dubois to telling his own personal anecdotes. Unfortunately like I said earlier since I am not much of a historian I got a little confused when I was trying to remember some of the facts he had stated since I mixed up what was from his own life and what referred to Dubois’s.
I had never heard of the Africana Encyclopedia and believed it was a novel idea when he first mentioned it. Every time he mentioned a setback I felt like I was so involved, like when you watch a movie and get really into it. I assumed that his story would end happily but I was not too sure when he got to the part when Dubois died. In the back of my mind I kept thinking that if the encyclopedia would have been invented I would have heard of it by now. It seems as if everything else has been brought to my attention somehow.
When Gates finally showed us the CD-Rom presentation of the encyclopedia I was excited and now I plan on buying my own. In terms of technology I’m shocked it is not available online by subscription or that it has not been advertised to a greater extent. Since the concept of the encyclopedia was created as a means to fight racism by eradicating ignorance it needs to be available to the mass public. If not then it is useless. The comment the student made about having a cell-phone or iPod version is interesting because since this encyclopedia is relatively new compared to its successors, it should not fall behind with technological advances. If anything it should set the pace for others.
I also thought about technology when Gates spoke of all the letters and phone calls that were made. Probably since the encyclopedia was developed in Gates generation instead of Dubois’s e-mails and cell phones were involved. I’m not quite sure though since Gates did not know what a CD-Rom was at first.

Week 1 Ubiquitous

Since the Weiser article was written in 1991 and certain technology advances mentioned were expected to start taking off in 1994 that I myself have not come in contact with, I wonder if we are behind in our technological advances or if Weiser and others were just getting ahead of themselves. I figure that some of the ubiquitous technologies mentioned in the article probably have been attempted but because of glitches and realizations of the negative consequences, there have been delays concerning the devices being revealed to the public. It seems as if at times they already have the technology figured out, but they just choose to keep it in the closet until they believe the public is ready and can handle it. It is terrible for a person to invent something and get it rejected just because it is ahead of its time.

Another issue is if the different types of technology will actually become ubiquitous quickly or if they will take a while to if they are only affordable to the wealthy. There is a chance that these devices may not even be accessible to the general public. Whichever the issue, the technology must be presented in a manner that does not overwhelm or annoy people. The technology should be uniting people instead of creating gaps between the young and old or the poor and rich. As long as a sense of humanity is not lost within the technology and preventions are made to defeat those with mal intentions, the technological advances will at least grow on people until eventually reaching “ubiquitous status”. Since the media is so influential even if on a subconscious level, ideas about the worst that can happen with technology gone wrong surpass that of the benefits. The “Twilight Zone” and other Sci-Fi shows come to mind. Instead of viewing these new types of technology as tools we will use in our everyday life that at times we feel we can’t live without, we are afraid at some level that it can get out of hand and we will lose the control, we value most.

Most of the devices described I have to admit did sound appealing but some were a little out there. For instance the doll that has a budget and can spend money to buy its own accessories caught me off guard. I had to start laughing because Americans are already viewed as very materialistic and to have an inanimate object spending money on its own behalf is going a little too far. I did like the idea of the thermostat being able to bargain and control how much money was spent on heat. It is very practical and can help people keep a budget. My mom would really enjoy that since I freeze all winter at home because we are trying to manage how much is spent on the heating bill but it doesn’t deem to help.

While reading the articles I kept thinking about the book “1984” and how it would be so much easier for the government to undermine our right of privacy. If all this technology were available when “1984” was written I wonder how much different it would be.