Advancement In Information Technology

Advancement In Information Technologyadvancement In Info

What fears do people have concerning the development of the Internet, and are they well founded? Internet is a fascinating and at the same time an interesting tool that has since transformed our culture and different aspects of our lives. However its immense benefits, internet continues to arouse fears from different people owing to its development each year. It is estimated that about 40% of the world population as of today have access to internet. The number of internet users has grown tenfold for the past decade and is estimated to double in the next 5 years as world population gets more educated on technology.

Internet has particularly aroused fears in journalism and communication which seem to have strong ground. There are numerous sources of information where the public could get news real time due to emergence of internet hence the platform where public could get news is not narrowed to print, television and radio. News arrives astoundingly from different directions and is free. The use of online context seems to strongly appeal to consumers as opposed to traditional means of communication where online platforms provides a variety of media such as audio, video, text, photography which are of high quality especially when combined (Pinker, 2010). Search engines also provide means of accessing information where traditional media may not be able to.

This brings fear of journalist losing their attention and trust as their sole job is information where they have limited sources compared to internet sources hence threatening the standards of accuracy since much of the different sources may be corruptible and false. Online journalism provides a platform where users can comment and post suggestions thus allowing public to question some of the publications by media (Pinker, 2010). For communication, internet opens up an opportunity for users to be able to edit the content based on their own standards. The use of the Internet thus fear such freedom of choice to the public as they are able to question their publications which may cause conflict and give the consumers a voice to change media hence threatening fairness and transparency standards.

Online journalism does not always have professionally trained personnel as anyone can publish information through the internet. Professionalism thus suffers as traditional media loses gains in the market since most corporates are using internet to advertise. Business may also avoid print media as advertising avenues and do it online which is more appealing and can be thrown to various sites and search engines. Journalists then fear losing professional status and credibility which also affects them economically. The internet places power on its users allowing them to publish any kind of news thus competes with the gatekeepers of information which is mainly traditional media.

Where traditional media limits the information it publishes internet opens up that opportunity for anyone to access any piece of information. Carr attests that, “But a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the use of Net with its constant destructions and interruptions, is also turning us into scattered and superficial thinkers†(Carr, 2010). By extension the public has a variety of sources they can obtain information which thus allows them to compare the information. Nevertheless, many persons still fear they would lose their jobs if the internet continues developing. Is it wise to develop robots that can mimic human emotion? Why or why not?

Researchers from fields such as cognitive science, mathematics, neuroscience and computer science are getting close towards creating computer systems and robotic technology that can learn, recognize emotion and reason. They might finally achieve a dream that is old and as existing as epic science fiction: automatons that recognize human feelings and that can become accustomed to unexpected situations and new environments. These types of mental computing project typically have aspects of engineering and biology. To replicate the interior workings of the mind, scientist’s first have to comprehend how the brain develops information, forms emotions and realizes cognizance. Scientists thus use this information to create algorithms that emulate understanding.

As Bruemmer says, “the ability to mentally multiply large numbers, although impressive, is no longer a highly valued human capability†(Bruemmer, 2006). Once the many engineering and cognitive problems are explained, it should be probable to program computer systems that think, feel and act like humans. Thus, it’s wise to develop robots which mimic human emotion since the relation between robots and humans has been beneficial to humans. As robotics and independent systems flourish, the human-robot interactions are becoming gradually important. They are how we control and interact with technology, from the self-driving automobiles to sex robots.

The way technology systems are designed can help solve or create fresh problems (Bruemmer, 2006). For instance, by making computer robots that look like human beings or cute animals, we may well develop emotional affinity to the machines. This can help encourage trust with the users or perhaps also over trust. The main traits of social robots include: form of behavioral, social norms, interactivity, autonomy and modality. Behavioral quality advocates social behavior.

Robots can mimic a lifelike object or a human (Bruemmer, 2006). Secondly, modality is the quality which robots use a number of different communication channels. For instance some robots use visual, haptic and auditory communication networks. Social norms between robot and human can be understood as the relations between people. Simply put for good relations with human, robotic systems must exhibit seeming reciprocal social norms among him and human or him and other robots in future.

The most imperative things about robotic systems autonomy are technological abilities to act, likewise without next inputs or other instructions to set robot’s functional properties. The last one imperative quality is interactivity. Social robot should have the capability to respond in response to interaction with social robots or people. There are programs which have been developed to make children smile. The programs that support the robots to recognize emotions and therefore absorb the best manner to make small children smile are built on machine learning processes that help computers to perform better at what they are automated to perform.

Similarly to the neurons in human mind, the computer systems which form the brains’ social robots comprise small elements of information and code. The units encode and process data which then produce a motion that affects the subsequent analysis elements down the line. This way, the simulated neural network extracts configurations and finds instructions in the information it obtains and changes its configuration based on the flow of information. The changing configuration, which slowly becomes much more advanced, mimics human learning. Will human relationships with robots in the future be mostly positive or negative? Why? As human beings, our ultimate dreams and greatest fears on technology appear to be activated by the stirring subject of robotic technology development. Robots have the capacity to eliminate a huge amount of droning work, provide support to human manual workers and aid in highly specialized settings such as hospitals or factories (Richardson, 2007). Similarly, people can be troubled with how this kind of technology will transform their daily life and concern about the increasing separation among human beings or loss of jobs as a result. Robots are the greatest existential threat to the human beings.

Technology that is useful is virtually always disruptive. This ideology can be the source of fears and misconceptions over new technologies in their initial stages of development. Richardson attests that “While robotistics focus on developing humanoid robots helpers for the elderly, other researchers are as interested in building robots for use as human companions and challenging attitudes towards machines as they are in providing practical support for elderly people†(Richardson, 2007). Robotic technologies may induce fears through ways such as loss of jobs among employees. Corporates are adopting technological systems which are basically systems that have been programmed to perform a task in a predetermined way.

This improved production and quality of work where humans cannot be able to do that thus workers develops far of losing their jobs. This sets up the negative relationship between humans and robotic technology. Robotic technology have also impacted the economy of America where the big banks at Wall Street have created systems that can manipulate the financial markets thus caused major economy crash in recent years. This has led to the wider population become distressed due to this and cultivates fear of future crash owing to those machine systems. Nevertheless, this has had a negative impact on the people and thus negative relationship.

Other developments of robotic technology have caused major catastrophe such as nuclear weapons which can destroy human race within micro seconds thus having a negative connotation on the majority. Technological development has also been a major concern for most governments where it’s becoming increasingly difficult to control the public. Diverse advancements such as online chat platforms have increased threats and terrorism which has raised concerns over security of the people. Some robots are being developed for caregiving purposes such as hospitals or homes for instance they can act as nurses or house helps. In as much as they may be helpful some people may still be skeptic about caregiving since robots cannot wholly mimic a human’s emotion which may cause harm to children and patients in homes and hospitals respectively (Richardson, 2007).

This may cause people to develop a negative attitude towards future technology. Inventions such as microchips developed to configure everyone and thus able to locate ones location have aroused negative reactions from people. This kind of technological advancement has been deemed as too extreme for governments to control its citizens because it infringes privacy. Nevertheless, most people are still not in terms with this form of technology. Other technological inventions have appealed negatively to humans due to the implications they can have on humans such as emissions which causes pollution, reduction of creativity especially at work places where machines solely do the work.

References

• Bruemmer, D. (2006). Boundaries between Humans and Machines. Idaho National Library.
• Kathleen Richardson. (2007). My Friend the Robot. The Times (London).
• Nicholas Carr. (2010). Does the Internet Make You Dumber? Wall Street Journal.
• Steven Pinker. (2010). Mind Over Mass Media. The New York Times.