EST 201 Notes - Instructor: Edwin Tjoe PDF

Title EST 201 Notes - Instructor: Edwin Tjoe
Course Technological Trends in Society
Institution Stony Brook University
Pages 18
File Size 195.5 KB
File Type PDF
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Instructor: Edwin Tjoe...


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8/27/2019 - Class 1 Edwin Tjoe (Professor) Discussion board topics each week. DUE NOON. Post weekly answers and RESPOND TO 3 OTHERS WHY YOU AGREE/DISAGREE. Paragraph Min. ( T  ry to answer 1 time and respond to 9 students. You will get 1 extra letter grade.) 3  -5 sentences on the responses. (A paragraph) You pick the topic for the term paper, pick anything (don't ask him) anything on ethics society etc. Do not use wikipedia as a reference (lol) --9/3/2019 - Class 2 Time flows differently for different people. People learn differently and observe things differently. Issues with our understanding of science/research findings. People who do research studies w/ small sample sizes make a relation for everyone in a nation. Issue with this. Technology is the ‘raw material’ for fighting economic inequality. - History is ruthlessly clear about what happens when too much wealth ends up in the hands of the very few. Even as anger about economic inequality has fueled movements including the campaigns of populist political candidates - specific causes and solutions remain elusive. - One piece of the puzzle is rejecting the hollow claim of today's technology companies that innovation improves quality of life for everyone by default and beginning a serious conversation about how innovation can be leveraged to fight inequality, rather than amplify it. Science, pride of modernity, our one source of objective knowledge, is in deep trouble. - Stoked by fifty years of growing public investments, scientists are more productive than ever, pouring out millions of articles in thousands of journals covering an ever-expanding array of fields and phenomena. But much of this supposed knowledge is turning out to be constable, unreliable, unusable, or flat-out wrong. - When the politics of scientific publishing prevent negative results from getting out there, science can’t advance, and potentially dangerous errors - whether due to fraud or an honest mistake - go unchecked. (Researchers fear posting/publishing negative information that may reduce their funding for example, when that is important research) - How to fix? Ultimately, science can be rescued if researchers can be directed more toward solving real world problems rather than pursuing the beautiful lie. What you’re reading is important. What you’re referencing should be relevant and not be easily changed. Life changes. Don't take everything you see at face value, things can change.

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The history of science as a discipline emerged from the history of philosophy in the early twentieth century. Its initial institutionalization took place mainly in departments of history and philosophy of science. It is fair to say that history and philosophy of science in recent years have gone their separate ways.

Scientific Literacy - Scientific literacy is the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity. It also includes specific types of abilities. - Adblocker, stealing software, watching anime, is “stealing” revenue, some people steal without knowing or understanding they’re stealing because of technology. Trend: A  general direction in which something is developing or changing. - To be more specific: a trend has substantial disruptive potential that is beginning to break out of an emerging state into broader impact and use, or which are rapidly growing trends with a high degree of volatility reaching tipping points over the next five years. - Amazon is a big player in showing trends, developing and emerging technologies are radically different on amazon. A massive marketplace. Products that are successful will be copied etc. (Bubble tea and froyo restaurants examples as well) Technology:  in this class technology is defined as a product of human innovation. Negative Technology - Negative #1: Technology changes the way children think. - Close to a third of children under the age of two use mobile media. That number only increases as children age, with over 90% of teens 12-17 spending time online. The time spent with technology doesn’t just give kids newfangled ways of doing things, it changes the way their brains work. - For example, while video games may condition the brain to pay attention to multiple stimuli, they can lead to distraction and decreased memory. Children who always use search engines may become very good at finding information but not very good at remembering/retaining it. - Negative #2: Technology Changes the Way We Feel - A study done over the past few years on two groups of sixth grades found that kids who had no access to electronic devices for five days were better at picking up on emotions and nonverbal cues of photos of faces than the group that used their devices during that time. The increased face-to-face interaction that the test group had made students more sensitive to nuances in expression. - Negative #3: Technology Can Put Privacy and Safety at Risk - Improper use of technology can expose people to numerous risks.  Children who use technology may unwittingly share information that can put them in danger. In 82% of online sex crimes against children, the sex offenders used social

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networking sites to get information about the victim’s preferences. And the anonymity of technology can make it easier for people to bully others online. A quarter of teenagers say they have been bullied either by text or on the internet. - Keeping kids in the dark and then suddenly having access when they go to college is not healthy either. Suddenly a large amount of information. You need to gradually introduce it to children to avoid putting them in danger. - PEOPLE WANT CONNECTION. INTERNET GIVES THEM THAT. People even on cruises need to be connected with others and buy expensive internet. Negative #4: More Use of Technology with less Physical Activity Leads to Obesity - Childhood obesity is on the rise, and technology may be to blame.  (Not proven) Pediatricians also say that severe obesity is increasing among young people. Although one traditional focus is on the amount and type of foods kids eat, one study says that obesity is on the rise, not just because of food, but because as we use more technology, we exercise less. With technology that includes cars, television, computers and mobile devices, the amount of time we spend sedentary increased and our time in physical activity dropped.

Reflection The internet has the potential to grand power and freedom to the masses - but that power and freedom aren’t always equally distributed. - Think about some of the examples from last week in regards to cyberbullying, catfish, the dark web. - Internet can be dangerous, and create harm even though it may have benefits. Misinformation may spread etc. Reinventing that which already Exists - Technology’s future will most likely be the reinvention of the technology we used to use or deal with currently. - This is a small look back at the first week’s lecture on technology’s definition. - People used to think smoking was good for you, and used “research” to back it up. TV ads etc. Vapes Juul, etc. and are now being equated to seizures. Is anything new really that new? - Technological determinism  i s a reductionist theory that presumes that a society’s technology drives the development of its societal structure and cultural values. - The term is believed to have been coined by Thorstein Veblen, an American sociologist and economist. - My personal belief: SCIENCE IS IMPROVEMENTS OVER INFORMATION THAT WE LEARN FROM NATURE AND ITERATIONS OVER EXISTING TECH. - We make observations and create conclusions from this. - Would you rather have your IV drawn by a person who has only drawn blood from a robot or from someone who has drawn from a real human being.

--9/10/2019 - Class 3 Top 10 technologies by Bill Gates. (Q&A with bill gates | Mit Technology Review) Lab grown meat etc. ¼ of emissions come from electricity production. Even more comes from beef production. In lower and middle income countries, sewer systems can seem to be too expensive, however the cost of not having it is too big. New toilets that separates solids and liquids, burning solids and filtering liquids. There is the trickle down technique where things the rich have trickle down to the masses. Drug depots help the poor world application, not necessary to the rich world. There are some things you need to challenge scientists on where their target audience is poor that wouldn’t necessarily be able to pay much. Trickle Down works for a lot, but you miss a lot of potential innovation. Is the biggest problem fixing climate change the technologies or the politics? If we froze technology today, we would live in a 4 degrees celsius technology hotter world. We need increased technology, and better political support. Economics and safety are big things when working with new nuclear reactor design. China has led out plans of being the world's technology super power over the next few decades. The only zero sum game is war. Theres a middle income state where your technology gets very good, and you want to go out and do very ambitious things. US in 60s-70s Japan in 70s-80s, China now. The first technological competitor that uses the markets as a competition. Soviets fell way behind in the lack of trade despite having technological competition. 2009 Technological Trends - Each year, technology reviews select what it believes are the 10 most important emerging technologies. The winners are chosen based on the editors’ coverage of key fields. - The question that we ask is simple: is the technology likely to change the world? Some of these changes are on the largest scale possible :Better biofuels, more efficient solar panels, etc. -

The importance of youtube, 1BN+ videos viewed a day. The micro-blogging site took off in 2009 and the term tweet become synonymous with updating your page. Inductive wireless charging for mobile devices Augmented reality.

Trend Models

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Time trend models assume that there is some permanent deterministic pattern across time. These models are best suited to data that are not dominated by random fluctuations. Examining a graphical plot of the time series you want to forecast is often very useful in choosing an appropriate model.

9/17/2019 - Class 4 Term Paper 1 Pick your own topic, that relates to something that is correlated or not to your major, do a paper on anything you’re interested in. Ethics, Technology, Society. Talk about how this is related to a certain topic. Educational Technology & Innovation, english and marketing & managerial skills (the grader) Association of American Colleges & universities Critical Thinking Value Rubric https://www.aacu.org/value/rubrics/critical-thinking The rubric ^^ --Is anything new really that new? Technological Determinism i s a reductionist theory that presumes that a society’s technology drives the development of its social structure and cultural values. The term is believed to have been coined by Thorstein Veblen, an American sociologist and economist. -

Even electronic updates are iterative small improvements

The other end - Social determinism is a belief in the central nature of people in the decision-making process technology can be seen as flexible to meet the needs of “relevant social groups”. - Social determinists argue that society shapes technology, not the other way around. People, cultures and society have needs. - A technology must fill the need, or perceived need if it is going to grow in a culture. Some of these needs are not necessarily those of entire culture or society, but perhaps simply a portion. Science and Technology Introduction - Science

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The process of discovering, explaining, and predicting natural or social phenomena. - Sometimes science is interpreted as sorcery Technology - Products of human innovation Automation - Dominant in an industrial society, the replacement of human labor with machinery and equipment that is self-operating. - Humans make mistakes, automation reduces mistakes. Mechanization - Dominant in an agricultural society, the use of tools to accomplish tasks previously done by hand. Cybernation - Dominant in a postindustrial society; the use of machines to control other machines.

The Global Context: The Technological Revolution - The world is a much smaller place than it used to be, and it will become even smaller as the technological revolution continues. - More than 3 billion people  are now using the internet, according to the United Nations agency that oversees international communication - Although the p  enetration rate , i.e., the percentage of people who have access to and use the Internet in a particular area, is higher in industrialized countries, there is some movement towards the Internet becoming a truly global medium as Africans, Middle Easterners, and Latin Americans increasingly “get online” - For example, although internet use in the United States grew 152 percent between 2000 and 2010, the number of Internet users in Nigeria increased by 21,891 percent during the same time period. - The decline of U.S. supremacy in science and technology is likely to be the result of several interacting forces: - First, the federal government has been scaling back its investment in research and development. - Second, corporations, the largest contributors to research and development, have begun to focus on short-term products and higher profits ars pressure from stockholders mounts. --9/24/2019 - Class 5 The Global Context: The Technological Revolution The decline of U.S. supremacy in science and technology is likely to be the result of several interacting forces:

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First the federal government has been scaling back its investment in research and development - Second, corporations, the largest contributors to research and development, have begun to focus on short-term products and higher profits as pressure from stockholders mounts. - Less money is going to science education over time. Decline of U.S. Supremacy Contd: - Third, developing countries, most notably China and India, are expanding their scientific and technological capabilities at a faster rate. - Fourth, there has been a drop in science and math education in U.S. schools, both in terms of quality and quantity STEM: An acronym for science technology, engineering and mathematics. We are not at the current stage of technology where we can respond quickly. Maybe 24/7 live stream entertainment news? Sort of like twitch streams. Postmodernism and the Technological Fix - Postmodernism is the view that rational thinking and science are limited in their ability to provide “truths.” - Many people think social problems can be resolved through a technological fix: - A social engineer might approach a water shortage by asking people to use less water. - A technologist would develop new technologies to increase the water supply. Don’t sell the cure, sell a portion of a cure. Cure at slow pace that they think medicine is working. Science fulfills the need for an assumed objective measure of truth. If society changes too rapidly, problems may emerge. Cultural lag is a condition in which the material part of culture changes faster than the nonmaterial part. Conflict Perspective - Technological advances are motivated by profit. - Funding of research is determined by dominant groups. - Science and technology also further the interests of dominant groups to the detriment of others. - Finally, conflict theorists as well as feminists argue that technology is an extension of the patriarchal nature of society that promotes the interests of men and ignores the needs and interests of women. Symbolic Interactionist Perspective - Knowledge is relative, it changes over time and between societies.

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Scientific “truths” are socially constructed and result from interactions between scientists, researchers, and the public. Who becomes involved in what aspects of science and technology is socially defined.

Technology and the Workplace - Robotic technology has also revolutionized work. - Ninety percent of robots work in factories, and more than half of these are used in heavy industry, such as automobile manufacturing. - Technology has also changed the nature of work. The Computer Revolution - Americans are more likely to use computers at home rather than at work. - As with computer use in general, computer use in these two locations is associated with demographic variables. - With the exception of age (computer use at home is highest for 15-24 year olds whereas computer use at work is highest for 35-44 year olds, computer use at home and at work follows the same pattern of overall computer use.) Health and digital medicine The search for Knowledge and Information: - The internet, perhaps more than any other technology, is the foundation of the information society. - There is concern, however, that the very way in which the “Google generation” reads, thinks, and approaches problems has been altered by the new technology. Games and Entertainment - Over half of all Americans play video games, although less than a quarter play video games online; - The video games market is expected to be worth over 90 billion U.S. dollars by 2020, from nearly 78.61 billion in 2017. - There are more than 2.5 billion video gamers from all over the world. - 80% of the total video game industry’s 36 billion U.S. dollars revenue in 2017 belongs to software sales. (Entertainment Software Association, NPD Group, 2017) Distribution of computer and video gamers in the United States from 2006 to 2019, by gender. In 2019, it was calculated that women accounted for nearly 46 percent of all gamers in the United States, a slight increase over the previous year. Science and Biotechnology Genetics - Molecular biology has led to a greater understanding of the genetic material found in all cells, DNA, and with it the ability for genetic screening.

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Gene therapy  involves identifying defective or missing genes to get a healthy duplicate and transplant it to the affected cell. Genetic engineering i s the ability to manipulate and alter the genes of an organism.

--10/1/2019 - Class 6 Societal Consequences of Science and Technology Social relationships, networking, and interaction. - Technology affects social relationships and the nature of social interaction. - The development of telephones has led to fewer visits with friends and relatives; with the advent of DVRs, cable television, and video streaming, the number of places where social life occurs (e.g., movie theaters) has declined. - Even the nature of dating has changed as computer networks facilitate instant messaging, cyberdates, and “private” chat rooms. As technology increases, social relationships and human interaction are transformed. Loss of Privacy and Security - Schools, employers, and the government are increasingly using technology to monitor individuals’ performance and behavior. - In 2010, identity theft was the number-one complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission for the 11th year in a row. Unemployment, Immigration, and Outsourcing - Some technologies replace human workers -- robots replace factory workers, word processors displace secretaries and typists, and computer-assisted diagnostics reduce the need for automobile mechanics. - Unemployment rates can also increase when companies outsource ( sometimes called off-shore) jobs to lower-wage countries. The Digital Divide - One of the most significant social problems associated with science and technology is the increased division between the classes. - The fear that technology will produce a “virtual elite” is not uncommon. Several theorists hypothesize that, as technology displaces workers -- most notably the unskilled and uneducated -- certain classes of people will be irreparably disadvantaged -- the poor, minorities, and women. The Challenge to Traditional Values and Beliefs - Technological innovations and scientific discoveries often challenge traditionally held values and...


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