A Gift of Fire

Chapter 1: Unwrapping the

Gift
Created by Derek Schmitt & Kyle Franklin

Unwrapping the Gift

Rapid Pace of Change
New Developments and Dramatic Impacts
Issues and Themes
Ethics

Rapid Pace of Change

1940s: First computer is built. Size of a room.
1956: IBM creates first hard disc drive. Weight 1

ton, size 5MB (approx. one 5 min song)

1991: Space shuttle has 1 megahertz computer
onboard
2000s: Ipods and other portable devices can hold
multiple KB of data
2006: Luxury automobiles have 100 megahertz
computer
2006: Georgia Tech and IBM create 500 megahertz
chip

Rapid Pace of Change

(cont.)
Discussion Questions
What devices do you use on a daily basis that
are computerized?

New Developments
Blogs
Made up word combining web and log
Began shortly before 2000 as outlets for amateurs

looking to express ideas

Present personal views, funny and creative, present
non-mainstream perspectives on current events
Now alternatives to mainstream media Ex: Perez
Hilton
Most popular blogs have between 100 and 500
thousand hits daily

New Developments
(cont.)
Video Sharing
YouTube founded in 2005. Led to a rise in

amateur video posting

Most viewed video on YouTube, over
443,000,000 hits
Cell phone and handheld video cameras make
uploading easier
May lead to copyright infringement owned by
entertainment companies

New Developments
(cont.)
Cell Phones
Beginning of the 21st century few people

had cell phones

Now over 5 billion cell phone subscriptions
globally
Integrated with GPS, camera, internet,
applications
Increased problems with cell phone use
while driving
Cameras in phone lead to privacy issues

New Developments
(cont.)
Social Networking
How many people have Facebook?
First online social networking site was
classmates.com in 1995
Myspace founded in 2003, had 100 million
profiles by 2006
250 million people using Facebook, and more
than 900 million object pages (groups, pages,
people)
How do social networking sites affect people
and relationships?

New Developments
(cont.)
Online Collaboration
Wikipedia: online collaborative encyclopedia

Within 5 years had over million entries in English (more than

Encyclopedia Britanica)
Articles may have false information or be poorly written

Open Directory Project (ODP)

Directory of the Web organized by topic areas, created
by volunteers
Watch Dog sites on web

Bring up privacy issues

New Developments
(cont.)
E-commerce/Free Stuf
Cyber Monday mega sales for online shoppers
Free websites, games, books, newspapers
Amazon.com started in 1994. 10 years later
annual sales topped $8.5 billion.
TV shows available on web via Hulu.com and
station websites
May lead to identity theft, security issues

New Developments
(cont.)
AI, Robotics, and Motion
AI- artificial intelligence
Branch of computer science that develops theories
and techniques for making computers perform tasks
we normally think of as requiring human
intelligence. Ex: playing chess, language translation,
diagnosing diseases, undersanding speech
Sync system in Ford cars, uses voice commands

Robotics- mechanical devices to do human

tasks
Motion sensing devices used in airbags,
laptops, Ipod, video games, etc.

New Developments
(cont.)
Tools for people with disabilities
Computer based devices help restore abilities,
productivity, and independence for people with
disabilities
Speech synthesizers on computers for the blind
Text-messaging devices popular with the deaf
Prosthetic devices improve from dumb heavy
devices, to lightweight materials with analog
motors, to now highly sensitive and flexible
digitally controlled devices that allow users to
play sports and fly airplanes

New Developments
(cont.)
Discussion Question
What do you think is next for technology,
specifially in the area of video sharing, cell
phones, AI, robotics, and motion sensing?
How will these changes improve quality of life?

Issues and Themes

Issues
Unemployement? ATMs, robotic plants, etc.
taking people out of work?
Alienation and customer service? Lack of face
to face time?
Loss of privacy? More records and opportunity
for theft
Errors? More errors?

Issues and Themes

(cont.)
Old problems in a new context: crime,

pornography, violent fiction

Adapting to new technology, thinking in a new
way
Varied sources of solutions to problems is
natural part of change in life
Global reach of the Web, increases
communication
Tradoffs: increased security means reducing
convience

Ethics
Study of what it means to do the right thing
Assumes people are rational and make free

choices
Rules to follow in our interactions and our

actions that affect others

Ethics (cont.)
Ethical views
Deontological- emphasize duty and absolute
rules Ex: Do not lie
Utilitarianism- people try to increase utility to
satisfy the persons needs and values
Natural Rights- Everyone has right to life,
liberty, property
Ethics has no simple answers to any situation

Ethics (cont.)
Distinction between right, wrong, and okay
Ethical decisions: ethically obligatory, ethically
prohibited, or ethically acceptable
Negative rights (liberties)
Right to act without interference
Example: right to be free from assault, right to

life

Positive rights (claim rights)

An obligation of some people to provide certain
things for others

Ethics (cont.)
Discussion Questions
Can you think of examples of negative rights
and positive rights that are in opposition to
each other?
What is a situation where ethics and the law
might conflict?