Tuesday, February 03, 2004

Hi all!

Here are my questions for the 2/4 discussion:

1. In Licklider's paper, "Man-Computer Symbiosis", he says that in terms of memory requirements for the computer he envisions, we shouldn't store whole books in computer memory. "Books are among the most beautifully engineered, and human-engineered, components in existence, and they will continue to be functionally important within the context of man-computer symbiosis," (p. 78). Do you agree? We already have books on tape, books on CD-ROM, and some books on the Internet. Will we always have a use for hard copies of books, or will they become a thing of the past in our technologically driven world?

2. At the end of the Weiner reading, using the metaphor of the genie in a bottle, and the saying "be careful what you wish for," he warns readers about the possible troubles of creating machines that give you what you think you want, but that is not what you want. In your opinion, are there any machines that have been created or are in the process of being created that may cause more harm than good? Is it true that if we can create it, we should create it?

3. Each of the readings has several ideas of what the future of technology was going to be. Looking back now, we can definitely see certain aspects that are realities of today's technology. There are also many examples where technology developed in a completely different way. What value do ideas like The Memex and the Dynabook have? How have these ideas fostered today's creations of Palm Pilots, MP3 Players, etc.?

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