Professional Issues in Computing Issues in Computers and

Professional Issues in Computing Issues in Computers and Society

Issues and Professionalism • • Blay Whitby, 3 R 345, blayw@. sussex. ac. uk Lectures • There are 2 Lectures per week. • Wednesday 0900 -1100, ARUN 401 • It would be a good idea to participate in all of them. Seminars • You have one seminar per week. • You need to participate in all of them.

Orientation • Why study this? • • • Professionalism. You will be involved! What employers expect from graduates. • How should we study this? • • Differences from purely technical subjects. Varying opinions. Many speculations are likely to be be wrong. You may need to acquire new techniques.

Techniques [This is not an exhaustive list] Your aim should be to become able to form your own opinions • Develop critical views - requires reading a number of differing writers/viewpoints. • Show awareness of counter-arguments. • Avoid cliches, slogans, and empty phrases - these are often ways of avoiding the necessity to: • Think.

Some Issues • • • Some comments on predictions. Technological developments. Social implications and consequences. Revolution? Visionaries versus sceptics. Separate the technological from the social.

Some comments on predictions How reliable are the forecasts? • Are there too many variables? • Is it sensible or is it science fiction? • Beware the glib, but empty, metaphors: 'The Global Village' 'The Paperless Office' 'The Electronic Revolution' Who will decide?

Technological Developments • Increase in power (=size, speed, etc)of processors, with a decrease in cost. • Better interfaces - Multimedia, Natural language, V. R. • Intelligence (" "? ) everywhere. • Bigger, more comprehensive networks, faster data transfer. • Systems that replace humans.

Some Comments on Revolutions • Media hype or reality? • Power. • • Revolution = change of those in power. Little evidence of this. Computer workers' status Does I. T. reinforce power structures? ( ie. The opposite of a revolution!)

Some comments on Revolutions How much is changing? • Work? • Leisure? • Values? Is the impact of I. T. evolutionary, rather than revolutionary? • Slow? • Gradual? • Diverse?

Visionaries versus Sceptics • Daniel Bell. - Knowledge = freedom = intellectual advancement. • Herbert Simon - Productivity = better quality = better goods and services = more satisfaction. • Michie and Johnston - Expert systems will solve all the world's problems. • On the other hand, • Joseph Weizenbaum. - Computers cannot be a substitute for humans = scapegoats for human failings. ; '' • Neil Frude. - People will prefer machine companions to each; ''other = isolation = loss of social skills = no human society. ; ''

Social implications and consequences • 3 views: 1. Sceptical • Computers are (or are about to be) destroying human skills and relationships. • We are becoming (or will be) dependent on technologies which we neither like nor understand.

Social implications and consequences 3 views: 2. Optimistic • More information and knowledge will be available to all. • Greater access by more people enhances democracy, makes deception more difficult • Liberation from boring and dangerous work. 3. Separate • Social and technological changes are driven by different and separate processes.