Chapter 1:
Catalysts for Change
Ethics for the Information Age
by
Ing. Dr. Nsor-Anabiah Solomon
Tel: 0206495677
Email: nsoranabiah@gmail.com
Organization of Chapter
• 1-1 Introduction
• 1-2 Milestones in computing
• 1-3 Milestones in networking
• 1-4 Information technology issues
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1.1 Introduction
Information Age
• Characterized by unprecedented access to
information
• Catalysts
– Low-cost computers
– High-speed communication networks
• Examples of advances in past two decades
– Cell phones
– Email
– World Wide Web
– MP3 players 1-3
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1.1 Introduction (cont.)
Technology and Values
• Dynamic between people, technology
– People adopt technology
– Technology changes society
• Different ways people are affected by technology
– Physical changes (e.g., pains accompany the use of
laptops)
– Psychological changes (e.g., cell phones make you feel
safer)
• Technologies can solve problems, create new problems
– Automobile
– Refrigerator and the Ozone Layer
– Low-cost international communication
– Nuclear weapons and radiation the Ozone Layer 1-4
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1.1 Introduction (cont.)
Control over New Technologies
• People can control whether to adopt new
technology
– Nuclear power moratorium in United States
– Nuclear power advances in rest of world
• People can influence rate at which technologies
are developed
– Intellectual property laws (make money from creativity)
– Tax structure (accumulate great wealth)
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1.2 Milestones in Computing
• Aids to manual calculating
• Mechanical calculators
• Cash register
• Punched card tabulation
• Precursors of commercial computers
• First commercial computers
• Programming languages and time-sharing
• Transistor and integrated circuit
• IBM System/360
• Microprocessor
• Personal computer
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Aids to Manual Calculating
• The three important aids to manual calculating are:
– tablet,
– the abacus,
– and mathematical tables
• Tables of logarithms (17th century)
• Income tax tables (today).
• However, even with them manual calculating is
slow, tedious, and error-prone.
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Early Mechanical Calculators
• Calculators (from 17th – 19th century)
• Social Change Market for Calculators
– Gilded Age (late 19th century America)
• Rapid industrialization
• Economic expansion
• Concentration of corporate power
– New, larger corporations
• Multiple layers of management
• Multiple locations
• Needed up-to-date, comprehensive,
reliable, and affordable information 1-8
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Early Mechanical Calculators
• Calculator Adoptions Social Change
– Fierce competition in calculator market
• Continuous improvements in size, speed, ease of use
• Sales increased rapidly
– “Deskilling” and feminization of bookkeeping
• People of average ability quite productive
• Calculators 6 faster than adding by hand
• Wages dropped
• Women replaced men
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Cash Register
• Store owners of late 1800s faced problems
– Keeping accurate sales records for
department stores
– Preventing embezzlement from clerks
• Response to problems: cash register
– Created printed, itemized receipts
– Maintained printed log of transactions
– Rang bell every time drawer was opened
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Tabulators Data-processing Systems
• Punched cards (late 19th century)
– One record per card
– Cards could be sorted into groups, allowing
computation of subtotals by categories
• Early adopters
– U.S. Bureau of the Census
– Railroads
– Retail organizations
– Heavy industries
• Data-processing system
– Receives input data
– Performs one or more calculations
– Produces output data 1-11
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First Commercial Computers
• Precursors of Commercial Computers
– Small-Scale Experimental Machine: CRT memory. A
fully electronic computer system that had both
program and data stored in its memory. It
successfully executed its first program in 1948.
• Remington-Rand
– Completed UNIVAC in 1951
– Delivered to U.S. Bureau of the Census
– Predicted winner of 1952 Pres. Election
• IBM (entered the commercial market in 1953)
– Larger base of customers
– Far superior sales and marketing organization
– Greater investment in research and development
– Dominated mainframe market by mid-1960s
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Programming Languages
• Assembly language
– Symbolic representations of machine instructions
– Programs just as long as machine language programs
• FORTRAN (1957)
– First higher-level language (shorter programs)
– Designed for scientific applications
• COBOL (1959)
– U.S. Department of Defense standard
– Designed for business applications
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Time-Sharing Systems and BASIC
• Time-Sharing Systems (In the early 1960s)
– Divide computer time among multiple users
– Users connect to computer via terminals
– Cost of ownership spread among more people
– Gave many more people access to computers
• BASIC (In the early 1960s)
– Developed at Dartmouth College
– Simple, easy-to-learn programming language
– Popular language for teaching programming
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Other Advances
• Transistor
– Replacement for vacuum tube
– Invented at Bell Labs (1948)
• Semiconductor
– Faster
– Cheaper
– More reliable
– More energy-efficient
• Integrated Circuit : Semiconductor containing transistors,
capacitors, and resistors
– Advantages over parts they replaced
• Smaller
• Faster
• More reliable
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• Less expensive
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IBM System/360
• Before System/360
– IBM dominated mainframe market in 1960s
– IBM computers were incompatible
– Switch computers rewrite programs
• System/360 (1964)
– Series of 19 computers with varying levels of
power
– All computers could run same programs -
Compatible
– Upgrade without rewriting programs 1-16
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Microprocessor and Personal Computer
• Microprocessor: Computer inside a single
semiconductor chip
– Invented in 1970 at Intel
– Made personal computers practical
• Example of first PCs
– Altair 8800 (1975)
– Personal computers become popular
• Apple Computer: Apple II
– Developments draw businesses to personal
computers
• IBM launches IBM PC
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1-3 Milestones in Networking
• Discoveries in electromagnetism (early 1800s)
• Telegraph (1844)
– A telegraph is a machine used to transmit messages
in the form of electrical impulses that can be converted
into data
• Telephone (1876)
• Typewriter and teletype (1873, 1908)
In 1908 a typewriter was modified to print a message transmitted over a
telegraph line; the inventors called the invention, a teletype
• Radio (1895)
• Television (1927)
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Other Milestones in Networking
• Remote computing (1940)
• ARPANET - Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (1969)
• Email (1972)
• Internet (1983)
– network of networks communicating using TCP/IP
• Broadband (2000)
• Broadband
– High-speed Internet connection
– At least 10x faster than dial-up connection
– Enhanced by fiber optic networks
– South Korea is the world leader in broadband
networking.3/4 of homes have broadband connections1-19
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Other Milestones in Networking
• Newspapers
• Graphical User Interface
• World Wide Web (1990)
– Protocols based on TCP/IP general
– Later browsers
• Mosaic
• Netscape Navigator
• Netscape Mozilla
• Microsoft Internet Explorer (most popular)
• Search Engines - Google, AltaVista, MSN
• Information Technology
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Information Technology
• Definition: Devices used in creation,
storage, manipulation, dissemination of
data, sound, and/or images
• Examples: Computers, telephones, video
cameras, MP3 players
• People making greater use of IT
– Costs keep falling
– Capabilities keep rising
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1-4 IT Issues
• Email
– Easy way to keep in touch
– Spam has become a real problem
• Web
– Free access to huge amounts of information
– Harmful consequences of some sites
• CDs, MP3s, MP4s
– Free or cheap copies readily available
– May be unfair to musicians
• Credit cards
– Convenience over cash and checks
– Increases possibility of identity theft
– Who owns information about transactions?
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1-4 IT Issues (cont.)
• Telecommuting
– Saves time, allows more flexible work hours
– Can lead to longer work hours
– May result in fewer chances for promotion
• Improved global communication network
– Allow companies to sell to entire world
– Allow companies to move jobs out of their
home countries.
• World Wide Web
– A conduit for democratic ideas?
– Another tool for totalitarian governments? 1-23
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Conclusions
• Revolutionary discoveries are rare
• Information technology has long history
• Rate of technological change accelerating
• Wrong question: “What will the computer
do to us?”
• Right question: “What will we make of the
computer?”
(quoting Seymour Papert)
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