6. Extra Credit: Augmented reality

From article: Improving Our Depth Perception in Augmented Reality from the week of 10/8

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The biggest question that we must ask ourselves about augmented reality is how will this affect the general public when this technology becomes widespread. Will the constant companion of virtual objects become so commonplace that people will begin to no longer discern the difference between real objects and virtual ones? Augmented reality will become the real reality. So far augmented reality has been used mostly for enhancement of sporting event and the uses in medicine and war can been seen as indispensable. The extra precision for doctors and the heads up information for soldiers provides a new era in accuracy and will prevent needless loss of life. This is an area where augmented reality should become the norm and will aid in nearly all situations. Should we stop here and only use augmented reality for these purposes rather than give headgear to the general public? Google is planning on releasing augmented reality glasses in the near future with the hope that they become everyday objects. As of now the thought that everyone would be wearing these glasses seems silly to most and in no way seems feasible. What if they do become as popular if Google hopes and everyone starts to where these glasses? I believe that these glasses will become a source of distraction more so than the cell phone. The attention span of humans is dwindling and is soon to be almost completely gone. With augmented reality glasses a quick notification in the peripheral view may completely deter the attention of someone during a conversation. Normal conversation will no longer be possible if all “engaged parties” are only paying attention the augmented reality glasses that all of them are wearing. This is a shift that humanity is already heading towards, but augmented reality for the common people could be the final nail in the coffin. Augmented reality is a danger to the human race, which we cannot afford if we don’t want productivity and human relationships to no longer become part of a social norm.

5. Extra Credit: Stuxnet

From Stuxnet: Anatomy of A computer virus from week of 10/1

The power of cyber warfare doesn’t come from the complexity or the target even though these are important factors. The power comes from the misunderstanding and abstractness that viruses and most software has from the average person. An average may not be particularly complex or dangerous, but if someone who does not have experience with computers is confronted with a possibility of infecting himself or herself with the virus then they are most likely going to become infected. How is someone who doesn’t have experience with computers going to deal with a virus. Nearly everyone on the planet does not have enough experience to deal with or pick apart a virus. This realization that is coming with extremely powerful and complex viruses is that there aren’t nearly enough people who have the knowledge to deal with and combat the viruses. Cyber warfare has become so prevalent that training to become knowledgeable about computers has become a top priority. Is this training enough? Training more children to be able to program and fight viruses is what the infrastructure needs in order for any country to survive in this new era of computers. With computers becoming the ultimate source or information, communication and now warfare the need for all people to be proficient with computers has never been higher. Groups such as anonymous are also becoming more important because they are showing companies how vulnerable they are to cyber attacks. Stuxnet has shown the world that viruses are no longer just for people to make money off of stealing identities or for recreation in destroying other peoples’ computers. Nuclear interference and power outages are now the greatest threats. How soon until people are dying directly from the effects of computer viruses? Cyber violence is so much more dangerous because of the anonymousness. We have reached a new era where everyone must be proficient on a computer if they want to survive.

4. Extra Credit: Crow Sourcing

From Crow sourcing from week of 9/24

The Internet has become not just a collective knowledge base, but also a collective base for jokes, idioms and general human observation interactions. I am referring to the explosion of the usage and popularity of the meme. The meme has become a tool to point out an observation to everyone around him or her. These observations can be anything from the general lateness of a bus at a college bus stop or an observation of the tendencies of a prominent political figure. These memes have opened a doorway to a more casual Internet usage and a feeling of closeness with people with whom you encounter on the Internet. This closeness resides in the fact that memes provide a common ground of perspective and hilarity between people. This recent development has opened an avenue for people to converse and build a knowledge base concerning topics that really do not matter in the scope of everyday life, but may provide a mutual interest. An example of this is crow sourcing. This name is a play on words from crowd sourcing, this site has people exploring and inventing idioms based on common animals. The content of this site is not the most important part of its existence despite exploring a topic that is not usually explored. The important idea is that people are coming together to build knowledge bases (crowd sourcing) about any topic even if it is very extract. The idea of collaboration is important in the fact that knowledge bases can be expanded quickly and include large amounts of information without bias, but also because this this idea is likely to spread to scholarly ideas and really any type of work. This is exciting because the volume and accuracy of works will increase. As this idea evolves many problems arise however. Who moderates to make sure that the information is accurate and genuine? This problem has already arisen with wikis. Who should have the power to edit and add information? Will collaborative works ever become possible let alone popular if these problems cannot be solved?

Virtual Reality Questions

 Initial Understanding: Virtual Reality is created by screens or helmets around the eyes and something to allow the user to interact with the world that they are seeing through these screens. These worlds can be anything.

From A Brief History of VR
1. Would the introduction of useable (inexpensive enough for public use and immerse enough that a people are fooled by the reality) VR be such a major shift that society couldn't handle the transition? What would happen to the morals of the people?

2. Are people ever going to be completely content by the current technology?

3. Would virtual reality world have to be monitored for illicit behavior in order to keep the minds of the public on track with the law in the real world?

Privacy and Security Questions

From the Transparency Grenade
1. Would a fear of information leaks lead to companies and governments being more open about their policies and actions?

2. Are companies only successful in many ways because they have secrets?

3. Would a concept like the transparency grenade ever become popular in multiple companies and governments?

From Device identification in online banking is privacy threat
1. Is there any way to fight privacy issues such as device identification when all banks use this technology?

2. At what time frames would banks have to terminate information about users in order for users to feel safe?

3. Is privacy or identity theft a more prevalent issue?

Open Source

Questions from Open Source vs. Proprietary
1. Will open source software ever become as popular as proprietary?

2. Is open source software promoting an interest in learning programming?

3. Can new open source software be trusted? Are bugs and the fact that the development team has no responsibilities reason enough to make open source not an option for most people?

Videos
1. The idea of free software is good because people get software that they can modify themselves for their needs, but can this idea be applied to all forms of software?

2. Is open source software the ultimate way of creation?

3. Is a certain degree of censorship and rules required for the internet to work properly and be useful to everyone?

Rheingold and Virtual Communities

Questions for Life on the Electronic Frontier
1. Has the age of true intellectual communities been lost now that all people have access to the internet?

2. Will there ever be a time where social interaction only happens through the internet?

3. Is the entity of television disappearing to be completely replaced my media consumption on the internet?

Question for Virtual Community
1. Will the internet ever truly be considered a formal meeting space?

2. How has the internet changed social behavior? Has it created split personalities?

3. Would the internet have ever become popular if it didn't apply visual appealing interfaces and dynamic interactions?