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-Updates 11.4 Education in the Information Age 11.5 High-Tech Schools

Sunset on Digital Planet

Ten Editions and BeyondAfter ten editions and multiple translations, Digital Planet is now officially out of print. We’re deeply grateful to all of you who joined us as we rode the waves from Computer Currents to Digital Planet.
 

Categories
-Cross Currents 11.1 Where Computers Work 11.2 Technology and Job Quality 11.3 Automation, Globalization, and Outsourcing 15.6 The Robot Revolution

Our Robotic Future: AI or IA?

The robots are coming, and they’re coming fast. In this fascinating Fresh Air interview, tech writer John Markoff talks about several ways that intelligent machines are likely to profoundly change our lives over the next few years. From self-driving cars to peopleless warehouses, intelligent machines will play major roles in shaping our world. He makes a critical distinction between artificial intelligence (AI) and intelligence augmentation (IA), two schools of research that take radically different approaches to the relationship between humans and machines. As a bonus, the interview ends with what is probably the funniest robot song ever recorded.
npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/08/20/433000643/how-close-are-we-really-to-a-robot-run-society
 

Categories
-Context 11.1 Where Computers Work 11.2 Technology and Job Quality 11.3 Automation, Globalization, and Outsourcing 15.6 The Robot Revolution

The Job Market Looks Great if You’re a Robot

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More jobs every day are being automated—done by machines rather than humans. In this thought-provoking Fresh Air interview, Silicon Valley executive Martin Ford says that all kinds of jobs—even many that we assume are machine-proof—are threatened by advances in hardware and software. The implications for our economy and our society are far-reaching.
http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/05/18/407648886/attention-white-collar-workers-the-robots-are-coming-for-your-jobs

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-Updates 11.7 The High-Tech Home 6.3 From Hypertext to Interactive Multimedia

Is Virtual Reality an Empathy Generator?

Project Syria

Most of us think about video games as escapist fare. But a new genre of games, called news games, can take players deeper into real-world situations, helping them to develop an understanding of news that goes far beyond headlines. This NPR story talks about the potential impact of these games, including a USC student project called Project Syria.
This short video goes deeper into the Project and the process of creating this compelling virtual reality experience.
Categories
-Cross Currents 10.5 Human Questions for a Computer Age 11.1 Where Computers Work 15.4 Pattern Recognition: Making Sense of the World 15.5 Question-Answering Machines

Deep Learning: Artificial Intelligence Breakthroughs that Will Change Your Life

Screenshot 2015-01-05 23.07.13For decades researchers have experimented with machine learning—software that can improve with experience without being reprogrammed. That research has paid off in a number of applications, including the intelligent search engines that we use every day. But recent breakthroughs in a field called deep learning are likely to bring radical transformations to our lives very soon. This TED Talk by Jeremy Howard explains the technology and touches on a few applications and implications. Spoiler: there’s good news and bad news….
[ted id=2155 lang=en]

Categories
-Cross Currents 10.5 Human Questions for a Computer Age 11.2 Technology and Job Quality 11.3 Automation, Globalization, and Outsourcing

Automation in Perspective: The Workforce Crisis

We’ve speculated for decades about the impact of robots and automation on the future of jobs. But in this eye-opening TED talk, Rainer Strack considers automation as part of the larger question: How will society meet the needs of people in 2030? He raises many profoundly important questions and provides a few answers that we should all consider.
https://www.ted.com/talks/rainer_strack_the_surprising_workforce_crisis_of_2030_and_how_to_start_solving_it_now
Categories
-Context 11.1 Where Computers Work 11.2 Technology and Job Quality 8.4 The Network Advantage 8.5 Interpersonal Computing: From Communication to Communities 9.2 Inside the Web

Collaboration on Collaboration

why_we_collaborateThe Internet makes it possible for people to collaborate on a massive scale, working together to accomplish tasks that might otherwise be impossible. The world of online collaboration is changing rapidly—and changing our lives in the process. Many TED talks and NPR podcasts have helped us to understand the applications and implications of collaborative technology. In this fascinating radio program, TED and NPR collaborate to explore collaboration by combining excerpts from several TED talks with interviews and commentary.
www.npr.org/2013/07/13/197986218/why-we-collaborate

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-Cross Currents 10.5 Human Questions for a Computer Age 11.4 Education in the Information Age 11.5 High-Tech Schools 11.6 Technology and School: Midterm Grades

Digital Help for Indigenous People and the Planet

A few short decades ago the Surui tribe lived a stone-age lifestyle in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon. Encroachment of modern civilization into their forest threatened their home—and their very existence. But today the tribe is using digital technology to help preserve the rainforest, the people that live there, and the health of our shared planet. This unlikely story is described in this NPR piece and the accompanying YouTube video.
npr.org/2013/03/28/175580980/from-the-stone-age-to-the-digital-age-in-one-big-leap

Categories
-Inventing the Future 10.5 Human Questions for a Computer Age 11.1 Where Computers Work 3.2 Output: From Pulses to People 4.6 Software Piracy and Intellectual Property Laws

3-D Printing Applications and Implications

We’ve heard about how 3D printers can be used to manufacture toys, small machine parts, and even some prosthetic devices for human bodies. But as applications emerge, so do some difficult questions.

  • According to this Wired story, a printed car might soon share the road with you. But for legal reasons, it might technically be a motorcycle.
  • This NPR story explores some of the intellectual property questions raised by 3-D printers.
  • It’s one thing to print a figurine of a copyrighted comic book character; printing a lethal weapon is something else altogether.
    This NPR story explains how 3-D printers muddy the waters in the debate over gun safety.
Categories
-Context 10.5 Human Questions for a Computer Age 11.3 Automation, Globalization, and Outsourcing 8.4 The Network Advantage Chapter/Section

Faster than the Speed of Money

NPR’s Radiolab is radio at its best—entertaining, informative, provocative. This episode will change the way you think about time and speed. One segment reveals the surprising truth about the relative speeds of the human nervous system and the Internet, and the a critical role of speed in today’s computer-controlled financial marketplace.
radiolab.org/2013/feb/05
If you don’t understand how the stock market works, you’re not alone. The market has developed a digital mind of its own, and in many ways it’s beyond human comprehension. The blog that accompanies that story includes some dazzling animated visualizations.