Module 4: Emerging Technology

MODULE 4: EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

So for this module, we were asked to talk about an emerging technology, recognise its potential and talk about its future impacts on society. Although in this time and age most breakthrough innovations are quite rare, there are a lot of technological breakthroughs in existing technology, and some of them can be classified as new and emerging technology.

One such technology that i would like to talk about is holographic technology. So                    what is holography? Holography is, in simple terms, a photographic technique for producing 3-D images. It involves usage of lasers, diffraction, interference, recording of light intensity and proper illumination of the recording.

The hologram was made possible by the development of the laser, which is one of the key items in making a hologram.

Source: http://science.howstuffworks.com/hologram1.htm

 Holograms were first used in the field of art by artists, and is still used today by some artists and art schools around the world as a medium. Apart from that, holographic technology is also used in data storage, wherein holographic technology can store data at very high density inside photopolymers or certain crystals.

Holographic technology is also being used in security applications such as on different currencies, ATM cards, credit cards, different forms of photo ID, DVDs, and even books and certain sports equipment. Holographic scanners are also in use big companies, post offices, and some automated conveyor systems to use 3D imaging to determine a size of a package.                  

Source: http://www.securityhologram.com/    

In the famous movie Star Trek, the crew of the Starship Enterprise could go to a special room to live out any fantasies they had, called the holodeck. It was essentially a big holographic projection room which enabled the crew to touch and interact with projections, similar to being in a big video game. As such, there is technology being developed today which will similarly enable people and their friends or family to interact in an environment similar to this one despite being hundreds or thousands of kilometers apart. 

In the same way, there are many companies out there in the IT and computing industry which are starting to look at holographic technology as a soon to be replacement for the current 3D industry in many applications such as for mobile phones and laptops, televisions, holographic teleconferencing and holographic meetings between staff in a same company working in different locations. 

Where can we see examples of this technology being used? What are some scenarios that we can see practical applications of this?

One such place we can see an application for this technology is in the workplace. Employees who work from home would not even need to move out from their room at home to be able to attend a meeting, or display a presentation to a board of directors or the bosses. All the employee would need to do is to install the necessary hardware and software, and the people at work would then see a live 3D hologram of the employee actually sitting there in the meeting room or board room, and they would actually be able to interact and speak to him/her as if there were a live person there.

For example: 

Taken from http://www.starviewint.vn/uploads/category/3D%20SONY%20telepresent%20structure-12.jpg

Other scenes where we could possibly see holographic technology making an entry? In social communications media : phones, laptops, desktops, watches, IPod's, IPad's and other electronic devices: 

Souce: http://www.flickr.com/photos/metropolismusic/4257545615/

They would allow people to interact with 3D holograms of friends and family in real time, and video chat will be improved to become holography chat where people would be able to virtually see and talk to each other as if they were together in real life. Imagine what this could do for people who have family members living thousands of kilometers away, and are unable to see them except through video chat.

 With this technology, they would be able to literally 'walk' into the homes of their family members, 'sit' with them, enjoy a cup of coffee with them, and join them for dinner once in a while. This goes the same for old people who are unable to travel to visit their kids or their grandchildren, again using holograms they would be virtually able to see, react and talk to 3D holograms of their children or grandchildren : all in real time. 

Apple devices such as iPhones, iPod's and iPad's have a lot of potential when it comes to these futuristic technologies. Some people and market analysts believe that the new upcoming iPod's will have a few variations, such as a wristwatch with a voice activated feature, and become a hologram entertainment center and comms device. It will possibly be able to display whole conferences and training sessions by just laying it on the table and switching on the hologram device. 

An illustrated example of what i am talking about : 

                                          Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89KxxpmMhi4

References:

 Bonsor, K. (n.d.). How Holographic Environments Will Work. Retrieved May 2, 2013, from http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/high-tech-gadgets/holographic-environment.htm

Bourzac, K. (2013). New 3D Display Could Let Phones and Tablets Produce Holograms. Retrieved May 15, 2013, from http://www.technologyreview.com/news/512716/new-3-d-display-could-let-phones-and-tablets-produce-holograms/

Onural, L. (2010). Research Trends in Holographic 3DTV Displays. Retrieved April 30, 2013 from http://www.digitalholography.eu/varasto/O2009c.pdf

Winslow, L. (2007). Holographic Projection Technologies of the Future. Retrieved May 23, 2013, from http://www.slideshare.net/Gilbertaubin/holographic-technologies

Module 3 : Ethics

Retrieved October 4, 2013 from http://www.whyislam.org/social-values-in-islam/morality-ethics-in-islam/

So, for module 3 we were supposed to 'showcase our ability to identify the tensions that exist between the need for economic survival and the desire to behave ethically'. Basically, talk about an ethical issue which needs consideration in today's world. So, what are ethics? 

According to the Oxford Online Dictionary, the definition of ethics is "moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour or the conducting of an activity". A general meaning by Wikipedia is "rational, optimal and appropriate decision brought on the basis of common sense.(Wikipedia, October 2013).

The UN Declaration of Human Rights defined Privacy as this:

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone had the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.   (retrieved October 5, 2013 from http://www.craigbellamy.net/2006/04/24/privacy/ )

So basically ethics is just a way of doing a certain thing, based on moral principles and simple common sense, which should be pretty easy. But why then is ethics such a talked about and debated about topic in the general media and on the internet and by the public?

Some years ago, in a study done by Santa Clara University in 2010, a sociologist called Raymond Baumhart asked business people, "What does ethics mean to you?". Among some of the replies given were:

"Ethics has to do with what my feelings tell me is right or wrong."

"Ethics has to do with my religious beliefs."

"Being ethical is doing what the law requires."

"Ethics consists of the standards of behavior our society accepts."

"I don't know what the word means."

(Retrieved October 5,2013 from http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/whatisethics.html. What is Ethics.)

As seen by the above, there was no concrete answer for what actually ethics means. It is an abstract concept which differs in definition from person to person, and the views that people offer about the meaning of ethics are usually quite shaky.

The study done by Santa Clara University also went on to say that many people, just like the ones interviewed by Baumhart, tend to equate ethics with their feelings. But being ethical is not just a matter of following one's feelings, as a person's feelings might tend to deviate from doing what is right.

So what is an example of an ethical issue?

One of the main ethical issues talked about nowadays are privacy issues and concerns. Privacy is the ability of a group or an individual to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively. The degree to which private information is exposed therefore depends on how well the public will receive this information, which differs between place and time.  (Wikipedia, 2012)

In simple words, privacy is simply the right to be left alone, and is a fundamental human right which everyone deserves. Unfortunately with the development of the Internet age, internet privacy or information privacy is becoming a widely talked about and debated issue by communities worldwide.

There are many ways in which a person can be affected negatively by the disclosure of personal information, some of which are deemed sensitive. Court records, financial records, medical records, social media accounts, internet site visits, and many other sources hold a lot of details about a person's life. Thus, the disclosure of all this information can potentially be subjecting people to harm and abuse.

We might argue that information is needed to make a decision at times, and good information will help lead to good decisions. But the outstanding issue is this : sometimes, or a lot of times, that information is misused. For example, in 2010 in Philadelphia (U.S.A), one school districts gave out laptops to its students, then used it secretly to spy on them, both at school and at home.The laptops were issued to 1800 students at 3 high schools in the district, each with a built in webcam which according to law enforcement, administrators could activate covertly and remotely. A case was filed after the son of one Blake J. Robbins was disciplined by one of the school's vice principals for "improper behaviour in his home". (Source: http://www.newser.com/story/81237/school-gives-kids-laptops-spies-on-them-via-webcam.html)

The comments from the readers and viewers blasted the school administration and the district administrators for even thinking of such an idea, much less endorsing it. One reader, codenamed RWT711 commented "you know... in this same scenario... if the laptop were on a hard wired network the administrator could also turn the power of the laptop on whenever he/she wanted to "do maintenance" giving them the freedom to turn on the webcam whenever they wanted and not just when the student was logged in. This is very disturbing.."  Yet another reader, codenamed concernedaboutHHS commented "I'm looking through my daughter's laptop for evidence of this crime when she comes home from Harriton High School today. As for the city of Philadelphia having huge deficits and how did they get the money for 1800 laptops: this has nothing to do with Philadelphia; this is Harriton High School in the rich (very rich) suburb of Lower Merion. I agree that the school has the right to monitor use of the computer at school, but not with webcams and not personal emails (apart from the school's official email system). Further, there should be no active monitoring outside the school campus property. If this is true, and it's still an if, heads should roll. If monitoring continued after those in charge knew it was happening, criminal charges would be apropriate."


The March/April 1999 issue of Consumers Digest had a good article on medical records privacy. The article was titled Protecting Your Medical Privacy by John F. Wasik, and claims that employers can easily gain medical records information about employees. Some of the statistics given by Wasik are :

• One study indicates that 21 percent of workers were fired or laid off after their work-related injury according to the Texas Research and Oversight Council on Workers' Compensation.
• According to the AFL/CIO, employers commonly use information about an individual's medical condition on (making) decisions about hiring, firing or promotions.
• Medical information is available from insurers through state workers' compensation programs and industry databases on insurance claims known as the "Index" system.
• Workers' compensation claim information is easily bought from employment-screening firms for as little as $12.
• Employers can pull even more medical information from credit records (health-care billing), bankruptcy records and even handwriting analysis (some medical and mental states) (pg. 60). (Source: http://education.illinois.edu/wp/privacy/persprivacy.html) 

On an employers perspective, this may seem like a proper thing to do in order to maintain certain standards in offices and companies, and to ensure quality of the staffing and the service they provide. But for the public, this is a genuine privacy concern, and the release of such information has caused a lot of damage for many of the people involved.

There are pros when it comes to the releasing of some aspects of our personal details. For example, doctors can pull up our health records in a matter of minutes, or even seconds. Doctors can do consultation for surgeries from thousands of miles away, securing a loan only takes a day or 2 as compared to weeks in the past, and it is much easier to curb crime and theft. Technology nowadays has helped speed up the access we have to records and other information.

Another aspect of privacy concerns are to do with social media. The current generation grew up with the Internet, and most if not all youngsters are Internet and technologically savvy, and spend a vast amount of time surfing the Net, downloading movies, chatting, and video calling.

Facebook had come under fire in the recent few years on a wide range of issues, namely treatment of its users, online privacy, child safety, and hate speech, among others. In the year 2010, the Electronic Frontier Foundation identified 2 personal information aggregation techniques called 'connections' and 'instant personalization', which demonstrated that anyone could get access to information saved to a particular Facebook profile, even if it was not intended for public viewing. The connection is created when a user hits the 'like' button for a product or service, either on Facebook itself or an external site and the user information may be displayed on the Facebook page of the product or service. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook#Widening_exposure_of_member_information_2011.E2.80.9312)

Due to these issues, it was recently discovered that about 11 million users dropped Facebook, and almost half of them were reported to have left due to privacy concerns. Even though according to Facebook there are privacy laws and regulations which have been put in place, the recent mass numbers leaving the social media site say otherwise, and people have genuine concerns over their privacy, as more and more of people's personal information is being used by social media sites and other sites for marketing and advertisement purposes, and the amount of information available on the Internet nowadays about a person is just staggering.

Some people may argue that most of the information which is being accessed by advertising and marketing companies are useless, but do most of them know the scale of information being shared about them?

       Privacy Issues on Facebook are here to stay. (22 March, 2012). Retrieved October 9, 2013                                          from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPaHMtkfFSA

Shown above is a video talking about the privacy issues of one of the most famous social networking sites, Facebook. The quote by Eric Menhart, the attorney tells it all : "if you put it on Facebook, you should expect that it is 100%, inequivocally public".

It may be true, but my personal opinion is this: our own Facebook page is a personal page, much like a blog, and we have the freedom to post up whatever we want there. Using the information there to judge people, like what some employers are doing nowadays to judge potential employees, is a blatant abuse of a persons privacy and i would liken it to peeping through someone's house windows to see how their personal life is, which is an abuse of privacy, and against the law as well. While Facebook peeping Toms aren't yet legally liable for their actions, it is a hope by many against privacy abuse that one day there will be legal implications in doing this.

And with that, i end my post :)

References:




Craig. (24 April 2006). What is privacy and why is it important. Retrieved October 1, 2013 from http://www.craigbellamy.net/2006/04/24/privacy/

J Meyer, M. (2010). What is Ethics. Retrieved September 25, 2013 fromhttp://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/whatisethics.html

McFarland, M. (June 2012). Ethical Implications of Data Aggregation. Retrieved October 8, 2013 from http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/technology/internet/privacy/data-aggregation.html

Personal Pricavy. (n.d). Retrieved September 26, 2013 from http://education.illinois.edu/wp/privacy/persprivacy.html

Raicu, I. (June 2012). Loss of Online Privacy - Whats the harm?. Retrieved October 6, 2013 from http://www.scu.edu/ethics-center/privacy/harm/index.cfm

Wikipedia (October 2013). Criticism of Facebook. Retrieved October 05, 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook#Widening_exposure_of_member_information_2011.E2.80.9312