All technological change is a trade-off; a Faustian Bargain.

The greater wonders in technology, the greater will be its negative consequences.

(e.g. Automobiles (and their obvious advantages) have major disadvantages (pollution, etc.)

New technology will always come with a high cost.

Culture always pays a price for technology.

Advantages and disadvantages are never distributed evenly among the population. (Benefits some, harms others)

There are always winners and losers. Winners (e.g. Computer companies and multinational corporations

who are enthusiastic about computer technology and benefit from it.)

Losers (e.g. Common workers with computer access means that: They are more easily tracked and controlled, etc.)

Winners speak constantly of the “Age of Information” (The more info we have, the better we will be solving significant problems) but has it helped?

We know how to produce food to feed every child on the planet, but how is it that many of them starve?

Embedded in to technology there is a powerful idea, sometimes two or three.

Computer person values information, not knowledge.

Every technology has a philosophy which is given expression in how the technology makes people use their minds.

So the third idea is the sum and substance of what Marshall McLuhan meant when he coined the famous sentence,

“The medium is the message.”

Technological change is not additive; it is ecological

The consequences of technological change are always vast, often unpredictable and largely irreversible.

Media tend to become mythic.

Therefore it is always dangerous because it is accepted “as-is” and not easily susceptible to modification or control.

Best way to view technology is as a strange intruder.

People believe strongly in the benefits of technology.

Large majorities believe that science and technology make lives healthier, easier, and more comfortable.

Computer’s impact on society = positive. However computers have not improved

life. (75%)

A majority of Americans believe the government…

should help low-income people get access to computers.

Others say the government should help low-income children.

Most agree that the government… Needs to regulate specific contents (e.g.

pornography and bomb-making information) Should “do something” about strangers making

contact with children.

Virtualization represents a first-class tool. Example

Virtual memory systems to replace a piece of hardware with another.

Providing single API to all I/O devices. Replace a network with a private network,

allowing users to behave as if they were in an Internet of their own.

We create virtual communities of scientists with virtual laboratories and computing resources dedicated to supporting “in silico” experiments. (replacing in-vitro experiments.)

Essentially having virtualized natural systems.

The convergence of computer games and the movie industry signifies that computing is a wholly new discipline.

The world of entertainment imposes no natural or artificial constraints on what a system may do.