Bryant Florence Conf.

Re-imaging the Earth and Human Existence

Thoughts on societal evolution from a technologist’s point of

view

Rob Bryant, Professor of Computer Science & Information Tech. and Society Program Director

2/22/2013

Bryant Florence Conf.

Technology advancements used in most fields

Information access via the internet

Control of information is governed by software engineers who set the filters

Many major societal issues require computational power to analyze trends and model solutions

2/22/2013

Technology integral to societal problem solutions

Bryant Florence Conf.

Brief periods in history when information was not controlled by a few (churches, publishers, media conglomerates, governments)

Freedom of newly unregulated technology allowed periods of relative free access

Consolidation of new markets have resulted in less free flow of information

2/22/2013

History of information distribution control

Bryant Florence Conf.

Filtering needed – ◦ Banning content determined society (gov., courts)◦ Market pressures (bandwidth limitations)◦ Business goals (customer satisfaction)

Search results are filtered

Between search engines - result overlap maybe as little as 15% for the same query

2/22/2013

Information filters

Bryant Florence Conf.

Since 2010 when engineers realized data collected (search history, email content, sales history, etc.) could be used search results have been personalize

Search results filtered to align with past viewed pages

Dynamic – different each time

Hard to access non-aligned viewpoints

2/22/2013

Personalization

Bryant Florence Conf.

Access at mercy of secret search algorithms

Privacy traded for access◦ Club cards, cloud use, cellphones, gps, adwords

Circumventing filters requires computational thinking knowledge

Avoiding entrenchment a challenge but critical as our digital lives grow

2/22/2013

Personalization limits user control

Bryant Florence Conf.

Compromise critical to harmony – need to avoid entrenchment

Programmers in a position of remarkable power to shape the future of society ◦ need to know how they do it

Personalize our own information controls◦ Education of how tech. works vital

2/22/2013

What can we do?

Bryant Florence Conf.

Increasing computing power will enable society to fall victim to a controlled state where innovation is limited

OR A collaborative intelligence able to find

solutions to our problems where information access is unencumbered by ideological filters

2/22/2013

Where will this lead us?