Chapter 15 review. Are the following statements true or false? Explain why or why not.
a) Computers have so revolutionized our daily lives that nothing is as it was 20 years
ago.
False, says one of the authors. Computing has changed the way some (but not
all) of us work and play, but has left the majority of people largely unaffected in their
daily lives. Perhaps when when our TVs and toasters are on the Internet? What
do you think?
b) Technological change begins as new technology replaces the old to do the same job.
True. But soon the job begins to be done differently, and then new tasks are undertaken.
c) "War is too important to be left to the generals" because they dont
understand it.
False. Generals understand war very, very well, but what this proverb is
driving at is that they may be too limited in their understanding of how war is related to
other things. Similarly, a computer scientist who is uninformed about the social
impact of computing may miscalculate the impact of the software system he or she builds.
Consider, for example, the impact of the decision to encode the last two digits of
a year (e.g., "99" instead of "1999"). Conserving space this way
may have seemed reasonable in the 1960's, but in the 1990's it is the cause of the
worrisome and expensive "year 2000 bug."
d. Edge-notched cards pioneered information processing and thus were a boon for
government bureaucracies.
True. Can you imagine all of the calculations for todays Social Security system
being done by hand?
e. The development of compilers such as FORTRAN was an example of the second stage of
technological changeadaptation.
False. The adaptation stage involves doing old tasks in new ways. Compiling high-level
source code programs into machine code was a genuinely new task--a stage three
application.
f. The computer is the steam engine of todays technology.
True. And information is todays counterpart of money, now that banks maintain
deposits in databases, paychecks get deposited electronically (the Federal government has
even mandated electronic deposit of welfare checks!) and people buy goods and services via
the Internet.
g. Industrialization produced social dislocations, but computerization will not
False. Many tasks have been eliminated or changed radically, and workers may not be able
to switch to new positions. Consider the impact of robots on factory floors or word
processors on office workers. Both social and economic dislocation can result.
h. Employment and education are two major areas for concern as computerization
continues
True. New jobs and the skills to do them will become increasingly important.
Computing has evented rapidly growing job opportunities; most office workers must
now be proficient with word processors and spreadsheets; etc.
i. Everyone needs and wants privacy of the same sort and in the same way.
False. Residents of small villages and of large cities, not to mention
"cyberspace," have quite different sorts of privacy concerns.
j. Privacy is just "the right to be let alone."
False. Physical privacy is a part of it, but theres also information privacy and
communication privacy, which can be infringed on without your ever realizing it.
k. In todays society, privacy is gone forever, and we shouldnt worry about
it.
False. Its important to retain and protect some kinds of privacy. Even in gossipy
small towns, not everyone knows everything about everybody! On the Internet,
encryption (see chapter 10) is important just because it can help preserve privacy.
l. Information privacy and communication privacy are pretty much the same thing.
False. Theyre certainly related, and are similar to some degree, but there are
important differences. Information privacy deals with protecting information about you,
such as your buying habits; communication privacy deals with protecting your
communications, such as your e-mail.
m There are really no reasons to oppose the creation of a national data base.
False. Although a national data base would have a number of advantages (such as improved
law enforcement) , it could also lead to the loss of privacy (such as making your
political or religious activies available to government bureaucrats), as well as offering
opportunities for devastating errors (such as erroneous information in your credit
history). We all have to balance the gains and the losses.
n. The legal issues involving computers are pretty much the same as legal issues
without them.
False. For example, courts have had to decide whether the "look and feel"
of a graphical user interface is covered by U.S. copyright law, whether the Internet
changes the applicability of community standards with respect to "decency,"
whether including a web browser in a dominant operating system constitutes a breach of
anti-trust law, etc.
o. Copyright protects your ideas from being copied.
False. Copyright protects your expression of your idea, not the idea itself.
Hence, the idea of graphical user interfaces is not covered; since Windows
is sufficiently different from Macintosh interface, Apple lost its suit against Microsoft.
p. The requirements for patenting a device are that it is useful, novel, and
non-obvious.
True. And novelty means it cant infringe on previously granted patents.
q. Some have argued that software should not be protected at all because it is a social
good.
True. Many people actively contribute to the development of free software (even the
source code is freely available, so others can help improve it), such as the Emacs editor,
the gcc compiler, the Apache web server, and recently the Netscape browser. But
others have argued that without software protection, people wont be willing to
invest large amounts of time and money to create new software. What do you think?
r. There are two kinds of liabilitynegligence and strict liability.
True. Negligence is lack of due care; strict liability occurs when a product fails,
without regard to whether due care has been exercised.
s) Punitive damages can be assessed under strict liability, but not under negligence.
False. Its the other way around. The idea of punitive damages is that negligence
should be punished.
t) Censorship on the Internet is greatly complicated by the Internets
international nature.
True. How can someone in Russia censor what someone in the U.S. puts on the Internet? And
what is acceptable in one community may be unacceptable in another.
u) Ethical decisions generally involve balancing good against bad.
True for straightforward decisions, but not necessarily for more complex ones.
Ethical decisions often involve balancing one kind of good against another, trying
to decide which is better, in terms of priorities. For example, reexamine the issues
raised in question r above. Here is where problem solving skills such as decomposition and
analogical reasoning come be helpful.
v) Professional ethics is merely a matter of ensuring technical competence.
False. Professional societies have long agreed that professionals need to consider the consequences
of their actions as well; having the technical competence to create a virus doesn't make
it ethical to do so! We also believe that context and concern are also
important.
w) As an ethical theory, relativism says that what your relatives say is right, is
right.
False. It neednt depend on your relatives! The basic idea of ethical relativism is
that there are no absolute ethical standards.
x) The ethics codes of the IEEE and the ACM are essentially the same.
False. Reread the codes. Can you find any major differences?
y) The "Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics" were carved into tablets of
stone and are on display in Washington, D.C.
False. Wrong set of "Ten Commandments"! This set were developed by the Computer
Ethics Institute, which does have its offices in Washington, D.C.