Chapter 9 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 ma
y 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?
Note: 2003 edition skips r) in the textbook.
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.