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Impact of technology on people's lives
Technology and its impact on our lives
Impact of technology on people's lives
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The use of computers has pervaded the life of every human being. At every street corner there are
machines to be found that have been designed to simplify our lives and take over the mundane jobs that
no longer require human intervention. One only needs to think of automated teller machines replacing
bank tellers, vending machines phasing out street vendors, or near-infallible CCTV watching over us as
policemen and sheriffs once did, to realise the extent that technology has enhanced and improved our
existence.
Given the speed and effectiveness with which computer technology has become a regular part of
our lives, it is not surprising that there is much speculation about the future implications of these
developments. One possibility that has stirred controversy is the suggestion that with the rate at which
computers are becoming ’smarter’ and better adapted, they may one day attain consciousness. This
concept has gained notoriety in popular culture, with films such as The Matrix, Ghost in the Shell,
2001: A Space Odyssey, and even the children’s show My Life as a Teenage Robot dealing with different
applications of this concept.
There is some scientific support for the idea that computers may one day become powerful enough
to simulate consciousness. For one, computing power has increased exponentially over the past decades.
Secondly, a Turing machine - a theoretical model of a computer, devised by Alan Turing, which would be
able to compute mathematical functions without any of the limitations that apply to physical machines
- would theoretically also be able to compute consciousness. This, of course, relies on the assumption
that consciousness can be somehow derived from mathematical functions - a contro...
... middle of paper ...
...ious computers inches closer and closer to reality, a number of people have started
to specialise in and research subjects pertaining to this development. Among the most notable of
them is Ray Kurzweil, an inventor and futurist who has, among other things, correctly predicted the
explosive growth of the Internet. He predicts that by 2029 the first computer will pass the Turing test
[Turing, 1950], meaning that it will be able to answer written questions in a manner indistinguishable
from a human [Kurzweil, 2005].
Works Cited
[Egan, 1994] Egan, G. (1994). Permutation City. London: Clays Ltd.
[Searle, 1980] Searle, J. R. (1980). Minds, brains, and programs. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3:417–
457.
[Searle, 1998] Searle, J. R. (1998). How to study consciousness scientifically. Philosophical Transactions
of the Royal Society of London, 353:1935–1942.
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One of the hottest topics that modern science has been focusing on for a long time is the field of artificial intelligence, the study of intelligence in machines or, according to Minsky, “the science of making machines do things that would require intelligence if done by men”.(qtd in Copeland 1). Artificial Intelligence has a lot of applications and is used in many areas. “We often don’t notice it but AI is all around us. It is present in computer games, in the cruise control in our cars and the servers that route our email.” (BBC 1). Different goals have been set for the science of Artificial Intelligence, but according to Whitby the most mentioned idea about the goal of AI is provided by the Turing Test. This test is also called the imitation game, since it is basically a game in which a computer imitates a conversating human. In an analysis of the Turing Test I will focus on its features, its historical background and the evaluation of its validity and importance.
Soldiers sown from dragon teeth, golden robots built by Hephaestus, and three-legged tables that could move under their own power - the Greeks were the first to cross the divide between machine and human. Although the history of Artificial Intelligence (AI) began with these myths and speculations, it is becoming a part of everyday life. How did it evolve so quickly, and what are its implications for the future?
The Turing Machine is a simple kind of computer. It is limited to reading and writing symbols on a tape and moving the tape along to the left or right. The tape is marke...
Issac Asimov's I, Robot Asimov’s robots can be described as clumsy, hard-working, cost-efficient, soulless, strong, fast, obedient, human-made, a cleaner better breed, more human than man. Robots can be caring, gentle, self-aware, creative, intelligent and also evil, rebellious. Robots are made out of metal, plastic, aluminum, gears, bolts, wheels, sensors, memory chips, and other gadgets. TEXT STUDY Asimov’s book “I, Robot” is full of exciting short stories about human-robot relations. But the one story that really touched me was the first of the nine: Robbie.
The most common refutation to the notion of mental states in digital computers is that there are inherent limits of computation and that there are inabilities that exist in any algorithm to...
...ecome alarming as these machines could become very complex. With new forms of computers on the horizon, the exposure and availability is greatly increasing. It is true that computers bring a lot of benefits however they also enhance the potential for unimaginable chaos. The day will come, sooner than we expect, when humans will no longer be needed to maintain the earth. Computers will for instance, be able to control vehicles and other devices. Providing all the computers are programmed correctly then nothing can go wrong however if one small program fails this could result in disaster. As humans we must take heed of the power of computers and try to maintain our role in the world as the ruling beings and ensure that we are still in a position where we are able to control technology as it will be all too easy to suddenly discover that technology is controlling us.
“Man is a robot with defects,” (Emile Cioran, The Trouble With Being Born). Humans' are not perfect, but we seem to strive for perfection, so who is to say that in the future robots will not out number the human race on Earth? In Star Trek: The Next Generation, the character Data is very much a robot and not human, being composed of inorganic materials but designed with a human appearance (an android), but does that make it just a robot? In the show it is proposed that for one to be a sentient being and a person they must possess three qualities, intelligence, self-awareness, and consciousness. In accordance to these three conditions it is obvious that the character Data is in fact a sentient being with the qualities of being a person.
Artificial intelligence is a concept that has been around for many years. The ancient Greeks had tales of robots, and the Chinese and Egyptian engineers made automations. However, the idea of actually trying to create a machine to perform useful reasoning could have begun with Ramon Llull in 1300 CE. After this came Gottfried Leibniz with his Calculus ratiocinator who extended the idea of the calculating machine. It was made to execute operations on ideas rather than numbers. The study of mathematical logic brought the world to Alan Turing’s theory of computation. In that, Alan stated that a machine, by changing between symbols such as “0” and “1” would be able to imitate any possible act of mathematical
The computer evolution has been an amazing one. There have been astonishing achievements in the computer industry, which dates back almost 2000 years. The earliest existence of the computer dates back to the first century, but the electronic computer has only been around for over a half-century. Throughout the last 40 years computers have changed drastically. They have greatly impacted the American lifestyle. A computer can be found in nearly every business and one out of every two households (Hall, 156). Our Society relies critically on computers for almost all of their daily operations and processes. Only once in a lifetime will a new invention like the computer come about.
Since the beginning of time, humans have thought and made many inventions. Repeatedly the newer one is better than the older. Our minds have created many remarkable things, however the best invention we ever created is the computer. computers are constantly growing and becoming better every day. Every day computers are capable of doing new things. Even though computers have helped us a lot in our daily lives, many jobs have been lost because of it, now the computer can do all of the things a man can do in seconds! Everything in the world relies on computers and if a universal threat happens in which all computers just malfunction then we are doomed. Computers need to be programmed to be able to work or else it would just be a useless chunk of metal. And we humans need tools to be able to live; we program the computer and it could do a lot of necessary functions that have to be done. It is like a mutual effect between us and he computer (s01821169 1).
First of all, for the working peoples, the appearances of computer technology bring up a convenient
The next step is computers in the home. Computers will play a major role in homes. They will automatically pull the bread in to toast it with no lever. It will in turn tell you how your food is doing while it is cooking in the microwave and then tell you when it is done. Now to enter your own home you may only have to say “open door”. The computer will automatically scan your voice and unlock the door and let you in. So this is how I feel that computers will affect the home steed.
There is a need for more computers in everyday life, in homes, schools and on the job. The advancement of computer technology today in all facets of the world, and life are growing to the point that everyone will need a computer to carry out their everyday life. Computer technology today is at the threshold of making life easier for everyone in the world.
From classroom activities to space flight and everything in between, computers are a vital part of daily life. Everything we do and every aspect of our life is affected by modern technology, like the computers. Computers let us dissect any sort of data. Computers make us reflect, hence we develop. Because of computers and the Internet, we can talk with individuals from diverse nations, and even see them via webcams.