Annual Editions: Mittleman
Preface
Correlation Guide
Topic Guide
UNIT: Introduction
Five Things We Need to Know about Technological Change, Neil Postman, Address to New Tech '98 Conference, March 27, 1998
Postman suggests that computer technology is too important to be left entirely to the technologists. "Embedded in every technology," he says, "is a powerful idea…."
The Information: How the Internet Gets Inside Us, Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, February 14, 2011
"Gopnik reviews a series of books about the Internet—books explaining why books no longer matter—and finds they fall into three camps, each of which projects a different view of the future the Internet is propelling us toward."
The Secret Life of Data in the Year 2020, Brian David Johnson, The Futurist, July/August 2012
"A futurist for Intel shows how geotags, sensor outputs, and big data are changing the future. He argues that we need a better understanding of our relationship with the data we produce in order to build the future we want."
UNIT: Social Media and Participation
Relationships, Community, and Identity in the New Virtual Society, Arnold Brown, The Futurist, March/April 2011
"Facilitating and managing relationships online is projected to become close to a billion-dollar industry in the United States in 2011." Providing services to commercialized communities "will be a great growth industry."
R U Friends 4 Real?, Amy Novotney, Monitor on Psychology, February 2012
"Psychologists are learning more about how teen friendships are changed by social networking and text messaging."
Licence to Text, Kate Lunau, Maclean's Magazine, June 5, 2012
"Fewer young people are learning to drive. The biggest reason is the Internet—it's replacing the need for a car."
The Truth about Video Games and Gun Violence, Erik Kain, Mother Jones, June 11, 2013
"Do brutal games lead to mass shootings? What do three decades of research really tell us?"
UNIT: Privacy in a Digital World
The Individual in a Networked World: Two Scenarios, Lee Rainie and Barry Wellman, from "Networked: The New Social Operating System," MIT Press, 2012
Rainie and Wellman envision two possible future worlds the Internet might bring. One is utopic; the other is dystopic. Elements of both are projections from what we are experiencing today.
What Facebook Knows, Tom Simonite, Technology Review, July/August 2012
"The company's social scientists are hunting for insights about human behavior. What they find could give Facebook new ways to cash in on our data—and remake our view of society."
Google's European Conundrum: When Does Privacy Mean Censorship?, Zack Whittaker, CNET News, March 1, 2013
Europe has not embraced America's love for "free speech" instead opting for a policy of "fair speech." This difference has opened the door to a "right to be forgotten" on the Internet, and Google has been ordered to remove material from its search database. Is this new right wise? Is it censorship? Is it even possible?
New Document Sheds Light on Government's Ability to Search iPhones, Chris Soghoian and Naomi Gilens, ACLU, February 26, 2013
Soghoian and Gilens report on a court document that details how much personal information is stored on your cell phone. They discuss concern about government accessing this data, and it isn't at all a stretch to be concerned about what your cell provider can do with this data as well.
UNIT: Personal Security
Hacking the Lights Out, David M. Nicol, Scientific American, July 2011
The recent Stuxnet virus, perhaps sabotage directed at Iran's machinery to enrich uranium, shows that industrial machines are vulnerable to attack. "Unfortunately," says the author, "the electrical power grid is easier to break into than any nuclear enrichment facility."
A Beginner's Guide to Building Botnets—with Little Assembly Required, Sean Gallagher, Ars Technica, April 11, 2013
How easy is it to get into the botnet business? Arts Technica finds "for a few hundred dollars, you can get tools and 24/7 support for Internet crime." Of course, you also need rather strong technical skills, or a willingness to trust some fairly untrustworthy people. "A lack of morality wouldn't hurt either."
Network Insecurity: Are We Losing the Battle against Cyber Crime?, John Seabrook, The New Yorker, May 20, 2013
Cyber crime is called the "greatest transfer of wealth in history" and we are losing this battle. But is the monetary cost its greatest threat?
UNIT: Social Media and Commerce
Social Media: Why It Will Change the World, Richard Stacy, The Huffington Post—United Kingdom, January 7, 2013
"Social media changes how we interact. This changes who we trust and, perhaps, who we should fear. Just as importantly, social media creates upheaval with many long-standing business models. How industries react may reshape our economic landscape."
How Google Dominates Us, James Gleick, The New York Review of Books, August 18, 2011
"In barely a decade Google has made itself a global brand bigger than Coca-Cola or GE: it has created more wealth faster than any company in history." How has its corporate motto, "Don't be evil," fared in a company now awash in money?
AmazonFresh is Jeff Bezos' Last Mile Quest for Total Retail Domination, J. J. McCorvey, Fast Company, September 2013
"Amazon upended retail, but CEO Jeff Bezos—who just bought The Washington Post for $250 million—insists it's still ‘Day One.’ What comes next? A relentless pursuit of cheaper goods and faster shipping. The competition is already gasping for breath."
Can Online Piracy Be Stopped by Laws?, Pamela Samuelson, Communications of the ACM, vol. 55, no. 7, July 2012
"[Hollywood] glamorizes [pirates] who attack ships by depicting them as romantic heroes who have great adventures and engage in swashbuckling fun. Yet, it demonizes fans who download music and movies as pernicious evildoers who are, in its view, destroying this vital part of the U.S. economy." Hollywood pushed SOPA to criminalize digital piracy. Will it work? Who is the hero of this story?
UNIT: IT, Business, and Economy
The Lost Steve Jobs Tapes, Brent Schlender, Fast Company, May 2012
"A treasure trove of unearthed interviews, conducted by the writer who knew him best, reveals how Jobs's ultimate success at Apple can be traced directly to his so-called wilderness years."
How Technology Is Destroying Jobs, David Rotman, MIT Technology Review, June 12, 2013
"Automation is reducing the need for people in many jobs. Are we facing a future of stagnant income and worsening inequality?"
The Patent Problem, Steven Levy, Wired, November 13, 2012
Patents were meant to encourage innovation, but one company claims its patent is violated by most every firm doing e-commerce. When they file lawsuit after lawsuit, always settling for less than the cost of fighting their patent, are they encouraging innovation or inhibiting it?
The Tricky Business of Innovation: Can You Patent a Magic Trick?, Rick Lax, Wired, July 8, 2013
The process of innovation varies by industry. Lax describes how magic tricks are stolen and, in doing so, reviews the effectiveness of different forms of intellectual property protection.
UNIT: International Perspectives
Internet Freedom and Human Rights, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Issues in Science and Technology, Spring 2012
"Maintaining the practice of open communication and continuing the system of multi-stakeholder management of the Internet can help advance the principles expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."
A Small World After All?, Ethan Zuckerman, Wilson Quarterly, Spring 2012
"The Internet has changed many things, but not the insular habits of mind that keep the word from becoming truly connected."
7 Reasons Why Sweatshops Still Persist, Joleen Ong, TriplePundit, April 29, 2013
Ong argues that there are seven supply chain realities that contribute to the continuing existence of sweatshops—and sweatshop labor. Is the globalization of business enabling or exploiting a third world labor force?
UNIT: National Security
Deception Is Futile When Big Brother's Lie Detector Turns Its Eyes on You, Adam Higginbotham, Wired, January 2013
Researchers build and deploy an avatar to interview at the U.S. border. Answer its questions and it can tell, with 94 percent accuracy, whether or not you are lying.
Know Your Rights!, Hanni Fakhoury, Electronic Frontier Foundation, June 27, 2011
"Your computer, your phone, and your other digital devices hold vast amounts of personal information about you and your family. This is sensitive data that's worth protecting from prying eyes—including those of the government." These are your rights.
Bride of Stuxnet, Jonathan V. Last, The Weekly Standard, June 11, 2012
"Whoever engineered Flame didn't just build the most spectacular computer worm ever made. They created the perfect spy."
UNIT: Projecting the Future
How to Spot the Future, Thomas Goetz, Wired, April 24, 2012
"Seven rules . . . that underlie many of our contemporary innovations."
From Smart House to Networked Home, Chris Carbone and Kristin Nauth, The Futurist, July/August 2012
"Two foresight specialists describe how tomorrow's integrated, networked, and aware home systems may change your family life."
Augmented Reality Is Finally Getting Real, Rachel Metz, Technology Review, August 2, 2012
"As smartphones explode in popularity, augmented reality is starting to move from novelty to utility."
I Used Google Glass: The Future, but with Monthly Updates, Joshua Topolsky, The Verge, February 22, 2013
We get "up close and personal with Google's visionary new computer."