Computers and Society explores the history and impact of modern technology on everyday human life, considering its benefits, drawbacks, and repercussions. Particular attention is paid to new developments in artificial intelligence and machine learning, and the issues that have arisen from our complex relationship with AI.
This book focuses around the social and ethic issues that companies face everyday in doing business. It is a collection of 37 articles from experts in the social issues of computing, exploring the most pressing issues in information technology today. The chapters are fresh, informative, timely, and authoritative.The readings cover such themes as views of computing, the information society, computers and organizations, computer-based monitoring, security and reliability, and privacy, ethics, and the internet.A book from a leading author in the IT field, this collection of articles is an excellent resource for computer-based business owners, managers, and employees. Its excellent section on the Internet makes this a must-read for owners/managers of Internet-based businesses.
Since computer scientists make decisions every day that have societal context and influence, an understanding of society and computing together should be integrated into computer science education. Showing students what they can do with their computing degree, Computers and Society: Computing for Good uses concrete examples and case studies to high
Computers and other types of technology have changed our lives in ways never imagined. Today, we constantly have a wealth of information at our fingertips. Computers help us work better and faster. Readers will learn about the many positive impacts of computers in society. They'll also read about the many negative impacts, such as threats to our privacy and security and a potential decrease in physical activity. Students will be encouraged to think about the role technology plays in their everyday lives.
Ideal for students in sociology, philosophy, and computer science courses, Computers, Ethics, and Society serves as a reminder that although technology has the potential to improve or undermine our quality of life, it is society which has the power to ultimately decide how computers will affect our lives. Computers, Ethics, and Society, now in its second edition, provides a stimulating set of interdisciplinary readings specifically designed to understand these issues. The readings examine current computer problems, discussing them at a level that can explain future realities.
The Social Impact of Computers should be read as a guide to the social implications of current and future applications of computers. Among the basic themes presented are the following: the changing nature of work in response to technological innovation as well as the threat to jobs; personal freedom in the machine age as manifested by challenges to privacy, dignity, and work; the relationship between advances in computer and communications technology and the possibility of increased centralization of authority; and the emergence and influence of artificial intelligence and its role in decision-making, especially in military applications. The book begins with background and historical information on computers and technology. Separate chapters then cover major applications: business, medicine, education, government; major social issues, including crime, privacy, work; and new technologies and problems: industry regulation, electronic funds transfer systems, international competition, national industrial policies, robotics and industrial automation, productivity, the information society, videotex. The final chapter discusses issues associated with ethics and professionalism. The material presented should be accessible to most university students who have had an introductory course in computer science. Self taught or sufficiently motivated individuals who have gained an understanding of how computers operate should also profit from this book. Especially useful are backgrounds in sociology, economics, history, political science, or philosophy.
This book explores the enduring appeal of child pornography and its ramifications for criminal justice systems around the world. It is based on an extensive review of academic literature and newspaper coverage, a trawl of websites frequented by those with a sexual interest in children, a survey of how police investigate these offences, examination of prosecutors' decisions, and interviews with judges. It provides a framework for understanding the contemporary nature of this problem, especially the harms it causes, its intimate relationship with new technologies and the challenges it poses to law enforcement authorities. The internet plays a pivotal role. Its sheer size, the anarchic way it grows, the lack of any boundaries to its expansion and its disregard for national borders make it a legal environment without parallel. An unwavering focus on the threat of sexual abuse has contributed to the emergence of a context where routine dealings with children are viewed through a 'paedophilic' lens. This can have the unfortunate consequence of distracting attention from more urgent concerns (such as poverty and neglect), which make children vulnerable to sexual exploitation. In this way an emphasis on the sexualisation of children could be said to aggravate the problem that it sets out to address. The book: provides a comprehensive analysis of child pornography issues in all of their complexity, including legal, psychological, criminal justice and social perspectives. presents significant volume of original empirical data gathered from police, prosecutors and judges. includes new qualitative and quantitative information set against a background of shifting international developments. The analysis is explicitly comparative. draws on a variety of sources including support groups for paedophiles, newspaper coverage of court cases involving child pornography, victim testimony and police operations.
The contentious history of the computer programmers who developed the software that made the computer revolution possible. This is a book about the computer revolution of the mid-twentieth century and the people who made it possible. Unlike most histories of computing, it is not a book about machines, inventors, or entrepreneurs. Instead, it tells the story of the vast but largely anonymous legions of computer specialists—programmers, systems analysts, and other software developers—who transformed the electronic computer from a scientific curiosity into the defining technology of the modern era. As the systems that they built became increasingly powerful and ubiquitous, these specialists became the focus of a series of critiques of the social and organizational impact of electronic computing. To many of their contemporaries, it seemed the “computer boys” were taking over, not just in the corporate setting, but also in government, politics, and society in general. In The Computer Boys Take Over, Nathan Ensmenger traces the rise to power of the computer expert in modern American society. His rich and nuanced portrayal of the men and women (a surprising number of the “computer boys” were, in fact, female) who built their careers around the novel technology of electronic computing explores issues of power, identity, and expertise that have only become more significant in our increasingly computerized society. In his recasting of the drama of the computer revolution through the eyes of its principle revolutionaries, Ensmenger reminds us that the computerization of modern society was not an inevitable process driven by impersonal technological or economic imperatives, but was rather a creative, contentious, and above all, fundamentally human development.
This book provides a concise introduction to computer concepts that students need to know, as well as up-to-the-minute, comprehensive coverage of the social issues that affect our daily lives.