Social Impacts of Computing Are computers in principle compatible with our ideas and ethics maybe are computers in fact supporting contrast with evolutionary ideals may have nothing to do with human ideals the question is then who controls the machines Main issues include autonomy access community or isolation deskilling other stuff Social Impacts you can get a degree in this stuff good jobs are available social and multi disciplinary studies of computing legitimate academic pursuit Underlying visions positive negative Issue 1 Change Do computers produce social change has banking really changed has the workplace changed direct experience of the phenomena vs simulation combat analogy Big Issues Has technology changed the way we live our social structure is changed stronger if so how good bad supports our ideals or not should we support the changes what controls the direction for society what values do we want to preserve through the changes Second Issue Computing reproduces reinforces preexisting social patterns power relationships as example employee monitoring centralization of power rather than distribution Third Issue Computers cause the change or other forces what is the role of computers in social change computers are malleable to our desires competition as a driver instead of technology business automation employee deskilling Fourth Issue Are computers value neutral or value laden this is hard to look at in abstract use examples Autonomy privacy examples to show erosion in individual autonomy some are pushing back hacker examples to show enhancement of autonomy but law enforcement pushes back computers seem to have various effects Centralization Decentralization Power organizations who use computers hierarchy is the norm division of labor efficiency defined narrowly structures of responsibility are centralized also possible to distribute decentralize historical trend cited by Weizenbaum centralization required by WWII scale of operations stock exchange reversed its fate due to computing power computing as preventing change preserving status quo Decentralization Robert Paul Wolf In Defense of Anarchism 1970 suggests real democracy via computing how much has materialized who does doesn t want it Dual Effects Centralize store inventory for franchise seems to gather power in center from local mgr also frees mgr for working with local issues Expert systems increase individual MD autonomy as it gets better may decrease autonomy What is happening The Nature of Computing to Blame Research says 4 possible positions computers cause centralization computers cause decentralization computers and centralization unrelated computers merely reflect centralization use of computing technology to reinforce decision authority status quo in organizations George and King Access to Resources as an Issue Computing resources and their social value Who has should have access to computing resources distinguish centralization issue about power structures in decisionmaking environments competition is a driving force in society education customers wealth protection computing resources as powerful tools Access to Resources Do wealthy and powerful have advantages nothing new here but computers not scarce what gives for whatever reason computing resources not equally distributed recall idealistic visions of the possibilities of computing but do the handicapped provide a market do the unemployed the poor the uneducated etc how does the potential get realized Access to Computing Resources The Free Market social cultural political economic factors decide what gets produced that determines whose needs get addressed by computing Are Computers Value Free An old question science as value free search for truth but try to explain large paradigm shifts and accompanying backlashes Simple shot values of the designers but inherent bias Value Freedom Consider binary nature of computing to describe a continuous world an example of abstraction all software is an abstraction of reality unimportant details are left out that is the value of abstraction but it is its bane at times