Critical Annotated Webliography by Kiki Lam

Q3: Frankenstein continues to occupy the popular imagination as a monstrous scientist. Analyse some of the ways in which Frankenstein haunts discussions of recent technologies.

As we all live in a digital age, I wonder what the technology brings to us. Is it harm or good? Some says the technology which invented by human beings, ourselves finally make the world out of control. Does the story of Frankenstein will happen in some years later? So, let’s see the perspectives from five different scholars.

“Frankenstein in the University” is my first article which is written by Luke Fernandez[1], a manager of Programme and Technology Development at Weber State University from the United State. He states the usage of technology in the university as an example. From his point of view, the vendors always take an initiate to control the customers for suggesting the upgrade of software. The software has to update in a certain period in order to maintain its function as best as it could. Fernandez has pointed out an interesting example and closely related to myself, the distance learning. He said that some professors do not support the idea of online education since they cannot get the actual feeling which they teach in a classroom. He also quotes a stand point from David Noble, the author of “Digital Diploma Mills; the automation of Higher Education” to support the idea of refusing to teach online. Noble argues that the technology steal our knowledge and skills so we feel insecure. Fernandez thinks that “we can shape technology as much as it shapes us” and not being controlled by it. The main point he wants to make is we are powerful to control what we have created to make our life better. I do agree with Fernandez’s opinion of holding a positive mind towards the relationship between human and technology. However, it will be great if he could provide recommendation for the readers to fight for the current situation.

The president of information Technology Associates and an IT consultancy specializing in higher education from America, Doug Gale[2] wrote an article “The Internet Crime Café” which is about the cyber crime nowadays. As he mentioned, most of the hackers are aiming at profit making all over the world. Credit card is one the successful invention for us to purchase anywhere that provides this kind of service. Thus, it provides more opportunities for the hackers do something illegally since this service is not a hundred percent safe especially on the Internet. It is believed that finding a large amount list of personal financial information is not difficult now just depends on how much could one pay for. As a result, the FBI sees the illegal activity online as a serious issue just follows the crime of terrorist attack and leading violent as well as white-collar crime. Gale also advises the higher education intuitions have to be aware of being one of the potential attack targets. It is because he finds that the schools’ consciousness of protecting data is very weak. Being a credit card holder, I really appreciate how convenient it brings to me. I am willing to receive their promotional e-mail. Yet, I have never imagined if I receive a payment bill which cost me over the credit limit and it is not I ever purchased! Gale tells me technology could bring a very harmful consequence to me but not only convenience.

The third writing names “Technology, Security and Privacy: The Fear of Frankenstein, the Mythology of Privacy and the Lessons of King Ludd” I found is introduced by Kim Taipale[3], the executive director of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology Policy and the director of the Global Information Society Project at the World Policy Institute. Taipale mentions Cass Sustein’s theory on the relationship between fear and risk through three points. They are the ignorant of the fear, unfamiliar risk and hard to control and “possibility neglect” means emotion decides everything when people facing risk. Sustein debates that these three impacts can be found in policy making and similar to the technology security and privacy. People do not trust the privacy policy of government which manages their confidential personal data because of the hackers’ news reported by the media. Hence, public anxiety about the electronic privacy exists. Taipale also talks about the risk of using credit card carelessly same as Doug Gale in the article two. Lastly, he comments that lack of awareness and understanding lead people into the fear of technology, especially the privacy electronic. It is acknowledged that terrorism in the US is not a welcomed topic to discuss. Relating the terrorism with technology security shows how serious their attitude is. Maybe one day, once one gets over the technology which can also get over the whole world.

In Luciano Floridi’s [4](scholar of philosophy of technology from England) paper, “Internet, which future for organized knowledge, Frankenstein or Pygmalion?” he states the process of the technology development in a several decades briefly at the beginning. From his point of view, people have to face a digital revolution. It seems that books is eliminating from the technology age. Since information via the web is much more easy to find when comparing with reading books. There are three steps of the digital improvement, extension, visualization and integration. Information includes sound, image and animation can be more interesting rather than only numbers and texts. He also raises ten problems when the rapid development of Internet. The first five most important are, the digital discrimination, the disappearance of the great compilers, the emergence of computerized scholar, stored knowledge > knowledge accessible and knowledge accessible > knowledge manageable. Floridi believes that Internet is a new country which needs a proper regulation so as to always advantage ourselves. Otherwise, the next generations will suffer rather than benefit from its huge access power of information. Floridi’s words give me a reflection on the usage of the Internet. Am I using it in an appropriate way? I wonder the myth of Frankenstein will come true after years if people do not try to regulate.

The last article is written by Shari Popen[5], “Thinking Through Technology: Frankenstein’s Problem (or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Technology)”. She specifies that blindly teaching technological use will make us become the Victor Frankenstein. People tend to use many types of techniques uncritically. Being a educator as Popen, there are three questions for her to uncover the mystery of media and technology in order to guide students in a right way of learning technology. The first one is “what technology is”, the second one is “what technologies do and help us to do” and the last one is “what technologies, in doing for us, also do to us”. It is essential to make the concept clear or we will too dependent on the technology. There is a worthy point for me to think in-depth. Popen says “’we’ are both are in the belly of monster”. Does she mean our very close relationship with technology which cannot be separated in terms of monster referring to Frankenstein? I think it just depends on how we cooperate with the technology but not controlling by it.


References

[1]Fernandez, Luke. “Frankenstein in the University”. Campus Technology. 28 May 2008. 3 Mar. 2009.
<http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2008/05/Frankenstein-in-the-University.aspx>.

[2]Gale, Doug. “The Internet Crime Café”. Campus Technology. 9 Mar 2007. 3 Mar. 2009. <http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2007/03/The-Internet-Crime-Cafe.aspx?Page=1>.

[3]Taipale, K. A. “Technology, Security and Privacy: The Fear of Frankenstein, the Mythology of Privacy and the Lessons of King Ludd”. Yale Journal of Law and Technology, Vol. 7, No. 123, Dec 2004. 3 Mar. 2009. <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=601421>.

[4]Floridi, Luciano. “Internet, which future for organized knowledge, Frankenstein or Pygmalion?”. 21 Jun 1995. 4 Mar 2009. <http://www.philosophyofinformation.net/publications/pdf/frank.pdf>.

[5]Popen, Shari. “Thinking Through Technology: Frankenstein’s Problem (or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Technology)”. Jul 1998. 3 Mar. 2009. <http://www.viterbo.edu/analytic/Vol%2019%20no.%201/thinking%20through%20tecnology.pdf>.