Human-Machine Interaction - Assignment Example

TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT Student’s Name: Code + Course name Professor’s name University City, State Date Short Answer Question One Introduction The Human-Machine System (HMS) comprises of the human users, the interface between humans and the machines (Johansen 2007). Apparently, the efficiency, quality and safety of any process necessitates the existence of all the three aspects of the HMS. There are distinct roles played by the human users, the human-machine interface and the machine in the process (Karray et al. 2008). Consequently, it is proper to state that there has always been and there should be a clear distinction between the roles of humans and machines. It is also evident that the interactions and communications between human users and machines requires the existence of the interfaces. The main classes of human users include operators, managers, engineers and maintenance personnel. On the other hand, a machine refers to a real-time dynamic system encompassing its decision support applications and software and its automation that relates to the different domain applications (Cannan & Hu 2011). Based on the above classifications of the roles played by all the components of the HMS, it is worth noting that the introduction of machines does not eliminate the roles played by humans in the system. Therefore, there should be a line between the roles of the machine and those of humans amidst the increasing automation. Apparently, the recent decades have witnessed increasing automation exhibited by the machines. Contrary to the fears held by many people that machine automation eliminates the line between the roles played by both humans and machines, it is evident that the main objective of automation is to enhance the efficiency, safety and performance in critical areas that had performed poorly in the aspects. Some of the areas that have benefited from machine automation include power generation plants, vehicle and transportation systems, and industrial production plants. Apparently, machine automation has played a pivotal role in reducing road and air accidents based on human error. Moreover, machines handle complex processes in hazardous environments in industrial processes. Rather than exposing humans to such extreme working conditions in factories, the latest industrial revolution has seen the introduction of automated machines to increase safety and enhance the efficiency of the operations. In the ‘Alone Together” talk by Professor Sherry Turkle, it is evident that she heightens the position that technology holds in the current world; with particular reference to people. She refers to technology as being the architect of the intimacies of all people in the world. Consequently, people use technology as a communication platform that guarantees their intimacy regardless of their differences in geographical locations. In her talk, Sherry states that technology enables individuals to have a “second life” where they can perform many activities on a virtual platform with their distant acquaintances (Turkle 2012). The talk also reveals that technology has enabled people to have a better perception of themselves in the Second Life as compared to their first physical life. The idea of sociable robots has also struck individuals since they regard the robots to play a more significant social role than the role played by the normal physical pets. According to Sherry’s understanding, the merits associated with having sociable robots include their eternal existence and more loving and responsive nature. Moreover, the robots do not require any cleaning like the normal pets. However, Sherry states that the human vulnerabilities persist amidst the decision to embrace technology to rid ourselves off the weaknesses (Turkle 2012). The robots offer companionship without demanding friendship from their masters. Therefore, Sherry’s concern is on the adverse effects of machines on redefining the normal understanding of humans such as the sense of being human, relationships and how people think about themselves. Based on Sherry’s argument regarding the use of baby seal robots in Japan and other areas to provide companionship to the elderly, it is proper to say that the robots do not provide an alternative to human companionship as stated by their proponents. The human element is irreplaceable by the machine element. Therefore, regardless of whether the robots are huggable or not, they cannot serve the role played by human beings. Conclusion The introduction of machines intended to enhance the safety, efficiency and performance of the industrial and transportation systems among other systems. Machine automation does not target to eliminate the line between the roles played by humans in the system since there are clear and distinct roles of both humans and machines. The only interaction between humans and machines is the human-machine interface. Sherry Turkle states that technology has impacted negatively on the perception that people have regarding themselves, their relationships and the sense of being human. The robots and smartphones have eroded the traditional values held by individuals pertaining the sense of being human. According to Sherry’s opinion, machines can never replace the companionship roles played by humans. Short Answer Question Two Introduction In the “Curly Fry Conundrum” talk by Professor Jennifer Golbeck, the privacy of user data suffices to be the point of concern. Jennifer reveals that most social sites and other online companies utilise acquire and utilise user data in an ineffective way without the consent of the users. In essence, companies that run social sites consider users as products rather than consumers. Consequently, the obtain data from the users and sell it to other interested firms as obtaining their revenue. In the talk, Jennifer cites the example of the Target Company that sent a flyer to a 15-year-old pregnant girl containing coupons and advertisements for diapers, cribs and baby bottles two weeks before the girl’s parents learnt about the pregnancy. It turned out that the company utilised a purchase history to calculate the pregnancy score that provided a probable indication that the suspected girl was indeed pregnant. Jennifer highlights the need of educating users so as to enable them understand how to handle their private data following the placement of a request by an online company. Even though the opponents of the proposal are for the opinion that providing such an educative programme would also inhibit the money-hunting missions that utilise user data as stated by Jennifer, she stresses that enhancing the interaction of users on online platforms rather than inferring user information suffices to be the main area of interest. Jennifer also mentions that there are three paths that users can take in relation to their data. The policy and law path suffices to be the first option. However, Jennifer notes that the lack of good representatives to develop the appropriate intellectual property legislation is an impediment to the path even though it is effective following their existence of proper legislation. As a second alternative, Jennifer proposes the adoption of the policy route that directs social media companies to inform users that they have direct control over their data and utility. However, the main challenge facing the option is the time required for the companies to consent to the policy since sharing user data is one of the avenues of sourcing revenues for the companies. Jennifer recommends the use of the same Science that enabled the development of the social mechanisms and data computation to educate the end users about the perils associated with giving out their personal data. For instance, the education may include informing the user that the decision of liking a Facebook page or providing certain information would reveal that the user engages in certain unethical behaviours thus is subject to a negative behaviour reputation. The path provides the best option for the user since most of the social media sites have also exhibited flaws linked to privacy breaches and data mining (Bryan 2014). For instance, ever since the introduction of Facebook, there have numerous issues raised pertaining data mining and privacy breaches. For instance, the predictable URLs for the profile pages imply that hackers can develop a simple algorithm to download public profiles (Jones & Soltren 2005). It is also evident that Facebook obtains private user information from other sites unless the users have opted out. However, the giant social media firm had not introduced the “opt-out” option by the end of 2007 despite the existence of a data collection policy that saw it continue to collect personal user information without their consent (Facebook Principles 2007). It is also certain that the Facebook feature that allowed users to restrict information access to friends only failed for the first three years following the introduction of the social site. By so doing, data mining was a potential threat to user data. It was the decision of a technology blogger to publicise the loophole that compelled Facebook to address the issue in Jun 2007 (Singel 2007). Conclusion Information privacy should be a basic right for the users of the social media sites. Even though there exists three potential paths that users can follow regarding the future of their data, using the same online platforms to educate users concerning the risks associated with the provision of personal information is the best path. The knowledge ensures that the users understand that online firms can sell their data to other companies. Users should also understand that liking pages and providing certain personal data may harm their reputation by exposing their unwanted sides and subjecting them negative reputation. Essay Topic Question One Introduction The advent of the social media and Web 2.0 accompanied with the increased access to mobile devices that use the applications has changed the traditional perspective towards news. Initially, it was the responsibility of the reporter to look for news first hand. However, the current era has resulted in a substantial role of the reporter. Rather than seeking the news on a first-hand basis to ascertain the delivery of the most accurate news, the reporter obtains information second-hand, third-hand or even fourth hand (Alejandro 2010). Consequently, it is difficult to trust the validity of the reported news. In the event that the reporter intends to seek information regarding a topic or issue that has already been discussed in Facebook, Digg or Twitter, it is imperative that the reporter should focus on the information that social media posts have not addressed pertaining the issue. The reporter should also ensure that the information reveals the actual facts regarding the issue so as to guarantee trust on the part of the readers. Apparently, there have been numerous cases whereby the posts available on the social media sites contain contradicting information regarding the issue. One way of developing trust regarding the contentious issue entails finding information regarding what the social media has not addressed. However, that alone does not guarantee trust on the part of the audience. The reduced trust regarding the information availed by the news reporter among the audience emanates from the fact that at the time of the broadcast, there will be different versions of the story on the social media sites that would make it difficult for the audience to separate the true information from the fabricated one. The quest for real time information among people is the other challenge that journalists encounter in their profession (Nguyen 2006). Apparently, people would like to have information as soon as the event occurs rather than waiting for the media to broadcast the complete information during prime time news. Apparently, the competitive of journalists and media organizations depends on their ability to deliver real time information as soon as it happens. Therefore, the failure of the journalists to broadcast the news to people immediately an event happens impacts negatively on their competitive advantage in the news and media industry. It is also evident that media organisations that opt to seek complete information prior to releasing it to the public face the risk of being referred to as “slow” by the public. Since negative publicity of a media organisation by the public has an adverse impact on its industry competitiveness, journalists opt to reveal the information soon after its occurrence without waiting for the complete part of the story (Briggs 2007). However, guaranteeing the trust of the audience requires the journalists to reveal the information bit by bit based on their frequency of occurrence. Media amateurs such as citizen journalists, bloggers and twitter users have also contributed towards the reduced trust and confidence in the news delivered by journalists (Sambrook 2005; Hajek et al. 2014). The reduced confidence arises when the social media posts a rumour that attracts significant attention thus compelling the media journalists to post the bit of available information so as to maintain their competitiveness. However, upon thorough scrutiny on the information, the journalists realise that the whole story was a hoax thereby having to delete the post and referring to it as fraudulent. The CNN poster is a good example of the provision of false information. According to the citizen journalist, the poster revealed that Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Inc. had suffered a severe heart attack thus was under intense medical care in October 2008. However, the poster did not reveal the source of the information thereby indicating an anonymous source (Kim 2008). However, it turned out that the story was a hoax thereby compelling CNN to delete the post and referring to it as fraudulent. The false information impacted negatively on the performance of the Apple Inc. on the stock market. As a matter of fact, the company’s stock hit its lowest mark for the year in the US. The company’s performance on the financial market bounced back following the removal of the post. However, before bouncing back, the company’s stock had fallen by 9% from US$104 per share to US$94.65. In 2010, there were other rumours that Lady Gaga, a pop star had amputated one of her legs just below the knee in the quest for fashion. As a result of the rapid tweeting and retweeting of the story on the social media, media journalists also took notice of the story. Upon verification that the story was untrue, the journalists discredited the information even though they had already availed it to people. The above examples provide scenarios that reduce the trust that people have on the news availed by the media journalists regarding the occurrence of an issue. It is important to take note of the awesome capabilities associated with the use of social media and other Web 2.0 applications. However, since the Web 2.0 applications such as blogs and Google run on the mobile devices, there has been an increased risk of errors associated with the validity of the real time information availed by the applications and other social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Therefore, averting the possible provision of erroneous information to people amidst the increasing necessity of providing real time information has sufficed to be one of the greatest challenge that the media industry has faced in history (Eyeroor & Kanjilal 2014). It is also important to note that online bloggers and other individuals that post false information on the social sites are not responsible for their errors in the event that the posted information turns out to be untrue. However, it is the burden of the news media that post such information without confirming whether the information reveals the true account of events on the ground or not. The expectation of the general public regarding the media agencies is that the organisations have the required expertise to ascertain that they provide quality and accurate real time information soon after the occurrence of an event. The increasing use of smartphones, PCs and tablets having an instant access to the internet reduces the barrier to information access that existed before the introduction of the devices (Fowler-Watt & Allan 2013). The existence of the devices implies that the users can post the information on Facebook, blogs or Twitter anywhere and at any time thus limiting the influence of news agencies over their ability to post the information (Cameron 2009). It is also evident that some private journalists that endeavour to report the information on an individual basis rather than reporting to the median provide unfavourable competition for the information with the journalists. In most cases as opposed to cases where the information is a hoax, it has turned out that the information posted by the private individuals reflects a true account of what is happening on the ground. The increased guarantee of the validity of the information posted on the social sites by the private individuals emanates from the location of the reporters at the scene of the event. However, the situation is challenging for news agencies that have to be alert to the occurrences before sending their crew to the scene to provide first-hand information. By so doing, they require additional time such that at the time of delivering the news to people, individuals and online bloggers would have already fed the public information with the required information. Apparently, the major issue associated with everyone being a journalist entails the trustworthy of the information posted on the social media. Instead of following the right procedure before availing information, it has turned out that people having internet-enabled mobile devices post any information without determining whether the information is true or false. Since most of the people that post the information lack the required professionalism in journalism, the credibility of the sources of information turns out to be the greatest problem for the readers of their news. Conclusion People tend to believe information originating from a credible source as opposed to information obtained from sources that portray less credibility. Therefore, the prevalence of the perceived differences between the individual perceptions of individuals regarding an issue implies that individual preferences influence the opinion of an individual towards the particular issue. Therefore, both medium and source credibility form the baselines for determining whether one can trust the information posted by another or not. For instance, there is a positive correlation between the credibility of the source of information and the religiosity of the individual that posted the information. Moreover, it is also imperative for the readers of the post to determine the position of the blogger regarding the issue. By so doing, the reader should classify the blogger as having a neutral, antagonistic or protagonist position based on the posts on the social media. Apparently, protagonists will always heighten the positive aspect of the issue whereas the antagonist emphasises on the negative aspects of the issue to suit their individual preferences. However, a neutral person will tend to provide the true account of what has happened before requesting the other readers to provide feedback regarding the material. Essay Topic Three Introduction Internet censorship refers to the inability of people to access particular websites in certain countries that emanates from the existing government directives that prevent the companies that provide access to certain webpages to limit the access within their jurisdictions (Burnett & Feamster 2013). A good example suffices to be the decision made by the Tunisian Government to prevent the access to certain websites such as Yezzi.org that advocates for the online campaign of the freedom of speech (MacKinnon 2005). The 2005 World Summit covering Information Society held by the internet policy makers revealed that the Tunisian Government was responsible for censoring the use and access to particular sites on the internet. It is proper to state that internet censorship is proper. However, the government does not have the right to prevent the access of its individuals to particular social media sites. On the contrary, it should be the responsibility of the website organisation to develop and implement effective censorship policies concerning the access to its social media site. The essay discusses the advantages associated with the direct involvement of the social site organisations in censoring the information available on their sites as opposed to the use of government directives. Apparently, the most common form of internet filtering entails the implementation of the government directives by the providers of social services on the internet to filter the access to either part or the entire information available on their sites (Zuckerman 2010). States such as Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and China are some of the nations that have developed stringent government directives that require Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to censor the amount of information available on their social sites for public sharing. Even though the directives implemented by the governments of the nations have played a central role towards limiting the access to information on particular websites, it is proper to argue that the introduction of censoring tools such as Herdict is a viable strategy that enables ISPs to implement in-country testing on a continuous basis. The major advantage associated with the utility of such testing tools is the fact that such tools invite comments from the end users of the individual state pertaining the specific information that the ISP should censor from public access or not. On the other hand, the implementation of government directives does not allow the end users to contribute their opinions regarding the information that requires censoring or one that the company can expose publicly on their sites. By so doing, it is certain that the government may develop ineffective censoring directives as opposed to the case that integrates the opinions of all the stakeholders. However, the government and other legal authorities can put significant pressure on the companies that provide internet communication services to reveal sensitive information regarding their users. Transferring the burden of tracking the users to the ISP emanates from the fact that it is difficult to reproduce the communication platforms implemented by these firms by other individuals that have a negative intention. Therefore, the unique dynamics exhibited by the online communities imply that the companies have more control over the information and end users rather than the government and local legal authorities. It is evident that the ISPs can implement policies that would censor the information at the user level as evidenced by Skypes client in China that uses the Chinese language (Charny 2006). Prior to the introduction of the censoring directive, it is evident that there have been several censoring tools in libraries, schools, and businesses that have been responsible for censoring the access to internet information by the end users. Skype’s Chinese client partnered with TOM Online to filter the Skype messages posted by its users in China with reference to the specific banned Chinese keywords. There are other advantages associated with the use of the TOM software rather than filtering messages that contain the banned keywords (Villeneuve 2008). For instance, the technology can also store conversations that contain the banned keywords besides monitoring the conversations. Keeping in mind the potential capabilities of the software application, it is proper to argue that the government can only play the role of assisting the ISPs to determine the in-country banned keywords. The role of filtering the content should be the prime responsibility of the ISP. In the event of conversations that involve the use of the banned keywords, the ISP should be capable of revealing the individuals that engaged in their conversations and their location. Most importantly, the ISP should filter the information to prevent its availability to other users that use the social site (Wu 2006). The merits associated with using ISPs to monitor and control the conversations and information access on their social sites also heighten the fact that in most cases, the end users publish the information available on the web servers that they do not have any levels of control whatsoever. Therefore, the Web servers that constitute the ISPs stand in a favourable position in filtering the internet content available to its end users. It is important to understand that the ISPs have the hardware and software that run and deliver internet content to users respectively. Therefore, they can filter the information posted by their Web servers so as to limit the content that would be accessible to the end users. However, it is also proper to identify the negative aspects associated with requiring the companies to develop and implement policies that would filter the internet content available to its users. The differences in the understanding of the local regulations pertaining the content that should be filtered and one that should not may also be a source of a potential pitfall in leaving the role of filtering internet content in the hands of the ISPs. Moreover, since filtering the internet content is the major option available to the social sites companies in the quest for the dissemination of proper content, there are several pitfalls associated with the utility of the method. For instance, oversimplification is one of the negative aspects associated with filtering internet content. It may be difficult for the local legal authorities and the government to provide a proper clarification for certain words such as differentiating between “good” and “bad” sex. The failure of the regulatory authorities to provide clear distinctions may still expose the end users to the unwanted information. Moreover, the fact that the filters and ratings ignore the context of the conversations and internet content implies that the filtering strategies may still include materials that should not be accessible to the users and exclude the content that is beneficial to the end users (Rosenberg 2001). Feasibility suffices to be the other challenge that faces the filtering of internet and television content availed to the end users. The constraint emanates from the fact that the new programmes on the televisions and internet websites require new descriptions to assist in the determining the content that is appropriate for the sites. Subjectivity suffices to be the other challenge that faces the rating and filtering systems. Apparently, the filtering and rating systems depend on the subjective perspectives of the companies. Therefore, in the event that the opinion of the company does not provide an accurate reflection of what the end users require, it is evident that the firm will still avail irrelevant information to the users after going through the filtering exercise. Conclusion There has been an increasing tendency of states to introduce directives that require ISPs to filter and rate the internet content available on their sites. Since this has been an initiative of the government and the local legal authorities, allocating the responsibility to the companies that provide internet communication and content suffices to be a good idea. Following the introduction of in-country testing tools such as Herdict, it is evident that the companies can communicate with the end users to distinguish the content that is appropriate from one that is inappropriate. Moreover, the fact that the companies control the complex communication platforms involving thousands of users implies that thy stand in a better position of monitoring and filtering the amount of information available on the sites with reference to specific keywords. It is also proper to consider the companies as the ultimate solution to filtering and rating internet content since they control the information software and hardware that deliver and run the internet content respectively. However, oversimplification of key phrases or words may such as providing a clear distinction between what is good or bad is a challenge to the companies. The other impediments that hamper the effective filtering and rating of the internet content by the companies encompass the feasibility, overbreadth and subjectivity aspects of the entire process. The failure of the ISPs to address the constraints results in the poor classification of content on the internet, Web 2.0 applications and social sites. As a result, the end users may still have access to unwanted information content. Similarly, the filtering applications may also prevent the users from accessing proper content. Reference List Alejandro, J 2010, ‘Journalism in the age of social media’, Reuters Institute Fellowship Paper, University of Oxford. Brian, S 2014, ‘The Unexamined Life in the Era of Big Data: Toward a UDAAP for Data’, Available at SSRN. 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