THE MAN NAMED JOE

To think that this story was written almost 70 years ago is absurd. On the basis that we have almost all the same advantage and disadvantages that the story has, it really is just matter of opinion. Being able to guess some of the things that we use in our lives today almost 70 years ago is something that really shocked me. Given how little technical advancements came in that area, it’s almost mind blowing to think someone had that much foresight into what will come.

The story is all about the temptation of technology that people in the story and our lives will face and have faced. The ‘logic’ in this story has some real similarities to some of the technology we use in our lives today.  The first similarity between the two was the searching for answers. The story used its logics to find answers, we use search engines. There are some similarities with the two being that it gives the best answer the system can give. The difference is that search engines do not give the exact answer to ever question. But the logics in the story gives an exact answer to whatever question is asked in the story. The story gives there logics more power than the people. But with our search engines there is only so much knowledge that a person can gain given they are powered by what people know, it can’t generate answers to things that are still mysteries to use.

I want to touch back on the use of search engines, and how in the story they almost felt naked by the ability of people being able to see their personal business. This is not similar to us at all, we all live in a time that it is just common knowledge you can find out anything about anyone. I could go online and look up anything about anyone, this is just the day and age we live in. besides that people that go on Facebook and divulge their lives stories anyways. Modesty for personal information is dead unlike the story where the people felt so violated by this.

The story talked of the use of censors and the errors that still occurs even with them. I found it interesting that the story spoke of being able to use logics to find out how to better perform criminal acts. I can compare this to our use of the web, you can find out how to build bombs just by jumping on the internet. This really seemed to me to be prophetic, being able to see that people would abuse the use of the technology was very apparent to the author of “A Logic Named Joe”. I’m sure he just understood human nature, and knows that given the chance to use it for wrong, people would. Also I felt that in the story and in our world, we both search and find things that really should not be found. You can almost type in any word on google and have something inappropriate pop up.  In the story you could ask how to kill someone and it would give you the exact info you need. This is a sad truth, but we can’t use the internet without running into these sickening things. The story had the same end result of too much info on things we do not need to know.

These things I have talked about in this paper are the subject I found to be prophetic in the story of “A Logic Named Joe”. I also just wanted to show how they compare to our use of technology. The fact that someone could really see all these things come to shape is truly amazing, but the author just did not see that we would become so desensitized to it all.

Oil On The Brain

I found chapter 14 of “The World Is Flat” by Tomas L. Friedman to be very insightful. It talked of the “Age of Interruption” and how we have become overly indulged in media and electronics. We all have seen someone that cannot look away from their phone or computer, well you are trying to talk to them. This is not a thing of the past it has become much more overwhelming since the release of this book. Now children have become sucked into this sickening cycle of over indulging of technology. This has become very big problem in our lives, people can do so much more to stay updated on other people but choose to lose the real human contact. I really liked this chapter because it showed the down side of the use of technology. I felt that this chapter really showed that the book outlined both the ups and downs of the flattening of the world, and the side effect of the use of technology.

The building of a Dell laptop is the true show case of collaboration by working with nearly 400 suppliers from North America to Asia, and few others in between. The Dell computer company can have a computer built in Malaysia and sent to you with in four days. It all starts with you placing your order over phone and giving the exact specifications of what you want. Shortly after that you give your card info, and then the order is sent to the production system. After all your pieces for your computer are ordered by dell to its supplier they are than only given 90 minutes to fill it. Then after the orders are filled, they are dropped off and put into assembly bins, after this the inventory is then assembled by a team on site. Then the computer is sent to the software center for the download of the desired software. Shortly after this it is boxed and sent on a charter jet to Tennessee where it is taken to the factory in Nashville for additional external parts then shipped to the customer. This is all done in a very short time span which speaks to the power of their supply chain.

It’s very scary to think that al-Qaeda has a supply chain, but it is true they have found a way to benefit from something that we all love and benefit from. They are able to upload videos, find recruits and outsource their training. They use there supply-chain to distribute the needed supplies and the end result is pandemonium. The chain that is used all too often gives them the ability to communicate and work together like never before. The use of a there supply-chains has let them become a much bigger threat. This new flat world has made the small businesses much bigger with the use of supply-chains, groups like al-Qaeda are now been able to find that same niche. They are able to communicate with the other members across the world giving them the power of building a much bigger membership base.

The curse of oil is just a sad thing for all those oil rich countries, because of the money the countries make from the oil there is no taxation which mean no voices for the people of these countries. The oil  in these countries are almost all the governments revenue, this means there are not  many jobs given the lack of free trade with other countries, there is no need for the dictators to seek out ways to make money given there oil. I found this topic very interesting on the basis that we all feed into this sad fact by buying gas. I found this very similar to the saying, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you feed him for life”. We are just playing into the dictators hands by buying their oil. But if we could get oil from somewhere else we could make those countries blossom into a much better place for their countrymen.

credit to the computer

Computers have always been part of my educational experiences throughout school.   I found that through grade school up until now computers have made school so much easier to succeed. Another point I wanted to touch on was how computers have given us an ability to get the best and most creditable sources by just simply typing it in to a search engine. The simple fact is that the children of today have it so much easier than we did at their age in school simply based on the advances in computers and the entire tech world.

The use of computers in school is almost an afterthought, but at one time this was not the norm. When I personally was in elementary, the use of computers in schools was still very much in a beta phase. We could use them but not for anything very productive to learning. What I remember using them for was playing games like The Oregon Trail. But as I came into junior high we started being able to use computers for a few more things. But the only class I still was only able to use it for was intro to typing class. Looking back at this, it makes me laugh to think that the only class that I used a computer was typing. This in some right is sad to say though only because it was much harder to learn something if you could not understand how they did it in class, now you can go to YouTube, or Khan Academy and they can help fill in the blanks for you. But I don’t want to get too much on this subject only because I will address it later in the paper. After junior high school came the next big shift in my use of computer in school. It was in high school where the use of computers became more apparent, not so much in school but more so in the use of a home computer. At this point in time it was very common to own home computers, so teachers began to tell students to use them for homework and other things such as writing papers, after this time period I was out of school for many years. But now I am back and I’m blown away at how much the use of computers is needed to be a good student. I also can see it has made school so much easier for the students. I personally love the use of canvas, this has made keeping up with school so much simpler. By giving you everything you need to navigate the due dates of assignments to letting you test scores to see what it will take to get your goal grade.

The use of computers has made finding the best creditable sources for papers so much easier. I can only imagine how long it would take to search a book to find creditable sources.  This really has empowered the student to always have the power to find the best source for their argument. I personally am so happy to be able to use a search engine to help me find the best support for my argument. I also love the fact that if I am unsure of anything I can use my computer to also solve that problem. Students are so blessed to be able to have such a great aid at our fingertips. I really can’t imagine what school would be without it.

The kids today have the world at their fingertips with how much computers can help them learn, there is no reason to fall behind. Computers can give you the ability to learn anything you want. I personally wish that computers had the capability as they do today for when I was a child. I am so envious of what they can do to supplement what they have learned in school by simply using free sources of education. Even being in college, I love using supplement material to help me understand my classes that much more. The computer has just given us all so much powers to make ourselves more intelligent people. The main point I wanted to show is that as a student I only hope to use computers more for my schooling. The computer will always help us as student to reach our goals.