Regulability & Tech Diffusion: Lessig's Code Theory & Tech Dialectic - Prof. Colin Potts, Study notes of Computer Science

Download Regulability & Tech Diffusion: Lessig's Code Theory & Tech Dialectic - Prof. Colin Potts and more Study notes Computer Science in PDF only on Docsity! CS 4001: Regulability and Technology Diffusion a) Definition of some terms  Technological utopianism  Technological dystopianism  Luddites  Technological determinism b) Lessig’s “Code” Theory i) How is individual behavior regulated by a powerful agency (Government, corporation, community, etc.)? ACTIVITYRestrict class lateness Suppose we wanted to start class on time and prevent anyone from arriving late? What could we do?  Law. o (No entry by order of management.)  Custom. o (I wouldn’t go in there if I were you.)  Market. o (Free entry before 2:40; $5 before 3pm., $20 after….)  Architecture. o (Lock the door. Barricade.) ii) Lessig on the Internet.  The doctrine that the Internet promotes democratization and freedom from coercion. Breaking down of authority/special interests. (E.g. self-publishing, open-source, freedom of information, primacy of content over appearance.)  This is an argument that Internet’s architecture resists regulation.  May be true of Internet 1990, but isn’t really true of Internet 2000. Isn’t a necessary truth.  Regulation of Internet could easily happen through regulation of intermediaries: o Quote: p.50.  “It’s all politics:: Quote p. 58. c) Diffusion of innovations i) Characteristics of adopted innovations  Everett M. Rogers’s research (Diffusion of Innovations, 4 th Edition , New York, NY: Free Press, 1995) o Relative advantage o Compatibility with existing technology o Simplicity (and therefore to explain to those who aren’t early adopters but whose approval may be necessary) o “Trialability” (e.g. typically, not an all-or-nothing infrastructure replacement) o Observability (sometimes “transparency”).  Computer science research has had mixed success in developing adopted technologies. o Consider program verification using logical proof techniques and theorem provers.  But these have had some success in VLSI CAD. Why? o But contrast this with compiler-compilers like yacc/bison. ii) Characteristics of early adopters  No younger or older than later adopters.  More formal education and are more literate. features, just as its features have been largely shaped by market requirements.  Hutchinson: o Complex skills become embedded in technology artifacts and practices.  Navigation and maps, charts and Polynesian navigation practices. iii) Tenner  How technology bites back: Fixes to acute problems often introduce new chronic problems. Especially case with measurement or safety technologies. o Tenner, Edward. Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences. New York, NY: Vintage, 1996.  E.g. creative subversion of measurements and displacement of danger to other hazards. Examples: o Use of lines of code per day as measure of programmer productivity detracts from reviewing and testing; o Office automation products make typing pools unnecessary but cause salaried professionals to spend more time polishing the layout of their documents/slide presentations. o Domestic equipment (e.g. washing machines) reduced the drudgery of housework but instead of giving home-makers more free time increased expectations of quality (e.g. the daily wash instead of the weekly wash). o Pesticides increase agricultural yield, but cause long-term environmental harm; o Antibiotics save lives by curing infectious diseases, but lead to evolution of resistant strains of parasites, making some hospitals unhygienic places to be treated for infections. iv) Fifty years of telephone evolution  Anton and Potts (2003) counted features in different categories in subscriber telephone services from 1940s to 1990s. o Obviously, telephones help you communicate with other people. o But they also help other people communicate with you.  And so eventually, they came to help you stop other people communicating with you (such as call screening and caller id)  And to help you work out what was going on (such as, who it was who was trying to communicate with you) o It’s almost like a biological arms race.  What does this mean for computing professionals? o Basic features always come first, but their potential quickly gets exhausted. o Secondary features that help users marshal the power of the basic features are necessary if the technology isn’t to bog people down.  Consider what’s happened with spam and the development of spam filters.