Computing innovation can be beneficial because it allows people like software engineers to easily get into the field and start up projects that have the potential to make life easier for society. New innovation also helps people that have less exposure to make their presence known since everyone has software. This source of innovation is especially evening the playing field with women and racial minorities being able to capitalize on the fact that people only care if a program is useful and don’t care who’s behind the valuable code. Additionally, healthcare is able to reach new heights with computing power through data science and artificial intelligence. Education is similarly being modernized with e-learning platforms and other applications so that students can enroll in online classes. Computing innovation can be harmful since it publicizes the activity of society and may result in a loss of privacy and/or the gathering of data by large corporations. These corporations, especially social media platforms, may use this data in order to further addict the user to their app. This may lead to a dependence on technology and decrease in quality of life. For example, users may develop signs of ADHD, depression, sleep deprivation, and obesity. An unintended impact of computing innovation is the quick evolution of jobs so that it’s difficult to identify the careers that are most beneficial to go into since many jobs these days are beginning to be taken over by automation. Another negative of computing innovation is the globalization of the world. Because information can reach the opposite end of the world in a matter of seconds, highly influential cities can impact areas all around the world which can negatively affect things like culture and language. A positive unintended impact is the advancement of other fields since technology can be applied to almost everything.
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The dictionary definition of “bias” is prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair. Computer bias is made possible by the data collection of computing innovations. Since an individual can choose which data to include in computer analysis, computer bias does exist. Examples of computer bias are criminal risk assessment tools, facial recognition systems, and recruiting algorithms. Criminal risk assessment tools are used to assess whether or not someone will commit a crime again. However, with historical data still in the system, it may unfairly “judge” people of certain races or classes. With facial recognition devices, these devices are often trained with white men rather than women and other races. This means that the facial recognition device may be more effective when used by a white male than another person which just isn’t right. Finally, recruiting algorithms are used to quickly sift through a numerous number of appliers. Again, this may be biased for a certain gender and race because again, historically, white men were the ones that dominate many jobs. A simple way to address computer bias is just to represent each gender and race equally in every space. Not just in the tech industry but also the real world since human bias is the thing that created computer bias in the first place. Computers only do what they are told and can only run what they were programmed.
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Crowdsourcing is the completion of something by means of a large quantity of people, especially through the internet. An entire company or individual could ask for specific resources from a group of people. This could be done to spread information or raise money. It allows the company or individual to have another means of collaboration which they wouldn’t normally get through regular employees or a hired professional. Crowdsourcing differs from crowdfunding since the people don’t work for a common goal and instead contribute only money in order to help someone further their business, help recover from tragedy, fundraise for something desperately needed, etc. Basically crowdfunding is when outside people would like to invest their money into someone so they can be better off. Kickstarter, Patreon, and GoFundMe are all popular crowdfunding websites. A pro of crowdsourcing is that it brings together a wide variety of people–potentially from across the world–with unique education and skill sets to work on a common goal or project. For example, Wikipedia is a website that uses crowdsourcing to increase and compile the amount of information accessed by the entire public. It is also cheaper than hiring an expert/experts from each field and having them write about the topic. A downside of this is that the information may be false due to the crowd being sourced on may be misguided. Crowdsourcing is also extremely useful in the sense that problems can be solved relatively quickly because of the people willing to help. It is also a way for companies to gain loyalty and trust with the customers by creating a community. A negative to all this is that the ideas that are created through crowdsourcing never actually belong to the company and pretty much anyone is able to gain access to the idea. Plus, it’s possible that the main purpose of the crowdsourcing is never actually accomplished.
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Computing can raise legal and ethical issues through music and file sharing, identity theft, spyware, malware, phishing, and cyberbullying. The problem with all of these legal and ethical issues is that they are all not easily monitorable. These types of things are always going to exist as long as computers exist. People that do get caught for the serious things on the above mentioned list likely only get caught after a long period of breaking numerous laws. The impacts on the victims of these legal and ethical issues can be drastic. Large sums of money can be lost because of illegal music and file sharing, identity theft, and phishing. Spyware and malware all could lead to the harming of one’s device. Cyberbullying could lead to the death of the victim due to suicide. Ways to prevent being a victim of these issues is to learn how each of these things work. Being educated is the key to being safe on the internet. Among these things is to rotate passwords, download security, and to never give out important information to just any website.
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