Introduction to Computing
Introduction
For couple of years, futurists and computer scientists have provided arguments that a collection of evolving technologies—miniature computers named "smart dust" or motes, wireless telecommunication, software agents that are intelligent, antennas, stretchy electronics, and micro-level power systems— embrace the potentiality to convert the work and daily life (Farias et al. 2012). Anyone who eagerly willing in the social impacts and insinuation of new technologies is making intelligence out of this would impose a significant challenge to him. Such type of changes qualitative in nature requires something very different to the conventional tools of analysis for the engineer or economist.
Actor-Network Theory (ANT): its definition and suitability in computing studies
Actor-Network Theory had emerged from the researches done by Michel Callon and Bruno Latour. The progressive constitution of the network has been described by their analysis on a collection of negotiations where the identities are assumed by not only the human but with the non-human actors as well. In this context, representation is comprehended in its political facet, as a method to delegate (Fenwick et al. 2012). The most significant among these negotiations is the "translation," an interaction multifaceted in nature where the actors (1) build up the definitions and meanings that are common, (2) define representatives, and (3) co-operate each other in the quest of objectives that are individual and cooperative.
Again, some researchers opined that Actor-network theory may be treated as a methodical way to facilitate the infrastructure usually left out of the "heroic" description of achievements in the field of science and technology.
Actor-network theory assumes that the whole world is filled up with of cross entities that contains key elements based on both human and non-human factors, and was devised to explore those circumstances only where isolation of these key elements is cumbersome (Durepos et al. 2012). One might question, for example, which segment of a software piece is a lifeless object and which is the outcome of human transactions. Differentiating the technical aspects of a computer program from the control exercised by the socio-cultural surroundings of the development team of software is really difficult. Superficially it seems to be social, partially technical. ANT entails with the socio-technical division through the denial of those relations that are entirely technical or solely social are rarely found. It helps to create an idea of heterogeneity to illustrate the projects for instance one implementing a programming language, human programmer, barcode scanner, database management system, and the computer system construction operator for the use in control of the stock of supermarket (Guggenheim et al. 2012). The exercise of heterogeneous entities then averts the questions like ‘is it social?’ or ‘is it technical?’ as omitting the point that has to be: “is this organization more potent or more feeble than that one?”. Both social and technical domains are considered by ANT that has to be defected and suggests instead of a socio-technical explanation where privilege is given to neither social nor technical positions. Moreover, it was argued that on the contrast to the claims made by those who are likely to hold either the position of technology or that of the steadiness of society, considering a path of a modernism where all actors grow altogether is possible (Bleakley, 2012).
Computing News 1: Google reveals Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge's security flaws
Identification and categorisation of the actants
The actant is the Galaxy S6 edge that is an Android handset of Samsung. This actant falls under the digital category. Those mails that have been hijacked also can be categorised as the software actants.
Description and analysis of these actants
The susceptibilities incorporate loopholes that the hackers might use to get the regulation of a phone. Though much of the problems were addressed post Samsung was notified by Google, there remained few to be addressed yet. One free expert argued those erroneous situations have enfeebled the security of the operating system of Google significantly (Horowitz, 2012). There would be an anxiety between Google and the manufacturers of the handset for sure since Google is willing to safeguard its Android brand, and when the question of security comes into play, Android has been stained enough. Few of that are below the additional software that is added manufacturers of the handset. A declaration made by Samsung supposed another three bugs are yet to be addressed through an update of security (Roberts, 2012).
Particulars of the flaws were revealed by the Project Zero team of Google, whose task is to find out the flaws of computer security that were previously unknown. Some bugs were also found that were trivial to exploit. During a one week course, total 11 issues were discovered that were having a potential impact on the security as blogged by the team. The major portion of these matters was addressed on the tool that was examined with the help of an over the air system update within 3 months (Rydin, 2012). It is quite promising that the issues on topmost level of severity were addressed and revised on-device in a rational timeframe. Out of the susceptibilities a feeble feature was discovered in the software for email of Samsung that might have granted hackers the opportunity to manipulate with the victim's messages. However Google said the most remarkable issue was the subsistence of a directory traversal bug in a utility of Wi-Fi embedded in to the phone (de Souza et al. 2011). If someone gave spiteful data to the software, they were then possible to change on the system and intervene with other functionalities, particularly the security functions.
Enhancement of management
To focus on the enhancement of the management a hacker also needs to induce their aim to establish a malevolent app that is likely to appear having very restricted access to the other functions of the phone (O’Halloran et al. 2012). Android attempts to consist of the layers of defence, so even though the past one level of defence is broken there would be another. Samsung affirmed it had addressed these problems regarding a security update published in the previous month. Samsung promotes the users to maintain their application software always updated every time appended an orator.
Computing News 2: Robot revolution: rise of machines could displace a third of UK jobs
Identification and categorisation of the actants
One of the actant is developing economy worker who can be categorised as the human factor whereas another actant can be typically robot workers who can be treated as hardware and digital factors.
Description and analysis of these actants
The entire global economy would be transformed by the revolution of the robots over the coming 20 years, reducing the expenses of conducting the business but worsening the social inequality, as everything has been taken over the machine (Elhussein et al. 2012).
As well as robots performing manual jobs, such as hovering around the living room or assembling machine parts, the development of artificial intelligence means computers are increasingly able to “think”, performing analytical tasks once seen as requiring human judgment.
In a 300-page report, revealed exclusively to the Guardian, analysts from investment bank of America Merrill Lynch draw on the latest research to outline the impact of what they regard as a fourth industrial revolution, after steam, mass production and electronics (Marissa et al. 2012).
“We are facing a paradigm shift which will change the way we live and work,” the authors say. “The pace of disruptive technological innovation has gone from linear to parabolic in recent years. Penetration of robots and artificial intelligence has hit every industry sector, and has become an integral part of our daily lives.”
Enhancement of management
They point out that Google bought eight robotics companies in a two-month period in 2014, from Boston Dynamics, which makes the BigDog robot, to DeepMind, specialising in deep learning for artificial intelligence (Latour, 2011).
In the most advanced manufacturing sectors – among Japan’s carmakers, for example – robots are already able to work unsupervised round the clock for up to 30 days without interruption. While off-shoring manufacturing jobs to low-cost economies can save up to 65% on labour costs, replacing human workers with robots saves up to 90%.
Enthusiasts for the rise of robots argue that they can overcome the foibles and fallibilities of human workers (Arnaboldi et al. 2011). The report cites research that showed judges tend to be more draconian in the run-up to lunchtime and more lenient once they have eaten, for example.
It urges consumers to invest in businesses that are already taking advantage of the benefits of the new technologies: “Early adoption will be a key comparative advantage, while those that lag in investment will see their competitiveness slip.”
However, the bank also points out that major ethical and social issues will increasingly arise: they cite the moral questions about the growing use of unmanned drones in warfare (Bleakley, 2012).
The Issues
Issues regarding the 1st computing news
The generation of big data can be an important aspect in the aforesaid computing news 1. A number of techno-optimistic and techno-pessimistic views can be presented in this regard with the help of the arguments and counter-arguments provided by Evgeny Morozov. In a particular journal article he expressed his concerns regarding the way of treatment and mining of the huge amount of big data by the governments and other corporations. The arguments were provided in terms of the threat of Algocracy (Roberts, 2012). These can be summarised as follows:
1. Legitimate federal governance necessitates the process of decision-making to safeguard the independence and autonomy. This enables the participation of individual.
2. Reliability on the algorithms of data-mining underestimates the independence and sovereignty and averts lively participation and full comprehension of the process of decision-making (Rydin, 2012).
3. Henceforth, much reliability on the algorithms of data-mining imposes some kind of threats on the federal government.
Issues regarding the 2nd computing news
Implementation of technology has also affected our normal life and way of thinking considerably. Techno-optimistic and techno-pessimistic views have been arguably presented by Nicholas Carr in the following manner:
Contrary to normal human behaviour General tendency of Human behaviour gets eroded by the implementation of technology. As it reduces the sense of our natural-self since segregates us from the heart of nature. People, thus starts behaving like a machine being completely artificial (Elhussein et al. 2012).
Conclusion
In this article, it was highlighted that whenever two individual agents act in collaborative manner their importance and significance is not visible and understood properly. On contrary, their joint activity can have very remarkable impact on the same field. Thus it can be shown form the above two computing news that the actants act indeed best when they are not in isolation. Also, the theory of actor-network was applied purposefully for the given two cases and therefore, explaining those computing news was perfectly successful. Reference List
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